April 17. Practicing Domesticity. Finally. Here we are...barefoot (well, I'm wearing sort of heels, so very apropos) in dresses in the kitchen. Nikki, I'm regressing. Well, this is our house. Sometimes we practice domesticity. Practice for what? That I don't know. What is that indicative of? The need to make oneself better for some ultimate "domesticity" end? As if, one day, when we are all "practiced," we shall begin to really be adults? Danielle, you should be more precise in your diction when picking a blog title. Here are some highlights, for those of you who have not been an integral aspect of our lives: Charlotte with laundry. We have an HE washer (no, that's not non-inclusive language, that's an acronym) and a SHE dryer (Standard Hydrogen Electrode--any chemists out there?) ha ha. Anyway, there are three important things to note about this washer: 1) only HE detergent can be used or the washer will die (we do NOT know this from experience, thank you very much), 2) the washer is energy efficient, which means it uses less water (and energy? electricity? electron flow--oh hey Brad and Kat) and, most importantly, 3) a full, brand new, Costco detergent should not be placed on top of the washer while running, because it will fall off, explode all over the floor, and take approximately 2 hours to clean up (that is NOT an exaggeration, and we MIGHT know that from experience). Ok. Danielle, making coffee. The irony of this is, 90% of the time I make the coffee. But, you know, Danielle doesn't really do anything else in the kitchen....we have coffee dates together every morning, which means she ignores me until she drinks her coffee, at which point she might talk to the dog. I like it when she's here, though, because the milk foams more for two than one (see poem on Danielle's wall). Also, I never drank coffee before last semester, but now she's converted me to the dark side. More on that some other time. I still have four more to go. Sarah. She is making bread, which is very integral to her existence. She makes the best bread, as well as granola, homemade yogurt, cookies, scones, etc...yum. Rachel. So...here's the thing about a garbage disposal. My home is on a septic tank, so I've never had a garbage disposal in the sink growing up. It's bad for the tank, you know. So I never use this, but apparently people that do throw down whole chunks of asparagus, peppers, carrots...etc. Which is really weird to me, but hey. So, our cleaning lady, Monica, was cleaning out the bamboo behind us (we should bring Ichthus over for a play date, Katy-Kat) and apparently some rocks fell down the sink. And destroyed the garbage disposal. That is a bad thing to do, especially in a house that is not yours. Especially when you've already killed the hamster, the child's fort has blown over in the wind, the dog has eaten a bag of chocolate chips, the cat has been hit by a car, and...well, you know, it's important to not do too many bad things. I'll stop there. So, Rachel, in her Rachy-Rach brilliance, decided to fix it. Which she did. So legit. Thankfully, she didn't charge us the $80+ it would have taken to fix, although that would have been even more brilliant of her. Next there's me. Drying dishes. I do dishes all the time. 6 AM, 12 PM, 5 PM...wash and dry, baby. If I wanted to grow up and be a housewife, I would be well practiced in that. Unfortunately, right now I have neither a house nor wifedom. So, my chances at this point of being a housewife are less than Brad's chances of winning a bet. Which, let me tell you, are not good odds. Finally, Kat. She's our residence extra housie, but she's really one of us. We love her, and she loves the animals. Sort of. Perhaps the dog. I need more of the FATHER when I deal with them (ha ha code phrases...that now aren't really code...don't worry, you guys will never figure out the rest of the Trinity). Ok. She sweeps the floor in this picture. Why? Let me give you some numbers, for the three of you that can't deduce: 6 Housies + 2 animals (RIP Harold) + ~2-3 visitors/day + 28 Gophers killed so far + 17 days of warm weather (shed) + 5 beach days (sand) + 15 meals prepared/day (food scraps) + 14 pages of homework done/day (paper scraps) + random tissues, magnets, pens from the obnoxious pen holder on the fridge that always falls + water from the dishes that are wet that I dry over the floor (why? I don't know really. I just do) = a lot of sweeping needed. And, since Kat just commented that this is the longest comment she's ever seen, and since everything is a competition for me, and because it's past 11 and I can only type 83 wpm (oh hey Brad---and Kat :( ) that shall conclude "Practicing Domesticity: A Christian Response to the Visual and Spatial Separation of Women in *** Westmont Road"
A cleaning lady??? Is that practicing domesticity in 2011? :)
ReplyDeleteLoved the post and the picture! Looks like so much fun.
Yes, well, we're just taking care of the house and they have a housekeeper who comes roughly once a month, so we now have a housekeeper who comes roughly once a month...at least for the time being :)
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