growing & learning with him
Before I tell you about this link up and share with you what we did this week, I want to tell you a story:
A mother in her early thirties stands in line at a grocery store ready to checkout. She glances at her groceries on the conveyer belt silently adding their cost up in her head. The total will come close to the cash she has in her wallet. It might go a little over. She hopes it won’t.
When the cashier finally finishes ringing up the total , it is a little over what she has.
“ I think we can do without this”, she says handing one of the items to the cashier.
“All right,” responded the cashier looking as frustrated as the mother before her. She wishes she could make the groceries fit the money the mom has in her wallet. It isn’t as if the mom is purchasing junk food or extras. The bagging area holds fruit, milk, inexpensive meat, vegetables, and a couple loaves of bread. Groceries the three children standing beside her are going to need grow and be healthy.
The mother hands over what remains in her wallet on this day near end on the month. She hopes that this won’t happen again. It is embarrassing and humbling. She hates that her girls have to see this.
This mom works hard to provide for her girls. She spends her days teaching other people’s children in a public school. She pinches her pennies and uses coupons. She makes sure her girls’ basic needs are met. There just isn’t money for extras and sometimes at the end of the month there just isn’t enough for all basics.
This is a true story.
I was one of those little girls standing beside my mom in the grocery line. It was the mid-seventies and grocery stores took only cash where we lived. You could only spend what you had. We had the basics. My mom made sure of that, but there just weren’t extras.
Even with tight times my mom taught us that there were others much worse off. She instilled in us the need to give them. I so want Jdaniel to become someone who looks out for others too.
How this link up works:
There are so many in need during this Christmas season. I am hoping you will join me in giving to others in your community or beyond this holiday season.
Each week I will feature a way my family is giving to our community during the month of December. I am hoping each of you will take the time to not only give to your community, but to write a blog post about it. If you do, I would love for you to link it up below and include a link to this post or this badge.
My posts will go on Sundays, but feel free to share your giving post any day of the week that works for you. The link up will be available during the rest of the month of December and will appear on every Giving Others Christmas post.
What did we do?
This week JDaniel and I just went to the grocery store to give to others this week. BI-Lo is the grocery store closest to our house and it also happens to be a big supporter of our favorite food pantry at the Golden Strip Emergency Relief and Resource Agency.
BI-LO has put together food boxes for you to buy filled with wonderful things that the food pantry visitor will need. You just purchase the box and they deliver it to the Golden Strip Emergency Relief and Resource Agency for you.
I give to the food pantry monthly and love that BI-Lo has made it easier to purchase and drop off the food for me.
Thankfully we haven’t needed to visit the food pantry ourselves, but there are many this year that have. They have lots of visitors.
What have you done to give Christmas to others this week?
Last year I tried to avoid emphasizing the Santa part of the holidays and really tried to focus on it being Jesus’ birthday. My sister Michelle told me that it would be impossible. “Santa is everywhere!” she said and she was right.
JDaniel became convinced of Santa after a visit to BiLo.
This year I have been presented with a new Santa dilemma. It is a dilemma that many parents around the world have probably had to deal with.
Let me share with you a conversation JDaniel and I recently had about Santa while hanging Christmas ornaments.
Me:
“Would you like to go see Santa at the Roper Mountain Christmas Festival?”
JDaniel:
“ Mom, Santa has a house in Arkansas. He can’t be at Roper Mountain.”
Me:
“We did see Santa’s house in Arkansas when we explored the little town at the bottom of Mount Magazine.”
JDaniel:
“It was surrounded by all those decorated trees remember!”
Me:
“Yes, I remember. You noticed that Santa had a back door and front door to his house.”
JDaniel:
“Are you saying he can be in both places? Is he like God?”
Me:
“No, Santa isn’t like God. Remember Santa was a man.”
JDaniel:
“Mom, he is like God really. He is everywhere just like God.”
Me:
“God is everywhere but, Santa isn’t able to be. He has to have helpers work for him in places he can’t be.”
JDaniel:
“So where is he? Is he in Arkansas or South Carolina?”
Me:
“It is hard to tell. His helpers looks just like him.”
JDaniel:
“Okay!”
Me:
“So, do you want to go see him?”
JDaniel:
“Well, Nathan ( The four-year-old that lives next door) is going to write him for me. I guess I don’t need to see him anywhere.”
We may run into Santa while we are out and about but, apparently, JDaniel isn’t interested in seeking him out. He seems content to know he is somewhere in this world.
This post is linked to Alphabe Thursday on Mrs. Matlock and Mama Kat’s Writing Workshop!
>
Yesterday was a Christmas Day for the record books. The newspaper this morning stated that Greenville, South Carolina hadn’t had snow on Christmas for forty-seven years. My husband had never had a white Christmas in his life until it started to snow yesterday afternoon.
Watching the snowfall outside our windows as we sat down for our Christmas lunch was wonderful. It was a little like sitting inside a snow globe. For most of the afternoon and evening, the snow fell but did not stick to the ground. It looked like it would only add up to a slight dusting not nearly enough to play in.
This morning we woke up to a few inches of snow on the ground and damp roads. It was just the right amount of snow to play in and play we did.
>
After almost an hour my husband and I were ready to come in from the cold and he still wanted to stay outside and play. JDaniel’s cheeks were bright red, but the rest of him was warm and toasty.
We promised JDaniel more time in the snow after lunch and a good nap. He wasn’t happy about it, but he did finally agree to come in from the snow.
JDaniel sat mesmerized through most of the performance which is saying a lot for a two and three-quarters-year-old. He hopped off and on my mom’s lap twice but, most of the time he sat in a chair by himself and took it all in. He loved music. I could hear him sing the songs that were familiar to him in a sweet quiet voice. Thankfully the people around us didn’t mind.
I have been tagged by Noelle from Jumpin Bean. She is a great blogging buddy and friend. I have answered the questions below and have tagged a few bloggers at the end of this post who will hopefully continue the game.
I am tagging the following bloggers:
Two Bears Farm and the Three Cubs
>
Why such a tiny tree? We actually don’t have space for a large tree. Well, we could have put it in front of the fireplace, but if we had a tree in front of the fireplace where would we hang the Christmas stockings. My mom suggested that we move some of the furniture out of the living room to make room for a tree. I am not sure where we would put the displaced furniture in our house. We have furniture everywhere. It flanks every wall of every room. Yes, it may mean we probably have too much furniture or maybe it means our Cape Cod house is really small and doesn’t hold a lot of furniture. We combined two homes when we got married four years ago and I gave away a lot, but maybe not enough for our house to hold.
Next year JDaniel will be three and half and he will probably want a full size tree. Until then this little tree will be our special Christmas tree and we love it.
>