Phoning it in...

School's out, summer's begun and - for the first time - childcare is a necessity, not a luxury. Momma's got to work. Happily, with some juggling, Momma's also been able to swing some time working at home to accommodate this first week of half-day camp that someone HAD to attend. (Momma might also be a sucker, that that's another post.)

So I'm finding myself phoning into conference calls, looking at the Crackberry more than usual, and bending over backwards to be present in my professional life. The thing is, the housewifery doesn't take the summer off either. Oh no! Simultaneous to working from home, there are swim lessons and housework and the demands of a whiny joy of spending time with a child free from school. And we're somehow on the hook for hosting summertime parties too.

My original thought with this blog was to mull how home-work and paid-work (private versus public sphere if you will) overlap in my own life, and to make sense of it for myself. Of course, what I've concluded so far is that they collide more than overlap. If anything, there's a constant (mental) battle between the two and all I can do is find some joy in whichever "work" occupies my present. Living in the moment, if you will, but living in the moment with about 5 brain cells devoted to the next moment.

It's all very tiring and, despite having some pride in my home and my family, and a genuine like (if not love) of cooking, June has been mostly about phoning it in as a housewife too. I confess, I just about gave up for a few weeks. Little-to-no cooking, minimal cleaning, and working just enough to ensure that each family member had enough clean clothes to make it to school or work. Thus passed most of June.

And, we also threw a small party where our guests did not seem to notice that it was a truly lazy summer gathering. More later on how to host a lazy summer dinner party...