Enforced Secrecy

Well, today’s been a little frustrating, because I’ve been very productive, but a lot of what I’ve been doing is not bloggable. And much of it has been difficult to do because I have been experiencing much more pain than usual, and being on my feet for even a few minutes is excruciating.

Still, I guess I could tell you that I cut out Lucy’s new cloak.  You know, the one I promised to make her for her birthday back in March. . . . A few weeks ago she picked out some very sturdy brown twill at Wal-Mart.  Today I prewashed it and then cut it out. And then, since I was on a roll, I went ahead and zipped up the seams on my serger. Maybe tomorrow I can attach the hood and hem the thing.  I had forgotten how fast it is to make a cloak with no yoke and no lining. At least I got it to where she could try it on before she went to bed!

Mary spent all morning at an academic conference on campus, where she presented a paper she had written. I didn’t get to go hear her, but I’m hoping to get to read the paper. I know she did a great job and I’m so proud of her!

Since I had the dining room table taken up with cutting-out stuff, the few of us who were home at lunchtime ate in the living room and watched an episode of Jeeves & Wooster—the one where both Jeeves and Wooster end up dressing in drag by the end.  It was a nice little break from everything else I was trying to do.

47 more days till Lina leaves.  That’s not very much time!

The Big Leap of Faith

Well, I never thought that this would be part of my job description. First, I worked hard at getting Mercy flights to and from Colorado at times that work out for Mangy, who will be transporting her to and from the Denver airport.

I thought, however, that the stress of finding flights for Lina was off my shoulders because I had received an offer of help from someone who used to be in the airline industry and who was something of an expert. I had already proven by then that I could find much cheaper options than any of the discount travel sites.  Then today I received an e-mail from my would-be helper, saying that really, I probably knew more about flying to Africa than she did, so I might as well figure it out on my own!

So, figure it out I did (poor Lina is so stressed with student teaching and working two jobs that she didn’t have time). One thing the other lady did point out was that Lina needed to get a ticket SOON because otherwise she might be out of luck when it came to flying on the days she wants.

When Lina came home this evening we talked about it. It is a HUGE step of faith to buy a non-refundable plane ticket to Africa when you don’t have the ticket funds in hand, let alone all your monthly support for once you get there! This is a case where we have to believe that God wouldn’t call her to do something and then not supply the means to do it.

So, seven weeks from today, Lina will be on a plane bound for Zambia. PRAY with us that God will supply her every need.  I have had many, many people ask how to go about contributing to Lina’s support, and I didn’t know the answer at the time, so I promised to post it here in order to get the information out to everyone at once.  Please note, she is NOT asking for money. She is trusting in the Lord’s provision and if some choose to support her, that will be wonderful, but she is stepping out in faith here and believing that God will provide. The address, for those of you who asked for it, is:

CMML (Christian Missions to Many Lands)

P. O. Box 13

Spring Lake, NJ 0776200013

Of course if this is of interest to you, you would have to indicate that you were wishing to support Lina Burklin at Sakeji Mission School. I apologize to those of you who are not interested in this information, but I have received so many requests and can’t remember specifically everyone who asked for this information!

[Edit: Lina has updated her blog: http://www.littleschoolinthebush.blogspot.com/]

Jasper suffered some facial injuries today, and to my surprise didn’t really complain about them and didn’t cry at all. A stick he was playing with apparently ricocheted and hit him hard in the lip and on his cheek. Both areas are swollen and tender.  Which kind of makes me wonder what on earth he was doing with that stick!

Quote of the Day:

While Flynn and I were in the van, I commented that I wanted David of the White Rock (which was playing at the time) to be played at my funeral (without words).

Flynn: “I know what I want to be played at my funeral!”

Me: “What?”

Flynn: “Stayin’ Alive!”

Parting Shots:

No matter where you look, there is beauty at this time of year.

A Momentous Day

Big doings chez Mama Mentor today. I took Mary to the credit union this morning and she finally got her very own checking and savings accounts—soon to be followed by her own debit card.  Which means I now have yet another person to bank for!

Then before lunch Mary’s friend Liz came over and Jasper had his very first piano lesson ever:

So did Lucy. Mercy and Spencer both had lessons also, though it wasn’t the first for them because they have both had a smattering of lessons from Lina in the past. I know it works in some families, but the whole sibling-teaching-sibling thing did not work for us. I finally had to face the reality that not only was Lina never going to teach her siblings, but she is leaving the country in any case!

Liz spends two days a week on campus right near our house, and it works out very well for her to come here to teach lessons in between her classes.  And most importantly, we can actually afford her! Jasper and Lucy are absolutely in love with the piano right now. Both practiced before supper, and I had to force Lucy to stop! I am so happy to have a plan now.  My desire was always for all my children to have a basic knowledge of music and piano, because if you have that, it is so much easier to learn any other instrument.

When Liz left, it was time for my high school girls’ class.  I hadn’t seen my girls for three weeks, so it was great to have them back.  We had a lot of material to catch up on! And we are watching a series of videos that the girls find very boring but that I find fascinating.  It’s all about sentences, and how to construct them in an effective way, and I’m just boggled by all the ways there are to convey the same information, each one tweaking the meaning just a little bit.  This kind of stuff is grist for my mill, and I’m hoping some of it rubs off on the girls!

After class I grabbed a bit to eat before heading up to the other side of town to catch a bead sale and then attend a health meeting. My primary reason for going to the meeting was that one of the speakers is a dear friend whom I haven’t seen for a couple of years, and I must say it was worth it. I got one of the most enthusiastic welcomes I have ever experienced!  It was so good to see her and get caught up on her life.

I had to race home afterwards so as not to completely miss biology lab with Mercy and Amy.  We saw diatoms and spirogyra today. The spirogyra were very spiffy. The diatoms were rather underwhelming.

After Amy left, I talked to Mangy (the fearless leader of the writing group Flynn, Mary and Mercy belong to) and after being reassured that it was all right with her, I booked a flight for Mercy to fly to Colorado for a visit next month. Mercy has been saving up her own money for this and is so excited to get to see her Colorado friends again so soon.  She will be staying with Mangy and I’m sure she’ll have a wonderful time, if she doesn’t freeze to death.

With the flight arrangements out of the way, I could finally sit down to make a stack of envelopes and stuff them with Christmas greetings and free stitch markers for all my customers that I’ve had this year. It would have been a lot quicker to use ready-made envelopes, of course, but colorful handmade envelopes are one of my trademarks, so I could hardly wimp out of making them.

And I also passed the 5000 word mark on my new manuscript.

I’m kind of tired now, and I think I’m going to have to do the grading and assignment-posting tomorrow morning, in the interest of coherence.

Parting Shot: