Happiness month day 29 – a helping hand

I don’t know about you, but every so often I step into martyr mode.

No sooner have you done a job around the house such as washing up when a dirty plate appears on the side.

You force the last sock into the machine, turn it on and someone spills lunch down their top.

You clean the bathroom sink and someone washes their muddy hands.

Most of the time I’m ok with it. I see my role as housewife as an honourable and worthy one. I love keeping our life space clean and orderly. I love putting my energy into the work I do to serve the people I love. I love the results of my care and dedication.

But every now and then I feel like an unpaid, unappreciated housekeeper and I get a bit irritable.

I guess my mood was obvious recently to Little Miss Green whom I’m often nagging to be more careful:

Wherever she happens to be standing when she takes off her clothes is where they stay until she is asked to pick them up.

Whatever she has been playing with on that day is left where she was using it until she is asked to put it away.

Piles of fresh laundry get muddled with dirty laundry because it all gets dumped on the floor.

And I’m forever asking her to rinse the sink after using it.

This week she took it upon herself to help out. I’ve been explaining that when you’re part of a community; even if that community is a family of four; it’s helpful to see a job that needs doing and just get on and do it. No ‘it’s not my fault’ or ‘it wasn’t me’ or ‘*she* did it’ but just to get on and do it to help the household run smoothly.

Something that still eludes me to this day is how the bathroom mirror gets in such a state after LMG has washed herself. I assume it’s toothpaste or where she vigorously scrapes the nailbrush across her nails, but the mirror is covered, daily, in white spots of soap or toothpaste…

Anyway, this morning I had to laugh to myself, and yes, it bought one of those huge grins of happiness to my face. I went into the bathroom and it was evident that LMG had taken it upon herself to clean the mirror in the way only a ten year old can:

I think it’s time to give her some of my green cleaning tips; don’t you?!