How do you eat an Elephant?
That’s really an odd question if you think about it. I mean. If you remembered, wouldn’t you have remembered not to forget? Just a thought.
Of course all of my blogs start with a thought. Life starts with a thought.
So tonight I’m thinking about all the times I've had to fix or do things without any help. Since I became unmarried, there have been many times when there was no one available to help. I mean I’ve had some great neighbors and some family, but like tonight. There wasn’t anyone.
I remember during the divorce process when I was cleaning out two storage buildings. One of them was so full that I had to hurry and close the door before something fell out. I got frustrated and I threw my hands up in the air and ever so gracefully shouted, “I am not a man!” I’m sure that was news to everyone. Ha!
But the point is that I had to suck it up and take one part at a time. My mother always said, “How do you eat an elephant?” Of course all sorts of smart alec comments came to mind. Just the way I think. But she said, “one bite at a time”. Of course! Then I took it a step further and said, “ start with the toes, they are closest to the ground!” In other words start with what’s doable.
I’d like to say I limit myself to what’s doable, but that would be lying. You see Wonder Woman and I have never been seen in the same place at the same time. Lol! I think she’s afraid to be seen with me.
The hardest words for me to utter are, “ I can’t “ Not because I’m all that , but I’m determined. I once worked for a real estate agent. I would go into rental properties and get them ready for new tenants. Eventually he would give me the job of flipping a house he wanted to sell. So, I learned to install flooring, put up and take down wall paper, fill holes, hang blinds, you get my drift. There wasn’t anything I wouldn’t try.
One day he called and asked me to go on to the roof of a house and saw off a branch that was too close to the house. So, I get there and it’s not just a branch or two, nope, it’s a limb. Did I call him and say are you insane?” Nope. I found a rickety old ladder, climbed on top of the roof and sawed off the limb. Yep, determined.
The realtors wife came by later and saw me trying to saw the limb into movable pieces and nearly flipped her lid. She said, “ stop doing that !” “ I’ll have my sons come and haul that off,” My husband thinks you’re super woman.” lol Well, so did I.
By the time I finished with the two storage buildings you could eat off the floors. I organized everything. I put things in the garage and had everything ready so that when xman came to pick up his stuff I think his mind blew up a little.
I had taken everything out and organized it into sections. All he had to do was back up a trailer and haul stuff off. Why? I really don’t know. I guess I wanted to take my life back and cleaning out storage buildings, etc seemed to be a good place to start.
After the car wreck I sold a house I had owned. I was still wearing the back brace and ankle cast, but the deck hadn’t been stained and I wanted it to be perfect. Now, this was after I sold the house but before closing. So I bought the deck stain, etc and stained it myself. Hobbling around like a weeble. You have to google "Weeble". They used to say, “ Weebles wobble , but they don’t fall down.”
So tonight, right before dark I went out to wash off the top to my porch swing. I was missing a bolt and it had come in the mail. It’s a good thing I was outside because when I went around to the side of the house I noticed that the lock on the gate was broken. I’m not talking about a little broken, there were pieces of it laying on the ground.
Well Lincoln loves the back yard. If I had let him outside he could easily have gone out of the gate. He wouldn’t have left the property, but that wasn’t the point. So, I called for help and the person was busy. Not their problem. So it dawned on me that I could do this myself.
I took a picture of the lock , threw a hat on my head and went to Lowes. I had an attitude. I admit it. I started to say,” God. I am not a man! I need help!” Then I remembered, I could do it myself. How cool is that?
So I asked God to forgive me and reminded myself that he was (is) the man in my life and he’d taught me how to do all sorts of things myself in the past.The only problem was that it was getting dark. So, I turned on the lights and turned my phone into a flashlight. I took the old bolt off and prepared it for the new one. It will have to wait until tomorrow, but I had some straps and I used them to close the gate as best as I could . Tomorrow’s another day and the lock will be changed.
Unfortunately none of my children got the “determined”.,. “ I can do it myself” ways. Of course I jest. When I was potty training my youngest daughter I’d get the seat all clean and place her on the toilet. Well she wasn’t having any of that! She got down and said, “ I can do it myself!” And she did.
My oldest daughter has a full time job, her own business and two daughters. She doesn’t know she can’t do something. She just does it. My son is a musician. He takes songs and creates masterpieces. He writes both classical and contemporary music. He figures out computer programs and he creates magic. They just do what needs to be done. I’m VERY proud of them.
