ASLThompson

My husband is so generous. I am stingy. I think growing up in a household with 6 additional people in it made me cling tightly to the things that are “mine.” Money was always tight, so I have never been generous with money. My husband wants to pay for people’s dinner, while I’m thinking they should pay for their own. I do know generosity is important. It blesses the giver and the receiver. Last night after my husband and I had dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, we saw a lady on the side of the road. This corner is a common place for people to stand with signs declaring their recent misfortunes. I am typically very skeptical about their validity. However, when I saw this lady last night, my heart broke. Her sign said she was a single mom and her electricity had just been turned off. Without hesitation, I reached in my wallet for the $100 bill I had been saving. I handed it to my husband, he handed it to her and said, “God bless you.” I watched her as we drove away. She looked down at what he handed her, and then looked back at us. I couldn’t stop crying from the intense joy I was feeling.

I have been crocheting for a couple years. I enjoy it, but there are only so many things you can make out of yarn before you become “that lady who makes stuff out of yarn.” I make baby blankets for friends and scarves for family members. However, I have been wanting to make something out of plastic bags for a while now. I have seen the finished product, and I love the idea! What else are those bags good for? I have already switched to cloth bags for my grocery shopping, but I still have quite a few plastic bags left-over from my non-green-grocery-shopping days. Last night, I finally got on YouTube and watched a girl crochet a bag using plastic bags! I watched her about 5 seconds at a time, until I finally started to learn how to make a bag. I started it last night!

Let’s just say that exercise has never been my thing. In saying that, I would like to clarify that I hate exercising. Vehemently. I have always lived a sedentary lifestyle, which was what I saw modeled by my parents. After their divorce, my mom began exercising and is now a freak about it, but I have failed to follow in her footsteps. I’ve never really “struggled” with my weight, so I guess I assumed exercise was not necessary. However, now that I am getting to be in my thirties (I keep using this excuse, don’t I?) I am seeing that it is becoming harder and harder to keep the pounds off without some form of activity. Running seems logical, and for the most part, I do enjoy it when I have worked up to it. It is simple, unlike those complicated aerobics that women typically participate in. Although it does not sound like a huge feat to become a runner, for me it is big because it is a change of my lifestyle. Therefore, this is one of my life goals.