Do not boast about tomorrow...

My week started out with my keys locked in my car first thing Monday morning.  We bought it used, and for some reason, there was only one set of keys.  I have been hyper-vigilant about making sure it is fully unlocked every time I get out of it.  But, I'm not the only one that drives it....

After a call to Albemarle Lock and Safe and a $75 check, I was back in business.  Not exactly where you want to spend your money, nor how you want to spend your Monday morning.  But, that's life, I guess.  You do what you have to do, learn from your mistakes, and keep going.

This morning was another interesting development.  It went something like this:

Up at 6:10 to fix breakfasts and lunches for the 3 going to work.
Marci left at 6:55.  Tim was in the shower.  Abe was in the shower.
At 7:02 I get a call from Marci.  I hear her crying and telling someone she's okay.  Then she tells me she wrecked her car.  Hit a mailbox.  Windshield shattered.  Hood torn up.

I holler at Tim who is in the middle of shaving.  He rushes out the door leaving his hot breakfast sitting on the table.  He tells me to be dressed and ready to follow him, but not until I talk to him.

Five minutes later, Abe rushes out the door (they all drive the same road to work).  I did manage to send Tim's breakfast with Abe.

While I waited and paced the floor, I decided to water my big fern in my dining room.  With my eyes up on top of the bookcase where the pot sits, I approached with a big cup of water.  As I stepped up to it, I felt something squish under my foot.  Ugh.  Dog poop!  On my carpet!  Great.  I spend 10 minutes cleaning it out of the bottom of my shoe and the carpet.

At 7:36 Tim calls me.  Marci is fine; just shook up and upset.  They are (illegally) driving her car on up to the shop.  Tim asks me to bring him his computer that got left at home and to stop by the homeowners house and let them know we will fix their mailbox.

I head out driving like a Granny because I am shaky after knowing what happened to Marci.

I found the spot where she wrecked.  Tim had stuck the crushed mailbox on the sheared post it was on which was right at the ground. I pulled in the people's driveway and found their house.  A man was out in his yard talking on the phone when I pulled in.  I told him who I was and that we would be fixing and replacing his mailbox.  His first comment was to ask if Marci was okay.  He was very grateful we would be fixing it, too.  Then he informs me that there were two mailboxes on the post!  The other one belonging to the neighbor he was on the phone with.

I left and went back out to the road to clamber through the ditch and weeds looking for the other mailbox.  No mailbox.  Only pieces of Marci's car strewn along the road.  Then I climbed up the embankment to look.  About 40 yards from where the boxes were, over a fence, and about 15 feet out in a pasture, I saw the other box.  And the other half of the post. Wow!  If a cow had been standing there, she'd be slightly concussed!  Or dead.

I headed on in to the shop to drop Tim's computer off and see Marci.  Things were crazy at work.  Two key people out sick, end of the month, and Marci a bundle of nerves trying to hold down the entire office and phones.  I got to make sure she was okay, comfort and encourage her, then got out of their hair.

I headed back home to change into my tennis shoes; I was late for my walking time with Jeannine.  After getting home, I had to look up insurance info and get that to Mar.  I finally headed out the door at 8:50.

When I was almost to Jeannine's house I got a call from a number I didn't recognize.  It was a lady asking me if I had a dog named Bear.  She found him running down the middle of Stony Point Road and picked him up.  I heaved a sigh, pulled over and was getting ready to turn around and go back home.  She said she was sitting at the top of my driveway.  I told her to just drive down and drop him off on the front porch.  No, on second thought, open the back door and stick him in there.  I didn't want him to follow her back out.  So, a random stranger did a kind deed, saved our dog from getting run over, and took him back to our house.  I thanked her profusely, drove on to Jeannine's, and we did a 2 mile walk in which I burned off some steam and nerves.

Upon arriving home, I jumped in the shower.  I was thinking about how sometimes a day can take a completely different turn from what you think it's going to be.  You have your day laid out; your plans made.  You do your normal "good-bye, I love you, and have a great day" at the back door as your loved ones leave for work.  You just "figure", "plan", and "assume" that the day will go as normal and they will come home to you in the evening.

Today just reminded me that that's not always true.  We never know what a day may bring forth.  Our ways are not God's ways and our thoughts are not His thoughts.  Life happens.  It's up to us to learn what we can from our choices/mistakes; to trust in Him completely in all that we do, and to search for His will in our life.  God didn't cause Marci's accident, but He can certainly use it in ways we can't even imagine.

A little later, I looked out my kitchen window and saw this.

Five beautiful bucks calmly grazing in our back yard.  We see them several times a week.  All of them have a nice set of antlers.  I did my stealthy Indian creep thing and got a few pictures of them.

The fifth one is off to the left - couldn't get them all in the picture without going farther out on the deck.

It's a good thing we didn't do a garden this year!

Finally, after watching them for several minutes, Bear the guard dog discovered they were out there and took off after them like Hank going in for the kill.  Mr. Brave went only as far as the tree line then gave up and came panting back to the house.

After a crazy morning, it was nice to have some calm, some normalcy to my day.  I'm so thankful for all the ways God blesses us; comforts us.  I'm thankful for Marci's safety.  She wasn't hurt at all - it could've been way worse.  I'm thankful I could go see her and give her a hug.  Thankful that she will come walking in the door again tonight. Thankful that tomorrow will be 20 years that we've had her in our home and our lives.

Proverbs 27:1
Do not boast about tomorrow for you do not know what a day may bring forth.

Psalm 118:24
This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.

Ah, the bone-jarring, nerve-wracking, side-splitting, heart-bursting, knee-slapping joys of being a parent.  Gotta love it!