Disappointments, a brighter side

Mama was struggling yesterday. Struggling with disappointment. Not only are the houses we purchased not going to be ready to list anytime soon, but some other money she and I were expecting is not going to come to us either. It was a misunderstanding as opposed to a broken promise or a deal that fell through. It was not much money, but we had made tentative plans for using that money on several things that are out of reach for us at the moment. One of those was to pay for flights to New Jersey to attend a wedding. Since we need to purchase the tickets very soon, it looks like that will not happen. Our trip to Victoria, TX for Joshua and Alicia’s wedding is still on. We would not miss that.  And our trip to Honduras later this year is still probably a go, but we will have to wait until we have the cash on hand to purchase those tickets. Mostly it is the trip to New Jersey that is off the calendar right now. Mama was really looking forward to that trip. I was also, but not as much as Mama. On top of that we got a large medical bill from Mama’s knee surgery last year. Oh, well. Life goes on. After all, it’s only money.

In times like these I stop to appreciate what we do have. Salvation. Heaven is my home. Our happy marriage. A lot of people I know will never have the kind of blessing I have in being married to a woman like Mama. Children and grandchildren serving the Lord. A very nice home and farm. Paid for vehicles and equipment. A great church home and family. And so much more. All that other stuff that distracts us from what is really important is peripheral. If we have it, fine. If we don’t fine. We have each other. All the money concerns eventually work themselves out. And when we do start selling houses, this will seem like a very small thing. However, we have to deal with the disappointing timing of our current lack. This too shall pass.

On a brighter side, Mama and I dug potatoes yesterday evening. I carried a strong, medium sized box out to the garden to put the potatoes in and Mama was chiding me gently for bringing a medium sized box as opposed to a large box. She had great expectations. I told her I brought a box that, if we filled it, I would be able to carry it. If we needed more storage space, we had other boxes in the garage. It turns out that digging one row of potatoes filled the box. It weighed about thirty pounds when we finished the row. The potatoes we dug were purple and red. Those plants produced well. We still have a row of white potatoes to dig. We will wait a week or two to get those out of the ground. It will not hurt for them to mature another week or two. We are also picking onions, beets, peppers and blackberries – wild and cultivated. Within the next week or so, we will be picking blueberries. We are excited about that.

Heavy rain is forecast for today. Our pigs will be thrilled about that. Over the past couple days, we have had no rain and their mud wallow is beginning to stiffen to the point that they cannot immerse themselves in the mire. They have had to settle for nestling into the damp top of the mud. You can see the imprint of their bodies from where they have lain. Because of that they have dumped their water every morning to create as much wet space as possible. Mama and I have to climb over the fence to enter the pen, retrieve the tub we set out for them to drink from and wash the mud out of the bottom of the tub before we place it in the pen to be refilled…only to be dumped as soon as the pigs have taken a drink. Today, that may not be necessary. By early afternoon, things should be wet enough to suit their desire to have an abundance of mud to play in. We only have another two weeks to deal with the pigs. I am looking forward to getting them moved off the farm. Mama is not so excited about them being taken away.

She loves her pigs.