As my struggle with mediocrity continues, I did have an inspirational moment last week that spurred me to continue my housewife journey less grudgingly.
Thing 1 had to learn about our family history for a girl scout badge, so I pulled out the research that The Husband conducted several years ago to share with her. The most fascinating things are the old handwritten census documents, offering once-every-10-years snapshots into the lives of our predecessors. Reviewing the cold, faceless facts that someone took time to scribe 100+ years ago is a reminder of how good we really have it today.
Take my ancestor Max, a "Day laborer" with a plethora of children to support. His wife, Anna, who after caring for a multitude of her children and keeping house for years, wound up widowed and keeping someone else's house, as well. I can guarantee that no matter how good they ever had it, she never found herself sitting at her tablet at 11:30 in the morning, sipping coffee while the baby napped, listening to the radio and writing her musings on life down to share.
I've been wondering, off and on, how these women did it, even 50 years ago. I don't think that my subpar cooking skills or beginner's knitting skills would really be any better back then. And yet, through no merit of my own, I have a thousand more opportunities every day. Opportunities that can be spent any number of ways that were completely inaccessible to my ancestors.
[Oh, and I did finish that novel draft. I literally did a song-and-dance routine around the house once I hit 50,000 words, put The End, and submitted it. 2016 might be the Year of Novel Editing!]
Onwards and upwards!
A slightly preachy-
Real Housewife of the North Shore
