Sometimes you Have to Prove a Point

Posted December 14, 2013 by Prairie Wife -

So, things around the Prairie Homestead have fallen a little behind this week. Between Christmas programs, parties and just the regular craziness of life my house is pretty much trashed. It doesn’t help that rather than being gone all week like usual, The Cowboy has been home every night because of the Christmas programs and parties he has to attend. Here is a little story about what happened this week. I would appreciate an opinion from my readers in the comments section, about whether you feel I overreacted…or not. Don’t worry I can handle the truth.

So on Sunday is normally my laundry day, but this week we had our annual cookie exchange party, so I didn’t get any laundry started until Monday. On Monday The Cowboy informed me that he had volunteered me to bake desserts for a small get together of guys (and their families) from work. Of course he said I would make pies, the most time consuming and work intensive of all desserts. Add to that the fact that my children tag teamed me on Monday night, resulting in only a few hours of sleep.

On Tuesday the water went out for the afternoon, now my week is well and truly off and running. Tuesday evening my two oldest Cowkids had their Christmas program (this means we spent over 3 hours in the car going back and forth into town). The Christmas program was lovely. Cowboy J was great as Joseph and sang his solo beautifully and Cowgirl G remembered to say her line loud and clear. It ended as all great Christmas Programs do, with a small child vomiting everywhere. On Wednesday rather than going home right after school and getting caught up, we met some friends to deliver Santa letters at Macy’s and have dinner. An annual tradition that we all love, but it still made me fall further behind. Hopefully you can see why by Thursday I was feeling a little tense.

Cue Thursday morning. The Cowboy generously offers to take the kids into school. This allows me an extra hour to get caught up on things around the house before I have to head to town for a meeting. As he is getting ready for work I am in our room “folding” laundry and “putting it away”. Folding and putting it away are in quotations marks because, as The Cowboy says, it is more of wadding and shoving process. My poor SisterInLaw3 (the most precise folder I have ever seen, seriously she makes it an art form) shudders when she opens our bathroom cupboards for a towel.

The Cowboy and I have come to terms with my lack of folding. In true cowboy fashion he likes his jeans and shirts crisply ironed and starched. I have agreed to pull them out of the dryer ASAP and hang them up, which results in fewer wrinkles. He then irons them at the hotel before he wears them; really they are in a suitcase all week anyway which makes them wrinkly but whatever…As I am putting away laundry I pull out a pair of his jeans. In all honesty they were probably in the dryer for about 24 hours before I got to them. I quickly try to hide the evidence but I’ve been spotted.

The Cowboy holds out his hand “Why don’t you just give those to me now, rather than wad them up and make things worse. I’m going to have to iron them anyway before I can wear them.” I silently stare at him for a few minutes and hear a slight ringing noise in my ears. I look him in the eye as I continue to “fold” his jeans, throw them on the ground, stomp on them with my right foot, then switch and use my left foot to do the twist on top of them. Without breaking eye contact I bend over and pick up his pants and give them a good shake. “Here sweetie is that better?!” I hand him his jeans.

As a man that has been married for almost a decade, I can see the wheels turning in his head as he reaches out slowly for his jeans. “I think I’ll finish getting the kids ready for school.” He says, as he gently set the jeans on the bed and quickly high tails it out of the bedroom.

Categories: Life As It Happens, Prairie Life

Tags: , angry, ironing, marriage, Prairie Wife Life, The Cowboy