Some days ……..

Yesterday started out beautifully.  Rick headed out to work at the usual time with full lunch-pail and having had coffee and oatmeal.

I have to explain the oatmeal because I KNOW you are all wondering????

The other night, just as I was falling asleep, Rick asked me if I could make him oatmeal to have with his coffee in the morning.  This was an unusual request because oatmeal is healthy and my man will eat the healthy food that I put in front of him (well, most of the time ), but he NEVER requests it.  I have never heard him ask me to make that healthy chicken with roasted mushrooms and garlic or request the whole wheat pasta instead of white.  Just saying. This startled me so badly that I sat right up in bed and asked him WHY?   In my mind were only thoughts of him having suffered chest pains recently, his blood pressure rising, concerns of some kind that made him think eating healthy would alleviate the problem.    He rolled his eyes at me, well I was facing his back so I can not verify this but I am pretty sure  ;).  He responded by telling me that lately the new vitamins I have him taking are upsetting his stomach and he thought a little cereal would help!   I was so relieved.  I offered him my home made granola but he declined. That’s hippy food and one hippy (guess who) in this family is enough!  So making oatmeal has been added to our morning routine.

After Rick left for work my dear friend Kari came in and we had coffee by the fire and had a prayer time together.  She has eight children and we now have seven  so you can see how we need time for prayer!  :)

Bible was wonderful with the girls.

Took Melody to the dentist…  no cavities!  Only child of ours to reach 11 and not have had a cavity.  I think we may have to buy her a car….  just kidding sisters.

School was wonderful.

Then we started to do our cleaning chores.  I decided to do all toilets and our tub with Rust-Out.  I cannot do it often because it is toxic and bothers my lungs but with the breeze through the windows I thought it would be a good day for this job.    We got all the bathrooms looking beautiful and then I left for a cleaning job.

I came back from the cleaning job to find Rick digging a trench from our well casing along the side of the house.  We had had water pouring out of the well for weeks but had recently thought that maybe something else was the problem.   Sure enough, about two feet down it was evident there was a crack in the pipe between the well casing and the house.

Thankfully Rick is a man of may trades and talents.  He went and got his dad’s back-hoe and started the process of digging to find the pipe.   That is when he called me out to help.  This is when I started to wish that  I had paid more attention to plumbing things when we have built the addition.

Rick told me to watch as he dug so that he did not snag the pipe with the bucket’s teeth.

I panicked because I had no clue to what size pipe he was talking about, and I wanted to ask if it was a certain color which would have make it more visible, like bright yellow, or hot pink?  I didn’t ask, I just started praying.   Being in Gills Rock with the key work being ROCK, you can only imagine the scraping and jerks as huge rocks were dragged out of the hole.  My heart would lurch as I hoped that the grating sound was not the pipe being yanked from the well.  Rick would dig with the back-hoe, dig with the shovel, dig with the back hoe, dig with the shovel,  I think you get the picture.  I would watch, forcing my eyes to stay open as I usually shut them when I am nervous, then run down into our creepy crawl-space to give Rick other info that he needed.  You can be proud of me because I refrained from giving any advice during the whole procedure, none what-so-ever.  I think Rick appreciated it but I can’t verify that either.  :)

At one point, a thin tubing came up and Rick thought it was the gas-line.  He yelled to me to go shut the propane off at the tank.  My blank stare told him that I knew nothing about propane tanks.  They are on my list with chain-saws, weed-wackers, battery cables and steering a fish tug straight.  Sorry, no-can-do.   It ended up being a strange ground wire.    60 years ago they did things differently.

Rick found the leak with the pipe intact, isn’t God good?   He called his good friend Paul to discus what to do only to find out that it was Paul’s anniversary and so he was not able to come over, good man!

So I then figured out I was through being Rick’s right-hand-woman and went into scrounge around for something to cook for supper that would not use water.  It was an assortment of items, all good and basically Mexican.  The bummer was going into the house to bathrooms which were spotless but unusable and a kitchen that did not get cleaned and so the sink was full of dishes.  Oh well.

We survived the night with no water, minimum flushes and using toilettes on our hands.

This morning Rick and I sat in the dark coffee-less, I offered hot-chocolate but Rick has never been real fond of that drink.  I could have offered granola and milk but, you know how he feels about that!

So another adventure with living with Rick, Commercial fishermen by day, plumber by night!

