We’ve had what seems to be a run of mechanical failures in our home lately. This is the kind of thing that holds a special terror for someone like me, who can count successful machine repair projects in my lifetime on one hand.

First the hot tub developed a leak. Next, the last reliable burner on our stove stopped being, er, reliable. Then the fireplace stopped working. The garage door opener disengaged from the ceiling. The power on one side of our garage went dead. Our septic tank began pooling wastewater across the front lawn and you guys know how delicate septic tanks are. Most recently, our microwave started to randomly turn itself off and on Sunday the hot water started leaking water across the garage floor and under the carpet, at a rate of a gallon an hour.

Daniel likes to get involved in repair projects, having inherited skills from both his Grandpas, which seemed to skip a generation.

It is enough to make one wonder about being a homeowner. Maybe we didn’t get such a good deal on this house, after all … especially considering the pressing need for a new roof.

The curious thing is that most of these problems turned out to be a tempest in a teapot. As I wrote in my last entry, the hot tub only leaks when the circulating motor is off … we’re supposed to keep it turned on, anyway, so no harm, no foul. I bought Kathy a new stove to replace the old one … she really likes it, and the old one was free with the house, so we can’t really gripe. After I messed around with the fireplace for an embarrassingly long time, I discovered that the pilot light was off; I lit the pilot, and we were back in business. Twenty minutes’ work and a new metal strap fixed the garage door opener. The power problem in the garage was due to a tripped GFI breaker that simply needed to be reset. The septic tank was backed up because someone (probably me) had inadvertently turned off the power switch to the grinder (a machine that pre-processes our sewage before it enters the city sewer system). The microwave is probably really broken, but, hey, it is one that I bought in 1989 before I met Kathy, so we are probably due to get another one.

Sometimes, you just have to buy a new appliance. This was one of those times.

The hot water heater seemed at the outset to be a serious problem. I called the local Lowe’s store to see about getting a new hot water heater put in, and discovered that recent legislation in our town requires a complete rework of the ducting system for gas water heaters. “It could cost you a couple of thousand before you’re done,” warned the man in the plumbing department, with a worrisome indifference to exactly how many ‘thousands’.

Calling Home Depot for a second opinion, their plumbing guy wanted to know exactly where it was leaking. On closer inspection, I found that the water intake hose was leaking and the fix cost me $12 and about a half-hour of work, to my considerable delight.

This little girl didn’t really help with the project, but she’s photogenic, so we put her in.

I think a lot of trials and troubles in life are like these mechanical problems … when we first see them, we’re inclined to expect the worst and to forget about God’s provision and protection. But often when we face them, we find that they can be easily and somewhat painlessly resolved, with God’s hand leading us.

Let me give credit where it is due: in most if not all of the cases I listed, the positive outcome is rooted in the fact that we prayed and committed the problem to God. I think that God delights in answering our prayers and in providing for us in surprising ways. I don’t think we’ve prayed about the microwave yet, but it is clearly time that we did. Time and again I’ve seen God’s gracious hand in protecting our family from financial loss … I think it is directly attributable to the fact that we ask for His help in troubles like these, and that we are obedient in terms of tithing.

David loves wearing boots, even if it involves septic systems.

Sometimes we let ourselves be paralyzed by fear. When the power went out in the garage, I felt a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. I’m hardly an electrician … and I know that they don’t come cheaply. The wall along which the circuit presumably ran is obstructed by a long storage shelf packed with stuff … it would be non-trivial to even begin looking at the problem. I let at least a week go by before I investigated the problem; it took me less than five minutes to move a few games and discover an outlet behind the storage shelf with a GFI fuse that was popped out. Hailed by the family as a hero, I felt pretty stupid.

Granted, this was a pretty sloppy repair, but it seems to be holding, so we’re happy.

Last night we were reading about the crossing of the Red Sea by the Israelites, and Rachel asked me why Moses had to hold his staff (or hand? I can’t remember) over the water. It seems to me that God enjoys our participation in the things He does. He doesn’t want us to sit idly waiting for Him to do it all for us, but rather desires us to step out in faith and action. That’s not to say that Moses could go around making paths in random bodies of water without God, but rather that God allows His children to be intimate with His miraculous power and builds our faith my giving us a personal ringside seat.

