Many Hands Make Work Light

Wrinkled fingers. Soapy hands. My wrist begins to burn from the small rash I can see coming to the surface beneath all the rubbing. But, I look around and the children are chatting together. I have my ipod playing and we're all singing along to a few of my favorites (Jesus Culture, Brian and Jenn Johnson, Katheryn Scott, and Gungor were just a few that played today).

Today, was my first day washing my own clothes. Usually, our house help washes my clothes, but since she's been sick, the responsibility for clean clothes fell on Rosemary. I wanted to try my hand at it as it is difficult for me to let others do everything for me all the time. I often feel bad, even if it is part of the culture.

So, we gathered together my clothes and headed outside. Rosemary taught me how to scrub the clothes with the bar soap, how to scrub it over my hands to get the spots out, and after washing it a first time, you have to wash it a second time, then rinse it then hang it up to dry. It's hard work. But, the second that the kids saw me out there washing with Rosemary, I had immediate help! Abby, Miracle, Grace, Mary, and Paul all came out to wash a little. Even Portia washed a sock (that was about as long as her attention span lasted!).

The saying that "Many Hands Make Work Light" is surely true! I looked at my pile of clothes and thought that there couldn't be any way that I would be able to wash all these clothes by myself. And I didn't even need to consider it. . .sore hands and all, it was worth it for clean clothes and company of kids!