This week, my mother was visiting.

She has been very busy lately because she is going back into the business of teaching children in school. She shared with me all the things that she is concerned about getting for the classroom, such as manipulatives, books, containers, and so on. Most elusive of all, she needed a fake tree for her monkey puppet to hang out on.

Now, good fake trees are hard to come by. I am not talking about plastic evergreen trees for the holiday. I am talking about those other kind of trees. If you are fortunate enough to find a fake tree, it will cost you a lot of money to take it home. Sure, one could be creative and make a tree... but that would mean getting sturdy branches, green material for leaves, and putting a lot of energy and time into making it look real. This is not something my mother wanted to do, needless to say.

As she vented her frustration, I sat there completely stunned. I had a fake tree! It was just sitting in my basement. So I ran down and dragged out the tree. My mother-in-law had given it to me a year or so before. I hosed it off (it had cobwebs on it) and crammed it in my mother's car.

She left soon after, with plastic leaves obscuring the grin on her face in the rear-view mirror. I was pleased to save her time and money, and in the process eliminate a spider hangout from my basement.

On the same theme, this week we had our son's former foster parents over to share his birthday celebration. As we sat on the deck and supervised the playing children, Woody, the foster father, said something like "Hey, that pew in your kitchen is great. I've been looking everywhere for a pew like that."

Side Note: We have a nice breakfast nook, with a bench/pew attached to the wall, a solid wood table in front of it, and two chairs on the other side. My husband and I locked eyes from across the crowded deck... and ended up sending Woody home with the extra, unused pew we had in our garage.

I guess the moral of these stories could be either: Ask for what you need, because someone might be able to give it to you, or We have way too many odd items collecting dust around our place.

I prefer the "asking for what you need" moral. I've been trying to do the same lately. A person can't read your mind. Whether it comes to your feelings, a break from your children, a fake tree, a pew, or a hug, sometimes all you need to do is mention it to others. Someone out there can probably give you what you need.

Just use your words and ask.