Off to Haiti

Friends of ours, Walt and Pat Stuart, will be heading to Haiti on Feb. 3rd to help w/grief counseling and that sort of aid. They are experienced Christian counselors and have served in pastoral, church-planting and counseling work in France for decades. Please pray for them. If you wish to contact them, support them financially, or receive their regular updates (almost daily these past few weeks), just contact us and we'll get you the info you need. I love them dearly, having worked alongside them in France on more than one occasion, and know they would covet your prayers for safety, wisdom, and that they'd be used for God's glory.

Headlines

Today I've seen the following headline or a permutation thereof several times: Obama plans to help a middle class 'under assault.' I can't help but wonder the irony of it; isn't he at least partly to blame for whatever the middle class has suffered, this so-called assault?

And yet another question. I have read that one of the problems with today's middle class is that they are reaping the consequences of living beyond their means, some way way way beyond . . . . Is that really "assault"? I think not. I know there are those out there truly suffering, and the times are hard, but if having to tighten one's belt to the point of thinking twice before going to Olive Garden for dinner is suffering, then we haven't a clue.

And if you read the attending article, what stands out to me is all the tax breaks for households with two working parents and child care costs. Nothing there that will benefit this middle class family. Not that we need any tax breaks . . . . but again, are we funding the designer wardrobes, the brand new SUVs, the weekend splurges at the bowling alley and dinner out, the trips to Disneyland . . . . or are we benefitting those who truly are having trouble making ends meet? We choose to forgo those things in order to live within our means. Enabling the middle class to continue to avoid blame and responsibility for spending money they don't have is not in anyone's best interest.

Haiti Earthquake

I would like to refer anyone interested to this site for a missions organization called Crossworld, with whom we have a longstanding relationship. They have had folks working in Haiti for 60+ years and have been updating their site daily with great information, including pictures, details of how money donated is being used, as well as links about how NOT to help. We certainly would recommend them as a great place to send money knowing it will be used with integrity in such an extreme disaster. But more importantly, they give great ideas for how to pray and how to discern how one might help in this time of need.

Some other links/blogs
Haiti Earthquake Recovery / Bolosse Campus
Ways to Help Haiti
House of Hope

More snow

I like snow and I guess I like to blog about it too. Friday night into Saturday we saw another 6 inches of snow. We didn't even blink. It was beautiful and fell in lovely large catch the snowflake on your tongue kinds of ways (yes, even if I am middle-aged, it's irresistable!). But they weren't expecting so much. It was fluffy again (dry and cold!) so it just swept away. Or blew away when you swatted at it. We didn't bother to do anything but clear the steps and quickly sweep the walk so it didn't get tracked in. I think that effort took me less than 2 minutes. Anyway, that snowfall apparently has us in some serious record breaking contention for the month of January. And the month has hardly begun. We'll keep you posted!

Playing with my new toy

My mom and dad got me my what I wanted most for Christmas - an Excalibur dehydrator, the Cadillac of such machines. Vivace and I took out an hour yesterday morning to figure it out. We made yogurt taffies and dried apples. Both were easy to do and quick to make with this super-duper deluxe machine. We had fun and everyone helped eat the treats. There is still plenty of yogurt left but the apples disappeared all but immediately.

Today we bought a 5# bag of apples and they're drying as I write. They all fit with room to spare; amazing compared to the machine this replaced (I gave it away free on Craigslist just before Thanksgiving - I couldn't bear the idea of fighting with it another year and boy and I glad!)

Thank you so much, mom and dad!

New Year's Snow Storm

I'm sure pictures are in order for those interested in the snow storm we got last weekend. It is said we got 26+ inches of snow over two days, most of it overnight on Saturday. We think 15-18" is probably accurate for the overnight which is what you see pictured here. We cleared the steps and the driveway Saturday evening before going to bed - probably 6" cleared at that point. This was what we woke up to. The steps kind of disappeared, didn't they! Fun, fluffy stuff. Fairly easy shoveling. No comparison to the Valentine's Day storm of 2007. This one they say was the water equivalent of about 1" of rain. That was was close to 2" of rain. Night and day, but still the biggest ever on record.

Pretty, isn't it? I love our house!















Even though it was "light and fluffy," my hero still had to think about the roof and cleared a lot of snow there to be sure we didn't have any future issues (get it off now before it compacts!). Isn't he handsome? Aluminum ladders are apparently both cold and slippery in the winter...
















Our eldest has become quite the shoveler. She LOVED helping out (BEGGED to!). It was great.

Let it snow...

... and snow and snow. It was fun. Over New Year's weekend, we had the biggest single snowstorm ever in the Champlain Valley's history. It even topped the Valentine's Day Blizzard from 2007 (although I did read that storm still holds the record for snowfall in a single day). Presumably our official total was something like 27". Burlington I believe was roughly 33". Pretty cool, and very fun to play in. Light and fluffy too (unlike the Vday one which was very heavy) so not too hard to clean up relatively speaking.

The amazing thing though was that we didn't get a snow day. The biggest snow storm ever . . . and not even a delayed opening. Go figure. Kudos to the snow plow crews! (I guess. I like snow days).

That said, the kids say the sidewalks are some pretty tough slogging, 3+ inches to wade through can really wear you out, though it is passable... More in some spots. Oh well.

Happy New Year!