So after more than one year of marriage, I think I am finally starting to get a hang of all these “wifely duties.” And it feels gooood. I keep thinking back to what professionals say about children and schedules. It is said that children actually like structure and schedule and that they need it in order to build healthy habits. The same goes for me. I have come to the realization that I LOVE having weekly time schedules. I like to know what to look forward to and what to plan for.
When Gabe and I first got married we lived in a basement apartment, which we lovingly referred to as “our cave.” We didn’t have much, especially in the furniture category, so we didn’t have people over very much. We weren’t too proud of our cave because it wasn’t very homely and frankly, we didn’t like people using our bed as a couch. Consequently, we didn’t worry much about keeping the place tidy. But it was hard to get excited about it when you have a sink just 12 inches wide, which fills up with dishes pretty quick, and only a dustbuster to vacuum. Needless to say, those first several months did not help me form good wifely habits.
Then we moved away for the summer. And stayed in different hotels the whole entire time. Sure, maid service was great, but only for the free shampoo and makeup wipes. Since we went to bed in the wee hours of the morning, we would wake up in the afternoon. But maid service always came in the morning, so we’d almost always have our “do not disturb” sign stuck on the door knob. Which meant we were in charge of keeping our room spic ‘n span. Yeah… right. Once again, not a good time to form good wifely habits. Did I mention we cooked all our food in the microwave? Didn’t get much practice making meals either. I owe my weight gain and cellulite to boxed cereal, hotel biscuits, and candy and chips from the vending machines. Still haven’t gotten over that, obviously.
So here we are today, livin it up in Utah. We love our apartment. After some decorating it has now become the place we proudly call home. We have become comfortable with where we are and I think it is about time that I get some things in order. I think it first started when I was planning out meals for the week to prepare for grocery shopping. Consistently cooking meals has been a habit that comes and goes around our home, but I think I have got it down now. I started thinking about my mom, and about how organized and scheduled she was when I was growing up. She would sit down at the table and write out a schedule for the week of things that needed to be done. Then she would do the same thing for weekly meals. She also had schedules for cleaning. I owe a lot of my newfound realization to my mom. She has been a good example.
Slowly but surely, I have found my groove of things. With consistent weekly scheduling I have found it much easier to plan weekly meals, find time to do the dishes and clean the house, and I even have a new “schedule” for my eating. Every day after I got home at 4 o’clock from work, I would eat 3 more meals. 3 more meals! But I never had an appetite for dinner. Imagine that. Now I do, and I love it! I feel so much better having a schedule… and I feel more wifey!
