I think most people would agree on the most precious commodity.
It is the thing we value most in relationships.
It is the thing our children value most from us.
It is something that is greatly influenced by our hectic schedules.

The most precious commodity is time.
Time set aside to be together.
Time set aside to talk.
Time set aside for ourselves.

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I have been recycling for years.
I recycling even before it was mandatory in most places.
I would put all of our recyclables in the back of the minivan.
Everything was sorted in containers.

The children and I would drive to the recycling place.
There used to be a line.
We would sit in the car and people would come up to you and help you unload.
I wanted my children to learn the importance of reusing instead of wasting.

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I used to have an older gentleman repair my clocks.
He would come to our house to work on the grandfather clock.
I would bring my mantle clock to him.
He was retired when I first brought my clock to him; he was going to work a few more years.

I had to find someone new.
I found a woodworking shop in my favorite place of Amish buggies.
The woodworking shop also repairs clocks.
I drove with my mantle clock in the car.

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I saw her grocery shopping with her mother.
That in itself was not unusual.
What was unusual was that this little girl came prepared.
This little girl came with her own shopping cart.

She was pushing a plastic shopping cart that many children use for their pretend play.
She followed along behind her mother.
Her mother talked to her up and down every aisle.
I noticed that her mom was putting some lighter things in the little girl’s shopping cart.

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As a lover of words, it was so exciting to teach my children how to read.
They were learning but all the while thought it was play.
They wrote with crayons first followed by pencils later.
At first, their writing was squiggly lines that only they could decipher.

Soon, they were able to write the alphabet.
After those twenty-six letters were mastered, they were able to write their name.
What a day that was!
Specific letters, put together, spelled their name.

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I had stopped at a store to get a few things.
I scoped out the various checkout lines.
They all had about the same number of people in them.
I happened to pick one that seemed to be moving quickly.

As we all know, appearances can be deceiving.
Through no fault of her own, the customer in front of me had a problem.
A coupon she was using would not scan.
The cashier tried unsuccessfully to apply the coupon.

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It was the day before the last snowstorm.
I called our trash company since the snow was to fall Tuesday night and all day Wednesday.
Wednesday is our trash and recycling day.
I wanted to know when the trash pickup would be rescheduled.

My husband was away on business, so I wanted to handle this ahead of time to be prepared.
The woman put me on hold after she told me that she needed to look into something.
She got back on the phone and told me something I never knew for twenty years in this house.
The company that hauls our trash away so faithfully is not the company that bills us.

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My floors creak.
Not all of them, just the floor in the kitchen.
The area between my kitchen and my dining room has the worst creak of all.
That area happens to be where I stand when I teach Bible study in my home.

Any movement on my part causes the floors to creak.
I remember when we got a new kitchen floor many years ago.
My husband wanted to place screws every few inches on the sub-flooring to stop the creaking.
The installers laid the sub-flooring one day and were coming back to finish the next day.

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I was literally driving all over the county.
I tried to plan my route so that I could make a square.
I needed to make stops at various places along the way.
This was a back road kind of day.

It was one of those lovely spring days when the sky was colored a springtime palette.
There is a blue in the spring sky that seems to appear only this time of year.
Perhaps that is just in my imagination.
The white puffy clouds against the spring blue sky brought me so much joy.

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The company launched its first three dolls in 1986.
Pleasant Company named after its founder, Pleasant Rowland, was initially mail order only.
Our American Girl catalog was worn from use when my girls were young.
Pages were turned over at the corner.

The company first three dolls were launched the same year my second daughter was born.
By the time my two oldest daughters were in elementary school, the dolls were very popular.
They both asked for an American Girl doll one Christmas.
True to their personalities, they each wanted different dolls.

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