How to be a Good Wife in 2011/12/13/14

It really is hard, isn't it?

We've created this gigantic mess for ourselves, haven't we? By 'mess' I mean that we really r doing it all & too much all. Doing it all, all of the time, non-stop 24/7 can only lead to one thing...crash & burn.

At which point, most of our gallant partners will waltz in & attempt to take over. I still remember when my 9 year old was born and in the hospital neo-natal with me for 9 days, my husband did some laundry-never again! He washed brand new Costco pale yellow flannel sheets with bike chain greased-up rags.

Yeah, that really made my day after being released from the hospital with my first child!

So, I guess I really don't know how to be a 'good' wife in any year.  But I do know how to be a good person.

I am now giving myself time outs-I have always tried to do that. It's sound advice. I am now living in a messier house where I do not clean the fridge every few months.  I am lucky to do the whole fridge at once maybe annually.  Now I clean one row or a bin at a time maybe every other month.  Or take a moment when the milk has leaked to clean that & a little more.

I used to organize my night stand every once in awhile pre-kids.  Now I push the sliding stack of mags under the bed.

The laundry I stay on top of (if you could see my laundry room you would wonder what I mean by that!! stand on top of maybe!), thanks to a new room & machines which handle way more clothes, towels, etc. than our old duo.  The kitchen I am actually better at though large pots & pans tend to sit and wait me out on the counter as always.  But I do try to clean one instead of grabbing a clean one before cooking.

I find myself waking early (its currently 4:28 am).  It seems that this is the only time that I get to spend with myself (besides a shortened lunch hour at work).  This is the time when my body wakes, telling me to get up & just be. So I will listen and respond. 

Probably should go back to sleep now.  And remember to book a spa appointment in the am.

the mom ornament

The mammoth amounts of snow are finally melting here in the Canadian Rockies!  So much so that yesterday afternoon everything seemed to turn brown.  Today, when I went home for lunch, I found one of the lovely little 'mom' snow person ornaments that our wonderful cousins in Northern Ontario send us every Christmas, lying in the mud right under our balcony.  They also send 'dad', 'cameron' & 'connor' ones.

My husband is the tree guy.  He is very particular about choosing his tree, bringing safely home and dumping it in water.  The rest of us don't even go with him anymore to help pick out.  This is a man who used to refuse to cut down trees for the holidays (pre-kids) and now he is the crazy tree guy.

So this tree guy likes to toss the usually now dead tree over our balcony so it drops less needles all over the house and then he can drag it to the car and head to the tree chipper (yuck, what a horrible 2 words).

So there I am walking into my house for lunch yesterday when I come across the mom ornament, covered in mud, a tiny, dead, brown pine branch stuck to it.  How sad.

Sad, too, that I barely have time for toast & a boiled egg at lunch as I am putting laundry away & emptying the dishwasher.  Oh yeah, I did make time for a quickie espresso & warm milk via my verisimo.

Time to hit the gym again at lunch time!  And stop this sad, little story.