After Christmas

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. A few thoughts I had, one happy, one sad and one rant.

Happy
Makiah is involved in a group at our neighbors church called Sparks. It's basically a class to learn about God and I call it Rah, Rah. They learn cheers and songs about God, pretty cool stuff. They earn badges for memorizing Bible verses and somehow they earned Spark bucks, little fake Monopoly looking dollars. They saved them up and just before Christmas were able to "shop" with these dollars to buy gifts for whoever they wanted to buy for, they got to choose who and what. Makiah came home with his purchases and it was the cutest thing ever. He had picked out a gift for his mom, some discs that you put in your cup holder in your car to absorb any liquid that spills into the holder. He knows his mom loves coffee, so he bought these for her. There were some other items that were really cute, but this one stuck out. To see his face when he explained who it was for and why he bought them just about brought tears to my eyes. You saw the innocence of a 5 year old that did something for his mom, just because. I get misty just remembering his face and how proud of him I was. Usually, I want to kill him for total defiance, but that day, I couldn't have loved him more.

Sad
They always have the stories on the TV and in the paper around Christmas about people who are struggling to make ends meet and rely on other people to help them out at this time of year. I've seen them, you've seen them, they work. I always feel guilty about what I have, especially around this time of year. I donate, adopt a family, but it is so little compared to what I could do. I usually don't see the newspaper pictures as anything new, so they don't hit me as hard. There are thousands of stories of how people are suffering, and to be honest, you get kind of immune to it, sorry to say. There was a picture in the Des Moines Register about a week before Christmas that hit me, for what reason I don't know. It was taken at a local community center that acts as a distribution point at Christmas. They collect donations of food, clothes and toys for people in need. In this particular picture there were several tables set up in a room with mostly toys spread out on them. There were several people "shopping" with their kids, but the woman and her child in the front of the picture is what I was focused on. The woman was dressed in jeans and a NFL sweatshirt, she had the wrong team on it, but lets not loose sight of the reason for the story. She, for whatever its worth, appeared to be "normal," whatever that is. The child was well kept, nice clothes, clean cut hair, and nothing to appear to me as being poor. (again, whatever that is) This child looked like she could be in my kids class at school. I can say I don't profile, or put people into categories due to their appearance, but I do. When I think of someone getting help at Christmas, I think of welfare abusers, the uneducated (me being one of them), or someone that has made so many bad decisions in their life, that this is where it got them. I know it's wrong, but I can't help it. I know some people just had some bad luck, or a huge medical issue that wiped them out. I know plenty of single moms that have busted their asses to provide for their family, but it just isn't enough when you add the presents at the end of the year. This picture slapped me in the face a good one. In my head, I saw this woman as one of the hundreds or thousands that have lost their jobs this year, unable to find a replacement to keep her at the level she is accustomed to. Maybe her husband died, they had no insurance, and now she is struggling to make ends meet until she can get back on her feet again. Whatever her story is, she made me realize that I need to change my thought process. I kept thinking, that could be me, or someone I love. I need to make changes and teach my kids better lessons.

Rant
I don't have a snow blower. I've always wanted one, but never seem to have the money to buy something that I might use 3 times a year, or might use every 15 minutes for a month. I've tried to convince 2 of my neighbors to go in together to buy one that we all share, but I think they are waiting for me to cave and buy it so they can borrow it without the expense of it all. Well I can hold out as long as they can. Here is the problem, these same said neighbors both went out of town for Christmas. Then, being the ever humorous God that he is, had it snow a few inches of snow and then had the wind blow that snow into huge piles on our driveways. I didn't want it to appear that they were gone, so I set out to shovel all three of our driveways on Saturday. I got mine done and had moved across the street for driveway #2, when another neighbor, who lives right next door to me, came out to use his snow blower. This guy hardly ever clears his driveway, he usually just leaves it so it becomes a solid sheet of ice. Today, he decides to use his blower, which is brand new. For those of you who don't get enough snow to necessitate a blower, let me tell you that there are different kinds, as you can imagine. The smaller ones basically move the snow from where you don't want it, over a foot or two to where you do. The bigger they get, the farther they move the snow from its original position. Now, my neighbor buys the blower that puts the snow from his driveway into my driveway. Didn't know that was an option, but apparently he found the Nolan Ryan model. (baseball reference) I have just finished driveway #1, I'm working on #2 and watching Joe Considerate blow his snow into my drive, causing me to want to beat the #2 out of him. He has to see the snow crossing my whole front yard and landing in my driveway. For God's sake, can't he either re-aim it or turn the blower from jet airliner to just crop duster? He finished up his driveway, put away his blower and returned to the comfort of his house, while I stood in my neighbors driveway and shook my head. I was half way through the third driveway when a different neighbor showed up with a borrowed blower and helped me finish up. She did run their garden border through the blades, so I'll be sure to toss her under the bus with 100% of the blame. Next time they will think twice before leaving during prime snow season.