Life Essentials - Clean Dishes / Dry Clothes

We've experienced two things in Ireland and now France which a typical American lifestyle doesn't always accommodate.
These are things which are completely optional, which are known to happen and are not shocking to your average American,
but...when you look around you, it's just generally not done.

Washing your dishes by hand.
Every night.


Air drying your clothes.
on dryer racks
or outside (preferable).
everything.
sheets, socks
and underwear included.


IOW - no electricity is consumed for either activity.
Inconceivable.

Oh, but it's true, madame!

#1
Washing Dishes
Together

for our family this has come to mean spending time
Together

Often it's crazy and I just wish I could throw
the dishes in the dishwasher -
like last night.

But most of the time
if I'm organized...
we go straight from dinner to the dishes

it's a rhythm
the children have come to expect

and this makes it easier
to get them to do it...
because
it's just what you do...
you know?

dinner
dishes
shower
bed

or some variation
thereof.

unless
homework has not been finished.

A recent revelation this year
was the fact that the two oldest kids
ten and twelve
are old enough to WASH and DRY
so I can go and do other things...

oh why didn't I think of that sooner?
(I was too busy doing it myself)


et voilà

REVELATION!!

The next and more beautiful benefit of this
SERVICE TO THE FAMILY
has been to discover that

Elijah

loves to wash dishes


if that's where his brother and sister are...



actually
he loves to wash dishes no matter
who
is washing with him.

and he has his vinyl covered apron
with Irish cows and sheep
to prove it!


and it keeps him dry!

but to see them interact with him
is so beautiful.

Many beautiful moments are created
in the course of

washing dishes
together.

For this -
I am very grateful.

#2
Drying clothes.
We don't have a dryer.
Neither do the neighbors...
except the neighbor down the hill
(in Ireland)
who runs a B&B
B&B owners MUST have a dryer
but not anyone else.

And so it is

in Ireland and France.

Much more mundane.
but
as with the dishes

essential
critical to life

dry clothes.

and
as with the dishes
getting the kids to participate
has been

beautiful to watch
critical to life

theirs
and mine
and ours.

To know that the wind
doesn't just

mess up our hair or
blow down our fences

(though it does
power our sailboats-
most critical if you're a sailor
which I am
(was)
as a teenager)

but

it dries our clothes
and is

fresh
and beautiful.

I love hanging laundry.
It makes me slow down.
It makes me pause

to enjoy my children.

and even though I sometimes miss the
convenience
of the machine dryer

I'm still glad
I don't have one
because...

I have to stop.

and the clothes still
need
to
be
dry
.

And so we hang them
and breathe deeply,
smiling.