Ben is Fascinated

One of the topics that came up during our retreat was how to have a more peaceful Sabbath.  We have, for a long while, had the kids choose their clothes, socks, and shoes on Saturday, but that alone was not doing the trick.  Can you say duh?! Now we have a list of things each person in the family is required to do, and we do all of our Sabbath prep work early on Saturday morning while we are still fresh and energetic, and the result has been wonderful.  Mark’s job is to look over the boys’ choice of clothing and choose my clothes.  Mine is to see the girls’ clothes are ready and oversee the diaper bag packing and food prep. 

Anyway, like you needed to know that.  Yesterday we didn’t get to work on this as early as we would have liked, and Mark had not yet checked the boys’ clothes.  I was ironing the girls’ dresses, and Bradford brought me his clothes to iron.  I asked Nate if his outfit needed ironing, and he said no.  Then I asked Ben, and he replied, “what do you mean?” 

“Do your church clothes need ironing?” I repeated.

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“Okay, go get the clothes you are wearing to church and bring them to me.  I’ll tell you if they need ironing.”

So he brought me his wrinkled black pants, red undershirt and flannel shirt (only slightly dirty).  “Yes, Ben.  These pants are wrinkled.  I’ll iron them for you.”

“This T-shirt is wrinkled.” (See how quickly he was catching on!)

“Alright, I’ll iron it, too.”

And then he stood by while I did just that.  After a few moments he asked in a puzzled way, “so… this is an iron?”

“Yes.”

“And this (pointing to the board) is an ironing board?”

“Yes.”

“And you only use it for ironing?  That’s weird.”

My otherwise very smart 9-year old does not remember me ironing. Ever. Because I very rarely do.  Didn’t even know what an ironing board was for!  But I’ve decided since I’m getting help doing all my other Sabbath work, I should step up and begin caring what my children look like at church.  I know, I know.  I should have cared before.  Yeah, but I’m not a naturally organized person, and to care would have been too stressful. 

But I have declared that 2010 will be

The Year of Unbounded Domesticity

More on that another time.  Bet you can’t wait.