Blessed, to have electricity even without water because my man does not do electricity.  Everyone has their own No-can-do!

Joyce

Dad at rest. He told me that he spends lots of time praying as he lays there. I am sure that we will never know the blessings that we have been given because of these prayers. Dad and Mom together. Lacey giving her grandpa his vitamins. She loves her grandparents and is such a big helper.

What it takes to feed a small tribe! Lacey being girlie, she is a princess!

Dad and Mom

Me and my Dad. Hugging, reading the Bible together, showing off the Packer socks.

This is love. The pictures below show one of the deeds of love that my Mother does on a daily basis, and it is no small task. My Mom has learned so many medical tasks simply for the ability to care for my Dad at home, where he wants to be. We are all thankful for the new lift which has made the transfers so much easier. The transfers are still tricky but Mom has learned and does a great job. Sometimes there are helpers. :)

The Haven of Rest

I just returned on Tuesday night from a quick surprise trip to see my Dad.  God was good as always, and I booked the trip including a car for half the price of what it had been for the last 6 weeks.  God said to go and then He gave me a deal!   God is a detail God!

I arrived and walked up on the porch and hugged my Dad.  He was surprised and teared up, asking me “what in the world are you doing here?”  Mom was in town shopping and so we sat on the porch with Guy and the kids talking until she came up the drive.   I went into the kitchen and hugged her.  She had known it was me on the porch by my hair.  I thought for sure that she might think it was Angela…….     The sweetest words from her were “How did you know I needed you to come?” and then for two days I heard “I need to pinch you to see if you are real because I can’t believe you are here!”  So much fun.

Dad was in good spirits and we spent the 2.5 days talking, digging in God’s Word singing by the piano and my feeding him Uncle Tom’s peanut brittle.   He was precious, so very precious.   Jeni had called with a question about death and so Dad and I went through the scriptures about death and I taped him explaining the end of life for a Christian.  ( I hope to figure out a way to have that on here soon)    He would give me scriptures from memory, minus the reference and then I was to find where it was in the Bible.  Now I know why I can’t remember references, I got that from my Dad!    The beauty of God’s Word calmed, brought joy, answered questions, blessed, encouraged and brought truth to the present situations of our lives.  Oh how good God is to have left us with His Word.  I cannot thank Him enough for having His Word written down….    We talked about the way Dad will most likely pass as the infection spreads into his body.  Hard words to speak to someone I love and adore so much, EXCEPT, that I could speak with complete assurance to my Dad that heaven is his REWARD!   I could not believe the sense of joy that came over me as I spoke about heaven to my Dad.  He already knew all the verses and everything I was saying, but it is real for him as he lay there listening.  It was a moment of my faith hitting the pavement called death and being able to know that everything I believe is REAL and I have no doubt about what God’s Word says.  My Dad has repented of his sins, lived with Christ as his Lord and Savior and has served God out of love.   God’s Word says that to he who overcomes is given the crown of life, my Dad has overcome and shown faith all of his days so the crown of life is waiting.  That is good news folks!

There is one thing my Dad said that will stick with me forever, he said “I am going to heaven and you make sure that you and yours will meet me on the other side, this circle is to be unbroken.”   In my logical brain I was saying to myself “well, that is the job of the Holy Spirit …..)  but I knew what my Bible believing evangelical father was saying; teach the gospel to my children, for it is the good news unto salvation.  That is what Jesus said we are to be doing here on earth, teaching and sharing with everyone, not just our family.  Spread the gospel, making disciples.   My dad did that well, showing hundreds the path to salvation and walking them into the Kingdom.  His mantle falls on us, on my children, but it is a choice to pick it up.  Dad knows I have chosen that mantle, not to please my parents, although it does, but in obedience to God and His Word.    But all that said, when your Daddy speaks words like that to you it is love that makes one promise with everything in them to do their best to see it happen.

I played piano for my Dad, lots of old hymns.  I asked a couple of times if he wanted to sing.   No, no, was the answer.  Until I played the Haven of Rest.  I was singing the verses and when I got to the chorus my Dad’s voice came through strong singing:

I’ve anchored my soul in the Haven of Rest, I’ll sail the wide seas no more

The tempest may sweep o’re the wild stormy deep,  In Jesus I’m safe evermore

What great words being sung by a great man……

Blessed to be his daughter

Joyce