It Has been too long! It is all in the perspective!

So, the reason it has been so long since I have blogged is that we have been in transition since May of this year. We were losing our house due to my husband being out of work for over a year. Then he started to build us a new house on our farm land and it seemed that time and time again he was thwarted in his efforts. He almost cut is finger off. Then he pulled 2 vertebrae in his back out. Finally that healed only to have him fall off a ladder and shatter his elbow resulting in his having to have surgery on it and now not have use of it. Because the bone was shattered, they removed it and just used tendons and ligaments to hold the bones in place. He can lift about 2 lbs. with that arm and that is all.
However, we were blessed that the house was finished enough for us to move into! And by finished I mean that there were walls and floors and a roof.
We moved in with no flooring, i.e. only the sub-floor is in. We have no running water as the well filled up and has yet to be finished. The solar panels arrived late and incomplete so the only electricity we have is through a generator that we have on for most of the day, but it runs on gas so that is expensive. We had only 1 toilet when we moved in, now we have 3, but we still have to fill the tanks by hand to flush them.
Water to drink and wash with are carried in by hand, we are blessed enough to have a kind neighbor 3 miles down the road who lets us get water from him.
James got the roofing on a couple of weeks ago because there was a storm coming. We were blessed to not have the storm hit us. However while we were away for Thanksgiving with family it rained hard for a day, and the roof leaked. We came home to large puddles on our floors. And quite a bit of the drywall in the ceilings being ruined.
We were blessed though, the water didn't land on anything important. No beds were wet, and none of our electronics were destroyed. We were truly blessed!
The next day James went out and bought us a wood burning stove. Did i mention we have had no heat? And that it has been getting down to freezing at night. I have been having to bundle up the children as warm as possible. But now we have a wood burning stove and it is keeping us at about 65 degrees in the house.
You know, it is all about perspective! For as much as i feel we are living much like people did 100 years ago, we are truly blessed! I have 4 beautiful children that are healthy and happy. I have a wonderful husband who works himself to death to provide for us. I have a Heavenly Father that has watched over us every step of the way and provided for us even when it has looked like we would have nothing.
Trust me there are moments when i feel like i might just stress out and die, but then i think about how much we have been blessed and i become truly grateful for what we have been given.
This season, my prayer is that you will see all that the Lord has done for you in your life and appreciate His hand in all things. I know that i probably cannot even comprehend all the other things that the Lord has done for me and does for me on a daily basis. However for the things i can see, i am truly grateful!
Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah!