Way back when, I wonder if women sent their husbands out the door with a shotgun or a club and told them to not come back until they had dinner for the family. Well, today I'm sending Zane out the door with my expensive newish vacuum to the store where we bought it, and telling him to not come home without a brand new one. It hasn't worked well since the day I bought it but since 50% of our house is hardwood floors and the other 50% we don't spend a whole lot of time in, I had just been living with it and cursing under my breath. But today for a preschool project we used dried beans, which inevitably ended up everywhere, and my vacuum just ran over them, chewed them up for a few seconds into tiny half-beans, and then spit them out. I think by the time Zane gets home, he will wish I had sent him deer hunting.
Speaking of way back when, I have been organizing my family history here and there for a few years now but something is telling me to do it now. I feel like some of my ancestors are telling me to not forget them, but to pass on their life experiences and their stories. I have had such a great time reading about their lives, so different from my cushy existence. I wonder how I would have managed back then--would I have been tough, or just a complainer? I wonder if I would have been a woman who accepted her role as second fiddle, or if I would have made a nuisance of myself, standing up for my feminist rights and whatnot.
I recently learned that in the early days of the church in Utah, being a midwife was actually a church calling. Old Brigham sent the Relief Society pres. to your door and extended an invitation to leave your family and come to SLC for three months of midwifery school. Six days a week, six hours a day to learn how to doctor and deliver, while your husband, farm and umpteen kids were home without you. And I complain about women having to go to five days of girls camp?? Never again.
So, hmmm, back to the vacuum. Maybe I'm complaining a little too loudly. I'm still going to get a new one out of this, though.
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