Better with Ginger

Ginger is good to me. No that wasn't a typo or a grammar mistake. Though, even those of us holding a degree in English can still succumb to those on occasion, ; ).  I meant exactly what I wrote. Ginger is indeed good to me.

My Ginger is not an item in my spice cabinet. She's an awesome friend, who most definitely helps bring joy to my life. I'm blessed to know her. She's a sweet, kind, gentle woman of God. She uses the resources she has to quietly help others. Although she's not one who tends to draw attention to herself, her light still shines. She's a behind the scenes kind of girl. She'd laugh at me calling her a girl, since she's a couple of years older than my mom. But, I often call all females girls and males boys regardless of age. Just an old habit from teaching grade school. One of the nice things about being this age is that others' ages really don't matter to me. I'm much more interested in finding kindred hearts and spirits than in how many birthdays someone has had.

But Ginger also knows how to have fun. Quiet does NOT equal boring. I have enjoyed many great conversations with her that include laughter and joy. Of course, the coffee, tea, or special beverage and sometimes a few bites of baked goods that we share, also adds to the enjoyment. As wonderful as places like Caribou or Starbucks are, they are so much more fun when I'm there with family or friends. Ginger is one of those women with whom I can talk about pretty much anything. We share our concerns and prayer requests, and she's safe for me to confide in. She listens non judgmentally and with love.

She's also been a tremendous blessing in giving rides more times than I can count and bringing food to our family when people have been sick or in the hospital and during our trips to Mayo for Kelley. I'm thankful for her love, words, prayers, and deeds of kindness, for the interest she takes in my family, and for her young at heart spirit. She's a true joy bearer. Ginger is very good to me.

When it rains...

This morning I was greeted by a couple of joy stealers before I even finished my AM coffee. I handled them fairly well despite not yet being fully caffeine infused. First, my son came upstairs at the unspeakably early (for him) time of 8:30 AM and told me that he thought he had strep. He'd been awake most of the night with a very nasty sore throat that came on out of the blue with no other symptoms other than a bit of a headache. Normally, I'd most likely encourage him to wait it out and just use natural or OTC meds to deal with the symptoms since most sore throats in adults are viral. However, I knew he had strep. I'd like to credit it to great Mom intuition, but in all honesty, anyone could have figured it out. A week ago, his little brother had strep, and the same day that James (the youngest of the family) was diagnosed, Cory (the older and supposedly wiser brother) decided it was perfectly fine to finish James's half eaten piece of pizza, even though yours truly told him it was a REALLY bad idea. "Mom, I KNOW I won't get sick." Famous last words. But, of course, being 21 years old, he does know everything. Or if not QUITE everything, definitely MUCH more than mom. So I wasn't exactly surprised when his strep test was positive. But I will refrain from anymore "I told you so," statements and muster up some motherly sympathy. And not act annoyed that for the second time in a week, the rest of us at home have been exposed to strep.

Then as we were discussing Cory's condition, James came upstairs and wanted to know why the basement bathroom was soaked and smelled bad. Wonderful. Terrific. A kid who needlessly contracted strep AND a bathroom flooded with stinky water. And it wasn't even 9:00 AM. When it rains, it pours, especially in our flood prone basement, but the funny thing (Yes, I have a somewhat dark sense of humor) was that during all the rain we had about a week or so ago, we had no flooding whatsoever, and today we had basement water without any rain. I had to laugh at the irony. Normal people wouldn't laugh. They'd be upset, stressed, annoyed. Especially if that's the only bathroom with a shower and they were definitely planning to shower that day cuz , well, let's just suppose it had maybe been more than a day or two or three (Hey, don't judge. Some people have very dry skin and hair, so they aren't supposed to take tons of showers. Just saying.) But, one thing I don't claim to be is normal. And so, that little tiny soul giggle just couldn't help itself. Up, up, up it bubbled. Sometimes you just have to see the humor in life's challenges and inconveniences. And that's one more way to live more joyfully.