A Little Taste

Today I had a taste of what it's like to be a SAHM. (That's Stay At Home Mom for people like my Dad...)I know, I know, I stay home everyday! But it's not the true sense of being a sahm, because I'm actually working from home. I'm not free to come and go as I please, or do as I please for the most part. I have small people to answer to. And failing that, even bigger people to answer to!
I always wondered about sahm's. What exactly do they do all day every day? And I'm not talking about the sahm's who have kids at home, because I know the answer to that. I'm talking about the ones whose kids are at school all day and their husbands are at work. What do they do?
Today I cleaned. I came back from dropping the kids off at school and allowed myself a half hour on the computer, then I cleaned. I only stopped for about 20 mins (if that) to have lunch, then got right back at it. And I only got about half the cleaning done that I wanted to do. Of course, going along I saw many more things that needed to be done. So now I know. They clean. I could probably clean this house for a week and still not have it the way that I want. And then I'd have to start all over again.
Here's a list of what I did:

1. Finished vacuuming the basement.
2. Cleaned the basement bathroom.
3. Cleaned the main floor bathroom.
4. Cleaned the kitchen sinks (after doing dishes).
5. Vacuumed all the floors on the main floor.
6. Washed the floors.
7. Washed, dried and folded a load of laundry.
8. Put away said laundry plus two other waiting baskets.
9. Tidied L's room and threw out three armloads of garbage/recycling.
10. Briefly tidied the "Lego room" upstairs, contemplated dumping all of it into a single bin but realized the boys have a form of organized chaos up there so thought better of disrupting their mess.

And then I ran out of time. During this time I also would have like to have vacuumed upstairs, washed upstairs floors, tidied R's room, organized and put away winter clothing, dusted (EVERYWHERE!), and many, many other things.

So that is what it's like to be a sahm. I guess. I don't really know. I know a few sahm's and I always thought it would probably be pretty rude to just go up to them and say, "So what exactly do you do all day long?" At some point the cleaning would have to come to an end. Or at least a stasis. I mean, my house is so dirty because it only gets the major stuff done. Nobody ever washes the baseboards or window sills, or the windows for that matter (well, maybe once a year). We don't clean the fridge on a regular basis (but I do wipe up and clean spills and sticky spots, and clean out the fruit/veggie bins once in a while; it just doesn't get done ALL at once). So once you've got your house to a maintenance level, what do you do then?

Maybe you're wondering why I got the day off anyway (which NEVER happens!). One of the kids left me for Montessori. Boo. And I haven't replaced her yet. The other two that would be here are in Florida for two weeks, which means I get this Wednesday off as well as next Monday. But no more cleaning for me. It's taxes time. Ugh.