A Domestic Day

Today I set out to prove that I belong to the "Homemaker" class. I managed to do a whole bunch of really domestic tasks. There was a ton of cooking-- fried chicken, a chocolate no-bake cheesecake, orange chicken (the yummy Chinese kind), plus the normal stuff like a regular breakfast and lunch. No wonder we all moved on from that kind of cooking. I felt like I spent most of the day in the kitchen. And even after one completely full dishwasher load of dishes, my counters are still covered in pots that need to be soaked, greasy baking pans, a gazillion cups (courtesy of the kids)-- oh, and the dinner dishes are still on the kitchen table. But I am boycotting the kitchen for the rest of the night. Enough is enough!

It is also time for my yearly sewing project. Yep, it's Halloween time again, the only time I ever seem to break out my sewing machine. M and J's school has a "literature parade" for Halloween. Instead of getting to wear normal costumes, they have to dress up as a book character. Cartoon characters are not allowed, and the character has to have been in a book before a movie ever came out. (Harry Potter is OK, Barbie is out. And anything actually Halloweenish is definitely out.) Well, this year M picked the book "Tortilla Moon," which I thought would be fairly easy. The main character is just a girl wearing a red jumper, white T shirt, and blue shoes. White T and blue shoes we have. But I couldn't find a red jumper anywhere.

Hence the sewing project.

Well, I broke out my dusty machine and spent thirty minutes trying to wind some bobbin thread. Even with a supposedly dummy-proof machine, it took me multiple tries to come up with only a marginally decent bobbin. Ugh. I hate bobbins. Then, after my first mistake (on my first seam), I realized that I have no seam ripper again. Every year I buy a new one, and every year the kids break it. So ripping out my mistakes is not exactly a cakewalk. Why am I doing this again????

Oh, yeah, that's right. Today I was trying to be a homemaker.

I got the beginning part of the bodice done and tried to fit it on M. It kind of looked like it was going to be too small. Uh oh. M complained that she couldn't raise her arms, and finally I just growled that it's a costume, for pete's sake, she doesn't need to move her arms. After that I gave up on the sewing for the night. There's only so much aggravation I can take in one dose.

Being fed up to the brim with my housewifely duties, I decided it was high time I got the kids into bed so I could go back to just being Heidi instead of June Cleaver and maybe read a book or something. That's when I realized that while I was intensely focused on the sewing, my kids had gone on a rampage through the house. All four of them! From K's pulling everything apart in the kitchen that was within reach to the older kids having a toothpaste fight in the hallway, there was destruction everywhere I turned.

I threw in the towel at that point. Forget that domestic garbage. I'll just huddle by the computer until it's time for bed and pretend I can't see what's around me. Hopefully, I'll be a little more ready to tackle it in the morning.