JEANNIE'S EXTREME MEASURES

     Jeannie works like a man, constantly cutting, trimming, cleaning out brush, painting, cleaning houses, doing carpentry work, manicuring flower beds, etc. You name it, she does it. She's a work horse, a human dynamo. She's aways looking for more work and uses most of her money on her family, sons, their wives and grandchildren. Her sons are good workers, too, with as many talents as their mom has.
     Grandchildren are another matter. I have a feeling that she spoils her grandchildren just like she spoils her animals, the pit bull especially. However, she handles things in a wise manner sometimes with actions that speak louder than words.
     Jeannie related to me an incident that she handled which caused my opinion of her to go up about 50%.
     Her teenage grandchildren, lovely though they are, always come to her house while she is at work slaving away at the houses of her clients, and the grands eat the food she has in her refrigerator. Her philosophy is what food that's there that's hers, it's their food also. It's my philosophy, too. My casa is your casa, and all of that.
     A problem arose lately when it became an overwhelming burden. The grands never took their dishes into the kitchen and washed them, so Jeannie had to be welcomed home after a hard, hard day's work and was welcomed home by a house adorned with dirty dishes, caked on spaghetti sauce, dried fried egg yoke, half eaten cereal bowls -- well, all moms and grandmothers know what I'm talking about.
     Jeannie had asked over and over that the grands please take the dirty dishes into the kitchen and wash them, not too much to do for the grandmother who grants their every wish. In one ear and out the other, like so often happens with young people.
     One day last week the proverbial you know what hit the fan. Jeannie got home from work where she was helping build a deck and a fence, at my house in fact. It had been a long, hot day and she had kept up with her son, the carpenter, as they toiled all day in the hot sun. There was still work to be done when she got home, unloading the trailer which carried the old rotten lumber they had laboriously loaded from my rebuilding project.
     Again Jeannie was met with dirty dishes all over the house. That was too much this time. Since words had never worked, Jeannie decided to take desperate measures. She took all the dirty dishes and threw them in the trash barrel outside.
    The next day, same thing, Jeannie took the dirty, crusty dishes that had been left in the house and threw them in the trash barrel.
    After a few days of that, there were no more dishes in the cupboard.
     When she got home there were a few grandchildren there to tell her that there were no dishes in the house so they couldn't eat. Just the point Jeannie was trying to make. She graciously told them that all the dishes were in the trash barrel and if they wanted to eat something they better go to the trash barrel, get a dish and wash themselves that dish on which to put their food.
     Talk about a valuable lesson. Can you imagine having to go into a smelly trash barrel and retrieve a few dishes with dried, caked on food and having to wash those dishes before you could eat? That would ruin the appetite of anyone. Her strategy worked. The emphatic words from the past never worked but the extreme measure of the grands getting the dishes out of the trash barrel worked. No paper plates and cups, she said, they had to get the dishes and utensils out of the garbage if they wanted to eat.
     Desperate times do require desperate measures. Jeannie's methods worked. Every time the grandchildren are tempted to leave a dirty dish on the coffee table or on the floor or in the bathroom, those grands will think about reaching into the dirty, smelly trash barrel, groping around inside it to get a dish and fork, take them inside, scrape them and scrub off all the caked on food before they can eat a single bite of their grandma's food.
     Experience is the best teacher, especially when it means reaching into a smelly trash barrel to learn a lesson. Jeannie taught her grandchildren through experience because they chose it rather than heeding her words.
     The grands didn't know that she had s few dishes and utensils for Gramps and her stashed away and hidden from the sight of the grandkids.
     We do that so often with our Heavenly Father. We don't heed His instructions, don't follow his guidance and then we learn by an unpleasant experience. Some of them might be groping in a smelly traxh barrel for a dirty dish that we have to clean before we can even take a bite of food. Sure would be better if we would listen to God and heed his teachings. It would save a lot of unpleasantness of having to learn by experiences which have dirty, smelly backlashes.

