4-11-16 I Live on the Edge!!!

Loy has certain things that make him bitter. Things that he has had to endure for years, being married to me. For example, back in the day of pantyhose he was very bitter that I bought pantyhose at the grocery store, therefore I thought they should be counted as groceries, NOT be deducted out of my clothing allowance. He's all about fairness, therefore I should not be able to eat more of the cookies than he does. And closet space should be equally allotted, even though we ALL know that is just wrong, wrong, wrong!!!

(As an aside...when I was in high school we lived in a house that had a master closet. My mom got the entire closest. Yep, the ENTIRE closet. Where was my dad's stuff? In the coat closet out in the entryway. Loy has always felt so sorry for my dad about this, but I think it kind of makes sense!!! ) (When we went on a car trip, his stuff was always packed in paper grocery bags, also. Bunny and I had suitcases. I can't remember if Mom did too. But, Daddy's stuff was in the paper bag.)

So I do as most women do, especially women with an empty nest. I commandeered the guest room closet for my off season clothes. And that works for me.

Last Friday I determined was the perfect day to "switch out my closet," bringing the spring stuff into our master closet and putting away all the black sweaters I own. This will ensure that the weather will change and we will have a freak blizzard, by the way.

Picture the scene...I'm on my last load of clothes. My arms are full to the brim (can arms be full to the brim?) because I don't want to have to make an additional trip for just a few things. I'm barefoot. And I stagger out of the guest room doorway. Well, almost out. I absolutely RAMMED my foot against the door frame.

Did I panic? Did I drop my load of clothes? Nope. Did I yell??? You bet I did!!! But I rose to the occasion and staggered to my closet and hung the clothes up--in the spots where they belonged. I was Wonder Woman!! When I finished I staggered out to the bed and put the damaged appendage up and talked out loud to myself, "Man, that really hurt!!!"

I have an average size foot--a 7-1/2--but it is a very skinny foot. And my toes have always seemed abnormally short to me. And they are the cutest little curly things you've ever seen. And I have a worthless pinky toe. When I took my sock off the fourth toe was kind of looking at a different toe than it usually does. It was rather freaky. But I know that doctors don't do much for broken toes, so I just limped out to the living room and sat with the offending foot up while I read a book.

But the next day the bruising started, and it wasn't my toe that was bruised...it was on the top of my foot. So, I decided maybe I needed to go get an X-ray just to make sure the bones were aligned and I wouldn't have a snaggle-toe for life. The radiology tech said, "Well, I see why it hurts. But I can't say more." It was broken, but the bones were ok, so I just tape and wear this lovely boot.

I'm sure Loy is thinking that if I just had the one closet, my problem would not have happened. But all you women know...

I'm in a fitness competition with 19 other family members and now I can't walk!!!! This is tough.

And the final two weeks of bowling are upon us!! Can I bowl??? (I've been practicing to see if I can do my approach in the boot--the verdict is still out.) Wednesday we're supposed to have a bowl-off between us and the #5 ranked team (we're #6) to see which of us places higher.

But all this got me thinking about life and the body and toes. My fourth toe is pretty worthless, even in the best of times. I have never once awakened and thought, "Gee, my fourth toe feels great today!" I've never thought, "I've done so much with that fourth toe today--I think I'll ice that one toe." It's just there.

Now that it's out of commission, I think about that toe often. It's affecting other parts of my body as I have to limp around. And it affects others because, while Loy may be bitter, he is nice and gets my drink at the restaurant and tries to NOT make me walk so much.

For a long time I've had a theory that all the different areas of my life are inter-related.  If I'm not reading my Bible like I should, my eating habits are usually out of whack too, and my house is usually a mess, and I'm often not exercising, and probably not taking my vitamins. Unfortunately, the area where I can most easily fall away are spiritual.

Maybe I don't see a daily concrete example of what my Bible time does, but if I don't do it, it major-ly affects the rest of my life. Same goes with praying. Or Bible studying. Or living as an example of Jesus to others. These things can be so small, but if they're "broken" it hurts the whole me.

What am I going to do with this revelation? Well, when I'm done typing, I'm going to clean my kitchen. Then I'm going to read a Psalm. And I'll pray--maybe for you!!!

And, I apologize for the winter weather that is undoubtedly going to hit Lincoln now that I've put my sweaters away!!