More Chores......

I don't like to make this a "what I did today" blog, but when I manage a bit of industriousness (is that a word?), I feel so proud of myself that I have to share. Besides, as I often say (probably way too often for your general comfort), it's my blog.

First of all, let me say I love the concept of retirement. I'm considering this summer a dress rehearsal for retirement next year. I love the idea of waking up when I wake up, getting up if I feel like it, going back to sleep if I don't. Yesterday it was 5:30 when I felt like getting up. Today it was 7:00. And it doesn't matter which one I choose, because I can take as many naps as I want to!

Sorry. I digress.

This morning I had my coffee as usual and read the newspaper. I remembered that the goodwill folks were coming this morning, and I had not completed The Great Shoe Purge. Because it's the way I roll, it wasn't enough just to go through my shoes. I had to empty the entire contents of my closet and start from scratch. I took pictures initially, but that was slowing the process down too much. I'll post the ones I did take tomorrow night. I may even post a photo of the shoes that Hubby wondered why I DIDN'T give to goodwill.

Anyone want to guess how many pairs of athletic shoes I found? Go ahead, leave a guess in the comments.

I also found several rolls of crumpled wrapping paper. So glad I saved THOSE.

In addition, my closet contained a plethora of tote bags, some gently used, some barely recognizable, and one with the tags still on it. I found a bag that would be the perfect size for BRAG next week, one that would stay flat (everything gets jumbled in my duffel bags). Then I noticed that I had written my name on the bottom .... my name from a previous wifetime. Into the goodwill stack it went, perfect or not.

My other major accomplishment for today was cleaning out the refrigerator. Man, I HATE that chore. Every time I get it all nice and sparkly clean, I tell myself I'm never going to let it get in that shape again. If it gets dirty in the next week and a half, it will definitely be Hubby's fault, since I will be gone most of that time.

What I didn't manage to do today was exercise. I could still go get on the elliptical, but it's downstairs in the basement. And baseball is up here.

Susie Homemaker........

I am not highly domestic by nature.

And those of you who know me are screaming in unison, "THAT IS AN UNDERSTATEMENT!"

However, I can be compelled to do a few domestic chores, particularly if it allows me to put off doing other things that I really NEED to do. I haven't been very motivated to keep up with my online grading since I decided to resign. I'm not a short-timer, and it's not an indication of my bad attitude. I think it's more a result of my feeling hurt in the first place, which is what led to my resignation.

Whatever.

Hubby took the day off from golf today, so we were homebodies most of the day. (I tried to think of a nice way to tell him it was really, really, really, really, really okay if he went and played, but I didn't want to insult him. Besides, I may need that wild card in my pocket sometime in the future.)

I stripped our bed and the bed in the motorhome and put fresh sheets on both beds. I did a load of laundry and then decided to iron some khaki slacks to wear tomorrow. What? What happened to ironing them at 7:15 tomorrow morning? Then I ironed a few MORE pairs of slacks, some of which I will wear in the coming week and some I will wear NEXT week. Then I remembered I need to sew a button (or three, as it turned out) on one of my favorite pairs of slacks. Then I sewed a button (or two, as it turned out) on another pair. Then I remembered a pair of Hubby's golf shorts that had been on the dresser for........ I'm not going to admit how long...... and I sewed a button on those too. (It will still be shorts weather for him for several more weeks.) I worked on my quilt, and I put away some of Hubby's tools that were still in our bedroom after the renovations were complete. (I tried to outwait him, but I gave in. Gave up. Whatever.) I cooked some chili for dinner, which will also serve as my lunch tomorrow, so that chore is done too. I swept the kitchen, I moved a lamp, I put the sewing machine away, I moved two craft containers into my closet.

I did get around to SOME of my grading, and I DID manage to post a news announcement about this week's live online session. So I'm not a complete slacker.

Busy Day......

We were up at 6:30 this morning to get started on the work that had to be done on the upstairs before other work can be done.

The bedroom suit that Hubby bought is so big that we had to move the air conditioner vents so they wouldn't be covered up. To do that we had to clean out the center of the room.

I found a taker for the L-shaped computer desk, and I told the woman she could pick it up on Monday. If I had known we would have it emptied out by 10:00 this morning, I would have told them to come today.

Once the duct work is finished, Hubby and his friend are going to paint. Then the new carpet will be put in, and only after all that is accomplished can we actually have the bedroom suit delivered. I'm relieved that Hubby has decided to hire a professional moving company to bring it; if I have to lift my end of one more heavy piece of furniture, I'm going to protest. Loudly.

Today wasn't ALL work, though. I was allowed to take time out to watch the football game (just try to stop me), read a little bit, play the Nintendo, and work on my quilt. I have started again on my cathedral window quilt, and I'd like to finish it this winter. That's quite a lofty goal, and whether or not I reach it may depend upon how much I also crochet. I find crocheting much more relaxing.

My reward for all this work is that sometime this weekend I fully intend to spend some time in the pool. It won't be long before that first leaf falls, and that's generally when Hubby covers it up. I wish every weekend could be a long weekend.

Turning a Negative into a Positive....

I reread last night's blog post and felt a little bitchy for the things I said.

Then my sister-in-law drove up to use OUR pool, and I didn't feel bitchy anymore.

Hubby and I had walked in the park and then taken our breakfast back to the park for a little impromptu early-morning picnic, and then he did some yard chores while I stayed inside and pretended to be busy.

Then his sister drove up, and after a while of doing outside work, Hubby said he was going to get in the pool too.

Great.

