Report Card

Are you wondering how I’ve been doing at living up to those Housewife Challenges?  Well, wonder no more, because it’s report card time!

We all know that a goal set with no finish line is one that can easily fall to the wayside.  So, to make sure I’m staying on track, I’m going to hold myself accountable to you — in bi-weekly report cards.  And I’m going to be brutally honest.

As a reminder, here are my housewife challenges so far:

1. Get (and keep) the grocery bill under budget [read original post]
2. Keep a clean house [read original post]

So how have I been doing?  Let’s tackle the easy one first.

Keeping House

I never thought this would be the easy one. But, look at the state of the sink:

Yes, that is actually my sink, and those are really my dishes, and no, Chris did not wash them.  That’s right, in the dish washing department, I rock!  I’ll admit, it took awhile (and a few sad looks from Chris as he walked in the kitchen door after a hard day’s work), but in the past seven days, he’s walked into a clean kitchen every night after work.  And it’s not because I’m eating peanut butter and jelly every night, either.

We don’t really need to discuss yet when the kitchen gets clean; it’s clean when Chris comes home, which is all that matters.  Nora can’t tell secrets yet.

What’s another thing that’s gotten better? Laundry.

Used to be, I would wait to do laundry until our three hampers were overflowing onto the floor, and the sorted piles resulted in two loads of dark’s and two loads of light’s, not to mention whites and sheets and towels.  The only laundry that got done on a regular basis was diapers — because they let you know if they need to be done, and there was no way I was getting to that point.  But our clothes and household towels and things… Well, when you’re balancing a baby, a husband, a full-time job, a dog, and trying to have fun time to maintain your sanity…it could be weeks.  Let’s just say, we own a lot of underwear and socks. 

Now, I do laundry every week.  Before the basket explodes clothes.  Before I’m at the point of having to wear the “special occasion” underwear, if you know what I mean.  Which means the folded laundry basket can actually be carried from room to room, which is pretty great.

And, there’s more!  Besides keeping up with dishes and laundry, I’ve actually been sweeping the floor multiple times a week (to combat sand+a massive shedder) and making our bed every single day.  And, thanks to the Beco, there’s less starting and stopping chores for baby entertainment, which means we still having time to to go out-and-about.

Wow.  I’m bragging a little (okay, a lot), but I’m proud of myself and how much I can accomplish when I put my mind to it – and have the time to devote to actually carrying out the good intentions.

Keeping house might not be as challenging as I thought.

The Grocery Bill

Not good news here, I’m sorry to say.  Between the island tax (higher prices from ferry boat transportation), a new little milk drinker in the house, and a serious lack of self control, we’ve been about $10 over our target each week.  Gah.  So now Chris and I are on the verge of increasing the grocery budget with some of my babysitting money from watching Mr. V.  It might not be the worst thing – especially if it means  being able to buy ice cream to help us survive the heat.

So, I get an A+ in one housewife challenge, but am not doing quite so well in the other.  I’m definitely not failing at the grocery bill – I’ve managed to stay out of the Cisco store at least – but there’s still room for improvement… or we’ll have to adjust to a more realistic goal.  I’ll keep you posted.