On Sunday night, The Grandbaby spent the night. Since Monday is the typical day for our babysitting gig with her, it worked well. And, before we blink really good, summer will be over and school will have begun again.
The Son-in-Law, The Girl, and The Grandbaby have a vacation planned for their fall break as they have done in years past. The Grandbaby was saying the things she would enjoy on this trip and as we all know, fun ain't free. I suggested to her that she help me organize on Monday while she was here and I would pay her so she could begin to have a stash for some of the "fun" she would like to do. Being the wonderful organizer that she is (no, that trait did not come from her mama's side of the family), she was quite happy to agree to that. The Poppa, The Grandbaby, and I agreed on Sunday night of a reasonable (okay, so I'm a Neema....maybe I'm a bit unreasonable) wage for this job she would do. Let me tell you, she did work very hard helping me clean out that closet. These days when I don't bend well to pick up things off the floor, her labors were very much needed. She didn't complain but continued to do as I asked.
In the midst of the work, she found The Girl's old bathrobe that The Girl wore when they were about the same age. Along with this, she found HUGE Goofy houseslippers and a beautiful leopard design fleece hat. Here, let me provide a visual:
Take a good look at that smile. You would have thought The Grandbaby had been given the moon. She wore that getup for the whole afternoon--yes, it was 100 degrees outside but thankfully air-conditioned inside. She absolutely loved it and according to her, she never got a bit hot. She asked to take them home and I agreed with the stipulation that she not wear the Goofy shoes on her stairs. That would be a terrible fall if that happened and she agreed. Yes, an old vintage quilted coral colored robe with pick ups on the outside and "pills" on the inside made for joy beyond compare to an 8 year old. She was happier with those three items than she was her wages for the work. Yes, just an ordinary thing but so important to her because "they were my mama's".
Today I went for a doctor's appointment. For myself. Alone in the car. It was quite the novelty as most of my doctor's visits are for and with others. I got in traffic, of course, and was stopped in the road where a sidewalk ran parallel. I was stopped quite a while. I noticed a dad and his three children biking the sidewalk in the same direction I was going. I would ease ahead of them and then they eased ahead of me. As I noted them, all four were wearing helmets, the older two were leading their line, and the dad and the youngest child were riding side by side. The youngest child was maybe four or so and just getting used to no training wheels on her small little bike. As they got ahead of me and I sat there, I noticed the dad was riding the same speed as the littlest one and he constantly had his hand around her upper arm in case she began to fall. It was such a beautiful thing to see. (I was also impressed by his ability to multitask so very well.). Granted you don't ordinarily see the dad and the kids at 9:45 in the morning on a weekday but it still was somewhat ordinary. I was shown the care of the dad while he cared for his kids. Of course, all you blog readers of mine know that led me to thoughts of Jesus who always seems to have a hand on me to guide.
I barely got to my appointment on time and it took a while there. I see The PA in the practice and have done for years. Often these days doctors are just plain in and out and be done with it. The PA is a keeper. Today as we talked through some things, I was able to see more of her compassion and kindness for her patients. I guess I realized the extent of her kind concern when I looked in her eyes. I'm going to be honest here, often I can't tell emotions by eyes. Today I could. They were eyes of caring and eyes of loving what she does. It was a blessing and a lesson in really caring.
These three situations have much of the ordinary in them but if you look very very closely, you will find the extraordinary in every situation. It takes both the ordinary and the extraordinary to show us sometimes how miraculous life really is.
Consider....
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