My Crazy Day

I have had an inordinate amount of trouble with Astound as my cable, internet and phone carrier. After much deliberation and discussion, we made an apprehensive switch to Comcast. The Comcast man came over today and spent over two hours at my house working on something that I am pretty certain, should've taken about twenty minutes. But, he seemed inept. Very nice, but inept. And, of course, when someone spends that kind of time in my house, my day is thrown off, at least a little bit. Before he got here, I was reading my Bible to Judah. This is a habit I've gotten into because it's Mark's desire that I read to him daily. And the Comcast guy came in the middle of my reading, so I thought about stopping, because how strange it would sound to him, that I was not only reading to an oblivious six-month-old, but that I was reading a gruesome Old Testament story about David getting revenge on the men who ransacked Ziklag. And I was slightly sheepish, but that didn't stop me.

FINALLY, the Comcast guy finished and my mom (left) called. She wanted to go to the new Winco in Pittsburg, because it was a grand opening with some crazy prices. So, I agreed, but said I had to be back in time to walk with my friends, Brenda (below, left-left), Amanda (below, right-middle) and Megan around the Lafayette Reservoir.

On the way to Winco, my mother, who is infamously talented at bartering, finagling, and sticking it to the man, called Comcast for me. I know I am 28 years old and should be doing things like this for myself. But I need my mommy, still. So, while she was on the phone with them, winning me a $70 credit, I was trying to follow the map to Winco. Mapquest had given us poor directions. We got turned around, and finally resorted to calling our ATT information line, arriving at Winco twenty minutes later than our ETA.

The grocery store was packed full of people and bargains. These were my mom's stomping grounds! She was pulling items off the shelves and quoting prices at me like the Micro Machines commercial man. It was such a flurry of activity that I was on sensory overload. After loading up the carts, and heading toward the checkouts, I noticed Judah was soaked through his pants. I handed off my credit card and cart to my mom and raced outside to change him in the car.

Once at the car, I discovered, that we had somehow forgotten the diaper bag. Judah was beginning to cry and I knew he had soaked his clothes, far too much for me to leave him like that on our ride home. I improvised, using facial wipes from my purse. I wrapped a blanket around him and walked back into the store. I remember my mom had carried the diaper bag out to the car, but what happened to it, was a mystery to me.

When I got back in the store, my groceries were just being rung up at the checkstand. And as Judah began squirming free of his makeshift loin-covering, I walked over to my mom and explained to her that I had a naked child veiled by an excessively thin and inadequate infant blanket. She did her best to stand in front of us, while I adjusted his "outfit." Moments later, she informed me that we would not soon be leaving, because one of the reasons Winco was so cheap, was that the customers were required to bag their own groceries.

With Judah perched happily on my waning left arm, I began to pack groceries with my right hand. Once or twice, in my childhood, I played with my mom's canned goods, packing them into paper bags, pretending to be a grocery clerk. But today's experience was far less fun, and much more chaotic. My mom, feeling the pressure to get me home quickly, started hurling the groceries into the bags- mixing bread with bags of fruit, and boxes of cake mix with cold chicken. These are major bagging faux pas, but we didn't have time to consider the possible consequences.

After bagging up the groceries, which was no small task, we raced out, Judah still hanging onto my left arm, trying as hard as he could to expose himself. I was pushing my heavy cart with my right hand, smashing into the sidewalk, and barely missing a head-on with a pale-faced patron. But I made it to the car, unloaded in record time, shoved Judah in his carseat, bum and all, and drove home. We pulled into the driveway where his diaper bag sat, waiting to be whisked away by passersby.

Once home, I ransacked his room looking for appropriate clothes and stroller for our walk. No such luck! My Mark had decided that the stroller might be put to better use in the trunk of his car at work today. So, I got out the Snugli, and Judah rode happily in it at the Reservoir, while his mother's back ached up and down the hills.

So, that's my story. What did I learn from this? Well, as my mom said, on the way home, she has been making a more concerted effort to give thanks. What occurred to me, is that in our family worship time last night, Mark and I read Psalm 9:1- "I will give thanks to the Lord", and our reading was about thanksgiving. I remembered what Spurgeon said about a thankful heart: "to forget to praise God is to refuse to benefit ourselves; for praise, like prayer, is one great means of promoting the growth of our spiritual lives. It helps to remove our burdens, to excite our hope, to increase our faith. It is a healthy and invigorating exercise that quickens the pulse of the believer and prepares him for new enterprises in his Master's service." And, so, in the chaos that sometimes comes with being a new mom, a disorganized daughter and a tardy friend, I must remember that even all of these minor things, are planned with a purpose by God. It is amazing that He cares about the minute affairs of His finite people. But He does. And, so, for me, today, He had mayhem. But I will give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, and His love endures forever.

Judah, after our long day!