Words of Wisdom – Have you ever struggled with being patient?

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One of the toughest things in life is to practice patience when going through a struggle. How do you learn to endure…? Prayer. 

Waiting upon the Lord

Oh Lord, I am impatient

As humans tend to be;

 

I want my solace now;

I want to be carefree.

 

One hundred times today alone

I’ve passed my load to you,

But then I pick it up again

As humans often do.

So Lord, this time when I shift the load

And you take it up for me,

Please help me wait with faith

Until a solution comes from Thee. 

Author Unknown

Muffins with Mom – The value of a jar of spaghetti sauce



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My teen son was away one day last week working with my brother. On his way back home, he called me with one request. “Ma, can you make spaghetti for dinner.”

The request was not difficult.  However when I checked the cabinets, I didn’t have any spaghetti sauce, nor enough ingredients to make homemade sauce. Since Granny was driving him home, I told my son to ask her to stop by the store for a jar of spaghetti sauce. This would save me time and I could get the food started.

My son’s first question was, “Are you going to pay me back if I spend my money?”

“It shouldn’t cost more than a few dollars,” I said.

“Yeah, but you don’t know how hard I worked.”

“Hmmm, I think I know a little about hard work, but just get the sauce and we’ll figure things out later, I said.

Before the situation of the spaghetti sauce arose, I’d told my son that he would have to give me $10 of his hard earned money. This would be a partial repayment (at a much depreciated value) for a small bathroom cabinet he sat on and broke. My son’s agreement to this arrangement was a low grunt, “mmm.”

After a yummy dinner of spaghetti, garlic toast and tossed salad, I asked my son for my $10.

“Oh, I have to get change.”

His belly was full and I guess he thought my mind was so full that I would forget about the money he owed me. “Ok, we’ll stop by a store tomorrow and you can get change.”

The next day we stopped at a store for snacks and my son was able to get the money he planned to give me. When we got back in the car he handed me $7.00.

“Where’s the rest of my money?” I asked.

“I kept the $3.00 as payment for the spaghetti sauce.”

“That wasn’t what I planned, but ok.”

I later told my son that I was planning to take the $10 he would give me and put it into a bank account for him. I didn’t have to have the money repaid, but I wanted to be accountable for breaking the cabinet.

Since my son only gave me $7.00, that’s all that would be deposited into his account. And that may not make it into his account if I decide to buy lunch. If that happens, my son would have lost $10 on a $3 jar of spaghetti sauce.

There is a moral to today’s blog post…don’ try to outsmart your parents, it could be costly.

What lesson has your child learned lately?

 

 

Fun Friday – Uncovering humor in odd situations

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Do you have a friend who seems to always attract odd happenings? This happens frequently when I’m out somewhere with my mother.

While out shopping at a local department store, a woman approached my mother and I. She asked, “Can I tell you ladies a joke?” My mother and I paused a moment.  I looked around to see if were on some hidden camera show. Then I thought maybe were the millionth customer and at the end of the joke confetti would fall from the ceiling and we would be awarded a prize.

Being the friendly people that we are, mom and I listened to the woman. When she finished her joke, I gave a little chuckle. I looked over at my mother and she was laughing hard. The joke was not that funny, mom’s laughter was a bit extreme, but I guess she didn’t want to woman to feel odd for randomly stopping us. Hmmm.

 

Yard Work

 

Let me start by saying I’m a fan of the children’s book, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff. The premise of the story is that when you give someone something they will want something else. And that’s exactly what happened when my mom’s young neighbor asked to do yard work for her.

My mother told the young guy he could rake leaves for her and he was ecstatic. Once he was done raking leaves, he asked my mother for something to drink. She gave him something to drink, then the neighbor asked if my mom could drop him off across town.

In this situation the proverbial mouse wanted a cookie, a glass of milk, a piece of cheese and anything else he could get.

Keeping down body odor

 

It’s always a good feeling being clean, but I think my teen son has taken being clean to a new level. Every time I ventured out to the store my son said he needed deodorant. A few times I purchased deodorant as my son asked.

 I went into my son’s room recently to open up the windows for spring cleaning and discovered his stash of deodorant. He didn’t need new deodorant every time he asked for it. In fact, he already had 5 or 6, maybe even 10.

After this discovery, I told my son, “You should not have armpit odor for months. There’s no excuse.”

In what odd places have you found humor lately?