Grocery shopping dates

Self-Portrait of Sam

Summer is here and that means taking all the kids grocery shopping.  Jon is now old enough to stay at home and watch the other kids, but he likes to come grocery shopping with me, so we all pile in the car with list, calculator and reusable bags in hand.  Jon and Eme have their assignments, telling us what we need on the list and the other adding the prices up so we can stay within budget.  Sam gets to walk around with us asking for particular items that look good to eat or that have Spider-man on them and he usually hears his name being said in varying tones of frustration or warnings or "over this way, Sam", about 50 times throughout the store.  Warnings, not because he will be in time-out, but because he is about to run into someone's cart or a display because he is not looking where he is going.  Despite my initial frustrations on having to go to the store with all of them, it has turned out to be quite an enjoyable date time with all of them.

I have fallen in love with Pinterest, it has saved my sanity.  I love all of the ideas I can save for doing later, all the helpful hints and ideas, but I especially love all the hair tutorials.  I can do them now and they don't cost anything, just some time and patience.  Today I tried the double side buns.  It was really really really easy. It doesn't look as good as the picture on Pinterest, but at I was happy with the results.

I had the best dream last night

I was at an old house where people were dropping off their old items that they didn't want anymore and I could just look through all of the stuff and pick out whatever I wanted for free.  It was fantastic.  I found a cute little round metal table that was painted blue and had a scalloped edge and it folded up for easy storage.  A set of red metal salt and pepper shakers that had little white flowers painted on them.  A wooden box with letters printed on the side and a beautiful but very large white rocking chair that had a blue cushion on it, it would go perfectly on our new large porch, because for some reason in my dream we were moving to a new place that had a wonderful front porch perfect for sitting on.  The rocking chair was big enough for me and the kids to sit on. I woke up happy.  I like old things and I like free things.  I even slept past my wake up time just so that I find more beautiful things.

This is Grandma Ruth's garden glider that I inherited.  (Perfect...Old and Free) The original color I believe was yellow, then my sister painted it a garden green and then when it came to live at my house, I painted it this color green.  I love when the orange day lilies start to bloom and they give this little corner of the garden a nice pop of color.

A view from my window

I love the sunlight that comes in through the dining room window as it reaches just above the line of the  mountains.  The view I see of the neighbors home across the street, with their broken vinyl fence, and I think she must be looking out her window across the street at her neighbors home and their broken vinyl fence.

Even When Your Humility is Humiliated

I have had so many complaints about life recently and in the last year that I think this blog needs to be renamed for the time being "Castle on the Corner of Complaints".

The water heater breaks, the air conditioning on the van breaks, the door on the van breaks, the sprinklers break, the garage door breaks, the clutch breaks, the fence breaks, the roof breaks, the awning breaks, the washing machine breaks, the heater at Christmas time breaks, (just to name a few) and my heart breaks for the life we used to live.  I loved that life and I was looking forward to the future and enjoying the present.  Having a husband become unemployed and going back to school for a few years surely was not part of that life I desired.  But it became so.

I have done more than my fair share of complaining, I just think, "why can't Heavenly Father make things just a little easier on us?" Why can't He make going to church easy and enjoyable? Why can't He just make my son a little less ornery and whiny? Why can't He protect everything from breaking when I know He knows we would have to use up what savings we have to get those things fixed?  Why can't He make it easier for me to see and talk to old friends and be around large groups of people who are happy?  And  then I realized right then when my humility was being humiliated that I had not been asking for help with any of those things.  My Heavenly Father knows what I need and want and He loves me so much that He gave me a gentle reminder to ask for them.  With all these things breaking, He reminds me that we have them, that we have a beautiful home and cars that get us to the places we need to go and that taking a cold shower helps us not be so hot while driving in the van.

It might take me some time to quit complaining, but He has given me the tools, such as prayer and scripture study to help me be grateful and enjoy the hard work I need to do during this time.  Prayer and patience is key to making it through.  I have hope and faith that our family will be blessed with a good job and with the enjoyment that comes with being around good friends, family, neighbors, and church members.  And I know we will have lots and lots of lessons learned.  And my son is already less ornery, which makes me less ornery, which I am oh so grateful for, cause I like the happy side of me.  So even when your humility is humiliated remember that you can turn to the Lord in prayer, He understands and will answer your prayers in ways you can't even imagine.