On Housewife-ing

When I first got married, I was convinced I was going to be the worst housewife EVER. I really don't like cleaning, and I like baking cookies more than making casseroles. I'd rather be outside shingling a roof or hauling rock. When my parents got their house built and we were working on the garage, my mom would ask who of my siblings and I wanted to go outside and help and who wanted to help clean the house. I was the first one with my shoes on and out the door. When we were building I helped wire rooms, lay insulation (in the walls, the rafters and the crawlspace), move furniture, hang sheetrock... When I went to go to a Habitat for Humanity build my first year in college, they were delighted to find out I knew how to cut and hang sheetrock, and I taught my roommate how to do it too. It was awesome!


Now, I'm really not here to brag (although I might have done it just a little.... oops. <cough>), but rather to make a point. I never really envisioned myself as the traditional housewife type. But we're visiting family this week, and right now we're at my parents' house. Yesterday morning we moved rock out of the field with my mom, doing five loads of rock where she might have only gotten one, maybe two. That's my kind of work! (Although I felt like a pansy because my fingers came out all beat up and raw...) But today my mom asked me to bake a bunch of things for my brother's birthday party tonight. Like I said before, I'm not adverse to baking, but this would involve cleaning the kitchen, making four different things, and then cleaning the kitchen again. 


Not ideal for me.


(One thing you should know about my family- we like to find excuses to eat or at least spend time together. So things like birthdays and General Conference become a big deal, more of an event than just a birthday dinner.This is why I dedicated a morning to baking. Sometime I'll have to describe to you what General Conference is like with my family.)


So I get in there, load the dishwasher, and then start making banana bread, followed by two birthday cakes (so there was enough for everyone), followed by four boxes of jello, and finished by a batch of rolls. It took a while, but I completed all of it, finished loading the dishwasher, and washed the dishes and the counters. And after that I went outside and helped Dan put together a compost thingy outside, using wrenches and screwdrivers.


And I have to admit, I feel very, very productive today. Maybe being a housewife isn't as bad as I thought...