Weekly Overview
This week was pretty normal. It was actually very nice!
Our regular schedule is Than going to school, Dreza homeschooling the with kids and our other weekly activities. All these occurred as they normally do.
This week did feel a little heavy leading up to the election on Tuesday. However, we had been praying that no matter the outcome it would be a decisive and peaceful election. We know lots of other people who had been praying the same thing - it seems our prayers were answered! (In a special episode we are going to discuss how we are processing the election. You can look for that in the next day or so.)
The notable exceptions for the week were Friday and Saturday.
Friday
When we visited Redding in 2022 one of our favorite memories was visiting Turtle Bay Exploration Park. Since we have been back in Redding the kids have been wanting to go again but we haven’t been able to make it work financially.
Thankfully we found out that we could check-out a pass from the local library. We just had to sign up on a waiting list. This last week we were notified that we were next on the list, which meant that we were going to get to take the kids!
Turtle Bay is a local non-profit museum and park in Redding. It has several parts to it including:
Animal shows and small zoo of regional animals
Natural science museums
Multiple art galleries
Playgrounds
A bird aviary
In fact, it has so many activities that it really hard to get through them all in a single day.
The art exhibit is constantly rotating, meaning there is something fresh each month. The last time we went one of the art exhibits was King Tut’s tomb, and very extensive. This time the art exhibit was showcasing of Alphonse Mucha and the art style Art Nouveau.
The kids were not as interested as we were, but it was still good exposure to new things. Sometimes it is important to let them experience things that they don’t care about so they can simply be exposed to new things.
What the kids (and Than) really liked was the Mindbender exhibit which was filled with large games and puzzles! It was very interactive and engaging. We could have probably spent several hours in that one room if we had the time.
Other fun exhibits were the local history museum centers, which included natural history of the region. They showcased the history of farming, logging and mining in the area. They also showed local wildlife species. While we were looking through the exhibits the staff brought in one of the beavers from the live animal show. The kids loved that!
After walking through the museum, we went outside to the playground and to explore more of the park before they closed at 4PM.
Than had a meeting on Friday late-morning and we got to the park later than we originally intended. We hadn't been in a couple of years and realized that we weren’t going to have time to see everything. Thankfully we have the pass for a whole week so Dreza is going to take the kids back over there next week! (We'll add pictures from that visit in next week’s newsletter).
In addition to playing on the playground we got to see a badger and also some local reptiles. These were housed near the playground, which is why we had enough time to see them.
As normally happens when we are out and about, Dreza got into a conversation with an older couple.
This happens to her everywhere she goes - the grocery store, parks, play-dates, trips to the post office, etc., It is really funny because she’ll be gone for way longer than anticipated and when she gets home it is almost always because someone struck up a conversation with her or she met a new friend.
In this case the couple were telling us about Redding, their lives here and some events to put on our calendar in the coming weeks. We’ll let you know about those as we do them.
We had to wrap things up around 4PM due to the museum/park closing. Friday is Than’s night to figure out dinner and as usually he hadn’t done that yet. He ended up picking up some frozen pizzas (this is his back-up when he forgets).
For our Friday movie night we watched The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe. It was really fun! When Than suggested it, Bethel was excited, Ezra was skeptical and Dreza thought it was too long. However, when it was over, everyone had a great time. We are probably going to watch the Prince Caspian film this week.
Saturday
For the last few weeks we have been wanting to visit Mount Shasta, an iconic landmark in this area of California. We’ve been talking about getting out an exploring and this seemed like a good weekend to do it.
There are countless things named after Mount Shasta: the county we live, multiple towns have “Shasta” as part of their name, one of the lakes is Lake Shasta, there is the Shasta Dam and the list goes on and on… Suffice it to say that it is a rather notable landmark!
From Redding it is about an hour away. Not to be confused with mountain itself, at the base of the mountain is the town of Mount Shasta. This was our true destination as we were not planning on hiking with Selah. Mount Shasta the town is a tourist destination in winter for skiing.
