The Art of Coping in a Maidless Existence

It's been two weeks since my last article and a I feel guilty about it.  Blame it on the household chores, countless errands both for our business and family and other activities. It takes an average of four hours for me to come up with an article and if I can only spare less than that I don't start the writing.  It will just be another exercise in futility.

Since I prefer to write at least one article for each of my four blogs (the links are at the left sidebar), I have to do a lot of adjustments on top of the things I do to cope maidless days as discussed in Surviving Maidless Days...Months.

1.  One article a week.  I decided to make one article instead of the original plan of two articles per week per blog.  Housework and errands take so much of my time.  By the time I am done with both, either I am too tired or sleepy to write.  

2.  One viand per meal.  When before I feel our menu is incomplete if I only cook one dish, now I just settle with one.  I just make sure that the viand that I cooked is loved by everyone.  At least there will be no left overs that will hug refrigerator space.

3.  Dial a friend.  Aside from running to Mommy for an instant meal,  I found a helpful ally in Tita Baby de Leon.  Tita Baby lives just within the vicinity of the subdivision where we live in. Her passion is ... cooking.  You got it right.  She is like an angel sent to me by the good Lord. She used to have a small eatery but had the place leased to a Korean.  I felt sad when she closed her eatery only to find out two years later that she continued with her business from her house.  Talk about hitting two birds with one stone.  Can't blame her though.

When I have early afternoon appointments, I just dial her number around ten in the morning to know what's on her menu for the day.  She has two delivery boys who come to my house minutes before noon.  My only obligation is to have exact payment ready.  If cooking for dinner is a problem, I just order extra and keep what's for dinner in the refrigerator.  My old reliable microwave oven will do the reheating at the right time.

4.  Eat out.  If it's Sunday and Tita Baby is close for the day, we either buy take out chicken from Sr. San Pedro or Kentucky Fried Chicken or eat out from some affordable restaurants like Buddy's in Timog, Quezon City, Kowloon House or Causeway Restaurant.  These eat outs also serve as family bonding time and a respite from the routine of doing the housework. 

There are a lot things to be done and it would be a shame if you can't attend to them because you are buried in the drudgery of housework.  I am not demeaning housework, it's just that there are ways on making life simpler and easier and still enjoy the things that you want to do.  Life is too short to be wasted on inane matters.