We went to a church today that we were invited to a couple of weeks back but had not quite made it yet.  It was an interesting service and while there were things I disagreed with, there was some I agreed with.  We are not going to find a church around here that fulfills 100% of our beliefs which is why we make the trek to St. Louis once a month or so.  Until then, we search and visit and make friends and remind the children that not everyone believes the same, and that's ok.  Just because we don't believe like they do or they don't believe like we do, it doesn't mean we can't become friends. 

Thomas Jefferson has been quoted as saying "I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend."  By the same token, we should never refuse a friendship simply because of a difference of belief either.

Last night, it got very cold.  We were huddled under sleeping bags and comforters and working at keeping the stove going.  We decided that we are going to set up the other wood burner and use it during the night.  The stove has to be fed every couple of hours.  The wood burner has a much larger fire box and should only have to be fed once during the night.  So, we will fire it up in the evening from coals out of the wood stove and get it going to keep us warm during the night (and keep a 40 quart stock pot on it to keep hot water handy for oatmeal for breakfast) and then transfer hot coals from it to the wood stove in the morning to cook breakfast, make coffee, and keep it going during the day.  This will make life a lot easier since we will be able to sleep and when either Husband or I get up to go potty, we can just toss a log or two in the burner rather than getting up constantly and getting no sleep.  And, keeping the stove going during the day (much easier since we are up anyway) means keeping a constant supply of hot coffee.  And hot water for tea, cocoa, etc.

In talking with people, I am amazed at how many families around here started out as we did.  Let's see....  The homeschool family that lives on this peninsula has lived here for close to three years and still has to run a generator if they want electricity.  They have three children.  The oldest being Bethany's age.  There is another family who just moved here a few months ago and have two children ages 6 and 3 and they are going to go through winter in a camper.  Bethany's spinning teacher and her husband live in a camper full time.  They had no electricity or running water for months when they first moved here.  I could go on and on.  What is completely and totally strange, bizarre, fascinating, scary, brave, or any other of a number of descriptors used to describe our life is pretty normal and average around here.  I mention something (like our roof being open and it getting cold on us) and I get a "I remember when...."  It makes me smile.