Lessons from the eighties crowd.

Yesterday while at a salon, I was able to enjoy a rare treat.  There was the most interesting woman sitting next to me, talking about her long life of eighty years.  She has been a working nurse up to the age of about seventy eight and needless to say, she had incredible stories.  

Her first job was at the age of twelve.  Apparently she was tall for her age and was able to get room and board from the hospital she worked at by saying she was seventeen.  She lived at the hospital and began her career in health care washing baby bottles for eight dollars a week! 

I was unclear why she needed a job, and a place to live at twelve, but that is not the point of my story, or hers.  Many times, she said, " Well, that is what we all did!"  "All" meaning, everyone she knew.  "All" worked all day, everyday.  They all started their living for pennies and were glad to have them.  They took care of each other and extending a caring, helping hand was expected, not impressive.  

This morning I read a story in the news about a stay at home mom who had agreed to allow a few of her friends kids to hang at her house an hour before school, so their parents could go ahead off to work.  So what.  How many times did you do that when you were little?  You went to your friends house because mom was not home.  Sometimes, your friend came to your house because their mom was not home.  So what.  That is life.  

Well, apparently all these obnoxious kids hanging around irked the stay at home mom's neighbor and she complained to the state.  Shortly there after the nice stay at home mom gets a nasty gram from the state threatening her to immediately shut down her day care.  

First of all, when did she start running a day care.  When in this world did watching your friends kids require a permit or license.  Remember the old days that interesting nurse was talking about when everyone expected courtesy and a helping hand?  Apparently, in 2009 we have evolved so much and are so better for it, we now fine people for giving helping hands.  

Let's all say a rousing "Good God Ah-mighty" together, shall we?  Then let's just get over ourselves and realize we need to help each other.  We all need to have common sense and common courtesy again.  

Phooey Pumpkins

I have four pots on my back patio bought especially for this amazing pumpkin project I decided to build this year for fall.  My project was going to be a canopy of tiny Baby Boo pumpkins growing out of those four pots at the four corners of my space.  

The vines would grow and stretch up posts and across my lattice to completely cover my patio in a bewitching mixture of green and orange.  I was going to throw in some little twinkle lights and shazam- a pumpkin arbor!  Well, little did I know, God had other plans for me and my pots.  I ended up getting ill with a stomach issue, which left me unable to tend to my pumpkin pots.  Although they were watered sufficiently, all but one or two of the vines suffered some ailment or another....

Needless to say, my pumpkin arbor will have to wait for next year.  Perhaps I will start earlier with my seeds.  Use more compost. Soak the seeds in germinator mix before setting them in soil.  Or, maybe I will just throw my leftover seeds out into the yard by the compost bin and see what God can come up with.  My idea didn't work at all!

I will however, leave my kinda sad looking pots out on the patio until winter finally arrives.  Why?  Because the struggling vines remind me that no matter what ideas we come up with, God always has other plans for us...They also remind me that life is not always pretty.   We are blessed with flowers - they make us strive to work harder for that reward.  On the flip side, life is full of weeds, pests, and foiled ideas or goals.  

For me, there is always another day.  Always, another spring.  Always another packet of seeds full of ideas.