What Do You DO?

Do you ever cringe when people ask you that question?  As a missionary mom?

What do we do?  I still believe my primary responsibility is to be a mom.  Of course, I do other things, too.

But people want a nice packaged answer.

I have one for my husband.  He has a defined job.  I can say, "He does......... "

But what do I do?  Well... I am tempted to say "I am a filler of holes."  That is what I do.  My daily tasks may be very different, but basically, I fill holes.  Where someone is missing, I fill in.  Where something lacks, I fill in.

If I sit down and list all the things I do, people's eyes widen and they say, "Wow, you are a busy woman!"  But I am not - well, not that much.  Not continually.  I just have a wide variety of very part time duties.

Today, for example...

I am a wife and a mom.  I got four kids and one husband off to work and school.

I am a cleaning lady.  I stopped at the school and helped clean out some shelves in the kitchen, and noticed the little oven desperately needed cleaning.  I guess the cleaning staff over look that... so I cleaned an oven.

I am a secretary.  I organized letters and filed away ones to respond to.  Desperately need to get a new prayer letter out.

I am a cook.  I planned supper and pulled out what I need to cook.  Trying to plan a menu and try some new foods recently.  (Of all the things I miss most about being "over there", it is having someone to do most of this job for me.  I am a good enough cook, but it is just not the job I love on a daily basis.)

I am a dictionary.  I answered two phone calls on how to spell words.... as the only native English speaker on our team, I get the job of being the resident dictionary, grammar textbook, and even at times, concordance....  I got woken up groggily after working a night shift once to be asked "When was Moses with seventy elders on  mountain?"  Huh?  Pop quiz time?

I do construction.  Our basement leak is finally fixed, so it was time to plaster the seams in the repaired wall.  I pulled out the tools and set to work.

I am a teacher.  I am about to head off to teach math.  I love teaching kids.

I am a demolition expert.  :)  Today, we need to head over to a friend's house to destroy some very old, huge piece of furniture that can not be moved out without being at least taken apart.

That is today.  Tomorrow, I may be something else.  Where there is a job with no one to do it, that is where I get put.  Like plaster - I am a filler of holes.  Which is just perfect for my slightly ADD personality.  I think God knew slapping me in one role would frustrate me.

How about you?  What do you do?