My Bubbling Teapot

A peaceful evening was interrupted with the horrible sound of shattering glass. What shattered downstairs? In a second's time, my mind went through a mental list--the picture on the wall, the glass doors of the cupboards, windows, and I tried to think of all the precious glass objects downstairs. The next instant I was leaping down the stairs two at a time to find all eight persons of our household some running and some huddled around Alli and behind her a huge jagged hole in the glass on her bedroom door. Talk about making a person feel shaky. I felt myself getting faint as I was bandaging up all the little scrapes and cuts, but I felt incredibly thankful that she was alright. Amazing how many bandaids we used. Somehow her shoulder had hit the glass and it shattered cutting her shoulder, foot, and hands. Freak accident. Poor little thing. Her teeth were chattering and she was quite traumatized. I'm still a little worried about her eye. She was rubbing it and rubbing it, but we...

Les told us the other day that he thinks "property hunting" has become our hobby. He might be right. It is true that in the last couple of years, we have looked at a number of properties and houses for sale close to the town of Minsk. So far, none of them have materialized. We sense a great need for something to change. We have been living on this small lot in town now for five years. While the house itself is quite adequate, we feel that we need more space for our growing family. So we continue to look and pray. We want our property to be God's property and we only want to purchase something that we feel that God is blessing. And nothing has fallen into place yet. About one month ago, John's student told us about a property for sale about two miles from Minsk in a small village. We arranged with the owner to go look at it. There are a lot of positive things about it that would have been negatives of the other places we've looked at in the past. The city water and...

There! That makes me feel better! I... ...detest ...abhor ...despise mending. I'm sure those of you who are virtuous mothers are shaking their heads and wondering what is the matter with me. I don't know where I missed it, but the pile of mending in my sewing center makes me cringe with hatred. Why do I wait until all of Allison's dresses are missing a button before I finally, grudgingly get out my needle and thread? Why does a dress hang for two years in my closet with chopped off sleeves that are only waiting for one seam? Why do John's Sunday pants lay over my bedroom chair for weeks before I finally get around to sewing the loophole back on? I've always hated repairing clothes. When I learned to sew and sewed my sleeve in upside down, I would have rather started all over than to tear out the one little seam. Mending is such a tedious chore. But today, when I finally got around to sewing on six buttons on six dresses, sewing up a hole in the back of another, and...

Ok, folks, time for another update. I decided to post our monthly letter here for those of you who don't get it regularly. Let's hear from all the departments this month. Smucker's School Department-- The children are continuing to struggle through their winter's school work. Today when one of them announced that there are only 12 weeks left, everyone's spirits seem tolift a little. It is at this time every year that I think we are not goingto make it to the end of school. Every year about this time I'm ready tosend them all out the door, but I'm hoping in another month or so some ofthe subjects will be finished and dropped off so it will make a lighter loadfor all of us. There are many arguments (Smuckers say they are discussions)about history and science, since my boys love facts and history. Today the"discussion" was centered around whether the St. Lawrence Seaway is made up of only the St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes and if it is manmade...

Ten questions waiting to be answered: How should we celebrate Valentine's Day this year or should we just skip it? How can I get my house organized without any effort? Should I prepare a book proposal and send it to an editor? Should we buy property in Poland and build or just keep renting this cold house? Where should we go for summer vacation (or maybe we should just stay home)? How do you keep your children well and entertained all winter with limited indoor space and with only a postage stamp sized property? What do you do when you have 6 pairs of boots and 6 pairs of shoes by the front door and there are only room for 3? What do you do with soaked snowsuits, wet gloves, and stinky socks that come in from the outside? What do you do when your daughter is reading your blog over your shoulder? How can I get my family to come visit me next year?