I had someone recently suggest that I could no longer have a blog titled “Hallee the Homemaker” now that I work full time.
Tag: chores
I’m so curious about it. This was an era before television, computers, some phones, mommy groups, play dates, working remotely, etc. I’m curious if women just felt like they had to fill those hours in the day with housework, or if there is truly something to be said for being that thorough every single day in your home. If it was done daily, and a good rhythm was established (note in the order of cleaning that the steps in and out of the room are even given), my entire house could be cleaned in just a morning. Instead, I do a room or a group of rooms a day, do my daily chores, and spend the rest of my (kid-free) time in front of a computer, working.
I’m not putting a menu up this week. Kaylee is in Florida visiting her dad and Gregg is jumping out of airplanes with the Kentucky National Guard and won’t be home until Friday. Consequently, the boys and I are “baching” it this week.
I started typing the words, “I’m a homemaker…” when I realized that wasn’t right. Well, it IS right, it just isn’t complete. For the first time in my life, I wrote the words, “I’m a full time writer who manages two blogs and writes Christian romance novels.”
I have a schedule for a reason. It works best when I stick to it. I don’t really know what happened. Last weekend, I was pretty sick with a bad cold, upper respiratory thing. Monday all day I spent at a cardiology appointment then Gregg and I went Christmas shopping.
Some things in life are what I call “necessary evils.” I think cleaning the garbage can is one of them. I can’t stand for my garbage can to be dirty, though, so I clean it regularly. I also have this extravagant contraption for my kitchen garbage can that was bought with the intent of keeping the dogs out of the garbage (yeah, right — my dog has learned how to step on the lever to open it) and allow for easy cleaning, because the inside pulls out, but it is flawed in its design, and actually makes the cleaning more difficult. So, the more often I clean it, the less work I actually have to put in to keeping it clean.
You can make schedules all day long. The challenge comes in implementing the schedule. Here’s the way I’ve looked at it: I’ve thought about how a hired housekeeper for a large home is able to stay on task, keep it immaculate, and cook meals in the process. The answer is: she doesn’t play around on Facebook all day, she doesn’t watch television in the middle of the morning, she doesn’t read a murder mystery in the middle of the afternoon — the housekeeper clocks in at a certain time in the morning, performs the daily tasks as the job description requires, and leaves in the evening. When I worked, I was able to do my job efficiently and exceptionally because I worked – all day long, I worked. I had a schedule, I kept it.
I read it kind of confused with myself. I’ve been a mother for nearly 14 years. Why didn’t I have anything worthwhile to add to the conversation? Then it occurred to me.
