Housework

It´s Friday, my day off work, cleaning day and I am listening to the wonderful hypnotic sounds of the washing machine and the dishwasher. Soon the steam iron will join in the music before the vacuum cleaner has it´s solo performance. I will have the Friday favourite vegetable soup cooking on the stove by 11am and that old familiar smell of liebstoeckl will fill the air and there they´ll be again, the memories of my Grandmother.
She was amazing! A wonderful mother and wife and a perfect housekeeper although...she was blind. She lost her eyesight when she was young but it didn´t stop her from having 4 children and mastering life in such a positive way. She lived through war, poverty and all the hardships involved with not being able to see but she never dwelled on the negative sides of life, she was generous and found happiness in the smallest of things. Like eating vegetable soup with liebstoeckl cooked on a wood stove, eating a sweet apple on her favourite bench at the bedroom window where she could feel the sun on her face in the afternoon, listening to her favourite radio programme and spending time with other people who also liked to laugh and have a chinwag. She liked to be organised so it was very important for her not to have any unnecessary objects around so that she had important things at hand when she needed them. I can see her in my mind´s eye, touching things to feel and appreciate the texture and listening closely when someone knocked on her door and walked into her home - she recognised most people by the sound of their feet. I must try to be more like she was - live in the moment, keep my life and my home simple, surround myself with beautiful, usefull things and find happiness in small pleasures. I miss you oma!