Another change in my life . . .

I've written a bit, previously, about all of the changes and transitions happening in our family and our ministry these days. For me, personally, the biggest change has been having no children at all in the house during the day. It's very quiet here now. It's also rather dusty, and, as each day passes, the house has become more and more disorganized!

Most people seem to assume that fewer children at home must translate into Trish having a lot of empty time on her hands . . . when in fact, the opposite has proven true. My kids have always been a large part of the machine that runs our home and ministry work. Without them, I'm overwhelmed and ridiculously understaffed! (I'm not including Russell in this discussion - of course, he's working at the ministry all day long, but he has his own work to do, and he hasn't been part of the "kids who live at home" workload for five years or so.)

In recent months, I've struggled to find a method or system that would allow me to manage all of the housework, my former ministry duties as well as those which were previously handled by children who have moved away, and the work required for Ben to attend and succeed at school - and which would also give me time to just be a wife, mom, and grandmother. While I washed dishes, I felt guilty because I knew I should be writing emails. When I was hanging laundry on the line, I knew I should be organizing photos for a PowerPoint presentation. When I worked on writing blog posts, my family members would run out of clean socks or underwear or clean dishes. When I chose to work at anything when I might have been visiting Russellito - that was just wrong! It hasn't been pretty, and has also been very frustrating for me.  

Finally, I had to give up! Even though I am a hermit by nature, and have loved having the house to myself during the days - I've come to accept the fact that I am not able to accomplish everything that currently falls into the category of "Trish's responsibilities." So, today, I am training a local lady who will be helping me with the dishes, laundry, cleaning, and - this pleases me a LOT - she will be cooking lunch for our work crew! So, pray for Yessenia and for me, if you would, as we navigate the path to successfully working together.

I must say, however, that today - our first day together - is going GREAT. The water was out for the past two days, and so both the dirty dishes and the dirty laundry have piled up . . . and yet, here I am, writing a blog post instead of dealing with all of that!

Expect more blog posts coming up, as now I should have the time to write them . . . and time to finally get the website up and running again, and to write the long-overdue "thank you" notes, and to answer emails more promptly, and . . . I think you get the idea!