Thoughts From a Wednesday Morning

This morning I went to Michael's to get supplies for our Young Women activity tonight. While there, I saw entire kits to build models of the California Missions. In addition to just the mission building, these kits came complete with grass, fences, animals, roof tiles, etc. Upon seeing these kits, I thought, "man, kids have it easy these days!" Building a model of a California mission is a project that most kids in California do while studying California history in, I believe, the 4th grade. I remember building my mission model. I used styrofoam to make the building, adding leaves, grass, and twigs from our yard for the plants and spruced it all up with paprika to turn the roof red (like the tiles) and dried herbs for the ground. It was nothing fancy, but I actually had to build the thing myself. I remember some of the other kids' missions were built using sugar cubes, cardboard, etc., etc. Some rare kids with overambitious parents even built fancy missions out of balsa wood. But, we all actually built our own missions. None of this put a little kit together and throw some plastic animals in there. Then I thought about Legos. We had tons of Legos when I was a kid. And most of them were just colored blocks. We had instructions to build certain things, but we also just used our imaginations to make different things. Nowadays, Legos are more like puzzles. You buy the kits and the instructions tell you where each piece goes and each piece is specifically shaped to go in a certain spot. Kids really do have it easy these days!



While at the gym, I saw a guy who clearly was using the weight machines for the first time. It was funny because he was trying to be nonchalant about the fact that he didn't know what he was doing. I could tell, though, when he started to get in the lat pulldown machine backwards. This was after he looked at another machine for a little while, couldn't figure out what it was for, and just gave up on it. I often see people at the gym who really have no idea what they're doing. I want to help them and tell them that unless they do the exercises right, they may as well not waste their time. But, unsolicited workout advice from strangers is usually not welcome. So, I keep my mouth shut and my thoughts to myself. But, inside, I'm shaking my head because those are the people who are going to give up on it in several weeks because they're not seeing results. Knowledge really is power!



And finally, Spring is coming! Green leaves are starting to appear on our birch tree. All of the plants are showing new growth. The hummingbirds are out in force. The sun is shining and warm. And little flower buds are starting to appear. Huzzah and happy spring! In honor of the approaching Vernal Equinox, we are planting seeds in pots for our Young Women activity tonight. I am not a big gardner. Mostly, I'm pretty clueless when it comes to planting things or taking care of plants (I think my parents are praying that their yard survives our housesitting stint). But, I do think it's fun to plant something as small as a seed and watch it become a beautiful plant with flowers. It's amazing and I'm so ready for spring to come! Yay!




And with that, Happy Wednesday!