I’m having trouble finding my ‘zen’ when it comes to house work and the like at the moment.
The thought of actually having to fold the pile of clean laundry sitting on the couch makes me want to curl up into a ball and go to sleep. I know I need to clean the bathroom, and do the shopping, and change the sheets… but ugh.
Just Ugh.
Even cooking dinner or making lunch has become such a heavy weight that I am pretty sure I can’t possibly get up off this chair to go do it.
A while a go I thought I was totally zen when it came to cooking for my family. I had this un-squashable, slightly big-headed, pride that grew every time I made a menu plan or cooked a ‘wholesome meal’ for my family. I felt practically saintly when I managed to cook dinner at lunch time, and akin to Mother Teresa when I baked lunch box treats twice a week.
But these days… even those lofty heights leave me feeling blah.
I am not looking for some deluded, Valium driven, 1950’s housewife kind of bliss. I don’t enjoy housework, I never will, and I don’t particularly want to. But I’d rather not be paralyzed by the loathing of it all.
I chose to stay home while our children are small. I knew this gig wasn’t going to be all play dates and chocolate chip cookies when I started. I knew that part of this job was to deal with the house work stuff. It’s how we worked it out, because I am here, in the house, a lot.
I’m cool with the division of labour at the Pickle Farm. I am not an oppressed, anti-feminist who thinks all women should make their homes nice for their hardworking husbands, and look beautiful at all times while they do it. I just want to find some contentment with the less than fun bit of my current employment situation…
So help me out here…
How do you find your house work zen?
How do you motivate yourself to do the bits of your job that you don’t like so much?
How do you find contentment in ordinary, every day, things?
With something you do everyday, you have to find happiness in it. You have to for your own happiness. And, I know with children—there is a lot of cleaning to be done. We share how we are inspired by Montessori and Waldorf classrooms to make cleaning a peaceful, calm time that we enjoy: http://www.wordplayhouse.com/2012/03/clean-calm.html
I do so hope you find your cleaning zen too! -heather
If I start to get depressed looking at my sink full of dirty dishes or the basketfuls of dirty clothes, I think of the people who don’t have either and thank god for the food on our plates and the clothes on our backs.