I have moved my blog to www.seekingfaithfulnessblog.blogspot.com.

Please adjust accordingly – I’d love to see you at my new home.  It is very unfinished – just set up, in fact.  There is much customization to be done.  This blog, and my old blog at wordpress (seekingfaithfulness.wordpress.com) will become obsolete and unreachable in a few weeks.

I like New Beginnings.

I leave the house to go to work four evenings a week.  (More about that, some other post.  I leave a few minutes before 8, and I’m home a few minutes after 8 in the morning.)

Mostly, it works pretty well.  The little ones are either in bed, or almost ready for bed, and my husband spends time with the older kids.  Sometimes, they watch movies (with the tv guardian on…) that I really don’t want to see again, or do puzzles, or whatever it is they decide to do.

Last night, once I had tucked my 92 year old friend into bed, I settled in my own room and turned on my laptop.  I e-mailed my husband with a few questions.

In just a few minutes, he e-mailed me back telling me what he had been up to for the evening.

Hi Sweetheart!

My parents called, and I talked to them for a half hour – no big news.  They said thank you for the table cloth – Mom said it was “really neat.”
I picked the turkey meat off, and am boiling the bones.  I’ll make someone a good housewife some day…

Love you,
Jeff

I just had to laugh at that.  I told him that I already thought he was pretty wonderful.  A housewife, no, although he does many things more diligently than I do:  laundry, fixing meals when he is home, reading bedtime stories, tucking little ones into bed.  He even gets up about three times a night to let our silly cat in or out of the house, based upon her whims.  The cat thinks he’s awesome.  I do too.

We aren’t hugely about “roles” around here.  Our oldest son makes breakfast every morning, and our oldest girl cleans up the kitchen.  Sometimes the oldest ones peel potatoes for supper, sometimes the little ones do.   We all read stories to little ones, we all clean potties, we all know how to wipe faces, we all know how to feed the cat and clean out the van.  We all know how to mow the yard and weed a garden and filet  fish and clean the windows…oh, wait.  That window part never happens.   And I do wish that someone would learn to dust and sweep in the corners.   We all know, however,  how to pile into the living room to eat home-made pizza and watch old tv shows on the weekend, or to throw the water cooler, a quilt, some food and swimsuits into the back of the van in the summer to head to the swimming hole.  It is my prayer that we all learn more about hope, and joy in this coming year – along with many other lessons on how to be a closer family.  It is a constant process, it seems.

For us, it’s all about give, and take, about flexibility, about seeing a need an jumping in.  It’s not so much about authorities and who is supposed to do what – it’s just about being a family, and we work toward that end all of the time.  We love it this way.  Sometimes it is messy.  Actually, USUALLY it is messy, but that’s how families seem to be and that’s how they seem to grow.

And me?  I’m sooo glad that I didn’t have to pick the turkey meat off of that old bird.  It is one of my least favorite jobs.

Thank you, honey, for being flexibility in doing whatever it takes to make this family run, and in teaching our children to do the same.

My guy, reroofing our house

…and a little cuddle time with our littlest girl.

This journal has been with me since my friend Noelia gave it to me as a gift at the birth of my son Samuel.  Sam is now five, so as you see, I am not a fast journalist.

Journaling for me takes many forms.  Blogging is fun and rewarding, of course, and it does serve as a record of our days.  But I also need a place for real scribbles and lists, drawings and memories.

My journals end up pretty messy, but quite beloved to me.  They are the perfect place to paste in small doodles made by my children, to jot down a menu or a “to do” list.

Sometimes, one of the kids will draw me a picture right on the pages.  I like that.  I just either journal or jot right around it.

You know how you often think, “I should write that down?”, or “Oh, that’s so cute.  I hope I don’t forget that?”  A journal like this is the perfect place to put that record of a sweet time.  It is low commitment and very forgiving.  You aren’t expecting perfection, just wanting a memory.

Last night, on Dec. 31, I began a brand new journal.  It felt so fitting.  A New Year, a new journal,

A new family prayer for 2010: 

“Dear Father, be in this year.  In habit its spaces with Yourself.  Draw us – this family – into You.  Fill us.  Unfold us.  Use us.  Reveal Yourself to us.  Teach us joy and peace and love.  Shepherd us, our Father.  May we all, each one, walk with You and be known by You.

With grateful hearts,

The Johnson Family

If only people knew….

how hard we have to work….

to keep it “only” this messy. 

Wowee.  My site is back up.  That must have been quite the severe technical difficulty! 

Sorry, folks.  My leave of absence was very unplanned.  From what I hear, I will need to find new web hosting within a short while.  I’ll have to get back to you on the plan….just as soon as I decide what the plan is. 

I hope that you are all doing well, that your Christmas was blessed simply because of Emmanuel – God with us! 

I’m so glad to be back up and running, so looking forward to hearing from you.

Be back soon.    God bless you.

Holly