Difficult Things

   

It is difficult not being able to clean things as thoroughly as I'd like nor being able to sustain my children's attention long enough to get them to clean things as thoroughly as I'd like.

   

But it is also difficult having someone else show up to do "whatever I can do to help." Especially when they come bearing more than a meal's worth of food and when they show up more than once this week.

   

And when there are TWO people that come independently of each other, and one of them has two children that WANT to play Play-doh with my children, well.

     

It is still not easy watching someone else vacuum while you sit with your feet up (feet that they just massaged without your having to barter, beg, or cajole), nor is it easy to give directions to the bathrooms for cleaning. And I haven't even given birth yet!

   

Sitting and visiting when they're done, though ... that comes surprisingly painlessly.

   

I am blessed.

   

And the next time I have a friend who is sick or pregnant or just generally down, I'm going to her house, uninvited, to rub her feet and vacuum her floors. And if she's embarrassed to death (and who wouldn't be?), I'll just say, "I have eight children. You think you have ANYTHING gross I haven't dealt with, and probably in the last few days?"

   

And then we will visit, or not, depending on her mood. But her floors will be vacuumed and her feet will be rubbed.

   

Just give me a couple months.