We are home from our recent road trip, which was a success in many ways.  We always come back better for having seen and done new things.  This trip however, was a journey back through time in many ways.  Instead of the glitz and glam of days gone by we have been immersed in the world of the Victorian poor. (will share more from our visit to the workhouse in coming days!)  At the hotel I was huddled up with Jennifer Worth memoirs.  My head is about to explode I think.  

I have thought and thought so many things in recent days but a conversation keeps coming back to me.  A friend in nursing who has worked extensively with the poor and elderly remarked not long ago about yet another article by a young mom "burned out" and tired – a young, suburban, middle class mom whose husband supports her and her children and who has the luxury to complain about her lot on a state of the art computer.

We, this friend and I, have both raised large families. We have both been homesteaders.  Came from lower middle class rural roots.  We know tired.  We do.  And we in no way mean to suggest that bearing and caring for small children is no longer a taxing job because it is. 

HOWEVER

It isn't the same level of suffering known by much of the world throughout time.  Even as late as the 1950s flats in London were without running water – hot or cold.  Families shared community toilets.  Hundreds of people to one toilet.  I have such tremendous respect for the women who came before us and for the women who are still working in these conditions around the world.  When we get bogged down I remind myself what a luxury it is to wash clothes in a machine, to wash dishes in one's own sink in one's own home, to pull dinner ingredients out of a refrigerator, to be able to quickly clean,medicate, and bind up small "owies".  

Even today, so many are still toiling the better part of their waking hours away from the homes they long to be in, grateful for any opportunity at all.  Homemaking, when done well, takes great discipline and diligence, physical stamina and emotional sturdiness.  It is hard work, but those of us who have been able to do it for any length of time should never forget what a gift it is.  It is a job denied to many.