Mary & Martha

With great joy, I sit here at my computer this morning with a sweat shirt on. It's actually chilly in the house. Looks like the temperature here grazed the 40's last night and that makes me very happy. Cool weather is a welcome change after a long, hot summer.

This week, I have put all the things on my to do list aside, for various reasons. There have been errands to run, appointments to take Melanie to and somehow when the two of us head out together with the baby, it turns into a full day of doing things together. Which is fine, except that my "to do" list is growing ! I chose to put off the things to do and enjoy moments in time that can't keep.

The stove needs blackening, things need to be moved away from beside the wood stove. Christmas soap to be made, more apples to be canned, candles to be dipped, and of course more wool to be spun...and then this morning the garden needs to be hoed and the visiting goat needs his hooves worked on some more. I really want them to be trimmed for his sake, so he can walk without pain. I have the back hooves done but the front hooves were at least 4 inches overgrown and just couldn't be done all at once. Small increments every couple of days is about all I can manage without making him lame. The hooves are as hard as rock and not easy to do. I have some sewing that needs to be done and fall decorations places around the house, along with the day to day cleaning and baking that is needed.

But at times there is a higher calling than housework or tasks to be done. Spending time with family, taking Melanie the places she needs to go since they have only one vehicle and Casi has to take that to work. The old poem about "dusting and cleaning can wait", is a good thing to remember when we think about how we deal with the people in our lives at any time, not only babyhood. Its a bit like the story of Mary and Martha in the Bible. Becoming a slave to having a clean orderly house, robs you at times of true service and that is probably what will matter in the end. Of course I don't advocate living in a mess or in a dirty house, but to have balance. Not to be the Martha type woman. The kitchen floor can be dirty for a day if you are called upon to help someone in need, and that need can be simply to go clean someone elses kitchen floor or drive someone to a Doctors appointment for those small things can be the very things that show the "mind of Christ". And how important is it to treasure our children above things or keeping the house spotless. To show them love by making time for them, the kind of love we are shown from above, for they grow and become parents themselves and what kind of legacy do we want to pass on to them ? God has never once been too busy for me and I want to show my family that same sort of love.

Luke 10: 38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!"
41"Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."

The following is by Ruth Hulburt Hamilton

and was published in the Lady's Home Journal in 1958 as

"Song for a Fifth Child."
Mother, oh Mother, come shake out your cloth

empty the dustpan, poison the moth,

hang out the washing and butter the bread,

sew on a button and make up a bed.

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?

She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I've grown shiftless as Little Boy Blue

(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

Dishes are waiting and bills are past due

(pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo).

The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew

and out in the yard there's a hullabaloo

but I'm playing Kanga and this is my S

Look! Aren't her eyes the most wonderful hue?

(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,

for children grow up, as I've learned to my sorrow.

So quiet down, cobwebs.

Dust go to sleep.

I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.