Laundry, maybe I don’t loathe you quite so much?

Tonight I am thankful for my big boys, they are getting to be pretty capable young men (Aidan told Chris and I at the table tonight that he wants to get a job cleaning houses-isn’t he precious, he only needs six dollars he said!:) I’ve been working on getting caught up on laundry this week, and we’ve been staying on top of it. But I started to get that feeling today that I’ve got too much on my plate and I felt that too familiar feeling of defeat coming on, like I was kidding myself, we can’t do this. I need to sort and fold and put away these two baskets, usually that is my part of the laundry job, sorting, and they stay in the basket until I sort them onto the couch and then the kids help me put them away.

Short story longer, the boys help me with random chores from 8-8:30 and then they get to play on the iPad from 8:30-9, it’s a pretty good deal for all of us. Tonight they sorted all the laundry, put everybody’s clothes, underwear, socks away, folded blankets and sheets and got us all caught up again. You know what this means? This means that the kids are capable of doing every stage of laundry with very little assistance from me. The older kids get the clothes from the rooms to the laundry room, Connor does the washing/drying part and gets the washed baskets of clothes into the Red Room and the older kids do the rest. I’ve put a lot of hours into training these guys to get to this point, there is hope! :)

I have a lot on my plate, with the farm and homeschooling and cleaning house and cooking for a family of 9 or 10 (when mom comes for dinner). Aidan told me the other day, “I think a lot about the fact that you don’t get very many breaks mom and that you work all day.” It’s sweet to know that he notices that I work hard. I want our children to grow to have empathy for others and to learn to lend a hand when they see a need (my kids aren’t quite there yet, but they are getting there). But my feeling is I’m young and in a season of building, investing, laying a foundation. I work hard to lay a foundation with our children.

The other day I had a chat with the kids about how difficult it can be to take them to the store, and how I know that they like to come with me but I have to deal with arguing and bickering in the car, and silly boys being rambunctious in the back seat, waking the sleeping baby, and not paying attention to where mom is at and staying in line behind me while we shop. After this chat with them you would not believe how many compliments we got in the store that day, several people stopped us and commented on how well behaved they were :) I was laughing to myself, and didn’t tell any of the commenters about the threats I made to the children before we left. One lady in particular was so sweet, we were sitting and eating in the food court at Fred Meyer’s, she got up to leave and put her hand on my shoulder and said, “you have LOVELY children, I think these are the most well-behaved children I’ve ever seen!” They were being especially sweet that lunch time and it was nice to hear such words about these kids that God has placed in my care.

Wait, wasn’t I talking about laundry? Well I guess I was just overwhelmed with a warm feeling of admiration for my growing boys. I went outside to milk and do my evening outdoor chores (and bring baby bunnies in the house more because they are cute and I like to hold them at night than because they really need to come in), and they were inside doing a chore that usually gets put off and overwhelms me. I’m excited about these days ahead, I’m really excited about their teen years. I know everybody says, “wait til they are teens!” and I say, bring it on! I know we’ve invested in these kids, and in those teen years we will reap a harvest of blessing as they grow into men. I can’t wait! I’ve heard every word of caution so I’m sure some of you will feel the need to warn me how wrong I might be, but I choose to believe in faith that seeds of love, faithfulness, work ethic, obedience to God, discipline, etc., these seeds are just beginning to grow in them. When they are teens they will be little sproutlings (as the kids like to call them) and with God’s grace and help will just continue to grow and flourish in their lives. Thank you once again, dear Lord for blessing us with these beautiful amazing, and often very challenging little people, I love them all with all my heart!