Aprons
A few weeks ago I posted a link from The Hillbilly Housewife about aprons. In total fairness, I thought it was a fun story, but I didn’t much see myself actually wearing an apron around my house. I mean, let’s get real here. I’m a modern mom with a blog and I love to stay behind my computer, not an oven or washing machine. But somewhere along the line, that post just grabbed me.
Each day that I would walk into my pantry and see my apron hanging there, it would taunt me. The dark black with pretty green writing. It’s even a fun, whimsical apron from my 36th birthday cooking party (did I really just put it out there for the world to see that I’m really ever so much older than 30?) from my dear friend Whitney when she was running “Cooking in Heels” long before her precious little ones came along. No, it looks nothing like the one that I found on the right, but they are much more along the lines of what I imagine a housewife would wear.
Finally, I gave in to the pressure and put it on, just for a trial run. Maybe at least I could save one shirt from the laundry. As soon as I put it on, Monkey was in my face telling me how beautiful I looked. Now, where did he get the idea that a woman in an apron was beautiful? Perhaps from the same place that when he saw my wedding dress he proudly proclaimed that he had found this great cow costume! Anyway, I digress.
On that first day, I accomplished more than I had in a while. Certainly, it wasn’t the apron. But, perhaps…. Just to be certain, I put it on again today. Sure enough, I believe there is some kind of magic fairy dust in aprons. As soon as I put it on, I become more domestic. Now, don’t think that I’m telling every woman out there who isn’t domestic that an apron will magically solve the problem, but you might give it a try. Here’s how it worked for me.
Typical day without an apron: get ready, eat microwave breakfast, pick up a couple of toys, check e-mail, get distracted, play on Facebook, remember that I was supposed to do laundry, head upstairs to start the laundry and get distracted by a toy on the floor that needs to be put away, go to put it away, see that the kids have been snacking, start to clean up the mess, remember that I need to check something on my calendar, go downstairs to check e-mail, repeat cycle throughout the day.
Today: get ready, make bed, start to make breakfast and decide to put apron on first. Decide that while I have apron on, I could make a better breakfast. Preheat oven and make French toast. While the oven is heating, clean up the rest of dishes that magically appeared since dinner cleanup last night along with all dishes from making breakfast. Think that some homemade bread sounds nice. Pull out ingredients for bread while toast is baking. Start prepping bread. Sit down for a hot breakfast with the boys. Clean up dishes together, then send them to clean up their playroom. Start a load of laundry. Return to breadmaking. Whip out the first loaf and set it up to proof while I make the second loaf. Clean up all the mess from both loaves while bread is proofing. Put bread in oven. Make lunch. Put baby down for nap. Cool bread and make a snack for older boys. Clean up kitchen. Take off apron. Sit down in front of computer, forget to do anything else for the rest of the afternoon.
So, is it the apron or the mind? I’m not convinced, but I’m thinking I might have to whip up one more apron just to be sure. Perhaps if I could just get one like this that I found on Flickr.
Odyssey of a Lifetime 