Good and Bad

This week's blog challenge from my favorite message board:

When we are lucky enough to gather around the table and have everyone home for our evening meal, there are always two questions we ask everyone seated at the table....What was your favorite part of your day today? and What was your least favorite part of your day today?

So pick a day this week and sit down and just blog those two questions.

Let's get the bad stuff out of the way.

The worst part of my day:

Lillian wet her pants three times today. Sheesh. What is up with her lately? She can't seem to make it to the bathroom on time, whether she's inside or outside. Quinn did the same thing! She's not wet the bed (yet), but is having unnecessary accidents during the day.


My favorite thing about today:

Today was a pretty normal day: laundry, dishes, picking up things here and there, doing my normal weekday chores. Nothin' special.

Today Quinn and Lillian and I decided to straighten up the playroom. I just cleaned and culled stuff from it two weeks ago, but Hurricane Lillian blew through and it was soon a mess again. I threw everything into laundry baskets, set out the buckets that toys go into, and asked the kids to sort with me. They worked well together, in harmony, doing as I asked when I asked. I was impressed.... impressed enough to promise them a trip to Bruster's ice cream when we were done, if they worked quickly.

We finished tidying, I vacuumed the playroom, we all put our shoes on, and then we headed out for our treats. Quinn chose a single scoop of chocolate chip and Lillian got a single scoop of chocolate. I chose a thin mint milkshake (made with thin mint Girl Scout cookies! Yummy!)

As I was waiting on my milkshake, an elderly couple got out of their car and walked up to the front order window. I was sitting at the drive thru window. When I saw them, I was immediately struck by the urge to pay for their ice cream. The cashier brought me my shake, and I told her I wanted to pay for the couple's order. She had to ask what they wanted so I could pay. They were resistant at first. They both came around to my car window to insist on paying for our order. I told them I'd already done that, and asked if I could please treat them. There were tears in the man's eyes as he told me no one had ever done that for him before in all his years of living.

I pulled ahead so the person behind me could pay for her order, and as I waited to pay for the couple's ice cream, I got the chance to talk to them. She told me she'd been housebound for awhile, having fallen down the stairs a few months ago and broken her hip. She was just getting around well again and had asked her husband to take her for ice cream, even though she wasn't supposed to eat it. They were so sweet in their interactions with one another, still behaving like two people very much in love. I could tell the man adored his wife, and she him. The conversation with those sweet people was a true blessing.

But it didn't stop there.

I pulled back around to the drive thru window after the cashier finished with the customer behind me. As the cashier approached the window, I could see she had tears in her eyes. She told me that what I had done had made her day, that she needed to see that today. I don't know what had happened to cause her to need a lift, but I was happy to have helped cheer her. I chatted with her for a bit, then realized it was later than I thought (I had to pick up my other kids from school) and I drove away with a smile.

That was the best $5 I ever spent. I was blessed, the cashier was blessed, and the couple was blessed.

I can't ask for anything better than that.