Jewish Musings, Tuesday, July 2, 2024

[peachymom1]

What’s on your mind — how to make kugel? This week’s Torah reading? Life goals? Prayer? We are all engaged in weight loss/weight maintenance journeys and we are all Jewish or at least interested in Judaism. We like to eat, we like to discuss. It is our goal here to provide each other support on our journeys, to share experiences, to call on our rich cultural heritage and texts, and to help each other grow spiritually.

Some of us take weekly turns starting the thread:

Frieda (hopefully)?
Holly
Lee
Louise
Lynne
Peachy

And for those of you that stop by to read this thread without posting — you are welcome to, but you are also welcome to chime in. Don’t be shy!

[peachymom1]

Good morning! How do you run your household? We’ve changed things up a bit lately. It seems unlikely that DH is going to get another full-time job, so he has now taken on the role of Household Manager. We all still have our own household duties, but DH is in charge of making sure everything gets done, and that it gets done when it should, not just when we feel like it or think of it.

DS33 cleans his own bedroom and bathroom, takes care of the cat’s food, water & litter box, does everyone’s laundry, takes out the trash and recycling, and helps DH dust and vacuum the living room, hall and office. DH and I each clean half of our bathroom and our bedroom. We all share different aspects of kitchen and cooking chores. DH takes care of the cars, and I handle most social and record-keeping stuff. He does most of the shopping and I do most of the financial stuff.

Sometimes I think it would be great to hire housecleaning help, but then I think I’d rather spend the money on mani-pedis and ice cream, so we haven’t explored that possibility yet.

How about you?

[gazelle18]

My DH and I are both “alpha dogs,” so a long time ago we decided to each be the chair of our own committees. My committees are cooking, wardrobe choices, laundry, and loading the dishwasher. His duties are light gardening, finance, and dishwasher unloading. It works better when we each stay in our own lanes!

[louise]

Ah, well, that's the thing about living alone. I'm the boss and all the jobs are mine as well. I still try different organization schemes to impose on myself, all with varying degrees of success.

btw had no trouble walking down and back up that big hill yesterday so will most likely view the fireworks right from the river's edge.

[hollygail]

I like the titles you two, Lynne and Peachy, use! Thanks for those.

I load the dishwasher and DH unloads it. Each of us does our own laundry (from the very beginning of our relationship). We don't share a bathroom, so he's in charge of his and I of mine. Since the pandemic, he's been doing the grocery shopping. I make breakfast for both of us, we each make our own lunch, and either each of us prepares our respective dinners or one of us does (we don't follow the same dietary paths). DH used to grill outdoors (weather permitting) but the last outdoor grill seems to have become a place to hold something as we juggle packages or whatever and keys to unlock the kitchen door from the outside. He hasn't grilled outdoors in several years, although he does use the toaster-oven to grill chicken (I use it to roast veggies, mostly Brussels sprouts when in season).

These things haven't "changed." Rather they seem to have evolved. It works for us.

We used to hire a housekeeper to come in every other week to do the major cleaning (dusting, vacuuming, changing the bed linens) but not since early in the pandemic. Now we change the bed linens together (which mostly means I do the harder things and he helps straightening the top sheet and whatever we put on top of the top sheet (comforters / blankets / lighter things in warmer weather and heavier ones in colder weather). (I liked it better when the bed was freshly made every two weeks after I left out the clean sheets and topping after we'd stripped the bed in the morning...)

[lee058]

Good morning everybody. Hope you are all well and SAFE! Please pray for Israel.

Re today's topic: DH and DS do most of the house cleanup, cooking, and so on. I do everything that can be done sitting down; unloading groceries from store bags, acting as sous chef for DH, putting meals together for DS and myself (which he then heats up in the microwave), dealing with the mail, computer and phone (making appointments, ordering meds, dealing with contractors, etc.), and generally keeping track of what's going on. My lists and calendars are essential to running the household. When we have contractors over, I'm generally the one who talks with them and tells them what needs to be done, pays them, and follows up as necessary. This was very important when we recently had four kinds of bugs at our house!!

It would be nice to have a housekeeper, but I don't see that happening.

Have a peaceful day, Lee