Skip to main content

A suggestion of guilt in action!

Image
By
  This Christmas shopping season was a pretty typical one.  After having made a LOT of money this past semester (yea!!!!)  I was able to purchase everybody some fun gifts.  However, when I asked my mom what she wanted, she didn't suggest a thing, she suggested things we could DO...cleaning the baseboards and cleaning the chandelier.  Cue suggestion of guilt....:-)
  I was able to find a nice gift for her that I thought she would enjoy, but the entire Christmas season I knew that I really couldn't just get her a gift. Instead, I had to do one of these service-oriented things that would make her really happy for Christmas.  Hannah, Glo, and I hatched a plan to make some of those Christmas projects get finished.
  We knew that it wouldn't really be a Christmas present unless she found it Christmas morning.  On Christmas morning, we got up at 5:15 AM and went downstairs to clean.  Doing everything we could to avoid looking at the Christmas gifts under and around the tree, Hannah and Glo started to work on the baseboards while I unhooked all of the crystals from the main body of the chandelier.  I never thought that it would take so long!  We ended up finishing at around eight, and most of it was spent with the chandelier.  We had to take off all the baubles and lines of crystal, wash them in a bowl of soap and water, rinse them and dry them, and then try to remember how they were originally connected to the chandelier.  Things got interesting when we figured out that when the chandelier was put up the first time, some of the chains of crystal were put together incorrectly.  It got even MORE interesting when some of the hooks were lost in the water!  Thanks to Glo and  her metalworking knowledge from Interlochen, she knew the best way to take paper clips and turn them into hooks that would work.
  Finally, we finished, and it was amazing to see the difference.  Plus, it was definitely my favorite gift to give this Christmas.  Thank you, suggestions of guilt!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Quest for Birkenstocks

By
One of the main reasons I go to Germany every couple of years is to restock my supply of Birkenstocks.  I started buying them when I lived there, and I basically can't live without them now.  It just about kills me when a pair runs its course and needs to be thrown away.  I think in my lifetime, I've thrown away only three pairs.  One that never was quite right (the straps were plastic and would cut into my skin after a long day), one pair that I wore gardening one too many times (the brown dirt stains wouldn't come out of the white leather), and the pair that I was wearing when I broke my ankle (they were an unfortunate casualty of broken ankle PTSD because those purple and blue paisleys go down as one of my favorite pairs of all time).  I only threw out the garden ones a couple of days before I left for Germany, because I knew I would be getting a new pair. The only store where I have ever bought my Birkenstocks is Hoffmann's in Speicher.  (Well okay, t...
2 comments
Read more

Stuck Between a Rock and a Hard Place

By
I'm writing this, not as a complaint, but as a plea.  If anyone has any advice, I would greatly appreciate it. My children are talented.  In fact, every child that I have ever met is talented in some way.  That's the fun thing about meeting kids--discovering those hidden talents. Some of the talents my children possess are very public--you guessed it...music.  Some aren't so public--kindness and generosity. My kids are frequently judged by other children because of their musical talents.  Other kids see them as "snobs" because they play their instruments well and because they are willing to share those talents whenever asked. My kids never play with arrogance.  They recognize that they are better at music than most kids their age, but they never, ever show it.  In fact, they are very generous with compliments towards other kids and their efforts with music.  I have raised them to appreciate anyone who tries to do anything with music--it's ...
9 comments
Read more

Redefining Charity

By
I like attending church on Sunday for many different reasons, but I dislike the meetings for one very large reason:  discussions regarding charity. In case you don't remember your Sunday School lessons, charity is defined as the pure love of Christ.  If you were to actually look up the word in a dictionary, it would say, "See John Kennedy". That's right.  My wonderful husband is the perfect embodiment of charity. His life basically moves from one charitable act to another. Take any given Saturday.  He can found building some large structure on our property because I think we need it.  He can be found, rebuilding a pond for an old Indian woman who lives alone and needs some help.  On his way to a church picnic, he will stop to help an old woman reseal her driveway, missing one of his favorite meals in the world:  a POTLUCK! Other days?  He stops to help any person on the side of the road with car troubles. He'll drive 2.5 hours to a ...
7 comments
Read more