Welcome to My World!

I am such an old-fashioned girl. I love old things, old ways, and I am happiest when in the kitchen. Dressing up, entertaining, and cooking give me a small thrill. Cleaning can be rewarding, too. Don't get me wrong, I am down with the bra-burning liberals who believe that women and men should have equal rights. But in the process of equalizing ourselves, we've pushed away the stuff that our grandmother's were proud to do like cooking, cleaning, gardening, knitting, decorating.

In today's world, we hire people to clean our houses, we buy prepared foods or dine out, we send out the laundry, and we leave our gardening up to the landscape companies. I know all about this. I did it, too.

After I got divorced, I felt I had an even better reason to do none of the above. I hired everyone to do everything. I even hired my friend to organize my closets. Maybe this all sounds normal, or maybe it sounds crazy. Either way, living like this kept me detached from my home. Someone else was responsible for everything that happened in my house. I didn't even know where my cleaning products were kept.

I wanted to be the person whose elbow grease got the house sparkling, who knew where the shoes were put, and how to change the vacuum bag. I wanted my son to eat whole foods that I made for him. Pancakes, meatballs, cookies from scratch. It's good, honest work.

I am both the man and woman of the house, so I do all those things, while also taking out the garbage, building the "some assembly required" furniture, and changing most of the light bulbs. For Christmas, I am asking for a drill, because I've learned that life is much easier when you have your own drill.

It is my hope that women go back to taking pride in making meals from scratch, whether on the stove top, in the oven, on the grill, or in the slow cooker. No more microwave meals, girls. You deserve better than nuked food. I hope that you will see flowers that inspire you to plant, and send thank you letters on note cards instead of by email, text, or worst of all, social networking posts. We need to slow down, get real, and stop getting lost in shortcuts.

Let's read books that we can hold in our hands, no nooks, no books on tape. Share recipes. Think, and live, slowly. Call, don't text, and put the cell phone down when you are driving. What is so important that it can't wait until you get home?

I am almost 41, and I've finally realized that all that matters in life are the people we love, and the little things we do to show them we care. That's what this blog is all about.

Hope you enjoy reading the domestic goddess files.