D.I.Y.

Housework is a funny thing. I definitely have a love/hate relationship going on. I enjoy a day’s physical labor, music blasting, whipping everything into shape…just so three guys can tear it all apart again in 10 minutes when they get home. It is rough spending precious time away from other pursuits, just to be left at home, matching up socks—four different sizes that all sort of look the same.

When we moved to upstate NY, several people had warned me about the lack of household help. The owners of the house we are renting said they had an aging hippie couple they could refer us to--they sometimes showed up, sometimes didn’t. So then, what did a cardiac surgeon do? She cleaned her own house, folded her own clothes and changed her own damn cat litter. I couldn’t figure it out. Where did she and her husband find the time? Here were two fit, well-traveled, busy career people that did their own housework? What?

I have been here three months now, and while I did find someone to come in and help with the basics, I still am left with many, many domestic tasks. So how do I keep the house orderly without methamphetamines? I started dropping the extras. No time for manicures and pedicures. Who needs them anyway? No time for a trainer at the gym. I just throw on my running shoes and hit the trail right outside my front door. No more volunteering to raise $250,000 for a public school. NY has figured out how to fund their school system. No more weekly massage therapist. My husband can bust a move once in a while!

So, as I knock my life back down to the ground, I am discovering much of it oddly satisfying. I like making out a to-do list, running errands and blowing off therapy. I can just fight with my husband the old fashioned way—withhold sex until I get my way. I can pull my own weeds and polish my own silver and still find time to write, meet friends for a drink or go on a date with my husband. I might be plucking my own eyebrows, cracking my own back and designing my own yoga workout, but I feel strong, happy and a lot richer!