next to godliness

 i started this day by cleaning the h-e-double-hockey-sticks out of my kitchen.  did anyone else use that phrase as a child/teen, or am i shamelessly flashing around my pentecostal upbringing?  if (and that's a big if) cleanliness is next to godliness, then my kitchen venetian blinds were straight from Gehenna.

i remember when we lived in our old place (which is just across our townhouse complex) my neighbour came out of her home one day, huffing and puffing as only a middle-aged English woman can do.  "It's blind cleaning day" she said, as though that should make everything perfectly clear.  "what does that mean?" i asked (shameful!).
"that" was the day every year (sometimes twice!) where my dear neighbour and her husband would remove every venetian blind in their home, bring them one by one into their bathtub and clean them.  i must have looked at her with a mixture of shock and horror.  the most predominant thought in my new-homeowner mind being "WHAT?!  I HAVE TO DO THAT?!!!"
today, five years later, i did it.  well, one blind.  and i huffed and puffed, as only a mid-thirties canadian woman can do.

we are currently getting our house ready to put it on 'the market'.  my beautiful little home, sold to the highest bidder.  will the new owners care about the custom made (by me) paint colours in the kitchen?  notice the baseboards are clean?  celebrate the tree outside our front window?  love our neighbours?  contribute to our neighbourhood?  i wish we could interview potential buyers.

so, i started the day scrubbing and ended it painting the back deck.  and in between, i kissed my daughter good-bye on her first day of grade one, i made a train with my son and started knitting him some fingerless gloves (their bootiful mommy!), i sat in the sun and watched him play and ride his bike.  i read Hannah's prayer in 1 Samuel 2, and echoed the praise of Psalm 113 "He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children".

truly He has done great things for me.  and i have done great things for my kitchen.