Mowing...

I mowed tonight. Wow. You'd think that my love for vacuuming would naturally spill over to lawn mowing. After all, it's the same sort of idea...pushing a machine over whatever's underfoot, and making it look prettier than before and leaving nice, happy, straight lines behind as a reward to me for my efforts. But, no. I'm exhausted. Maybe it would have been better if our mower was a Super Lite 10-pound Bagless Hoover. It's not. It's the 25 dollar, push-yer-heart-out, picked-it-up-at-a-yard-sale YEARS ago model. I'm pretty sure it weighs 85 pounds. When I finished my little square huffing and puffing, Richard took over and was practically jogging with the thing whipping it around this and that like it was nothing. Hmph. He told me later that while he appreciated my efforts, I was a bit slow. Apparently I used up about a full tank of gas and an entire HOUR mowing 12 square feet. I'm thinking he'll never ask me to do that again. Hee Hee!

The phone...

If I want my kids to turn on the 200 decibel pinball machine game, all I have to do...
... is get on the phone

If I want my kids to start fighting, all I have to do...
... is get on the phone

If I want my kids to scream and cry with sudden hunger pangs, all I have to do...
... is get on the phone

If I want my kids to have an intense urge to immediately watch the Wiggles, all I have to do...
... is get on the phone

If I actually want to talk to my mom, my friends, the insurance salesman, the gal who wants to give me a free vacation in Aruba, all I have to do is...
... knock my children out first...and THEN get on the phone!

Shopping...

I love it when Richard does the shopping for the family. I love that he can go after work and that I don't have to haul three preschoolers to Wal-Mart on a regular basis. If you've never tried that yourself, I double dog dare you to do it at least once and not lose your mind. Even my kids who are generally well behaved have this natural instinct to want to ride in the cart, no, get down, no, ride in the cart, no, get down....oh, what's that over there? Mom, can we get this? What about this? What about this? WAIT! Where's your brother? RRRIIIICCHHHIIEEE????? Get back over here.......right now! Invariably, at least one of them will become ravishingly hungry or nearly die of thirst because I refuse to open the fruit snacks in the cart or let them chug the juice we just pulled off of the shelf. So, yes, I do love it when Richard goes to Wal-Mart for me.....

.....however, when I turn over the shopping duties, I also have to turn over control of what actually makes it into our cupboard after shopping. I do send him with a very specific list, but what he brings back is just a little....well....Richard-ized. For example, the bananas. I normally go for a medium sized, slightly green bunch which are the perfect size for eating and will last a few days. Richard, however pays no attention to the color...only the size. I honestly think he competes with himself to see if he can possibly find the LARGEST bananas in town to bring home. This last time I swear the bananas were 12 inches long! I love a daily banana, but I'm so sorry...I cannot eat one that big. Who can??

Then, there's the branding. You know, there are just some things for which an off-brand will not suffice. For example, if I put "Oreos" on the list, please do not come home with Sam's brand Twist-n-Shouts. Now, there's nothing wrong with Sam's brand anything. But an Oreo is an Oreo and only an Oreo can really be an Oreo. So, when we we ask for Oreos, please bring Oreos. :)

Richard also has two or three items stuck in his brain that he ALWAYS buys regardless of whether or not they're on the list. One of them is milk. And, that usually works out because we use a lot of milk. We also use a lot of toilet paper, but every time he goes to the store, he brings home a 48-roll package. We don't use THAT much! I think we currently have 225 rolls of paper in our already crowded laundry room. Pretty soon, I'll have to start using it to decorate!

But, not to complain. Mostly he does a great job. And, the extra toilet paper and twist-n-shouts are much easier to deal with than chasing my loony toddlers around the 5 acre Super Wal-Mart!

Weekend update...

Well, Richard returned yesterday from five days of Jr. High (aka: 6.8) youth camp. It was his first experience ever with any sort of camp. He said he really enjoyed it and I do believe him (inspite of the 300 10-12 year olds!). He has amazing patience and is so much fun, so I'm sure he had a great time with the kids. I'm just finishing up all of his laundry. Evidently "mud mountain" is real and no, I never want to go there.

While he was away, the kids and I went to see Nana and Poppy in Poplar Bluff. After days of hearing Richie pray to Jesus about playing "golf on the Wii at Poppy's house," his greatest dreams were realized as he spent about 12 hours swinging his controller in the air violently and lobbing virtual golf balls back and forth over the green.

One other thing that happened is a neat story of God watching out for His kids. About a year ago, our business had a client who (long story short) ended up owing us some money. (Actually, it was a lot of money.) This client had an office for which he had purchased some very nice furnishings. As part of the settle up with him, we were to receive our choice of several pieces of the furniture. However, due to this person owing other people a fair amount of money as well (including the landlord and the bank), we never received what he had committed to us in order to settle his debt. It was difficult for Richard and I to walk away from that situation, but we had left all of this behind us months ago.....

......Well.....on Saturday, Dad asked Mom and me to run up to a repo auction where they were selling some furniture. He wanted Mom to see if there was anything there that she wanted for her house. When we got there, we realized that all of the furniture they were selling was the furniture from the office of our former client. The bank was selling it off. Sooo.....long story short (again), we ended up with two of the pieces that we had originally really wanted and my parents got two as well! Of course, we did pay for them, but only a small fraction of what they had been purchased for. It just spoke to me of how God always watches out for us and how even when we have let things go long ago....our just God remembers and will return to his children what is rightfully theirs. He may do it only in heaven in some cases, but sometimes he does it here on earth and....man....what a blessing!

p.s. What's really amazing is that I have not been home to P.B. since CHRISTMAS! It's the longest time away from home in my lifetime. What were the chances that I happened to be in Poplar Bluff on the weekend of this auction AND that my Dad just happened to want to go after seeing a random ad in the paper AND that I went with mom up there on an other wise full day. It's so unlikely that I would have been at that auction that I know Someone else was orchestrating the whole thing. Amazing.

Nostalgia...

Sometimes I get nostalgic over things that I've never actually experienced. For example, I think a lot about getting back to the "good ol' days," having a house with a great big front porch where we sit rocking and drinking lemonade at dusk with friends and family--the 100 year old trees anchored in the yard, branches shading the dirt and gravel driveway. You've all seen this scene in movies. I think about how peaceful it would be to have a bed on the front porch and sleep out there on summer evenings. Silliness. Because, in all reality, the folks that did those sorts of things years ago probably did so out of necessity. It was probably hot as blazes in the second story and they went outside to get a little relief from their non-air-conditioned house.

A teacher at our church reflected the other day about how "the back deck has replaced the front porch" and it got me thinking about what we DO have. I've never had a big front porch, but we do have a pretty nice back deck. On these recent Spring evenings, you can find our bunch out there quite a bit. Eating ice cream cones at dusk, playing tee ball in the yard, inspecting our recently planted flowers for new buds, listening to the bamboo windchimes, looking for stars, tracking airplanes in the sky, watching the sun set just over the tops of the trees to the West all with the cheerful voices of our babies echoing into the night sky. So, I think it's time that maybe I pack away the wishes for the "good ol' days" of front porch rocking and lemonade and I start embracing and investing in what will be our family memories long after these days are gone.