unbalanced.

 I'm going to warn you - this is a very whiny post.


I feel like I'm always walking a tightrope. A little breeze, a slip, and I'm tumbling for days. I need a safety net.

This morning, I lost my balance again. I've been wavering for a few days. I should have seen it coming. I guess I kind of did. I felt it Saturday. I felt it Sunday. I thought it was just that I was tired. That I did too much that weekend (and I did, and I won't - not like that - again). That it was maybe hormones. I thought I was just shaky - but not about to fall.

I snapped this morning. I nagged. I sounded like my mother. The husband tuned me out. The kids tuned me out. But I still kept muttering. I woke up to the cat pooping in my shower. Kev laughed as I came downstairs about the surprise in the kitchen - which was bread crumbs all over. The cat (I hope it was the cat since our cellar door was left open all night!) got into a bag of rolls and got them all over. Her dish was empty. I normally check it when I get home (though it's Colin's responsibility) and last night I just forgot. I was tired. I was re-routed on the way home due to an accident and it took me an extra 25 minutes to get home (meaning almost 10 pm).  Anyway, the 'surprise' in the kitchen - everyone walked past it. Guess who got to clean it up? On top of trying to find Colin's baseball socks, and getting dinner started (because I had work at 7 this morning, I get home at 5 and Colin has a 5:45 baseball game). I asked for one load - just one load of laundry to be done yesterday while I was working. It wasn't. Now I'm looking at catching up on Mount laundry on my days off. Oh, and then I remembered the trash had to go out as the garbage truck was driving by. This all made for a cranky morning.

Anyway. I could complain all day about this weekend and this morning, but the end result is I just couldn't take it. I fell. I am tired.

I suppose I could also go on and on about how my kids are expected to do chores, and my husband was raised to help and on and on and blah, blah, blah. But in the end it doesn't matter. I've talked calmly about it. I've nagged about it. I've tried everything under the sun and I still end up doing most of the housework.

The thing is, I don't mind doing housework. I don't. I'm just tired. I can't do it all. I work odd hours and I work full time, and I'm tired of spending all my free time catching up on the things that weren't done while I was working. I can't keep doing the majority of the cooking and cleaning and everything else while I'm working full time. I can't. Something has to give.

The thing is, that I don't want to give up things like cooking from scratch, laundry on the line and other things that may take more time. I enjoy those things. I won't compromise the things that are important to me.  I'm not looking so much for things to be easier, or take less time. There are things though, that I could be helped with more often. Little things that take two seconds, but save me time. Like wiping the bathroom counter if you get toothpaste on it. Emptying the trash under the sink - not walking past breadcrumbs all over the floor and counters!

I feel unappreciated. I'm not expecting a pat on the back. I don't need praise. I just don't need attitude when I ask for help. I'd like maybe a thanks once in a while. I'd like it if I wasn't expected to do all the things that everyone else walks past. I mean, the laundry fairy doesn't come and gather their clothes and wash them. The toilet gnome doesn't scrub the toilets when everyone is sleeping.

Sometimes I wish I could be the kind of woman who just does it all and does it with a smile on her face. I want to be. I try to be. I'm not.

I realized this morning that my feelings of 'balance' come from chores. Why is that? How did that happen? I've noticed that when I'm caught up on things at home, I feel good. And when they aren't, I feel overwhelmed and out of rhythm, out of balance. I mean not always, but most of the time - yeah. That's what does it.

What a whiny post. Sometimes I wish I could be one of those people that only post about feel good things. Inspiring things. Lovely things. But I'm not. Like I've said - how I write is how I speak. How I blog is how I think. What you see is what I am. And sometimes that means I'm whiny and cranky and feeling sorry for myself.

I know I need to take some time for myself. I almost never do. The time I take for myself involves quick trips to wander thrift stores on my lunch break. Or Saturday morning farmers markets. I need something else. But I feel guilty. I feel like I shouldn't be taking the time from my family. Not that they necessarily need me there, but I feel like I need to be there - I already spend so much time away with work. Then there's the self-pitying thought that I'll just have to clean when I get home anyway, so what's the point. Then, of course, what would I do? I'd love to indulge in a massage, but realistically we just don't have the money for that. At least not on a semi-regular basis. I'd gladly spend time wandering thrift stores, used book stores and rummage sales, but the truth is we don't need more stuff. I could go walking or hiking which is free and won't result in stuff, but honestly - I prefer to do that with my family. I like being with them. I haven't taken much time for sewing or scrap-booking or any other crafting in a while, and I'd love to - but those are things I do at home, in the kitchen and I'd end up getting lunches and drinks and snacks for kids, and doing laundry while I work on it and feeling guilty for being home and not getting other things done.

Blah. It's just a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

How do you balance work and home life? How do you get your kids (or your husband!!) to pitch in more without being naggy? What do you do to recharge, to get away, to re-balance? What have you learned to let go of? What won't you ever let go of?


