Check it out!!

I had a post started and then chris came home from work and we worked on the house and ran to town and worked on the house again til late. Came back to look at that post i had started and thot this picture was much more exciting than what i was gonna talk about! :) here's what we got done today and yes! I am e.x.c.i.t.e.d!!! If i stood in the kitchen area and took a pic the other direction it wouldnt look nearly as exciting, but thats beside the point, right? :) it's coming! Little by little!!

Track and field day!

Yesterday was a big day day at school!! Coming home with pink eye the day before didnt keep isaac from competing valiantly! :) he was in his element! We all came home a tired, red faced bunch. Bedtime came early and we slept hard! :) fun times...

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Chapter 1. In Which Mr Know-It-All Meets Miss Stuck Up

It was January 1998. I, Bethany Gingerich, attended Calvary Bible School for the first term. Having enjoyed my time immensely, and being persuaded by 2 friends who were staying all 12 weeks to return, I put in an application to go back for the 4th term since it wasn't full and I lived only an hour from the school. Meanwhile, a certain Christopher Eicher arrived at CBS for 3rd and 4th terms. And so, the two of us spent three weeks on the same campus. We never spoke a word to each other as far as we can recall but made some hard and fast impressions: I didn't have to talk to HIM to know that HE was one of those cocky know-it-alls. And it didn't take much observation for him to see that SHE was snobby and self righteous. In our wildest dreams we never once believed that it was possible we had met our future life long companion! (This is the first chapter in a series of Thursdays where I will be sharing the story of how Chris and I met. Comments and questions are welcome!)

Go here for Chapter 2

The Struggle Is a Gift

Why is it that in retrospect life often looks so comfy? The good things shine back in our memory, all warm and glowing. If only we could go back.... Not always. There are times in my life that I want no part of going back and re-living! Still, it's so easy to only see the "glow" and wonder why? Why?? I suppose part of that is just the normal result of uprooting everything I've ever known and moving to a new place. I read this recently, "If only good can come from a good God's hand, then this strange place we reside is better than the one-year-from-now place I imagined on my own." I know that is true. Some days I believe it and rest. Some days I believe it and struggle. Longing desperately for the "glow" of the past, fighting doggedly against the hardness and unknown of the now. The good news is, the struggle is evidence that I do Believe! Satan would have me think it's not even worth the struggle. So I accept the struggle as a gift, and throw myself on His ability to take the ugly and make it beautiful.

Introducing: the "In Which" Series

I'm tired. I probly shouldn't be deciding something like this right now, but I've been rolling different ideas around. Something to change up this space. Everytime I think, yeah! I'm gonna do it! Then I think, nah. I'll probably wish halfway in that I'd never started. Well, tonight is the night. I'm tired and I never posted anything today and I'm in the mood to just do it! So, now that I've got you thinking this is all something really great :) To start with, I'm planning to use Thursdays to tell you the story of how Chris and I met. Awhile back a friend of ours (someone we only know via email) asked how we met and Chris and I put together a joint effort of writing our story for her in little "chapters". We had so much fun and have shared the story w/ several others. That version might be a bit extensive for my blog but I'm gonna tweak it a bit and give you all a little view into our story. It's a pretty great little tale, so invite your friends, neighbors, dogs... And don't miss next Thursday! :)

Go here for Chapter 1

A Shack by the Road

We were sitting there, singing along, when suddenly I caught his twinkly eyed grin. "Really?" he whispered, and I grinned back. The words just out of our mouths? "I'd rather be a beggar, live in a little shack by the road..." Did anybody, among the 100s lustily lifting their voices, really mean that? Sure, if any of them were asked to choose between the shack or missing Heaven, they would waste no time with their choice. But really RATHER live in a shack then the brand new house with all it's finery? I have a feeling most of us there would have been more truthful singing Chris' revised version- "O yes I do know that these treasures will rust, and sometimes thieves break through and steal. The heart is what matters not all of my stuff, my riches aren't that big a deal!" That has been one of God's lessons for me the past 8 months. It's so easy to be consumed by the things we are "supposed" to acquire. But who makes the rules anyway? Somehow Mt 8:19-20 makes me wonder if we're following the right rule book!

Progress

The first 2 sheets of drywall got put up yesterday in our "shop house"! So fun to go out and see something happening and feel excitement surging up! Recently I had the frustrating experience of struggling with some areas in my life I really thot I had learned something about. Know what I mean? I really thot I had "gotten" some things. Was different. Turns out I'm not so "arrived" as I thot! I know this stuff, why don't I change?? I realized I'm a little like that shop building. I want it to be turned into a house with all my heart. Wish it would be done yesterday! But nothing's gonna happen out there unless we spend time on it. Chris is gonna have to take some time off work, we're gonna have to decide on the next step and DO it. My life is alot the same way. Getting truth is only the first step. The only way to change is by intentionally deciding on the next step and doing it. I might even have to "take some time off work" before real change happens! The spirit is willing but the flesh is Oh so weak......

The day after the day before

It's been a duh kind of-wake up with a headache after a full day away and coming home late-day. All I wanted to do was sleep! Thing was, I could have, except for 2 little girls who also had a full day and came home late. Possibly they woke up with headaches too, who knows? Judging by their frequent tears and fussing, there's a good possibility! Of course I didn't think of that and offer them tylenol. I just spoke to them sternly and doled out discipline as needed. Sigh! It wasn't a very good day in case anybody wondered. I'm not even going anywhere with this, just in case you wondered about that too. Pretty much just glad that tomorrow the sun will rise on a new day. A day who's slate is clean and clear with no headaches and fewer tears and a lot more energy. And if there's not another day? Well then, Halleluia! That would pretty much take care of all the other things I could yowl about tonight but won't! A thot: "It's the painful testings that hold the possibility of powerful testimony..." -Ann Voskamp

Death, the eye-opening burden adjuster

Twelve years of marriage, six children, a wife. Now he is gone, done w/ sickness in this life. How little I know of trials, of hardship or pain. How very small and petty my "burdens" that I carry like the weight of the world. How simplistic my worries that I magnify into Mount Everests. Tonight there is a Woman who is laying her Husband to rest tomorrow. A Wife who has lived with this man for 12 yrs and spent the last 4 watching his body slowly deteriorate. A Mother with 6 children and no daddy to help care for them. True, there's Heaven. True, there's joy at the thot of no more physical pain and suffering. Still, tonight there's me laying down to sleep beside my strong, able husband. There's me with 4 children who have a daddy and no tears and questions and comforting to supply. There's me, the self absorbed, pitiful wretch who thinks life is so hard to bear. O God! Forgive me for not living life fully. For holding out clenched fists instead of open, upturned hands. All really is grace. For her, for me.

Happy First Year!

One year ago I started this little ol thing. Acting on "blog infatuation", I chose a name, set the thing up and giddily put that first post out there. I've always expressed myself better in writing, ask Chris! Didn't take long for him to keep a close tab on my notebook if he wanted to know what was going on in his wife's head :) I've learned a lot about talking in our nearly 11 yrs of marriage. I don't write in journals nearly as much as I used to. When I discovered the blogging world, a tiny seed of a dream began to form. You have to understand that I've never been a big dreamer. For me to even acknowledge that God might have use for my writing was huge! Most of the time I've felt like I'm writing just to write. Recently I've had people say they've been reading my blog and then I gulp a little and think maybe I should start choosing my words more carefully! God has been watering the seed tho, and I'm daring to dream. So, Happy First Year, little blog and it's readers! Here's to dreaming!