Impromptu Shopping Trip

I’m cheap. (Correction, I suffer sticker shock quite frequently). Not exactly the best way to classify oneself but its true none the less. I don’t like to spend extra money if I don’t need to. Obviously, there are times when quality equals a pricier tag but even then I’m on the hunt for the best deal.

All season long I’ve been eyeing some new clothing to freshen up an aging wardrobe but I just can’t stand spending a lot on clothes. If I can spend less than $10 on any given piece I’m thrilled. Seriously. I’d never make it in Hollywood or NYC. Its not that I don’t like to look stylish (that matters to me to a degree) but there’s always something else to spend hard earned cash on more than a reflection in the mirror.

So Thursday evening when my daughter and I headed into town on a grocery run we ended up spending about three hours looking at clothes as well. Rack after rack of winters leftovers were priced at 50% off the clearance. That’s right folks. The moment I’d been waiting for had arrived. Unfortunately the cart was already full of groceries so a little panic set in when calculating how much extra this might cost. At about 9pm I gave my husband a call…”how much do I have for groceries?” The response was a careful “why, where are you?” That answer is still making me laugh a little. In my minds eye I envisioned a wild night in Vegas or something…AS IF. Ya..no worries. I’m grocery shopping with our daughter finding some good deals. I’ve not gone rogue or anything.

Nothing I piled into the dressing room with me would cost over $6 each. Long sleeve tees, hoodies, a sweater, casual flannel, a dress, leggings…you name it. Even the tall brown boots I’d been eyeing for two months were down to a low $12.50. The most expensive items we came home with were Reebok hiking shoes costing only $15 a pair. We each bought one. Might I add- there were only two pairs and they just happened to be in our sizes.

I include our spending habits in my prayer time. Asking God to stretch our dollars and bless all that He has given us us something that is important to me. He cares. Not that spending the full $40 on that sweater back in October would have been wrong at all- I just like spending the $5 knowing that the other $35 is free to go somewhere else.

My daughter and I had the best time. Armed with her late evening Starbucks run we laughed at the ugliest things we saw, groaned when we found something we loved two sizes too small, and gave each other high fives at the discovery of two matching pair of shoes in our sizes. We will have to write our names inside of them like school children to tell them apart. I’m a little delighted that she’d even consider owning the same pair of shoes as her ‘mom’..and be seen in them at the same time!

Our biggest laughs came when I realized I had ice cream in the cart. Oh oops. Back into the freezer it had to go. We did that twice. (Giggle giggle).

In all of our giddy high roller spending I neglected to check one important thing: I brought home two right boots. Those cute brown tall boots may have only cost $12.50 but I don’t have two right feet so back they had to go the next morning. Fortunately there was one good matching pair left in my size. Apparently someone else had already bought the two lefts or I would have just switched one out. With any luck they’ll figure it out sooner than later too and run back to customer service where a box containing two rights remains.

Clearance buyer beware, but may you have as much fun as we did.

A right and a left boot!

Snow Day?

A bit of Language we’re working on today..

Well, we’ve made it through two full weeks of school since the New Year. I feel so privileged to be a mom able to stay home with two of our boys to oversee their education. Though, as many teachers could testify, there are days that will test ones ability to remain patient, kind, loving, or for that matter…civil in any sense of the word. Since I endeavor to teach our kids these things as well as hard facts in books having two weeks of trying days has put me to the test. 

After a Christmas break full of activities, sugar in excess, and new things to play with it has been so hard to get back in a routine. I spend at least thirty minutes each morning encouraging the brain activity of a third grader. Its like priming a very slow pump on a cold morning. Not to make it sound like he is not bright, he is just going in every direction except toward his stack of books and pencils. 

Today has begun this way. Again. It is now going on eleven am-with only one subject two pages in length today to show for it. While it sounds like I am complaining I truly am not. It’s just been hard to re-engage. A freedom in homeschooling is that when I see that something isn’t  working we can unplug, breathe, then begin afresh. There aren’t multiple students to keep up with. On days like today I’m thankful that we have the freedom to stop everything for a look at the falling snow. He also doesn’t realize the entire county has a snow day today while he does not. Its too yucky out to play in it anyway so why tell him? I’ll give him a perfectly beautiful day to play instead….because I can. Our year should be finished in May this way- when all of the frogs, birds, and a yard full of muddy grass reappear. These are things an 8 year old boy thrive on. Besides, we are taking Monday for a field trip outing. Henry Ford Museum offers free admission in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. day and its a great place to visit. We will wander aisles of history that thoughtful people have preserved for our future. I get to be a parent chaperone and a teacher at the same time. Its a pretty cool thing to be able to show my son the theater seat Abraham Lincoln was sitting in when assassinated. Rather than words in black and white history is alive in full color. I see it in his eyes. 

