And now for something completely different

It doesn’t have to be all books and bikes all the time around here, does it?  I saw the “Homemaking, A-Z” meme over at Emily’s (who found it here) and thought it looked like fun.

Emily says that when it comes to homemaking, she plays a very important role; she’s the person everyone can compare themselves to in order to make themselves feel better.  She says everyone is cleaner and tidier than she is.  She says:

If newspapers, magazines, and books don’t congregate around your living room chairs, sprawling themselves in every direction; if your feet don’t stick to your kitchen floor; if your vacuum cleaner sees the light of day at least once a week; if things don’t fall on your head when you open cupboard doors; if you can actually see a dining room table, rather than what looks like piles of mail and junk levitating on its own; well, then you need to come to my house and start patting yourself on the back for being so tidy and clean.

Well, I’m guessing that if Emily came over to my house, she would start patting herself on the back for being so tidy and clean.  I’ve seen her house, but she hasn’t seen mine, so I’m in a position to know.  Here goes:

A is for Aprons – yes/no? If yes, what’s your favourite? Aprons?  Those are things you wear when you cook, right?  Don’t know anything about those.

B is for Baking – favourite thing to bake? I don’t cook and don’t own any aprons, but I have baked a loaf or two of bread in my life and have made batches of cookies now and then.  That was all years ago though.  If I had to do something in the kitchen, I’d bake bread — the smell!

C is for Clothesline – do you have one? No, no clothesline, but we do have a drying rack, which is usually covered in cycling shorts, since those aren’t supposed to go in the dryer.  I have work pants on there now and then too.

D is for Donuts – have you ever made them? No, never made donuts.

E is for Every Day – one homemaking task you do every day. I’m not sure I have one.  I do the dishes almost every day, but I’ll skip them if I can get away with it (if there aren’t enough dishes to fill the dishwasher — thank God for dishwashers, by the way!).  I never, ever make the bed.

F is for Freezer – do you have a separate deep freeze? No …

G is for Garbage Disposal Unit – do you have one? I don’t have one — well, unless I can say that Hobgoblin is my garbage disposal unit — he takes the garbage out every week.

H is for Handbook – what’s your favourite homemaking resource? Homemaking resource?  Don’t use those.

I is for Ironing – love or hate it? Hate it.  In fact, I make a point of not wearing clothes that need to be ironed.  I used to iron clothes now and then, but these days, if it needs ironing, I don’t wear it.

J is for Junk Drawer – yes/no? If yes, where is it? No, although it sounds like a very good idea.  All our drawers are already full though.

K is for Kitchen – colour and decorating scheme? The same as when we bought the place, and it will probably stay that way as long as we live here — light grayish blue counters, light blue on the bottom of the walls and white on top.

L is for Love – what’s your favourite part of homemaking? I don’t have one! Or no, getting it done so I don’t have to think about it for another …  long time.

M is for Mop – do you have one? Yes, because otherwise our kitchen and bathroom floors would get so disgusting even I couldn’t stand it.

N is for Nylons – machine or hand wash? Neither.  I don’t wear them.

O is for Oven – do you use a window or open the oven door to check? Open the door — usually to check is my bread is toasted or not, because that’s about all I put in the oven ever.

P is for Pizza – what do you put on yours? I tend to stick to boring old cheese and pepperoni, but I’ll have anything on a pizza except for mushrooms and olives.  Hobgoblin makes wonderful pizzas, by the way.

Q is for quiet – what do you do during the day when you get a quiet moment? Check my email and favorite websites, read.

R is for Recipe Card Box – yes/no? If yes, what does it look like? I used to have one when I was much younger, but the only recipe I remember having in there was a recipe for chocolate chip cookies (which were very good).

S is Style of House – what style is your house? A cape — living room, kitchen, bathroom and master bedroom downstairs (this is only because we couldn’t fit our queen-size bed up the narrow staircase), and two studies upstairs.  Hobgoblin and I can talk back and forth between the two upstairs rooms but still have some solitude and quiet.

T is for Tablecloths – do you use them? No.  Don’t really get the point.

U is for Under The Kitchen Sink – organised or toxic wasteland? It’s not organized, but I don’t think it’s a toxic wasteland either.  Just a jumble of stuff.

V is for Vacuum – how many times a week? I’m with Emily on this one; as she said, “times a week?”  Um … I vacuum when it desperately needs it or shortly before we have visitors over. Most often it’s shortly before we have visitors over.

W is for Wash – how many loads of washing do you do each week? I’m in charge of the laundry and do about 3-4 loads every weekend.  Often half of these loads will be workout gear.

X’s – Do you keep a daily list of things to do that you cross off? I keep a list of things to do for work but not for home (I keep the work list in an email, which I edit and then send back and forth to myself continuously).  Hobgoblin and I don’t write grocery lists either, which is a bad habit, as it means we are always forgetting something or other.

Y is for Yard – who does what? Hobgoblin takes care of the yard and I pitch in and help with things like raking leaves and shoveling snow.  He mows the yard unless he’s just broken a rib (which happens all too often …).  He’s very happy that our yard is only about a tenth of an acre.

Zzzz’s – what’s the last homemaking task you do before bed in the evening? Nothing, really, unless brushing my teeth counts.