Category Archives: Housework

Someone replaced my batteries when I wasn’t looking…

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…and gave me the ability to actually accomplish things without feeling like I was going crazy. Could this be that sought-after but rarely-seen magical beast known as…productivity?

Today, I managed to vacuum the entire apartment, sweep and mop the tiled floors, get all the laundry washed, dried, folded, and sorted, clean the bathtubs, make the beds, scrub the kitchen counters and sink, and do the general tidying up.

Before noon.

Has anyone seen that episode of Desperate Housewives where one of the women took Ritalin and turned into an insane cleaning machine? It was kind of like that. I’m still trying to figure out how I managed to do it. It was weird. The place looks so fresh and clean and decluttered. I could get used to this. But I kind of hope that I don’t, because I have a feeling that this is not going to be a permanent thing. Even so, I feel really proud of myself. I feel like I finally busted through that housekeeping plateau that has been nagging at me lately.

Now if I could just bust through the weight loss plateau next…

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MBFPCP: Day two

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Hoo boy.

Today was…well, it sure was a day.

Ethan is going through a Daddy phase right now. He finds comfort in Adam more than me, and while I know he is a baby and therefore isn’t doing it to be difficult, it sure feels difficult when I’m alone with him all day and can’t make him stop crying. He pretty much cried all day unless he was asleep, so I couldn’t get around to doing the second day of my 10 Bags in 10 Days, based on this pin, until about 7:00! I put Ethan to bed and cleaned as quickly (and quietly) as I could.

Before, the bathroom looked like this:

Pay no attention to the lady in her husband’s pajama pants.

And my brother’s bathroom wasn’t much better (though in the interest of his privacy, I didn’t take pictures of his). However, about ten minutes and one grocery bag full of junk later, it looked like this:


I ended up rearranging the medicine cabinets so that medicine and first aid was on top (a habit I want to get into now, before Ethan’s old enough to reach), then moved my makeup and our other grooming items into the middle and bottom shelves. Since I don’t wear makeup every day, it made sense to get it out of the way to free up the counter. Under the sink still looks a little messy, but it is loads better than it was and I can actually see what everything is!

In my brother’s bathroom, I found something I had forgotten about…six boxes of that Nads hair removal stuff. When I was pregnant, I had this idea to stock up since waxing at home would be so much cheaper and easier than shaving my legs every couple of days! What a genius idea! Until I used it once and thought I was dying. Y’all, that stuff hurts. I am not tough enough to deal with it. And then there was a leak that damaged the other boxes of it. And I still have no idea why they were in Jonathan’s bathroom. So, yes, a total waste of money, but it’s a great (somewhat embarrassing) story for me to share on my blog.

Tomorrow, I’m planning to attempt cleaning out the pantry. Yikes.

My Big Fat Pinterest Challenge Project: Day One

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Yay, I did it! I actually started my project like a big girl. I decided that it would be easiest to focus on household organization for the month of July. That’s usually my #1 most frustrating thing – I’ve grown to really dislike clutter and I get aggravated when things are out of place. I know for a fact it’s Mommy Instinct (yes, it’s capitalized, because it is a Thing) because clutter never used to bother me that much. I always wanted my place to be clean, but never exactly organized. Not anymore.

Pinterest has lots of great ideas and tutorials for getting your place to be as organized as possible. One pin that struck me was called “40 Bags in 40 Days“, in which the pinner got rid of a bag of junk every day for over a month. I am doing a modified version of that and committing to 10 bags in 10 days. Today, I focused on my nightstand.

You might not think that something as small as a nightstand would hold a bag’s worth of junk. You would think wrong. My nightstand ended up being additional storage in the move (which, if you recall, was pretty hit-the-ground-running, so we were stuffing belongings into anything that would hold them). Which means it looked like this:

I know. It’s awful. I seriously don’t know why half of those things were in there. I found a bag that goes around a bottle of Crown Royal and a plastic cucumber that was apparently a cast gift from one of the productions of As You Like It that Adam was in. Why was plastic vegetation given as a gift? I don’t know. I’m sure it made sense in context, but I had no context, so I just put the plastic cucumber on Adam’s nightstand, realizing the weirdness of placing a fake, green, phallic vegetable where everyone could potentially see it and do a double-take. And then I started plotting many, many practical jokes. Bwahaha.

Anyway, I cleared out most of what was in the drawer, did some re-arranging, designated some junk, and put a few things back where they actually belonged. The end result?

