"How Many Times Do I Have to Tell You..."

"Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all of your might". That was a motto in my house and a good one that my dad would always repeat in our house so that we remembered to do our best, don't do a job halfway. Ecclesiastes 9:10 if there was one Bible verse the Bushlack kids knew, it was that one.

My children have been doing chores since the years when them "helping" me was more of a hinderance. When they knew that mom was doing things around the house, they were helping. Those were the days they wanted to help.

Ahh...the "good ol' days"! Now, we just want to get our jobs done so we can do important things. You know, like watch an episode of something on Netflix we have seen 50 times already, chat with a friend on face time, or wander around the house telling me that they are bored or hungry. There are other things that they do, and it isn't always as bad as all of that but my point is. HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL THEM...

• how do fold the laundry?
• how to put the groceries away?
• how to straighten up their bathroom?
• how to clean off and wash the table?
• how to vacuum the floor?
• how to sweep the kitchen floor?
• how to brown the ground beef?
• how to clean up their room?
• what I expect a "clean" kitchen to look like?
• and the list goes on...

It isn't that they don't know HOW to do these things. It is that they don't care to do them WELL. For example, I was putting the remaining dishes into the dishwasher before starting it and saw that the one who came before me and started the job put these caked on serving and mixing spoons into the dishwasher expecting them to come out squeaky clean. We had a talk!

These will not get clean. In fact, my husband did a wonderful presentation to all of them not long after buying a new dishwasher and getting complaints from them that THIS one doesn't work either! Oh yes it does...but a dishwasher (even a new one) does not magically make food particles disappear.

Oh how I wish that I had a video of my husband explaining how food is sprayed off of one item in the dishwasher and thrown around until it lands on a dish or utensil that wasn't that dirty to start with. They were all listening. I took note of that! They all said they understood. But a week or so later, this is what I find.

Lazy...lets face it...laziness. I get it too, I want the job to be done fast so I can get to the more interesting things in life. I actually told them this and they looked at me like "how could this be?" It was like an epiphany to find out that Mom doesn't like to do the dishes. (As if cleaning up the dirty mess of a family isn't what I live for). Don't get me wrong...serving my family is a privilege and a blessing but there are very few that love to handle the dirty dishes or stick their hand into that stinky sweaty soccer sock that needs to be unballed and turned right side out before it goes into the washer. I have my favorite things and my not so favorite things too ya know!

We all get lazy...this is just another good reminder for me to do whatever it is my hand finds with all my might. One of these days, they may just "catch" that concept and take own it as their own!