A Little Tangent Today

The Spirit guides us in the mundane parts of our lives.

So, yesterday when I emptied the washer, the towels in it were still soaking wet. I figured this was due to the large pillow I washed with them, and I just dried everything (3 times!) anyway. Well, today I found the latest load had done the same thing. I'm going, "Hmm, not good, and who has hundreds of dollars to fix this darn thing?" So I messed with it a little and realize the mechanism that tells the machine the lid is closed is not working right, a piece appears to be missing. And I recall that I found a little piece of plastic yesterday when the machine was seriously unbalanced b/c of the aforementioned pillow, and I set it aside just in case. So now I'm thinking, "Great, I have multiple magpies in my home that collect little things like that and I will probably never find it now!" but I search the floor anyways on the off chance it just got knocked off the machine, and -Lo and behold- there it is. I tinker with it a bit and finally figure out how to get it on correctly, all the while I am guided to be very careful, b/c if I push too hard I will knock it behind the drum and never be able to get it back, so even though I am impatient b/c I need to go to the store, I go slowly. Sadly, after the piece is on (I know it's on correctly), the machine still doesn't register that the lid is closed. I examine said machine and find that the little post that pushes on the lost-then-found piece has had its tip broken off, so it's touching the mechanism but it's not long enough to push it all the way down, telling the washer that the lid is indeed closed. Now I'm thinking "Crud, it's this tiny piece, I know exactly what's wrong, it's plastic for heaven's sake and probably cost pennies to make that little piece, but if I can't fix it at home, I'm going to be paying someone a lot of money &/or special ordering it and be without a washer for weeks, ugh." So, I'm praying and thinking I must have something I can jerry rig: clay, toothpicks, something to super glue to it. The problem is it is tiny, and I'm worried it won't stay stuck. When out of nowhere I think, "I might have something in my jewelry making box." Please note: this thought obviously did not originate from me, there is no way I would have thought this. I need manly tools here, not jewelry. I look anyways. As I open the box what I discover is a few odds & ends and I am reminded of some fun stuff I have left over from my jewelry making class at BYU: little plastic "beads" (Thank you, Carolyn!). If you boil some water and put these beads in it, they will soften, then you can mold them however you wish (very cool for making your own beads or jewelry pieces). At this point I'm going, "This could work. I can at least make a mold using clay then make a new plastic tip and super glue that on." OK, I admit at this point, I may have lost some of you, b/c not all of us are as crafty goddesses. But my mother always said, "You can do anything you put your mind to." If some handyman can fix this, I can, too. It just takes me a bit longer. So (and note Angel is intrigued at this point and is following me around) I boil a little water and toss an old piece of this plastic stuff into the water. It starts to soften up quickly as I stir it around, and I pull it out and go over to the washer and kind of mold it onto the end of the broken piece. I give it a little help to get it to the right shape and it starts to harden quickly. After a few minutes, it is totally hard and I can close the lid and test it. It works! No super glue, no negative molding, just squish it on there in the relatively correct shape and let it harden. Some of you naysayers may say this was just coincidence. But I don't believe in coincidence. And I came to this solution much too quickly to believe it was chance. I am so grateful for the gift of the Holy Ghost to guide me. I am doubly grateful that Heavenly Father sees fit to help me with my silly everyday problems, reminding me that He loves and cares for us individually. This doesn't happen quite so perfectly all the time, but when it does I am reminded how mindful He is of each of us. And that is cool to me.
And now, I'm seriously going to Costco.