Hello, you five delightful people curious enough to click on this post who don’t know Afrikaans! We are probably a lot alike and should hang out more often. I’ve mentioned before that I’m often asking Hero Hubs how to say something in Afrikaans and I’m also picking up words along the roadside. (Because news is posted with English and Afrikaans headlines along the roads in South Africa, I can quite literally pick up the language on the side of the road.)

I digress.

The delightful phrase which conveniently titled this post for me is Afrikaans for “Why are you tired?” And that last word — moeg — means tired, and sounds kind of like mooh, with a thick helping of “hhhhuh” on that ‘h’ sound at the end. Maybe I should’ve recorded Hero Hubs saying it for you, but I’m too moeg to be bothered.

It is such a good word for tired, and just sounds more tired than the English tired, or the Spanish tengo sueño, which literally translated means “I have sleepy” and just doesn’t sound as tired as moeg. And I love a good word.

All that to say, I’m about to create a sentence that has perhaps never been created before: Y’all, I am moeg.

Hoekom is jy moeg, Caroline?, you ask? {Well done for using your new vocab!}

Well, we’ve been driving all over these beautiful Carolinas over the past few days, and I am so moeg as to be shattered, my Scottish friends might say.

We drove the five hour schlep to Charlotte for a meeting on Friday and drove back to Eastern North Carolina (stopping off briefly to visit a friend in Durham) on Saturday. Most of Saturday’s driving, almost the entire time from Charlotte to the Original Washington included lots of this:

Which is pretty to look at, but stressful to drive in!

And after returning from the ton of driving that the past two days held, we were off to Kinston bright and early this Sunday morning, another hour’s drive each way, to visit a church and share for a few minutes.

And I have thus been made truly moeg, with all the adventures of the past couple of days.

But in case you’re getting moeg of a post that seems full of complaint, there’s Good News!

Good News Part One: Remember how I’ll be thirty weeks preggers when I’m a bridesmaid in about two weeks? Well, the bride and I found a great, and suitable, pregger bridesmaid’s dress for the occasion while we were in Charlotte, and I am very thankful. I was getting a little nervous, ya know.

Part Two of the Good News: We gathered for church this morning, and sang to the Lord and talked about His goodness, and about the glorious revelation of Christ, even in that First Noel to Shepherds in the field, and I was reminded of the Very Good News. Despite our circumstances, whether we are worried or scared, in pain or stressed, or even just plain tired, God is still on the throne. He is so great and so worthy, so deserving of honour and praise. He is sovereign and in control. And He is so good. And all this means that

Part Three of my Good News is that there is grace for an occasionally grumpy, occasionally overwhelmed pregnant lady who might be so baie (very) moeg that she’s easily discouraged by things not going according to plan or by the discomfort around her S.I. Joint (pregnancy thing) or by the darling little Bear who suddenly thinks every minor disappointment is just cause for gently but dramatically throwing himself on the floor in silent protest.

The God of the Universe who neither tires nor grows weary loves me even when I feel like a struggling straggler, and even when in my tired discouragement I make mistakes.

And that is Good, Good News. Like the Shepherds in the field, I’ve found myself low, but thankfully the First Noel has been followed by many more, and I’ve found the humility to say Grace, I need You. And in that place, I find contentment easier to come by, hope closer to home, and I’m even surprised by joy.

So moeg or not moeg, I’m thankful to get back to enjoying the joy of this season, the joy of my surroundings, and I’m going to sign off this post to enjoy the joy of one darling little Bear, playing with his toys on the floor with his G.C. When you think about Who’s on the throne, thankfulness is not hard to find.

xCC