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An Extraordinary Ordinary Day

Today began a little earlier than most, especially for a Saturday.  We were awakened, or rather jolted out of bed by a phone call at 5:00 a.m.  When it rang Destry and I knew who would be on the other line, what we didn't know until we answered was which one of Taylor's ailments was the reason for this call.  Asthma.  Not surprising.  It's spring.  Pollen count is high.  He is hanging out outside and sleeping in a tent in the boonies an hour away. Taylor's scout troop is camping out near Mona.  Good cell service--yay!  Fortunately for us and most especially fortunately for Taylor,  Destry's brother JR Macdonald lives in Santaquin which is much closer to Mona than Saratoga Springs is AND his sweet daughter, Allison, has a nebulizer.   So, Destry called  JR and asked him to take their nebulizer and pick up Taylor.  Hooray for family!  Destry immediately left to meet up with JR to bring Taylor home.  

They were back safe and somewhat sound by 7:30 a.m., a time that we didn't really want to even be up yet on a Saturday morning.  They even stopped at McDonalds, not to be confused with Macdonalds, for cinnamon melts--of course.  Taylor came home, showered and went to bed.  He had been coughing since 4:00 a.m. and I assumed that the asthma was triggered by allergies, but I am inclined to think after having seen him that he is sick.  He looks and feels miserable.  He doesn't complain.  I checked on him a few times and helped him change his pod, but other than that the poor kid was left to fend for himself for the day.

We put our early rising to good use.  Destry mowed the lawn with a lawn mower that may actually blow up at any minute.  I could hear the lawn mower stop every few seconds then start up again.  I fully expected some anger and frustration and maybe even a few bad words spew forth from his person, but I was mistaken.  Once he took off the bag, it didn't die quite so quickly, but it spewed forth blue smoke from time to time causing Destry to hold his breath and close his eyes as he passed through it.  Bless his heart he got it done without having one tantrum.  I am sure I would have had several since I hate mowing the lawn.  Lawn mowers stink even without the blue smoke, they are noisy, you have to empty the heavy bag a bunch of times and worst of all you have to pull a cord to start it.  I don't know who decided that pulling a cord, like a million times, was a good way to start a mower in the first place, but I would like to think that there are better ways to do it!.  We can put a man on the moon for heaven sake and I am certain they do not pull on any cords to start up the space shuttle! 

I got Spencer, Emma and Sarah started on their "Saturday chores."  Taylor was excused from doing his for the day and Estelle got right out of bed and started hers on her own.  That was extra extraordinary!  She did have an extraordinary motivation.  I am pretty sure that she would not have done this on her own if wasn't for her knowing that her chores had to be done in order for her to go on an extra special date with Grandma Smith.  My mom takes the eight year old grandchildren to visit a temple sometime around their eighth birthday.  They go inside to the waiting room, take pictures outside and she gives them a book about baptism that they can color.  Then they go to lunch at a restaurant of their choice.  They look forward to this.  It is a wonderful tradition.

I had planned on running to Costco this morning right when they opened to get a chocolate cake to take to my mom's tomorrow for Mother's Day.  Because I knew that Costco would be crazy, I wanted to get there as early as I could.  Destry said he needed to pick up something from Home Depot for a project he is doing for a neighbor.  And he mentioned something about getting a new lawn mower.  He didn't even have to convince me.  "He had me with the blue smoke."  We discussed what else we might need at Home Depot and decided it was high time we planted our garden.  So, we went together to Home Depot to get plants, compost and lumber to fix the play set, also a high time project.  

Instead of fixing the breaks on his car like Destry had wanted to and instead of my sitting around eating bon bons to practice for Mother's Day tomorrow like I wanted to do we did yard work, lots and lots of yard work.  The garden is in, complete with walls of water around the tomatoes since we have still had some chilly nights lately.  Both garbage cans are overflowing with yard waste and our large yard with far too many large flower beds is looking less unsightly.  I may have said good, but that is relative.  It really isn't done either.  There are still more weeds to pull and flowers to plant and others to transplant.  I love beautiful yards, but don't love yard work so much.  So I do what I can in my own yard and then envy, I mean enjoy, other people's yards.  

I decided today as I was hacking away at a shrub that I wish I hadn't planted in the first place that my yard is much like my life, a work in progress.  I'm sure that neither of them will be perfect before I die, but if I keep working in my yard and working to make my life more like Christ's then that will be enough.  I can find satisfaction and even joy in a hard day's work hacking and pulling and digging and planting.  Christ will recognize my efforts to become more like Him if I keep hacking off my own rough edges, pulling out bad habits, digging into my heart to learn what God wants me to become and planting His seeds in my soul He will make up what I lack.  He will love me and make me perfect and welcome me into His Kingdom.  What a joyful day that will be!

I did sneak in a lovely chat with my mom after she brought Estelle home from her date and Destry got our date night in at our favorite restaurant, Thai House.  I did the usual household chores, bathed and fed children and stayed up late enough to embarrass Spencer by wearing my pajamas to pick him up after the stake dance.  I told him on the way that I would and to be watching for me so I wouldn't have to get out and look for him.  He about died.  I told him that now the tables were turned and that the teenage years were invented so that parents could pay back their children by embarrassing them to make up for all of the times that children embarrassed their parents when they were younger.  He didn't buy it, but it put a smile on my face.  

What an extraordinary ordinary day today really was.  It didn't go as we had planned, it rarely does I suppose, but we worked, we played, we shared and we grew (up hopefully).  The house is quiet, my family is sleeping, Taylor may not be well but he is alive, I am tired and happy and you know what they say, "All's well that ends well."


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