Chickafinty ~ A Life in the Laundry

"I'll pray for you"

I'm working my way through "Teach Me to Pray" by Andrew Murray.  It's hard going and slow going because there's lots to think about and time to be alone and contemplative is thin on the ground.

He talks extensively about intercessory prayer, and how important it is in the life of a believer.  This is an element of prayer that I have kind of taken for granted as that's what Christians do; they pray for others.  They pray during times of sickness and sadness.  They pray in praise.  They pray for guidance.  They pray for their families, their churches, their leaders, their politicians, their friends, their pets.  It's what Christians do.  They pray.  It's not a badge of honour, nor a sign that God cares more for the Christian, or that the Christian is in God's good books, it is simply what we do.  A lot of the time it is the only thing we can do.

So close I can almost taste it

90 days down and 2 days to go until spring.

Already the quality of the light and air has changed.  There's a promise in the breeze that warm days are coming.  The birds in the backyard are, more often than not, cavorting in pairs and preparing for the spring to come.  The sun has climbed higher in the sky and is equally favouring the quadrants of the clothesline.  I know that's a bit prosaic for a litany in praise of spring, but it's the little things like that which matter.  And this is after all the account of a life lived in the laundry.

For the first time in years I have the time to stop and notice the change in the season.  There's time to stand still for a bit and watch the sun, ponder its movement and glory in its warmth.  Today is chillier, and I'm tempted to grab a jumper, but I won't.  Spring is almost here and it is so close I can almost taste it.  The light is different.  It's not the icy light of winter any more.  The days are longer, but not yet all that much warmer.  They will be given the passage of a little time.  We had a few days, a fortnight or so ago, where winter stole a few of spring's days and the warmth of the breeze soaked into every pore.  Then winter turned nasty again and all we were left with was the memory of sun.

It's so close.  We'll mark off the start of another season.  I'll pack away the jumpers and my beloved rugby top for another year.  This has been the rugby top's 15th winter and it is showing its age.  It's frayed at collar, the hem is hanging and with every wash it threatens to become a little more threadbare, but it is my favourite garment.  It makes winter bearable.  I've had to apologise for it this year because it looks so ragged, but despite its decrepit state, or perhaps because of it, I love it.

Spring is coming.  In two days it will be spring.  Another winter weathered, and a new season to anticipate.

Ummm

Just checked out the blog and discovered it has been more than a month since the last entry.

Ummm, yeah, a month.

Just in case there are still any readers out there, I'll try and recap the last five weeks.

Dad came out of hospital.  Dad went back into hospital.  Dad came out of hospital.  Dad went back to hospital. They changed one of his medications as it was dropping his heart rate too low (43 bpm) and he's out of hospital again, hopefully for the last time.  He is looking and sounding pretty much normal again.  I think the med he was on was making him really unwell cos now that he's off it, he's doing really, really well.  That's good.

The stuff going on in the background that I couldn't talk about last time is still going on in the background, and I still can't talk about it.  Why mention it then, I hear you ask?  Because it's eating up a lot of my brain (and heart) time at the moment.  It's a good thing/bad thing thing.  Can't quite make up my mind yet whether the good outweighs the bad or not.  It's pretty much out of my hands anyway so I'll stop wittering on about it.  There.  Stopped.

I've been trying, ever since Dad's heart attack, to shift some of the extra poundage that has accumulated over the years.  Before I could answer the "does anyone in your family suffer from heart disease" question with a No, now I can't.  It's that simple.  So I've been on the Next To No Fun Food Diet for about 4 weeks.  No McDonalds, no chocolate, no ice cream, no eating between meals, no biscuits, no cakes, no lollies, no chips (except for jumpy legs), no marmalade toast, I tried black coffee for a while but gave that up.  I don't cook any more, I just heat things up.  I don't bake any more either, so that fun part of life is dead.  I have *something* that counts as fun food about twice a week.  On a Friday afternoon The Other Half takes me out for a coffee at McCafe and I have something yum with it.  One other day a week I'll have something...something small and insignificant like a couple of squares of chocolate, but it's literally a couple of squares and it's once in the week.  That's about it.  Lunch is a cup of stock and two bits of dry bread.  mmmm.  It's a pretty drab and colourless life really, and it stretches off into infinity that is bleak and dreary.  And for all this I have shifted approximately 1.3kg.  In four weeks.  I sit down at the table hungry and get up from the table hungry and it's all for basically naught.  I wouldn't mind so much if there was an actual result, but so far it's nothing.  

Pity party over.

The kids are going great guns with school.  Chickabid has just begun his Year 5 maths book and is going through it like lightning.  He's just about to finish the level 4 grammar book and as soon as the next one is published we'll get stuck into that.  We're rocketing through history and have begun The Crusades - I am learning as much as the kids.  We've almost finished our Biblical Studies book and I'm trying to figure out where to go next in that.  We've finished Exploring Creation with Botany and have just started Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day. We're nearly finished our writing textbook and I have the next one ready to go. It's truly a season where I can say "we've finished ...".  It's a good feeling.  Ladybug has finished her grammar book and is working in the next one.  She's doing really, really well in her maths test book which is reviewing everything she's learned so far this year.  I've ordered the next book for her and it should come in the next few days.  We're making progress.

Chickabid's blanket is finished and in use.  Ladybug's blanket is 2/5 finished.  The house is passable in at least 1/3 rooms pretty much all the time now, but don't whatever you do look in the sink today.  I'm not joking ;)