Housekeeping.

Before I was married, I used to think:

"When I am married and have my own home, it will be spotless, tidy, perfectly decorated to my tastes and specifications, and it will be a cinch to keep in perfect order, what with just my husband and me living there. It won't be like my girlhood home where my 7 siblings and I grew up, when my mother struggled to keep things together......" Yadda, yadda, yadda.

Yeeeaaah......... whatever. I got my man, and with him his farm and 1920's era farmhouse. Great, right? Of course! I love old places! It was, until last year when we decided it would be "fun" to remodel. "This won't take long at all," we thought. "This will be a breeze." "We'll have it done by spring and then I can blissfully paint and decorate, and buy antiques and rugs and artwork to hand on my walls............." Well, we haven't really remodeled anything yet. So far, we've just demolished things, and stopped there.

Yeeeeeaaaah......... Uh-huh.

The reality is this: The remodeling is far from done. Nor will it be done anytime soon. I've come to accept that. This is going to take years at the rate we're going.

I've bought a lot of artwork, decor, collectibles, etc. And they are all packed away in boxes still.

I haven't painted my living room or parlor/office.

And as for housekeeping? For just two people living here, we sure create a lot of mess! There are two of us and yet I do laundry almost every day. This time of year is such a nasty time of year - my husband comes in from hunting and tracks mud all over the place. We have 2 wood stoves - which I LOVE!- But bringing in the wood for them leaves untold messes. I clean floors several times a day - on a good day; when I bother.

My kitchen is not just a place where I prepare meals in a frilly dress, heels, and pearls with every hair in place, wearing one of my organza hostess aprons, serving it up on my antique Blue Willow or Homer Laughlin china.
It is a deer and cow meat processing center; a canning and picking center; a jam and jelly kitchen; a bakery, a first aid clinic, a vet clinic, a baby chick incubator/brooder, recycling center, and tool shed, among other things. It is in a constant state of mess to one degree or another.

I HATE duvet covers! I have one of those "hotel" types; off white; and I stuff the comforter in it. Or I try to. Every time I take it off to wash it, It goes back on lumpy and uneven. ARRRGG!
And it was a BIG mistake to make throw pillows out of vintage white linens. I have a pile of them all over the bed; and every one of them is covered in black and gray cat hair. *SIGH*

I don't mean to complain, here - I am just illustrating how my teenage dream of keeping my perfect house is shattered all over my dirty floors, swept up, and dumped in the trash.

And don't even ask me about all the STUFF we both brought into the marriage.... for two people only married just under 2 years, we sure have a bunch of stuff. Stuff we don't use; stuff packed up in boxes; stuff we don't want to toss because of whomever gave it to us; stuff that we mean to fix; stuff, stuff stuff. I still have STUFF given to us as wedding gifts, still in gift boxes. Hunting stuff, riding stuff, embroidery, sewing and craft stuff, my antique stuff ("Oh - I'll sell it! Uh-huh -) I feel a purge coming on!

Ok. Maybe I am just stressing because the Family is coming over for Thanksgiving next week and I have so much stuff to do, and clean, and put out of reach of little fingers. Or maybe it is the fact that all I've done for the past two days is clean messes in the house, or clean the barn.

I feel like I have turned out to be such a failure at housekeeping. For all my efforts, I seem to get nowhere.