Posts
The purpose of this blog is mainly to advocate for the
orphan, it is not my style to do that by constantly railing on things that are
broken and need to be fixed or wrong and need to be made right. Though there is certainly a place for that, I
find that many people will wake up and do something about the needs that exist
all around them by bringing to light those things that they take for
granted. That is the purpose of today’s
post.
Gone to the Big Apple
My wife and daughter have been away in New York City for
about a month now. Okay, four days. Four days with just me and the boys. And when Mom’s away, the guys will play. Oh yeah!
When Loretta – along with her mother and aunt – left on
Friday to take Ashton on her senior trip to the Big Apple, she didn’t seem too
worried about our being able to take care of ourselves. That was unusual, but I had taken a couple of
days off, and Loretta seemed to be content that I could handle it.
She didn’t remind me of things over and over again or hand
me the dreaded list. She just told me we
were out of stamps and asked me to mail a couple of letters. I had to check on driver education for Garrett and take Ashton's car to the shop. That's all. No list.
She didn’t cook and freeze a bunch of food and give us
instructions on how to prepare it. She
knew there was a lot of deer meat in the freezer from Garrett’s first kill last
year, meat that needed to be eaten by anyone else but her. As a matter of fact, she just let me know
where she had left an envelope of cash in case we needed any groceries and that
was it. Sweet!
She didn’t tell me to get the boys in bed by a particular
time or remind me when to get them up for church or remind me of anywhere they
had to be. This was going to be a good
long weekend.
So How’d We Do?
Well, I had the letters mailed by noon on Friday – and
that’s after the boys and I spent some quality time at Holiday Deli. Well, actually, I wrote Friday’s blog post (great place to blog),
Garrett enjoyed their super-fast wifi, and Drew doctored his coffee to try to
get it right. School was checked on, and Ashton's car was in the shop, to be repaired and home by that afternoon.
The food has been outstanding, if I do say so myself. I’m not usually one to post photos of my food
– mostly because I rarely cook – but here are a few of my culinary
masterpieces. Oh, and there was the
spaghetti from Friday night that somehow escaped being digitally captured, but
it was gooood!
 |
| Deer steak, rice, peas, cajun cheese toast -- a well-balanced, delicious meal. |
 |
| Crock pot deer roast, potatoes, and carrots -- filling and nutritious but could have used a bit more salt. |
 |
| Bacon!!! Okay, I confess that the biscuits came from KFC. |
My friend Jerry had the audacity to question our survival capabilities Sunday morning at church (where we all arrived on time). He asked how we had been making it with the girls gone, and I pulled out my phone to show him the photo of the steak dinner from Friday night. He immediately responded, "Wow! Who invited y'all over to eat?!?" Ouch. No, Jerry, we are doing just fine.
Actually, we were doing better than fine. There have been a couple of projects that I have been meaning to do, but I haven't had time. With a couple of days off and both boys home to help, though, we have cleaned out and weeded the flower beds, made an additional raised bed for the garden, gotten the back of the place weedeaten, and even cleaned out the garage.
But then...
I have written on a number of occasions (See links below.) about God's design for children in a family -- a mom and a dad who are married to each other and raising their children by the principles that the Lord has given us -- and the fallout when anything less than that becomes a reality. It's always harder when there is just one parent raising children and exponentially harder when both parents are disengaged or not present for whatever reason.
During this last month (er, four days), I have actually been getting a crash course in Wife Appreciation 101. A couple of those days, the boys just almost refused to get along; nothing seemed to work, but at least by bedtime, they were spending the night in one another's rooms. I'm not sure how trainable they are about picking up after themselves, either, but it's not because I haven't tried.
I have done well about not watching too much TV. Not so much because I am so self-disciplined but because I don't have time -- too many dishes to wash after supper. And picking up after the stupid dog who is trying to chew up everything in sight.
But I was keeping up okay, holding my own. Then, yesterday afternoon, as I was cooking supper (while Garrett went to Wal-Mart for grits and to KFC for biscuits), it occurred to me that I had not checked the mail in three days. That opened up a whole new avenue of what Loretta does -- paying bills mostly on time -- that I take for granted.
I felt pretty good about remembering the mail. Then -- seemingly out of the blue -- another thought struck me: "Oh crap, the little fella has baseball camp tomorrow morning!" (Sorry for the crude language, but that's how I thought it.) I could have easily forgotten, and it certainly wasn't on Drew's radar either. I'm writing now as he is enjoying camp, having been successfully transported to and checked in by Garrett and me. I can be pretty hard on Loretta for all the stuff she forgets, but I'm beginning to understand . . .
I haven't even touched washing clothes, vacuuming, cleaning the filthy back door (Dog digs, then presses nose on door, wanting in -- repeatedly.), preparing a grocery list yet, or chores like that yet. And those are just the things I can think of. There's no telling how many chores that need to be done that haven't even come to mind yet.
I know one thing: I'm glad Loretta is getting home tonight. A month in New York is enough!
(Disclaimer: I love my wife for much more than just what she does around the house -- she's awesome! And I'm glad she got to go and have a great time, letting others do the cooking and cleaning for a few days.)
Thanks for reading. Show your appreciation today for something you normally take for granted. There are many more than you would imagine in this world who don't even have one person to care for them. Appreciation for what you have is a step toward those who don't.
4theVoiceless,
Al
Other similar posts:
No comments:
Post a Comment