A Light in the Dark

What's Going On Around Here?

I may have mentioned this before, but I'm in the middle of writing a book. Not a "real" book to be published traditionally, but an ebook. Its title is Verses of Comfort, and it's a devotional and Bible study for grieving hearts. The cause of the grief is irrelevant - some of us grieve a death, but others grieve a job loss, a scary medical diagnosis, a lifestyle change, or even a faraway disaster or crime - because grieving is universal. Everyone grieves differently, but everyone suffers emotional wounds.

So that's partly why I haven't been writing as much here.

The other reason is that there's too much going on in my head right now. We've had all the things I mentioned recently - job loss (two!), deaths (four!), lifestyle changes (see aforementioned job losses), a scary medical diagnosis, and an uncertain future. It's been an emotionally tumultuous time, arriving on the heels of a year of emotional tumult and grief.

Plus, I've been working like crazy so we can eat and pay our mortgage. Between writing my book, working, homeschooling, and sleeping, I don't even shower all that much.

My pastor said this past Sunday that Satan only torments those who are doing God's work.

I found comfort in that statement because I am doing God's work. I've prayed and prayed and prayed some more. I've searched my heart, and I've listened to His answers. I know what I'm supposed to be doing, and I'm doing it.

I am a light in the darkness.

Let your light shine before others, that they might see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. – Matthew 5:16

The Story of the Photo

We, like seven million other people on the east coast, lost power in a big ice storm a few weeks ago. We were personally without power for over 15 hours but - fortunately - it came on just before we went to bed. We didn't have to have a slumber party in the basement next to the wood stove, and Joe didn't have to set an alarm to check the fire every couple of hours.

I was grateful for our wood stove, primitive but capable of keeping our home warm on a very cold day, and grateful for the plethora of multi-scented candles that gave me a screaming headache but kept us out of total darkness. I was grateful for safe driving conditions so that we could go to a restaurant in the afternoon for a hot meal and bright lights and grateful for our car battery which allowed us to charge our iPhones and iPads on the way there.

I was grateful that Grace and I had read every book Laura Ingalls Wilder ever wrote and grateful that I lived without a lot of luxuries when I was a kid. I was grateful when our cellular service was restored (it was out most of the day) and grateful to have Old Grandma for fire advice.

I snapped this photo of Allie, sitting in the dark, illuminated by the iPad, in the middle of our power outage. The verse above made me think of it, so I included it with this post.

A Few Other Minor Changes

I have been doing a LOT of work behind the scenes at Feels Like Home. You may have noticed some rearranging of the site's layout, some glitches in the mobile site, and maybe even some outages. I'm hoping that's all behind us now!

I am in the middle of switching email providers, however, so you may get a post twice or may miss a post some time in the coming week. Sorry in advance if that happens.

The other thing that is happening in the next two weeks is my weekly newsletter. It will come out every Tuesday afternoon and feature current content, timely content from the archives, and whatever else I think you might like. If you're currently reading through an RSS service (like BlogLovin' or Feedly), you may want to subscribe by email so that you don't miss out on that.