Essentials

Secondly...

We have running water--and I no longer mean "run out to the well start up the generator and fill a 5 gallon jug up and run back" or" run to the car, drive 30 minutes to the in-laws and wash clothes and take a shower".

We have electricity (we were only with out this for three days, and thank the Lord, because it's been really cold here in South East Texas)

and an oven! (Well really, I was using a propane camp stove. I'm so thankful I didn't have to start a wood fire every time I wanted to cook or heat up water!)

There are many things we take for granted in this day and age.  I once had an Indian classmate who was new to the States.  As we compared cultures we found that while many people in India have servants--which we Americans would love to have--she told me many Indians believe we here in the States have robots that do all the work for us.  Then I realized in many ways we do have robots that do these things for us. We have a "robot" to wash our dishes, another to wash our clothes, another to dry them. Ones that clean our carpets and mop our floors. Ones that toast our bread and make us coffee. 

When we recently found ourselves having just a small taste of the way the American pioneers of the old west lived, the reality started setting in of their difficulties and the difficulties of those in third world countries. For example, they didn't have disposable diapers. Now, I have access to them but I hate using them.  I tried to use them during this time but I just kept having blowouts and it was ruining clothes.  But I digress.  Cloth diapers have to be washed every other day, at least. And we go through a lot of them!  To wash them you first have to start a fire, then boil the water to wash with soap and more water to rinse, then dry them.  The pioneers also didn't have handy dandy plastic covers so they had to wash even baby more clothes.  Then they had to repeat all of this just to do dishes.  And they didn't have electricity to do all this after dark.  And this is just the tip of the iceberg.  All this to say, the longer I lived without these three conveniences the more I realized how blessed we are to have modern amenities to make our lives easier and give us more free time.  What would Mrs. Ingalls have given for an extra hour in the afternoon to sit and read or sew!

I've never been so thankful to be able to turn on the faucet and have scalding hot water come out--or even just water.