Blown Away

My nose is starting to hurt from all the blowing I have been doing today.  Despite that, I have cleaned a bathroom, done a load of laundry, baked chocolate chip muffins, watered the flowers outside (and the Babe), and more.  A Mommy's job is never done, despite the onset of a cold.

One thing I've been reminding myself of lately is how when you get married, you think you may be able to "train" your spouse.  I didn't have that illusion, but apparently in some ways my husband has trained me.  That sounds so sexist and demeaning.  Believe me, I have a strong will and mind of my own.  However, when we got married housekeeping was not my number one skill.  It still isn't.  In some ways my occasionally persnickety husband has gotten his way as to how things are done around our house.  One specific area is loading the dishwasher.  Well, we still disagree as to how certain things are placed.  What he did instill was to pre-wash everything.  That's right, I hand wash with a sponge and soap every piece of silverware and dish that goes into the dishwasher (ok, 98%).  You should know when we first got married, he did the dishes most nights that we ate at home.  I will give him credit that it does prevent food build-up on dishes, although its not necessarily environmentally friendly.  I load and unload the dishwasher daily because we eat all our meals at home due to the Babe.  That's a lot of dishes washed.  I'm not complaining though because what I do in a day is nothing compared to what my grandmothers' did when they raised their children.  The floors were swept, vacuumed or washed regularly (more than weekly), everything was dusted almost daily, three full meals made (plus desserts) most days, and they didn't complain.  Well, that I know of.  Different times meant different standards.  So by today's standards I hope I at least do average.  Then again, who am I competing with?