Since I wrote about being angry with husband, I suppose it's only fair to fawn over him a bit, too. He listens to much crying and whining about feeling useless and tries so hard to come up with possibilities for my time and talents. And also keeps telling me he's okay with me not working outside of our home, that he just wants me to do what will make me happy. So, you get it; he's wonderful. Which makes me want to stop whining so much, as a payback for the wonderfulness. Which makes me want to keep busy.

Which leads me to today. Today, I rearranged many kitchen cabinets in order to find a spot where a wedding gift would fit. (took me just shy of 6 months!). Today, I spent many hours sewing sequins and tiny pieces of felt together to (very nearly) finish an xmas stocking for stepkid1. My goal was to be finished my November 1st, in order to get started on 2's stocking; I guess I'm not too far off schedule. Today, I folded and put away two loads of laundry that had been sitting in laundry baskets since yesterday morning. Today, while sewing, I cleared many episodes of Atlanta Housewives off the tivo. All that, PLUS my usual stuff. Today was a good day. Two in a row!*

Actual productivity happened in my house today and I was the one making it happen! Even while I'm in the midst of inactivity and thinking about how much better I'd feel if I were getting something done, I never remember exactly HOW much better DOing makes me feel.

A couple of months ago, the part-time job I was working ended quite suddenly. My cervix- reduction procedure was scheduled for the next week, as well as a trip out of town, so I decided to not think about finding new employment for a while. When I ended up not feeling well for several weeks after the procedure, I was grateful to have the extra time. When I started feeling better, I still liked the extra time. And I started dreading the idea of working at the same type of job again. And I really had zero clues about what else I'd be qualified to do. (still don't!)

Everyday, I clean up, make dinner, maybe run some errands, do a couple loads of laundry. These things are part of my job as a housewife. I suppose to some, 'housewife' sounds like a hopelessly outdated/misogynistic/reality TVish label, but I've never looked at it negatively. Since my stepkids are only here half the time and we're all still getting used to the 'mom' part of stepmom, housewife really is the best label for me. I'm married and all the work I do revolves around the care and upkeep of the house in which I live. For Halloween I wore a pointy hat, a black dress and pearls and called myself a housewitch. Until the position of full-time mom opens up around here,* I'll settle for my current post.

*knocking on wood