Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Like Little House on the Prairie

but with indoor plumbing and a mini van.

Just call me Ma.

I didn’t intend for it to happen, it just sort of turned out that way.

Yesterday I took the kids off to bible school.  Then I came home to clean. I scrubbed the stove and the oven, then I got down on my hands and knees and scrubbed the slate tile in the kitchen. Then I rinsed it, then I dried it with rags. ON MY KNEES! Mops don’t work well with natural slate, too many nooks and crannies.

In between scrubbings,I hauled dripping wet laundry (bedsheets) out to the clothes line and wrung the water out with my hands before hanging it up to dry. (Sorry Mrs Ingalls, I’m not scrubbing the laundry too. I wouldn’t have wrung it out but my washer has developed glitch where it stops spinning 3 minutes early & your only options are to rerun the load from the start or wring things out by hand)

I also swept and mopped the wood floors and brushed carpet freshener into the carpets.

Thank you god prairie dresses, corsets and multiple petticoats are out of fashion. I would have died trying to clean my floor in a corset.

And it was 90 degrees by 10:30am.

This took up the whole morning & it was time to go fetch the children home for lunch.

After lunch I started a batch of bread dough rising, made a pie crust and set up a quart of yogurt. Then it was on to doing the family mending,including some curtains I bought for the boys room when I went to IKEA 2months ago that have been hanging in their room with about 9 inches of excess fabric on the ground. This was followed by ironing and then working on sewing Mayhem’s cape.

I bought the chicken for dinner already roasted because you know how I feel about roasting my own chickens. I baked the bread. I did wash and peel the vegetables though someone else grew them - because you have to draw the line somewhere.

After dinner I made sure the young’uns got their book learning in for the day while I washed the dishes (WASHED THE DISHES! BY HAND! GOOD GOD PEOPLE!)

While the children played outside in the setting sunlight, I made the beds with the fresh sheets. The children were then brought in and put in the washing tub and scrubbed up real good for more bible school tomorrow. (wouldn’t want Jesus to think we’re dirty heathens). After everyone was in bed I sat by the (cold) woodstove and did my needlework.

Today I am dropping the kids off at bible school & heading to coffee shop for gourmet beverages and free wifi, play with my cell phone apps and then maybe I’ll lounge around in the afternoon watching DVDs with the kids.

Because I’ve done all the scrubbing I intend to do for weeks to come.

9 comments:

Scrapdreams said...

ooohhhhh you domestic goddess you!

SciFi Dad said...

I remember that time Laura got lost in the marketplace section of Ikea and everyone was looking for her in the livingrooms upstairs until the town doctor got really drunk and they got kicked out of the upstairs then Mrs. Olsen saw Laura by the hot dog people on the way out and said how it's always the Ingalls girls that cause so much trouble and Nellie never did stuff like that.

ebonyarwen said...

Oh wowza! That is A LOT of chores. But yes, now it's done you can take me-time! Congrats on being so motivated!

Darcy said...

That makes me tired just reading about it, Stacey! I also use our VBS week to do projects at home. Since I homeschool, the boys are with me 24/7, and I use it as 3 hrs a day when I CAN do things without little ones underfoot.

Hey - you could go to the bookstore and read up on Little House on the Prairie memors...especially Nellie's to get the REAL story LOL

Melissa said...

I used to watch Little House on the Prairie all the time, however, I would never want to live like that. Sometimes the house just needs an old fashioned scrub down (on hands and knees) because, although today's modern appliances are great, sometimes they just don't do the job as well as your bare hands could.

Carrie said...

Wow - go you! Lounging with DVD's & the kids sounds good to me!

LizzieMade said...

I so hope you enjoyed your much-deserved morning off, playing games and drinking yummy coffees! That sounds like more work than I could accomplish in a month (but I'd be able to help you with the coffee and games!).

Andrea Chamberlain said...

Holy crap, Stacey - you're a better prarie woman than I ever would have been. I'd have been out there complaining WHY DOESN'T SOMEONE INVENT AIR CONDITIONING, FOR GOD'S SAKE?

Mel said...

And I was feeling good about myself for having scrubbed the kitchen sink today! Oh, and I cleaned the cooker too - only the hob though, not inside the oven. I clearly have a long way to go! xx