Housekeeping and a bit of this and that

I suck at housework. Okay, for some people that may be a little strong language, but I really am not a good housekeeper. I want to be a good housekeeper. Sometimes it just takes a little bit of a reality check such as having attainable goals for what I want to accomplish in a day. 

I have been sick with a bad cold for about 5 days. Today I did what was minimally necessary to keep our house going without creating chaos. This meant tidying but not cleaning. It mean that I took my husband up on his suggestion to order pizza (great coupon deals right now) and take a break. So, what did I do? I read books on my Kindle. I started one book last night and spent the entire morning reading and dozing when I got tired. Then I had a simple lunch and sat on the back porch and did some more reading and dozing. It was a perfect day. Even our new puppy, Molly, cooperated with my schedule. She took a lot of naps and played outside.

So, here I sit feeling pretty good about finally reading a book that I had been wanting to read and even more important I went through a ton of "samples" of books on my Kindle. Now I can delete samples and put some on my wish list. 

Back to housework - I am finally taking the time to really sit and evaluate my housekeeping skills. Perhaps I should call it my annual review. When I worked at the law firm, I prided myself in constantly educating myself on the law.  I asked questions and I read a lot.  I will be applying the same zeal to studying housekeeping.  

Beginning on Monday I am going to go chapter by chapter through three books that I have only used as references when I have a problem. I've talked about these books before here. They are "Home Comforts" by Cheryl Mendelson; "Homekeeping Handbook" by Martha Stewart and "Laundry" by Cheryl Mendelson. Now the time has come to quit using them as a reference and actually sit down and read them and apply what I learn to running my own household. 

Time to get serious and read, study, calendar, plan and see what becomes of it all.  I am beginning with the book Home Comforts. Anyone want to go on this Home Ec 101 journey with me?  

My goal is to work through these books over the summer and apply what I am learning as I go. Do I want to be a Martha Stewart? No. I just want to be the best housekeeper that I can be just like I wanted to be the best legal assistant that I could be when I worked outside the home. I know that along the way I will learn to take better care of the "things" in my house such as furnishings, clothing, electronics and better meal preparation which in turn will save me money and keep me on track.