Yaaaaay, it’s a big-girl drawer! I’ve got my girly stuff like lotions, tea lights, and a lavender infuser oil burner thingy that I got for Christmas and forgot about (sorry and also thanks, Lindsey, I promise I’ll use it now that it has been re-found!), as well as our Comcast information because I haven’t figured out a safer place for it just yet.

I’m feeling really good about this. It took all of five minutes and I significantly de-cluttered a problem area of my home. Now I have a lot more space in that drawer if I need, several unnecessary items are gone for good, and I, you know, followed through on something I said I would do. I’ll be accepting my medal any time now.

Tomorrow: the Great Decluttering continues when I tackle…THE BATHROOMS!!! Dun dun dunnnnnn.

And now for something completely different…

I had what I can only describe as a relapse in my depression and anxiety last night. I was up until 3:00 cleaning the apartment and doing some meal and grocery planning, but I was sobbing the entire time. Hence why it took me until 3:00 AM. I’ve been feeling those emotions threatening to bubble to the surface for a while now, but I figured it was just normal motherhood-related stuff, not PPA/PPD.

Now I’m almost ready to admit defeat and that I’m not able to deal with this entirely on my own. I’m going to give it just a little more time – in case it really was just a particularly bad day, which happens – and then I’m going to start looking into talking to my doctor. As hesitant as I am about the notion of being unable to cope on my own, naturally, I also know that I can’t keep doing this. It’s affecting every aspect of my life and I can’t let that continue much longer. So I’m hoping to get a grip on myself (and, TMI alert, but I’m also sort of hoping that it’s at least partially PMS-related, because my body has decided to freak out once a month now…which wasn’t so much the case pre-baby. Thanks, hormones!), but I’m also willing to go to a professional if that doesn’t work.

Oy.

My dumb, self-indulgent Pinterest project that I’m totally going to do no matter what.

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So, I’m a little obsessed with Pinterest. I’m almost angry at the friend who introduced me to it, because for everything sketchy and potentially wrong with it, there are some neat aspects to the site. Sure, there is a lot of beige, twee, Deschanel-style generic cuteness going on, but I have found some fun/interesting/smart ideas on there.

Normally, I’m not one of those “I’m gonna do a 365 Project!” people (well, except for my 365 Days of Shakespeare blog, which apparently people are still reading. Go figure. I put almost no effort into that thing…perhaps it’s about time I revamped it and, you know, tried). I generally find them kind of dumb, because no one ever seems to follow through and finish them, and they usually just fizzle out with a bunch of lazy excuses about why they weren’t completed. Or they’re 365 photo projects – the type that makes anyone with a decent digital camera think they’re a photographer.

So…why am I doing a silly, self-indulgent, Pinterest-inspired project that will most likely end in me giving up halfway through?

I dunno. Because it might be fun.

I’m not a crafty person. This surprises people for some reason. I think I must give off a crafty vibe, because whenever I admit that my gift-wrapping skills are akin to a drunk, blind kindergartner who has never touched gift wrap before, people seem confused. I really don’t know why. The last time I crafted something, it was a scarf. And it didn’t even have fringe on it. I don’t even know how to purl. I used to cross-stitch a lot, but I wasn’t particularly talented at that, either. For some reason, though, when I see all those cutesy-clever crafts on Pinterest, I kid myself that I could pull them off. So that’s part of why I’m doing it. I think it would be nice to be better at doing things by hand, rather than buying them.

Also, quite frankly, I think it would validate me in some way. I think I’ll feel some sense of accomplishment. I have this notion in my head that SAHMs are all crafty and organized. I know that’s not necessarily true, but I feel like becoming better at prettying up the house on my own and creating nice things from scratch will make me feel more like a mom. I know that probably doesn’t make much sense, but I want to at least try.

So, starting at some point in the near-ish future (probably September), I’m going to come up with 365 projects, recipes, and crafts that I found on Pinterest to try out. There will be a range of topics – I’ll focus mainly on beauty, fitness, food, and home decor/cleaning. There will probably be a few randoms throughout, but nothing’s set in stone just yet.

My hope is that this project will A) Be completed, lest the Mayans were right and B) Teach me something. I don’t know what. I just want to legitimately learn something so I can call it good.

So thus begins the Great Gathering of Ideas on Pinterest. God help you if you’re friends with me on there – you’ll be flooded.

Apartment therapy?

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Sorry I’ve been MIA for a few days – my sleep schedule has gotten all out of whack and I’ve been distracted by just about anything even remotely shiny.

