21 things I didn't expect would make me this happy: The housewife edition

Let's just say I didn't grow up with real chores like most normal kids. Well at least normal American kids. We had a cleaning lady for most of my life so scrubbing and ironing and stain removal doesn't not come natural to me.

Now I'm married, working, uhm, let's say 'freelance', and have my very own kitchen. It's been a learning experience...
Sometimes I read 'cleaning tips' in the Real Simple and I'm like "What?! I didn't know you have to clean that".

Anyway, in these last few months I've found the strangest joy in the strangest places. I always thought traveling, good food, girl talk, camping and sleeping in made me happy... I mean it does, but I didn't think new dishwashing liquid that smell of orange blossoms would make me equally happy.

Here are a few more happy makers:

1  A new pair of yellow gloves

2 First time recipe attempt success

3 Second time recipe attempt success

4 Easy Iron shirts

5 Finding that a certain clothing item doesn't have to be ironed at all.

6 Going out to eat. Nothing tastes as good as having a clean kitchen in the morning.

 7 Clean and warm post dryer laundry love. That's a thing right?

8 When I can cover an oven dish in foil well enough so that I don't have to wash it afterwards and just toss out the foil. Major accomplishment around here.

9 Successfully growing herbs

10 When dinner can also be left over lunch the next day. Score!

11 Non Stick Anything

12 The smell of bleach, the smell of success.

13 When all the socks in the laundry basket match up. This might have only happened once. IN MY LIFE

14 Making up this house rule where the bed doesn't need to be made on weekends.

15 Dusting.

16 When clothes pass the 'sniff test', less laundry to do! yay.

17 That satisfying sense of achievement  once all the floors are swept .

18 An empty trash can.

19 Finding enough quarters to do the laundry

20 Fresh flowers everywhere is a sure highlight.

21 This new shower curtain

 Isn't life just the weirdest?


 

confessions of an extended housewife

You know you’ve been a housewife for too long when;

The idea of shopping for a feather duster thrills you more than the normal amount of feather duster accumulation should.

Not finding said feather duster at the store saddens you more than the normal amount of disappointment in failing to do so should.

Other strange objects that you’ve taken for granted in life seem to excite you, and it takes a while before this starts concerning you.  Yellow gloves are a good example. Ironing tips are another.

There’s a difference in starting out as a career housewife, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.  I might have taken on this role differently if I didn’t start out with the mentality that it’s going to be temporary.

A few weeks of making healthy meals and folding socks and scrubbing toilets as my main form of a productive day and then on to … uhm, you know, like a career or something.  No really, I had anticipated some free time and then on with it.

Of course I understand that healthy meals still need to be made daily, socks will always require pairing and folding and that toilet will not keep it self clean. Surely these daily tasks find their own way into the new routine of a working couple. That’s a concern for another day.

It’s the few weeks that have so effortlessly turned themselves into months that gets me.

Steadily moving on to half a year in a few weeks and what will have become of me.  A feather-duster-less desperate housewife. 

Simply answering conversation-starting well-meaning questions like ‘so what do you do’ and ‘what do you want to do’ are a strange cause for anxiety. While the poor inquirer is just making small talk, I’m near hyperventilation.

Usually what I need is a little self slap across the face, some lipstick and a silent war cry to overcome these strange occurrences. Well, that and some perspective of the bigger picture and a constant reminder to stay in the moment.

I have this inkling that I’ll look back on a post like this when I’m a new mom and just roll my eyes at myself. So to future mom self:  “Stop rolling your eyes at me and continue writing about the challenges you’re facing now”.

It just dawned on me that, all this strange emotion flying around the page might not be due to be being a new housewife, but more about being unemployed. And this friend, is a term I’ve wanted to stay away from for quite some time.

 So there, a little bit more personal, less snarky post for today.  Unemployed and keeping it real since 2012. 

Once the Green Card comes through I will legally be able to look for work, and it does seem like I should receive notice of my interview soon. So it shouldn't be too long now. #hope