Giant Woman-Eating Tootsie Rolls

As part of the moving process, I had the bright idea it'd be nice to deep clean all the area rugs before laying them out on the new wood floor in our "coming soon" house.

The job sounded deceptively simple--roll up a rug, rent a deep cleaning machine for $25 from the hardware store, roll out the rug on the carport for cleaning, and hang it to dry on the clothesline.

Yet, as usually happens, this simple job turned into a week-long undertaking.

For starters, rolling up the rugs was a Herculean endeavor. Even not taking into account the furniture sitting atop them, our present house is a labyrinth of floor to ceiling boxes. In fact, a night time trip to the bathroom is a Helen-Keller-esque experience in darkness as I move by touch, feeling for the boxes lining our bedroom and the hall.

Despite the clutter, I somehow managed to maneuver these four heavy tootsie rolls on steroids through the boxy maze and out the back door. After an hour's labor cleaning off the carport (i.e., my bench/desk/swing painting studio of late), cleaning the rugs was the easy part, as long as my mother could keep the children from dancing/running/stomping on them. We have been waiting for a day with 30% or less of showers--today was that day...but it was also one of the muggiest so far this summer with the humidity bringing the heat index to 110 and making me feel like a snow woman in the Sahara.

You haven't witnessed a humorous scene until you've watched my mother and me manhandle a wet eight foot rug across the yard to the heavy clothes line mounted between two pipes. (Imagine us as Larry and Darryl.) You haven't laughed until you have witnessed us struggle to heave the ginormous rectangle high enough to go over the line...only to have the pole choose that very moment to rust through at the joint and collapse to the ground, leaving us wondering how we're going to get them dry.

By early afternoon, every rug was dry, rolled back up, and stacked against a wall between some boxes. We were exhausted. And I couldn't help thinking how something that required so few words to print on a "To Do" list could be so great a challenge.

Yet, I guess it's not that hard for me to believe. The Scriptures plainly state what I'm required to do. It sounds so easy.

But even with the Spirit's help, it's the hardest thing in the world to overcome myself and my shortcomings.