And my point was...

So my intention with this was initially to prove that I don't really spend entire days cleaning my house or otherwise doing chores. Only to immediately go about actually spending the entire day doing chores.


I woke up at around 7 a.m., which is an hour later than I intended. I scrambled onto Facebook where my husband had been spending the last hour waiting for me to be there chatting with him. We talked for about an hour. Normally it would have been closer to two. Then I got up and tended our little zoo... which always starts with feeding a small can of wet food to the cat, Nyx, and then giving her a scoop of dry food for grazing on throughout the day and filling her water bowl. Then I go into the living room and give the lab mix, Kona, her food and our rabbit, Bear, his alfalfa pellets. I pick up the bowl for the chihuahua, Panzer, and Bear's veggie bowl and head back into the kitchen, where I fix those bowls and grab some cheese to mix in with the dog food so they're both more likely to eat it. I also usually give both Kona and Panzer a broccoli floret because they love them and Bear needs to share. So while Nyx, Panzer, Kona, and Bear are eating, I fill the water bowl and bottle. Then I give food sticks to the turtles (Mine Turtle, Bob, and Milo) and turn their lamp on. Finally, I head outside to let the rooster and the hen (still haven't picked out names for them) into their run, fill their food up, add ice to their water, and sprinkle scratch on the ground for them to enjoy. This takes about half an hour.

I've been studying photography in school and I bought a digital single lens reflex camera a year ago and have not really used it.

Because I haven't used it and it is one of the most expensive things we own, my husband has been complaining about it. And every morning when I go outside to tend to the chickens, I see how the morning light plays on the dew of the low lying branches of the cypress tree in our yard, the way it makes the orb webs sparkle iridescently (hopefully before I walk into it), and how it deepens the colors of the rooster's feathers. I spent about half an hour taking a few pictures in the back yard and then another 45 minutes playing with them in Photoshop.

I made myself a quick breakfast and then started working on some chores. I started with my bedroom. I made the bed, swept the floor, cleaned off my nightstand, cleaned the mirror, dusted the wooden furniture, and mopped the floor. All of this took about 40 minutes to complete.

Then I went to Wal*Mart for a couple of things, which took about an hour. I went back home, put my purchases away and then went to my mom's house to pick up some chicken feed and straw so I could change the nesting box out. I was there about and 90 minutes. I had mentioned I needed garden stakes to prevent Panzer from escaping the back yard and she had some bamboo ones, so when I got home, I put those in place.

I had already cleaned the dining room, bathroom, and hall this week, so with my bedroom, I was nearly done with the housework. I decided to go ahead and get the living room done, too. I started with Bear's cage, sweeping the floor and emptying his litter box. Then I pulled it away from the wall and swept around it. Once I got the living room swept, I mopped it. I had just dusted last weekend, so I didn't need to do that, but my daughter, Morgane, has annexed the living room and has been sleeping on the sofa for about two months now. Which is fine, but she is messy. I am always finding her dirty laundry and various school supplies in or on my sofa. Today was no exception. I took all of her stuff and piled it on her recliner (inherited from my dad and it lives in the living room) for her to take care of when she came home from school. That, along with scooping out the cat box and changing the straw in the chicken coop took about an hour and 15 minutes.

I still need to clean the kitchen (I did sweep the floor while I was cooking dinner) and I have a project waiting for me in the storage closet in the dining room, but I had most of my housework done by 4 p.m. And to prove that I don't go all day, I spent about 15 minutes making dinner (salad with sliced seared flank steak), two hours playing a mystery game on my computer, and then I watched Hell's Kitchen, a new hour long show that followed, and then two episodes of The Big Bang Theory before going to bed. And now I'm in bed ready to crash.