When we built our house eleven years ago, we planned the kitchen to be efficient and productive. One of those enhancements was two large drawers beside the sink where items that are normally used with the sink could be stored. One of the drawers holds our dish-drying towels.

For all my married life, I folded dish towels after laundering them and neatly put them in the drawer or on the shelf where they belonged. We go through several dish towels each day so we wash them two or three times a week.

One day, one of our sons questioned why I went to all the work of folding the dishtowels when they were stored in a drawer, out of sight. It didn’t matter if they were wrinkled since they were used again so quickly. My best answer was that the drawer looked nice with neatly folded towels.

Pondering that discussion, I decided it was worth trying dish towels going directly from the dryer to the drawer. Practically speaking, it was great. Aesthetically, it left something to be desired. I enjoyed the five or ten extra minutes I gained by not folding the towels, though. In the end, I decided a tidy drawer where it didn’t matter, wasn’t worth the time.

I think that was about three years ago. If I spent 20 minutes a week folding dish towels and haven’t had to do that for 3 years, I just figured out that netted me 52 hours of time to do things that do matter.

What about you? Any things come to mind that you might be doing that have outlived their reason to do them and that you could gain time if you let go of continuing to do them?

Trusting in Jesus,
Teri

“Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.”
(Ephesians 5:16)

We had a request to share items we purchase from Costco. I looked at our master Costco list, and it has 100 items on it so summarizing it didn’t seem feasible.

On our Costco list are items we buy every time, and others things we purchase occasionally.

Before I shop, I copy the master list into another file and then mark the items I want to buy. I like to do this by looking in my pantry, freezer, refrigerator, and cupboards rather than relying on my memory. Then I will delete the items from the list that I won’t be purchasing this trip and print my list.

Before, we leave for Costco shopping, I put my list on a clipboard that sits nicely in the child seat of the shopping cart. That allows me to easily view my shopping list to see where I am headed next and to mark off what I just put in the cart. I tried shopping from a list on my phone, but it was frustrating having to keep pulling my phone out, and even more now that face recognition doesn’t work in the store because of mask-wearing. I set my list up based on the order of the store.

You’ll find our Master Costco list at this link. We hope you find it useful!

Trusting in Jesus,
Teri

“Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; A blessing, if ye
obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you
this day: And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the LORD
your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to
go after other gods, which ye have not known” (Deuteronomy 11:26-28).

Thursday morning update: Thank you all so very much for your love and concern. Vet sat with her last night before going home, and she was calm. Ellie’s surgery will happen about 9am Central.

I’m going to be really raw with you all tonight and share what’s going on. There’s not always a good way to share hurts and disappointments, because sometimes they involve other people.

Ellie, my English Cream Golden Retriever, has been a sweet buddy to me since I got her three and a half years ago. She’s such a loyal friend and super smart too.

A dream of mine has also been to raise puppies, so I pursued that route once she turned two. Ellie went through extensive testing and turned out beautifully. Even the vet said breeding her would only improve her line. Her hips, which can be a weak link on goldens, scored in the top 5%. Excellent.

Last month, I bred Ellie to a gorgeous male. We all were excited about puppies in August, and it seemed my dream was coming true. Two weeks ago, Ellie had a concerning issue, so I took her to the vet. He checked her progesterone and even ran a blood panel, and she seemed okay, so we scheduled an ultrasound for the 10th. In dogs, gestation is very short. About halfway through, you can check for pregnancy via ultrasound.

Ellie hasn’t been herself since, but some of that could be attributed to being pregnant. This afternoon with anticipation, I brought her in for an ultrasound. I watched the screen as the vet moved the wand over her stomach, and instead of seeing little puppy sacs with beating hearts, we discovered infection. This wasn’t a small infection either. After drawing blood and testing it, we found her white blood cells are dangerously high. Because of that, Ellie needed to stay so they could start her on an IV and antibiotics, keep her overnight, and do surgery in the morning.

That was hard. Really hard. Yes, the loss of dreams, but to leave my sweet girl and to know she is so sick. She’s the kind of dog who doesn’t even like to go to a vet, and here she would have to stay. I took off her collar and leash and said good-bye with tears. The vet and his staff have been incredible and super helpful through this whole process. They assured me they will take good care of her, and I know they will. They hope I can bring her home Thursday night yet.

Life doesn’t always go as planned, but the Lord uses disappointments to draw us closer to Him. While I don’t understand, I know this is minor in the grand scheme of things. I trust, and I rest. Yes, I do shed tears and pray that Ellie’s infection will go down overnight and the surgery goes well so I can bring her home.

Love,
Sarah

“A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast …” Proverbs 12:10