Things went well at the nursery for a while. Carol was going to class with the pre-schoolers. She came home singing songs she learned there. Don and Christi played with the younger children. The kids enjoyed snacks in the morning and afternoon. They didn’t like the nap times, but afterwards, they were allowed to play outside in a fenced in area. The lot was sandy at the back, but it wasn’t white sand. There was a lot of black dust mixed with it, so sometimes, the children came home with dirty clothes, smudges on their faces and hands, and occasional sand in their hair.

One day, Don ran a fever, and someone from the nursery called me at work and asked me to come pick him up. He tended to have earaches, and I thought he might need an antibiotic, so I called the pediatrician. He told me to bring him in. I picked him up from the nursery and took him straight to the doctor. I didn’t get my usual doctor, and the one I got was the grumpy one at the clinic.

He took one look at Don, and then looked at me accusingly. “This child could use a bath,” he said harshly. I was embarrassed and tried to explain that I brought him directly from the nursery. I got the feeling he felt I wasn’t a good mother for having them in place where they could get that dirty.

Another time, the nursery worker called to tell me that Don had swallowed a pin. I was determined not to get the same doctor again, so I looked up another Children’s Clinic. When I spoke to this doctor, he had a strong Spanish accent. He had trouble understanding what I was saying. He decided I was trying to tell him my son had swallowed an ink pen. When he finally understood, he told me to feed him bread and check his stool to make sure the pin came through. This was the disgusting job I had for the next week and a half before the offending object passed. Sometimes motherhood wasn’t fun.

One day, we were almost at the nursery when Christi informed me that she didn’t have any panties on. She happened to be wearing a very short dress. Luckily Carol was wearing long pants that day. Carol had to give up her panties, and we had to do a quick change in the car. I began to wonder if maybe I was a total failure as a mother.

When your company was laying off so many employees, you had managed to keep your job, but a lot of your friends didn’t fare so well. You missed Jerry especially. Although the drafting department was much smaller, the work load remained the same. Your boss was clamping down harder on those of you who were left. Both you and I were under a lot of stress. I was having to work a lot of overtime, which put more of the care of the children on your shoulders.

I had taken over paying the bills, so you gave me access to the bank account and checkbook. The problem was you often failed to keep out enough cash for things you might need. Sometimes you wrote a check for more cash and failed to mention it to me. Then we would get an overdraft notice, and our account would be charged even more. I decided the way around that was to keep more in the account than actually showed in the checkbook. When you realized you couldn’t tell exactly how much was in our account, you decided you would take over paying the bills. Our solution was not something that most marriage counselors or economists would have agreed with. It was to maintain separate bank accounts.

Now that I was working, I opened a bank account in my own name. I agreed to buy all the groceries and clothes for the family and any gifts, or small items for the house. You would pay taxes, house payments, utility bills.and car expenses. Any big item would be split evenly. We would each keep our own books. This solution worked for us, and we decided to make that a permanent arrangement.

Tithing was another point we didn’t totally agree on. You were convinced that ten percent of your take home pay had to be given directly to the church. I was willing to give ten percent of my check, but I wasn’t convinced the church always handled the money in the best manner. If I felt impressed to use it for another just cause, I felt I should have that option. I also thought the scripture said ten percent of your increase. When most of the money was owed to others, we weren’t showing much of an increase once that owed money was gone.

You said it is impossible to out-give God. The more you give, the more God will cause you to prosper. You said the tithing principal works even if you don’t believe in God at all. I said you pay your tithe, and I’ll pay mine. You were probably right, because you gave twice as much as required, and we were blessed as a result.

At the end of May, there was a little graduation ceremony for the kindergarten children. Carol wasn’t as old as most of the other children, but she got to wear a little cap and gown. All the children had their pictures taken. The classes would start back up in the fall.

An incident happened at the nursery that I will never be able to explain. Carol had a Cinderella watch that she got for her birthday. On Sunday, we all went down to our place in the country so you could check on your cattle. There was a lake nearby with a swimming area, and the children and I went swimming. Carol took off her watch and laid it on a towel on the sand.

When we got ready to leave, the towel was there but the watch was gone. We looked in the sand and asked at the concession stand, but no luck. We were teaching the children to pray, so we all had said a prayer before we started looking, asking that God would help us find the watch. After we searched a while, it was late and we had to leave. Carol said,”Don’t worry about it. We prayed, so I’ll get it back.”

The next day, she told her Kindergarten teacher and everyone there she lost her watch, but that she would be getting it back. The kids went out to play in the yard and a little girl from the neighborhood was standing by the fence wearing a Cinderella watch.

Carol said, “You’re wearing my watch.”

The child said “Uh-uh, It can’t be your watch. I found this watch at a lake way out in the country, yesterday.”

The teacher, who knew her story, got involved. To make a long-story short, when we picked the children up, Carol was wearing her watch, and she was not at all surprised she had it back. I couldn’t believe it, but the tiny scratch on the crystal proved to me it was really hers.