Not the day I had hoped for

Just as I was about to drive to Provo for women’s conference, I realized I didn’t have my tag and the booklet of classes and info. I came back in the house and looked in my office. I found the booklet, but where was that envelope with my name badge? After 15 minutes of looking, my frustration level was raising higher and higher. Why can I not be organized? Why are there so many piles of paper and crap around here? Why can’t I remember where I put that dang envelope?

I was already irked that I had paid for the full two days of the conference and wasn’t able to go to the first day. So it was going to be my one day conference, spiritual boost, make me a better person day.

Ryan came in and asked what I was doing and then proceeded to help me look, which only annoyed me more. I had already looked in all the places he was looking, and I should be able to find the dang thing myself, thank you very much. But he could tell I was disheartened and he was trying to help. He even called BYU conferences and found out that I could, for $5, get a replacement name badges at certain registration locations at the Marriott Center. But I didn’t want to pay ANOTHER $5 when I had already paid MORE than I should have for the conference in the first place. I continued to look. As soon as he left, I couldn’t stop the tears. First I got rejected by the theater, then I couldn’t find this ticket. I felt like I wasted that registration money.

As I searched, I started to throw things away. Since I was already late, and would be even later if I went to do the registration, I decided to just skip it and make the best of it.

I was going to do some service. Service to myself and my family. If someone came to me and asked if they could help me do one dirty job around the house, I might say the laundry room. It’s a total mess and we neglect it all to often. So, I decided that to pretend like I was in someone else’s house, doing service for them. If I were helping someone else, I wouldn’t stop before we were done, and I wouldn’t complain about it. I would try to make the experience as pleasant as I could. While it was too noisy to watch a movie or a show (what with the washer and the dryer running), but I did turn up the radio, grab a diet coke from the fridge, and got to work.

So many clothes on the floor! We could probably outfit a whole family in just the clothes on the floor! While it wasn’t a HUGE purge, I did have a big garbage bags for too small items, and a lot of garbage.

When I had everything sorted, I had to address the mess on top of the washer and dryer.

I should be embarrassed to even show you these pictures, but it’s all service, right?

Eventually I got the washer and dryer so clean, they almost look like new appliances.

When all the clothes were sorted and put in everyone’s basket, I hauled the garbage out (3 bags of trash), and hauled the bags to go to DI (4 bags, just from the laundry room, plus another 2 bags I had already collected)

I was tired and hungry, so I loaded up the donations and took them all to Deseret Industries, then stopped and got myself some lunch on the way home.

I lost steam in my day of service after lunch, but I did manage to fold all the kitchen towels and tablecloths and fold one basket of my own clothes.

When Megan came home from school she said, ‘Hey, did you put my clothes in the dryer for me?’

Oh, I did more than that. Go see.

She took a look and said, ‘Wow, Mom! If I had money I’d pay you! Good job!’

That thank you and a little recognition of my hard work is all the payment I need.

After all, it was SERVICE.