Learning "Pink"

You learn a lot of things in the military.  One of the things I learned is that if most of your clothes are of the same color group, you can wash them all together.  When you're on a long TDY at a base with a couple hundred of your closest friends, laundry can be a chore.  I don't like laundry.  I'm not good at laundry, but I'm learning to do my own laundry, when it doesn't magically disappear.  I'm not good at it as I said, but I'm getting better.

My day was a combination of blue and pink, mostly surrounded by a cloud of sadness.  I went to say goodbye to an old friend today.  It's always nice to see people I grew up around and I chit-chatted with them for a few minutes before leaving.  One gave me a great idea for a blog that's going to turn into a message I was asked to write for church.  I've been struggling with that but one of the guys I used to work and bowl with gave me a great idea.  Thanks, Chuck!

When I got home, I cut the grass.  it's looking pretty rough but the weed killer I applied earlier in the week is finally starting to work.  I need to hit the back yard but next weekend is a four day weekend, so there will be time.  Then it was off to the garden, where I filled a pie plate full of blackberries.  I also filled another wicker basket full of green beans.  There are ten ears of corn that are husked.  Six are in the freezer.  I roasted about thirty anaheim chiles and they are also in the freezer.  The basket of beans filled a gallon zipper bag full and another about 3/4 of the way full.  You have to blanch before freezing, so I snapped and blanched them.  Those kinds of things are pink things.

Last night, I put up seven quarts of tomatoes from the garden.  Earlier in the week it was peaches.  I'm learning that I can do a lot of this on my own.  I don't like to do a lot of it on my own by any means, but I'm learning that I can.  The food I save now will help get us through the winter, which I suspect will be a rough one.  I'm almost wishing we had more freezer space to store the bountiful harvest that God has blessed us with.

Having said that, I miss having a help-meet and I wonder what's going to happen in my life in that area.  I know I kicked the snowball down the hill, but boy, what an avalanche it turned into.  I saw something the other day that reminded me that I need to tell my problem how big my God is.  Problem is that my problem is doing her level best to, from the seat I have, not only run from God but pretty much be as defiant about it as she can be.  Where that leads me, I don't know.  God does and I trust Him, but I also understand why when God saw man was alone, He said it was not good.

Miss June is such a blessing.  She's a doer of laundry, a washer of dishes, a tender hearted person, and I love her dearly.  But not like that.  I love her in that motherly way.  It's like I have two moms.  But she's back to work which means I need to do some more of the lifting around here.  I try to do my part, like tend to the garden.  It needs to be weeded again, but that's probably not going to happen until the end of next week.  In the mean time, we will need several more packages of freezer bags or we're going to have to learn how to can green peppers.  I'm all about bottling these things.

We have plenty.

I guess, though, you learn different things in the storms that God brings into your life.  I know that things may not have resolved themselves today, but I trust that God understands how I feel.  I know what He's done to bring me to where I am, and I know He's poured enough cement to build a strong foundation and keep me right where I'm at for at least a while.  I have a great God moment story to tell y'all but I have to talk to the other person involved tomorrow at church first.

So what do I mean by learning pink?  There are, in my little world, pink and blue jobs.  Man and woman jobs.  Taking out the trash is an either job.  Taking the cans to the curb is a blue job.  So is mowing the lawn and fixing anything and everything.  Pink involves anything remotely involved with a needle, thread, harvesting the garden, canning, and the operation of the house from day to day.  Sadly, a lot of the jobs in the pink category are getting done by the blue category guy.  I guess you do what you have to.  I try my best.

I don't know what's going to happen or what's in store for my future.  I've made a lot of mistakes and sure learned so much from them.  When God decides it's time for a resolution to my domestic situation, I do know that however that shakes out, I'm gonna be a pretty good catch.

Aside from all of the hard lessons I never want to repeat again, there's this one little extra added bonus:

I can do the pink stuff, too.