Picture of the Week: Laundry

We had to wash "Whitey" the squirrel. He wasn't so white anymore! 

It's the chore that never ends. You load, wash, take out, dry, take down, fold, put away (repeat...endlessly). I'm glad someone came up with an all-encompassing word for it: laundry. And since Adam and Eve got their first animal skin clothes, the homemaker's life has struggled to not feel like this all-encompassing word is all-encompassing her! Here, just as in America, we dirty clothes. So laundry continues on with all it's glory.

Recently a friend posted on facebook: "Only in America do we worry about how pretty our laundry room is". I suppose that might be true. My laundry "room" here is a balcony off the kitchen. It's enclosed with metal bars to keep pigeons from poo-ing in my washer (a very common problem) and monkeys from raiding.  That's right. My washer is outside. I have no dryer. We went fancy on our washer and got one that heats up the water for some special (diaper) loads. It all seemed very primitive when we moved here a few months ago. But already as we pass so many women dunking clothes in rivers, sewers, buckets, etc to clean them I see how much I really do have...which was the gist of my friends quote.

So all this to say, just as laundry still exists here, so does materialism, inequity, injustice, and (God-willing) thankfulness and joy in the daily tasks. My hope is that I never worry about how pretty my laundry "room" is nor do I pride myself on how spiritual I must be to do-with-less. But that I do laundry (cold or hot water, inside or outside, pigeons or monkeys or just the cool breeze)
for the glory of God. This is the day (full of laundry, dishes, diapers and dirt) that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it!