Trying to be mature is such a hard thing. Who wouldn’t rather spend the day doing as little as possible if it were possible? I do get in moods where I enjoy work and get a lot of constructive things done, but I’d have to say that the majority of the time, sitting on my bed and reading or watching movies with room service would be fine. Today is Saturday and I slept in till after 1pm. I did nothing for a few hours and then drove over to Joe’s and have done nothing over here for a few hours. It’s been a great day. I don’t know if I’d like it everyday but I’d like a chance to find out.
When I was growing up and it was time to clean my room or mow the lawn, I was a master at procrastinating my day away. I would start looking at the mess on my floor about 9 or 10 am. Within the next two hours I would have lifted maybe a dirty sock or two and possibly a shirt from off the top of a book lying on the floor while lying prone next to it and staring up at the ceiling. During this time, at least 3 of my siblings would have come in to check on me and see how ‘it was coming along’. I would tell them it was way too hard of a job to do on my own. They in turn would assure me that I was 6/7/8/9/10/11/12 now and able to do it on my own. Sometimes they would tell me that I couldn’t come out for lunch until I was done/half way done/part way done/put one of the socks I looked at in the hamper. It didn’t happen. Eventually, by the time it was 1 pm and they were tired of waiting to eat, I would be allowed to come out with the disclaimer that it was happening this time and never again and that right after I was finished it was back to the room cleaning job.
Do you know how long you can take to eat peas? Each one is unique and should be looked over as a work of art. Especially if there are little pieces of pepper floating in the butter and can be manipulated into constellations around the main green planet.
By 3:30, my sister or brother would finish being understanding, confiscate my plate and march me back in my room where a mere 2 or more hours would pass while I languished on the floor and cried about how hard my life was. By 5 or 6, one of them would come in the room, spend less than 10 minutes picking things up and release me to the rest of the day, such as it was. They didn’t stay mad at me. After all, I was the baby sister.
Mowing the lawn or sweeping off the cement was a similar experience with the exception of the dirty socks. I’m lucky my brothers and sisters were so understanding. I felt, truly, that my life was harder than everyone else’s. And there is a glimpse into Leah’s childhood.
My job has taken an interesting turn. I’ll speak more about it in a few weeks. Sufficeth to say, changes are happening and once again, God has figured things out for me before I even got there.
quick recap for the kids:
sometimes doing nothing is enough, don’t try to act like i did about doing your chores…i’m not as nice as my brothers and sisters, i miss you so much this weekend and i’m doing everything i can do ensure it won’t happen again.
mom