Edited to add this quote I just saw:


Note to self (again and again and again):


“Each morning when I open my eyes I say to myself: I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I’m going to be happy in it.”

—

Groucho Marx

Homemaking.

What happened to home making? I mean, most of us do it, in one way or another. But very few people call themselves "homemakers" anymore.

When I was growing up, a homemaker was another word for stay at home mom. But not all SAHMs are homemakers. And not all homemakers stay at home, or are even moms.

I like to collect old cookbooks. I find that in most of the 1940's and before books it always begins with homemaking tips. How to wash dishes. How to store foods (before modern refrigerators!) How to set a table. How to clear a table. And some of these books have basic homemaking skills too, aside from food and food preparing/storage/cooking/cleaning. How to press clothes, darn socks. Basic new wife skills I guess.

I don't know how many women found these instructions charming as opposed to assuming or condescending or annoying, but as a gal growing up in a "modern" world I do find it charming. And I wonder what happened? When did homemaking go out of fashion? Was it when women went out to work? When tv dinners made their first appearances? With the feminist revolution?

I do not think that women should be expected to be homemakers. I don't think that women should be expected to love homemaking. I don't think home-makers need to be women at all.

But, I do think it's a little sad that over the past several decades we've been losing what makes a home "made".

It's not the cleaning or the pressing or the sweeping or the cooking. None of those things by themselves or together make a home, really. I don't know that I can pin-point exactly what it is.

It's the feeling of home. The scents that trigger emotions or memories (bread baking, a wood stove, pledge!) It's the hazy memories of what feels like home. The way the sun came through the window onto the couch while you read, the scents and sounds of your neighborhood through an open window in the spring or while laying in the grass watching clouds.

But I believe at the root of all that is the peace in your home. Not that it's spotless, but that it's tidy and comfortable and inviting. That it's filled with laughter and home cooked food and acceptance.


I work full time outside the home. But I still consider myself a homemaker. I didn't always. When I was a young, newish mother, on my own for the first time (and second time!), our home was always a mess. I was tired and stressed. At the end of the day, the last thing I wanted to do was the dishes. For a long time (and still sometimes I'll admit) we struggled on chore division. Chores, what a dirty word.

And, to me, a home-cooked meal was something that started with a frozen kit that I added meat to. Yes, really.

I worked outside the home too, you know? And I'd be damned if the chores were going to fall on me just because I happened to be the woman. But they still did. And they did disproportionately. And they still do in all honesty, though it's gotten better.

But not much has changed, really. There is still laundry and cooking and cleaning and dishes. What's changed was my attitude on it.

I'll admit, I am a natural slob. I just am. Over time (and still happening) was that by changing my attitude, I changed the way I did things. Honestly, I never really notice "cleaning" anymore. Once in a while we'll have a hard core clean day, or I'll look around and declare the house a disaster and sometimes it IS a disaster. Our home is rarely dirty, but often messy. But that's been improving too. And cleaning has just become second nature for the most part. For some people that's natural I guess. For me, it was effort.

First, I stopped looking at things as chores. As something tedious and monotonous and to be suffered though. I started making a conscious effort to look at them as things that bless my family. And they do. Our family functions noticeably better in a tidied and semi-kept  house.

It also helps that I started delegating. No more poor mom that does everything and feels sorry for herself about it. The kids each have responsibilities. They don't get paid for them. They will sometimes get paid for going above and beyond, but these are family responsibilities: things that have to be done to keep our home running smoothly. And because we are a family, we all help out. My oldest does the dishes and sometimes the laundry. My youngest sets and clears the table. Each of them is responsible for cooking (assisted) one day a week and for keeping their rooms presentable, they aren't always *clean*, but they don't look like a landfill.

And I'm learning to let go. I never considered myself a perfectionist, ever. But in some ways I am. If it's not "perfect" I'm not satisfied or I just wouldn't do it. I've learned to step back and let things be imperfect. Like the dollhouse I made for our niece for Christmas. It's fine. It's nice, but it was driving me insane because it wasn't *perfect*. It didn't need to be. She's 2 and she loved it.

And of course, homemaking isn't just cleaning and cooking. It's creating memories and traditions. A warm and safe place for you and your family. There are many, many things that make a home.

I just wonder when people stopped "home-making". . . I know it's something that I had to actually go out and learn, and I wonder how many other people have had to do the same. It doesn't seem to be something handed down over the generations anymore. It used to be necessary enough that it was included in cookbooks and now . . .?

It does seem there has been a bit of a resurgence, since the recession. People have been coming back to their homes and centering in. We've stopped eating dinner in the car on the way to the next practice or recital. We're coming back to the home, back to the table.I think that's a good thing. For us, for our children and for their children.

I'm under no illusions that "the good old days" were really that good. Homemaking was hard, tiring, often thankless work. I know this. But, why have we gone so far to the other extreme? There can be balance. 

What are your thoughts on homemaking? How do you define it? Do you think it's necessary in todays world or something that should as minimal a part of life as possible?