Life IS the obstruction

When I think about why I don't get more writing, I can think of a lot of things that keep happening that get in the way. While I am trying to live life, it keeps getting in the way. Perhaps I'm not seeing the whole picture here. In fact, life is the obstruction to my fantasy of what life should be like.

Take for example, my efforts to pull together an order for the NE Florida area. I wasn't going to push a fall order, but folks kept asking for stuff, so I decided a small one might be ok. Our goal was to have a spring Jacksonville order, and the fall one would be a small one we'd pick up again in Gainesville. Turns out, we had 3 pallet loads, so Walton wanted to deliver it in Jacksonville.

I should have gone with my first intuition. Obstruction number 1: some people wanted to pay with paypal, and when I collected their money, I lost the percent that paypal takes out. Gotta remember that next time.

Obstruction number 2: one sister who paid with paypal had never done it before, so I had to set up the account for her. She wanted it taken out of her bank account, so we had to go through the 2 deposits to her bank thing that is such a pain in the butt. Finally, about a dozen e-mails later, it got done. (And my kids think all I do is church and work.)

After I sent the order off, one person wanted to change her order slightly. Melissa in South Carolina who coordinates all this wanted to let her since it was her first order and she is a non-member. It was no problem for me because I had not sent the check yet. So I sent Melissa the revised order. Big mistake. When I got my shipment on Tuesday, Melissa had forgotten to take off the original order, so I got the original one AND the revised one. Now I have to try to sell off $1200 worth of food storage which is all over my house presently.

Another sister who order $1100 worth didn't get my e-mail, so she was not there to pick up her order. I could not take it home as I had all this other order, so we had to hide it at the Bishop's Storehouse. Now this is a big no-no, and we are fixin to get hollared at real hard for that.

I don't know how I keep getting in these messes. Now Dorian would say, this isn't my problem, it is Melissa's. While he is correct, it would be very hard for her to solve the problem from all the way up in South Carolina. I guess if I can't sell all this stuff, I will have to figure out a way to get it to her. She says there is a co-op in St. Augustine who would want to buy it, but she didn't give the info on how to contact them.

As if I didn't have enough other things going on. We started our homestudy seminary class last night and got things straightened out for Pedro and Luis to do their school work. They are concerned that I am not charging them, but I tried to explain that we are doing this as part of our mission because we know money is a struggle for their families. Roger told them that if they graduate from high school and serve missions, that will be compensation enough.

I taught a knitting class last night as well to the Mexican ladies. All the sisters were invited, but it is only the Mexican sisters who come. They were a quick study with all of them getting it. Of course, they had the occasional dropped stitch, and one sister added stitches every so often, but I told them how badly can you mess up a dishcloth. It will be ugly anyway after it has scrubbed a few loads of dishes. It is a good piece to practice on.

One of the sisters had her 12 year old son (Rodrigo) with her who wanted to learn. He did a pretty good job as did the 8 year old daughter (Crystal) of another sister. I don't think Rodrigo's dad was too excited by it. I was surprised that the children want to learn, but I'm sure they will bore of it soon. J'hlem came up after the class and said she wanted to learn too. Maria really wants to make socks, but I told her they are a little harder, and she needs to learn the basics with dishcloths. I did all the casting on for them, and they are only knitting at this point (no purling), but we can do the other stuff next time we meet.

There were several men at the other part of our meeting. 2 tenors and 3 bass. Pretty good, huh? They were all singing different notes, but by the end, they were harmonizing. Sister Reyes kept calling me in to sing with them when she was trying to play the melody; everytime she played the melody with their parts, they'd revert to the melody. We finally told them that was the girls' parts, and they didn't want to sound like girls, did they? (Hispanic men, for all their humility, are nothing if not macho!) So they shaped up after that!!!!

When I was sitting with the sisters knitting, I was thinking how relaxed I was. There is only one other place I am that comfortable: when I am with all our children at our family gatherings. I would think being with a group of people with whom I can only partially communicate would be stressful, but it is not. There is a great sense of comradery.

We have had new enrollments almost every day to futher complicate the events of this week. It is crazy.

Today we are getting ready for a date night at Palatka 1st ward. They are having a Valentine's Dinner first, and then we are to do our presentation. I made bread, tuna salad, and mini cheesecakes in the muffin pans. I used the crunchy wheat cereal recipe to make the crumb crust. I still have dilly beans to serve with it. I don't know how hungry they will be since they are serving dinner first, but Sister Hudgins said she thinks they'll eat again. Hope so. We're supposed to do the newlywed game since it is Valentine's Day. Bishop Owen in the Atlantic made an appointment for them in March, and another sister is working on one for April. I don't know where she lives.

I decided if I am going to do this blog thing right, I will need a digital camera. Just have to find the time to go shopping.