Mission accomplished...

I made the yummiest dinner last night. It was mackrel fillets marinated in soy sauce, honey and sesame seeds. I grilled them in the oven and served them with noodles stir fried in the marinade and steamed broccoli and asparagus. Martin told me it was "outstanding," and even Dylan ate most of his. Edith had baby food, but she tried (and loved) the mackrel.

I can't believe how efficient I am getting in the kitchen. I usually prep dinner while I'm cooking breakfast and lunch, and can cook a meal and clean the kitchen all at once. My vegetable chopping and peeling skills have improved so much in the last two years it's just insane. I still don't enjoy cooking family meals (although I do enjoy cooking for company) but that's next. It IS very satisfying when dinner flies off the plates.

Apparently, the women that Martin works with think that I am a lazy housewife.

Martin has never said that I am, but he let it slip that it was the general consensus of the three women he works with/for. They told him that he does "too much" at our house, and wondered what I was doing all day that he had to do so much when he got home.

This information didn't sit well with me, as you can imagine. Especially because the opinion was expressed while I was heavily pregnant with Edith and very ill with my asthma. I WANTED to do more to help out, but was physically unable to.

These women have no idea what Martin is like. He is one of those strange people who are totally fastidious about their personal appearance but are totally slovenly in every other aspect of their life. I adore my husband, but that's just the way he is. So they don't realize that just picking up the mess that he leaves in his wake is a full time job, never mind caring for children on top of it. But knowing that his coworkers thought this about me has rankled for over a year now.

I have been striving to do more around the house since then, at a cost to my physical health at times, and yesterday I finally got a little recognition for my efforts. Martin asked what he could do to help me while I was doing dinner, and I told him there was nothing. Just play with the kids. And he told me that he feels useless around the house.

GOAL!!!

Now, if he could just tell that to all the ladies at work...