Stuff That Matters in Life

God is so good to our family! My son and DIL, after experiencing the stillborn death of their firstborn last year, just gave birth to a healthy baby girl. They say only 5% of babies are born on their due date. She’s in that 5%, born on her due date of October 30. God graciously granted the parents desire of their daughter not be born on Halloween.

Being grandma hasn’t changed my life other than using up my day off to visit them.

My couple of my friends go to their daughters’ house to babysit their grandkids regularly, 1-2 days a week. I suppose if I wasn’t working I could do that. It sounds fun but tiring. We are grandmas, not moms anymore.

I’ll be building into my schedule to visit one granddaughter in LA and one in OC. Of course they have to live in opposite directions!

My job now is to pray for the next generation.

Pastor Albert says we are not naturally drawn to pray. That is true of me. In our culture of activities and productivity, prayer is seemingly a useless passive activity. But as a grandma I can do nothing for my kids but to pray.

I like baskets, glass jars, and craft material. You never know when you need those.

Actually I don’t really use baskets that much but I can’t explain why I like them. My husband says they take up too much room in the garage. It’s true. I’ve held back on getting more. I haven’t gotten a new basket for a long time. I saw a nice one at a thrift store for only $4! I talked myself out of it; there was a slight imperfection though the quality is good. Whenever I go to a thrift store, I always check out baskets. Never buy new. I need to give away the ones I don’t love so I can be guilt-free to buy more!

Some people like mugs, I don’t care to collect them. So that’s how I justify my collection.

We’ve been watching Tiny Homes on Netflix. When I declutter, I pretend I’m going to move into a tiny home. But I don’t think I’ll ever be able to get rid of enough to do that. Baskets, glass jars, and craft materials, and oh books also, will take up the entire tiny home.

God gave me the inspiration I need to give the message in Awana tomorrow. I’m excited now to finish writing it up.

I don’t like it when something is not done efficiently. I get impatient with people like that.

I am impatient with extra slow clerks, or when my husband doesn’t run a yellow light.

I don’t like it when I am not efficient.

Maybe that’s why it’s hard for me to sit down to read. I am such a slow reader, I’m so inefficient. I’ll just go do something where I feel some sense of accomplishment.

I am very impress with high production people.

I wonder if there’s a core issue that I should deal with. I remember my father was an impatient man who had to work efficiently in running a busy restaurant. He told us to never take one dish to the kitchen to be washed; always bring as many dishes as you can to save making extra trips. Always fill both hands. I find myself using this principle when I am cleaning the house.

I am trying to let go of this idol by thinking of something else when driving other than which lane is faster, and not giving an impatient glare at the slow clerk at Vons.

I have to consciously fight this impatience of inefficiency. There are many things at church that are inefficient and I don’t want to be critical of the church. I am the problem too, I am inefficient. Look how long it’s taking me to get a soft pad for the preschoolers play area!