The Modern but Old Style Homemakers Club

red_devil

juliapenguin wrote: »

I've got a question for all you homemakers:

What time do you get washed and dressed in the mornings? Being at home in the morning is still a massive novelty for me, but I'm already finding that slobbing round in my nightie until 10.30 doesn't make me feel good. It's nice not having to be washed, dressed and walking down the road to the bus stop at 7.30am, but I seem to be going to the other extreme.

it varies really i please myself. There is no set time.

juliapenguin

ivylinn wrote: »

I am happy with the amount of things I own.
Too much stuff is frightening to me as I grew up in a very cluttered house :eek:

I didn't particularly grow up with clutter, but it makes me feel physically unwell to be surrounded by stuff, or to have to move stuff out of the way to sit down, or to get to something else. I'm working really hard on reducing all my possessions to the exact amount I need - nothing more, nothing less. Obviously that means I rarely if ever bring any new stuff into the house, unless it's been very carefully thought out.

This is the main task for me in these early days of homemaking - it's absolutely essential if I'm going to learn to be happy at home.

purpleivy

juliapenguin wrote: »

I've got a question for all you homemakers:

What time do you get washed and dressed in the mornings? Being at home in the morning is still a massive novelty for me, but I'm already finding that slobbing round in my nightie until 10.30 doesn't make me feel good. It's nice not having to be washed, dressed and walking down the road to the bus stop at 7.30am, but I seem to be going to the other extreme.

This is a really good point Julia. A number of years ago I was signed off work in the winter. I get really bad SAD. So it's like people suffering from depression, but I'm OK for half the year. The other half I am on medication to keep my mood 'OK' but it makes me feel carp. I'd rather feel carp than not be able to function.

The doctor signed me off work and told me to go home and just do what I felt like doing and leave the rest. I realised that it was probably important to get up and get washed and dressed. Good for morale to do hair and/or makeup. So although the first thing I did was sit in my comfy chair with my SAD lamp when I came down, I was always dressed. I could very easily been in my pyjamas at teatime otherwise.

These days, I try and get dressed straight away, even if I'm not going anywhere. Then if I get a caller, I don't have to pretend to be on the night shift!

pauleyc

Ok i havent quite got to the end yet but was wondering for those who have OH's and kids, do they help you/have their own jobs in the house?

For example DF takes out bin, occasionally washes up and he puts kids to bed. DS1 is a "lovely" teen so if he isnt in, he is in his room (hard to pin down to do jobs). But i would say i do everything else (maybe not brilliantly but i do it it:p) OH works really hard so i dont really expect him to do anything tbh so would say him doing the washing up help me out.

monnagran

I've loved hearing all your stories. I have been retired for 12 years now after an extremely busy life as a single Mum, running my own business (quite successful but not financially, boo hoo) and bringing up my boys. I thought I was going to live this quiet, orderly life with loads of time for the hobbies I'd always longed to try and so I equipped myself with materials for quilting, an embroidery machine, loads of cardmaking stuff, paper and pencils for drawing and waited for the time to get going. I'm still waiting and the hobby stuff is still in the boxes it came in. Hey ho!.
I was the original earth-mother when the kids were small. out of necessity, not choice. Everything but everything was home-made, bread, biscuits, cakes, orange squash, even crisps -I see that Lakeland have produced a microwave crisp maker but there was no such luxury in the 70's. Clothes were home-made or knitted and passed around as children grew out of them.
Why then, with just myself and OH and every conceivable labour saving device do I have no time now?
For people who have no social contacts and time on their hands could I suggest a bit of volunteering or, if it isn't against your beliefs, join a friendly church. I can guarantee that loneliness and boredom will be a thing of the past.
If your health doesn't allow this my heart goes out to you, but this forum has so many friendly folk on it that you can't really feel alone anymore.

majjak

pauleyc wrote: »

Ok i havent quite got to the end yet but was wondering for those who have OH's and kids, do they help you/have their own jobs in the house?

Absolutely pauley !

They all have their jobs to do here - mainly dishwasher loading/unloading, keeping bedrooms tidy, clearing up after the dog (they wanted him ! ) and a few other little things like polishing, washing down kitchen cupboard doors etc.

DH works shifts so he can do a fair bit too (he gets quite a few rest days).

It leaves me free to do other things like baking cakes (which I've done today), gardening, mealplanning, saving money (which can involve shopping at quite a few different places - time consuming!) and the deeper cleaning around the house (cause we all know that men aren't quite as good as it as us ).

It also teaches the kids good habits for later in life. I'm glad my mum taught me how to iron and clean well when I was younger

Right, off to check on the baked stew in the oven :drool:

pauleyc

majjak wrote: »

Absolutely pauley !

They all have their jobs to do here - mainly dishwasher loading/unloading, keeping bedrooms tidy, clearing up after the dog (they wanted him ! ) and a few other little things like polishing, washing down kitchen cupboard doors etc.


Mmmh maybe this is where i am going wrong!:o

I think our whole house needs an overhaul - new routines for us all i think. My new word - delegate

juliapenguin

My son has grown up and flown the nest, so it's just the two of us.

When I was at work all the time, DH was brilliant and did loads of housework - eg laundry, hoovering, shopping.

Now that I've given up the stressful job I'm just doing bits of supply teaching and have a lot more time. It's only fair that I now do the lion's share of the jobs so we can relax together evenings and weekends.

However, DH still does the bin and the recycling as we're in an apartment block and he passes the stinky rubbish graveyard on his way to the car. He also 'cleans' the little ensuite shower room which is his - can you tell from 'cleans' that we have different standards????!!!! I use the other bathroom and it's always nice and clean to my standards for me and for when people come round.

I'm in complete turmoil over my work situation - I was told that my old employers wanted me to go back in two afternoons a week (which would be great) but when I went in today to discuss it, Evil Boss was horrible and basically told me that if he graciously allows me to go back I should be very grateful. I've been feeling panicky ever since, which kind of gives me the message that this is not the right thing to be doing. I've got a meeting on Wednesday at a different school - they've offered me a job but I have no idea if they will retract the job offer when I tell them that I can't do as many hours as they want me to. I don't want to say it's because of my own poor health so I have to come up with plausible reasons why I'm not able to teach a full timetable and convince them that my qualifications and experience are so amazing that they can't afford to let me slip away.....
Another option is to work as an examiner - that would be mainly marking at home - boring but quite well paid. I'm looking into this, but the exam board isn't recruiting at the moment.

However, all in all, it looks likely that being a full-time or nearly-full-time homemaker is the way forward, at least for now.

juliapenguin

DH is starting to feel the benefit of me being at home more - we've been sitting reading all evening and watching the sunset. Normally we'd be doing chores and I'd be frantically doing lesson preparation and marking.

So on the plus side - more quality time together evenings and weekends.

But on the minus side - less money coming in.

frugaliciousness

juliapenguin wrote: »

DH is starting to feel the benefit of me being at home more - we've been sitting reading all evening and watching the sunset. Normally we'd be doing chores and I'd be frantically doing lesson preparation and marking.

So on the plus side - more quality time together evenings and weekends.

But on the minus side - less money coming in.

Having less money coming in is the real down side to it but as long as you have enough to keep afloat then your quality of life can remain the same.

I don't feel our weekends or spare time has suffered at all (other than my rather lovely clothes shopping hobby :cool: ) We challenge ourselves to have freeby days out or look for vouchers and child free places.

Last weekend we took the kids to a park with the frizbee and howled our socks off, it was really good fun.