What's Left Undone

We have taken an unconventional approach.

After our camping trip this summer, the boys only wanted more of me. "Why can't we play like we did then, only at home? Why do you always have so much to do?"

I read them the list: laundry, dishes, food prep, garden, floors....

"Why can't we play? Just for a day? At home?" they asked.

They couldn't understand my position, why I liked to keep them and and our home neat, food healthy and loved to serve us deeply.

Ah, but that is Play to them -- love.

Why can't we wear dirty clothes? A friend who lived on Orcas Island washed his clothes semi-annually after discovering the price for a load of wash at the laundromat: $18. Can I open my mind, heart and ears to my childrens' perspectives? For a week at Sutton Creek, we changed our clothes once -- slept in them, too.

I am aware that my words border the heretical. But lo, I cannot be fired. The only ones that pay my keep are demanding a restructure.

Lunch: leftover kasha, salad, and beans, still in their original pots, with a plum and a carrot -- no dishes, everyone for their own spoon. Change whatever clothes show too much food or dirt to spot clean at the end of the day -- then go to bed in them. (Gracious, I do hope my grandparents aren't reading this post!) Help is needed in picking up clothes, toys, and sweeping floors; all hands on deck if the object is Play. And need I mention how much fun I'm having? Will I tire of the vacation?

And so we have cut our laundry down to 3 loads per week, our cooking in half by making enormous meals that last three nights. The children have jumped to help by making their bed, sweeping, and picking up. They are delighted to eat from one pot, and (knock on wood), it's not killed any of us yet.

At the YMCA (we became members yesterday, now that we have all this time to Play!), Trinidad looked towards the window and said, "They keep those windows really clean. Most windows (i.e. Ours) just reflect, but those you can actually see through!"

Sam came home and washed the windows. The novelty of that is not so very attractive to them after all. But just think: if our windows get dirty enough, maybe I won't have to spend all that time dropping and raising the blinds!