A Waste of a Day

I am quite upset. Today was supposed to have been a perfect day, my last "day off". Next week I will have a new baby starting, and the schedule I have goes back to normal. Sigh.
I had so many wonderful plans for today. And it's such a BEAUTIFUL day as well.
So how did I spend it?
In bed, asleep, for the most part.
This morning I got up at my normal 6 am, and became so dizzy I almost hit the wall going into the bathroom. I had to steady myself against the bathroom counter before I could go turn on the shower. While in the shower, I was still dizzy, trying desperately to keep my head still (which is the only thing that seems to help) while wetting my hair. Do you know how hard that is? Not an easy task unless you want water pouring down your face. I didn't even bother to actually wash (I know, ewww, but I do take a shower every day!) and instead just wet myself before stepping out I was so nauseous.
My DH comes into the shower shortly after I do, as he has his breakfast first, and I begged asked him if he would stay home and help me this morning. Of course, I already knew he wouldn't, as that's just the type he is. I have to be literally dying first.

So I took a Gravol, and went downstairs to soldier on with my day. I told the boys they had to make their own lunches today, which I normally do myself, as I don't really think a lunch of nothing but chewy granola bars and cookies is entirely healthy. But today I couldn't care less. As long as they didn't come home starving, I'm happy enough with that lunch.
They also had to make their own breakfast, which they are getting better at, as that is a more frequent occurrence. I then drove them to school, which I NEVER do, and came home to bed.
Gravol totally knocks me out, and now it is wearing off, so I am now more lucid, but also more nauseous. Time to decide if I can make it through without it, since I have to go and get all the kids from school soon.

Ok, I'm THAT Woman.

Today I had another "day off". It was nice, and is probably the last one for a very long time. So instead of staying home and cleaning, I decided to go out and do some shopping/errands. One of my errands was to get the oil changed in our Explorer.

Ok, I've NEVER EVER EVER done any kind of maintenance on a vehicle. And I don't mean me physically working on the truck, I mean taking care of the maintenance.

Before I met DH, I was in college. I didn't have a vehicle. After we were living together, every vehicle was basically both of ours, and since DH was working for first, a limo maker, and second, a car dealership (both with mechanic shops there), and third, an actual mechanic shop, he always took care of the maintenance portion of our vehicles. The most I've ever done for maintaining a vehicle is to add gas, windshield washer fluid (and even that's rare for me) and a good clean up maybe once a year.

Today, however, was different. For the first time ever, DH isn't working for anything that's related to cars. He has finished school for the school year, and today was his first day at his co-op. The truck needed an oil change, and I had a day off. So, it was either up to me to do it, or another weekend chore to add to the list.

"I can do this," I thought. I had no idea what to expect, but how hard could it be? DH had said to me on the weekend that taking it to the dealership that had a drive-thru oil changing thingy would likely be fine. All I heard was drive-thru, and fine. I didn't hear the part when he told me to shop around first, or what the price should be. All I knew was that sounded easy!

So off I went this morning. I still felt lost and out of my realm when I got to the dealership. There were the bay doors to the shop, and there were people lined up in their cars, as for a car wash. Did I just line up? Or was I supposed to check in first? Or pay first?

I parked the car and went in, only to learn that I should have stayed in the truck and just got into line. Once I got in there and it was my turn, this one mechanic guy came to my window and started going on about something. Words like "seized" and "valve" and other mechanic-y jargon came tumbling out of his mouth and I just stared at him and must have looked like a deer caught in the headlights.

When he said, "OK?", I simply stated, "I have NOOOOO idea what you are talking about!"

Typical housewife, was probably his thought, as I'm sure he had a quiet conference with the billing guy about how he could easily charge me double, I'm so ignorant. He ushered me out of the truck and showed me the tire, pointing to the valve thing where you pump the tires up (something else I don't do). He then explained as I daydreamed about him actually being hot and sexy, then taking... listened intently to him saying something or other, and I was thinking, I thought I came in here for an oil change? Are they charging me extra for this?

Whatever.

Forty-seven dollars later I pulled out, happy and proud that I had taken responsibility for my vehicle and went about my shopping and errands.

Apparently I was ripped off, because I got yelled at later by DH for not shopping around and going straight there.

Oh well, it's done now, and I have a feeling DH won't be leaving that up to me again, which is just as well because I hate doing it! Vehicles should always be the man's job! Just like lawn mowing, garbage, and snow blowing/shovelling...

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.