Half 'n Half

How do you look at life? Is the glass half full or half empty? I am definitely a half-full kind of girl. Well, on most days. I’ve been a single mom for about 6 years now, and I try really hard NOT to be the stereotypical, “poor girl who has no help.” I don’t want to be lumped into the category with helpless people, but I do want to take a moment to vent on living what I am from now on going to fondly (tongue in cheek) call the “half ‘n half” life.

About 4 months ago I was carrying on with my busy schedule of working 8 hours a day, teaching piano in the evenings, driving the girls around to every gymnastics and dance class they could take, coaching cheerleading until time to coach basketball season, sleeping occasionally and folding clothes rarely. All the while, I was trying to continue to see the glass “half-full.” Then, one night as the girls were eating dinner at our kitchen table, the darkness set in. No, there is no dark cloud that hangs over our house and the piano didn’t mysteriously begin playing by itself…but the light bulb over the kitchen table blew. So, I did what most people would do when a light bulb blows – I changed it! Two weeks later, we found ourselves in the same situation in the kitchen eating dinner and the light bulb blew again. So, what did I do? Well, I changed the light bulb again, of course! I just thought I must have used a faulty light bulb. Two weeks later it happened again. Instead of coming to the conclusion that I shouldn’t prepare dinner anymore, I decided to go on a light bulb changing strike. Lori is such a great friend…she offered to send her fearless light bulb-changing hubby over to replace my light bulbs, and I thanked her and said, “Nah, it’s okay! I’ve decided to teach the girls about different cultures...Mennonites have no electricity in their homes!” To date, there are 5 light bulbs in our house that aren’t working. Three out of the 4 in the bonus room ceiling fan are gone, so that room will soon be dark. Our house is well on its way to being half lit!

Several months ago the girls and I were at home on one of those rare occasions when we had time to watch television. It was a Saturday evening and we thought we would watch a movie on Disney, you know, probably one of the High School Musicals. Much to our surprise our cable seemed to be out…or at least the screen said we had no signal. We worked and worked on the television, all the remotes and the dvd player, but still could only get the television, half of what we needed, to work. I went over and over in my mind knowing that I had certainly paid the cable bill, so I just chalked it up to technical difficulties. It puzzled me for weeks that we weren’t getting a signal! So, I decided one Saturday, probably 3 weeks later, that I should probably call Comcast. The technician did a “reset” while we were on the phone, but there was still no signal. Yes, I’m electronically challenged and that became evident to the Comcast tech on the phone. “Ms. Williams, have you checked to see if your television is on channel 3?” Why, OF COURSE it’s on channel 3…nobody changes that in this house. “Well, Ms. Williams, if you would please do check it. We have done everything we can to do a remote reset and it should be working.” Okay, so YES, for 3 weeks, I was thinking there was something wrong with the cable…hmmm, operator error. Light bulbs and cable…and don’t even get me started on weed eaters.

The girls and I were looking for a new church home. We had visited so many and one Sunday, in particular, we decided we would try a larger church less than 10 miles from home. We got ourselves ready in a hurry that morning. We would have to go into church a little late, but probably only during the first song of the service. The girls and I like to sit up front in church when we can, so it seemed only appropriate that we find seats at this church close to the front. I just knew that during the welcome time, we would shake hands with a ton of new people and it would be a great day of worship. However, I was disappointed. No one was overly friendly and I had trouble even getting a smile out of some of the other women who appeared to be my age. I just couldn’t figure it out…well, until I got home. The girls and I went home to change and go visit friends. When I walked in front of my mirror on the way to my closet, it dawned on me why we didn’t receive a warm welcome. I had gotten ready in the normal rushed, half-baked kind of way. I remember not being able to reach the back of my dress, and I remembered thinking I needed to ask the girls to help me. Hmmm, a half-zipped dress IS NOT a way to win friends or influence people.

Half ‘n half…how do you see your glass? Mine is not so much a half-full or half-empty attitude anymore. I’m just doing my best to keep all of the plates spinning and not appear to others as if I’m the helpless single mom who lives down the street. So, I’m thinking my half ‘n half life is more like an Arnold Palmer…half sweet tea, half lemonade…some days the lemonade is so sour makes me pucker and some days the tea gives me just the right amount of zip…yes, zipped all the way to the top!