Category: Holiday

System Is Down

With a little less than a week remaining before Christmas and our kids still in school a few more days prior to Winter break beginning, there were so many stores I still wanted to go to for last minute Christmas presents. On this day, my goal was to be in and out of each store as quickly as possible. I was on a mission. I knew exactly what gifts I was looking to buy. It was just a matter of which store carried them. 

At one of the earlier stores I entered, I walked briskly from one end to the other quickly gathering up in my arms the presents. When I reached the register to check out, there was a line forming and growing longer and longer. I was several shoppers back when it was announced that the system for all registers throughout the store had shut down. In that moment, the line stopped moving for awhile. Over the span of about 45 minutes, the system went back up briefly and shut down again after only one person was partially through checkout and this repeated over again a number of times. 

As this happened near the lunch hour, I still had a few hours before my kids were out of school. It wasn’t urgent for me to visit other stores and because I didn’t have anywhere else I absolutely needed to be, I felt relaxed. It was a tender mercy I arrived with plenty of time to not be up against the clock and the delay resulting in me slowing down for a brief period was a good thing. It was nice taking an unexpected break to read messages on my phone and soak in the quite calm I was experiencing opposite the hustle and bustle of the season. It was also a tender mercy that where I was standing in line to wait, there was a shelf on one side of me and a clothes rack close by on my other side where I could set the gifts down resting my arms, shoulders, and back from the heaviness of the weight of the articles I was holding. On top of that, not only was each item I purchased on sale, it was a tender mercy I was also given an additional 30 percent off at checkout for every single item. 

When have you experienced benefits during an unexpected delay while shopping?

tendermercym❤️ments~jld

“How have you noticed Heavenly Father’s awareness and mindfulness of you today?”

*If you would like to receive an email when new posts are published, please send your name and email address to tendermercymoments@gmail.com.*

Price Match

A price match that won me over! 😊

I am not an online shopper. I do like good discounts on purchases! When I was looking for a specific Christmas gift with a particular feature, I went from store to store and walked out empty-handed until I came into a store and found an item with the main feature that was the last one of its kind left on the shelf. I was not certain if I wanted to get that one, at least not at that time, and I wanted to keep looking at other stores to see what other options were out there for more styles and more features at the best price. 

I decided to put the item on hold. When I took it to the return and exchange counter, I was told that because of the holiday season they were not holding anything, not even for only until the end of the day. I asked if they sold the item through their online store and if it could be shipped in case I decided to get it later after all. The answer was yes. When they looked it up, they also saw and shared with me that it was being sold online for $40 less than what it was selling for in the store. I asked if they price matched with their online store. I was told that if the item was sold across the country, they price matched. Sure enough it was and they could do a price match. And then I asked them about their return policy for that item. I was told it was 90 days. At that point, I went ahead and purchased the item and was content with the features offered and pleased with the discount I received and looked no further. 

In asking questions, it was a tender mercy I was able to purchase the returnable, if needed, item in the store, at the online price. A win win! It was awesome!

When has asking questions saved you a lot of money and you were able to purchase a gift your preferred way?

tendermercym❤️ments~jld

“How have you noticed Heavenly Father’s awareness and mindfulness of you today?”

*If you would like to receive an email when new posts are published, please send your name and email address to tendermercymoments@gmail.com.*

Hanging Holiday Pictures

I LOVE Christmas! Decorating, however, is very cumbersome! I don’t know about you, but taking down what I have up year round to hang up holiday seasonal decorations is a lot of work. Slowly, but surely, I’m setting up a little each day. Today, it was a tender mercy that I remembered something simple I figured out last year that makes decorating a lot easier. I was thrilled!

When it comes to pictures, I discovered that I could place slightly bigger holiday canvas  frames over the top of pictures I already had up. As I remembered this, I got super excited and started hanging up my Christmas pictures left and right. It was so simple and so easy.

When have you discovered a simple tip that has made decorating for the holidays easier for you?

tendermercym♥ments~jld

“How have you noticed Heavenly  Father’s awareness and mindfulness of you today?”

*If you would like to receive an email when new posts are published, please send your name and email address to tendermercymoments@gmail.com.*

Quickly Adjusting Priorities

While in my own little world listening in on a real-time call simultaneously browsing a store for Christmas gifts, I saw a friend coming up the aisle I was going down. Immediately in my mind I had a thought to put aside the call, that was being recorded, to go talk to her. I considered for a split second staying on the call and turning around to avoid any interaction, yet in that moment, I felt impressed to visit with my friend I hadn’t seen in months at, no less, a store I had only been to a few times and didn’t expect I would bump into anyone I knew. 

Sometimes I prefer to be by myself and avoid contact with others if I need my own personal quiet time or I’m in a hurry.  Although I was content to be unnoticed, it was a tender mercy that I followed the prompting to talk to her. It was wonderful catching up. I’d like to believe our conversation was good for both of us. As I quickly prioritized connection and friendship with her over isolating and distancing myself with a call that could be listened to at another time, I felt increased joy and happiness. I walked away uplifted because I took that time to dialogue with her.

Even though I also left critiquing myself, going over in my mind my weaknesses in our conversation and internalizing how I could have done better, it was a huge tender mercy that I was, in addition, able to acknowledge my strengths. Being aware and conscious that I am a talker and I struggle to articulate and communicate my thoughts well, I walked away frustrated with myself. I was concerned that my enthusiasm and talking about what was happening in my life took over a good portion of the dialogue when what I really wanted was to learn as much or more about her as I shared about myself and I was bothered when I referenced the church, for which I am a member, with the acronym LDS, when she may or may not have known what it meant, instead of saying the full name, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Despite doubting myself, I did not dwell solely on my shortcomings, but I also consciously spoke to myself and shared with my husband that I recognized with confidence that my being a high energy communicator and speaking passionately at the same time exuding positive feelings of love, care, and concern for others and the joy of life is a remarkable gift. 

