All I do is flush toilets!

It seems like lately every time I turn around lately I'm smelling rancid pee. Or worse. Then the hunt is on to determine which of our 3 bathrooms is the source... and which of my 3 stinkers was the culprit. I usually end up flushing at least two of the toilets, turning off the bathroom lights/fan, lighting a candle, and shutting the door too. Only to repeat shortly. Again. And. Again.

Then I finally make it outside to hang up a load of wash. Instead of enjoying the breeze and sunshine, I find myself steaming over always flushing toilets. And then I hang up an item I had only washed a few days ago. Seriously? This is dirty again?

And that is only a reminder that recently I had pulled an entire stack of clean, still folded little boys' jeans out of the DIRTY laundry hamper. C'mon, kids, is throwing clothes down the laundry chute really that much fun? Or were you just too lazy to actually put them in the drawer after I washed, hung up, took down, folded, and handed you that stack of clean pants? Now THIS time put them AWAY. In the drawer. Neatly. Where they belong.

Meanwhile, the baby monitor squawks. Looking despairingly at the half empty basket of laundry still waiting to be folded, I leave it there to go feed that hungry Princess again. She slurps, and burps, and fills her diaper. After changing her diaper, and her clothes, I get to go on yet another toilet flushing spree.

And, you guessed it, one thing leads to another, and suddenly the laundry's been bleaching in the sun for two hours. (Hint: Not sure why laundry bleaches fast in the basket than out, but it makes some strange patterns on nice clothes when a basket of laundry sits in the sun for too long!) Lay Princess down, tip toe from the bedroom, and hurriedly finish the load of laundry while hoping Lumberjack is late again so I don't have to feel guilty about not having supper ready on time.

And that's how life seem to go. One repetitive chore after another. Children who don't seem to care if there are clean clothes carpeting their bedroom floor. More fires to put out during a day than you have time or energy to deal with. And life, never mind the house, seems like one royal mess! Life with small children seems so hectic and wearisome. And yet all you seem to do is flush toilets.

Let us lift our minds and hearts above the daily drudgery! I need the reminder more than you, believe me. When it seems I only turned circles all day I feel discouraged and defeated. Surely I was made for bigger things! My joys, my talents, my interests are buried underneath an ever expanding mountain of laundry and being smothered by the demands of hungry bellies. But the owners of those hungry bellies are eternal souls. The little one whose dirty dress I'm washing for the second time in the same week might one day have to scrub blood from her shirt after saving a life. The little feet tracking sand in from the sandbox might someday be tracking through more hostile sand in search of souls for the Kingdom of God. The greasy fingerprints left on the walls belong to someone who might one day be trusted to fix something that would mean life or death to a hundred people flying over the ocean.

And on a practical note--I have found it hugely helpful to have one, just one, little corner that I can keep clean. Effort spent in keeping that place spotless is effort paid off when I need to lay my eyes on something restful. At one point it was the couch. If the couch could just be clean, I could take a deep breath of refreshment when I glanced at it and find courage to face down another mountain somewhere else. Right now, my refreshing place is my laundry room. Now that may sound silly or hard to keep up with, but it is organized and laid out so well it only takes me about 5 minutes to clean it, including mopping the floor. Being just off the kitchen, I see it all the time. The kids don't play in there, so it doesn't tend to get full of their clutter. Someday, yes, someday I will make more than one restful spot, but for now, this will have to do. Speaking of which, I need to take my 5 minutes to go clean it while Princess is still sleeping...