Would You Rather?

Would you rather....


Jump into a pool of chocolate pudding 
or...
strawberry ice cream

See a fireworks display
or...
to to a concert


Help your family with yard work and then go to the carnival    
or...  
have dad do it alone and not go to the carnival


Help with kitchen chores and have a nice meal together
or...
eat leftovers for a week


Help fold the laundry with your family and go for ice cream
or... 
not help and they go without you

I hope you noticed that the last 3 choices had to 
do with helping.....

While family chores aren't loved by all, 
we all love a good meal, a clean house
 and clothes that aren't dirty
A big bonus of working together is that we grow to love each other more

"When family members work together in the right spirit, a foundation of caring and commitment grows out of their shared experience. The most ordinary tasks, like fixing meals or doing laundry, hold great potential for connecting us to those we serve and with whom we serve."

• “Some of the best times with my dad were when I would help him do yard work. . . . We’d have some of our best talks about life as we raked leaves or hauled wood.” 
• “I think picking strawberries and string beans was especially productive as a family because the work was long and mundane. The quiet, almost mentally effortless work is fertile soil for conversation. I sometimes miss those days.”
• The most fun thing we would prepare together was enchiladas. It was definitely a group project because we would always form an assembly line. My dad would prepare the tortillas, and next, someone would be in charge of dipping them in the sauce. . . . Down the line we had people in charge of cheese, olives, and the rolling and putting them in the pan. There was a job for everybody, and we spent more time talking and laughing than preparing food

Grandma Josephine with her brother and sister, her mother, Angelina, and her grandmother and great-grandmother

I recently came across my mother's, Grandma Josephine, journal from 1949.  Yup, a 71 year old journal.  Do you know what?  There was no such thing as a dishwasher.  I mean they had dishwashers all right, but not the kind you load up, put soap in and turn on in your kitchen.  The dishwashers back in 1949 were the kids!  

So imagine that families rarely went out to dinner.  There were not fast-food places like McDonald's and DelTaco.  Maybe your family would go out to eat on a fancy occasion, like to celebrate an anniversary, but that's all!  So dinners were cooked at home every night.  And by cooked, I don't mean popping frozen lasagna in the microwave.  I mean cooked.  Actually my grandmother even made her own macaroni!  They grew their own vegetables and ate their own chickens.  So every dinner meal including lots of dishes, pots and pans.  

As I read through my mom's journal, I noticed one thing.  Every day she mentioned eating dinner....and then doing dishes....before she did anything else.  Wow - imagine having that job.  She also had other jobs like taking down the curtains and washing them and putting them back up!  But you know what......she was so very happy.  She had lots of aunts, uncles and cousins around her all the time.  She had her parents and her brother and sister.  Everything she wrote was about her family and the fun life she had.  Work wasn't her chore....but her responsibility and she loved contributing to her family.