Keep On Keepin' Up

My amazing Grandma told me, "If you can't keep up, you'll never catch up."

I didn't appreciate Grandma enough when she was alive, or even for decades after she passed on.  But now... NOW! I've passed the age she was when she gave me this advice, and I am awed by her... well... awesomeness.

Bit of background. Grandma was the butcher's daughter in a small town in the Midwest, born around 1905.  Her father built a lovely Victorian house for his family. They had a piano, a sun porch, a big barn, and a field.

From this prosperous beginning, Grandma married my wonderful grandfather, a barber. By 1929 they had 2 kids who survived (2 didn't) and a 3rd yet to come. Grandpa had started up his own shop. Then the Depression came. It wiped them out.

The Great Depression defined my grandmother. It transformed a gently-brought-up little girl into a thrifty, hardworking, and efficient dynamo. Here are examples:

They had no indoor bathroom. The outhouse was up the hill. Every morning Grandma hauled all the chamber pots up to the outhouse, emptied them, added lime to the outhouse as necessary, rinsed the chamber pots at the pump, and hauled the pots back to the house. 

She got back just in time to tend to the chickens, make breakfast for 6 (her widowed father-in-law lived there too), wash up the dishes, and weed the garden before lunch. There was a laundry tub by the clothesline, so at least she didn't have to use rocks at the river on laundry day, but still...

As for food and money, there was never enough of either. Mom tells me Grandma once paid the doctor for a house call with... a chicken! Try that with Obamacare.

I could never have done all that. I have less to do all day than Grandma had to do in the first hour of her day. Yet I have fallen way behind. I have so much catching up to do that I'll need to bring in professional housekeeping help at some point.

I plan to get out of this mess. First, I will keep up and stay kept up until I'm satisfied that Grandma would approve. Then, and only then, will I schedule some help. After all, there's no sense in catching up if you aren't going to keep up, right Grandma?  Sorry it took me so long to listen.