Responding to the prompting to put away my phone and connect with my friend was a tender mercy in more than one way. It was a tender mercy to have had that in person time with her as well as reflect on the kind of friend I want to be and, most importantly, acknowledging to myself and my husband the good friend that I am.  

When have you set aside what you were doing to interact, in person, with a friend and after leaving the dialogue, your disappointments in yourself did not overshadow your recognizing your awesome qualities and gifts?

tendermercym♥ments~jld

“How have you noticed Heavenly Father’s awareness and mindfulness of you today?”

*If you would like to receive an email when new posts are published, please send your name and email address to tendermercymoments@gmail.com.*

Taking It Easy

The day after Thanksgiving, on Black Friday, we had guests come visit us. Prior to their arrival, I had ideas for festive, holiday community activities we could go and do together. As I began planning and scheduling when to go pick up Santa passes for a specific time later in the day and the arrival and departure times from one activity to the next, I started to feel stressed. And, add to that, not knowing what all they would be up to doing after traveling for several hours to come see us, I decided to not have a scheduled plan and take one moment at a time and go with the flow. Right away, I felt peace and I felt a calm. I didn’t worry about going and picking up the Santa passes or if we even went out at all.

As I changed to this casual approach, it was a tender mercy that the day and the evening went so smoothly. Because I didn’t lock myself into a timed plan and had no expectations, I felt relaxed. We enjoyed ourselves and had so much fun. There was no rush and no hurry to get from one place to the next. We focused on the immediate activity and when that was complete, we collectively decided whether we wanted to go to another activity. It just so happened that by the end of the evening, we did all of the originally planned activities I had wanted to do with them. The difference was that it was more relaxed and less stressful.

With each activity there were tender mercy moments all along the way. When we went bowling, we arrived and all the lanes were full except for two, the two that we needed for our families. We took our time and had fun.

Then we went to the next place. That’s where Santa was as well as Christmas crafts and activities. I didn’t get Santa passes beforehand so I wasn’t expecting that we would see and visit Santa and get pictures with him. As we were walking up to the location, the mother of the family that was with us mentioned wanting to get Santa pictures with her family so we went to the Santa station. Not only was there no line at the Santa station, there were passes available for both of our families 15 minutes later and we were the first in line for that time-slot. It was fantastic! In all the years that we’ve been to this place, we’ve never been able to see Santa with such ease. It was incredible!

We then headed off to dinner. We wanted to go to a place that happened to have a wait time of one hour for seating inside. That day was a warm day relative to the prior couple of weeks of cold weather. It was really really nice outside. We called ahead and asked if there was outdoor seating and they said yes. As soon as we arrived, they had a table ready for us. We went straight to the table and above us were heaters. As the sun set and it got a little cooler, not only did we have a wonderful meal, great food, live music behind us, an amazing location, beautiful scenery, we also had warmth. And, there was a play area for the younger kids to come and go throughout dinner while the older kids and adults were able to sit and talk and enjoy visiting with one another. It was awesome!

After dinner, we all decided we still wanted to go on to another activity and that was seeing Christmas lights. It was a drive-thru Christmas display and I was concerned because we were in two vehicles and their vehicle was larger than ours. I didn’t know if theirs would fit down the narrow passageway and underneath the archway of lights. I tried to call the location, but there was no answer so we took a risk and we went there anyway. When we got there, it all worked out nicely. Their vehicle wasn’t too wide or too high. It was a great way to end the day!

There were so many tender mercies throughout the day. It was great that it went so smoothly. It was a huge tender mercy that the casual approach was a less stressful and more relaxed way to spend our day together!

When have you gone from having a structured plan to going with the flow and your day went so much more smoothly; and miraculously, you accomplished all that you originally wanted to do with less stress?

tendermercym♥ments~jld

“How have you noticed Heavenly Father’s awareness and mindfulness of you today?”

*If you would like to receive an email when new posts are published, please send your name and email address to tendermercymoments@gmail.com.*

Holiday Excitement

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

I love that my youngest loves doing special things for the holidays, from decorating to planning and preparing fun ideas. Today is no different. It is St. Patrick’s Day. I was awoken this morning with this child sharing an idea and asking permission if it would be ok to print off a cloverleaf, hide it, and then whoever found it could go into our designated birthday gift box for friends and family and pick out a gift. I loved the cool and awesome idea and said yes.

Thirty six hours earlier I was feeling a tad bit of stress not having really thought about what to do on St. Patrick’s Day. I, at the least, wanted to purchase green foods for that day, but was not looking forward to going to the store.

The evening before St. Patrick’s day as my husband and I were on our way home from a date night, it was a tender mercy we stopped by the store for something my husband needed. Although it was late and I was tired and had not planned to go shopping for food until the next day, I decided to go ahead and get the St. Patrick’s day items too since we were already in the store.

Shopping together with my husband for this occasion versus going to the store by myself was so much more fun. And, it is a huge blessing and a tender mercy to have a child who loves doing amazing things for every holiday as it alleviates stress from me to come up with ideas. I love it!

As a mom, I want to do fun things for my family on the holidays. My ideas were great when they were younger.  As they have gotten older, my ideas are half liked and half not liked so when the ideas come from them, there is greater involvement, participation, and excitement. And, there is less work and stress on me which I love. Allowing them to explore and share their skills and talents with our family is tremendous. I am incredibly happy watching them shine and showcase their personalities.

How have your child(ren)’s gifts and talents blessed you as a parent to ease your workload and responsibilities as well as increased joy in your home?

tendermercym♥ments~jld