I typed up this whole long story the other day… as I said before, but broke my own rule about typing in Microsoft Word rather than directly into the new post box.  Sure enough, I was just nearing the end of a looooooong story and hit some mysterious limit and *POOF*!  It was gone!  Without a trace! I shrieked and pulled my hair (not too hard) much to the amusement of the rest of the family!  Yeah, figures… laugh at MY expense!

Let me see.  Now if I can remember HOW I told the story before.

It was Friday and BOY was I glad it was Friday.  I have been feeling run-down and was looking forward to a lighter schedule.  During our summer schedule, (although I am thinking of incorporating this into our schedule year-round) we do things a little differently than the rest of the week.

So we had started our day like any Friday.  I got up around 6:30.  I often go walking with my friend on Fridays, but we didn’t go on that day b/c her husband had to go to work earlier and her children are too young to be left home alone for 40 or so minutes.  (See how this story became so long?  I really felt you needed the whole story to get the feel of the day!)

Anyway, the children got up around 7 to start their morning chores.  I decided that day would be a surprise Room Inspection Day.  When they were little I checked their rooms everyday, but now it is more like once or twice week.  This was the day, though, and I headed first into Jordan’s room!  That was when my stress level began to rise.  Mess.  Dirty laundry.  Scraps of paper.  You know the drill. 

Then, I went into Ian’s room.  Same scenario plus BBs spilled EVERYWHERE! Now was feeling more frustrated and was less patient as I walked (with dread) into Noah’s room.  This was even worse. Apparently, he had dropped a bath towel into the full bathtub and then placed the wet towel into the middle of his bed!  So after stripping his bedding off his bed and checking to make sure the other two boys had cleaned up their messes I decided to brave the boy’s bathroom! 

ARRRGH!  (And may I say…  GROSS!)  It would be less frustrating if this were not so frequent an occurrence.  All three boys were called into the tiny bathroom for ANOTHER tutorial on Bathroom Cleaning 101. 

I decided to check the girls stuff after school (since their room is downstairs).  We had breakfast and put the rest of the upstairs in order…  MY ROOM is a non-issue (except for the boxes of books that I DIDN’T sell at the used curriculum sale last weekend), and the living room, dining room, entryway and breakfast nook were tidied in just 2 or 3 minutes.  I sent children to check for things left on the back porch and checked the front porch myself! 

AHHHH!  On the porch swing there was spilled YOGURT.  Some was even on the siding of the house!  There were two empty cups.  A string cheese wrapper.  A pair of dirty socks…  oh my goodness.  That was soon cleaned by myself and the little children while the older children did the breakfast dishes, and put the kitchen into order. We were out of garbage bags so we made due with a paper bag and headed downstairs.

First stop:  the girls room.  DISASTER AREA!  That’s when I really began to steam.  With help the girls put away shoes, cleaned clothes out from UNDER the bed, put away hairbrushes, took dirty laundry to the laundry room and hung up clean laundry in about 15 minutes.

I braced myself for the laundry room, but on the way to the Laundry Room I had to pass through the Exercise Room…  SOCKS.  What is it about socks anyway?  Are they allergic to feet?  They seem to jump ship at every chance!  There were also videos on the floor.  There were stuffed animals on the floor and a pair of shoes to go with the many SOCKS! Then, to the Laundry Room.  Even though I was expecting it I gasped at the mountain of laundry and the mess on the floor.  This room doubles as a Mud Room as it opens out into our backyard. You guessed it…  MUD ROOM was an appropriate name on this day!

Honestly, I just started the laundry and left the mud.  It was getting late and I wanted to start our school time.

I gathered all the children into the  school room and began to YELL!  This room was ALSO sloppy…  more stuffed animals on the floor…  more shoes…  more scraps of paper…  books and more SOCKS!  Then, I began my TIRADE!  You know the one.  Chances are you have rehearsed its lines yourself a time or two!