We woke up that morning and followed our normal routine. We slept in a little bit, let the kids watch some cartoons while we made breakfast and then we ate together as a family, which included prayer time and going through a list of what we are thankful for. Once we finished breakfast we loaded up the car and hit the road.
We have a good portion of our stuff in storage in Texas at the moment, including our winter weather clothes. We had planned on having those shipped to us but as we’ve mentioned previously, our financial situation has not worked out the way we planned. One of our concerns has been what to do as it gets colder.
Thankfully our Father in Heaven knows what we need! Just as it was starting to get cold we received some financial provision that allowed us to grab some winter stuff for the kids. This was a huge answer to prayer! (Way to go, God 🙌🏼!)
Keeping Rhythms
When things get difficult or challenging we depend on our rituals to help us keep our bearings. We have found this to be especially true in this season. Our family rhythms and the values we established for our family in the “easy” times have given us a framework that allows us to move forward in times that are uncertain.
For us this looks like breakfast as a family. This time includes each person telling the other family members something they are thankful for - this could be as simple as a toy or getting good sleep, or as deep as something that God has been showing them. Then we pray, each person tanking Our Father for the things we just listed, followed by dedicating our day to whatever He wants to do. We then eat while Than reads a Psalm and some other passage of scripture. This morning pattern is something we started 4 or 5 years ago and is just a normal part of what we do in the morning.
One of the great things about this morning ritual is that since it has become a regular part of our day, when life happens and things change, we can easily get back on track with it. For example, if we miss a couple of days because we wake up late or someone is sick, we all know that this is the normal pattern and we jump back into it next time.
We all have patterns and rhythms, the real question is whether we recognize it or not. Do we check our phone during boredom? Do we read to our kids before they go to bed? Do we pray with our kids? What are the rituals that we follow and easily revert to?
We are finding that the value of our established patterns, values and rituals are most evident in seasons where things are uncertain. We honestly don’t know where we would be as a family if we didn’t have these moorings in our family life.
Having these patterns is also helpful for determining what opportunities we can pursue. At some point some of our rituals will need to adapt as our children grow, but we are trying to be careful not to sacrifice things that we know have lasting value for things that have temporary value. Our focus is always on ensuring that we are not straying too far from what we want our family to be about - and our family rhythms are what keep us moored to what we truly value.
Closing Thoughts
Life is really amazing. It is incredible that we exist. The fact that we get to experience life with all of its amazing adventures, challenges and pleasures is quite astonishing.
It is easy to become focused on how to make it in this world. We are constantly told that we need to be striving, building, growing, developing, increasing, etc., But to what end? What are we working for?
There are seasons in life where you realize how fragile life is, how unable we are to make things happen. Sure, we can force our will upon the world around us, and many people do, but at a certain point one has to ask, “Why?” and “What are we building for?”
During this season of life we have felt the pressure of not knowing what is going to happen, and we are learning the freedom of simply living life in the day-to-day providence and provision of Our Father. We know that this is just a season, but as we’ve talked about it neither of us want to leave this season prematurely - we are learning so much! We are learning things about ourselves, things that need to die so we can become who God created us to be.
Our Father brings us into places where we have to wait on Him and trust Him. These “Wilderness” seasons are where He intentionally shows us sorting about His character that changes our relationship with Him. The question is whether we are going to trust Him.
What has been great for us is that we are seeing places in our hearts that don’t trust Him and what/who we have been trusting instead. It is not “fun” in the traditional sense of the word, but it is really good! Discovering lies you’ve been accidentally believing is little frustrating, but it turns out that He’s seen them all along and He has brought us to this place at this time to deal with them! That’s pretty awesome.
A common theme for us has been the idea being child-like - how do we do that?
Well, for us, it has really meant letting go of some deeply held beliefs about being able to provide for ourselves or caring if we look foolish (this is a big one for Than). Slowly, but surely, Our Father has been removing away little things here and there; and we are seeing the fruit!
It turns out that Our Father doesn’t worry or stress about how He is going to take care of us. We are learning to do the same.
Thanks for reading!
Blessings!
With Love,
ThanDreza & Family
