House Projects

This past week found both Mr. T. and me working on home improvement projects. It just happened we were thousands of miles apart.

Mr. T. was on a mission trip to Jamaica where he helped build roofs and bathrooms and other such necessary additions onto homes. I was here with the girls and my parents working on improved hallway closet doors, patching some damaged sheetrock, painting stars on a certain Miss Mouse's wall, and cleaning old caulking out of a moldy, mildewy seal in a tub/shower unit. All of my projects seemed incredibly necessary to me until I realized what Mr. T. was working on. That's not to say the projects my parents and I worked on were frivolous; they weren't. But they also weren't necessary to our safety and functionality as a family. I'm thankful that we really don't have any projects of that nature. More perspective (see last post).

At one point during the week, I had to stop by a furniture store where we bought our dining room table and chair set last May. The chairs I (and my aunt) had refinished several years ago were showing their age (and showing the fact that they had been stored in a damp basement for 40+ years before finding a home at my house) and were breaking, being patched, and breaking again. I'm currently using the beautiful table that we also refinished as a plant stand to keep plants out of the delicate mouth of Baby Mouse, but for day-to-day dining, we felt we could use something a bit more sturdy than the chairs we had.

Anyway, as part of the great sale price on our table and chairs, I signed up for a "grocery rebate program": buy X amount of groceries at our store, send in the slips each month, get a gift card in return, use that gift card, and deposit the extra money from my budget back into my savings account - voila, in a short (?) 24 months, I've saved an additional $600 on the table.

Yeah, except that the first company that ran the rebate program went under before I could even start, and the second company now went under, after I sent in receipts from Sept-Dec, before I got any gift cards. Sooooo, the furniture store itself is running the program now, and I'm set to begin yet again in February. I could have taken the $200 in store credit, but go figure, I'm going for the full amount even though it involves some tedious receipt-collecting. In attempting to talk me out of the rebate program, the manager pointed out that "only a 1/3 of people actually follow through on it anyway; most just give up." I smiled and would have liked to point out he was talking to one of the 30%.

The point of this story comes as I was walking out of the store, noticing all the sofas and loveseats on sale. They had some good sales, and I've saved up some money. Hmmmm.....but as I touched one of the sofas, all I could see were news reports of people in Haiti who don't have homes, food, or clean water, people who are desperately searching for their spouses, their parents, their children. Suddenly a new sofa seemed so incredibly superfluous. I'm not sure that we won't get one, though I'm betting there are some other house projects on which I can spend my savings, but I echo the sentiments of this post in that I would rather buy ten recliners and send them to women in Haiti who have nowhere right now to rock their babies.

A couple months ago there was a news report on the local news about a contractor who built a show house specifically designed with women in mind. The idea was that it incorporated things to make a woman's life easier. That's great and honorable. A person could tour the house for a fee, which was probably even donated to charity or something, and look at all the things she didn't have in her own home, I suppose. The news interviewed a woman who had just completed the tour and was really excited about the home. She said "Finally, contractors are beginning to realize that for women, things like dual sinks in the bathroom are just necessities!" I've been thinking a lot about that these past few weeks. My in-laws have dual sinks in their master bathroom, and I think it's a great idea. Very functional. I bet on a lot of mornings, they really appreciate it. But I'm fairly positive they wouldn't use the word necessity to describe that feature.

The other day Miss Mouse looked at the lists of Fancy Nancy books which are on the back jackets of the two she has. She said "We do not have Fancy Nancy and the Posh Puppy. We will ask Auntie Stephie, and she will get them for us.". And so it begins. As I struggle myself with what is necessary, what is right for purchase, I begin explaining that fine line to a tot. In light of my own eye for a new loveseat, I've been thinking about what are the necessities in life. Mr. T. helped some people get some of the necessities in life this past week - A bathroom really is somewhat of a necessity on a house, even a 240 sq. ft. house. A roof - probably also a necessity. New closet doors - not so much a necessity, but I'm really appreciating them. Another Fancy Nancy book - probably not a necessity, but it will be appreciated (I happen to know it is coming).

Perhaps that is the best place to start in thinking about my own purchases and in teaching the Mice: appreciation of what we have. To be followed closely by lessons on what most of the world does not.

Perspective

I complain often. I complain a lot. Mainly, this is because I worry. I worry a lot. This past week, however, watching the nightly national news, sometimes turning it off in deference to an extremely sensitive Miss Mouse who thinks "the kids must need some bandaids", the fears and concerns I focus much of my time on were put in perspective.

*I worry about what to feed the girls. Today in the grocery store on a quiet shopping trip with only the eldest Mouse, I agonized in the baby food aisle about whether or not to buy the Gerber corn-veggie-sticks (or something like that). There is an ingredient on them that I suspect masks an msg-type additive. I despise those types of additives and get worried about the girls consuming them.....but I don't have to worry about whether or not my little Mice will eat tonight.

