Thank God it's Friday!

Green Columns, 2006, Oil on Panel, 12x16









Ahhhh, Friday. Somehow, after years of being at home, without having a traditional job or being in school, I am always happy when Friday comes around each week. It's a false happiness however, because I usually have more work to do on the weekends than during the week.

Weekends for me are for catching up. Catching up on housework is usually first on the list. And before anyone assumes I do all the cleaning because I am the female, let me assure you, I certainly do not! Back when I was a stay at home mom, the housework was primarily my responsibility, that was the agreement between Doug and I. I must add though, that we did have a weekly housecleaner for awhile and also that Doug would always help if I asked him to. He wouldn't do it on his own neccessarily, but didn't mind doing it if I asked him. That's pretty good, huh? However, now that I am working as much as he is, we pretty much divide it. Still, it is my job is to delegate and organize the cleaning chores. I do some of it, and I give Doug something to do, usually the bathrooms as he hates cleaning them a bit less than I do, and the kids have various responsibilities.

Anyway, I also catch up on paperwork, clean up my studio, if necessary and if I have a show coming up, I may still have to put some time in working in the studio. Then the kids have activities: soccer games, birthday parties, playdates, sleepovers, scout meetings, etc. Since we are fairly new to the area where we live, we don't have much of a social life, but there is occasionally a dinner out, a party, and more often, a gallery opening to attend. There is always something to be done in the yard, though not so much right now, as we tend to ignore our property in the winter. But in the summer there is a ton of work to do outside: gardening, mowing, retrieving the shingles that have been blown off our ailing roof during the last windstorm. Then there are the bigger projects also saved for the weekend-cleaning out the basement, the attic, the garage, building a rock wall, painting the fence. It's endless really.

So, despite the fact that we have about 7,893 things to do in the next two days, including a sleepover, two birthday parties, a gallery opening, recycling, and a peace march, I am still glad it's Friday. Go figure.