Greed - An Aesop's Fable - Rather, a Justine's Fable

We teach our children to not be greedy don't we? I fully believe in this teaching. But there comes a time when the theory gets put aside. That would be when your husband brings home a box of Purdy's chocolates! Sorry kids, you saw your mother get very greedy. And you saw her reap the negative consequences of it.

My hubby came home from work one day with a box of Purdy's chocolates.

 

I saw them and remembered how wonderful they are. I knew someone once who worked at Purdy's. I even got to go to the factory in Vancouver when I was a girl.

What began as a joke turned into an earnest fight for the chocolates. I simply began by making a statement that I should have the chocolates, since he would not appreciate them, considering he was known to inhale treats. For Ray, it is a matter of popping in a chocolate, one or two chews, and down it goes.

I, on the other hand, am known to nibble away at a chocolate, until it has disappeared. His is done in the first 10 seconds, while mine lasts a good 30-60 seconds, or more, depending on how delectable it is!

He joked back at me that he had picked up the chocolates, therefore he was entitled to them. Not I.

I stated that I paid the bills at that particular company, and therefore the case was in my favour. He laughed at me. The nerve of him!

I could see that I was losing ground, so I dug in my heels and told him that I was willing to buy him TWO boxes of Stover chocolates in exchange for this box of chocolates. They are very good chocolates. Those I don't care if he inhales.

He laughed at me again, as he walked off with the chocolates. Hhhmmmpph!

I would have been willing to share the chocolates on the condition that I could see him enjoying them as much as I did. There would be no - open, toss in, chomp, swallow nonsense. That is purely sacrilegious (grossly irreverent towards what is being held in esteem) to a chocolate!

I left the room feeling it was extremely unfair.

That night as I sat down in a darkened TV room to watch a little TV I had no idea that my sweet husband had left the *untouched* chocolates right beside my chair. But as I turned on the light I saw it there. I opened it. Not one chocolate eaten. Talk about restraint! (grin) I carefully chose one, leaned back, and bit by bit, I nibbled away at it's delicious flavour.

Once done, I knew I had to hide the chocolates.

Somewhere that no children would find them. I truly, truly, truly was not hiding them from Ray. Yes, it looks like I was. But no, it was the children.

I put them on a shelf under some motorbike helmets, where I knew no young or old boys would find them. Then I went to bed. I forgot all about them.

Until...

About a week later, Ray walked in the door with this...

Boy, did I laugh. And laugh hard. The joke was on me! The rest of the family saw a beautiful sleigh full of chocolates.

I saw the Moral of the Story.

Be Willing to Share!

That sleigh was FULL of Purdy's chocolates. Five boxes, plus individual large candy and chocolate items! My kind husband said he will share with me. Personally, I don't think he will ever believe that I didn't hide the chocolates from him. I seriously forgot I had put them away. I am sure this last week he has felt that I just hid them. (laugh)
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A Little Heads Up

I just wanted to give you a heads up. I have been inspired through the last month to begin a new blog. This present blog has a number of new posts still to come. These are posts that were written in 2010, and I want them to publish on this blog. Shortly though, I will be inviting you to our new blog home. I am very excited with the direction it is taking, and I know that God is up to something big - just not quite sure right now what it is. *smile*

I hope to see  you all over there!

So stay tuned!
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Feeling Rather Weak

I don't even know how to start. This is not about Cooper. I will update on that later. And thanks for praying regarding that!

This is about what feels like a barrage of attacks on our family over the last two months. Right now, I am so overwhelmed that I feel like crying myself into a puddle in the corner of the laundry room. Sounds pathetic, I know. SO many things have hit us so hard lately and this week takes the cake.


I am only sharing this so that I can beg you to pray for us. In this last week, I have had to:

deal with a car accident, and the shock and anxiety of driving again;


driving for five hours on a road trip that I didn't want to take;


taking my child to Children's Hospital to see why he is having problems with his vision - having to face a CT scan and having an unsolved mystery at the end;


having my husband's grandmother die - the very sad loss, and then the subsequent sending of him out of town for eight days,


while at the same time having to leave five children home alone. Not really alone, as we have a dear Gramma type staying some of the time with them and popping in and out through the day, but still something I have not done before;


then on top of all this we have a situation with our builders mortgage. A mistake was made by someone in power - either the broker or the money lender. Either way they have only advanced us 1/3 of the amount of our first draw. (Which should have been 42% of our mortgage amount). We have to pay our trades. There is no way we can move toward the second draw, if we do not receive the other 2/3. I do not know who is at fault. I do not care. I have no clue what to do. It is not our problem. But tomorrow I need to hear that they have solved the problem and the money will be advanced. It should have been advanced three weeks ago.


