Good morning friends! I have not been blogging much these days because I have been blissfully busy. Well, blissful that a good chunk of being busy consisting earning money while doing it. Yep, I was called in to work for a few days as a substitute student supervisor. I have to say.... I have a new found respect for the job. I certainly did not need to go to the gym to get a workout.... I spent a lot of time on my feet wandering the halls and climbing stairs. What I found so interesting is that my first impression of the job was far less than actually doing the job. Besides the hours on my feet (of which I am used to anyway from being a hairdresser and housewife that really hates sitting down), it was mentally taxing as well with the constant need to be alert. Most likely from being a new experience and a different environment is where the mentally taxing part comes to play. Just the notion of being around kids happen to be exhausting to adults.... all that energy going on sure reminds me that I am definitely getting older. Believe me.... I enjoyed the opportunity and look forward to being called in again.
Sadly, there is a price that needs to get paid when this do-it-all housewife takes on a roughly 8 hour work day outside the house. I am painfully behind in my duties at home and not once was there an offer to help pick up the slack where it was needed most. My house is a disaster area and overwhelming to me to the point that I just shut down and dread what I have in store to get done.
I did, though, get a little help from DD. She tries to help when it comes to making dinner. With the Lenten season in full swing, our Friday meals are getting a bit repetitive because of the picky eaters I deal with daily. Yep, potato pancakes are the Friday meals during Lent. Well, I do make a couple of fish fillets for DD and myself, but the main thing is making potato pancakes.... and a lot of them. I think I go through a 10 pound bag of potatoes a week and roughly 8 pounds of them are for making potato pancakes. The other two I believe are used for baked potatoes that DD makes for a snack or I use to make hash browns on Sunday with for the family breakfast, but the guess of those 2 pounds is questionable. I swear, I think it is more like 9 pounds that are committed to becoming potato pancakes, but I never weighed them to be sure. What I did appreciate (and still do) is DD's determination to peel all those potatoes for me before I got home from working. Not real thrilled that I come home to a sink full of dishes that need to be washed, the lazy lack-a-doodle ways my family leaves stuff around the house, or the notion that my daughter feels it is motivational to watch horror movies while peeling potatoes, but if I have to walk in to a house that has some slasher flick from Netflix playing.... I am happy that part of my cooking job is at least started.
What becomes even more taxing on the already taxed mind and tired body is the necessary need to try to clean the house before DH comes home. That look in his eyes of utter frustration that the June Cleaver he married cannot keep up with keeping the house clean just hurts my feelings. I warned him that if I was to go back to work full time during the week, something will be suffering in its wake.... the first to suffer is the housework since I obviously live with two clutter bugs that refuse to step up and help keep the house clean. With spills, drips, dribbles, and drops of crumbs of food (or clothes, or shoes, or papers, or garbage, or dirty dishes).... Keeping my house remotely clean is a full time job in itself. I will admit that my closets are painfully disorganized and with the door closed..... nobody is the wiser that there is always a mess somewhere.
The recent snowfall that happened over the past couple of days was probably the final straw that broke my back. Not in the literal sense, but generally speaking. That white stuff people call snow was not fluffy or light and a fair amount of it fell before I could get to doing the shoveling. I was working a half day and it took me almost an hour to get home in those white-out conditions. I still had to make dinner, I had a sink-full of dishes to deal with (shocker), and the shoveling needed to be done before DH came home. Along with a migraine coming on (the pressure behind my eyes was immense) and trying to control a stress-induced anxiety attack from driving home practically blind.... I planted myself on the couch in shut down mode yet again from being overwhelmed with what I needed to get done. Finally feeling able to breathe once DD got home from school safely, I started tackling the dinner chore. Once I finished making that, I looked at the clock and realized that I better get going with the shoveling (my headache killed my appetite for food) because DH was due to be home shortly. I tried to use the snow blower (the one I can start easily), and it jammed almost instantly with the heavy snow. Sighing, I struggled with the bigger snow blower that is more difficult for me to start, and even that one jammed up after one pass in the driveway. I grabbed a shovel and started shoveling. With each heavy load on the shovel, I felt my back tense up. Determined to at least clear where DH's truck parks before he got home and a path to the front door... I trudged on. An hour passed and I was not even half way through the task at hand and DH comes home. Thank goodness he decided to help me. He got the monster snow blower un-jammed and proceeded to help me. After roughly 10 minutes, he demanded he needed his gloves (which were lost in the messy front hall closet) and went in to the house to retrieve them. Another 30 minutes later (with the aid of DH, the snow blower, and some additional shoveling on his part), we got the job done to watch the snow yet pick up again to cover all our efforts. We went inside to finally eat dinner and he decides to share with me that there is a mess in the front hall from the closet while he searched (and did find) his gloves. I told him, "no worries, I'll clean it up", and walked into the biggest disaster I have ever seen. We were almost able to open the front door with that mess strewn about. Sigh, I tried to get it cleaned up and DH tells me that he really does not care about the mess and to just cram it back in the closet. I know better, but did as he asked since my back was locking up nicely.
It is day #2 of the mess that needs immediate addressing, and with my chiropractor visit yesterday.... I am afraid of the challenge. Luckily, I have not been called in today to work today (I was for yesterday and declined coming in which made me feel just awful about it), and I can finally focus on that task without being rushed. I have all day to take it slowly and not re-injure myself after getting adjusted back into balance.
Is there a moral to this story? Sure. It is letting people know that one person cannot do everything alone, but if they have to..... they need to accept that there is always a price to pay. It can be dealing with a messy house, it can be a co-pay for visiting the Chiropractor, it can be stepping up to help after their long day of work, or it can be all of the above. It is all about priorities and what you feel is more important, but to be patient and let time offer the opportunity to catch up when everything is regarded with the same level of importance. The silver lining to the house being a disaster is that I earned some money to help with the finances. While it is not consistent, nor stable, it is a welcome thing.
Have a great day everyone and thanks for reading :)
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