Trash Talk

And I mean the actual trash in the can. As many of you know, I can be very passive agressive when it comes to the trash in my house. I grew up in a house where the Daddy took care of the trash. When Matt and I got old enough it became one of our chores. Trash came twice a week - you gather everything in the house and take to the curb and you also take out the kitchen trash daily. That's how it worked.

Well, now I'm all grown up and married and in my mind the trash is not my job. I do laundry, cleaning, most of the cooking, the majority of the kitchen clean-up.....I don't do trash. I know that sounds a bit rude and my intent is not to say Easy doesn't do his fair share. My man works harder than anyone I know. It has become evident over the course of our marriage, however, that he does not fully embrace trash as his job.

I've been known to stack the trash two foot high above the garbage can. Sometimes I'll grab another trash bag and fill it up and put it on the floor next to the trash can. I used to take it out sometimes and pile it in front of the back door so he'd have to move it to get in the house. We have a cat now (in the garage) so that's not a good idea, but I have put it all in the laundry room so it's still in his way.

I realize this is immature, rude, petty, and oh so very passive agressive. See, I never complain about the trash to my man. I just pile it up and refuse to take it to the trash cans outside. Yes, shame on me - I know.

Just a few nights ago we had this talk about "the little things." I won't delve into the details, but I was commenting that those little things really do make an impact on my willingness to be, um, intimate. Yesterday Easy called and asked me to pick up his laundry at the cleaner's. I did and when I got home it occurred to me that this was a little thing. I usually pick up his cleaning and leave it my car until he gets home and gets it himself. Seriously, I have 3 kids and their stuff and my stuff to get out and in the house. This drives him nuts as his laundry is usually laying flat and not hanging up in the car. So yesterday I brought the laundry in and hung it in his closet. He noticed. He smiled. He then laughed when I told him that I figured if I was going to whine about the little things I probably should be willing to do some of them!

So today - I took out the trash. The kitchen and laundry room trash cans were overflowing. I started stacking around noon yesterday so we had a good 3 bags worth of trash sitting in those two rooms. I suppose God reminded me that trash is a little thing in the grand scope of life - so I took it out.

We all have trash of our own. How blessed we are that even when we've let it pile up and overflow all we need to do is go to our Father and say, "Please, take this from me." Then He loads up all our messy sins and stinky attitudes, and moldy thoughts and takes out our trash. How blessed indeed.