Week #13 - December!

Happy Holidays!

12/06/2024

Holidays on the road! We don't know what we are doing, but we are gonna have fun trying!

Chris - “True Rest”

Thursday morning, Crystal decided to make a batch of banana pancakes for breakfast; we had some bananas that were reaching full “maturity,” and this was the perfect excuse to make one of everyone’s favorite breakfast foods. At some point during the process, one of the kids needed Crystal’s help with something, so I stepped in to flip some pancakes. I was happy to do it. A few minutes later, she came back and wanted to take over… I was really annoyed! This was my project! Was it? The truth is, I am desperate for something to do… anything to do (apparently)! We are currently staying at my uncle’s house, and earlier in the week, he needed help moving some dirt on his property. Five of us jumped up immediately and moved all the dirt in fifteen minutes, chomping at the bit for more. I think it is safe to say that the whole family is feeling a little stir-crazy this week. But, for me, it goes deeper than just boredom, as evidenced by my annoyance at my wife “stealing” my pancake job.

Genesis tells us that God worked six days to make all of creation, and then He rested on the seventh day. Later, He tells his people that they are to rest every seventh day; He tells then to do no work on that day, to not make other people in their house work, and even to let their animals rest. He says that if we will observe this rest, “then you shall take delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth.” (Isaiah 58:14). I would argue that this is true of our society as a whole, but in my life, even when I am not “on the clock”, I am doing things. I am always trying to be productive, and to make the most of my time. When I am walking to the next thing, I am scanning my surroundings to see if there is anything that needs to be picked up, or taken care of. When I have a moment of free-time, I am grabbing my phone to try to research, learn, or schedule the next thing. Even when I am serving/ taking care of my family, I am often working to feel like I am doing a good job of loving them… I do love them, but often I am working to prove it instead of just acting out of that love. Sadly, even when I am praying or reading the bible, I am often working to figure out an answer to my current questions; bringing my agenda to my time with God instead of wondering what is on His mind at the time. I have always said, if I could pick a superpower to have, it would be to never sleep; I could get so much more done if I didn’t have to sleep.

I’m not sure that can remember a time when I felt good about doing “no work.” I value my days based off what was accomplished during that day. So, what value would I assign to a day of rest? Or, even more difficult, what value would I give to a season of rest? As much as it causes me discomfort, God seems to be gifting us a season of rest. He is holding us still, and providing rest for our family. Rest from the pace that we are used to. Rest from the expectations and goals that we assign to our time. For my part, I have wasted most of the rest-period by trying to get out of it. I think I am starting to learn my lesson, but I still don’t enjoy it. I am praying that God will give me the grace to make it through to the point that I actually enjoy rest. When I get uncomfortable with the process, I must remind myself that this is what our adventure is about; I needed to break out of my 20+ year routine, so I could be ready to learn new things.

~Chris

---

"Phillips Inlet" beach, Florida

Crystal - “Fleece and Faith”

In the book of Judges in the Bible, God calls Gideon to do some real big, bold things with some ugly odds. At one point before going to war with the vast pagan nations, Gideon asks God to prove He’ll be with the Israelite troops by a sign- he left a fleece out overnight and if it was wet while the ground was dry, Gideon would be sure that God’s promise was true. It was. Then he reversed it- dry fleece, wet ground. God did it. So Gideon called his troops together. God sent ⅔ of the already undersized army home and then another 97% of the remnant. And with that the Israelites went on to claim absolute victory without even fighting. For the full story, read Judges 6 and 7.

This story has come up as a biblical parallel for us as we’ve been walking out this venture. Before we even left Montrose, we felt the Lord dividing and reducing our resources.

There is a boat, you’ve heard of it- the steel ketch, Bruce Roberts….we made a lowball offer on it and were soundly rejected about 2 weeks ago. Posy has not been a fan since the first time we saw it. There have been moments that she was in tears at the thought of having to live on a boat like that. We prayed a LOT about making that offer and at the time she was choosing to trust us and submit but was very much not excited about it. After the “No, thank you” we received from the current boat owner, we heard God say not to make another offer on any boat for 2 weeks. My heart kept coming back to that boat though.

On Sunday, at church, the preacher was talking about giving cheerfully and with absolute faith that God would bless it. God asked me if I’d trust him enough to make a full price offer on that boat. Offering full price would reduce our “troops” by about 97%😳The thought of barely having grocery money for the next few months after spending our savings on a boat that needs some work made me feel like I was suddenly high on a tightwire. I said “Lord, that’s not even what this sermon is about!” He said “You sure? I told him I needed a fleece if this was really him. I prayed he’d change Posy’s heart toward the boat and that she’d be the one to bring it back up. She has been the only one opposed to this boat and was fairly relieved to be rejected so it seemed unlikely. I didn’t tell anyone about my deal. I mentioned to Chris that I felt like God had spoken to me and that I’d asked for a very specific sign but that was it.

So on the afternoon of the 2 week mark, I’m outside working out and Posy looks up from her crafting and says to Chris “It’s been two weeks.”

He says, “Yes, what does that mean?”

“We’re supposed to make another offer on the boat.”

Surprised, he asks, “On what boat?” There haven’t been any other options presented.

“Sven’s (current owner’s) boat,” and she went back to her crafting.

When I came in a little later, Chris had a look and I asked why. He said, “It’s been two weeks. Posy just brought it up out of nowhere.”

My eyes got wide and I called a family meeting to get the full recount. Then I told my part. Chris got in touch with Sven who said there was someone having a hull inspection done today (Wednesday) and that he’ll let us know Friday. So we wait. But by the time you’re reading this….we may be under contract and claiming a promise.

