It started out as a normal Sunday. We had planned to go to church, but Joey had been up most of the night with asthma. We had to nebulize twice and there was a time change, so when he woke up and had a slight fever and begged me to let him go back to bed, I felt that was the best thing we could do. Danny and I spent much of the morning cuddling in my bed watching Netflix. He has discovered "Knight Rider" and that has become his new obsession. I think we watched 4 episodes before Joey got out of bed.
Joey woke up and felt slightly better. I really had to do a Wal-Mart run, so after making a shopping list that was a mile long, I put the boys in the car and we struck out for Wally World. It occurred to me that we had a late breakfast and hadn't really had lunch, so I pulled into Burger King. One thing I learned early on is never to take hungry children to Wal-Mart. First of all, they will be grumpy from lack of food and secondly, they will put anything that has at least one-tenth of a gram of sugar in your cart. So, we sat down to eat our meal and just started playing silly games. After about 10 minutes of eating, I watched my two boys together. Somehow Joey, my math whiz-kid, started up a math game with me. Danny tried his hardest to keep up, but accelerated 2nd grade math facts like "what is 10x10?" was a little challenging to my kindergartner. Then, the sweetest thing happened... When Danny started to get frustrated, instead of Joey getting frustrated with his brother, he said, "Danny, do you want me to teach you math?" Danny stopped fussing and said "Yes" At which point Joey started to state math facts and then said to Danny, "Do you want me to put my fingers up so you can count them?" Danny shook his head and then Joey said, "What is 2+2?" Danny counted the fingers and proudly said, "4". Joey said "Good job Danny! Do you want to do another?" Danny shook his head. This went on for about 10 minutes. I sat there in Burger King amazed at my boys and how much they love and respect one another. How caring Joey is to his little brother. How much Danny looks up to his big brother. I never had a sibling, so this type of interaction is so foreign to me. I've seen siblings fight and argue before and I've also seen when siblings get along amazingly well. At this moment in time, other people in the restaurant were looking at my boys and smiling at how well they were getting along with one another. I've never been more proud of them.
So the day continued. We went to Wal-Mart and saw soooo many people we knew. We were at the store almost 3 hours not only grocery shopping, but getting things for the house. I need to fix some ripped wallpaper, patch a small hole in the wall etc. At one point, I was looking at a new bike for Danny and the boys were the superhero aisle, one aisle away from me. When I came around the corner, this is what I saw. I laughed soooo hard and then took a picture.
At the end of the shopping trip, I was a little frustrated at the lines. I had a HUGE cart full of junk so, being considerate, I actually chose the longest line behind people with other carts filled with Wal-Mart goodies. It was our turn to check out and Danny spotted the drink cooler. I could just imagine him choosing a big glass bottle of caffeinated, sugary soda and dropping it on the way back to the checkout line, so I paused to help him. In doing so, some lady cut right in front of me. Oooohhhh!!!! It made me sooo mad!!!!! I had been in line for about 20 minutes at this point and literally had paused to help him get his soda leaving my cart in line. The people in front of me were still putting their items on the belt and when I turned my attention away from the line, she butted right in. I took a deep breath and debated on whether or not to say anything and decided against it. Yes, it was rude, but what good would it have done for me to speak up. Instead, I angrily shoved my items onto the belt behind her counting to 20 over and over again. When it was the woman's turn to check out, the cashier took her divider and put it on the edge of the aisle and it dropped down behind a shelf of cloth Wal-Mart carry in bags. Danny went under the counter and said, "Hey, there's a lot of them here." By the time he came back out, he had retrieved 9 aisle dividers. The cashier, the lady who cut in front of me and I were all laughing at the amount of dividers he found. The cashier was so proud of him for helping out, she gave him a piece of candy and the lady in front of me gave him a dollar to buy a candy bar. I just kept thinking that I was glad that I held my tongue. If I had been grumpy, I'm not so sure Danny would have seen how people react to you when you just jump in and do the right thing and that was PRICELESS.
When we got home, we all worked together to get the groceries in and put away. In the middle of the commotion, two different neighbors showed up. One neighbor had made fish chowder and knew it would go bad before her family ate it, so she brought us three bowls for dinner and another neighbor brought us tickets to the circus.
When I put the boys to bed last night, I made sure to point out to them just how many blessings we had received that day. To be honest, I'm blessed EVERY day. Some days we face more trials than blessings and some days we face more blessings than trials. The number of blessings and trials isn't really important. What is important is how we bless others! That is the key to true happiness.
Thank you, my friends for how you bless me!!!
Your day brings tears to my eyes!
ReplyDeleteI know things are not always easy and it is moments like those which are such blessings!
Gotta love your boys working together on the math too!