Living Beyond The "Norm"?

Not much has been going on lately besides work and doing stuff around the house, trying to keep caught up with things like dishes and laundry. The work schedule has been crazy, with my days off split up, so when I do get one, I do the house stuff and find myself tired enough to fall into bed mid-afternoon.

For those of you who don't know, I work overnights at a local WalWorld. That means my sleeping patterns are not the "norm" - or rather what others consider to be the "norm". I'm beginning to wonder, really, what exactly "normal" is because it's not the same for everyone!

For instance, those who look forward to the weekend off after working Monday thru Friday, 9 to 5 (and we're talking am and pm here) - they think that's the "norm". I beg to differ. That's not true for everyone in the world...not at all. Those who work 2nd and 3rd shift are as "normal" as everyone else - they just are doing things at different times than a person who works daylight hours.

Sometimes, maybe we need to look at our definitions and take into account that, really, "normal" is such a relative term. What I work is different than someone else, when I sleep is different than others, and yet, I manage somehow to keep on with life. You really don't have much choice! You keep going! And yet, to use that quotable word, this is *my* "normal".

Granted, this 3rd shift schedule doesn't allow for much of a social life because I can't seem to find many people to hang out with or call at 3 AM in the morning when I'm wide awake. You adapt and make it work for you, so you can get things done.

For instance, I was off yesterday, came home and did bills, and just after that, the electric went off! No warning, no thunder boomers, nothing....just on one second and off the next! I called Penelec, got the automated service, "Thank you for reporting your outage. Your estimated time of restoration will be 11 AM".

Now this change in my "Normal" kinda threw me for a loop as I had planned to do certain household chores on this day off. Like laundry. Baking. Reading. Blogging. Catching up on Facebook. All these things that took electric. So....here I was, faced with what I call a "pioneer" moment....how do ya wanna deal with things with no electric? You can do this, you're adaptable (OK, maybe the word "flexible" comes to mind, too!). You can make a cake by hand and bake it in the oven that is gas. Can heat up water and make jello....oh, wait, no, the fridge is off. Hmmmm......

What did I opt to do? Go out and mow grass. Yep, before 9 AM even! The sad part was that since it has rained recently, my grass had grown more on one side of the trailer since the last cutting a little more than 3 weeks ago. There's a spot in one part of the yard where water will just lay and when you hear it "squish, squish" under your feet, well, you know it's not dry ground! So, the grass in this part of the yard is like, oh, maybe 8 inches or so tall. But I braved it, got that self-propelled, mulching mower started and went to work.

Now here's the thing about wet grass and mowing with a mulching mower. The mower will want to stall out, so I was going much slower than usual than I would have if say I had cut it a week or so ago. I kept having to lift the front wheels up so it could spit the grass out. So much for an excellent mulching! NOT! I didn't want to open up the little shoot-it-out-the-side thingy, 'cause then it would shoot it over in the neighbors' yards. And I hate it when they do that to me. So, I was nice, kept it in my own yard.

The end product......clumpy mounds here and there of thick green grass. Wet, thick green grass. BUT, it was mowed! The weed eating even got done, too, once I figured out how to jump start the weed eater that was not wanting to start. (Gotta love carburetor spray - starts the mower AND the weed eater up when I'm having issues....and yes, I just did a spellcheck....carburetor was not spelled right the first time!)

By the time I got to the weed eating, it has started to sprinkle. So if you live in NW PA, and it rained in your neck of the woods yesterday morning, it's my fault. I *knew*it would rain just because I mowed. Happens a lot that way. I guess it's "normal" for me to have that happen! The grass will grow some more and I will have more to mow again another day. It's all good!

The electric did come back on. So glad, since I was getting rather chilly from the dampness and the chill of the trailer! I did heat up water on the gas stove and had a cup of chicken noodle soup and a delightful cup of dark chocolate cocoa. That warmed me up somewhat. I had spend about an hour under a blanket with a good book in front of a window in the living room, the brightest place in the house. Still, to have that heat kick on when the electric came back on.....delicious, comforting, a blessing.

So, I guess whatever our "norm" is, we should focus more on what the blessing of whatever that looks like. Because if we can do that, we can rise above it and live beyond that and walk in the truth, that we are indeed *blessed beyond measure*, no matter what! Thank You, God, for that!