It goes something like this:

  blah blah blah IRRESPONSIBLE blah blah blah INCONSIDERATE blah blah blah I AM NOT YOUR SLAVE blah blah blah YOU ARE TOO OLD to…  blah blah blah I CAN’T PICK UP AFTER YOU FOREVER blah blah blah STEP UP TO THE PLATE blah blah blah SHOW MATURITY blah blah blah I NEED MORE HELP AROUND HERE blah blah blah blah blah blah blah!

Okay.  Take a deep breath. Back to my story.

We did our morning devotions, prayed, and read.  Friday is our reading day.  I read from the Bible.  We did our Scripture memory (from Galatians). I read Pyramid by David McCauley (we are studying Ancient History this year) and about half of a chapter from Streams of Civilization.

Then, I had the girls go read in their room while I read from Created For Work by Bob Shultz to the boys.  It wasn’t in relationship to the messy day.  We are just reading through it right now.

Then, we switched.  The boys went to read and I read to the girls from: Girl Talk: Mother-Daughter Conversations on Biblical Womanhood by Carolyn Mahaney and Nicole Mahaney Whitacre.

By this time is was lunch time.  We had almost no food left in the house, but we made due with what we had and I was relieved that it was payday.  The plan was to:

1. clean up our lunch mess and put chicken in the crockpot for dinner
2. take stuff to recycling center
3. drop off videos at Blockbuster
4. pick up tie at dry cleaners
5.  pick up my friend, Deb, at the ferry dock in Bremerton
6. go get groceries at the Navy Commissary
7. stop at produce stand for fruit and veggies
8. go home and unload the groceries
9. finish making dinner
10. check on the garden
11. have a relaxing evening

I was dreading the shopping because it is always stressful shopping with all five children on a payday Friday at a Navy Commissary b/c it is crowded and hot.  People feel compelled to comment on the number of children we have.  We block the aisle at every turn and it takes a small fortune to restock our groceries! 

I got through #1.  Just #1.  Then, the phone rang.  Blasted phone!

It was my little neighbor girl.  Her voice was wavering as she asked if Kaitlyn could come over and baby sit her, because her mommy was not home!  WHAT?  I struggled to understand.  This family is very conscientious.  They would never leave their little one home alone.  Then, it hit me.  It was the last day of public school and I wondered if the parents forgot that the local public school always has a half-day on the last day of school.

Sooo…  automatically my brain started reorganizing my LIST!

I called the Elementary School.  A friend of mine is the secretary so I asked her if I could have my neighbor’s cell phone number, but she told me she is not allowed to give that information out.  I explained that I had sent Kaitlyn next door to watch L****** b/c when she got off the bus there was nobody at home for her.

While I was waiting to hear back from her mom I asked the boys to unload the recyclables from my car.  I was realizing that if I took the time to go drop this stuff off I would be late to pick up my friend at the ferry dock and I certainly could not fit groceries into my car with recyclables in it! 

Next decision…  should I just leave Kaitlyn home and head out?  L******’s mom would be home in about 15 minutes and I really didn’t want to leave Kaitlyn home ALL ALONE for the next several hours.  I know this is weird b/c I leave her home to babysit when necessary, but I seldom leave her home ALL ALONE.  I don’t know.  I just didn’t feel comfortable with that.  As soon as  K**** got home we left.  I called Deb to let her know we would be 20 minutes late. Guess what?  She no longer needed a ride!

As we entered the Commissary I asked if anyone needed to use the bathroom.  The three who needed to did and we headed into first aisle.  I kid you not, 5 minutes later another child asked to use the bathroom! 

Aisle by aisle the frustrations mounted.  It was, after all, payday Friday in a Navy Commissary and if you have never had that lovely experience let me tell you…  it is crowded and the shelves are half bare.  My husband calls it “The Feeding of the Locusts”.  I try NOT to do this to myself, but this time it was unavoidable!

The lady in the produce aisle wanted to know why the children were not in school.

 The lady by the dairy case was aghast at the amount of milk we loaded into our cart.

