Smile: Mama bear part 3

The moment a child is conceived, or a house is purchased by a young couple, she has just been signed up for a job that will never end. Both comforting...and daunting.

Though I am neither with child, have a child married with a home...or without a home, I have been part-time tasked with both child and home. And although these jobs provide random "breaks" they never fully stop all at once. And any small task suddenly becomes a much longer job than normal. You start on the laundry only to hear the dishwasher finish. So you begin on those and at your heels is the toddler claiming he will shrivel up and die without a morsel of food. So while rummaging in the pantry for something to eat you hear the gut-wrenching sound of water pouring out of...somewhere. Afraid to ask, you  now have to mop up lake Eerie because while your back was turned, he found the water filter spout and began experimenting. Finally settled with his snack you now finish mopping and decide you yourself are a little hungry. "oops....forgot breakfast again." You open the fridge to dig out week-old yogurt and discover four week old mold growing on...something. This sets you on the war path to clean out the fridge and when you stack up all your empty dishes...you remember the whole sink of them. Again you set about doing them. And as you close it, little boy needs to go to the bathroom. When in there you find a million more things to do with all that spare time you just don't have.

And if you're anything like me. Instead of doing any of the billion things you could be, you fold up under the guise of "I have nothing to do the rest of the day...it will get done later on today."

While working my "laid back" mentality my mom was waiting on a skirt to be cleaned and my sister was in need of tea. And after being made aware of these things, I busily set about "Martha-ing" (my verb for working so quickly...you over look the people you're working for.) My little sister comes dancingly into the kitchen and just lays this in front of my face. She wasn't being rude. She had hardly seen me. Her gentle reminder stopped me in my tacks. I had been thinking of this post all morning deciding I was going to be so clever in how I talked about potty training, slacking off, or the fact that I ate my salad lunch strait out of the Ziploc baggie. But as I looked down down at this tiny foil reminder from my sister, I realized I had in fact been "Martha-ing" and no longer serving, just working. The difference, to me, is this: you're doing the same thing, getting the same thing done, but when you serve, you work with love. So after reading this from her, I opted to continue getting stuff done, but I did it with continued purpose, and availability instead of "just get it done" or "it will get done eventually." I am now able to sit and skype with Yanet for school, blog, and when I'm done, watch Cristy with mom and the Little. The work is done, but I finished with love.

When next you feel like steamrolling all you have to do, stop. And think of those you love enough to do this for.

~mama bear