I was surfing the net, as one is wont to do when taking a break from the household chores, when I happened upon this headline:

 

I was contemplating writing a post today about the never-ending slog of weekend household chores, so intrigued, and definitely willing to learn more, I clicked through.  But before I share what I found, here is my morning in pictures to set the scene:

Impressive yeah? This morning after swimming lessons were done and dusted I came back and commenced the weekly ritual of cleaning the house. After the vacuuming, tidying, dusting and cleaning and in amongst attending to the constant needs of Miss B (who is going through a Wizard of Oz phase and calls out to me when she wants me to see something awesome!), I needed a coffee and 5 minutes to myself.  And so the siren call of the internet began.

Whilst surfing through social media I happened upon this recent article by Annabel Crabb in my feed.  And again I was reminded why I love her fabulous perspective on life.  In summary, Annabel makes an amazingly obvious point that whilst the evolution of women over time has progressed, the gender disparity when it comes to keeping home life ticking along has not.  Women are still undertaking, and by societal pressure in some ways, expected to keep on top of it all. Even when women work full time like their husbands or partners, it is she that is expected to become superwoman and keep all the balls in the air. I could relate!

However, as I read through the article, this line spoke to me in particular: You can whine and moan about men doing more. Or you can take the radical option and just do less yourself.

Now I’m not going to moan about the hubby doing more around our place.  He works hard all week and when he gets home he ensures the backyard and garden is under control, probably does more laundry than I do all week and generally picks up the cooking responsibilities in the evening.  But the notion of just doing less yourself, as the woman, is one that I can appreciate.

Now, I’ve made it quite clear that I’m no Susie-Homemaker (in fact, it’s how I introduce myself in my ‘about‘ page) so keeping a pristine house is not a high priority (much to the chagrin of my MIL and hubby!), however I always like to keep on top of the kitchen and dining areas in our home – well, as much as my energy levels will allow any given day of the week!  And by keep on top of it I mean simply the fundamental basics, dishes washed (by the dishwasher mostly!), benches cleared and the charming blue carpet that picks up EVERY. SINGLE. PIECE. OF. LINT vacuumed. Not everyday mind you, you could certainly come to my house and find dishes piled up from the night before, benches filled with clutter and please don’t get me started on Clothes Mountain/Mount Washmore in our master bedroom! But I try to use my day off on Fridays (unless I have more pressing things to do such as play dates at the park or coffee catch ups with my mummy-crew) and the weekend to try and get on top of it all, because if it’s not under control by Sunday night I find that I face the coming week with a cluttered mind.

So Annabel’s policy on not sweating the small stuff and enjoying the limited time she has with her family to the detriment of a tidy home is admirable.  You just have to take a glance at instagram these days to see that the way people present their homes is questionable with many looking like they should be in an upcoming edition of Home Beautiful. In fact, I know that I have looked longing at a number of photos posted by some of my favourite bloggers and wondered how on earth they do it (not to mention, how they managing to have impeccable, on-trend design style that I can never seem to achieve!). And am gratefully reassured when they fess up to the struggle of keeping the balance like the rest of us.

So with all that in mind I stopped.  I gave up on the cleaning and I’ll attribute it to this sentence: My house, where my partner and I and our three children live, is a glorious tribute to all the things that are more important than housework.

Let me spell that out for you again… My house is a glorious tribute to all the things that are more important than housework.

And so I finished off my afternoon like this:

 

Making scones with Miss A watching from her high chair (whilst Miss B was out buying Mummy a surprise)

 

Watching Miss A’s fascination with these two crazy bulldogs and Miss B being creative:

 

Yes, this is my glorious tribute to all of the things more important that housework and my commitment to worrying less about not dealing with this:

 Thank you Annabel, for the reminder!

Do you find your weekend filled with housework? Have you stopped to enjoy the important things today?