Problems are for Solving

My wife recently posted part one of our saga. If you haven’t already read it, please do so now.

So today the other dishwasher installers came and sure enough, it really won’t fit. Something about the Kenmore having a hard shell and our current GE model having soft sides and more give on the space and some yadda yadda something.

I really liked this dishwasher. We couldn’t have afforded it this year, most likely, and the other one had died.

We’ve had now three appliances die this year and we had budgeted for one–a new used stove. One of our fridges died. We were sad and lost some meat in the deal, but we thought we’d make it a while and then somebody in the area was giving one away about a week or two later. Way cool. God provides.

Later our dryer died–and almost the very next day somebody at work was selling one for $25 and could deliver it. Again, God provides.

And then we found a six burner stove someone was giving away and so the budget we had for the stove we were able to save.

And then the dishwasher died.

So we went out to Sears and found one that Theresa had researched and got great reviews.

But it doesn’t fit.

So now we’ll wait and see what God’s going to provide–but for now we’re washing dishes and eating on paper. And God is good.

WARSKYL: A Page For Christian Martialists: A Holiday Warskyl Warm Fuzzy

This blog post by my father-in-law is the story of one of my wife’s favorite memories.

Oh–and my FIL’s blog is a worthwhile read in general so add it to your RSS feed.

A Dark And Quiet Room » Get Dirty

Seth has a good post here that might just (that’s a kingean understatement for the uninitiated) intersect with what it means to be in the world and not of the world (though “in and not of” is an extrapolation that needs to be examined and fleshed out as well–it’s not a straight quote from the Bible).

Paul Tripp Ministries: Psalm 27: Someday
The reason our “somedays” are more fatalistic than hopeful is that in our sane moments we all know that we don’t have the power and control over our world that we would need to have in order to guarantee the realization of our dreams.

Seeing the goodness of the Lord in this life takes faith. Paul Tripp has another encouraging post from Psalm 27 here.

For some reason this quote from Robert E. Lee about General Thomas Jackson seems to be running through my mind a lot today.

I’ve been a bit under the weather this week (I had to take a day off in fact) and so I’m looking forward to our annual celebration of the Night of the Burning Plum. I will, Lord willing, get a post up in the next couple of days detailing this year’s event, but for now:

A Road Less Travelled » The Night of the Burning Plum (Gabrielle)

A Road Less Travelled » Thoughts on the Burning Plum (Raquel)

A Road Less Travelled » The Night of the Burning Plum 2006 (Gabrielle)

Today I am thankful for Margary Rose Lansberry. Today she turns one year old!

This has been a fast year and she just grows and grows and we have so enjoyed having her. For so long we prayed that God would give us another baby and He chose in His wisdom to take seven of our children home to be with Him before we could meet them.

And then, one year ago today, Margary came into our lives.

She continues to be a joy and a pleasure for us. Soon she will be walking and talking, though I think she enjoys being carried about by the eight bigger people in the house who dote over her day in and out.

Happy Birthday my girl–may you always prosper in Christ.

If you’d like a trip down memory lane with my blog posts around her birth start here.

Firstly they tried to sever his umbilical cord to cut off his blood supply, but the cord was too strong.

They then cut Mrs Jones’s placenta in half so that when Gabriel died, it would not affect his twin brother.

But after the operation which was meant to end his life, tiny Gabriel had other ideas.

Read the rest here.

It will be a hard story for the parents to tell later to little Gabriel, but praise God that He’s stronger than the attempts of a few doctors!

Maybe this will humble them a bit, but I doubt it.

I finally updated my blogroll, cleaning out some broken links and blogs that no longer exist, etc. I left in blogs that I read that the owner only posts once in a while, so if you don’t use an RSS feeder but you find a blog you’d like, I’d recommend switching. I use Google Reader, but bloglines and newer versions of Outlook are other good RSS feeders I’ve used. Google reader works well for me because I can mark stuff read from my blackberry when I’m cleaning out.

I also added several new blogs, some of which I only read occasionally–even though the author posts frequently. That’s where the RSS feed is nice: I can scan down looking for titles I want to read and mark the rest as read very quickly before going back to read the ones I want. Many of the more prolific bloggers in my blogroll don’t get read as much, but you may enjoy some of what you see there.

I’m still working on starting some of the writing projects I’ve mentioned in the past. Maybe now that I got that DST hour back I’ll have more energy for writing.

Wanting What’s Right When You are Wronged

Perhaps losing your way for you means that you allow your mind to be consumed with playing the DVD in your brain over and over again of what that person said or did. Perhaps it means allowing yourself to give way to the fears of what in the world could happen next. Maybe losing your way means fantasizing ways in which you could settle the score; you know, the things that you would like to say and do to that person that would make them hurt the way they have hurt you.

I read this today in my Sabbath morning reading and found it helpful, as I have Dr. Tripp’s many posts on Psalm 27. May God help us all to trust Him for the working out of what’s right.