I've officially appointed my cohort in contracting, Ryan, to be my Blogger Muse, Level I. It seems that every time I feel the need to update this blog and the proverbial well is dry, Ryan somehow seems to bring something out. Thanks, Ryan!
However, this post is a totally new, un-Ryan inspired post. It actually goes back to the week before last week, when Jennifer and I were making the final preparations for her visit with her parents. She and I had gone over everything weeks in advance, on-and-off, in preparation for this. She had explained some of her daily tasks, and shown me the ones I needed to do. Most of this was fairly low-level stuff, as she had a laptop and internet access, but I needed to do it to make her visit less stressful.
When all was said and done, and she was back home, I graded the boys' and my stewardship of the Secret Underground Lair with an approximate 85%+; her grade was closer to 70%, I think. The difference in the grades is not surprising: we got an immediate 10 point deduction for a rules violation. After that, I think the pluses and minuses came close to giving us the relative percentages previously mentioned.
However, this brings me back to the title. I've occasionally thought about chores, and have come to the conclusion that most folks think chores are those uncompensated jobs performed by under-18 year-old minions. I've refined my definition of chores a bit over the years, as I have come to realize that chores are the bits of housework that make a household function- in fact, they do not even require a family. They simply require execution. Part of my attitude about chores goes back to my childhood, particularly my preteen ("tween"... ugh- that's such a goofy word) and teen years. My Mom died just after my fifth birthday, so my Dad and I moved in with his parents. I had "chores" to do, but I think I was okay with doing them because they weren't called chores- they were just things which needed to be done. I always dried the dishes, and when I was old enough, I cut the grass. I also shoveled the snow. I eventually graduated to washing the dishes and doing the laundry, as my grandfather was horrible with both of these tasks. I guess that's why I don't mind doing these things today.
Which leads me to think they should be executed to the best of one's ability. They should also be done by the person who does them best... I started washing clothes after my grandfather washed a pair of my fairly new blue jeans in hot water, totally ruining them in the process. These days, I cut the grass. But in the winter, Jennifer operates the snow blower (I shovel). Jennifer normally does the bills and budget stuff. She and I both do the dishes, but she does almost all of the cooking and meal preparation. I do all of the computer, printer and network stuff. There are other things, but we avoid a lot of tension by working things the way we do.
Database stuff: Data entry is the focus for the moment. The queries need to be rebuilt, but there's no rush. I have 125 new entries (spread through three tables) from the last time I counted (Aug 9- yes, there's a spreadsheet for this... after all, I do write about data analysis AND management), which isn't a huge amount, but it's progress.
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
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