Household Fun

I never imagined that I would enjoy doing household chores. My husband and I had a household helper for seven years until she graduated from college. We provided for her schooling, the right thing to do after she graduated was to allow her to find better opportunities for growth. That was a year ago. Today, we are still without a maid, and we really don't miss it. We have found a new way of bonding!

When we don't have to work on Saturdays, my husband and I do the cleaning in the morning. I'm in charge of the bathrooms and the rooms on the second floor, he takes care of the kitchen, dining and living rooms. My husband is also the expert in running the washing machine (yes, I am very lucky to have him!) I'm now an expert in using the vacuum cleaner and the mop. I also now love cleaning the bathroom floors and toilets=)

Lunch will be usually something simple. Adobo or bistek and a simple vegetable dish such as a salad or steamed vegetables with rice (of course) is the usual fare. My husband would usually cook, and I would wash the dishes and clean up. In the afternoon, we would just spend time relaxing by watching DVDs. We were hooked on Heroes and Jericho. Sometimes, it would be CSI. But if we want different movies or TV shows, it would be Grey's Anatomy for me.

We both treasure the time we have together in our home on weekends. Last Sunday, I didn't enjoy malling at the Glorietta. I think the aircon is really not enough. IT WAS SO HOT! And I thought, I should have just stayed home! Unless necessary, I will never set foot in that mall again.

During the week, my husband would cook dinner if we get home early or on nights that I have classes. Otherwise it is take out or something that is easy to prepare like cold cuts, cheese and bread (like a light European meal ) that we buy from Santi's. Lately, we prefer eating at home than eating out. We are more relaxed, and... it's a lot cheaper! Just an example, I bought three kinds of cold cuts and two kinds at cheese, all at 100 gms each, a vegetable salad (the Goolai brand bought at Rustan's supermarket) and bread -- and it cost me around P500. These would be about three or four meals for us (except for the vegetable salad of course)! The last time we dined at Cafe Mediteranean, it cost us around P700! In addition, we had to pay for parking, now at a minimum of P40.

Now that we are saving for our trip, this is indeed a wonderful realization. If we stay at home, there is no temptation to shop, no need to dine out and no need to pay for parking! Plus, we save on gas =)