Lockdown 87

Lockdown Day 87 - 21 June 2020

For Father's Day we decided to support a local restaurant and order their FD Box. What a lovely surprise it was, with homemade lamb pie (stuffed to the brim), herb rice and oven roasted veg, some fresh strawberries and a skewer of chicken nuggets. Plus a decadent fresh as you can get chocolate brownie topped with crunchy caramel popcorn. All in true Koekela style! Thanks Gabrielle! Koekela scores 2 and the van Stadens are out from enjoying the feast (the other one goes to the fabulous New York Baked Cheesecake I got for Mom day)! 

Gluttony and fabulous families aside, I want to tell you about my ladder. Friday a problem arose with one of our newly cleaned lights. So my ladder had to do its job once again. Later, when I passed the ladder, it hit me: this ladder was bought many moons ago when we lived in Bloemfontein. Before we had kids. I remember choosing one I can carry easily enough for the many paint projects I had in mind for our newly acquired family home. 

This ladder has seen red cupboards and blue bathrooms, a yellow kitchen and children's rooms come alive, the kaleidoscope of blotches a silent witness of years of paint stories. One project I have etched into my memory was my kitchen in Namibia, where we lived for just over 6 years. 

We built a house on a nature estate and I decided to create a personal touch in my kitchen by painting it myself with a type of paint called Worn Leather with precisely that texture. The colour was Mountain Boot, a dirty kind of dove blue. And the job had to be done in one go to prevent blotches. My blue kitchen became our get together place where we had many glorious times together. 

Just as well worn mountain boots, my ladder has become the storyteller of our life together. A testimonial of how God has fearfully and wonderfully woven us together (Psalm 139:14). He mapped out our life for us, all we had to do was walk in the boots He gave us. 

Little did we know where He would take us, let alone back to where our lives together as a family began. As Corrie ten Boom said, “Don’t bother to give God instructions, just report for duty.” And that is my joyful commitment: to go where He wants me and do as He says, because He knows all and has got this future ahead of us in His hands.