Wednesday Randoms to kick off October

Happy Wednesday and welcome to the randoms that popped into my mind to share.

As always and in no particular order, here we go:

Random #1

I donated blood yesterday and I still miss the volunteers of yesteryear with their pink coats and white hair. I don’t miss having one of them ask me the most embarrassing and confusing questions at the beginning, but I sorely miss them when it’s all done.

Yesterday I had to pull a water bottle out of the plastic pack and sort through the snack offerings that were still in a tub on the table. There was no sweet lady putting a napkin in front of me or an octogenarian man placing a sticker on my shoulder that said “I donated today” with a big old graphic of a drop of blood.

They didn’t hand me a clipboard with my next available donor date and times for me to fill in a blank. I sat there by myself, eating my Cheez-its and Fruit Snack pack and I missed feeling like my grandma was fussing over me.

It’s just not the same.

I miss that whole generation.

They were of different stock and quietly added so much strength to us who were following behind. They took care of things and volunteered and seemed wise and I feel like they left big shoes to fill and none of us are going to do it like they did.

Random #2

I learned this trick from someone and it’s golden.

If you haven’t been informed; when a tube of lotion or makeup or whatever seems empty, cut the bottom off. You can use a q—tip or your finger to extract the goop that is still very much present but won’t respond to squeezing anymore.

Sometimes, there is hardly anything left. My Doterra lotion is one example of that – just an extra application or two.

But sometimes, wow. Here’s a testimony.

Early this summer the gal I buy my foundation from notified all clients when she would be leaving on a three week trip to order if we were running low on anything. I realized my foundation was taking several pumps to produce enough to apply.

I ordered a new tube and then cut the end off of the old. I laughingly told her more than a month after her return that I finally had swabbed the last little bit out of the old tube and was opening the new one.

We spend a lot on products and it is so good to not waste them. Give it a try if you haven’t. I sometimes put these cut tubes in a sandwich bag, but for the most part you can just set them in the drawer and they don’t leak out.

Random #3

I realize I am aging myself with the first two, so here is another sign that I am getting set in my ways.

This random has to do with Aldi’s and my quarter struggle.

I have a little pocket in my purse where I keep my “Aldi quarter”.

I always know where it is and that I have one, because there have been times when I didn’t have a quarter and had to carry an armload of groceries through the store and then try to bag them quickly from the previous shopper’s cart.

There are some who will tuck purchases in their reusable bags as they walk around and then unload at the checkout, but the anxiety this method produces as I feel compelled to explain I am not shop lifting to everyone I pass is not worth the benefit of not employing the loaded arm means of gathering supplies.

So here is my dilemma.

While I love the people who pass their cart to me, and on occasion refuse my quarter to which I can just replace my designated coin back in its spot for next time and do the same for someone else when I leave…sometimes I see where people have not engaged the lock in the cart just before the one I am returning.

They obviously have left a free cart for someone and I feel challenged to follow suit. But if I do so, I am losing my quarter and am not sure I will remember to replace it for the next visit. And if I don’t, the next person who comes up may be desperate for a quarter and there is that freebie cart blocked my mine.

The guilt.

It’s overwhelming.

I jest.

It’s not that bad.

But it is a thought process I have and figured it was about as random as any others I have so may as well share.

Hopefully…it made you laugh.

Random #4

A friend brought us a sweet bouquet from her garden in a mason jar with a twine bow.

I don’t think any floral arrangement is prettier than the ones like this.

It’s the reason I grew zinnias this year and why I love our little perennial garden and why I am going to miss summer so very much.

It’s also a reminder that the little gestures of giving someone a small something sends a big message of love and thoughtfulness for longer than just the moment it was given.

Random #5

This thought came to me today and so I am passing it along.

I think we all struggle with accepting underperformance, mistakes, bad attitudes, social gaffs, forgetfulness, thoughtlessness in our actions when we do or have any of these.

We are probably more generous to others at times than we are ourselves.

So as I was thinking about it this morning when someone expressed the need to overcome one of these today, that we tend to feel we have failed when we do things that are common to our human nature.

And this phrase popped into my mind:

Acknowledging your humanity is not a sign of weakness, it is an act of humility.

I hope that this will remind you (and me later today when I am struggling with something I have failed to do) and will help us be thankful for grace that covers our human nature and helps us admit it, repent, feel God’s love, mercy and forgiveness and then move on in His strength.

Our human shortcomings are simply a reminder that we are not God and to refresh us in our gratitude for who He is and that He loves us so much <3

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