You can take a family out of the south, but you can’t take the south out of the family…

I figure—if my South Carolinian parents could raise their mostly-born-in-California kids on grits and eggs, I can do the same in Oregon!

The Sock Fairy

Once when we were living in married student housing at BYU I remember hearing another young wife (married for a few years) complaining about her husband’s lack of awareness of the things she did for him.  “It’s like,” she said, “he thinks that the sock fairy just puts those clean socks in his drawer every week.”  At the time I was amused by her comment and grateful that Russ & I did the laundry together. 

In the intervening years the laundry system in our home has gone through a lot of stages.  The best stage lasted for a couple of years when we paid Jason a ridiculously small amount of money every month to keep the laundry folded.  After he left for college & then Chile the laundry devolved back into what we referred to fondly as “the Laundry Hall of Shame.”  (Sorry—I know I’ve taken pictures of the laundry hall of shame in the past when it was particularly overwhelming but I can’t seem to find any right now.  Just imagine that long hall outside of our NC laundry room filled with baskets of clean clothes, and then more baskets stacked on top of those.  I know…shameful…)

Here in the apartment there is no room for laundry, literally.  Last week when our stuff came out of storage (and into storage in 2 garages here at the apartment complex) we got more of the green couch and the ottoman as well.  We’re sitting much more comfortably but there is NO extra room for laundry baskets or anything else. 

Our bedroom is almost as crowded, and still has boxes waiting to be unpacked in it so there’s no room for laundry to sit around in there waiting to be folded either.  I decided that really the best thing is for me to go ahead and fold laundry right out of the dryer.  Not that there’s much room for me in front of the dryer either—the laundry room here is a combo laundry room/pantry and with the addition of more shelves (we were desperate for more pantry space) there’s not a lot of room between the shelves and the washer & dryer. 

So there I stand, wedged between the ramen and the dryer, folding the clothes.

Yesterday as I stood there folding the laundry the thought flitted though my mind that Russ probably wasn’t going to even notice that the laundry had been done, even after me squeezing into the laundry room to fold all of it.  The “sock fairy” comment from all of those years ago passed back through my mind and for a moment I felt a connection with that young wife so many years ago—unappreciated in my service for my husband.

And then I had another thought, one that brought  me back to reality with a sharp jab.  I wondered how many times I have not appreciated the “money fairy” in our marriage.  How often (and it is more often than it should be) do I forget to appreciate enough that Russ works long and hard to provide for us.  I listened carefully to him describing his job to someone the other night in hopes that when it was over I would finally know what it is that he does for a living.  Nope, I still don’t, although I did notice that now he manages an environment in addition to the kinds of things he used to do.  What I do know is that he works a lot, that what he does is often stressful, and that his days are long. 

Next time when I’m folding the laundry I’m going to think of myself as the sock fairy, helping out the money fairy.  And I’m going to be really super grateful for all that the money fairy does for us, both at work and here at home.  And then when he comes home from work I’m going to give him a big kiss and tell him that I hope he enjoys those clean socks.  Not that he’s never going to have to fold socks himself again—that would be unrealistic to expect.  But I am going to work on being more consistently aware of what it is that he does for us every single day. 

Thank you, money fairy!!!

Things we love about Oregon (my new sidebar)

So.  I am very stubborn.  (Which may be news to some of you, but I’m sure is not to others.)  I can feel that, although I am trying hard to adjust to Oregon, there is a little part of me that would hold itself aloof and and be unwilling to give in and love it here.  I started a new little sidebar to keep track of the things we find to love here—and there are many things.  Hopefully paying attention to these things will help me to fully embrace what we find here and defeat my dark side once and for all…

or at least for this battle. 

My favorite game of Words With Friends

Maybe I should read my own blog more often…

(oops…didn’t realize that I’d actually already written this post, so I figured I’d go ahead & post it.)

In the first couple of months that Jason was on his mission I often sent him blog posts that I’d written.  Not the funny ones, or the adventure ones, (ok, occasionally the funny ones) but the spiritual ones.  When we talked at Christmas he told me how much he appreciated these posts, and that he wanted me to send them via dearelder.com instead of email so that he had printed copies of them.  Unfortunately after Christmas things went from hectic to downright insane, and I haven’t written too many spiritual blog posts.

A couple of months ago Jason asked that I send him the story of my mom paying her tithing and meeting my dad.  I spent a lot of time in bed one Saturday because I was just worn out and not feeling good and figured that was easy enough to do, and that I could also catch him up on some of my more recent posts.

I was surprised to realize how beneficial it was for me to read them.  It brought to mind how often the word “remember” is used in the scriptures.  Remember the great things the Lord has done….and now, o man, remember and perish not…

I think I did a pretty job of recording the insights and impressions that came to me throughout the job loss experience.  I think that now I need to do a better job of remembering them—that they are not just to help my children in the future, but to help me in this moment, here and now.  So for the little while, I’ll be reading & re-reading my blog to remind myself that God really is in control, that He has cared for us through every moment of this, and that He will continue to care for and guide us in the future.  I just need a little help sometimes remembering that…

Straightened vs. Straight

Yesterday in a mall in Portland…

 

Salesman: Excuse me, could I have a minute of your time?  Do you use a straightener on your hair?

Me (on my way to a rose exhibition and not in a mood for salesmen): No.

Salesman: Oh, then you blow it straight?

Me: No.

Salesman: Ohhhh….so it’s just naturally that straight???

Me: Yep.

We can’t all be so lucky to have such naturally straight hair!

Oregon Adventure #1

We arrived in Oregon (I’m sorry for so much jumping around, it pains me too.  But I just can’t be very chronological right now!) right before Memorial Day weekend.  We were very (tremendously) lazy on Saturday, but we decided that on Monday we would take advantage of Russ’s day off and have our first Oregon adventure.

We started our day at the MAX station where I was impressed that they have small cages that you can rent to store your kids in while you go on MAX dates.  Seriously an awesome idea and I don’t know why we haven’t seen this before.  The people in Oregon must be more progressive, I guess.

The kids were pretty excited at first to be riding the light rail train, but they soon decided it was boring and  Rachel took a nap.

Once in Portland we made our way to the food carts to find some lunch.  Nothing quite like standing around eating your food from the high shelves in front of closed food carts.  We were so hungry and everything was delicious.  Rachel insisted on eating with chopsticks.  When we were done we were absolutely stuffed. 

Then we walked to our main destination—the largest used bookstore in the world, Powells.  The bookstore that occupies several building and hands out maps so you don’t get lost.  Bookstore Nirvana.  I would post a picture of the beautiful never-ending rows of books but I think I deleted the one picture I took with my cell phone.  We had a great time at the bookstore.  Everyone got $5 to spend on a book, Russ caved in and bought the newest Rick Riordon book, and well…I got a few books too to use for my summer reading with the kids.

The streets of Portland were also entertaining.  Here was our favorite sign.

And we thought this interactive sculpture across the street from Powells was pretty cool too.

Here’s what happened after the man pushed the bulb part.

The trip back to Hillsboro on the MAX was much more entertaining.  After all, everyone had a book to read.  A young mother sitting across the isle commented that it was good to see kids enjoying their reading so much.  It made me happy that my kids thought a trip to a used bookstore was a great outing!