When brain waves appear to be unmoving on a day like today I have peace knowing God made us each to learn in different ways at different rates. We are not ahead or behind. Hopefully we are learning in ways in which he will remember things far into his future rather than forgetting them the moment they’re scratched on a paper. 

Happy Snow Day everyone. We will be catching up with you later!

No Resolutions. just purpose.

Sitting here in the quiet (well, as quiet as it ever gets around here) my mind wandered to the New Year only hours away. The guys had set out for the last hunting hurrah before the curtain fell on 2017 yesterday afternoon so I had a few moments on my hands to think.

Ever since I was old enough to ponder time I’ve looked at New Years with a skeptical eye. That fact shows my true colors as I hesitate to look at 365 calendar spaces with peace. They are blanks. Unknown by anyone but God Himself and as I struggle to relinquish control over the year I remind myself He has each one of them filled. Not only filled, but laid out in an orderly organized fashion. Because I don’t know what those spaces are filled with a sense of panic starts to arise until I tell myself the truth: I’m not in control anyway. There will be good as well as bad. There will be things that catch us off guard and still more things that seem to not change.

2017 was a test for me in many ways….especially the last quarter. Yet in retrospect I see Gods hand guiding me all the way. On several occasions He even gave me prior warning for things that were about to happen. That “Still Small Voice” we read of actually exists, but could be easily missed or disregarded. I did that on a few occasions too…realizing too late I’d missed what God had tried to tell me. The yellow flashing light turned brilliant red as I plowed right on through with life.

As I contemplate 2018 my heart cries out for pause….not a pause of rest but a pause of purposeful contemplation not unlike that of a soldier before marching out to battle. The world continues to spin in its perpetual violence but Matthew 11:12 tells me that the Kingdom of Heaven advances forcefully too, and that it will be by pressing in that we know Him better. Only by listening to our marching orders and following them will we know how to proceed through this year.

The word purpose repeats in my head. A year of purpose. As I talked to God I said “every year has purpose…so what does that mean???” I think, for me at least., it means to attack each day (violently- meaning ‘with tenacity’ -if necessary) with purpose… Like that soldier who is thinking strategy. If our adversary, the devil, attacks with specific intent how can I expect to move forward in any way letting his attacks just advance- with me always on the defensive line. This is no New Years resolution..I feel an intensity about it. Like this is vitally important. No more can I, or the church at large, just sit on its hind end thinking its spreading a good word without ever even taking up its swords. Do “Christians” even read their Bibles anymore? Do they know what it says? Or better yet…Do what it says? I say this not in condemnation, but with urgency. The heat is increasing out there and I want to be able to take it.

I learn best by visuals. God made me so He knows this! As we turned that midnight page this morning we wrapped things up to head to bed. Happy New Year! Upon letting the dogs out for a final time I saw them run and begin to bark. Too late I heard the yips of coyotes too close and panic rose. Thankfully the dogs responded to the sound of a bag of treats and came running back, but not before I saw unfriendly shadows retreating from the corner of our pasture as well. They were only a momentary blip in the bright full moon…but suddenly I was aware we were not alone. We had an enemy who had just moments before been very close to home. With the dogs safe inside I alerted my husband who went out to take a look. He was met with silence. All was now well. Or was it??? Minutes passed and when our son realized what was going on he went back out for another look. A pair of coyotes had doubled back. They were making their way closer once again…the enemy wasn’t giving up- but we almost had tucked in for the night. Thankfully our son had grabbed his gun so with the snows’ clear reflection of the moon a clean shot shot was made to one of the large approaching males. He received a fatal blow and sent a warning to any others: we mean business. That picture completed my thoughts for this upcoming year. We have to be on alert. We must mean business. In the spiritual realm the stakes are higher than ever as our enemy senses time drawing shorter and he gets increasingly desperate. This sounds dark and complex…but recall we had a moon to highlight the danger. God doesn’t leave us in the dark. There are hints, signs, warnings we need only to take heed to. On purpose.

Image of the super moon over Detroit