"adulting" on a day off.....


I have a few (cough, cough) jobs that have kept me busy and away from writing this year.  I enjoy all of them, for the most part, and have been given more responsibilities in some areas. (shhh....my bosses all think I am capable of "adulting"....please don't give me away...)

Today I find myself in a rare circumstance.....I do not have to clock in or out or be responsible for anyone or anything outside of my own household.  

All.

Day.

So I decided to "adult" this morning.  (Anything before noon is morning....right???)

There are a few things that I have neglected around the house over the last few months. Today would be a good day to get those things knocked off the Terribly Terrifying To-Do list.

For fear of someone calling my mother and telling on me, there will be no Before pictures.  

For fear of people in my family mistakenly believing that things should always look clean and having visual evidence that it once happened in this house, there will be no After pictures.

So I looked at my list:

Put away china from Thanksgiving Dinner. (yes...I know it was 2 weeks ago....)
Clean microwave.  (I can't remember when it was last done...must be time.)
Clean fridge.  (see Clean microwave)
Vacuum. (see owner's manual for Bernese Mountain Dogs)
Go grocery shopping. (see parenting teenagers manual)
Wash the shower curtain, bath rug and table place mats (see Clean Microwave)
Finish putting summer clothes away. (see previous post on seasonal clothing)

I was going strong on my first cup of coffee.   I had all the china put away and had vacuumed the rug and swept the first floor. Then I needed a second cup of coffee, which meant I had to open the microwave....and I lost all momentum.  It's bad folks.  Bad enough that even I in all my thrifty, discount and sales only purchasing philosophy, contemplated just buying a new one regardless of cost.   So I closed my eyes, hit the 30 second re-heat button and hoped it was enough to sterilize cup- o -joe #2.  

Then the children started making sounds like they were about to be hungry.   For those wondering, it sounds something like a cross between a hungry lion and a hungry hippo trying to speak English.  They try to say things like:
"Mom, when are you going to get a second mortgage so you can buy hundreds of dollars of groceries to get us through the next two hours?"
In a futile attempt to quiet the starving menagerie masquerading as my children, I opened the fridge to prove that we did, indeed, have food in the house......
Ooops.

I haven't done a full shopping trip in a while.  That meant the fridge was sounding a bit echoey.  Which also meant I could see the state of the door pockets and shelves.   And unlike the microwave, there is no 30 second re-heat/sanitize button.
Sigh.


So I decided to do what any good parent would do in this situation.....
Spend countless hours lovingly cleaning and sanitizing the home for the comfort of all occupants.

Delegate.

Microwave and fridge to be cleaned by the zoo inmates while the zoo-keeper puts in the order for more fodder..


And then I think I will be done "adulting" for the day.   It is, after all, my day off.
If you need me for the remainder of the day, I will be down in the guest room, NOT adulting.
You see...I have a pile of fiber and a long list of projects that I have been waiting to knit. I am going to take my chocolate, coffee and laptop, head down to the yarn stash, and knit until this mama tiger feels just a bit more human.

Because while I know that I am an adult with grown-up responsibilities (see Clean microwave), I also know that some species, when stressed, eat their young...or their mates... and as a responsible adult I realize I probably shouldn't act like one of the zoo exhibits.

So I will choose to do the most loving thing I can for my family and go knit.

'cause I didn't miss the class on that.