interesting moment

so I'm shopping today... just a quick in and out to get pastry flour ( don't ask!)
Both boys... fragile timing.... in and out!
I'm showered and even in a new shirt (circa Winners) - feelin' good

I am poised in front of the baking area "pastry flour " in one hand, organic whole wheat in the other. Why I chose that moment to debate my flour alternatives is beyond me.

I think to myself "I should know when or where to use these other flours... I mean chemically they do the same thing blah blah blah" ...(I digress into stupidity there....) Suddenly someone taps me on the shoulder, and my first thoughts are.... is Nolan sucking on the shopping cart hand rail and where is Lars ? ...but no, no alarm in this voice. It is the voice of a frail /elderly women...."excuse me". Now I am thinking "prefect God has sent me a Betty Crocker housewife to give me clarity on the flour issue". As I turn my Betty Crocker welcoming face away from the flour to greet this lovely women.... I stop.... my smile tightens..... my eyes move slowly up from her stomach to her neck and then they meet her eyes (uhhh, a wee gasp from me )

Her eyes are twinkling with glee as she says "don't you just love this fabric" and she runs her hands.... her 85 year old hand over her shirt... MY shirt.... MY new WINNERS "oooh look at me I'm a yummy mummy " shirt.

Now at that moment time stopped. Because in that moment she was delighted that she was so in style and talking to a young woman who oblivously had great fashion sense... and I, I was horrified and in my mind running half naked from the store.

But I simply said "yes, I love it ... and may I say you have fabulous taste?"

Sunny summer days and the two kiddos are finally napping at the same time, this in itself is a feat. So as a re-invented housewife...I am coming along. I have been pre-planning meals a little. I find if I pick 4 or 5 main meals....chicken, pork, tofu, turkey for the week I build around those it takes the stress off " what to make for dinner". I never put meat in the freezer because who has time to thaw! Also, and this is a tip from my mother in law... look at the grocery flyer when it comes out, build your meals of the week around what's on sale. Obvious to some... but not me . Make sense now though! epicurious.com helps too, I simply type in the choice meat and a few thing I have in the ( celery, feta) and voila... I have a dinner plan.
I come from a nutrition background so food it important to me. Kids are eating ( at the table !!!!) breakfast, lunch and dinner. horray!

OK so I am function in the housewife capacity at about...33%, I have been showering almost every other day, for the past 2 weeks so that brought me up about 20% :) An important component of the re-invented housewife is feeling a little sexy ergo...clean.

( I don't even know what "ergo" means...)

The re-invented hw also has obligations outside the house, park dates, music class, library meeting.... and while this may seem life the life of luxury my children are 2 and a half and 11 months old.... so there is a great deal of redirecting ...modelling behavior and seething from the inside while smiling on the outside. I think the main thing is that I am getting there... to the park, music and meeting...I'm there with no snack and a ferocious toddler....but I am there!

So since I last wrote ( functioning at 3% hw) things are better. I was all gung-ho for a week after my last entry (Feb)- then quickly ate myself into a wee (larger) state. Breastfeeding makes you hungry! I stopped breast feeding ( 10 1/2 months)...oh stop booing me ..I was done, and mentally I'm a better mom for it.

Later cats...happy housewife 'ing!

hmmmm, I had lunch today with my 30 something new mommy friend... the topic -frustration with being home- loss of identity. I think it always comes back to an identity crisis with smart women... Who am I out of my suit? Who am I when I am not closing the deal and finishing the major project, who am I without my title? What measures are in place at home to say - "you did a fantastic job last night with a hungry baby screaming every other hour, now on to the grocery shopping"! I think that's what hurts some new (and veteran) housewives. We come from higher education... we've learnt to be savvy-smart, successful and how to manage multiple tasks...we've been rewarded. We are not taught how to manage a home, I never sought that out. I am hard pressed to press a shirt - sorry about the pun. I never learnt to clean an entire house in stages throughout the weeks so it constantly gleams. I have no idea how to shop for the best bang for my buck for my family of four. SO like other women I feel like I am constantly dropping the ball - and I am not used to that. Now I know there are some reading this thinking "oh tisk, tisk" - seriously I can clean, I can shop and I can press a shirt but when you are home full time and these are your all day every day - It would be nice to be a little schooled on how it all fits together - ahhhh and there is it " the art of the housewife".

So I'm going to start getting "schooled". FOR THIS VERY BRIEF TIME IN MY LIFE WHEN I AM BLESSED TO BE HOME " I am going to learn to do it well . . . and that was my rant to my dear new friend - For now learn to be where you are.... for right now.


I recieved a great tips... seems obvious but I was not doing it ( thanks Jessica) and it has helped.

#1 - every morning before breakfast one load of laundry goes in , ( all white together - or all blacks - or all colours together). First add detergent, then water, then clothes. I have recently been told a table spoon of Borax gives a nice cleaning boost! My kids are too little but a friend told me her kids drop there stuff in front of the washer in the AM before school - nice touch!

GOLDEN RULE - always to the switch to the dryer.... the clothes can hang out in the dryer for a while but not the washer!

the art of housewife

I think it takes women .... some women, a long time to get here, here, in the "home" head space. Here... is accepting that this is important work. That this is real work, not obligation. I have been home now for 2 years and 4 months. I stayed home beyond the year maternity leave (putting my career on hold). Fifteen minutes after I stopped breastfeeding .... I was pregnant again and I now have two boys, 19 months a part. I love being called a mom, I cringe at the housewife label.

The transition from one to two and the realization that I was not going back to work has been a real challenge. Motherhood is exhausting and breath taking but the housewife thing kicks my butt on a daily basis... house cleaning, cooking, laundry. I could get help in anyone of these areas - but i also have guilt. I am home... so why can't I get these things under control.

OK... so the whole thing about this BLOG is ...lately I have decided to shed all my "ideas" about what housewife means .... I am going re-invent housewife..... for now..... for this part of my life ...while I am home. . . I'm going to get it right and I'm going to be really good at THIS. I am going to RE-INVENT THE ART OF HOUSEWIFE.