Just Another Day

Last night, I had to chuckle to myself as I recounted the events of the day. Without any further reflection, it just seemed like another normal day. We read books, did school, washed clothes, and so forth. But then I got to thinking about my "normal" day and how there is really no such thing here:o)

The first inconvenience of the day acutally started in the middle of the night when Josh went to the bathroom and found that the cheap Chinese supply line to the sink had broken, leaking all over the goodies stored under the sink and out onto the floor. So the first order of business for the day was to rescue all under-sink bathroom paraphrenalia. Fortunately for me, one of the many vestigal remnants of our semi-vagrant lifestyle is that lots of stuff is still in ziplock bags, so not much got ruined. Every time Josh deals with a plumbing issue (almost daily), he first curses the inability of the Chinese to manufacture quality plumbing parts, then vents his frustration at Honduran hardware stores for not selling better quality parts, then vows to bring back a suitcase of such parts next time we're in the States. Same story, over and over again.

The next maintenance issue was light bulbs. The ones they sell here only last a few months, so all ours are burning out at once. The little pulperia (tiny store) across the road has been out for a several weeks. Our house is slowly getting darker as we shuffle our exisiting light bulbs around to the most critical locations. The resident shower mosquitoes, apparently emboldened by the darkness afforded by the burned out bulb there, have become voracious! But a candle helps. While I was getting ready to send Guildy and Grandma Linda over to the pulperia, I also realized that our extra toilet paper and paper towels, which had been stored under the kitchen sink, had also gotten completely soaked (see reference to cheap Chinese plumbing parts above). But the pulperia came through and had toilet paper! Always something to be thankful for!

Let's see, what else. In between maintenance issues, I have been pumping extra milk for (and praying for) a teeny tiny preemie in the hospital. See Dr. Abby's blog for updates on her, as well as one of the kids from the Children's Centre who has badly burned almost a week ago.

On the docket for today: put everything back under the bathroom sink, continue recovering from the horrible respiratory flu Josh and I have had the last week, pump more milk, and try to cook something interesting. We were laughing the other day about how I (and Guildy, too:o) are kind of like the regular rats in the the movie Ratitouie (I know that's not how it's spelled!!) who will eat any old trash and be perfectly happy, while Josh is like the main character rat who prefers to eat a little higher quality fare. So it has become one of my goals to attempt to cook tastier stuff for him. Recipe ideas anyone?

Awhile ago, I wrote down 1 Thess. 1:3, where Paul tells the Thessalonians that he was remembering without ceasing their "work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ." I keep thanking God for the guidance those three things give us. As I believe on Him for my salvation and labor at the things He has called me to do, all the while looking forward to his ultimate victory in my life and in the world, I have a context in which to frame the normal (or not so normal) everyday happenings of life.