The leech has two daughters, “Give,” “Give.” There are three things that will not be satisfied, Four that will not say, “Enough”: sheol, and the barren womb, earth that is never satisfied with water, and fire that never says, “Enough.” Prov 30:15-16

The times they are a’changing!

When the children were little, I could keep things in order with some discipline and training. Every morning and evening we had a routine of chores. If you have no idea what a chore is, it is a task that must be completed as part of the regular running of the household. We never called it chores when I was growing up so I didn’t know what all these moms were talking about when I was a young single gal.

As my children have grown into adulthood, I no longer have control over their lives. This is a good thing, but it has sometimes led to less control over my home.

• crazy work hours mean running in, getting food, changing clothes and running out
• ministry means more erratic hours at home
• college plus work plus church means less time home

With all of this I sometimes feel empathy with those verses in Proverbs above!

4 things that never say, “enough” in my home:

Laundry.

Laundry with 10 people has always been a challenge. In the movies we see large families with 3 and 4 washing machines (I don’t know WHAT they were thinking… it would have been better for 3 or 4 dryers!) but in real life, that just isn’t a possibility.

Now that the children wash their own clothes you’d think it would be better. However, the erratic schedules come into play here. They may wash and even dry their clothes, but they are seldom around to fold and put them away. So we have extra laundry baskets for them. Their laundry gets put into their baskets and either left on the laundry room table or put into their bedrooms. And they either live out of the baskets on the table or we never see the basket again! (they might not ever see it again later) But I find that I almost have to schedule in MY laundry time!

And with the Night Owls that live in my home, laundry may get put into the washer at 4 am and forgotten. We have all been there and know what happens then. Either foul smelling clothes or extra washings to clean them again.

Yep, in my dis-organized home, laundry never says enough!

Dishes.

Oh what I wouldn’t give for a working dish washer! In the 32 years of marriage, we’ve had a dishwasher for 4 months. When we all ate together, it was easy to have dishes be part of the chore list. But now, with meals at different times for different people, it is so much an Eat and Run kind of deal. And it’s amazing to me how so many people are convinced that they wash their own dishes yet how quickly our sink (and counters) fill up with unwashed dishes!

I’ve tried so many different methods but nothing works for long.

Dishes pile up unseen. I’m still convinced that neighbors drop their dirty dishes off when we are in bed. Except that there is almost always SOMEONE up in our home at all times, so I’m thinking they might notice the wheel barrow of dishes coming in the front door!

Weeds.

Can we say Jungle?? We once had a landscaper come to evaluate our yard for some work. They took pictures and samples back to their office. And apparently (this is a true story) they called in every landscape architect in the company plus 2 outside consultants about our yard! We were deemed to have the worst yard in this area of the state with every weed indigenous to IL except for 1 growing happily in our yard.

We can’t grow grass so we try and mow our weeds to at least LOOK like grass. At least it’s all green!

This year I determined to start out well, and I did! Kevin and I got all the scrub brush (yeah it sounds like we live out in the prairie or desert) chopped down, all the random trees that popped up over the winter cut down and all the weeds whacked. We spent several days chopping and cutting and whacking and things looked good!

Then the rains came!

I’m all for discipline but I’m not about to do yard work in torrential rains or in thunder storms. And when it rains every day for weeks, this is like an invitation for weeds! Little things that would have taken an hour to pull before the rains came are now looking like jungle vines that we need a scythe to hack away!

We used to have Saturday Yard Work Days, but no one is around on Saturdays anymore. So it is hit or miss to get projects divvied out to various children when the weather is good enough to use electrical tools.  I can certainly understand the concept of the Controlled Burn!

Sleep!

When the children were young, there was always someone nursing at night or having bad dreams at night or just needing Momma at night. So I understood the fleetingness of sleep. Now it’s the talking and laughing and hanging out of my adult children downstairs when I’m trying to sleep. We have some loud children whose voices carry and we also have really poor soundproofing.

Then there is my husband’s computer keys. Do you realize how LOUD they are?? But it seems that no one notices this except for me. And the light from his computer on the other side of the room. So I try sleeping with a mask and a noise machine. And a diffuser with sleep inducing oils.

I’m so looking forward to heaven where I have a request in for the first day being just sleep. Since to the Lord a year is as a 1,000 days and a day is as 1,000 years, I figure 1 day of sleeping will give me 1,000 years. Sounds like Glory to me!!

Are there things in your home that just never seem to be caught up, that never say, “enough”? Please tell me I’m not alone!!

All Scripture quotations are taken from the NASB.
Unless otherwise indicated, photos from pixaby.com