Saturday Morning

Now that I am used to waking up at 4:00, sleeping in on the weekends is a thing of the past. Granted, I do get until 5:00 AM, but then I am awake, so it is time to get up and about. So while I sip my tea, lets talk about the old realities that we will soon be revisiting.

Everyone is going to be spending more time in their homes and their neighborhoods pretty soon.

This is going to be a problem for some folk. They have designed their lives around the idea that home was an investment that you slept in during the time you weren't out and about, living the dream. Other folks will take to it nicely and lapse back into the normal patterns of life lived by every generation other than this one.

So Saturday here at the inner city digs is house maintenance day. Gotta do the basics; clean the house, sweep the walks, do laundry, bake. You know....adult stuff. Now you can choose other days for the duties, but unless you are a self-martyring housewife who does it all herself (a behavior I find profoundly weird), there should be a day of the week where all the family pitches in for the common goal of maintaining the abode.

Yes your children will complain bitterly. You did when your parents forced you to work. They will get over it and you will be a better parent for it. Also, it is a pretty good way to force a self-examination. The most natural thing in the world to say is "I sure didn't act like that when I was a kid!" But if your parents are honest with you, or you with yourself, you will remember how you were forced against your will into unpaid labor and wound up the better for it.

So start setting aside a day for maintenance. Doesn't even have to be a whole day, but start developing good routines of cleaning and maintenance for the times ahead, it will make the hard days easier to bear.