I had some alone time overnight this weekend from Saturday afternoon to Sunday afternoon. Mr. Fix-It took the kids to visit their grandparents. They even took Penny with them, so it was just me and the cat rattling around the house. I almost didn’t know what to do with myself!
What does a wife and mother of 3 do when she doesn’t have to do anything?
Well, first I took a loooong hot shower.
Or tried to. I thought I kept hearing them come back and yell for me to unlock the door so I kept turning the water off and starting it again–cold.
Then I got dressed and went out to do all the chores by myself. Scrub and fill water buckets and feeders, clean the nest boxes, I even had time to spend an hour brushing out each of the horses real nice…and it was still only 3 o’clock.
(Then I took another shower and spent an hour picking off ticks.)
So now what?
Well, I cleaned. I cleaned and cleaned. I vacuumed and dusted (and vacuumed again) and then mopped. I polished our coffee tables and conditioned our couches and wiped all our door glass and did the laundry and dishes…and it was only 6 o’clock!
I just can’t believe how much I was able to get done without constantly being distracted and interrupted! I even scrubbed the wall behind the trashcan! We give our kids chores and I usually consider them a big help to me. But this weekend I realized how hard of a path we’ve choosen in training them to help out from such a young age. It takes constant supervision, constant direction, and constant oversight to be sure that they’re getting it done correctly. And constant encouragement and stops to talk and explain and correct to keep their attitudes right about their work. This weekend proved that it’s absolutely easier and quicker to just do it myself. I had forgotten.
But it’s helped me regain some much needed perspective on getting frustrated with them. This is the path we’ve chosen to take raising our family. I believe it will bear good fruit, but it’ll be awhile.
In the meantime, I plugged in my West Wing complete 6 seasons boxed set and watched all of season 2 and 3 while going through every scrap of paperwork in our house. This is my absolute nemesis. Between the standard forest of household papers, the mountain of farm paperwork and the avalanche of school worksheets, it’s just overwhelming.
So I gathered up every pile, every receipt, all the junk mail and school papers…I hope I got everything anyway…and filed it away properly. I use rectangle baskets for filing right now, so I just brought all 3 of them out to the living room and piled all my piles of papers on the couch and sat there until 3 in the morning sipping tea, watching my show, and nursing papercuts.
(By the way, I’m a conservative with libertarian leanings, but I just love that show.)
And I ended up with 4 paper bags full of junk to be burned in our firepit too. S’mores here we come!
Sunday I woke up to thunder, lightening and downpours.
(So much for brushing the horses!)
I sat on the back porch and watched the rain with a cup of coffee and missed my family.
I printed some pictures and filled some new frames on our shelves and went to church.
I came home and wandered around and did some laundry and checked the animals and watched some more West Wing.
When they got home, though, I felt so accomplished! I got so much cleaning done that I should have plenty of time in the evenings this week to work on creative projects. I tried to get started a few times on Sunday, but I just felt like I was being a slacker. My crafting has to come after my daily work. It’s a hobby. But now that I’m caught up and actually ahead on several things (I mean, seriously, the glass on my bookcase doors is sparkling!) I feel free to get back to my workshop!
It feels good!