I’ve been looking around at our apartment lately and have been trying to come up with more ways to make it feel like home. In our old place, we got really lazy and only hung up a few things, didn’t really try to decorate beyond “yeah, that fits pretty well in that spot”, and just generally didn’t try too hard. Now that we’re in this new place – Ethan’s first home – I feel this pressure to make it homey. My mom has been really helpful with this…she came over and helped me (read: did it for me). She hung up almost all of our paintings, posters, and photos, helped me figure out a better way to arrange the furniture, and gave me a few more pictures for Mother’s Day.

Our place has a nice, open floor plan, which I love. It feels a lot more connected than our old apartment, with the added bonus of it not trying to kill us. There’s a slight “1950′s tract house” feel to the layout, which just makes me goofy-happy since some of our furniture is midcentury. The tricky thing about apartment living, though, is that you generally are not allowed to paint rentals. I think we technically could do some painting if we really wanted to, but we’d have to paint it back if we moved out. While we’re tentatively planning to be here for at least two or three years, if all goes according to plan, that still seems like a little more trouble than it’s worth. That’s my laziness speaking, I know, but I just don’t really see the point of taking the time, money, and energy required for painting a room if it can’t be a permanent thing.

So for those who are fellow renters or who are just more creative than I am (not hard to be these days – my brain is fried): any suggestions? How do you dress up the plain white walls and beige floors of your average apartment?

Mommy’s little helpers: the kitchen

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So I asked a bunch of my mommybuddies for tips that allow them to save time and money around the house. I got so many responses that I had to divide them up by room! Here are the best tips for the kitchen:

SAVE TIME BY…

  • Brewing coffee right before bed, if your coffee maker doesn’t have a timer. The flavor is just fine after sitting overnight, and all it takes is a quick reheat (or just put it on ice) and you’re good to go! Plus, then it’s ready if you need a pick-me-up in the middle of the night if you’re like me and are too tired to stay up but too wired to sleep after a feeding.
  • Preventing splatters in your microwave: when reheating, cover food with a wet paper towel.
  • Cleaning as you go. Keep a bag or a bowl handy to toss scraps, peels, and packages while you cook so you don’t have a scattered mess.
  • Making larger meals and freezing a portion to set aside for busy nights.

SAVE MONEY BY…

  • Using half the recommended amount of dishwashing detergent. Unless there are heavy stains, your dishes don’t really need so much soap (and this will help keep dishes from looking streaky or having buildup).
  • Menu planning. Yeah, yeah, this is the tip every blogger cites, but it’s for a reason. I planned a weekly dinner menu for the first time recently (I used to just go to the store and have a free-for-all), trying to match ingredients to my best ability. The result? An entire week’s dinners for $27! I used some ingredients that I already had, like frozen chicken breasts and rice, added in some new ones, and saved a ton of money!
  • Using coupons. Duh, I know, but I’m the queen of clipping coupons and forgetting them. Now I keep them in the diaper bag!
  • Buying in bulk. I used to think it was silly for a small family like ours to buy in bulk, but now I’m eating those words. For example, our local market sells six chicken breasts for $11-$13 depending on weight. At Sam’s, I can get almost twice the amount of chicken for the same price!
  • Making your own cleaner: fill a spray bottle halfway with equal parts vinegar and lemon juice, then top with water and mix (DO NOT use vinegar on granite, though).
  • Using cloth wipes and towels instead of paper towels.
  • Using cloth napkins.
  • Saving plastic takeout containers to use in place of Tupperware.
  • Writing your shopping list on the back of opened bill envelopes.

Six truths about early motherhood (that took me by surprise)

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In the spirit of my previous “Six truths” post, I thought I’d do a follow-up regarding the first six week of Ethan’s life on the outside!

1. I sleep. Kind of.

This is probably the one that surprised me the most.  I was fully expecting to be one of those zombified new parents who couldn’t form a coherent sentence and whose home was in shambles and who looked like death. While I do have my days, it’s way better than I was anticipating. Now, I know that’s partly because I’ve had some help and partly because Ethan is a decent sleeper (knock on wood), but I can’t help but think that my fears were exaggerated and a bit unfounded. All new parents must get some sleep, otherwise we’d all be hospitalized at least twice before the kid hit two months.

I know there are parents out there who really aren’t sleeping, and those who are barely getting by on two hours a night, so please don’t think I’m ignorant of that. Like I said, we’ve had our days/nights. When I imply that I am getting enough sleep, what I really mean is that I am getting enough to function, plus the occasional nap when the stars align just right. I’m definitely not getting enough consecutive sleep – before long, I think Ethan may need to have a sleepover at Gigi’s house so that Mommy and Daddy can get a night of uninterrupted rest. In the meantime, though, we’re handling things fairly well considering what challenges we are facing regarding the amount and frequency of sleep we are getting. So far, so good.

