"I won't Win any Prizes, but ..." -- Carol Hausch Ossenfort

“I won’t Win any Prizes, but …”

by Carol Hausch Ossenfort

I really hate it when some of my friends tell me that they’ve finished their house cleaning by 9:00 AM on a Saturday morning, that their clean laundry has been folded and put away, and they are now on their way to the supermarket.  By 9:00 on a Saturday morning, I’m lucky if I’ve got my bathrobe on straight while I stumble about the house with a cup of coffee in one hand and the cat in the

Image Credit:  sciencephoto.com

other!  I’m not even close to finished by noon; at that point only half of each room has been hit with a dust cloth or vacuum.  In the meantime, I’m still in the middle of sorting through the laundry and halfheartedly watering the plants.

It definitely doesn’t help my ego either that my coworker in the office is Mrs. Super Clean.  Every few days, the smell of lemon oil furniture polish pervades the air, and I watch entranced as she efficiently runs the dust cloth over her desk and file cabinets … she even finds the time to disinfect the phone receiver!  I, in turn, will periodically blow the dust off my desk through puffed cheeks and consider the job done for another week, at least.

This Mrs. Super Clean, by the way, has also never, ever seen a moth worm in a closet (nor has her mother, she assures me).  We, on the other hand, seem to breed them and like so many other things, this is a hereditary failing.  My daughter phoned the other day in a hysterical state because she found weevils in her flour!  I told her, “Relay.  It’s just something you have to live with … there’s no cure, it runs in the family.”

Likewise, while I have trouble keeping the bathroom stocked with toilet paper and clean towels, I have a friend who worries when the color of her face soap doesn’t match the grout in the tile.  I’m lucky if the tiles are still stuck to the wall!

These same friends would never, ever run out of their favorite cleaning supplies or use a dirty dust cloth.  I hate to admit it, but I’ve even resorted to using a small square of toilet paper to quickly run over the sink for lack of something better.  It’s so humiliating.

It’s all a matter of organization, I know.  I must have been absent the day they taught organizational skills.  That’s why my handbag is a jumble of scraps of paper with half-legible writing reminding me to buy a box of Brillo or pick up the clothes from the cleaners before they sell them.  (I would if I could find the ticket.)  Buried under those notes is a roll of film that was shot a couple of years ago.  I keep transferring it from one bag to another and it’s never in the right one when I’m near the photo store.

A few months ago I lost one of my supermarket check-cashing cards and the store manager gave me a form to fill out for a replacement.  That form is stuffed somewhere in the bag, partially filled out, with the front part now half-ripped away from the carbon. 

It really does bother me … but, not very much, I guess.  Oh, I do truly admire my friends’ superior housekeeping abilities.  (I’ve even offered to let them come in and straighten things up here, but I’ve had no takers.  I can’t imagine why.)

So, I’ll just have to content myself with the fact that my family and friends have had some of the greatest conversations right in the middle of my messy kitchen.  And that does matter to me --- a lot!

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Scripture (Mary & Martha)

Image Credit:  "Mary & Martha at Jesus' Feet" -- personagembiblico.blogspot.com

Thank you, Lord for the ability to see where I need improvement and for giving me the desire and willingness to learn a better way of doing things from those more skilled than I.

Help me also to have the ability to laugh at myself and to put things in perspective.  Where improvement is needed, guide me to improve.  Let me not put things and self-improvement over people – whether they be family, friends, or complete strangers.

Grant me, Lord, Martha’s hands and Mary’s heart.

Amen.