Jordan and Ian disagreed about what kind of hot dogs were the least unhealthy in the next aisle over.

Kaitlyn couldn’t decide what kind of frosting to pick out for her birthday cake in the next aisle after that…  followed immediately by Jordan knocking brownie mix off the shelf and blocking the aisle just long enough to make a scene.

That’s when Mount Mama BLEW!  It was all I could do not to SCREAM.  I did raise my voice louder than socially acceptable and I could feel the fire rising in my face.  I closed my eyes and grabbed the rail of my cart.  I needed to get these errands done and I hate feeling like we are inconveniencing everyone around us!

I reminded myself of what I always tell my children.  When we are around others we are representing FOUR families…

1. The Brown Family.  We want Daddy to be proud of our behavior even when he is not with us.  He should be able to trust that we will not bring him harm or shame.
2. The Homeschooling Family.  When people realize we are homeschoolers we reflect upon a life-style.  We want to show others the joys rather than advertise the frustrations!
3. The Larger Family.  I would never want to be that family that makes a young woman think to herself…  “That’s exactly why I would never have that many children!”  Children are a blessing and NOT a burden.

AND MOST IMPORTANTLY…

4. The Family of God.  Even if others may not realize we are Christians we are still representing God and our faith in Christ.  If we act in a way that shows the grace, love, peace and mercy that Christ extends to us than they will see truth.  If we are dishonoring they will be distracted from it.   

I took a deep breath and CALMLY (at least on the outside) apologized for raising my voice and decided to make the most of the situation. 

In the next aisle we smiled at a tiny newborn baby and told the proud mama how much fun babies are!

In the cereal aisle a lady offered us coupons for the brand we were buying!  We thanked and chatted for a minute or two.

In the frozen food aisle I struck up a conversation with a toddler!

In the ice cream aisle Ian asked whether or not Chunky Monkey ice cream is made with REAL monkeys.  I told him, no they used Genetically Altered Artificial Monkeys only.  This cracked up everyone in hearing range and the children all started making up silly jokes. 

By the time we got to the check out line we were laughing and teasing and dragging all kinds of innocent by-standers into our merriment.

Then, an older gentleman started asking a lot of “Personal” questions. 

“What rank is your husband?”

“How many children DO you have?”

“They’re cheaper by the dozen, you know!”

“How long until your husband is up for retirement?”

I chose to be sweet and friendly even though I was SO ready to head home.

The man walked away….  I thought.

When the clerk told me my total  and her eyes widened with shock I  assumed it was at the enormity of the price.  I wrote the check out and reached out to hand it to the checker along with my ID.  But she didn’t take it.  She just stood there looking at me in a funny way.

Then, I noticed the older gentleman standing beside us. 

“It’s all taken care of” he said.

“What is?” I asked…  feeling as if I had just missed the punch line of a joke.

“Your bill has been paid.” 

That’s when I saw the wad of cash he was handing over!!!

“OH NO!” I protested, “YOU CAN’T!!!”

He just smiled and said, “But I want to do this for you and all I ask is that when you are able you pass the blessing along!”

I just began to weep.  All the stress of the past week just flooded out. 

Jordan shook his hand and said, “Thank-you, Sir.”

“Tell your Dad thank-you for serving our country.” he said.

In the parking lot, Kaitlyn asked me if I would surprise the bagger with a big tip.  I figured, how can I NOT.  It wouldn’t be as big of a blessing as I had just received, but it would be a start.

You should have seen the bagger’s face when she rushed back to tell me I had given her the wrong amount.  When I assured her it was the RIGHT amount she said, “God Bless YOU.”

“He already has… God Bless YOU!” was all I could squeak out.

The rest of the day was so fresh and new.  It made me think of all that God gives us that we do nothing to earn…  especially His Saving Grace.

I can’t tell you how much this whole thing increased my faith and encouraged me.

I can hardly wait until the day that I can do something similar for someone else.  Think of how fun THAT would be!!!

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