2. I don’t mind sharing.

I really thought I’d be the mom who never even wanted to hand her baby over for a ten-minute snuggle with a relative, but right from the start I have been comfortable sharing Ethan with others. At first I was afraid that this meant I was a bad mother or that we weren’t connecting properly, but then I realized that it was a good thing. It means I’ve accepted the fact that I can’t hold him 24/7 and that I need a break now and then. Not that I didn’t cry my eyes out for half the night when he slept over at my mom’s, because of course I did. And I downed almost an entire bottle of wine trying to calm my nerves (and to make it impossible for me to drive over there at 3:00 AM and take him back). But I had no issue with leaving him for a date night, and I’ve never gotten antsy about letting others spend time with him.

3. I love co-sleeping…sometimes.

I love Adam and I love sharing a bed with him. He’s warm and snuggly and doesn’t mind when I pass out in a way that means I take up half the bed, and that’s because he’s awesome.

That said, Adam has had to work until about 2:00 AM for a few nights since Ethan was born. On those nights, I’ve locked Percy out of the bedroom, prepped a couple of bottles and put them on the nightstand, pulled the diaper pail over to my bedside, and set up a changing station at the foot of the bed. Then I proceeded to make up a space for Ethan and share the bed with him. And it was glorious. We had wonderful snuggle time and I never had to leave the bed to take care of him, which meant I was far more rested by morning than I likely would have been otherwise.

This surprises me because I’m not into co-sleeping as a practice (just personally. I don’t care what others do, and in fact, I think it can be a lovely thing. It just isn’t for me). I know every kid is different, but I once babysat a kid who co-slept with his parents for a couple of years, and trying to get him to go to sleep was a nightmare. I didn’t “breathe like Mommy”, so he freaked out a few times. Obviously, that’s not the case for most kids, but it stuck in my mind and totally turned me off to it as an option. Plus, I’m a little territorial and I like my bed to be my bed. So while I don’t plan to change my mind and suddenly become a co-sleeper, I’m definitely looking forward to the occasional slumber party while Daddy is working late.

4. I’m savvy.

I used to not be able to shop sales because it was too much of a headache to figure out. Now it’s a necessity. And it turns out that I’m pretty good at it. Not only am I savvy in the store, but I’m savvy with my kid. I’ve gotten good at figuring out what his different cries mean, new ways to comfort him when he’s upset, and other weirdo sixth sense Mommy stuff. It’s a little freaky, but it’s pretty cool.

5. I feel like Betty Draper, if she were a happy person.

“Were” a happy person? “Was”? I really should know this. English major fail. This is why I don’t have a degree, folks.

Anyway.

You know how, apart from all her schizo crazy desperate housewife stuff, Betty was always pretty fabulous? She always looked great, kept a spotless house, and cooked fabulous meals for her family? Well, I’m not saying that I actually do all of that, but I’m certainly trying. And what’s more, I’m enjoying it. I’ve already talked about my housewifery, so I won’t go into it much more. But I will say that I never really felt like that at all until Ethan was born. I used to have almost no interest in things like organizing the laundry and making sure the dishes are always current, but now it feels like second nature to me. I might be able to chalk it up to delayed nesting, but I’ll take it. The place looks a lot better than I used to be able to manage.

6. That mushy love stuff is true.

You know all that sappy, Hallmark-y stuff about how you figure out the meaning of life when you look into your baby’s face and your heart grows three sizes and the love you already had for your family just multiplies?

Yeah. It’s all true. I know it sounds sentimental (and it is), but it’s absolutely true. It actually hurts when I think about how much I love Ethan, and I just love looking at my little family and seeing how naturally we all come together. I’m not saying I’ve figured out the mysteries of the universe via motherhood or anything, but I feel like I might be coming a little closer.

June Cleaver, I am not.

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Okay, you know how earlier I was all like “I’m so awesome at housewifery! Statues of women in 1950′s dresses wielding vacuums and basting chickens should be erected in my honor! Pass me my apron and pardon me while I clean EVERYTHING!”?

Well, turns out that I’m not as good at it as I thought. It’s a bummer, but I guess it’s just what happens when you get cocky. Life smacks you across the face like a sassy lunch lady and is all like “Girl, don’t get so up on yourself.” And you know what I mean by “sassy lunch lady”. We all knew them and they were amazing. I seriously had a brief time in my life where I thought I could be very satisfied being a lunch lady as long as I was surrounded by the sassy ones.

