Renewed Perspective

I've gained a refreshing new perspective on household chores lately. Part of this came from my new enjoyment of reading homemaking blogs. They are so inspiring and motivating. Another part of the new, added fun is my ability to include Ayden in what I am doing. You'd think that having a toddler help you would make things take twice as long, or make more of a mess than progress. For me, though, having a little "helper" really makes things go more smoothly. Ayden seems to be taking a serious interest in doing whatever I am doing. Last night I gave him a little Gerber knife to "chop" up some cauliflower while I did the same thing. It kept him *quietly* occupied for a good 20 minutes. He stands on a chair and "washes" his own dishes while I load the dishwasher and clean up the kitchen after meals.

Between the help of inspiration from the blogs and Ayden's involvement, I have been able to take on a new outlook to my household chores. Where I used to think, "Man, the laundry and dishes are seriously never ending..." I now have a refreshing new perspective.

It is my job privilege as a stay at home mom/house wife/homemaker/whatever you want to call me, to create and maintain an environment that provides a clean and organized space for life to take place. Every time I reboot the laundry, wash the dishes or clean up a mess, I am getting our living space back to "ready" so that my family can experience life without clutter getting in the way. A clean slate for whatever shenanigans we might get into. This is a wonderful and beautiful thing.

Much like our first "bounty" from our garden!

There are still some days where I lose sight of this new perspective and that's okay. It is a lot of work not only to keep up with the demands of our busy life and sometimes even more work to choose to be happy about the cyclical, seemingly mundane list of chores to keep up with. When that happens, all I have to do is give myself a day off or just step back and really observe the life that is going on around us. Remind myself to intentionally choose to enjoy serving my family in this way.

Watching my husband and son playing, hearing Ayden try out new words and eat an entire meal with a spoon. Watching Ayden pull the broom around the room being the best little helper I could ever ask for. This is our life at this present moment in time and it is beautiful and wonderful. And my role as the person who cleans the slate to set the stage for this beautiful life to unfold? Priceless. I am so proud to be a homemaker. It isn't always glamorous and certainly isn't always easy but there is nothing else I'd rather be doing.

Happy Kentucky Derby Day!

~Sarah