Kryptonite Chores

"Draw!" Erin the cleaning bandit. I love "Shower Power" but the smell is overpowering so I cover my face. Matt thought it was the funniest thing when we got married.

Do you ever feel like you're expected to be good at everything as a mom? I know it's just not possible, but I find myself feeling guilty about the things I'm not good at doing. We can't all be SUPER WOMAN all the time. So here are the top 3 chores I would call my "kryptonite"* and the top 3 that I feel pretty good about... most of the time.

Kyrptonite Chores
1. Cooking- Before I got married I would have told you I liked to cook, and that would have been true. I liked to cook for myself a couple of times a week then live off of left-overs the rest of the week. I liked to make grilled cheese for my brother who would stop by my apartment starving every couple of days. I liked to make brownies and cookies. This wasn't real"cooking" I soon discovered. I have really struggled with this one our whole married life. I don't like looking through ads, making a list, going to the grocery store every week with a sometimes uncooperative toddler, figuring out what's for dinner, cooking during the kids' crankiest time of day, trying to have everything ready at the same time and have it taste good, then clean up the table and do the dishes, then deal with the left-overs- EVERY SINGLE DAY FOR YEARS kind of cooking that you do as a mom. It takes so much time when you add up all the work it takes to feed a family. Since I'm currently always starving it has become slightly easier for me to be motivated to cook. Maybe that's part of my problem- I'm usually not that hungry and nothing ever sounds good. I have found some things that help- like writing down all our usual dinners and planning a menu for grocery shopping. The BBQ has opened a whole new culinary world too. One of our best purchases I'd say. I am in awe of women who are talented at cooking and honestly enjoy making 3 meals a day for the rest of their lives. I am really working to acquire this talent- or at least not dread doing it since it's such a big part of the "mom" job.

2. Bathrooms. I LOVE clean bathrooms. I do a really good job when I clean them. But I can never seem to get around to it as often as I'd like. It's one job that's hard to do with kids awake and it seems to wake them up when you do it when they're sleeping. If I could hire out one job it would be the bathrooms- ya know unless I could hire a personal chef instead.

3. Junk mail. It is the worst thing ever. What a waste of time and paper for everyone concerned. I wish they would stop sending it. I hate going to the mailbox (which I also don't do often enough since it's half-way down the street) just to discover a mailbox full of junk that I have to go through to weed out the couple of coupons I might actually want. I have a basket on top of our fridge with folders in it for "Grocery ad/coupons", "Eating out coupons", "store coupons" that I sort the junk into then recycle the rest, but if I don't have time to do it right when I get back it piles up and drives me crazy!

SUPER MOM Chores

1. Organizing- let's be honest, I rock at organizing. Aren't I humble!:-) I clean out all my cupboards, closets, and pantry multiple times each year because I love to do it. Matt will come home and I don't know what's for dinner, the dishes won't be done, but man is our closet organized!

2. Laundry- I really don't mind this chore. I can usually get all our laundry washed, dried, folded and put away in one day. I am great at getting out stains. It's a good chore to have kids help with (moving the clothes, sorting by color, playing with the laundry basket)- except the folding. Here's a formula- every member of the family= roughly 1 load per week+ linens. We have two laundry baskets in our room- one for whites and one for colored so it's partly pre-sorted.

3. Washing windows. I might not do this as often as some people but I wash my windows inside and out at least once or twice a year. I mean I wash DOWN my windows. I spray the outside, wash with soap and water then clean off spots with windex. I also spray the screens. I wash the inside with soap and water including the blinds and sills then finish with windex as well. They are CLEAN when I'm done and it feels good. I touch up with windex on my main windows a couple of times a month.

So now that I've aired my dirty laundry it's your turn to share. I can't be the only one out there with "kyrptonite" chores. What are your best and worst chores?

*expression borrowed from a friend of a friend's facebook page