A Change of Plans

"Thou art the God who does wonders; 
Thou hast declared thy strength among the people."
Psalm 77:14

God is who He says He is.
We need to trust in Him. 
He will provide.
He will watch over you.

  As is the case so often, 

my ideals for a "normal" schedule of just school, church, and hospitality 

have gotten reorganized into something altogether different. 

It is alright, we are used to being flexible.
I am getting the idea that NORMAL for us
means that every day is different
and I can expect that it will rarely be just school, church and hospitality.
I can expect that God has great things in store,
and so I may trust Him
even when things look different than what I thought should or would happen.

First, our old wood stove, given to us years ago as a hand me down, 

had some sort of catastrophe in its catalytic and began performing poorly,

burning through our hard earned wood rapidly and putting all the heat up the chimney. 

We could not go on like this, our large home was cold, and it is not even winter yet. 

To make a long story short, we searched for a new wood stove that would put out the maximum heat possible and came up with the Kuma Sequoya, made locally, which is convenient. 

This stove will produce 90,000 BTUs verses our old stove at 55,000 in good working condition,

which it was not.  

So, the Lord knows all these things, 

and he ordered it so that when we went to pick up the new stove, 

the owner, a believer and elder in his church, 

decided to 

GIVE 

us the stove. 

Oh MY!!!!! 

This is the very stove that we had originally intended on buying when we started building the lodge, 

but it wasn't feasible at that time so we just put in this other stove for the time being.  

The hearth had not been finished, and in fact, we needed to enlarge it 

so that there is room in front of the stove. 

So the last week has been spent with Brian and I working on enlarging the hearth, 

sheeting it, texturing, painting, laying granite (another free provision from a friend) 

and then installing the new stove. 

Well, we were having unusually cold weather until the day we had to take out the old stove,

when it warmed up over 15 degrees outside.  

We are able to borrow a kerosene heater from a  friend in the meantime, 

and although my nose is cold, we are making out OK until tonight, 

when the new stove can be set in. 

It is sooooo exciting!

 Here is the old stove and unfinished hearth.

Here I am working on the newly sized hearth.

After Brian added to the hearth and sheet rocked it, I layed in the stone with mortar mix.

Today I hope to texture and paint the outside walls.  

Yesterday, Ben painted the inside.

Well, to add to that change of plans, 

Joe broke his arm clean through both bones at wrestling practice, 

which means a big altering of how things work around here for both him and the rest of the family. 

It happens to be his right arm too, so no hand writing for a while,

no washing dishes, which was his chore after breakfast.  

No chopping wood, his afternoon chore, 

and no wrestling.  

He also is a big help with Olivia, but it will be more difficult for him to carry her now. 

Therefor, we need to rearrange the chores,

adjust his wardrobe to accommodate a cast up beyond his elbow,

reorganize his school work to more computer work that he can do with just his left hand, 

and assign him more reading/recitation.

He is thankful that he already shot his deer, 

just a few nights ago, his first buck.

It seems the lord was looking out for him and the family meat supply.

Both stories told, we are just amazed at the way God works all things out for our good. 

Things that look like a bad deal, 

He, and He only, 

can turn into blessings for those who put their trust in Him.