Too Many

I am late writing this evening.  My day was a little busy and then I got home late and Rock had to remind me I hadn’t written.  I’ve had several topics floating around in my head for a couple of weeks. Nothing has settled with them yet, though.

Except maybe this thing. Too many.  Too many choices.  Too many opportunities.  Too many decisions.  When there were only a few choices of ice cream flavors, I could easily decide on chocolate.  Nowadays, it is hard to find the chocolate among all the many flavors available.  Interestingly, I now prefer vanilla or strawberry.  Blue Bell vanilla is easy to find. Strawberry is not.

When there were only three channels to watch, it was easy to just turn off the television and go do something else.  Maybe not so much more interesting than a favorite show, but better than what happened to be on at the time.  Now, there are so many “may be interesting” things to watch on so many different channels, plus the options to record many shows at one time for later viewing, I get caught up in too many from which to choose.

Coffee has become complicated.  I used to buy one kind of coffee and make in a plain old coffee maker.  I have an electric percolator now that I like to use, but I also have several blends of coffee to brew. I have flavored instants and a French press, too.  And several “favorite” coffee cups.

So many different recipes and foods to choose. Restaurants on every corner with all different types of cuisine.  Bottled beverages of such profusion, the cooler section takes up large walls in convenience stores.  Chips are even coming in limited edition varieties.  As if there weren’t enough flavors to figure out. 

Bookstores look like supermarkets.  Supermarkets look like malls.  And I am even lost and confused in garden centers sometimes. 

All this pondering has a recent trigger.  I would like to paint the bathroom.  That means the daunting task of selecting a paint color.  Just the right shade.  Not too light. Not too dark.  Not too green. Not too blue.  That leaves a few dozen to consider.  I really not that tired enough of the pale blue on the walls to go through all that effort.

I have never been one of those people who could say I like this and only this and that over there isn’t this, so I am not interested.  I don’t know if I am too curious or too uncertain of my own choices.  It took me forty-five years to decide on my favorite color.  Nearly that long to choose a favorite flower. 

I can barely work my way through the complicated process of a coffee shop.  I usually just get a café au lait or vanilla latte.  Though my pal and I got pumpkin spice lattes just for fun last week.  One time I ordered a Marilyn Monroe.  Though I am pretty certain, cream and sugar were her only options when she was around, this one had white chocolate in it, I think.

I came across a line someplace that basically advised to pick something and stick with it. I am trying to apply it to my thoughts.   Just figure out once and for all what is preferred by me and stop jumping around trying to not miss the latest flavor or flower or candle scent or color or style trend. 

Poor Rock. I will still be rearranging the furniture and swapping where I keep things.  But maybe he won’t be subject to so many other topsy turvy situations where I am concerned.  Maybe, I said.

He is pretty tolerant of my rearranging everything, though he makes fun of it and acts like it drives him crazy.  He is actually very tolerant and very supportive of most of my hare brained schemes.  He does help me not fall off cliffs, too.  I can never say too many times how blessed I am being his wife.  Never too many hugs.  Never too many kisses.  Never too many “I love you” whispers between us.

Duchesses

Two weekends in a row.  One duchess last weekend and the other one this weekend.  I took the younger one home today.  She was here three nights.  One night isn’t enough. Three nights is pushing it for my energy.  Two nights is usually just right.  We will see both of them next Saturday, Lord willing.

I have had one of them for ten or twelve nights last year. I don’t recall just how many.  We did well only because I didn’t push to try to do all the fun things in two days.  I have so many ideas and so much ambition to make their time with me as fun as possible, I try to cram too much in too little time. 

One of the funny things about the girls:  One has recently gotten an Alexa in the house.  It was a bonus gift with a large purchase her folks had made.  She loves to tell it to play songs for her to dance and sing.  This weekend with the other one, we had washed and dried her hair and I put it up in a looping pony before bed.  She asked me to take a picture with my phone so she could see how it looked.

They are children of their time in the world.  Just as I was when it was my time and their parents were in their time.  What us older folks worry about as being too modern, too fancy, too whatever, they will cherish as the good old days someday.    

They will manage their world in a way we can’t because it is what they know.  What wonderful lives they will live! Just as we have in a world so different from our grandparents’ world. 

Faith, not fear.  Love and hope and dreams and Jesus.  That is what I want to help them see. This Raining Orchids has become my “picture” for them to some day look and see how much they are loved and how important they are.  And for my friends, family and my Rock to know how precious they are to me, too.  The Lord already knows.