brigid: drawing of two women, one whispering to the other (me)

I folded up a load of clean clothing for Niko, all neat little packages, sorted by clothing type and drawer (he has a drawer that holds pyjamas, underpants, and socks; and a drawer that holds long and short pants and long and short sleeve shirts, each of those getting their own section). I placed them carefully in a basket and told him to put away his clothing.

He refused.

He offered that I could help him, and we could work together, and I could put them away for him.

I declined.

He asked if he could watch tv.

I declined.

He eventually hoisted the basket and brought it into his room, threw it onto the floor, and stared at it, then stared at the dirty clothing on the floor next to his empty hamper.

Then he picked up one t-shirt from the middle of the pile, shook it out, walked over to the underpants drawer, opened it shoved the t-shirt in, closed the drawer, and walked back to the basket.

He proceeded to pick up each item individually, carry it over to the drawers, open the drawer, place it, and close it for each item. SO MANY EXTRA STEPS. He took many breaks to drink water, show me his electric train, pick up (individual) pieces of dirty clothing (one by one) and drop them in the hamper, move dinosaurs around, climb into the basket and rub his head all over the clean laundry, etc.

What should have taken five minutes MAXIMUM took fifteen and I finally grabbed a stack of pyjamas, thrust them at him, and ordered him to put them in the drawers. I did the same with the t-shirts, insisting LIKE SOME KIND OF JERK that they all go in the same drawer that holds his other t-shirts.

Oh my goddddddddddddddddddd.

He’s been super “helpful” all day including asking if he could help me clean the bathroom then rejecting all tasks I offered him and standing RIGHT NEXT TO OR BEHIND ME the entire time. Like a limpet, but one that tells really shitty jokes (why did the chicken cross the road? BECAUSE OF A RADIATOR!)

We started the day off, btw, by testing out our new sprinkler in the front yard. Our yard is so small it was hard to adjust it to not water other peoples’ yards and houses, the sidewalk, etc. One of our next door neighbors (who listens to Rush Limbaugh REALLY REALLY LOUDLY) came outside to monitor our progress and I started getting super paranoid he was getting pissed off at us for watering his steps but then he kept laughing at Niko’s antics so maybe he was just curious I DO NOT EVEN KNOW. Our sprinkler’s adjustable and I kept darting over to it, trying to avoid the spray and also make it not spray in peoples’ windows, and I’m sure that was comedic to watch. Niko looked like he was having fun the whole time, but after the fact he complained about how he hates getting wet and he hates water and the only reason he spends an hour+ in the bath tub splashing around is because he HAS to get wet to get clean. THE ONLY REASON. Playing in water is AWFUL and HORRIBLE and for SUCKERS. I didn’t take any photos of him pretending to have fun running into the hose and sprinkler because I didn’t want my camera or phone to get wet.

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brigid: drawing of two women, one whispering to the other (me)

Happy Birthday to me!

To celebrate, yesterday, I made brownies, and Nesko got me a knife sharpener that was on clearance at Target, because he was tired of hearing me rail at the heavens about how our (sort of) expensive knives are crappy and dull and don’t so much slice things as mangle them terribly.

Today is going to be an especially great day because yesterday? I did every single chore on my chore list, including making dinner and cleaning up after. And I did it while my gall bladder was busy punching me in retribution for drinking a Shamrock Shake. I need to seriously reconsider ever eating food ever again.

If you are interested, this is what is on my list for daily chores:

      Make the bed
      Refill Humidifier (ok, this isn’t a chore, but it’s on the list so I don’t forget)
      Wipe down high chair
      Clean off dining room table (this helps keep mail and junk from accumulating)
      Sweep dining room floor
      Pick up toys in living room
      Clear all dishes, clothing, etc from living room
      Pick up toys/tidy Niko’s room (he is really too young to help, because “picking up” is too close to “fill and spill”)
      Remove all dishes from office
      Remove all clothes & towels from office (sometimes one of us will take a shower, then chill in front of the computer while her hair dries a bit)
      Wash all dishes (yes! all of them!)
      Clean kitchen sink
      Clean stove top
      Clean kitchen counters
      Sweep kitchen floor

It seems like a lot when it’s all typed out, but most of it’s pretty basic easy stuff. And a lot of what I do every day automatically isn’t on the list, like making sure there’s no clothing in the bathroom or on the bedroom floor, or making sure all shoes are on the shoe rack. I also don’t have a designated laundry day because we have a washer and dryer so it’s pretty convenient to do it whenever.

On top of the daily stuff, I also have stuff that gets done once a week.
Monday is cleaning the bathroom and also mopping the kitchen floor, for instance. Tuesday is dusting and sweeping Niko’s room; Wednesday I dust and sweep in the bedroom and change the bed linens; Thursday is dusting and vacuuming in the living room and looking over the sales circulars to make a grocery list and meal plan for the next week; Friday is dusting and cleaning mopping the Dining Room, and grocery shopping. This leaves Saturday and Sunday pretty open for relaxing, doing home improvement, or doing big jobs like cleaning windows.

In an ideal world, Nesko does all the dusting and sweeping and vacuuming. I’m allergic to dust and have (poorly controlled) asthma, so sweeping and dusting are very unhealthy for me. As unhealthy as letting all that dust lie around? The jury’s out on that one. I’m not as poorly off as one friend of mine who physically leaves the house when her husband cleans to avoid having an asthma attack, but yeah. In reality, I wind up doing the dusting and sweeping and vacuuming and try really hard to remember to use my inhaler and keep taking my allergy medication to try and keep allergy symptoms to a minimum.

I keep my list of chores on the fridge, and I cross stuff off when I finish it. This helps me feel a sense of accomplishment, and also helps me be mindful of stuff I don’t do one day so I can be sure of doing it the next. With the exception of dishes, I don’t really stress over not doing every single thing every single day. The world won’t come to a crashing halt if the dining room table has some mail and dirty cups sitting on it over night. Leaving dishes in the sink, though, really makes mornings more difficult.

One thing I want to improve on is meal planning. I do a lot of from-scratch cooking, and have a lot of cook books and recipe magazines. But despite my abundance of potential meal ideas I tend to make the same stuff over and over (chicken soup, beef stew, chili, oven fries, roasted cauliflower, lasagna, pasta bake in general, 40 cloves of garlic and a chicken, mashed potatoes, split pea soup, black beans and sausage, macaroni and cheese made with a roux, buffalo pulled chicken) or wuss out and toss some tater tots and dinosaur shaped chicken in the oven while saying TWO TEARS IN A BUCKET. When Nesko was working from 2pm till 10pm every day that was a lot easier to manage. We had a hot lunch together every single day, plotted out ahead of time, and he had leftovers for dinner at work. It was time saving and super economical! Now his schedule is scattered and he works at different times over the week, and we aren’t home together as often for meals. So it’s like “ehhhhh…. it’s me and the kid, chicken nuggets it is.”

I’m thinking of putting together a binder with a meal plan for the week with space for notes and a shopping list with all the recipes for that week behind the list, and go-to recipes (annotated!) behind THAT and organized by category. I need to find an appropriate binder, though.

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