Newfound Respect

I was pretty proud of myself this morning. I had a list of things to cook/bake in the kitchen and got started right away. A delicious strawberry pie, homemade cinnamon rolls, french bread, meatballs, potato salad and these cookies. I whipped out the cookie dough, baked my potatoes and had the cinnamon roll dough and french bread dough rising in no time. Took a break and ran around the corner to buy some fresh strawberries for my pie. Came home and rolled out the crust (from a box) and got that started. Baked cookies and bread, rolled out cinnamon rolls. Now I was getting tired. And then I started thinking, what if I tried to do this 125 years ago? How in the world did those women do it? They picked their own strawberries, made their own pie crust, didn't have the luxury of their husband handling the kids since he was busy with his own work, washed all the dishes by hand and cooked with a wood-burning stove. Plus they needed to make a hot meal for their families at noon, not just throwing sandwiches on the table. And all the other chores that needed to be done. Now I'm really tired!