This last problem cropped up on Friday. I thought it would be resolved by today. I didn't know they were going to stand by the mistake and say 'oh well. that's the way it is.' We need it resolved.

A week ago, after I had already dealt with 2.5 months of huge hits (as I listed in a previous email) I wondered what God was teaching me through it all. I was confident in my faith. Still I was looking to see what He was teaching me.

Today, I feel like Job. But I feel so much weaker than Job. Today, I think how much more can I take? It wasn't just business today. (ICBC and mortgage) Today, I dealt with my small son's health; my mortgage company called me at 7:00 pm; and in the late afternoon I took an attack (verbal) from my oldest son. Where!! did that come from??? I was crushed.

So, please, if you are my friends, can you pray for me? I feel like there was one big thing at a time hitting our family, but there was time to absorb the blows. Right now, this week, it is multiple times a *day* that the hits are coming.

Please, please, pray for God's will in our mortgage mess, and for *me* to have the strength to stand strong in my faith. My faith doesn't waver, but my emotional state is rather soggy right now. :o/

Thanks friends.

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When You Hit a Certain Age...

... you got a choice between sitting on the bench for the rest of your life, or living a little.

I decided I was not going to be one of those that sat on the sidelines, so I took on some challenges. The first one being the climbing wall. Man, are those things hard. It was easy for me to sit at the bottom calling encouragement to my children as they crawled up the wall. I figured it was easy. Easy? Not so!

Checking My Safety Harness

As I stood looking at the wall I suddenly realized (duh!) that I was expected to climb a *vertical* wall. I guess I figured the rope that was attached to me did the work. I guessed wrong. How did I think I would get my foot onto those tiny little bumps and pull myself up?


I probably stood there longer than most people, as I tried to decide how on earth I was going to scale this wall! Not only that, I knew I was being watched by all the other mums, since I was the only one that had decided to make a fool of myself! The sign said something about 'Excitement', and I nauseously thought, "Excitement? HA!"

Keep That Tight!

Once I was up a few feet I turned around to let the belay guy know that I *expected* him to keep the rope tight. I was trusting him with my life!! I wanted to feel it, so that I knew that if I fell I wasn't going to fall feet, but rather inches. Actually, I was hoping that he would just keep me from falling altogether!

You see this? The guy had his head turned away talking to someone, while he had this panicked woman hanging on the rocks above him. Didn't he realize he was risking his life, not to mention *mine*?

You *Are* Watching Aren't You?

Trust me, I was checking on him everytime I pulled myself up another rock. I almost quit a few times, but each time I did he would suggest which rock to reach for. I relied on that information and kept on going. It was a real internal struggle: quit or succeed? Big question. I felt I would be fine if I quit, but at the same time I knew it would be cool if I, a mum, made it to the top.

Once I made it to the top the guy said to me, "Just sit back, put your feet up, and bounce down."

Was he nutty? He expected me to sit back in the rope and just relax? I didn't have much of a choice, so I did it, and honestly, the bouncing down the wall was the best part! I was so glad when I got down! But at least I had conquered the wall.

The following day my right arm was so sore. It is pathetic how many muscles we do not use!! I know that if I had someone to help me again, I would do it again. It was a real mental and physical workout!

That was Saturday. Then on Sunday, I decided to try something else.

It was time to learn to ride a dirt bike. Now, this bike is not the one I will be riding when I begin. It is Austin's so it is too small, but it was a good place to start. And it was fun!

If you had seen my hubby's face it was hilarious! He had a grin on from ear to ear. Probably figured he would never see his wife riding a dirt bike! lol It was easy and you wait til I get our house built. I am buying myself a nice one and I plan to have a blast with my kids!
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