Confessions of a Teenage Housewife

As I prepare to depart from my teenage years and enter into the true adulthood of age twenty, I cannot help but look back on the eight months I spent as a teenage housewife and remind myself of just how far I have come in learning the intricate workings of the world of housekeeping. And so it begins...the confessions of a teenage housewife.

1. Learn to love the walls of your kitchen. This is the room in which I spend the majority of my indoor time, so I am thankful for a cheerfully red kitchen wall (left by the home's previous inhabitants) and plenty of space to move around.

For six months after we got married, I did not make the same meal twice for my husband, with the exception of homemade pizza that we are required to have every Friday evening. Everyone knows a family tradition from both sides cannot be broken. My goal was to learn how to cook, so I scoured the recipe books and planned my menu diligently every week until the spring breezes swept away my culinary interest. It gave me some good experience, but these days my motivation has instead been focused on outdoor activities.

The scale also told me that although I have made great progress in the culinary arts (or that I am forced to eat all of my own flops), I am not even close to mastering any kind of healthy cooking. So, help would be appreciated. We have been eating a lot of eggs and garden lettuce lately. I am sure Matt will be glad when the garden lettuce is gone!

2. Wash the dishes. NOW. Food is well worth the mess created by the cook, but all of this kitchen time means an overabundance of dirty dishes. As a newlywed, the dishes pretty much got done every night. However, habits changed and developed to the point of not even clearing the table after supper. That got old very fast, so we have stayed on top of the dishes for a couple weeks now. REMINDER: All of the dirty dishes on the counters could be done in a half hour. If you are really good and only have to do the supper dishes, they could be done in ten minutes. Just get to work, girl.

3. Do laundry from start to finish. When you find wet clothes still in the washing machine the following week, this is terribly sad because then all of those clothes smell awful. They smell even worse when you try to dry and wear them anyway. The other sad laundry day is finding clean clothes in the dryer or laundry basket a week later because then they are terribly wrinkled. Therefore, a person absolutely must remain focused on the laundry task at hand and complete the process before the end of laundry day.

4. A clean house is the easiest to clean. So keep it clean! Right. In the ideal world where I was a clean person with a clean house who kept it clean, umm...well, that would just be ideal. But I am not a clean person with a clean house who keeps it clean. In fact, the house only gets clean when company is coming. I think that is the case with at least 75% of homes. If not, let me assume the validity of the statistic to keep me obliviously content.

5. The garden won't weed itself. As if nobody already knew that. Another tip is to take a picture of your garden for the blog right after spending four days removing two months' worth of accumulated weeds. And then keep up with it. Speaking of the garden- the lettuce, spinach, and peas are done and I am now getting green beans! Tomatoes and potatoes are forming too. Everything else is pretending to grow or stay green. I still don't know what I am going to do when all of this stuff is ready to harvest.

6. Never turn down a husband's help. Especially this gal's husband because he is a good helper. If he didn't have to be at work all day, this house would be very clean and organized. And it would not be because I work harder when he is around. He washes dishes, does laundry, makes beds, and all sorts of other good things! (But is NOT for sale or rent.)

7. Get beauty rest (...and I fail). A little sleep goes a long way...toward making you tired. Plenty of sleep goes a better way. We are two night owls stuck in a morning bird's world and hence never get enough sleep. And that's all I have to say about that because I am too tired to think of anything else.

8. Company is motivating. I decided we need to have company more often. As I said, these are the only times the house gets clean. The first several months of taking care of a household were intimidating as a hostess because I did not know what was going on. I still don't know what I am doing, but it is exciting to host people in our home on occasion. Now that I am resigning from teenage housekeeping, I hope to be a big girl and not care what my food tastes like for guests (as long as we have a good time!).

9. Keep clear of unproductive activities. My biggest weakness is extensive naps and going back to sleep for an hour after Matt leaves at six in the morning. I do best when I make sure I am always doing something that will improve the lives of Matt, myself, or someone else. Sometimes a short nap does make me happier, though. :)

10. I resign from this teenage housekeeping business. Effective tomorrow. Thank you for your support.