Wednesday, February 26, 2014

To Market, To Market

Yesterday I decided to tag along with my husband on a short errand since I had not been out of the house all day due to feeling a little puny.  He had ordered a new guitar strap and wanted to have it monogrammed with the words, "I AM BLESSED."  He discovered the monogram service at a local gift shop a few months ago and had had "ONE OF THEM," emblazoned on his other guitar strap.

He'd had me put a pin through the strap to mark the exact location for the words.  I was a little dissatisfied with the look of the first one, because the letters were placed vertically, on top of one another.  Howard ran his finger along the strap indicating how he wanted the words on this strap placed, and the worker nodded in agreement.  "The top of the letter should go here," I pointed out, making sure she understood it was to be written and read horizontally.

"Oh, you want it that way!" she noted in surprise.  (It's a good thing I went along, I thought to myself!)

"Where are you going now?" I asked, to which Howard replied, "To get an ice cream cone," heading the car in the opposite direction of home.  Since he was going to Braum's, I suggested he get a loaf of the raisin bread we liked.  He came out with a bag containing raisin bread, white bread, and a large carton of ice cream bars!  (They were very tasty, though, I decided after having one.)

"Do you need anything else before going home?" my helpful spouse asked. I was thinking I could use a can of cream of chicken soup for a casserole I was considering making for supper.  He said he would run in to the store near our house.  I wondered how a can of soup so filled out the plastic bag he was carrying, then I looked inside to see the can of soup, a roll of braunschweiger (liverwurst), and a can of pork and beans.  My husband, the inveterate shopper!

Resignedly, I sigh and realize that he is a product of his upbringing, that of being raised in the family grocery store and working there growing up.  His ease with stock, familiarity with brands, and loving to experiment with something new on the shelves is second nature to him.  But so are his people skills and outgoing personality that were nurtured there and have served him so well in ministry!

Even if he did go in after bottled water today and come out with frozen waffles and three boxes of macaroni and cheese added to his tab, I have to smile and know, like the title of the song on his guitar strap, "I AM BLESSED" with such a sweet, thoughtful husband.  And as far as creative shoppers go, there are worse things than being "ONE OF THEM"!

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