I clean

I mentioned the other day that sometimes I wake in the middle of the night and do chores, and when I thought I had nothing to write about today it occurred to me that I might discuss what I do with my time, both in the dark hours and during the day.

At night, the chores I do are mindless by necessity.  I'm too awake to sleep, but too asleep to wake, and so by mindless I mean decision-free and on autopilot.  I will put in a load of laundry, wash a few pots, empty a container of leftovers from the fridge.  I will not cook, or do anything requiring the movement of furniture (sweeping, etc.).  I putter, rather than single mindedly accomplish something.  I am always acutely aware of returning to bed.

During the day I try and do one large task.  For me this would encompass, for example, the cleaning of a child's room, weeding the garden, taking a steel wool pad to the appliances, or something of that magnitude.  I also run a load of laundry a day, and keep up with the dishes.  Our meals are very simple, and require little in the way of prep work, and I follow the adage of my mentor who feeds her family of eleven with the concept of a protein and something fresh for every meal.  I have the children help me as much as they are able to - usually by tidying.

When I am tired, I do hand work.  I crochet or knit or work on cross stitch.  I return phone calls, I make lists, I tidy.

I try to have the children leave the house every day.  On Tuesdays I make myself go to a stitching group in town.  I visit people, sometimes parishioners and sometimes not, as part of my role.

I have a chore list that I will become better at following but for now offers me a chance to get ideas of things to do.  Under daily chores I have listed sweep floors, make beds,  do dishes, and clean one bedroom.

Weekly chores on the chart:

Monday clean the kitchen
Tuesday floors
Wednesday windows and dusting
Thursday vacuum upholstery, clean table and chairs
Friday mending, decluttering
Saturday laundry
Sunday bathroom, front

The majority of what I do probably falls under child care.  I have two children in diapers, one in cloth.  I spend a lot of time changing them and rinsing diapers.  I feed them and tell them to go play, find things they can do around the house, go to soccer games and doctor's appointments and play groups.  I dress them, bathe them, comfort them and nurse them.  Two of them nap.

Approximately once a week we travel into the city to buy groceries.  On those days I do nothing else.  On Sundays we work and I am generally in the kitchen helping to keep things running at church or else keeping the children at home until the service and then wrangling them during.

Our meals:

Roast chicken with vegetables cut up and roasted with it.
A simple curry in the slow cooker
pizza made on pitas or naan with a bean salad
Chili
Pasta with tomatoes and sausage in a cream sauce, or cheese tortellini
soup and bread
beef stroganoff

For lunches:

Kraft dinner
fruit salad or smoothies
cheese and crackers
bread with home made jam, or toast and peanut butter
leftovers
eggs