The Good in a Drought

Since my kids were very little I've always told them to see the good in a situation. If you lost a race, you may have still had a personal best time. If you didn't get the part you wanted in a show, it may be because you were better suited for another part that would allow you to "steal the show" night after night. If you made a bad grade on a test it may have inspired you to work a little harder so you made a better grade in the long run. If someone was mad at you, it may have resulted in personal changes that made you a better person. Ages ago when they were little, and their problems were much littler as well, I started preaching this philosophy to them. At eighteen JB came home with a tattoo - it said "bonum vide" which he says means "see the good" in Latin. Since I have never studied Latin I have no way to know for sure, but I think it was his way of trying to make me okay with the fact that he had gotten a tattoo. (I really didn't care one way or the other - it's his body, not mine.) The sentiment is a part of life in our house. It was required training as far as I was concerned. I'm not always perfect at doing it myself, but I try...and so do the kids.

I'm not sure how long it has been since we had any measurable rain, but I know that things are dying all around us. Our house is shifting so that many of the doors won't close. Fires are cropping up along highways. And to add insult to injury the temperatures have been over 100 for weeks it seems. Any water that we put on the plants during the day evaporates before it gets a chance to soak into the ground. As a result, a good part of our yard is dead. Some places we have dirt; some places we have dead grass, but very few places are the lush green yard we've had in the past. I've done a pretty good job of seeing the good in the high temperatures - I don't like the cold, and if this is what it takes to have a warm winter, I can deal. The humidity hasn't been high, so it hasn't felt as hot as it could have. Some places are less crowded because the wimpy people won't come outside, so I don't have to deal with a bunch of people. It's been a little harder for me to see the good in the drought, BUT this morning I found something!! When the grass is dead and gone you can find the dog poop much easier! Poop scooping was the easiest it's ever been. There was no Easter egg hunt going on. No finding it when I stepping in it because it was hidden by tall green grass. I just stood and looked around and lo and behold there was all the doggie doo. Now it's in the trash.

I'm glad I was able to see the good!

Ch-ch-changes

My how time has passed. Spring and summer have flown by without a word in this blog. There's no point trying to "catch up" because I know I'll leave out something important. JB is in his own apartment (that we'll be paying for, but still...). DA and DB are now upper classmen (or will be in another week and a half). John has started a new job. Our lives continue to be filled with changes. I'm still at the same job, teaching the same thing, sweeping the same floors, feeding the same pets (with some additions), washing the same clothes. On the outside I don't seem to have changed like the rest of the family. On the inside, I feel like I'm a totally different person than I was a year ago - or even 6 months ago. In some ways I'm much more uptight. For the first time EVER I find myself being concerned about having enough money to cover our expenses. I don't have the faith I once had. I feel kind of lost and insecure. I don't feel the least bit entertaining or witty. I just don't feel like my usual sassy self. I don't like this new feeling. It's uncomfortable. But a friend I used to work with once told me that sometimes God puts glass in your rut to get you to move out of it. Glass is uncomfortable!!  Is that what's happening to me now? If it is, what am I supposed to be doing? Do I keep doing what I'm doing now and add something new? Or do I dump all this and totally start over? I'm trying to look within and find some answers. I'll let you know if I find any. In the mean time, I'll try to update more often with the goings on of our kinda crazy family.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoEYXEz94Io