I’m not going to list all the things for which I am thankful, they are far too numerous. Actually, if I’m completely honest, (which I try not to be very often) the list of things for which I should be thankful is far longer than the list of things for which I am actually thankful (I’m working on it). Instead I’m going to tell you about the thing, person really, that I am most thankful for right now.
If you’ve spent much time here at the Wonderland you know about my all consuming huge gigantic project we’ve been working on for the last 4 or 5 months. We’ve been putting an addition on our kitchen. (And when I say we’ve been putting an addition on our kitchen I mean we’ve been putting an addition on our kitchen.) This has been a huge project involving things like hanging floor joists and framing and insulating and knocking out existing walls and wiring and hanging sheetrock and…
So anyway, here we are, we’ve done all this work and we’re more or less (more really) using our new kitchen but we’re still walking around on plywood sub-floor and we only just have the sheetrock hung but we’re looking at the black screw heads every 16 inches or so and well, we’ve run out of money.
Enter aunt Kay.
My mother’s sister sells home decoration type stuff. (Wow, that’s really badly phrased but I’m not sure what her title actually is.) She’s not a decorator per se but she’s the gal you call when you want to replace your flooring or your counter tops or your window treatments or your closets or your whatever.
So I knew we were mostly out of money but my children are spilling their juice on the sub-floor and we’ve got to get it covered so I called aunt Kay. And she came over and looked and she had some great ideas but she couldn’t give me a price right off the top of her head so she’d have to call me. In the mean time I checked the checking account and I found out just how out of money we are. It isn’t pretty folks. So when aunt Kay calls and gives me a number I have to tell her that we can’t do it.
“Well, sure you can, we’ll just put it in and you can pay me whenever.”
“No, I don’t want you to have to pay for my floor.”
“It’s fine,” she says.
“No, I don’t think so.”
We went back and forth like this for a while but eventually she mentioned that she has a few other options that she’s looking at and she’ll get back to me.
Well, this could be a very long story but I don’t want to bore you so I’ll cut to the chase. She’s found us a much less expensive option that we really quite like and she’s insisting on putting it in for us for Christmas. (We’re still going to pay her back, eventually, for the floor but the install is a gift.) And while she’s at it she’s sending her handyman over to mud and tape my walls, the prospect of which scared me far more than hanging the floor, because he owes her “so really it’s free” (her calculation not mine). Oh and he’s going to wire the other interior wall that we want to build. (Apparently he owes her a lot of money.)
Here’s the thing, I’m not good at accepting help (remember how I hung the rim joists myself?) and I’m remarkably bad at asking for help. But I have been faced with an amazing family member (who reminds me of my mother) who says things like “I have been very blessed and I need you to let me help you out so that the Lord will continue to bless me.” I mean really, how do you fight that?!
But honestly I can’t tell you how grateful I am for the woman who’s providing me with, almost literally, a roof over my and my children’s heads. And for the opportunity to learn how to receive.
I’m thankful for my aunt Kay.
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PS If I can swing it I’m going to have some kind of button on my sidebar linking to her website so that all of you on the Wasatch front can have aunt Kay come out to your house too. (I can’t promise you the family discount though.)
PPS In reading through this I’m afraid that this comes off as a really uncomplimentary backhanded compliment. I really don’t mean it that way. The woman is wonderful, and amazing, and did you read that quote about the Lord blessing her? I did not make that up. She saw a niece who needed her help and she’s insisting on giving it and I could not be more grateful.
Everyone needs an Aunt Kay! I also have a hard time accepting and especially asking for help. Not because I’m independent or whatever, but because I hate to have someone doing something just for me. Like wasting their time doing something that I could maybe do myself. I had a friend who one day said to me, “Lisa, you need to learn to let people do things for you. You are denying people blessings, you realize.” And denying myself the blessing of someone’s service, as well.
So glad you came to a happy resolution.
Awwww! What a sweet lady, and a sweet blessing too. It sounds like it might be a good lesson for our intrepid heroine too, whadda ya think? So glad you have even more to be grateful for! Whoo hooo! Happy Thanksgiving.
Well, I can honestly say that I wish I had an aunt Kay. Or any aunt for that matter, as my parents are both only children – oy vay – yes it’s that bad.
What a wonderful gesture on your aunt’s part and I’m glad you accepted her offers. Being able to receive is far more important than giving I believe, as how does one accumulate blessings if they are able to be charitable? It’s a double bind type of scenario the Lord has given us!
Happy Thanksgiving Wonderland family!
Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you have an amazing day. Yay for Aunt Kay!
“While she’s at it she’s sending over her handyman…”
Have my angels been hanging around your new kitchen lately? This sounds like their handy work. Yay you, and tell Aunt Kay I’ll post a button for her on my sidebar as well.
YAY! I love it when people are kind and loving to someone I really like. You’ll have to post floor pictures (with or without juice spills).
Oh, that’s wonderful! I know the Lord will keep blessing her.
Learning how to receive is one of life’s most important lessons. Second only to learning how to give. I’m so happy for you and your new floor! Aunt Kay is awesome.
Yay for aunt Kay! Send her my way.
I’m glad you had a god Thanksgiving!
You’ve read about my house – Will Aunt Kay adopt me?