sweepers

vern's mom watched caleb here at the house while i worked mornings. in 4 or 5 hours she never failed to sweep, fold clothes, replace the toilet paper roll (even if it had another good day of use left), wash pans and load the dishwasher. it nearly drove me nutty because at the time i hated having anyone pick up after us. i used to stockpile unfolded clothes in our room and counted my one blessing: she feared our front-loader. i would plead with vern to make sure all our pans were clean before i lost all sense and stock-piled those behind our closed bedroom door as well. vern found it amusing. me. not his mother. he rather appreciated his mom taking over his household chore. when the dishwasher handle broke and required a special pull to open it vm could not get, i let out a sigh of relief. we have yet to get it fixed.

i stopped working when maddy was born. then one day last year we had to rush caleb to the er and his mom kept watch over her. in our haste to get out the door, absent from its keeping place, his mom still managed to inquire the whereabouts of our broom. "don't worry about it, mom. just enjoy playing with maddy." i giggled to myself. we were gone all of 45 minutes. clothes were sorted, dishes were drying in the rack and she was yet a fluster until vern went out to the garage where he'd left the broom. he then looked on helplessly as she swept our home. "really, mom, this is unneseccary." i found it amusing. him. and his mother.

so one can imagine my delight when yesterday vm dropped caleb off from pre-k. she opened his door and he came barreling out and up the steps. she did not close the door and follow with his back pack. she came around the car with a broom in hand. the outdoor broom from her garage. vern had mowed the night before. he never sweeps the clippings. she often comments on it. apparently yesterday after picking up caleb, she had reached her own breaking point. caleb raced for our broom and he and his grandmother happily cleared our entire walk.

i'm going to invite her over next week. i'll get the dishwasher door open, direct her to our stockpile of baskets in the bedroom and then play with my kids. and after that, i might even just let the older two go back to the farm with her for pb&j and chocolate milk while i...

the kids adore their grandparents, and i really love my mother-in-law.