During WWII, the Ministry of Information put out a pamphlet titled "Make do and Mend." I picked up a reproduction at the V&A while I was in London. They were having a quilting exhibit and, as a seamstress, I had to go look. The idea behind the book is that every scrap of fabric and leather was needed for the war effort and that this kind of ( Read more... )

Yesterday was one of those days where I was SuperMom. I made the offspring a healthy lunch, got her to school looking spiffy, cleaned the house, started dinner, biked a mile, did science, biked a mile home, showered, dressed nice, did socially active things, made dinner, read to the offspring and tucked her in bed. It was a full day ( Read more... )

...as if you hadn't figured it out already.


( Read more... )

Today is a good day.

( We are the Volunteer State and that's what we do. )

So, husband came home this morning with his RAGE!face on.

In case you didn't know, we had a bit of rain here in Middle TN - to the effect that the Opryland Hotel won't be back to rights until November and, last I heard, 29 people died from the storm and the flooding. Here's the LA times summary of what happened. Some of Husband's fellow employees ( Read more... )

It is inevitable: If there is a kid and a cup of grape juice, there will be grape juice in the carpet. It's like the gravitational pull between grape juice and carpet is greater than that between most everything else and the Earth. It is very, very difficult to remember that grape juice is impermanent. Carpet is impermanent. This feeling that I ( Read more... )

So, I haven't been cleaning my kitchen as thoroughly as I had been, nor have I been doing a daily 30 minute clean-up. I think it's safe to say that my attention has been elsewhere. However, I have managed to do at least a little bit every day, if not the complete top to bottom cleaning. Today, I'm recovering from a late night of vomit and while I ( Read more... )

Okay, so really I'm not a Housewife, as such. I'm a graduate student. But, the things I'm talking about are housewifely things, so there you are.

( Today's lesson is impermanence. )

I have recently (which is to say about an hour ago) fell in love with the Magic Eraser for purposes of wall-cleaning. Here's why, and we shall go back to yesterday's post a little bit to continue the story.

( So, OCD sucks, right? )

I'm obsessive-compulsive and one of my crazy triggers is cleaning and organizing. This is really rather unpleasant for me and I don't like it one bit. For those of you unfamiliar with how OCD messes you up, here's how this particular form of it manifests itself for me.
( It begins very normally: )