Do you have a spouse who tells the same old stories over and over again?

This childhood experience must have made a lasting impression on Ted because I’ve heard him tell this story more than once.  He tells how his mother, one day, made a batch of chocolate chip cookies.  The first batch went in the oven, and as soon as the heat hit the cookie dough, the dough oozed and melted all over the cookie sheet until it was one mess of liquified cookie dough spread over the entire surface of the cookie sheet.  There was no “cookie” to emerge from the liquid mess.   Oh no!  A quick glance at the recipe and ingredients revealed a most obvious oversight:  Ted’s mom had missed adding the flour.  Okay – she must have been busy or distracted by Ted’s sisters or, most likely, by little Teddy trying to steal chocolate chips.  Mom quickly measured and added the flour and got the second baking sheet of cookies in the oven.  They baked, held together, and came out of the oven looking like cookies … but resembling rocks in texture.  Mom had added all the flour the recipe called for but forgot to account for the first batch of cookie dough that was already missing from the batch.

I think the reason Ted remembers this story is because of the great heartache it caused at not getting a decent fresh-baked chocolate chip cookie that day!  The batch was pretty much ruined.  Mom would probably have done better if she would have just thrown the whole original botched batch of cookie dough out and started fresh.  I’m not sure if the resulting rock-cookies were even edible.

Sometimes you just have to throw away and start over.

Those of you who know me, know that I am a list-maker.  Sometimes my list gets very long with items scratched off and items added on.  It can get to be a scribbly mess.  In my attempt to stay organized, my to-do list is suddenly so confusing and scribbled that looking at it suddenly sends me adrift in the chaos – as if I myself am swirling in the swipes and swoops of my pencil lines.

So I throw it away and start over.

I will take a new look at all that I have to do.  Tasks get put in order and I write out a new, tidy, orderly, easier to-do list.  <sigh>   All is now well with the world!  Order has been established.

Now, in the continuing saga of my contact lens experience:

Some of you have read about how I am new to contacts but I am still in the trial stage of seeing what kind and what prescription works best for me.  Up to yesterday I had 2 different lenses for the right eye, and 3 different ones for the left.  I did not know which was which.  This morning I visited the eye clinic with my bag of lenses and a desperate plea for help with unraveling my chaotic collection of lenses.  Guess what the girl did?

She threw everything out and started over!

Well, she also called the ophthalmologist and, after speaking to her, she got me a fresh trial pair of lenses.  She then explained to me what was different about the other ones I was to still try – but I would get those next week and she was going to give me extra cases for the lenses.  In addition, she was going to clearly mark each lens – both the package it came in and the exact side of the contact case it was to be stored in so that I could methodically try each lens, keep them identified and stored correctly, and ultimately find my perfect set.

Whew!

Next time things get out of hand or chaotic, I suggest throwing out and getting rid of the old – and starting over!  Sometimes you just have to take a step back and re-analyze … clear your head … and then do things right.

I mean, who wants to eat rock cookies?  Or decipher a scribbled mass of instructions?  And, of course, the ultimate goal is to see things clearly!

just Laurel

Ecclesiastes 3:1a, 6  There is a time for everything … a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away.