Where's Connie When I Need Her?

I must admit that during the 17 months our family lived in Serbia, I lived a charmed lifestyle. For the first time in our lives, we had something of a "staff," although that really is a bit of a stretch. We did, however, have a yardman, and a housekeeper named Connie, who for most of our time in Serbia, spent two full days at our house. Can you say "spoiled?"

Things are different now. I'm up to my ears in laundry, for one thing. My goodness, this family can go through some clothes. I honestly do not know how Connie did it. In two days at my house, she managed to wash, fold and put away all of our clothes, clean the house, tidy up the outside areas, cook every once in a while, and entertain the children from time to time. In a word, she was AMAZING, and I MISS her.

Readily available and affordable domestic help, of course, is one of the benefits of the diplomatic lifestyle. While I am sure that these services are expensive in some countries, they were downright cheap in Serbia; in fact, so much so that I often felt badly about how much we were paying Connie and Stevo, our yard guy. But, we paid them what they asked, and I suppose that they were fine with their hourly rates.

Back to reality, though. I do not have a housekeeper at the moment. Since I'm not working, I'm trying to manage as much of this as I can. I do not keep up with the laundry like Connie did -- I just don't have it in me like she did. I don't like doing laundry. Actually, I don't mind the washing and folding; it's the putting away part that I detest. My kids are getting old enough to put their own laundry away now, though, so that helps.

And so, the transition goes on. It's a very mixed bag, but this morning, as I do load after load of laundry, I am thinking about how fortunate I was to get out from under all of that laundry for just a little while. Thanks, Connie, for all you did for our family. You're the best.