Excuses Not to Do The Man Chores No. 1

As a supplement to my occasional ‘Excuses Not to Do the Housework’ feature, I have now discovered that Mr. Tialys has entered into the spirit of the thing and is finding his own excuses not to do things that normally come under his domain, for example, grouting tiles in, unblocking plumbing pipes, putting up shelves to name but a few things outstanding at the moment

As it has been so cold here lately and we had not been quick enough to think about emptying the huge water butt outside the back door, the water inside froze and cracked the plastic.  Mr. T. emptied the huge block of ice out into the garden and I thought no more about it.  I heard the sound of the chainsaw and thought he was preparing more logs for the fire but then I was called to admire this

Bless ‘im!

(If he asks – just say you knew it was an eagle)

Excuse Not to Do the Housework: No. 465(ish)

Another entry in my occasional series of good reasons not to get on with the housework is also a brilliant vindication of whittering away about everything that occurs to me on my blog.

Apparently, according to a study in California, women who regularly write about things that matter to them lose more weight than those who don’t.  

 Using a test group of 45 women, the researchers asked half of them to write for 15 minutes every day about something that was important to them and the other half to write about things they had no particular interest in.  Four months later, the first group had lost, on average, 3.4lbs, the second had gained 2.7lb.  If you are writing about something you care about, you are happier, thus less likely to snack – allegedly.

Now, whilst I would like to believe that sitting on my backside in front of the screen is a form of fat burning exercise, I can’t help but think that pushing the vacuum cleaner around and wielding a duster  might actually be more effective.  So, after serious consideration, I don’t think I would be able to present this evidence to Mr. Tialys when he asks why he hasn’t got any shirts ironed again so it might not be my best ‘excuse not to do the housework’ entry.

Also. Haven’t these researchers in California got anything better to do than this?  Shouldn’t they be finding a cure for Alzheimers or something?  

*Wonder if I can have another slice of cake now*

Excuse Not To Do The Housework No. 15 (ish)

I love finding excuses not to do the housework and today it’s 34 degrees outside and too hot to move let alone stand anywhere near a steam iron, but, if that wasn’t enough, here’s another one.

To count to a million, at a rate of one number per second, would take 11.5 days.  To count to a billion would take nearly 32 years. 

                                     (courtesy of The Independent newspaper)

I’m up to 100 already….

Monday – Housework Day – Bleurgh!!

 I hate housework! You make the beds, you do the dishes and six months later you have to start all over again.

                                                                                                                             Joan Rivers

You and me both Joan!  I usually put ‘housework avoidance’ down as one of my interests.

I remember when my girls were at primary school and they came home one day clutching  a sheet of paper with their handprints on and this little poem alongside emphasising the need to play and have fun and make the most of your children and not keep worrying about everything being clean and tidy.  Sentimental?  Yes.  Something I took to my heart and have used as an excuse ever since?  Hell yes! 

The fact they are now 15 and 17 needn’t concern us. 

Now, where’s the number of that cleaning agency?

Busy Doing Nothing

Some friends have taken my girls off to the beach today. I would have liked to have gone  too but I can’t leave 3 dogs on their own for more than 5 hours. So, I have the house to myself.

What a good woman!

Things I Should be Doing:

Sorting laundry

Ironing

Vacuuming

Damp dusting  (Love the sound of that!)

Tidying up my workroom

Filing mountains of paperwork

Baking (I don’t usually, but it seems like a ‘good wife & mother’ thing to do)

Things I Am Doing:

Spending money on a discount designer shopping site.

Talking to Ebay admin about why I can’t bid for perfume related items just because I am in France 

Re-jigging my Etsy shop because admin has changed the layout and now it doesn’t look right.

Thinking about having a bowl of cereal for lunch

Waiting for the postman in case he brings me a parcel

Writing a blog post

Generally, doing anything other than housework.

I Must Do The Housework!!

I can’t think of any reason to actually like doing housework and ironing but, there’s no getting away from it, unless you want people to think you’re a complete slob, it’s got to be done *sigh*. 

There are always plenty of other things I can find to do rather than the hoovering – usually dog walking, talking to the teens (or more like just listening these days), facebooking, blogging, talking on the telephone, eating, making tea or, most often, creating some new thing that amuses me.   As I sell my things, they must be photographed and I quite enjoy it but it is yet another thing that takes up valuable dusting time. 

I feel I am getting more creative with my photography – I’ll have one sitting backwards on a ladder back chair next, looking sultry – although I don’t think that would be possible with an owl – legs aren’t long enough.