Saturday, December 17, 2005

Thank you Sara for telling me about the Deanaland blog (www.deanaland.blogspot.com )!! It has me laughing and reading almost non-stop. We share a hatred of laundy...she calls hers Mt. Laundry and I, as you well know, call mine Mount Washmore.

I think all women battle this awful but critical element of life. I know we should all be grateful we don't have to operate an old wringer washer or a knuckle busting washboard, but laundry is the most unfinishable task I know of. Even on the rare occassion that I get every piece of clothing washed and put away, everyone undresses, puts on pjs and there it is again. It's doneness is so short-lived!! Erma Bombeck said that cleaning the house while there are still children living in it is like shoveling the walk while it is still snowing. I live by this saying.

But sometimes, like tonite, when my wonderful father-in-law pops in to drop off a wonderful smoked ham for Christmas, I am very embarrassed at our untidy existence. I know how tidy their home always is (and was)...my husband tells me about it. I also grew up in a tidy home. But then again, we were five women all working together on housework. And we really did not have alot of other things to do. I mean, I only had one barbie!! We love the domestics of the home- I recall my sister and I having cook-offs to see who made the best scrambled eggs. I could not have been more than 6 years old and that put her at around nine. That is right around the ages of mine!!!!!! How could my mom allow us to cook...and we had a gas stove!!!!!

We also left the house in the morning and came home around dark. We played (alone mostly-rarely ever together)by the heavily snake-infested Clark's River (and yet I think I only ever saw two) and ate our weight in unwashed (and yet delicous) blackberries. I can't imagine my children living that kind of freedom and yet I long for it for them. They get doses of it here and there, but they live in a very structured and heavily supervised world. They also hear grown-up lingo and see grown-up erotica even on Saturday morning commercials. Even homeschooling doesn't shelter them as much as they need it!! And doesn't unshelter them enough either!!

Okay, not where I meant to go with this blog, but it is late and it went. I am not about to edit it. I wanted to be funny. Another time I guess.

Tomorrrow morning, putting together the food baskets at church...I am so excited I probably won't be able to sleep. What a nerd. I apologize for being weird. I guesss growing up a little on the needy side makes me feel really good giving back. Off I go to bed to feel really blessed in our home where we have enough to eat, enough money to pay our bills, money to buy a nice Christmas that is all bought and tucked away in various crevices of the house, the ability for me to be a stay-at-home (when do I stay home?LOL) mom and homeschool our children, and a loving, but not ever perfect, family. A family dedicated to a living relationship with Christ. I am blessed. We are blessed. I bet you are too.

2 comments:

Deana Nall said...

Wow -- thanks for reading my blog! Guess what I'm getting for Christmas... a new washer and dryer. What's even worse is how excited I am about it!

I'll take Erma's observation about housecleaning a little further. Cleaning your house while kids are living in it is like shoveling the walk while it's snowing and while someone is jackhammering the sidewalk into pieces and termites are chomping the handle of your shovel to bits.

janjanmom said...

Glad you stopped in!! I hope it is that new Maytag "smart" one that just does the laundry for you. According to the commercials, you just wake up and the laundry is all done and neatly folded & put away!! They never lie so I believe it.

Thanks for making me laugh so hard I pee a little (joys of 3 children)when I read your blog!!