nothing
All I've done today are the basics.
I cooked breakfast. I cleaned up breakfast. I ran the dishwasher.
I got myself and the kiddos dressed and clean and took Beth to school. I made my bed and put some laundry away and then folded some more laundry and put more laundry away and put new laundry in and ran it through and folded some more.
I unloaded the dishwasher.
We went and got Beth. We all came home and had lunch. I cleaned up lunch, got the dishwasher half-way full again.
I swept the floor.
I took out the trash and emptied my kitchen scraps into the compost bin and turned the compost with a shovel.
I also found time to check my e-mail, catch up on my friends' Facebook posts and read some blogs. I sent funny and/or interesting things to my husband on e-mail, and read some that he had sent me. I checked our bank accounts online.
I read several stories and played a game of Cariboo and picked up all the puppets up off the floor and then watched while the kids dumped them out again and performed a puppet show. I changed diapers.
I put another load of laundry in. I made a grocery list.
That brings me up to about now. That took up half my waking hours, and all I did was the bare minimum that's required to keep a household running. And not even running super-efficiently, as I'm sure you'd agree if you walked into my office and observed the stacks of papers on my desk, the toys all over the floor, the overflowing recycle container. I ran no errands, did not a scrap of work on either my freelancing or my personal writing projects, didn't do any fun projects with the kids or any of the deep-cleaning and organizing that I'm sure my house could really use. I didn't do anything except all the little chores that have to be done every day, that other people come home and do AFTER they have worked all day at a full-time job.
So what's my point, here? Point...point...um, do I have a point?
Not really. Just that keeping a household going takes up a ridiculous amount of time. I can't believe how much time I spend on it. Also, all this doing-nothing makes me tired. Time for an afternoon cup of tea! I've got tons more nothing to do.
I cooked breakfast. I cleaned up breakfast. I ran the dishwasher.
I got myself and the kiddos dressed and clean and took Beth to school. I made my bed and put some laundry away and then folded some more laundry and put more laundry away and put new laundry in and ran it through and folded some more.
I unloaded the dishwasher.
We went and got Beth. We all came home and had lunch. I cleaned up lunch, got the dishwasher half-way full again.
I swept the floor.
I took out the trash and emptied my kitchen scraps into the compost bin and turned the compost with a shovel.
I also found time to check my e-mail, catch up on my friends' Facebook posts and read some blogs. I sent funny and/or interesting things to my husband on e-mail, and read some that he had sent me. I checked our bank accounts online.
I read several stories and played a game of Cariboo and picked up all the puppets up off the floor and then watched while the kids dumped them out again and performed a puppet show. I changed diapers.
I put another load of laundry in. I made a grocery list.
That brings me up to about now. That took up half my waking hours, and all I did was the bare minimum that's required to keep a household running. And not even running super-efficiently, as I'm sure you'd agree if you walked into my office and observed the stacks of papers on my desk, the toys all over the floor, the overflowing recycle container. I ran no errands, did not a scrap of work on either my freelancing or my personal writing projects, didn't do any fun projects with the kids or any of the deep-cleaning and organizing that I'm sure my house could really use. I didn't do anything except all the little chores that have to be done every day, that other people come home and do AFTER they have worked all day at a full-time job.
So what's my point, here? Point...point...um, do I have a point?
Not really. Just that keeping a household going takes up a ridiculous amount of time. I can't believe how much time I spend on it. Also, all this doing-nothing makes me tired. Time for an afternoon cup of tea! I've got tons more nothing to do.
8 comments:
Yikes, I can attest to the fact that it takes a lot of effort to do "nothing" all day. I feel like a whirlwind, but when Hubby comes home, nothing looks better than it was when he left. Everything I have done has by this point been undone, or is "invisible" stuff, like going to the doctors or cleaning my closet. I think I'd like a job once every two weeks so I can get adult interaction and feel like I've accomplished something!!
True dat.
I know just what you mean. I often find myself looking around the house and saying to Jason, "Um, I did do stuff today. Honest." I'm never sure if he believes me, but I think he would notice if he ran out of clean socks and there were no plates in the cupboard and the children were still in their pajamas.
That is SO not nothing!! That is MAINTENANCE, and you bet it takes all day. I have had occasion to get beyond maintenance now twice this spring - once to get the house ready for a major birthday party, once because my mother was coming - and both times it took, literally, an entire WEEK just to do the stuff beyond maintenance (i.e. clean the tub, sinks and toilets, vacuum and mop floors, dust, finally attack accumulated stacks of mail, etc.). And both times it was all undone in a matter of hours. Entropy, thy name is housework.
Tea is a must!
Well glad I am not the only one who has a hard time finding time to do anything else besides 'nothing'! I hate it when I work so hard all day and when Jeremy comes home I too have to say "Um, I did do stuff today!"
Funny. I remember when my in-laws left after a visit to help me with household stuff when one of the kids was born, I was telling them thanks for all the help and they said "oh we didn't do anything". That was so depressing to me at the time - what they did was more than I ever got done!
It does feel like nothing when it is constantly getting undone or needing to be re-done. I feel like we've already picked up the toys/dishes/laundry 3 times today and it still looks just as messy. I think the trick is learning to enjoy the process rather than the result, since the result doesn't last long. :) I like what I do most days, but it really does feel like "nothing" most of the time!
Post a Comment