Housekeeping | Table for Five

February 16, 2009 By Elizabeth

It’s a beautiful sunny day today. Blue sky, no wind, even at 27 degrees the sun feels warm. Ryan got Kaitlyn up this morning and kept her entertained so I could sleep in, which I did, until 11:50 am. Then we went to Quality Dairy and got Paczkis for lunch because why not. I’m in no mood to deprive myself of fried balls of jam-filled dough today.

It was a bad weekend. I can’t say a lot about it because I didn’t get the other person’s permission, but suffice it to say, my feelings about pretty much everything I do and have done over the last 20+ years are not as good as I would like. You know that saying “you can’t un-ring a bell”? Well, I can’t un-hear things that were said this weekend, and I’m having trouble figuring out how to proceed.

How do you do it? How is anyone supposed to have personal fulfillment plus have a successful marriage plus be a good parent plus keep up with bills and cleaning and everything else that goes into running a household, without going completely insane?

What do you do when you wish everything was completely different?

What do you do when there’s too much to do?

October 15, 2008 By Elizabeth

Those of you reading this who are able to stay organized and on top of things, would you PLEASE tell me HOW you do it? Because Donna Reed I am NOT. Chris has been in Toronto since last Thursday and gets home this Friday, and it’s going to take a freaking miracle for me to get this house clean enough so he won’t feel like he can’t ever leave town on business again for fear of losing his children under a pile of dirty dishes and coffee-table piles.

Every day I get up and I make a big mug of coffee, and I think about my day. I think about reviews that are due and giveaways to start. I think about dusting and vacuuming and putting in another load of laundry. I think about the fact that my daughter is watching TV all day (that’s right, I’ll admit it. Kaitlyn watches TV for most of the day, when she isn’t jumping off of overturned laundry baskets or drawing on her Aquadoodle mat or dumping out a board game or galloping up and down the hallway). I think about the dishes in the sink and the piles on the end tables and the fact that I haven’t seen the top of my desk in months.

I look at my email inboxes.

I think this image that I found on Google images accurately depicts how I feel:

And then I take a deep breath. All I can do is the best I can do. My kids are safe, loved, have plenty to eat and clean clothes that fit. They have warm beds to sleep in at night. They have toys and books and video games. I might have a lot to do, I might be failing miserably at housekeeping, but stressing out about it doesn’t help anybody. I got behind on my reviews and giveaways because I procrastinated, plain and simple. So now I just need to make a list and write them one at a time until they are done. It might require me to post 3 or 4 or 5 times a day until I’m caught up.

And that isn’t going to include Saturday, because my husband will be home and I intend to give him my undivided attention. He needs to know that he is more important to me than email inboxes and dropping Entrecards. After all, those won’t spoon me at night while I’m sleeping