Today, I found myself alone in my apartment with Ethan by 4:00 PM. Adam is working the closing shift, so he’ll be back around 1:00-2:00 AM. No biggie. I figured that I could handle everything on my own. I could easily tidy up the house, finish all the laundry, organize my new dresser (thanks, Brittany!), cook something for dinner and set some aside for Adam, bathe Ethan, and generally get things ready for tomorrow’s Meet the Baby party.

Silly girl.

I tidied everything but the kitchen, which I completely forgot existed until I attempted dinner. The laundry got all messed up because I set it to the wrong size load, so everything was completely soaked by the time I took it out of the washer. My dresser took two attempts because I somehow wound up with two underwear drawers and nowhere to put my pants. Dinner? A disaster. It ended up a very beige meal (Panko-coated spicy chicken and white rice with butter), and I am still figuring out this new oven, so the chicken took about twice as long to cook as I expected. Plus, all the while, Ethan was screaming like a maniac, so I had to keep running back and forth from the stove to the crib, trying to comfort my poor upset son while also trying not to entirely ruin dinner (more or less a fail on both fronts). Ethan’s bath was painful to me. He was so miserable from crying while I was cooking that he was inconsolable. No one ever told me how horrible it is when your baby actually makes eye contact with you while screaming. I cried right along with him. It was worse when he finally stopped and I gave him a kiss, which for some reason triggered a new screaming fit. Thanks, honey, my hormones needed that extra reason to go haywire.

The one thing that went according to plan was getting things ready for the party. We thought that, since we were going to be so busy with the new place, my recovery, and getting back into our usual work schedule, it would make sense to invite a few key people to meet Ethan all at once, rather than try and balance lots and lots of visitors over several weeks. I figured we’d buy a few bottles of champagne, set up a mimosa bar, set out some cookies, and have an open house-style party for a few hours so people can stop by and get baby snuggles. I have to give myself credit there – I planned the party on my own and I think it will be a fun day. Thank goodness. After the insanity that has been my evening, I am in desperate need of a win.

Off to refill the wine glass and make sure I didn’t leave any of the burners on in my madness. And then (hopefully), I will lie down and actually sleep, since last night I was just as psychotic as this (Stayed up until 2:30 cleaning and organizing, took a nap, and put in a load of laundry at 4:30 during one of Ethan’s feedings).

I’d be completely losing my mind at this point, but then Ethan makes this face and it’s all magically better:

He is either terrified of something just behind me or he is pooping. You decide.

Money…you suck.

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I hate money.

Okay, that’s not true. I freakin’ love money when I have it. Too much. So much that I start deluding myself that I’ll continue to magically have it, so it’s totally okay for me to go and splurge on dumb stuff. Because Money is there for me. Money has my back. Money will never betray – hey, Money, where are you going? Money?

…Money?

Like I said, I love money when I have it. But when I don’t, I hate it. I get angry at it. I get frustrated at its tendency to wander off and get lost.

Okay, enough personification of money. That’s getting annoying for me and I’m the one writing it. Let’s just talk turkey. Or, you know, money.

Because I’m not working very much these days (I’m officially starting back at my babysitting job on Tuesday, so I’ll officially be earning the title of Semi-SAHM), I’m not exactly making much. I’ve been trying to figure out how I can supplement my income some more, but it’s hard. I sell Pampered Chef, but I haven’t been able to get anyone to host a show (even a catalog show, which doesn’t actually require attendance at an event). I’m sure I’ll luck out there eventually if I keep trying, but that’s the difficulty of direct sales. People can’t just wander into your store and buy your stuff. It requires a little more effort on your part and on the customer’s part.

What makes me feel really bad about all this is that Adam has to work so hard to pick up my slack. He works a lot, and he works long hours, and it’s at a job he’s not exactly a mega-fan of. He’s looking around for something closer to home with more reasonable hours, but I don’t think I have to remind everyone how hard it is to find good employment these days. When you have a job at all, you have to count your blessings, grit your teeth, and keep at it, because it’s so difficult to find a replacement.