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Christmas is come and gone, and it is January in Seattle. We had a long spell of rain … 26 days in a row, or so they say at the airport. Apparently the record for this area is 33 days, set in 1953. In a surprising twist, we had two days of sunshine (or what passes for sunshine in the Northwest); even more remarkably, the two days fell on a weekend. We hardly knew what to do with our good fortune. Personally, I spent the days with a big goofy grin on my face, pointing at the sky and exclaiming about it to anyone who would listen.

It is always a little bittersweet when the last of the Christmas decorations is finally put away.

While many Washingtonians pride themselves at having spirits unaffected by the rain, I must admit that the gloom was starting to get me down. I asked Kathy to dig out a bunch of candles and started lighting them here and there … my way of striking back at the dark and wet. Whenever the sun does come out, we all rush out and look at it, making jokes about not recognizing “that strange yellow orb”.

In Washington, only little girls and tourists are allowed to carry umbrellas. Natives are supposed to sneer at the downpour and say, “This? But it’s only a bracing mist!”

We’re enjoying a period of relative calm these days … Kathy’s buckling down with a new homeschooling schedule, and I’m working away at my job, two-thirds into my six-month contract.

The men’s Bible study I attend every other Thursday is taught by our Pastor … it turns out that he is a big believer in setting (and presumably achieving) goals. He’s been working on us all to identify goals and finally lowered the boom on us at the beginning of the year, announcing that we would all be holding one another accountable for whatever goals we set. With increasing confidence, we each send out an e-mail notification once a week with a half-dozen goals or so, outlining our weekly progress (or lack thereof).

Personally, I’m not a big believer in goals, as perhaps my life illustrates. I find it much easier to start new projects and practices than to carry through and finish them (or keep them up for the long term). I have tended to drift through life, doing whatever came to my hand, taking what joy I can find. The things I have managed to keep doing have tended to be done as a reflection of who I am already, rather than what I aspire to.

It is hard to ignore the claim that goal proponents make: that a life without goals is a life doomed to mediocrity, even (or especially?) in the spiritual realm. Yet too much emphasis on goals seems to cheapen my faith and potentially reduces my walk with the Lord to a Pharasaical reliance on works. Not that I would ever run the risk of being anywhere as disciplined as a Pharisee … those guys were actually pretty ‘together’, aside from their rejection of the Son of God. I guess that is sort of like saying, “Bob sure is a good guy, if you discount his tendency to pick the pockets of passing strangers.” Still, from all outward appearances, the Pharisees apparently did a good job of practicing ‘righteousness’ … but I digress.

How much of my distaste for goals stems from simple laziness, and a desire to avoid accountability for the way I squander my gifts and time? I try to keep some healthy skepticism alive, but it is hard to examine one’s own self in the midst of a potential blind spot. Of course, some questions should only be asked in a rhetorical context.

One of the things I’m attempting this year is a read-through-the-Bible in a year program. Kathy is doing it with me, and we’ve taken to reading each day’s selection aloud in the evening, the older kids listening in if they happen to still be up. The other night I nearly put Kathy to sleep with a passage describing the descendants of Esau … I kept myself amused by changing syllabic emphasis on the name of one of Esau’s oft-repeated wives: (you say “Oholibamah”, I say “Oholibamah“).

I’ve always felt a little sorry for Esau … he strikes me as a big, simple guy who wasn’t very introspective and just never really ‘got it’. With a wary nod to Malachi and Romans, I like to think of him as a sort of chronologically reversed Solomon. I imagine him starting out pretty clueless but coming to care more and more about the things of God as he gets older and as God rewards him for his forgiveness of his brother Jacob. How else to explain his forbearance when Jacob returns from Paddan Aram?

Somehow, hot tubs and Rescue Heroes seem to go well together.

