Domestic Goddess? I wish!

Whenever I'm asked on some random form for my occupation I always will put stay-at-home mom rather than homemaker. I don't really have a problem with the term homemaker, its more that I simply have too much respect for homemakers than to insult them by counting myself as one of them. I may be home all day, but I don't really CARE for the home. Sure, I do things that I have to ... the things that relate to caring for the children. I make school lunches and home lunches (if you want an outstanding peanut butter sandwich, I've pretty much mastered the technique, though I still hate it) and sure, believe me, with 4 small children I do my share of laundry but that's as close to home-making as I get.

My husband does 99% of the cooking. Luckily, he likes to cook and he's really great at it. Its just a fact of life in our house that Dave is the main cook. I recently did one of those facebook things where you interview your kids and one question had something to do with something I'm not very good at... all 3 boys said some form of "cooking". I have messed up food that comes from a box. I have made food so badly that it has to be thrown out. I have cut every finger more than once. I have literally burned the fingerprints off a couple of fingers. I have even burned myself heating canned peas in the microwave - no lie. IF the food I attempt is actually edible at the end and IF I have even managed to not mangle myself in the process, at the very least the kitchen looks like the kids were having a field day in there and my stress-level is so high you'd think we were in the midst of a survivor challenge!

As for cleaning, I'm only slightly better and getting worse by the minute. Ask my mom, I'm a naturally messy person. Not dirty - MESSY - there is a difference! True story, when I left for college my mom put a photo of my messy room on her desk so that if she started to miss me she could at least delight in the now spotless room. I think I may have mentioned that I don't do "stick chores"... you know anything requiring a stick like mopping, sweeping, shoveling etc. Thankfully my wonderful husband doesn't mind them. Sure, the dishes eventually get done. The downstairs half-bath gets cleaned fairly regularly and we "straighten-up" daily. I notice the dust, but it usually takes me awhile to get around to the dusting and vacuuming and this kind of thing. I've just stopped using my desk as the old habit of piling "stuff" on it that has plagued me as a teen and even in college has returned. I don't even seem to always see all the "clutter". The DVDs and videos are all messed-up and something like that used to literally keep me up nights.

I wish I could say that instead I was really great with broken plumbing, or I loved mowing the lawn (that too goes to seed usually before we get around to getting to it!) or at least gardening or painting or SOMETHING... but no, see, this is why my home remains forever unmade...