I know I contribute to the household in other ways. I (do my best to) keep it clean, I take care of Ethan, I cook, etc. But I still feel like I should be doing a lot more. It’s tricky, though. If I were to find a second job, I’d have to figure out childcare for Ethan. Sure, my mom could watch him, but only if she’s not at work. And if she is at work, we’d have to pay someone else to care for him…which would pretty much mean that all the money I’d make from Hypothetical Second Job would just go to the childcare. So unless I find some fantastic part-time job that pays, like, $20 an hour and a babysitter who only costs $8, it just doesn’t make much sense. Of course, if anyone knows of a Hypothetical Second Job that is along these lines, please let me know, because we wants it, precious.

Until I figure out my own income and find a way to increase it without sacrificing taking care of the house and our son, I guess the way I can contribute is by finding ways to save as much money as possible. I love to cook, and in the past, I’ve always found joy in going to the grocery store, picking out the best ingredients for a lavish meal, and splurging like crazy on that at least once a week. Not realistic anymore. Instead, I’m trying to actually sit down and plan out a weekly menu, shop for sales, use coupons, and take advantage of what we already have in the pantry. We’re also taking advantage of the ridiculously good DVD selection at the library rather than going to the movies so often. We used to go several times a month, but now we’re trying to limit that so that we don’t have to sell a kidney on the black market to get some popcorn with the show.

I’d love to get some suggestions for either earning or saving money without having to totally flip our lives over in the process…any ideas, dear readers?

I’m pretty good at housewifing, actually.

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On this edition of “Things Caroline Never Thought She’d Say…”, we discuss the fact that I uttered the phrase “Wow, I make a pretty good housewife!” without a trace of irony.

I’m still reeling a little from this. Let’s just say that for the first 22 years of my life, I was that kid with the perpetually frightening bedroom. The type where you had to jump around piles of clothes and junk to get to the bed. I’m not proud of it, but that’s just how it was. When I moved in with Adam, I didn’t improve much. Sure, I would actually tidy up from time to time, but the fact that both of us were working two jobs and performing in various theatrical productions made it hard to keep a clean house. Things were never dirty, but they were certainly disorganized.

Now that we’re in this new apartment and have this new baby and I am on a new schedule, I find myself cleaning and organizing constantly. I imagine it’s a delayed nesting thing – since I wasn’t able to indulge due to us moving/me staying with relatives during my recovery – but still. This is weird for me. I actually enjoyed doing endless loads of laundry and organizing my shoes yesterday. I felt proud of the fact that I took the time to clean my stove and counters, even though they weren’t really all that messy. Don’t even get me started on how many times I high-fived myself after washing my sheets within a normal time frame.

Part of doing all this housework has to do with me trying to keep busy and awake during the day, since mine and Ethan’s sleep schedules are completely opposite of each other. Forget “sleep when the baby sleeps”. I just don’t have the ability. When he’s napping, I’m usually wide awake, so I take advantage of my energy and get stuff done. When he’s awake, I’m generally about ready to drop, so to keep myself alert, I put Ethan in the Moby (thanks to Sarah, I finally got the damn thing figured out) and do more cleaning. The result is that our place looks pretty great and is getting organized a lot faster than our old apartment ever did. When we moved out of the other place, there were still some boxes that had never been unpacked (and we lived there for almost two years. I know. I’m hiding my face in shame right now)! Here, all the boxes are not only unpacked, but things are slowly starting to be put where they belong.

I’m looking forward to when Ethan is a little more independent and doesn’t need to be held all the time, because then I’ll be able to get things done a lot faster. I found this blog a few months back and thought her 1950′s Housewife Experiment was hilarious…that chore list is a doozy. Looking at it, it seems like there’s no way a woman could do all of that on her own while caring for a newborn. In fact, the other day, I challenged myself to try and complete the list (to the best of my ability, anyway. Sorry, Adam, for not greeting you with a cocktail in hand, but I’m still a little unwilling to take a baby into an ABC store). I did pretty well, all things considered. The one thing that I was entirely unable to do was the cooking, which was, of course, the one thing I’ve been dying to do. We just haven’t had the time to do an inventory of our pantry, so we haven’t done legitimate grocery shopping in a while. I managed to slap together some stew in the crock pot, but something tells me that was cheating a bit.

I’m interested to see if I can actually complete that list once Ethan doesn’t need to be held so often. I mean, the Moby helps, but I’m not exactly going to fire up the stove with a baby and a fire hazard strapped to my torso. Not to mention that I still have to be careful about my C-section incision, so several of the heavier chores will have to wait just for the sake of, you know, not ripping myself in half. I may have to revisit it once I’m a little more recovered and see if I could have survived in the 1950′s. Although I’m not willing to give up my dishwasher just for the sake of experimentation. Hell no.