My Duck Dynasty Day

     Jeannie's son Mark is an excellent carpenter, very thorough.
     However, I wouldn't want to tackle with Jeannie in a dark alley if she didn't like me. She's very deternined, a good worker and a good business woman.  She and her great big son Mark are rebuilding the deck and the fence around my pool.
     Jeannie and I went to Lowe's yesterday. I put all the lumber, concrete, screws, etc., on my Lowe's credit card because I got a 5% discount and I wanted to make sure things were on the up and up.  Mark and Jeannie tore out almost all of the rotten decking, broken hot tub, fence, rotten poles, bracing, etc. yesterday. The guy at Lowe's said that they would deliver the lumber/supplies early this morning.
     While we were at Lowe's Jeannie had her "spoiled baby" pit bull in her car. She can't leave him at home (I can hear all of you laughing at this red neck story) because he tears up her house. She has been leaving him in her car while she works but he started tearing up the inside of the car. He won't leave her side. Anyway, Jeannie told me that she was going to get the cement and poles and bracing on her trailer in case Lowe's didn't get everything delivered before they got here to work this morning. 
      While we at Lowe's ordering and paying, Jeannie kept having to go outside to check on her baby (five year old pit bull with a head the size of a bowling ball and twice as hard) in her car. When I finishing paying at Lowe's, Jeannie said she was going to get her trailer and come back to Lowe's and get the necessary supplies so Mark could get a head start this morning.
     Later in the day yesterday she said she didn't get the stuff, but was going to get it early this morning on her trailer so Mark could get started rebuilding the deck this morning.
    This morning when they came, she said that they would get the holes dug for the poles, take up the rest of the rotten poles and bracing and Lowe's would be here by then.
    Nada. Lowe's is known here for that, a different time table than their customers.  They have a horrible delivery reputation.
     At ten o'clock Jeannie called them and they said that they had other deliveries ahead of mine. Said it would be two o'clock. Jeannie was livid by now.
     At about 1:00 this afternoon she was griping about them not delivering when they said they would.  I graciously reminded her about the fact that she said she was going back to get what Mark needed to get started, the concrete, the new poles and 2X6s for the bracings when we were there yesterday and she also said late in the day yesterday that she was going to get them this morning. She said that she couldn't get her other sons to unload the firewood off of her trailer. I told her she better get them hopping and then she could get the stuff that Mark needed and bring them here like she said she was going to do.
     She did that, came back after lunch with her trailer loaded with the stuff that Mark needed.
     By this time she was really livid, no delivery from Lowe's.   She called Lowe's and the lumber guy said that they couldn't figure out what all she took with her, so they completely unloaded the delivery truck and started all over minus the list of things they thought that she took. While she was talking on the cell phone, Mark and the pit bull were busy setting the poles in concrete at this time. Remember, the dog won't leave Jeannie's side.
     I called Lowe's and the head lumber guy told me they were loaded up and ready to come this way. By this time it was funny to me, a real red neck (whom I really and truly love), comedy of errors situation.
    They finally delivered the huge load of stuff. You can imagine how much lumber it was with replacing the under bracings, the poles, the decking and the fencing all the way around the pool.
      So it's all delivered now and Mike, Jeannie and the pit bull (tied to one of the secured poles) are all out there doing more work.
     By the way, I bought them cheese burgers from McDonald's for lunch, cheese burgers for Mike and the pit bull and a chicken sandwich for Jeannie for lunch. No kidding, I did. I told them I would buy them lunch. They told me to get two cheese burgers for Mike, one cheese burger for the pit bull and a chicken sandwich for Jeannie. I really did serve lunch to the three of them.
     With all of that going on, I decided to vacuum the floors to let off a little steam.  Darn new sweeper only picked up a little bit of dirt.  The joke is on me.  I just looked at the new sweeper.  It said "Carpet Cleaner."   Yeah, it's been a real red neck and now a red faced day for me. 
     I might not watch Duck Dynasty tonight. I lived it today.