I finally got the hot tub up and working … for a long time it sat empty and forlorn, stagnant water pooling in the bottom. We have a strange leak condition … it only leaks when it is turned off. I hired a guy to come out and look at it — $130 later and with a good part of the deck dismembered, the repair guy didn’t seem to have a good idea of where or how it was leaking. I cleaned it out, filled it back up and added the 432 (give or take 425) chemicals that the spa people claim are necessary for proper operation … Kathy and the kids seemed pleased, although getting the temperature just right has been tricky.

Kathy said this blog needed some kind of a ‘pithy closing’, so here it is:

Pithy closing.

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Of great holiday relaxation! It was delightful. I’m trying to think what made it such a nice day. The weather is lousy here in western WA–has been raining for days–so it’s not the bright sunshine that is making me cheerful. We didn’t do anything elaborate or exotic. We didn’t bake Christmas cookies or make gingerbread (although we have a beautifully decorated gingerbread). It was just one of those peaceful, ‘holiday spirit’ days. We don’t get many of the peaceful type around here with 3 boys and 2 girls ranging in ages from 12 to 3 running around with no outside play readily available.

Our gingerbread house–made by G’ma and decorated by the kiddos.

Yesterday we went to see The Chronicles of Narnia (it was great!!). Joshua is so excited because he gets to see it again next week with his R.O.C.K. group (Really Outstanding Christian Kids) from church. I got a sitter for the two little ones and took the older three to a morning matinee. I’m always fascinated to see how little boys are so definitely ‘men.’ Rachel hid her head for most of the climatic battle scenes whereas Joshua and Daniel came out of the theater saying, “The battle was AWESOME!” I was glad to see that Rachel knew her limits and went into the back (actually through the first set of exit doors) during the stone table scene.

Today we didn’t have anything exciting planned so I told the older three children to be prepared for a half day of school (with absolutely no fussing allowed). This week so far, we’ve been on vacation. When I got up this morning they were all downstairs working on their math. I told them the computer would be off limits today. For some reason all five of the children, yes, including the 3 and 4 year old, have been begging to play computer games all week, and it’s been driving me crazy! The behavior, in general, has been less than exemplary and we needed to make some changes.

After some morning school, the rest of the day was spent so pleasantly. The big kids played several games of Payday, a round of Jenga, and entertained themselves in their rooms. The little two played for a long time with their Playmobil toys. At one point David, Sarah and I had the Lincoln Logs out and were building houses on the floor in the living room. Joshua had to come in and teach me how to put the doors into our building (can’t believe I’ve forgotten how to use Lincoln Logs). We ran out of pieces, and I had one of the other kids go out in the garage and find us another bin of logs. Who would think it would be so engrossing?

The kids gather to open one of our many Advent calendars.

Late in the afternoon I let the children watch a movie in the garage while I wrapped presents in the kitchen. I put on a movie for myself and we all spent the next two hours happily entertained. Rachel went to play at a friend’s house for part of the time. I got ALL of the stocking presents wrapped. Yay!! My mom always wrapped our stocking gifts (down to the toothpaste and gum) and I can’t resist continuing that part of the Christmas fun. I wrapped Tim’s presents (found all sorts of odds and ends treasures at Lowe’s this week) and even got his stocking things wrapped and labeled.

We added a twist to our gift tag names this year (started it last year and went all-out this year). Several years ago we came up with the idea to assign each child a secret reindeer or Christmas name at the beginning of the month and then use them for their presents. The names aren’t revealed until Christmas morning–it keeps everything extra special secret and fun for the children. It also prevents the kids from comparing their pile of presents to their sibling’s. Everything is terribly mysterious as the suspense (and the piles of presents) build up.

This year the children were Elf, Snowden, Dasher, Rudolph and Frosty. Tim was Mr. Incredible (I couldn’t resist) and I was Dancer (not indicative of anything, I’m afraid). I decided to mix up the names a little bit (usually we just stick to the 9 reindeer names) because I was worried the kids might use their powers of logical reasoning to narrow the possibilities down and figure out their secret identities. I can just hear Joshua, “Let’s see last year I was Blitzen and the year before I was Donner so that means I must be one of the following….” Really, some children have TOO much time on their hands. Shouldn’t that boy go write a book report or something?

