Loving the Life I Was given

You know the girl. The one with the wedding idea book full of magazine cutouts. Her babies’ names have been picked out since she was ten. The one who knew what her husband was going to look like, his job, his values. The girl who had her whole adult life planned out.

Yeah. That wasn’t me.

I never really had a life plan or five year goal. Things just kind of happen, don’t they? That was and is my way of thinking. Live in the moment and what will come will come. To my surprise, the future held exactly what that little girl dreamed of: getting married to a loving guy and giving birth to a lovely daughter.

I’m a mother, wife, and full-time employee. I’m the one who keeps everything in order and, honestly, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Taking the role of a working housewife isn’t always easy. There’s really a lot of responsibility and stress that goes into the ins and outs of making sure our house runs smoothly in the few hours after work. A trip to the grocery store sounds pretty easy, until you think of the time involved in making it as productive as possible. From meal planning to bargain hunting, from the trip to the store to putting the groceries away. Do I take the baby to spend more time with her or should I just leave her with dad and make the trip go a bit quicker? When it’s all done, I’m exhausted and still have a list of things that need to get done around the house.

Every day, there’s always something that needs to get done. Laundry, dishes, cleaning, budgeting, stocking up on necessities, cooking, feeding the baby, entertaining the baby…the list goes on. Somewhere in there, we still have to find time to take care of ourselves, take a shower every once in a while, have a lukewarm (if you’re lucky) cup of coffee to keep going. Did I brush my teeth today? Sleep, who needs it? Apparently I also have to go to work everyday?

Nonetheless, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

My husband and I settled into the cliché male and female roles. He takes care of fixing things around the house (thanks YouTube!), mowing the lawn, putting up the Christmas lights, shoveling the driveway, any “heavy lifting” that needs to get done. We do help each other out here and there. He’ll put the dishes away from time to time and I’ll fix a leaky faucet when he can’t get to it. We also help each other out when it comes to taking care of the baby.

The responsibility of day to day tasks, though, fall mostly on me. It definitely adds stress because there’s little time to relax in the day. Work takes up most of my day. My daughter takes a big chunk out of the evenings and weekends. Any time left in the day is for housework. It’s overwhelming at times.

Still, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Why? Why do I take upon this massive responsibility even though sometimes it feels so overwhelming that it literally paralyzes me? Simple. I like being the one who feeds my family. The one they come to when they need help with something. I like to be the one who comforts them and they know I’m always available no matter what.

I take pride in knowing that I can do all these things for them. That I can go to work and be able to provide for them, while also taking care of their needs inside the home. Taking care of them, knowing they can always count on me, it’s a huge responsibility, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.