Domestic Helper

Got ourselves a domestic helper.

I am not a fan of having a stranger stay in the house and my tolerance for mess is pretty high, so I was not very enthusiastic about the plan. But I do know that my in laws will appreciate that extra help esp when Megan is now under their care. My CFO told me I will get used to having a helper very quickly... so one sunny afternoon, 2 months ago, we fetched our helper home. I was totally awkward and have no idea what  to tell her to do.

Now B's words kept ringing in my head - " a good domestic helper is worth her weight in gold".
How true. Clearing of household clutter is her obvious visible contribution. Her not so obvious contribution is what matters most to me - her clearing of my invisible mental strain.

Housework chores drains my energy but mentally planning for what to eat, how to cook, what ingredients to buy, where to buy them, which slot in my day do I have time to buy weights me down tremendously. And that is just one singular meal. Then comes the long list of my neglected tasks that make me feel weary and guilty whenever I thought of them. I need to clear the detritus in my mind. But how many hours does one have in a day? Just contemplating the magnitude of accumulative tasks for a week stresses me.

I expect my helper to take over the physical household chores... but I did not expect myself to become unparalysed by my mental clutter just like that. All of a sudden, as we got used to one another, she took over planning the day's events in the house. She tracks Megan's feeding time, worries over weekly schedule and workflow, reminds me what I need to buy for her to do her work etc... Basically, she took over my mental household to-do list so that I do not need to do the thinking.

Suddenly, I could focus better and am more effective in what is left for me to do. Suddenly my happiness index went up!! Ken must testify that I become calmer with an improved sense of inner peace. I also become more patient with sweetie pie and have more energy to play.

What an amazing transformation!! Gareth, you are right!! I do get use to having a helper very quickly...

In other news... against our better judgement, we bought sunflowers during the CNY season. The part time Bengali nursery worker told us "sunflower good buy! cannot die!" WAHHHH.... BUY. BUY 3!

After 2 weeks, all the crowning jewels died. We discovered that when they die, they let off a very sour smell... yucks... we have no choice but to nip the dead lumps off. To our surprise, after trimming the dead flower, buds started to grow at every leave junction on the stalk. Impressive and they all started to bloom! Not as big as the crowing jewel of cause but healthy flowers all the same.

After 2 weeks all the flowers died and the accumulative sour stench of forty over flowers made us decide to abandon the planter project and throw everything away. Our helper of course is the one who took the pots out.

Cheers!