I proceeded to get busy in earnest. I vacuumed upstairs and downstairs, stripped the bed, put in a load of laundry (it sneaked up on me this week), cleaned the bathroom, and unpacked my suitcase from the conference.

I was out of excuses, and I had to go outside in order to avoid being OUTWARDLY bitchy.

She stayed for three hours. But at least the house is clean.

It's Really Not That Hard....

I don't enjoy housework of any kind, but as I've noted before, I generally do the bare minimum to keep the health officials from condemning our house. I keep the dishes washed, I make up the bed every morning, and I try to control the clutter. One chore that I find particularly distasteful is laundry.

We seem to go through a lot of clothes for just two people. And I can't pinpoint why exactly. We use the same towels all week, since we ARE clean when we get out of the shower. I generally change out of my school clothes into sweats (or shorts) and a t-shirt when I get home from school, but I wear the same sweats all week. I'll wear them until bedtime, and it's not like they have a chance to get dirty.

Hubby wears uniforms to work, and if he has a short day and doesn't get his shirt dirty, he may wear it again the next day. He's considerate like that.

So I can't figure out why #1) we accumulate so much laundry; and #2) why I find it such an odious task.

It isn't time consuming. I can legitimately put a load of laundry in the washer and sit down to crochet, telling myself, "Well at least I'm getting the laundry done."

Approximately 45 minutes later I go downstairs to the basement and transfer the clothes into the dryer. That gives me another hour in which to kill time or grade assignments or watch television, all the while getting the laundry done.

It's not like I have to take the clothes down to the river and beat them on a rock or something.

Or heat a huge cauldron of water so I can stir them with a stick.

And don't even ask me why I will let a load of clothes sit in the dryer for two days. I'm getting better, but it's a terrible habit. They get all wrinkled, of course, and if there's one thing I hate more than laundry, it's IRONING. It's not like I forget they are down there, because there is this squeaky voice I can hear even in my sleep saying, "Hey! You forgot us down here!" It's the unfolded pieces of clothing.

Why do I put that off? Folding a load of laundry takes approximately 5 minutes. Our socks always come out in even numbers, so I do not have a good excuse for avoiding the act of folding laundry.

It's strange, though, that it has become such a habit that even when I HAVE folded the clothes and put them away, sometimes I hear that same squeaky voice telling me I didn't. One day I went all the way downstairs to get some clothes out of the dryer, and they weren't even in there. I had already folded them.

Good Lord. I'm even hearing voices in the laundry now.

Chores.....

I had chores when I was growing up, but I have to admit I did not have as many as Nurse Jane and Katydid. [Although rumor has it that Katydid routinely went to the bathroom after dinner and stayed there until the dishes were done.] There were a lot more folks in the house for them to pick up after.

By the time I was of an age to do chores, Katydid and Nurse Jane were both married and out of the house, and Bobby had died. That just left me and Jack (when he wasn't in trouble or hitchhiking the country or living with some other relative) and my mom, so the work load wasn't tremendous. Except for the years when we had my step-father and a couple of step-brothers in the house.

I had to wash dishes every night, which I H-A-T-E-D with a passion. Again, my life could have been much worse. According to Nurse Jane, Mom stood over her while she washed the dishes and tossed most of the pieces back into the dishwater because they were not up to her standards.

You just can't BE up to Mom's standards.

We never had a dishwasher, except me. One thing I find interesting looking back, though, is the fact that we never had to DRY the dishes. We had a drain rack next to the sink where the dishes were allowed to air dry (did you know that restaurants are required to do that? at least in our state). I find that out of character for my mother, who was so ... so ... anal? ... let's just say peculiar ... about many other things. The bed had to be made to military standards, quarter bouncing and all that. And GOD FORBID anyone would ever sit on Mom's bed. Anyone who made the mistake of doing that one time resolved never to do it again, as soon as he/she peeled him/herself off the ceiling. I didn't see the point of making up a bed, only to return to it later that same day. I'm sure we fought about it often. Now, however, I make my bed every single morning.

I especially hated washing the pots and pans. Mother believed in cooking large meals, complete with a meat and at least two vegetables, along with her delicious biscuits. The pots and pans would pile up, and I glowered at them as I started doing the dishes. Occasionally Mom would wash those first and leave the other dishes for me to do, and I thought I'd died and gone to heaven.

Mom also believed the kitchen floor should be swept every night after dinner. Only we called it supper. I didn't see the point in that either, but I realize that if you sweep every night, the floor stays a lot cleaner and you don't have to call in the heavy equipment for the weekend cleaning. I still don't sweep it every night, but I'm getting better. No I'm not, but I had to finish that sentence with something.

Folding clothes was another of my chores. I think we finally got a dryer when I was about twelve years old. That meant I didn't have to hang clothes out on the line anymore, but it also meant they needed to be folded SOONER. And I sucked at it, at least according to Mom's standards. Yeah, those. She could take a twelve-point star-shaped garment and make it perfectly square and flat and wrinkle-free. I have never learned how to fold a fitted sheet. I usually wind up just sort of wadding it all up and stuffing it in the folded flat sheet and cramming the whole set in the bathroom closet. I hope my mother never looks in my linen closet.

I had an epiphany one day while folding towels. I was probably in my early thirties, or at least my late twenties. I was carefully folding the towels longways into thirds, then half and half again. It suddenly occurred to me that I could fold my towels ANY WAY I WANTED TO. What freedom! I immediately came up with my own way of folding towels, and I deliberately made it most unlike Mom's method. They aren't pretty, but they're folded.

I could, if I were a person more comfortable in her skin, admit that Mom's folded towels are much neater than mine and more attractive on the shelf.

But since I'm not, I won't.