Lady of leisure?

Do you have the same experience when you tidy up the house and then in no time it gets untidy and all messy again? It happens to me all the time. So sometimes I wonder, tidy for what? Especially when I'm the only person doing it. Getting the girls to help is difficult. On certain occasions they will gladly do it but most times they will say things like 'oh it's so hard work', 'it's boring' or 'it's so difficult'. So I guess it's not hard work, not boring and very easy for the mum to do it huh. I prefer to do the tidying at night. At least it will stay that way longer. It's near impossible to have a spick-and-span house ALL THE TIME if you have young children unless of course there's a domestic helper in the house. Even then, it's not really achievable.

For the past week as I was on MC, I'd do the chores after I sent the girls to school. Downstairs then upstairs. But almost everyday by dinnertime, it's as if a hurricane has gone through my house. It is not so frustrating if everyone chips in to help, to do their part. But I'm mostly left to do the job myself. What's worse is when the other half accuses me of not doing anything but spending all my time in front of the computer the past WHOLE WEEK. Firstly, I should be resting since I'd hurt my back (those of you who have hurt their back before should know what it's like) but lying down all day is absolutely boring since there are better things to do. I'd been doing the school runs even though stepping on the clutch hurts but there's no other way. So I did what I can, pick up pieces of toys/books from the floor, clear the dining table, unload the dishwasher, vacuum the lounge and dining room before going upstairs to make the beds and pick up more things from the floor. Then I will sit down and have my green tea, check my emails and surf for ideas to cook for dinner. As my back felt better on Wednesday, I arranged the furniture (I hear gasps!) in my room as I'd bought a wardrobe and one part of it had been sitting there in front of my bed and my clothes were not hung up. I had to rearrange some things in order to fit that in. If I don't do it, it'll be there forever and the room's in a mess. I took care though since the furniture had rollers and it was just a matter of pushing. I was fine afterwards and very pleased that my clothes are all folded nicely in the chest of drawers.

I'd bought 2 shelves from Ikea more than a month ago and set up one for downstairs but the other one had been on the floor in the hallway downstairs until yesterday. I opened up the box and took individual pieces upstairs as there was no way I could carry the whole box up not even before I hurt my back. So the shelf was fixed and I changed the arrangement of the furniture in the girls room. Again, I went slow and easy and made sure I don't hurt my back again. The girls were very pleased with their new room. Someone once said to me I am a worker bee and not a queen bee. Guess I am. But if I don't do those things, who will?

This afternoon, Lavigne's godma is coming to visit us and I swear the house was in a presentable state last evening. But this morning, there were things on the floor everywhere, cushions, books, paper, rubbish and whatnots. To give the girls credit, they did make their beds but clothes and toys were on the floor. And I did say that I'd just rearranged the room yesterday and everything was neat and tidy, didn't I? Then someone had to say I'd not been doing anything the whole week.

Furthermore, I also made made several new dishes this week since I had the time and was more relaxed. The reason I blog all these is not because I am 'hao lian' but to let you know I'd not been a lady of leisure as you (yes you!) think I had. I didn't choose to not go to work but was hurt. Even if I didn't do anything and just put my feet up like many people had told me to, there was nothing wrong with it because I had a SORE BACK. Now I understand why one woman (read from one blog) actually leaves all the chores till the husband comes home so that he can see she's hard at work.