So, back to me. Tonight, as I was on my way to Lowe’s I started to get angry. I thought “ I just need someone to help me!” Then it was like I saw a vision of myself on top of that roof , cutting down a limb, me taking apart two storage buildings and staining a deck. And I thought,” when did I forget?”
When did I forget that I was capable? When did I forget that God was ( is) with me and that I have the tools to do it myself? So. I reminded myself that God never let me down before, I headed to Lowe’s, got the part and prepped the gate. The rest can wait.
The Bible says that “I can do all things through Christ who strengthen me”. I’m going to believe that and trust him completely. Either he’ll teach me how to finish installing the latch or he’ll send someone to finish it for me. He’s my God and my father. He gave Lincoln to me and he’ll help me take care of him.
The moral of the story is “ do what you can until you just can't. Then trust the Lord for help". If you are tempted to say, "I can't" ask yourself..."How do I know?" And remember that you know the ruler of the universe and he is a very present help in time of need!
UPDATE:
So, since this post was written the gate and I had a long talk. I bought the correct piece to keep the gate closed. I found out that the previous piece had been a six dollar piece and wondered how it had kept the gate closed as long as it did. It's super windy here and things just, blow away.
Anyway, I realized that my gate and the latch I bought were not made for each other. So, (I wish I had a picture...no I don't really) I put the first part of the latch on .. I watched YouTubeversity! My neighbor probably thought I'd lost my mind, nope, she's met me. I'm yelling at the video.."Stop. I can't see where that spring thing goes!"
I get the latch on and go to put the other section on. Well guess what? The gate wouldn't close! Not kidding. Am I deterred? Nope! I get out my drill and drill away a section of the fence. It fit! Next problem. I couldn't attach the latch. It was on a post with a knot in it! No drill was going to do the job. So I called for help, which came this afternoon. Thank you, you know who you are!
I'm really glad that the person that came didn't laugh. Nope, they looked at what I'd done as...imagination! So, they had to saw a hole in the fence post, attach the latch and it almost looks like it was done on purpose. I was ready though. I was going to put the largest bit on that drill and chunk away at that wood. Thank God for help when you need it. Trust me, sometimes I really need it.
Of course all of my blogs start with a thought. Life starts with a thought.
So tonight I’m thinking about all the times I've had to fix or do things without any help. Since I became unmarried, there have been many times when there was no one available to help. I mean I’ve had some great neighbors and some family, but like tonight. There wasn’t anyone.
I remember during the divorce process when I was cleaning out two storage buildings. One of them was so full that I had to hurry and close the door before something fell out. I got frustrated and I threw my hands up in the air and ever so gracefully shouted, “I am not a man!” I’m sure that was news to everyone. Ha!
But the point is that I had to suck it up and take one part at a time. My mother always said, “How do you eat an elephant?” Of course all sorts of smart alec comments came to mind. Just the way I think. But she said, “one bite at a time”. Of course! Then I took it a step further and said, “ start with the toes, they are closest to the ground!” In other words start with what’s doable.
I’d like to say I limit myself to what’s doable, but that would be lying. You see Wonder Woman and I have never been seen in the same place at the same time. Lol! I think she’s afraid to be seen with me.
The hardest words for me to utter are, “ I can’t “ Not because I’m all that , but I’m determined. I once worked for a real estate agent. I would go into rental properties and get them ready for new tenants. Eventually he would give me the job of flipping a house he wanted to sell. So, I learned to install flooring, put up and take down wall paper, fill holes, hang blinds, you get my drift. There wasn’t anything I wouldn’t try.
One day he called and asked me to go on to the roof of a house and saw off a branch that was too close to the house. So, I get there and it’s not just a branch or two, nope, it’s a limb. Did I call him and say are you insane?” Nope. I found a rickety old ladder, climbed on top of the roof and sawed off the limb. Yep, determined.
The realtors wife came by later and saw me trying to saw the limb into movable pieces and nearly flipped her lid. She said, “ stop doing that !” “ I’ll have my sons come and haul that off,” My husband thinks you’re super woman.” lol Well, so did I.
By the time I finished with the two storage buildings you could eat off the floors. I organized everything. I put things in the garage and had everything ready so that when xman came to pick up his stuff I think his mind blew up a little.
