Day in the Life: Mother, Wife, Slightly Psychotic, a tad OCD, Creative and Pretty Much Just Me, Part 1

Welcome to a day in the life of a slightly psychotic, little bit OCD, creative, busy, frequently amused and seriously annoyed (often at the same time) Mother, Wife, Business Owner and Writer, Part 1. Actually this part is pretty much background. We'll get to the actual daily stuff later, I promise.

I am a modern woman. I grew up on Women's Lib and the ERA (which as a kid I was told by very religious and conservative parents and church was awful and would destroy society but I always thought made a whole lot of sense. I also always admired Gloria Steinem even though I was taught she was the feminist equivalent of the anti-Christ and no, I was not the easiest child for my parents to deal with. Karma is a serious bitch.). Although it was never spoken about in my home, I grew up knowing I could work if I wanted to when I grew up. I did want to and I have. I can bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan, and so on and so forth, except that really, I hate cooking bacon.

 I grew up on these commercials and I believed them. I truly believed I could grow up, have a career and a family.

 I have never even smelled Enjoli Perfume, that I know of at least, but I will never forget the name or the face of this woman in the commercial. I think I was about 7 or 8 the first time I saw it and I can't help but wonder how many other girls between the ages of 6 and 16 growing up at that time in history felt the same way.


 This was truly a cultural icon, a commercial that changed the world, strange as that may seem. Perhaps that means companies ought to give some thought to ethics and morality as far as the messages they are spreading, and be held responsible? Just a thought. This wasn't a bad message, far from it,  but kids are impressionable and who knows what they're getting from some of the stuff on TV.

Bacon makes a huge mess and the house smells for days. Plus, I don’t really like it all that much so I rarely bring it home. If we (my family) are making a big brunch which we do once in a while in addition to holidays, I make my husband or teenage son cook the bacon. They like eating it so I figure they can cook it. They do it well and we’re all happy. Other than this, I do about 95% of all the cooking in our house, which, when I want to, is good.


When I’m busy with other stuff and I don’t want to, I resent it like crazy. I am SO not a saint; trust me, and the difficulties that come with working and having a family were never mentioned when I heard about Equality growing up. Probably just as well because really, there isn't any, is there? Every woman I know, including those who are the breadwinner with a husband who stays at home (and I know several), does the vast majority if not all of the housework and often the childcare. Not fair and not equal, but also reality for most of us. 'Nuff said, a topic for another time.

For me personally, the same resentment holds with with laundry and especially cleaning, neither of which I enjoy in the least so I spend a fair amount of time seething and swearing under my breath at the rest of my family members who don’t seem to care if we live in a pig sty or have clean clothes, sheets or towels. I do care, unfortunately, so end up spending far more of my time than I’d like cleaning and doing laundry just so we’re not living in a pig sty and wearing dirty clothes. To be fair, my son does do some of his own laundry (He’d probably do more except that he leaves it in the washer or dryer frequently, then I need to use it and just finish what he’s started).

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My daughter has done laundry on rare occasions. Both kids know how, I promise. They were both forced to do chores growing up and know how to clean too. Now they're teenagers though and enforcement is difficult, as any parent of teens knows.

 Every once in a while my husband will do a load of laundry too. He does load the dishwasher fairly often, which is much appreciated. He also sometimes spontaneously mops the kitchen floor and has cleaned a bathroom at least four times that I can remember. I’m not sure why or what brings this on, but I don’t really care, I have learned to just appreciate those moments when they happen. He also occasionally gets very particular about refilling all the bathroom soap dispensers. Again, not sure why or what sparks it, but I wish he’d start spontaneously cleaning the bathrooms, doing and/or putting away laundry, or vacuuming, dusting or whatever other cleaning thing needs to be done more often.

These are things that I spend my time doing and I don’t particularly want to. It gets interspersed with paying bills, arguing with insurance companies (something I've been doing a lot of over the past couple of years due to some illnesses and unusual circumstances we've been dealing with) and really fun stuff like that. As we all know and I keep trying to convince my daughter, there are things in life you have to do that you don't want to. It's reality, just the way things work.

 This is the photo on my business cards. It's from the first photo shoot we did, the daughter of one of my neighbors, who got a modeling contract from photos taken at the shoot. Cool, huh?




                        A couple of vintage shoes, a hat, several compacts
                         and  some jewelry. I am passionate about Vintage stuff, it's our physical history, it defines our culture, marks the changes and milestones; plus tells us both who we were and who we are as a people. What we take from it is up to us.

I also am fortunate enough to spend a good chunk of time doing the stuff I do want, like and need to do, which I don’t resent at all. Of course, I haven’t even touched on the time spent on personal stuff regarding kids, families and all the complications that come with them. Anyone with children knows they frequently require enormous amounts of time and energy, both physical and emotional and it does not get easier as they get older, it just changes, yet another topic for another time.

 I started a business a couple of months ago that I worked on setting up for almost a year previously and which I love. For anyone reading who doesn’t know, it’s an online vintage store through Etsy, called Shelley’s Vintage Life and the link is below so please check it out and pass it around to anyone and everyone you know! : )  My challenge, as is that of any woman who has a family and works outside the home as well as in, is to get the stuff done at home, and get the stuff done I need to for work.

That part is no different when working from home than when I worked for someone else. Of course it takes work. Huge amounts of work which takes time. I love working from home, except it’s harder not to get sidetracked. When I worked for someone else, I spent about 7 or 8 hours on at least one of my days off doing housework. Now I spend a couple of hours a day or more doing housework, but I also work at least a few hours every day of the week. I probably do more now, but seem to get less accomplished.

I think because I am home more I see more stuff that needs to be done now, whereas when I wasn't around much, it was easier to ignore. Working from home is great in many ways, and more difficult in others. To my great frustration, my family cannot seem to grasp that I actually have to spend time working, in order to get work done. No Work = No Money. Pretty simple actually but if I'm home, how can I be working? GRRR. We'll get there, eventually. I hope.

Here’s the link to my store, please check it out and pass it around!!!

www.shelleysvintagelife.etsy.com