Sometimes things work

As I was doing the dishes last night, I had this thought and I thought that I better post about this thought before it flits away: Sometimes things work.

I know it sounds obvious but I think most of the time we talk to each other about how things aren't working, our troubles are more interesting than our prevailing virtues, this is not news but it is important to remember. I've talked a lot on this blog about how things haven't worked out, the car breaking down the dishwasher breaking.

I wanted every one to know that we've had a lot of troubles with our dishwasher lately which has involved me taking the thing apart piece by piece and cleaning it out over and over again because it's all full of gunk from the stupid phosphate free soap I've been using. It turns out that saving the environment destroys your dishwasher. Huh. So it hasn't been draining properly and I've been "this close" to calling the repair guy but then the day before yesterday all of a sudden, it's draining. So that's working.

And we've had all sorts of problems with our CRV. The engine light came on (again) after we've spent a ton of cash fixing the things needed to fix it but then we got the oil changed and it went off.

Oh and also Eliott started limping a few weeks ago and I was sure it was his back again but it seems he just stepped on something because he was fine 24 hours later.

So that's three things that have worked, three examples but if I were to start listing all of the things that work, that are working in my life right now, the list would be very long and probably boring but long. Things are working all of the time.

A lot of times what I do when I see the inkling of something going wrong is that I jump to the worst possible conclusion and start preparing myself for battle. I think that I'm good at going into battle, facing the worst and that sometimes that part of me gets bored and feels underused and wants to spring into action. "HERE WE GO! HOW ARE WE GOING TO DEAL WITH THIS ONE?" When in some instances I should just maybe, wait and see? Hmmmm....

I'm talking about the little things that can chip away at you here. When you are living your life in such a way, as most of us are, that a few hundred or thousand dollars can really put you in a tailspin financially, it's easy to feel like life is coming at you. For every step forward, there's always something unexpected that seems to put you right back where you were.

Sometimes things work and I'm grateful when they do. I wish I could notice it as much as I do when they don't work. I guess we all wish we could.

One funny thing I wanted to share that Jasper is doing, he's so cute right now it's unreal. Deron and I decided that his cuteness is peaking. He's just talking so much now but he's still so cute and chubby and all toddler. They are otherworldly cute at this age. It's like living with an elf. Ok so the thing he does right now is he won't say his own name for some reason. He knows how to say it. He'll pretty much take a stab at any word you throw at him these days. It might not sound exactly like the word you've asked him to repeat but he's "saying" it. So recently I've started asking him what his name is and the conversation goes something like this:

Me: Jasper what's your name?
Jasper: Spiderman
Me: You're Spiderman?
Jasper: Noooooo
Me: What's your name?
Jasper: Me!
Me: Yes you are me but what is your name? Is your name Jasper?
Jasper: Yes.
Me: Can you say "Jasper?"
Jasper: Don't want to.
Me: (pointing to Davey) Who is that?
Jasper: Davey
Me: What's my name?
Jasper: Mamma!
Me: What's your name?
Jasper: Me
Me: Can you say, "Jasper?"
Jasper: Not now. Don't want to.