I had taken everything out and organized it into sections. All he had to do was back up a trailer and haul stuff off. Why? I really don’t know. I guess I wanted to take my life back and cleaning out storage buildings, etc seemed to be a good place to start.
After the car wreck I sold a house I had owned. I was still wearing the back brace and ankle cast, but the deck hadn’t been stained and I wanted it to be perfect. Now, this was after I sold the house but before closing. So I bought the deck stain, etc and stained it myself. Hobbling around like a weeble. You have to google "Weeble". They used to say, “ Weebles wobble , but they don’t fall down.”
So tonight, right before dark I went out to wash off the top to my porch swing. I was missing a bolt and it had come in the mail. It’s a good thing I was outside because when I went around to the side of the house I noticed that the lock on the gate was broken. I’m not talking about a little broken, there were pieces of it laying on the ground.
Well Lincoln loves the back yard. If I had let him outside he could easily have gone out of the gate. He wouldn’t have left the property, but that wasn’t the point. So, I called for help and the person was busy. Not their problem. So it dawned on me that I could do this myself.
I took a picture of the lock , threw a hat on my head and went to Lowes. I had an attitude. I admit it. I started to say,” God. I am not a man! I need help!” Then I remembered, I could do it myself. How cool is that?
So I asked God to forgive me and reminded myself that he was (is) the man in my life and he’d taught me how to do all sorts of things myself in the past.The only problem was that it was getting dark. So, I turned on the lights and turned my phone into a flashlight. I took the old bolt off and prepared it for the new one. It will have to wait until tomorrow, but I had some straps and I used them to close the gate as best as I could . Tomorrow’s another day and the lock will be changed.
Unfortunately none of my children got the “determined”.,. “ I can do it myself” ways. Of course I jest. When I was potty training my youngest daughter I’d get the seat all clean and place her on the toilet. Well she wasn’t having any of that! She got down and said, “ I can do it myself!” And she did.
My oldest daughter has a full time job, her own business and two daughters. She doesn’t know she can’t do something. She just does it. My son is a musician. He takes songs and creates masterpieces. He writes both classical and contemporary music. He figures out computer programs and he creates magic. They just do what needs to be done. I’m VERY proud of them.
So, back to me. Tonight, as I was on my way to Lowe’s I started to get angry. I thought “ I just need someone to help me!” Then it was like I saw a vision of myself on top of that roof , cutting down a limb, me taking apart two storage buildings and staining a deck. And I thought,” when did I forget?”
When did I forget that I was capable? When did I forget that God was ( is) with me and that I have the tools to do it myself? So. I reminded myself that God never let me down before, I headed to Lowe’s, got the part and prepped the gate. The rest can wait.
The Bible says that “I can do all things through Christ who strengthen me”. I’m going to believe that and trust him completely. Either he’ll teach me how to finish installing the latch or he’ll send someone to finish it for me. He’s my God and my father. He gave Lincoln to me and he’ll help me take care of him.
The moral of the story is “ do what you can until you just can't. Then trust the Lord for help". If you are tempted to say, "I can't" ask yourself..."How do I know?" And remember that you know the ruler of the universe and he is a very present help in time of need!
UPDATE:
So, since this post was written the gate and I had a long talk. I bought the correct piece to keep the gate closed. I found out that the previous piece had been a six dollar piece and wondered how it had kept the gate closed as long as it did. It's super windy here and things just, blow away.
Anyway, I realized that my gate and the latch I bought were not made for each other. So, (I wish I had a picture...no I don't really) I put the first part of the latch on .. I watched YouTubeversity! My neighbor probably thought I'd lost my mind, nope, she's met me. I'm yelling at the video.."Stop. I can't see where that spring thing goes!"
I get the latch on and go to put the other section on. Well guess what? The gate wouldn't close! Not kidding. Am I deterred? Nope! I get out my drill and drill away a section of the fence. It fit! Next problem. I couldn't attach the latch. It was on a post with a knot in it! No drill was going to do the job. So I called for help, which came this afternoon. Thank you, you know who you are!
I'm really glad that the person that came didn't laugh. Nope, they looked at what I'd done as...imagination! So, they had to saw a hole in the fence post, attach the latch and it almost looks like it was done on purpose. I was ready though. I was going to put the largest bit on that drill and chunk away at that wood. Thank God for help when you need it. Trust me, sometimes I really need it.
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