Housewife of the Year

The view from our window this evening

If the value of a woman was still determined based on her skills keeping a house in order, then I probably wouldn't score many points. No, let me be more honest than that. I definitely wouldn't score many points. Whatever I was put on this earth for, it was certainly not to clean houses. My philosophy on life is that when I eventually die, I do not want to look back nostalgically on all the hundreds of hours I spent slavishly doing the hoovering and ironing.  I would rather remember moments spent laughing and enjoying life, even if the house remains a total mess as a result.

Thankfully though, most people nowadays don't judge women exclusively on this criteria, and I still manage to maintain friendships despite our constant mountain of washing and the sea of toys all over the flat.

Katri, Saskia and Cameron

Today however, I have been a housewife to make anyone proud!  I have washed, cooked, cleaned, sorted, thrown out, tidied, laundried, recycled, shopped, changed sheets and done all the other things that a "real woman" of the 1950s was supposed to do.  This evening the flat is reasonably tidy. The kitchen is clean, the beds are changed, we all have clean clothes and you can actually walk from one side of the room to another. Miracles do happen.

Of course I know how long it will last. Approximately twenty minutes if experience is anything to go by.

By tomorrow at the latest, we will be back to the familiar chaos which is the hallmark of any large family with lots of young children. But it doesn't matter. That's the way it is with us.

And despite all the housework, we still managed to go swimming with Ella and have Katri over this evening for dinner and boardgames. I'm not exactly sure what wordgame they are playing at the moment, but I heard the word "rectum" a moment ago, so I think I had better not ask too many questions.

As a reward for all the hard work it snowed just enough to dust the trees outside, making the view from the window really rather pretty.

So, I'm off now to do one last load of washing and then that's it for another day.  Tomorrow it will be back to the familiar chaos. But as long as we find something during the day to laugh about, as well as friends to share it with, then in my view at least the day will have been a success.