1) write up my thoughts on a history book by H.E. Marshall, called Canada's Story
1a) Write my own "Story of Canada" for young elementary school children.
2) respond to Wende's observation that housekeeping is different for women who work and women who stay at home.
3) ruminate about my dining room. I love to talk about my dining room.
but, I'll get with the program and apply scb's 4H's to the kitchen while the kids are quizzing their spelling words with each other.
(The kitchen curtains aren't really different: the left shows the "summer" curtains while the right shows the "winter.")
Head -- What needs to be done? Are there any obstacles to that?
daily:
dishes, at least 3x a day. Ideal would be 4.
sweep the floor
clear off the table
put away school work
wipe down the table, countertops and stove
clean the black board
take stuff that goes down to the basement down to the basement.
weekly:
wash the floor
wash the cupboards and drawer fronts
clean the microwave
clean the back door
wash out the fridge
empty the recycling (pick-up is ever 10 to 12 days in winter, so it gets to be a HUGE job and I even miss it, letting things pile up until they start falling out of the designated space).
Actual trash is the husband's job.
semi-annually:
Wash the shelves above the stove.
Clean the oven
Wash the windows (when we change over from storm windows to screen and back again).
Clean the garbage can.
annually:
wash the ceiling and walls.
clean out the cupboards
obstacles? My attention span is shot. I need a routine. I need to know which days I will do those weekly tasks--cause I sure as heck can't do them all at once on top of each day's chores. I've tried having a "cleaning day" but it's a waste of a day. The problem with this, of course, is that not everything is clean all at once so one never gets that "aha, done!" feeling of accomplishment. It just never ends. I think I have accepted this.
Heart -- How can I put my heart into it? Is there any way to alleviate the drudgery?
Put on some music, listen to the radio.
Hands -- What do I need to accomplish the tasks?
Currently, my son is supposed to be drying and putting away the dishes.
I need a new kitchen floor.
I need a new mop, a new broom.
Hop to it -- I printed out the "daily minimums" I posted below to keep me on task.
On never having that "Aha! Done!" feeling if you don't do all the cleaning at once, my frustration with the Aha! Done! feeling is that it's so short-lived, so I think I can be relatively happy with the "Well that's done for now, anyway" of doing things incrementally. Yes, it never ends, but, well, it never ends anyway. (Boy is *that* ever a cheerful thing to say!) Anyway, what I'm trying to say, I think, is that doing things bit by bit is pretty much how things have to be, so consider it a Good Thing when you do the day's bit-by-bit.
ReplyDeleteThat was really muddly. Maybe it's time I just sat in a corner and gave up trying to be erudite for the day...
On another note, if you ever write "The Child's Guide to Canadian History", I wanna read it!!!
aw shucks.
ReplyDeleteThanks. scb. You're right--it is extremely short-lived--so short, it really is more of an illusion than anything else and ought to be regarded as such.