Endless

Today, it is a beautiful, sunny day in Belgium. Brian is lounging on the two, lonely chairs on our patio...soaking up the sunlight and listening to his Ipod. He deserves the break. He has been contending with long hours and endless e-mail since he returned from his trip to the U.S. Since he works for a global company, there is always someone who is awake and sending out an e-mail request. Always....

I am sitting in the kitchen, looking out at our scenic backyard and taking a break before Sam wakes up from his nap. I deserve this break. I have been contending with endless laundry and cleaning since we moved here. Most of the flooring is this (sort of) pretty salmon-colored tile. There is one floor of hardwood. Part of the upstairs is covered with a light-colored laminate. Sam's room and the guest room are covered with a thin layer of carpet (not the spongy, padded kind we're used to in the U.S.). Anyway, I am reminded of an e-mail "conversation" my friend, Lara, and I had many months ago. I had mentioned that I didn't understand why people had the notion that stay-at-home wives...or housewives are constantly cleaning. I didn't do very much cleaning at all in Aurora. Well, in Aurora, we had wall-to-wall carpeting and some vinyl flooring that hid dirt very well. Lara has hardwood throughout her house and has to clean it often, she told me. She said that back before carpeting was the norm in a house, frequent cleaning must have been a necessity.

Ahhhh....now I understand. If you drop a crumb....a hair....a speck of dust onto our salmon tile, you can see it. It really could stand to be vacuumed every day. Even after I get done vacuuming, I need to vacuum again!

And don't get me started on the laundry and ironing!!! Their washers fit half the amount of clothes in them here and take two to three times as long to complete a cycle (if you use anything other than cold water). Their washing machines are not hooked up to the hot water heater, but heat the water internally...so it's quite a lengthy process.

Well, Sam should be waking any moment now, so I'll just take in this view and forget about my cleaning for another couple minutes...