*I wonder and worry about how long to nurse Baby Mouse, how to wean, when to wean, whether to let her lead things, whether I'm going to go insane nursing still at night and losing sleep, whether I'd be up anyway with a then-inconsolable Baby Mouse.....but I don't have to worry about having clean water to drink and food to eat so that I continue having a milk supply.

*I worry about college funds, not being able to put away as much as we are advised to do (or put away period?), the availability of scholarships, the pressure on the girls to perform well to get those scholarships, the loans they'd have to take out, the loans we'd have to co-sign.....but I don't ever have to worry about whether or not my girls will even be able to learn to read, write, spell, add, etc.

*I worry about the girls getting cavities (I have none, so I do worry)......but I don't have to worry that they will get diseases from the water used to brush their teeth.

*I worry that the girls won't be on the right sports teams, in the right clubs in town, taking lessons from the right people to go "far enough" in life and that maybe they'll someday resent that we didn't structure our family and our values differently to make that happen for them.......but I don't have to worry about where they will sleep at night.

*I worry and get irritated when our electricity goes off for five hours at a time (twice this happened in the past week)......but I don't have to worry about whether or not it will actually ever come back on.

*I worry about more serious things, too, but it's wasted time, by and large, because usually nothing fruitful comes of the worry. I have some plans and dreams for activities that could help others who actually do have to worry about some of the things I listed, but those ideas came not from worry as much as concerned thought and prayer.

At one point this week I asked Mr. T. if it wasn't ridiculous to be so incredibly bothered by the situation in Haiti (and that was just the tip-of-the-iceberg of 'bothering' for me....it led me to be upset about so many sad, scary situations in the world); his response was that perhaps I was bothered enough to figure out how to do something about it. I think he was right, and I hope his way of thinking is true for many others than me. Maybe when we see poverty, pain, and terror in such clarity, in such real-time focus, maybe it is then that we are truly "bothered enough to do something". With two Toddler Mice, I won't be running off on any on-site mission trips in the near future, but I think there are plenty of things to be done right in our own backyard (clue #1). Oh, and I bought those silly veggie-kid-sticks for the Baby Mouse.....but she won't be eating them often. :)

On Becoming a Criminal

The Mice have driven me to a life of crime. If perhaps not a life of it, at least a recent crime spree. You see, in our city, it is actually, truly illegal, to the best of my knowledge, to leave a car running in a parking lot, even if the car is locked. Recent highs of -10 degrees coupled with two small Mice to come along on grocery runs have led me to rethink the ethics of breaking this law. Previously, I had not even broken that such law! Yes, I'm quite the goody-two-shoes. Apart from the occasional speed limit breakage, which wasn't even all that impressive after high school, I can't remember ever breaking a law intentionally. Well, it has happened twice now that I have been at the grocery store and have been absolutely unable to allow myself to bring Miss Mouse and Baby Mouse out to a freezing cold ice box for the trip home. Soooo.....running car it is. Thank you, Grandpa Bob, for getting the automatic opener put on our vehicle!!! Without that, I wouldn't dare break this law! I've had one car set on fire already in my life; I don't need to deal with a stolen vehicle! Even leaving it running locked is a risk, which is why it is illegal and is cautioned against repeatedly by our police department, but the likelihood of frostbitten baby fingers seems to trump the likelihood, or long-term severity, of a stolen vehicle. Baby Mouse is forced to wear mittens, but she is an escape artist and is out of them by the time I leave the driveway or parking lot it seems. As she is still facing backward, there's not a whole lot I can do about it...other than to, of course, continue my crime spree. Please don't turn me in.

Officially a Madhouse

We officially have two toddlers at our house now! Watch out world! New Year's Eve, Baby Mouse took her first, timid, little step toward me. By this Wednesday, one week later, she began walking across our kitchen. Now, if you've seen our kitchen, you'll agree with Mr. T. that "walking across our kitchen, a toddler does not make". However, now she's walking across the living room, down the hall, across her bedroom, the list could go on and does truly make a toddler! Her toddling days have begun earlier than the toddling of Miss Mouse. Miss Mouse took that first, tentative step at 11 months, 3 weeks; Baby Mouse was 10 months, 2 weeks. Ah, the benefits of having a big sister to emulate and chase! Baby Mouse still, of course, resorts to crawling at the speed of light when she is in the mood for a good game of "chase the baby down the hall" or when she is trying to evade one of us, but it's so exciting to see her moving in a vertical position, learning to explore her world from an entirely different angle!

Oh, the fun we have!

*I had wanted to post some hilarious pictures I've taken of Baby Mouse recently, but our computer virus trouble has wiped out the ability to put pictures on the computer....stupid machine.