I have often sung praises to free Saturdays, but alas here goes another. Last weekend was completely packed with completely wonderful things, but nevertheless full. Sunday we had lunch with some friends, had our home teacher over, and then went over to play games with some other friends. Whew! But this weekend I purposefully planned nothing.
       I went to bed early Friday with the delightful intent of awaking early- for my free day! I cleaned the kitchen, did the laundry, picked up around the office and then finished painting the baseboards in the hallway/stairway and fixed a few places on the walls that needed additional plastering. It is now all officially primed and we will probably leave it like that for a while. It at least looks clean- though a little too pristine with the stark white primer, but alas, it is no longer covered in wallpaper glue.
       I spent the second part of the afternoon doing something I have been secretively wanting to do since we moved in but which I have put off since it wasn’t at all a priority- I cleaned the basement. I have always tried to just close my eyes as I lept over piles of electrical wires, cut pipes, and various bits of building materials as I made my way to the laundry machines. But after tripping several times, and feeling general disgust at the completely lack of order down there, I determined to take the time to clean it up. I removed all the trash, got ride of the extra boxes and went at it with a broom and shopvac. Tom came down and scrubbed the pantry walls down of their mold and swept away all of the dust and grit from the shelves left from when the electricians pounded in the entire ceiling. I have always enjoyed organizing our pantries in Moses lake, and have been eager to have one of my own to create order in. I have the little one in the kitchen that I love, but it isn’t the same as a big one full of buckets of wheat, rice, beans, and- for Tom- pasta. (Did I mention he bought some 60 boxes of Barilla a couple weeks back when it went on sale?) I can’t tell you how thrilled I was when we finished. I now have a little ironing corner, I have my laudry baskets lined up, and the entire area is clean so I don’t feel like I have to reclean any article of clothing that drops from the basket. I love it!
      Just to keep you all updated with the joys of home ownership- our latest discovery was that water was dripping from the ceiling in our garage- from the master bathroom shower. Now take note that we haven’t been using that shower because the shower pan rusted out and had already leaked through the garage ceiling in the fall, so we haven’t used it since. So why is it dripping again? Probably because it has be obscenely cold here and the pipes froze and are just now thawing – and having cracked the pipes are now dripping down the walls. Sigh. I guess that means we’ll be gutting the whole room. We hadn’t decided if we were going to keep the tile and just work with it or not. Well now we’re can’t. Down to the beams- Tom says! (Should we expand the bathroom while we’re at it?!)
      After a very full day and fulfilling day Tom and I went on the first planned “date” we have been on for a while. Visiting a Chinese restaurant close to us “Pearl of the Orient” and then buying candy and renting a movie, Get Smart to watch at home. (I have never bought candy just to watch a movie- it was a bit of a guilty pleasure, and fulfilled one of those childhood dreams of buying candy at the movie theater.) I was amazed at how just going on a planned date reverted our relationship back to our dating days. There is a reason why the Prophets tell us to keep dating!
      One last little snippet. Friday I was grocery shopping at my favorite store, Aldi; I had just finished putting all my groceries in my car when this woman, whom I had stood behind in the checkout line came up and asked if I would mind driving her and her husband and son over to their apartment. It was absolutely freezing outside and they had bought a TON of food. Noticing my truck she sought my help. I had noticed them in the store and had smiled at their little son several times. I told them I’d be happy to and we started loading their food into the bed of the truck. We had to squeeze to all get in the truck, her husband being a big guy and my having all my groceries in there- not to mention my backpack and seminary stuff; but we squeezed in and were off. I was intrigued by this: I had noticed in the store that the little boy communicated but that his words were seeming gibberish- not intelligable speech.  However, in the car as his mother told me where to drive I noticed that she too spoke rather unintelligably. Her husband seemed to have some mental disabilities and didn’t really speak at all. When I dropped them off another woman came out of their apartment building to help them unload their food, and she too spoke with english that was so full of slang that I didn’t understand much of it. However, all of them seemed to understand each other completely. They had created a language that was completely foreign to me, though it was technically English. Of course, the child spoke similarly, that was the “language” he was raised with. It made me sad to think about how hard it will be for that boy in the future. Born to relative poverty with parents who are both mentally challenged who will show him his potential and take the time to understand that the reason it seems like he can’t speak at age 5 isn’t because he isn’t bright, but rather because he has never been exposed to correct english. Are our schools good enough to help a boy overcome a background like that?