Live. Laugh. Love.

It's such a cliche. 

Valentine's Day: the day for exchanging chocolates and red roses and hoping that some special person will notice you. 

Or the day for having it pointed out in no uncertain terms just how nonexistent your "love life" really is.

 But yesterday, as I was thinking through the "ideal" evening with my own "special someone," something dawned on me. Or, perhaps I should say "re-dawned" because it has occurred to me before. My favorite thing about my husband is that he is my friend. 

I know, that is cliche too. 

But I think that it is often overlooked. So much emphasis is placed on the chocolates and roses and fluffy pink feelings and romantic candlelight dinners and tuxedos (although, I will say, I'm a sucker for my dressed-up husband. With a bow tie.) 

My favorite evenings, though, are the ones where we are doing the dishes together and making fun of each other and laughing so hard we can't breathe. 

Or the ones where we are eating by candlelight again, not to be romantic, but because the power has gone out. Again. 

Or the ones where we run outside 

and desperately try to pull all of the dry laundry off the line 

as the first sprinkles of rain begin to fall, 

and we are getting all tangled up the clean clothes and clothesline 

and laughing and tripping over our toddler 

who is trying so hard to help 

and is just managing to be everywhere that is most inconvenient. 

Or the ones where we eat a whole roll of oreos (who decided that so many delicious little cookies should go in one package?) while I read a book and he sits beside me and plays a computer game. 

When we were engaged, we were warned over and over again (perhaps due to our rather short dating time) that after we were married, the fun and romance would wear off, and at some point we were going to have to face the reality that is mundane married life. 

Well… duh. Of course the fuzzy feelings can't last forever, continuously, all the time. 

But friendship can. 

And when we just aren't feeling the starry-eyed romance in the middle of the stuff that is life… 

we can always laugh. 

At each other. 

With each other. 

At life. 

And I think, that is what love really looks like. 

Not chocolates (although I do love chocolate). 

Not roses (not my favorite flower, anyways). 

Not tuxedos (although, refer to the above confession regarding my stance on suits.) 

But love is laughing and rolling up our sleeves and washing the dishes. 

Or sweeping. 

Or stumbling around and finding the matches and candles in the dark so that we can see to finish dinner. 

Or giving the toddler a bath because he sat in a puddle. Again. 

And always, being willing to laugh. 

And live.

And love. 

Life at Kudjip: The Great Laundry Dilemma

There are times in life on the mission field when you just have to stop and contemplate how amazingly complicated a formerly easy part of your life has become. Now, granted, there are plenty of formerly difficult or expensive things that are now easy, such as eating plenty of fruits and vegetables or staying active enough. BUT, there are also some of those formerly easy things that now are amazingly complicated. Case in point: laundry. There are several factors that go into making this common household chore a more complicated and involved undertaking that it heretofore might have been.

1. I use cloth diapers for Theron. Now, I have always used cloth diapers for him, this is not a new development since becoming missionaries, but I just need for you to keep in mind that this little factor lends an aura of urgency or importance to the Laundry Dilemma that it might not have if what was at stake was, say, clean underwear rather than diapers. Diapers are important. Very important. 

2. All of our water comes from a water tank, which is filled by rain. Now, granted, we do live in the tropics, so this would seem to be a non-issue. However, this is only true during the rainy season, which we are currently in. During the dry season, I am told, these water tanks do occasionally go dry, especially if you happen to do, say, a load of diapers a day. While I have not actually lived here during a dry season, this factor has to be kept in mind to understand while I feel morally obligated to be thankful for the copious amounts of rain we are currently receiving on a daily, hourly, and minutely basis. 

3. Our power goes off. A lot. Usually at least two or three times in an evening, often during the day as well. When the power goes off, laundry cannot be done at all for two reasons: (1) the water pump is electric and requires power so when the power goes off, so does our water; (2) the washing machine is electric and requires power so when the power goes off, so does my washing machine. 

4. We don't have a drier. Now, this is not a HUGE deal, as we do have a nice laundry line and I grew up hanging clothes outside to dry, since we didn't have a drier when I was a teenager. However, two issues: (1) I'm 7 months pregnant. This makes bending over to pick up clothes and straightening up to hang them approximately 235 times a day just a leetle more interesting. I can't breathe when I bend over. (2) In order for clothes to dry on a clothes line, it must at the very least not be raining. Ideally, there would actually be a modicum of sunshine. Here is where we refer back to factor #2, regarding water. As I mentioned back then, you may recall, we are currently in the rainy season. This means that we get approximately 3 minutes of sunshine per day. The rest of the time it is either pouring, sprinkling, misting, foggy, very overcast, or some mixture or variation on those condition. 

5. Not to worry, my neighbor has a drier which I am welcome to use whenever I need it! Yay! Except… see factor #3. The drier is yet another item which is electric, therefore requiring electricity to function, therefore frequently not functioning. 

SO, in summary, to have clean diapers (which is very important) I must make sure to do the laundry when we have water in the tank (requiring rain), the water pump and washer are functioning (requiring power) and there is EITHER enough sunshine to dry the clothes on the line OR enough power to dry the clothes in the drier. 

And then I must make sure to get the laundry DOWN OFF the line BEFORE it rains again, or the work I did hanging them up in the first place is negated. And it is just so depressing to have to re-hang clothes that WERE dry but then got rained on. 

I'm not complaining. Just contemplating. Now, if you'll excuse me, I believe the power is on and the sun is out so I need to run and do laundry. Because Theron is currently wearing his last diaper.