I love having an American sized washer and dryer… someday I’d like to upgrade to a tumble system one, but for now I’m just thankful that I can do huge loads of laundry at a time (though my mother is dismayed that I don’t separate my clothes better). 

Today’s going to be a laundry day… that is… if I have any breath left inbetween “NO! Vienna, No, put it back… Vienna, come here, Vienna, No…” Vienna also has a nasty cold… so if I can keep the snot from being wipped all over the furniture and floor and stuff, that would be great.  I’m not even asking for her to have no snot on her face… just not all over the house!! 

And how in the heck do you figure out if a baby has a soar throat or not?!??!  Sam has one, and her cold seems to be buggig her more than a cold, but is it her throat? her teeth? (she’s pushing a few more in now) or just the cold??  humm…

But hey, there’s no fever, and at least the floors are vacuumed so never mind the toys everywhere and the cans & jars that have been purged from the pantry… or the diaper bag that my little clepto has taken and hidden all of the contents around the house…  

Life’s still good

“Guarding My Margins” is my new catch phrase for living in the U.S.

This week has been the PITS!!! The pressure to be involved in “life” is outrageous. I have been blaming it on being in the U.S. and not Latvia, but before I married Sam I was working in a situation where I felt it just the same… but it’s not just here… and you know, there are a lot of great things about living here, but there are some down sides too.

The Land of Opportunity. Yep, we live in a place where opportunities are unending. There are gyms to join (no public transport and we don’t live in a city where we can walk to everything we need or walk to public transport that is timely and effective), there are play dates and kids clubs, there are business meetings and chamber “gatherings.” There are hobbies to have, with unlimited resources (have you counted the scrapping stores lately!?!?!?) Movies, plays, art exhibits, conventions, concerts, camping, fishing, and TELEVISION… then there’s the church stuff. Bible studies to attend, women’s retreats, teas and deserts, family camp, Sunday morning Sunday evening, Praise and Worship nights… the opportunities are unending… but do we need to do everything and leave no quite time???? And what about our family & health??

I was just talking with a friend tonight on the phone… we weretalking about eating right and she expressed the exact same thing I’vebeen thinking all week long. She said: To eat right I have to sacrifice a lot oftime and a lot of money… if I don’t have time or money, I sacrificecalories. Every missionary I’ve known has struggled with gainingweight while back in the States on “furlough” (don’t get me started onthat word!) why? Because their time here is sooo booked up withpeople, family, supporters, church meetings, mission meetings, shoppingfor things they want to take back, socializing with the people they arestaying with… soo busy, and what happens… we go out to eatconstantly because that’s how we make the time to see people, insteadof eating healthy food we fix ourselves. Junk and fast food is faster and much of the time cheaper than eating well. It’s the same for people who live here… we’re just too darn busy! So much so, that instead of making time in our lives to make healthy choices for ourselves we’d rather have the doctors prescribe us a pill to fix what ails us.

“But it’s ministry.” That excuse is wearing real thin with me at the moment…Now, ministry is WONDERFUL, don’t get me wrong… but I have to wonder if the Lord would ask those in leadership to run themselves ragged like so many do, to the detriment of their health and families. I mean… lets look to Genesis. When the Lord Created the Heavens and the Earth he did so in stages. Not all at once, not filling every moment of the “day” to do it all. On the contrary… He did a few things for each of our “traditional” days. Heavens/Earth, Light/Dark, Land/Sky/Sea/Veggitation, Stars/Sun/Moon, Birds/Sea-life, Livestock/Wild-beasts and then Gen 2:2-3 “… so on the seventh day he rested from all His work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it He rested from all the work of creating that he had done.” He rested. Does God need rest?? I’m sure that could be debated, my belief is no.. but what I do know is that WE need rest. We need it, yet we don’t take it… why?

In our attempt to “Do” for God, are we trying to be better than God by not resting? Are we trying to “buy” favor from the Lord? or from others? God had margins… so why am I made to feel bad when I’m trying to keep margins in my life?

I don’t know… for now I’m going to keep my margins and not feel guilty about it. My ministry is my family, and I don’t have to be stressed out to say no to other ministries or to other “enriching” activities. The Lord can deal with me later if He needs to, cause I’m not trying to be a slacker… I’m just trying to be more available at the ministries the Lord places in my life and calls me to be a part of, than filling up my life with worthy causes simply because there is an opportunity to be involved. what will that look like?? I have NO IDEA! (yep, I have no answers… just venting my personal feelings/frustrations)