So Scott and I both woke up this morning feeling a little grouchy due to lack of sleep. (Ashley is 15 months now, so we should be getting sleep sometime in the next 15 years, right??) We decided it was time to clean the cushions on the couch, since it's been a while and they were starting to get pretty dingy.
I don't know if you've ever cleaned upholstery, but it's pretty hard work. I'm exhausted now that it's done, and Scott did 90% of the hard labor. We have a large sectional couch, so there was a LOT to be done. Even with the upholstery cleaner thingy (technical term- I promise...) that Scott has, it was still very labor-intensive.
As we were working together, Scott commented that even though he doesn't like cleaning the couch, doing the work with me was lifting his mood. I realized that I felt the same way.
This taught me two things. 1) Working hard doesn't have to be work, especially if you do it with someone. You can make just about any task a good experience if you choose to. (Also, this was just as bonding as a traditional date like going to dinner. Time together doesn't have to be fancy.)
2) Work is a good thing. A lot of times, we spend so much time scurrying to get things done that we miss out on the experiences we could be having. Physical labor has inherent mood-lifting effects due to hormones that are released, etc. You will always have a better mood after doing physical labor if you keep a positive attitude about it. Also, the sense of accomplishment from the work has very good mood-lifting effects.
It's important to let ourselves rest. It's also important not to overbook ourselves and cause ourselves stress. But it's also important not to focus so much on leisure that we become lazy. Laziness causes depression.
Just a thought. :)
Thursday, November 24, 2016
Tuesday, February 9, 2016
The Blanket
So it's been a while since I posted anything. I had a baby, and didn't post during most of my pregnancy. She's now 6 months old and a little less intensive care-wise so maybe I'll post more often now. (It isn't her fault I haven't posted, but I'm using her as an excuse anyway...)
This weekend I had an experience that made me really want to start posting again. You hear on the news or in places like Reader's Digest about kind strangers helping out, but I'd never actually experienced it before. This weekend I did.
I took my three girls up to my mom's this past weekend. It's winter up there. We live in St. George, which is Southern Utah, and winter here means almost chilly rather than cold. As a result, my girls didn't have the greatest cold-weather attire. My bigger girls made do. The baby spent a lot of time wrapped up in a blanket if we weren't inside.
On the drive home (a four and a half hour drive usually), Ashley (the baby) was DONE being in the car seat. She cried for an hour or so before we hit the park we usually stop at in Fillmore. At this park, I pulled her out of the car seat and made a bottle, thinking maybe she was hungry. Well, it was only about 16 degrees in Fillmore. I got the big girls in their coats, but didn't have much for the baby. I put her on a blanket on the seat of the car, changed her diaper, and then rushed all three girls into the convenient store to get out of the cold while the baby ate her bottle.
In my flurry of excitement trying to get everyone inside and out of the cold, I left the blanket on the seat of the van. I didn't go back for it because we were only 20 steps away from being inside anyway. While I walked around the store with my girls (feeding the baby, which was NOT easy because she's big and wiggly), a lady walked up to me and asked if I had a blanket for the baby. She told me she had one if I needed it.
This flustered me because I realized how it must look that I had this baby in a onesie and no blanket. I told her that I had one, but that the baby had just made a mess out of it. (I am really not sure why I added this little fib on the end. Like I said, I was flustered and guess just momentarily needed a response beyond 'it's in the van and I'm an idiot.') She told me she had a clean one, and again I told her I didn't need it.
Just before we left the store to go back to the van and get on the road home, a young boy about ten came up to me with a blanket. He told me his grandma had told him to give it to me. I thanked him and asked him to thank his grandmother. (Poor kid was really embarrassed, but what a good grandma to let him take part in that charitable giving.) I wrapped Ashley up in the blanket and we went to the van.
It was a NICE blanket, and much better than the one I had easy access to in the van. I wrapped her up in it for the remainder of the drive home.
I was really grateful to this woman who had seen a need and filled it, despite being told no thank you. No, we didn't need it like it looked like we needed it. But she saw a need and filled it. I will always think back on this experience with fondness. There is a lot of evil in the world today. Watch the news and you can't miss it. But what doesn't make the news is that there is SO MUCH good in the world. This woman intended to give me a blanket, but she gave me a much bigger gift in addition to the blanket- renewed faith in mankind. I think most people out there are good people trying to do what's right and help people. This experience proved me right, and I am so glad to have experienced it.
Sometimes we need to fill apparent needs even if the intended recipient doesn't ask for it. You never know who you might help- even if it isn't in the way you intended it. Just a thought.
This weekend I had an experience that made me really want to start posting again. You hear on the news or in places like Reader's Digest about kind strangers helping out, but I'd never actually experienced it before. This weekend I did.
I took my three girls up to my mom's this past weekend. It's winter up there. We live in St. George, which is Southern Utah, and winter here means almost chilly rather than cold. As a result, my girls didn't have the greatest cold-weather attire. My bigger girls made do. The baby spent a lot of time wrapped up in a blanket if we weren't inside.
On the drive home (a four and a half hour drive usually), Ashley (the baby) was DONE being in the car seat. She cried for an hour or so before we hit the park we usually stop at in Fillmore. At this park, I pulled her out of the car seat and made a bottle, thinking maybe she was hungry. Well, it was only about 16 degrees in Fillmore. I got the big girls in their coats, but didn't have much for the baby. I put her on a blanket on the seat of the car, changed her diaper, and then rushed all three girls into the convenient store to get out of the cold while the baby ate her bottle.
In my flurry of excitement trying to get everyone inside and out of the cold, I left the blanket on the seat of the van. I didn't go back for it because we were only 20 steps away from being inside anyway. While I walked around the store with my girls (feeding the baby, which was NOT easy because she's big and wiggly), a lady walked up to me and asked if I had a blanket for the baby. She told me she had one if I needed it.
This flustered me because I realized how it must look that I had this baby in a onesie and no blanket. I told her that I had one, but that the baby had just made a mess out of it. (I am really not sure why I added this little fib on the end. Like I said, I was flustered and guess just momentarily needed a response beyond 'it's in the van and I'm an idiot.') She told me she had a clean one, and again I told her I didn't need it.
Just before we left the store to go back to the van and get on the road home, a young boy about ten came up to me with a blanket. He told me his grandma had told him to give it to me. I thanked him and asked him to thank his grandmother. (Poor kid was really embarrassed, but what a good grandma to let him take part in that charitable giving.) I wrapped Ashley up in the blanket and we went to the van.
It was a NICE blanket, and much better than the one I had easy access to in the van. I wrapped her up in it for the remainder of the drive home.
I was really grateful to this woman who had seen a need and filled it, despite being told no thank you. No, we didn't need it like it looked like we needed it. But she saw a need and filled it. I will always think back on this experience with fondness. There is a lot of evil in the world today. Watch the news and you can't miss it. But what doesn't make the news is that there is SO MUCH good in the world. This woman intended to give me a blanket, but she gave me a much bigger gift in addition to the blanket- renewed faith in mankind. I think most people out there are good people trying to do what's right and help people. This experience proved me right, and I am so glad to have experienced it.
Sometimes we need to fill apparent needs even if the intended recipient doesn't ask for it. You never know who you might help- even if it isn't in the way you intended it. Just a thought.
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