Cheese...The Latest Addition to Our Garage

Never a dull moment in the Brown household...that's for sure! Whether it's tackling 10 loads of laundry....or catching our dog after he escaped to the neighbor's horse arena....or having a Just Dance competition....or belching the ABC's...or spelling our name in pretzels....there always seems to be something interesting going on in our household!!!

And tonight was no different!

It started as a trip to go to Walmart. Yes, my second home. It seems like I am forever running to Walmart for things that I have forgotten while grocery shopping. It's not that I don't have a list when I grocery shop. I do. I just somehow forget things still.

Sometimes I forget the very thing that prompted my trip to Walmart. Sometimes I forget to give the cashier my stack of coupons that I spent 20 minutes sorting out and organizing BEFORE my grocery shopping adventure.

Today was different. I actually remembered everything I went to the store for. WHOA! When has that ever happened????? I even remember to get my hubby the queso cheese dip that he loves! Success!

And.....(hold your breath...this is unbelievable...)..............I only spent 45 minutes in the store! GASP!!!! Normally my Walmart trips consist of me going back and forth from one side of the store to another as I keep remembering items I forgot. For instance, I'll go to the health and beauty side of the store and then remember I forgot to get milk. GRRRR....

Not tonight! Tonight it was quick and easy! Walmart was not even busy! The aisles were clear and I power-walked with my cart.

I found a check-out lane with no one waiting.....BONUS! Then I loaded my vehicle and drove home...pleased it was only 6:30 pm!!!

I arrived at home, honking as I pulled into the driveway...which signified to my family that it is time to help mom unload the groceries. I quickly went to the back of my SUV and opened the trunk.

The next events happened so quickly that there was absolutely nothing I could do to stop it. Apparently there was a bag that shifted while I drove and found itself leaning ON the door that I was now opening.

Before I knew what happened, a bag came rolling out of my trunk and landed on the garage floor with a load THUMP. I looked down and saw 2 boxes of cereal in this bag. My immediate thoughts...."No big deal...just a few boxes of cereal." So I quickly picked it up to carry inside.

However, to my shock I realized that the cashier had placed the glass jar (and yes I bought the large size one) of queso cheese in WITH the cereal. Yes, that THUMP I heard was actually the glass jar breaking into several pieces. I looked down and realized that the garage floor had a very large area of queso cheese on it....well, queso cheese mixed with glass. Along with that was the boxes of cereal that were also covered in cheese. Yippee. Just what I want to deal with on a cold winter day.

Just then my loving hubby came to the rescue. For the next few moments he cleaned up broken glass and then used a broom to sweep the cheese into the nearby snow bank. Next he brought some snow INTO the garage and used that to clean the floor of the remaining cheese stain.

Then my daughter emptied the cheese covered cereal boxes into the plastic cereal containers we have....of course the cheese ended up all over the counter and microwave, but that was an easy clean-up.

So, now the queso cheese is no more. That means I will have to go to Walmart again soon. I can hardly contain my excitement....

Sometimes things in our lives don't go as planned. Sometimes things spin out of control and suddenly we have a mess. Sometimes the unexpected happens. Sometimes things don't go our way. Sometimes we don't understand what God is doing. Some days our garage floors may get covered in cheese. Some days we may be faced with things that are just not what we expected...or even wanted.

It's in those moments that we need to remember that God is in control. There's nothing hard enough that He can't handle. It's easy to panic as we try to deal with the unexpected. It's easy to be fearful.

But God never makes messes. Those unexpected things in our lives are there to teach us something. They are there to build character. Problems aren't a bad thing...instead they are what makes us strong.

The only way to get around our problems is to go through them. Too many people quit right before their breakthrough..... Next time you get some cheese on your garage floor, look at it as a blessing and an opportunity to learn something.

And...if you come to our house in the next few days, please disregard the cheese covered snow....