Successful

I think I mostly successfully navigated the first week of January. I don't recall any meltdowns.  Though I did have a few social "mis-steps", times when I was less than tactful or came across as controlling or nosy.  I'll keep trying.

The other day, though, was very strange.  Stopped at the grocery. Went to my favorite checker - Penny.  She mis-keyed into the register the amount of cash I tendered, did a quick mental arithmetic and gave me change back according to her calculations.  As we walked off, I kept thinking and nope, she was wrong, so back I went to give her the overage I had mistakenly received.

Then later we stopped for a salad.  (Tried to go to Olive Garden, it was a blustery, dark day and I just craved some soup and salad, and it's not too expensive for lunchtime, but the wait at 2 was nearly an hour.  Nope, not waiting that long.)  The lad at the register gave me back too much change.  Don't know why or how that happens, these registers are really computers and he should have input the amount correctly. So, yes, back we went to return the overage.

Almost bought this.  Love it.

Now, logically, one would assume that this occurs because no one (at least no one but me) uses cash anymore.  It's all plastic.  Arithmetic takes too long (and no one is very good at it anyway, especially when it comes to money).  Cash is too complicated.  And yup, that's probably a good assumption.

But, I couldn't help but wonder if that old ugly Devil was trying to trip me up.  Sure, it was only a couple dollars.  Still.  Souls have been sold for small amounts at a time.  I've been thought-immersed in the upcoming R.S. lesson I'm teaching: "Firm and Steadfast In The Faith Of Christ" by Christofferson.  So I've been pondering ways people are steadfast, ways we gain and retain our integrity.  Hopefully I passed this little "test".

And church was very strange yesterday.  For the past year we've been 1-4 p.m. Not only are we taking our turn at the 9:00 a.m. schedule, but we're pioneering (along with the rest of the church membership) the new 2 hour block.  I ran a quick errand after church but was still home by 11:30 a.m.  Felt very odd.  The Husband and I did our Come, Follow Me study.  That was something we've never done together before (at least that I recall) and I quite enjoyed it.  Because of some of the questions in the manual, our study sort of evolved into a Family Council meeting where we worked through a couple things.  And frankly, I think that's just great.

I'm thankful today for kind souls who make sure they stop and chat with me at church.  I'm grateful that no one acted like I'd failed because I didn't help with Saturday's funeral.  (We had a different funeral that took precedence, someone we've known for nearly 30 years and deeply loved. By the time we were done with that funeral I was done with funerals and people for the day. And frankly, it's been a very, very long time since I didn't help with a funeral of any kind no matter where we lived.) Our ward fed nearly 200 people which is a lot.  Which also made me so grateful I'm no longer Compassionate Service Leader.  It's been just a year since I was released.  And just a year since our ward had any funerals.

I'm grateful that the precipitation has held off long enough today that I was able to get a walk in (thanks, My Love, for tagging along, I love having you with me) and shovel yesterday's snow off the driveway and walks. It looks quite threatening out, but it's amazingly warm (nearly 40 degrees) for January; whatever snow falls won't be too awful to remove.  I'm grateful that I've had some good books to read and some more in the queue.  And a project or two for sewing.  And leftovers for dinner.