When all else fails… 

With the recent addition of a new puppy to our home I thought i puppy-proofed the house quite well. Until she slipped through a tiny hole and found herself trapped in the living room. Well with no where else to go, surely finding some new toys in a basket was the right thing to do! Not so much. I spent two hours untangling yarn, and my husband three. Insert grumpy face.   Sure wish that I could–

—read the manual!

When raising young toddlers I particularly remember shortly after my second daughter was born. The first one seemed to climb on everything. She was always on the counter or table when the time came to nurse the baby.  Later my mother told me the story of her sister putting the chairs upside down on the table so her third child could not climb on anything.  She did this so frequently apparently the neighbor thought she was always mopping the floor.  I remember thinking gravely, sure wish I would have–

—Asked my mother!

• While the children were preschoolers we owned a fixer up house. One of the fixer-up projects was the roof. My husband thought that he could do the sweat equity himself.  Until after a few hours up on the two and a half story building! The tune changed when his stomach couldn’t handle the height anymore. Doesn’t help matters when cleaning the old shingles, one has to watch them slide and fall so far.  Needless to say we are glad that when it came to replacing the shingles we had the “cents” to —

–Hire it done!

In all the years of our house owning and the years of visits to relatives, my husband performed many repairs to the waterways in those houses.  From his daughters about  snaking toilets, to replacing washers on the kitchen faucet, it’s pretty great to have such a handyman husband. And the good part is that I think he’s handsome besides being handy.  However the Christmas morning we were at my mother’s and the sewage pipes decided to flood the sleeping quarters in the basement, we were very blessed to have the “presents” of mind to–

–Call the plumber!

What to do when you need a cup of sugar?  In the old days you would run next door and then have to take over a plate of cookies within a week to repay the favor. Today everyone just runs to the store. I think the borrowing idea was better.  Perhaps our lives would be richer if there were less convenient stores and when we needed another egg we would just–

—Find a neighbor 

I live with a family that won’t even take a pain pill for a headache.  Not sure why they are so stubborn, but then I’m kind of a whimp at pain. They all have such a high pain tolerance. There are so many stories I could tell of pushing through the health issues without medical help.  My husband was one of those guys that wouldn’t go out for sports because he wasn’t  going in for the physical. I am glad to say that after years when I had to go to the doctor all the time for either my ITP or having children, he has finally gotten over his fears. Insurance requires the physical thing and after having had West Nile Virus twelve years ago he isn’t so afraid to–

–Go to the doctor!

Not many of us have this next luxury.  The children’s book about not getting out of bed is one of my favorites. Anyone who suffers from migraines can tell you that usually the only remedy for this one is to simply —

–Go back to bed!

Here’s another one that has lost its potency. Today’s world is full of GPS navigators. Everyone has developed so much fear of strangers, it’s like they might be an alligator or something. But we still tell people when they turn south onto Greenfield at the cemetery to look for the tall tree hanging over the road on the east side and that’s our place. I once had a relative drive right on by commenting to a co pilot about the tall tree before remembering my directions. I saw the tail lights turn red just past the acreage. They turned around and were pretty glad they had–

-asked for directions!

Last night I checked the weather before going to sleep. I do this so that I know how early to get up.  The outdoor chores are much too taxing if it is really hot. The alarm got set and rudely chirped it’s greeting at six something.  It was followed by a more pleasant good morning from my hubby-honey as he told me the radar readings and what he had already done with my puppy-Honey.  At approximately an hour later with a break in the rain, my puppy-in-training and I headed outdoors to do her thing. The sky seemed light enough for that under-eighty-degrees walk I had anticipated, so off we trotted.  However by the time we reached the mile marker south of the place the thunder begun to rumble again. Needless to say Honey was much stronger than I imagined as soon as a lightening cracked, she bolted for home.  We ran the rest of the “walk” and we were sure glad as we dashed into protection from the next downpour we felt the good sense to–

–Turn around!

In my life I  experienced friendship failures, body organ failures, memory lapses, mineral deficiency, my parents divorce, church splits, eyesight loss, and other trauma and tragedy. Life is full of last straw moments. People are human and they err often breaking our hearts.  Throughout these experiences I found one perfect love that never changes. Scripture says no one can know the height or depth or breadth or width of God’s true love for us. I am so glad that even in my human frustration at what failures God has gifted me with, His love through Christ Jesus remains pure and faultless. This is the string of hope God sews into my thread  of rope life experiences and reminds me  when all else fails–

— Jesus never does!