I did something tonight I haven’t done in a million years: I wept like a baby chopping onions. I always give Brian a hard time when he tears up and here I was, 2 onions into my 8 to chop and yikes. I had to leave twice.
(Why 8 onions you might ask? Our small group is making a bunch of meals to keep frozen for needs that arise among us. One woman in our group organized the tasks and I got 8 onions and 1 head of celery to chop for tmrw.)
The second time I did what any smart woman does in the kitchen when she has a problem: google it. lifehacker to the rescue!
Found a website that tested ways of chopping onions and discovered an obvious solution: turn on the vent.
Fail.
Second solution: wear goggles. There are actually “onions goggles.”
It is unclear to me why the “international” part is necessary. Or why someone would spend $20 on these things!
Especially in our house where we own swim goggles, which run between $12-19 at the local sporting goods store. (the cheap ones of course).
Well I dove into my gym bag and found the swim suit, the swim cap and the swim towel… but not my goggles. I took XS’ since his melon is larger than you might imagine for an almost 4-year old.
I strapped those bad boys on, stuffed a tissue up my nose just like my momma used to when she was cleaning and hit it with the Pampered Chef chopper like a pro.
It was epic.
Calista was sitting next to the kitchen at the dining table and looked over. Calmly she said, “Mom, why are you wearing goggles?” Then went back to her Amelia Earhart homework. Somehow the tissue didn’t bother her.
I got to thinking, is the pain around my eyes from these too tight goggles worse or better than the burning and weeping?
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This past Sunday, our church rejoiced over our being able to help the Union Gospel Mission with food. Apparently we collected and purchased over 15,000 pounds of food.
The food shelf at UGM was considering closing down due to their lack of food. They were in great need.
So we did something. We headed to 2 local SuperOne stores, handed out flyers, shopped like crazy and asked others to do the same.
The check out clerk was amazed as Calista, XS and I went through the line behind 3 other church friends. He said, “It makes me want to do something. Maybe after work I’ll buy something to donate too!”
There are a lot of needs out there and honestly, it can really get to me. Orphans, abuse, horrible movies that make $10 million yet there are food shelves that are empty and many other things TICK ME OFF.
Sometimes I just put on my goggles and avoid it.
But ignoring it doesn’t solve anything. And sometimes it hurts worse. Let’s not be folks who just walk past the needs around us.
My eyes and nose and throat are still burning by the way, 30 minutes after shutting that last Tupperware.
And I’m thinking next time, I’m taking the potatoes.