Greasy Stove Tops and Black Flip Flops: A Humorous Lesson on Daily Priorities

The stove top was covered in layers of grease.

Piles of clean clothes took up permanent residence in laundry baskets.

I needed help putting the freshly washed sheets back on the bed.

Remember the movie The Breakup? When Brooke wanted twelve lemons, but Gary only got her three? I felt like Brooke. Hurt. Unseen. Like what mattered to me didn’t matter to anyone else. 

One night, I couldn’t take looking at all the undone chores anymore, and I lost it on my unsuspecting family.

“I’m not the maid,” I declared. 

“No one appreciates me,” I cried as I raced to get my purse and keys. I needed to a time-out.

Then I realized I was barefoot. “What if I wanted to browse somewhere,” I thought as I pictured myself escaping my reality in the aisles of Target. So, I went to my closet and fumbled through the shoe organizer.

“These shoes don’t match my dress. My outfit won’t coordinate,” I thought to myself. 

I decided it was insignificant considering the circumstances and slid my bare feet into the black flip-flops. I proceeded to storm out of the house when Matt intercepted me in the master bathroom.

I yelled.

I cried. 

I let it all out. I told Matt about the greasy stove top. And changing the sheets, and making the bed, and putting away laundry, and keeping a clean home and how I work, too, and why didn’t they see them as daily priorities too…

In the distance, I heard the clinking of dishes being put away. Then, the whirring of the vacuum cleaner. My daughter was doing her chores.   

I started to calm down.

Then, Matt said something about all of us cleaning together on Saturdays, and how it won’t take that long if we all work together.

I felt relief, hope even.

The truth is, not much has actually changed since that night. My house sometimes still gets too dirty for me to handle. But, thanks to a shift in my mindset, and redefining my daily priorities,”I don’t get nearly as upset over the undone chores.

Instead, I catch myself reminiscing over meal prep and dinner time as I wipe down counter tops. I feel a sense of pride when I deliver a basket full of freshly cleaned laundry to my bedroom. Peace washes over me as I fluff pillows and push the reset button on the living room.

Then, in the quiet of night when my family is safe and sound asleep, I smile at tomorrow, knowing it’s the messes don’t matter, not even the greasy stove top, because my people are my priority.