I'm a Woman

Have you ever heard that song? It's from Smokey Joe's Cafe. One particular verse says, "I can rub and scrub till this old house is shinin' like a dime; Feed the baby, grease the car and powder my face at the same time. Get all dressed up, go out and swing till 4 am and then lay down at five, jump up at six and start all over again 'cause I'm a woman.....Double U- O- M- A- N."

Sound familiar? I think so too. I have been pretty impressed by women lately. What incredible creatures we are and what we are capable of doing day in and day out. This whole thought process came to me in (unfortunately) a moment of pride. Ben has been sick this weekend and it has really been the worst I have ever seen him. I decided the last couple nights to sleep on the couch and as I woke up this morning at 5:30am. cranky and with an aching back, I grumbled to myself about why I offered to sleep on the not-near-big-enough couch and I remembered (as I was soooooo proud of my wifely accomodations) that Ben needed a good sound night of sleep to help fight off whatever he has and my kicking him all night because he is snorning probably wouldn't help remedy the situation. But it got me thinking about being a woman in general. So much is expected of us and we are capable of so much that I am awed by being a woman. We selflessly offer the bed to our sick husbands so they can heal, we stay up all night listening to our sick babies cough in their sleep, we brew the coffee and let the dog out and get the milk sippy ready all at the same time, we are the organizational engineers of our homes.

I read a passage once in the book, "Power of a Praying Wife." At the time, I hated every second of the book. I felt like it degrated a woman as a wife into being the lower class citizen in a marriage. The line said, "The husband is the head of the household, but the wife will always be the heart." Eww, how I fought that when I read it!! But, after really thinking about it and thinking about every couple I know, it is so true. Men do hold a lot of stock in the ability to provide for their families, but women hold stock in the ability to care for the ones we love. We manage an entire household by giving it all of ourselves. We are, by nature, givers and tend to feel a lot of joy from giving to the people we hold most dear.

I thought that maybe this head/heart roles of the relationship and home only applied because Ben was the only one working and I was the one who ran the house and am raising our son but it's not the case. Women are the heart regardless of one or more or no children, whether they work outside or inside the home, whether there is a lot of money to go around or if it is tight at the end of the month. My mother and mother-in-law both worked outside the home when we were growing up and they put in as many hours as our dad's did but when they got home, the professional hat came off, Mommy hat came on and they picked up second shift of their second job....the cooking, cleaning, laundry, and everything else. I'm not saying that dad's don't pitch in...but the man and dad of the house is better at different things. Women are good at providing all the love, all the nurturing, all those non-event specific memories of a home that we tend to remember when we think about our childhood's. I am so proud to be a woman. I am proud that I have the capacity to provide for my children love and respect for women that men can't. This isn't man-bashing, this is woman-praising.

Is there a woman who is your role model? Do you admire her for any reason? Have you told her what an incredible woman she is? You should! Celebrate women and celebrate being a woman.....fully capable of doing it all! "I can stretch a green back dolla bill from here to kingdom come; I can play the numbers, pay my bills and still end up with some. I gotta twenty dollar goldpiece that says there's nothing I can't do. I can make a dress out of a feedbag and make a man outta you 'cause I'm a woman. Double U- O- M- A- N! I'll say it again. Cause I'm a woman, Double U- O- M- A- N and that's all."