Loving The Every Day Stuff

Probably 90% of my life is the every day stuff. The cleaning, cooking,laundry, errands around town and endless small tasks.

Anyone else have a life like that?

When I go blog surfing and find people who hate the every day stuff it makes me sad that, really, what they're hating is 90% of the life God gave them upon this planet.

(You may want to pause and let that sink in.)

Well, I used to be there too. During the dreadful 80's (as I not-so-affectionately call them) I began buying into the hype that homemaking was for drudges who had settled for living in Nowheresville. I even bought the magazines which reaffirmed that opinion.

It's sad to buy into a lie. Sometimes it requires years to buy out of it. I know.

Anyone want to enjoy an extra 90% of your life? Start enjoying the cleaning, cooking, laundry, errands and endless small tasks.

In Sarah Ban Breathnach's book, Simple Abundance, she wrote about Nell B. Nichols, her favorite literary domestic writer from the 1920's, 30's and 40's. Nell was the Martha Stewart of her day. Here are my two favorite sentences from Sarah's book:

"Reading her columns is like being spoon-fed black cherry pudding: soothing, comforting, completely satisfying, yet a bit piquant. After an hour with Nell I always want to bob my hair, slip into a simple drop-waist cotton chemise, tie on a checked apron with a bow, and listen to Scott Joplin on the wireless as I dye unbleached muslin curtains 'to pretty up the attic windows.'"

Those two sentences, alone, make me want to jump up and clean my house from basement to attic. To spin to my Big Band records on the player, throw open the windows, tie on an apron and go soak the dishes in sudsy water. Suddenly, cleaning house for my family sounds like the most delicious, wonderful thing I could possibly do for them at the moment.

What am I really getting at? It matters what I read. 

It matters that I not fill my head with words which only breed an ugly discontent within me.

Yes, I should read articles which will challenge me to broaden my thinking, but only within godly boundaries.

Unlike many people I've met on the internet, I respect Biblical boundaries. I'm learning to live within those boundaries and--wonder of wonders--I'm finding incredible joy there.

Words are powerful--both written and spoken ones. They have a tendency to go down deep and stay awhile, perhaps remain there for the rest of my years.

Lying words have a tendency to hang-out near the wheel of my ship and snatch it away from me and sail me to dark, choppy seas. Places I never intended to go, ones from which it's hard to find my way back home.

Out on Life's ocean, I am learning to steer clear of those.


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Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof." ... Proverbs 18:21