So this is a fun little story about what happened to us today!
A little back story first: I have been sorting through and organizing several areas in our house -- a de-cluttering/Spring cleaning/fresh start-New Years sort of thing. It has been time consuming, but the overall results are very pleasing! I like for things to be neat and organized, and sometimes I feel too rushed and hurried to stop and keep things organized... anyways, so after cleaning out a book shelf, I had several books that I no longer need and wanted to donate them somewhere. So this morning I loaded the boys to go play at the park for a little while (it is a beautiful 60+ degree winter day here in central Texas!) and I grabbed the box of books, thinking I would drop them by the library on our way to the park. Well, while in route, I decided that I would instead drop them by at the Goodwill downtown because then I could drop them off without having to get all three boys out and back into their carseat.
So, to Goodwill we went to donate our books. Well, when we got to the drop off area, I noticed a Little Tikes outdoors play log cabin that was for sale -- for $23!!!! (Another little side note: just a couple of weeks ago, I had told Robert that I would really like to get the boys a play house or something for the backyard -- they always love playing with them when we are over at friends' houses and they often use the toys that we do have in the backyard to make themselves a house/tent/fort, etc. But I really didn't want to spend a couple hundred dollars on something that will be outside getting weathered.)
So, naturally, for just $23, I bought it right away -- and was ecstatic about the awesome find! But, apparently my "Odyssey" eyes were bigger than my van door openings, and we just couldn't get that silly thing to fit into the van (when taken apart) -- that is with the 3 kiddos in their carseats... I am always thinking that I have SO MUCH ROOM in my mini-van, but really, when you have 3 little ones in carseats, it takes up quite a bit of space, and there doesn't seem to be as much as I thought!
So, I was beginning to think that we were going to have to come back another time with Robert's truck to get the log cabin, when a very sweet old man came over and said "Hey, I noticed that you are having a hard time getting that thing in your van... I've got some rope in my truck, maybe we can just tie it down to your roof." And so that is what we proceeded to do -- he helped me get the pieces stacked on top of each other on the roof, and tied them down securely! And we drove the ~8 miles home going ~15-20mph, but we made it home just fine and got the cabin re-assembled, and Luke and Daniel are having a blast in the backyard right now playing in it!!! They even insisted on eating lunch out there!
It just makes me so thankful that the God of the universe, who created
all things from
nothing, cares about the little tiny things in my life on a day-to-day basis! He knew that I was wanting to get something like this for the boys to play with, and He provided it for an awesome price, and even used a sweet old man to help out a stranger so that we could get it home!
We bundled the rope that tied it down and put it in the van so that maybe we can use it to help someone else in need one day!
This was near the 17.5 mile area -- we were waiting for Robert to pass by and a lady waiting on her family/friends took a picture of us!
