What Happens to Our Laundry When We Die?

 Since Will has been born I've been really surprised at how little time I have to get things done.  The first month I didn't want to lay him down while he was sleeping, so I blame that month on myself.  Now though?  Where does the time go?  When will I start getting everything done again?!  (moms: cue laughter!)

Obviously that last question is a big joke.  I've been caught up in the "rat race" mindset lately, where I get to the end of a day and realize that I've just spent the whole day rushing rushing rushing to get...wait, what did I get done?  I obviously get things done, but many of the things that happen in my day have little or no eternal value.  I mean, let's be honest.  It's nice to have a clean house and good smelling laundry, but I'm pretty sure my perfectly ironed pants will not be accompanying me when I approach those pearly white gates!

After my grandma died I remember finding a journal that she had kept of what she did each day.  Her days were FILLED with "un-eternal" things - laundry, cleaning, food preparation, gardening.  What's so interesting, though, is that grandma impacted so many lives in the midst of her "unimportant" tasks.  Stuck between two loads of laundry and making lunch for grandpa, she'd "visit with Verla" or "take supper over to Sam" or "call Brad" or "send a birthday card to Tommy".  She didn't let the to-do list sitting right in front of her distract her from people. 

My biggest fear is that I'll get to the end of my life and wonder if it was well-lived.  God is working on that fear (1 John 4:18 - ...perfect love drives out fear...), and I think He's doing that through this time in life.  Because the most pressing items on my to do list is to snuggle my baby and make supper, I am able to focus on people more.  I'm obviously still working through this, but it's a start!

Just a little push...

I'm definitely a seasonal person. I absolutely NEED a change of pace, an ebb and flow, an altering of "normal".  Being a music teacher,therefore, is perfect for me.  We have concert seasons, show choir seasons, semester, quarters, grading madness, and the best of all - summer!

I'm naming my last personal season "Blog? What Blog?".  The onset of this "season" happened for a variety of reasons...Will was born, summer happened, I entered a new stage of life, and we got a new camera/new phones/new computer storage so our picture systems were totally messed up.  I also would blog about events in the past, but big events are less possible with small kids.  Hmm....the universe was conspiring against this blog!

I ran into my friend Rachel Greene today at the grocery store (hollah Rachel!), and she said something about my blog absence.  And, that's all it took!  I spent the drive home thinking of million posts I could write.  New format?  Everyday life.

Every Day Life: Aldi

In honor of Rachel's nudge back into the blogging world, I thought I'd write about a place that I often frequent (and where we ran into each other): Aldi.  I SERIOUSLY love Aldi.  We've been going there since we were dirt-poor during my second grade year.  We were always really low on moola throughout my childhood, but when my dad decided to go back to grad school, cash flow dropped to an all-time low.  Enter Aldi (and food stamps, but we'll save that for another post).

Since we just grew up going there, I never had the hesitation that a lot of my friends feel.  Admittedly, some Aldi stores can be a bit sketchy.  But it is SO CHEAP!  I got a full cart load of predominantly fresh produce today, and the grand total?  $84.  Would have been pushing $140 at Fareway or Hy-Vee, EASILY.

And so, Aldi has become a part of my bi-weekly life.  Every other Friday Will and I head off to cheap, nameless brand, park-your-own-cart and bag-your-own-food world of Aldi.  We've kind of gotten it down to a science.  And anything we can't get there, Chris picks up on his way home from Hy-Vee that night!

I'm not saying anyone should change their mind about Aldi.  If it feels too sketchy and you don't like to pay a quarter for your cart, that's just fine.  Me?  I'm an Aldi girl all the way. :)