~Crystal

---

We had some fun playing with our Christmas lights in the dark.

Ellis - “Artist Blues Pt. 2”

A few weeks ago, I wrote about creativity and how it’s hard to always make stuff you’re proud of. Without the right inspiration and motivation , I thought it was nearly impossible to make something that (I thought) had value. I’ve had some more time to think about it, and while I don’t think I have much control over my levels of motivation or inspiration, I’m starting to think I don’t need them as much as I thought. I use to think my creativity was a product of how motivated/inspired I was, but lately, I’ve begun to see creativity as more of a habit that we have to form. In order for art to be regularly created, creativity itself needs to become a regular practice. If you only practice drawing or running or whatever when you have a burst of motivation, you’ll never get much better. (I view all this through the lens of music because that’s what I have a passion for, but I think the same ideas apply to any sort of art.) Wishing, wanting, and even learning will only get us so far. At some point we have to start actually DOING, if we ever want to get better. So run the race. Start the project. Take the job. Do the show. Do whatever makes you come alive*. It won’t be easy but it does get easier. I was talking to my brother about his painting and drawing; he said that early on, everything he made depressed him so much because they were so bad. But he stuck with it, and now that his pieces are turning out so much better, he said that he’s enjoying working on his art a lot more. I still regularly depress myself with my music, but I’ve been putting a lot of work into it recently and I can see that it’s improved. It’s not there yet, but I’m still holding on to hope that I’ll like my own music one day.

* Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.
-Gil Bailie-

For those who are interested, here are a few of the tracks I’ve been working on this week, sorry they’re weird!

ps. listen with headphones :)

---

Our travel-size Christmas

Conrad - “Week Re-cap”

These past couple of weeks have been relatively uneventful. The start of the first week was fun, we went to the beach a couple of times and did a little archery practice with our cousins. Unfortunately Jasper hurt his foot pretty badly so it has been a bit slower since then. We have done a lot of stationary activities like art and board games.

Last week was Thanksgiving which is pretty notable. It was our first Thanksgiving away from home so it was a bit emotional. It was well spent though since we were with family and had a good cooking setup. We decided to skip school that day and just have fun. In the morning we did some breakfast, and a board game while Mom did a bunch of cooking. We helped with the food a bit but it was mostly Mom. Just a little after noon we took all of the food we had made over to the house that we were doing the party at. We started with a couple of games of corn hole then went in for dinner. After a healthy amount of food and pie we spent the rest of the night around a game of Monopoly.

Other than these couple of bigger things, there hasn't really been a lot to mention. We have done a variety of different art styles ranging from sketching with pencils to watercolor and pen art. We also did some big sand sculpture art at the beach. I'm really bad at deciding what to do in art,but once I decide on something I can usually do a pretty good job. I like doing watercolor and adding pen to give it extra detail and shadows.

We have also been spending our days helping out our cousins with a bit of landscaping and winter prep. We have been praying about where, and when, we are going to move on to the next place. During our prayers we have heard "Wait" a lot but it looks like things might be starting to move. I guess we might know more next week, so stay tuned.

~Conrad

---

Oliver - “Christmas Time”

This will be our first Christmas season away from home. I am happy to report, it hasn’t snowed! Sometimes, in the mornings, there will be frost on the ground, but that is far warmer than Montrose, Colorado right now. Also there are still a lot of living, green, plants outside. This year is going to be a lot different than usual.

We brought some Christmas decorations with us. We have a small fake Christmas tree, with some shells and ornaments on it. We also have a lego Christmas tree. We even have a plushie nativity. We’ve got Christmas lists going, and Posy’s birthday coming up, but unfortunately, we ran out of Thanksgiving leftovers.

At this point we still don’t know where we are going to be for Christmas Day. We don’t have a solid plan. But that is fine with me. Wherever we end up, I’m sure it will be great. Also I am challenging everybody who reads this, to send me pictures of a drawing or a doodle. Here is something I did if you need some help getting started (it is a slideshow tutorial to walk you through the steps.)

~Oliver

---

"Fred" the Uni-clops

Jasper - “FUN & Dumb”

On November 25th we got up at about 7:00 and got straight to school, because we wanted to get to the beach as soon as possible. We finished at about 8:00 and got ready. We got to the beach at about 10:00 (including the drive and getting ready), then we decided that we would go to the river inlet 0.7 miles away. Some of us ran, others walked and ran, and some just walked. When we got there we found some super compact sand, so we tried carving stuff into it, but sadly the sand collapsed on the sculptures.

Then we went to the car, and got some lunch to eat on the beach. After that, me and Posy started making a pit, while the others started a uni-clops(unicorn and Cyclops). Later, I saw Dad out in the waves; I immediately joined him, and our group just kept growing from there. We played in the water until we left (FUN).

On the walk back to the car, Me and Oli were being careless, and walking backwards, I was in the front and didn’t remember that there were more stairs. I went down the stairs backwards, and jammed my foot pretty bad (Dumb), but it’s feeling a lot better now. Thank you for reading.

~Jasper

---

Posy and Jasper's sand pit, bench... and sunset

Posy - “GROWING CLOSER!”

I feel like during this trip I have grown closer to God! He has given me the gift of love and generosity and I'm trying to lean towards God. I have prayed a lot and every time he answered. How to grow closer to God, pray and listen for his answer. If he asks you to do something crazy, do it. Another thing is, go to church. I believe in you it will give you everlasting joy. It's Awesome.

~Posy