I had even toyed with the idea of repeating a reindeer name from last year to throw them off the trail. Have to win the battle of wits whenever you can! Or at least put up a good fight.

This year we livened it up with fun character names as the gift giver. It gets a little tiring to write Mom and Dad on all the presents and we don’t really ‘do Santa’ in our home. So now the packages come from all sorts of interesting individuals. I think one present is To: Elf — From: Spiderman. Another one is To: Snowden — From: Buzz Lightyear. We added in King Peter and Queen Susan after seeing the Narnia movie. The kids get a huge kick out of seeing who all the presents are from and Tim and I are entertained in thinking up creative names. We try to throw the kids off the trail by occasionally giving the boys gifts from female characters like Snow White and Little Bo Peep while the girls receive presents from King Arthur and other assorted knights.

Daniel and Sarah sledding in the Duckabush.

I overheard Rachel on the phone, the other day, telling her friend how much fun it was to look over the packages and see the different names written on them. Hee, hee. I think we’ve started another tradition. Of course, Tim wonders if we really need more traditions — I try to ignore those kind of comments. Joshua is old enough that he can enjoy some of the more unusual characters, when we can think of them. It’s been lots of fun. We do like celebrations here in this house.

I’m so pleased to have all the wrapping done (as far as I know). We usually sleep downstairs in the living room on Christmas Eve (another tradition from my childhood). One year we had to hang up a curtain separating the kitchen/family room from the living room so we could wrap presents in one room and have the kids in the other. It was busy and festive but certainly not quality family time. This year we can enjoy Christmas Eve together because we’ve done most of the work ahead of time. We’ll spend Christmas morning relaxing and opening presents — the kids have requested quiche and sweet rolls for brunch. Yum! We’ll have dinner with Tim’s parents.

See what happens when the kids play inside.

All in all it was a good day of vacation. I think one of the key factors was keeping the children OFF the computer and the complaining/fussing OUT-LAWED! I would like the kids to spend more time playing board games together, reading and just generally engaging in creative play. I don’t mind a little bit of computer time but when all five children want to play at the same time and fight over computers it gets a little crazy. I need to be more proactive about the recreational choices myself and bring out some of our board games during free time. Often it just takes a little time and instruction and the children run off to play the games themselves. It’s truly a wonderful thing to see the kids enjoy each other–a lovely benefit of a big family.

Just wanted to give you a little glimpse of our day on this eve of Christmas Eve. Merry Christmas!

Kathy

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Now that I no longer ride the train, I find that I do not write very many blog entries. Tonight I posted two blogs from November that had never quite made it past my editor, and was dismayed to see the empty home page of our blog. I guess after 30 days or so of silence, the blog software stops trying to cover for me. How we’ve fallen from those heady early days when I posted two and even three times a week.

Rachel working with her kind of whitespace.

I guess I have less angst these days … I’m comfortable in my new job, and enjoying a time of prosperity. My commute is not particularly conducive to writing, and once away from the habit of writing, it is easy to make excuses. But I worry about my faithful readers (both of them), pining away for lack of my pithy wisdom. Or something like that.

When I’m at a loss for something to say, one of my favorite conversation-starter questions (for Christians) is, “What is God teaching you, these days?” So let me ask myself that question.

Hmmm. Maybe that’s why I don’t have much to say in the blog … I don’t have a sense that God is particularly dealing with me on any one thing. I seem to be enjoying a time of peace, which is itself somewhat remarkable. Sometimes I wonder if this job and house and contentment is (in some sense) God’s restoration of the things that were taken from me (my job at AT&T Wireless, friends and fellowship, living in the Duckabush) over the past several years.

As Christmas approaches, my thoughts turn toward the King who gave up everything to come to live among us, and who is Himself restored to His full glory, seated at the right hand of the Father.

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