Misadventures of a Lesson Unlearned

Once again, my folly lies in finding a mountain instead of the load of mole hills I was expecting.

Once upon a time there was a young woman (very young, in fact, she had just recently celebrated the anniversary of her 29th birthday). This young woman had spent the better part of a Monday doing laundry. At one point in the afternoon, her dryer finished running and she knew that she needed to change the loads or she would never get through it all. However, our heroine felt unable to face folding one more load. So, she turned her back on the laundry, refusing to acknowledge that the dryer was finished. Although, always lurking in the back of her mind, she didn't face her demons until right before bed. Working up her courage, she reluctantly walked into the laundry room. Imagine her surprise (and feeling of stupidity) when she opened the dryer and discovered, not the piles of children's clothing that take forever to fold, but a huge comforter that didn't require any folding and which the dryer is unable to dry completely in one cycle.

Now, I wish that I could tell you that the moral of the story is to face your fears, as they are seldom as bad in real life as they are in your mind. Unfortunately, the real moral of the story is that if you don't pay attention while doing your laundry, you may be stuck washing clothes on TUESDAY.

Misadventures of Family Love

My folly this time was having a birthday. However, I don't think that there is any way out of that one without saying that I wish I had never been born. That seems a trifle over dramatic, so perhaps I should say that my folly was expecting my family to be other than it is.

There is nothing quite like a birthday to show you exactly how much you mean to your family. Yesterday afternoon, I told my sweet children that the very best birthday gift would be for them to do their chores without me having to hound them into it. Austin , in a voice reminiscent of Nicole asking why she had to wash the juicer, said, "But, M-o-o-o-m, you already got your gift." I really had to rack my brain over that one, as I couldn't remember getting any gifts other than the weekend trip that Rick had taken me on. With great exasperation, Austin reminded his obviously ungrateful Mother about the chocolate covered strawberries that he brought home from church. Now, chocolate covered strawberries (with a delightful creamy center) would not usually be a gesture that I would ignore. Perhaps some of the tremendous love that he was showing slipped my mind due to the fact that he dislikes strawberries. His primary teachers had given him the strawberries for an Easter treat and, disliking it, he came home and gave it to me. Judging by the fact that it took many arguments and much hounding to get the chores done, my worth is exactly that of disliked strawberries.

P.S. To anyone reading this post, I actually love chocolate covered strawberries. I guess that I shouldn't judge the motive behind the gesture.