Friday, September 3, 2010

Routine Maintenance

Some days I am drawn to this blog, my mind brimming over with thoughts and feelings that are spilling over each other to get out and other days I sit myself down because it is a duty and stare blankly at a similar screen.  Today is one of the "other" days.  So, I open my planner to peruse my calendar of the week past, hoping that will induce some memory or emotion.  Not much of interest there, but that is what I have to work with.

Monday, I did book a beach house for family vacation.  I got a great deal, but it will still a significant amount of money that I had to put down and they had a no reservation cancellation--no refund policy.  It took me a year to save and I am no shopper.  I hate spending money and purchases that don't offer a trap door put me into a mild panic, but I got through that day with relatively little scarring.

Tuesday, Fred and I stood in a line that stretched out of the fire department building and around the block to vote on a city bond.  It was quite amazing and felt good to live in a community where so many people feel that obligation to make their voice count.  It was one of those 100 degree days and most of the waiting was in the sun, but I didn't see anyone give up and leave and didn't hear any complaining.

Wednesday morning I spent 5 hours working on finances after an emergency air conditioner repair on our home and finally got everything all wrapped up into a nice little package, when Fred came home with the news of a $300 bill on a routine pre-vacation car checkup. It wasn't a happy day.  I felt like I had wasted my whole day "saving" the budget for nothing.  Fred continually reminds me that it is precisely for that reason that things continually work out but I get tired of saving just to maintain.  "Sometimes I just want it to stay saved!  You know, for a little bit?  I feel like the maid, I just cleaned up this mess!  Can we keep it clean for...for ten minutes!"  In the same breath, I know we are blessed significantly, continually.  I have to stop and remind myself to be grateful for our abundance because maintenance can be blinding.

Wednesday, Sophie went to the dentist to have a tiny cavity filled.  She was nervous about the experience, but our local dentist was so generous about sharing his knowledge and explaining to both Sophie and Lily every instrument that he was using and what they were for.  Lily has been terrified of doctors (she's generally over anxious and immunizations with uncompassionate nurses have left their emotional marks). I was so grateful to the dentist for his "bedside manner" and helping both of the twins to feel at ease.  We've been going into Meridian for years, but it was just getting to be too much traveling. I'm glad to have made the switch.

Wednesday evening, after mutual, my children came close to wrapping up movie shooting for a script they have been working on all summer.  They have put so much time, effort and even money into it, and there has been a lot of stress involved.  They are very creative and I will be interested to see the final results and glad when it is all over and I have my children back.

Thursday was grocery shopping day with Jordan and Mikayla and then school supply shopping with the rest of the family minus Fred who was at Scouts.  Jordan hit the nail on the head as we finished through the check stand and he said, "that was exhausting!"  We had to laugh when we turned on the car and Delilah (a sappy radio deejay) was advertising the heartwarming, traditional family experience of school supply shopping at Walmart.  I'm pretty sure that she was either talking about through the eyes of a child or one of us is delusional and it isn't me:)

Friday morning Fred asked me on a date before he left for work and then called me in the middle of the day to ask if I wanted to have a picnic in the park and feed the ducks.  He came home and prepared and packed all of the food and we had a perfect evening in the park, eating near a young man who was practicing classical pieces on his violin (dinner and a show), talking of Jane Austin and writing books and aspirations and then finished, sitting on a bench under a weeping willow, feeding the ducks leftover tortillas.  It was relaxing and romantic and a needful end to a long, monotonous week.

Saturday we cleaned then made our monthly crusade to the library, where checkout takes 20 minutes because 8 people coming together after an hour of perusing the shelves, produces mass amounts of media that have to be walked through single file through magnetic detectors and have to be re-magnetized more than a few times.  We love our libraries!  We're generally good patrons, so I think our librarians love us but we do cause some moments of stress and chaos, I'm afraid.

And here we are, back to Sunday morning and I have frittered away an hour, writing nonsense that isn't even interesting to me, but the deed is done and I can make a check mark in my planner... and that's important:)

--
Posted By Bloomers to KEEPING UP WITH THE JONESES at 8/08/2010 10:27:00 AM

No comments:

Post a Comment

All comments are moderated on this blog which may mean a brief intermission before the comment shows up on the page.