What does a housewife do all day?

Sometimes I get to the end of my day and I think "so, what did I do today?  What did I accomplish?  Why does my bathroom still look like that?  What's for dinner?"  Actually, that's everyday.  And yet I hear from books and media and even other people that they just don't know what a housewife *does* all day.  I suppose the easy answer is, I keep house.  I clean and cook and care for my son.  I'm out of the house a lot, which I imagine surprises people because it seems as though the image of a housewife conjures up someone chained to the stove, but I have a life that involves a lot of running around.  It's hard to think what to say to the question "what do you do?" because the answer is so multi-faceted.  I thought perhaps to clarify a bit I would just keep track, for one day, of what I did, step by step.  I tried to keep David's schedule out of it as much as possible, except where we intersected in some way, because he has a busy life as well and, well, no one ever seems to ask him what he does all day.

8:30 am - David gets up at 6:30 with Samuel but lets me sleep in till 8:30, which was lovely, and then brought Samuel in to change him.  We nursed and cuddled and the three of us lay in bed for an hour having 'family time', which pretty much consists of talking and playing 'where's that baby gone?' with the blankets.  And we started listening to a Charles Stanley sermon.

9:30 am - The baby is very sleepy and needs his first nap, which is my cue to leave the room since David does nap put-down around here much better than I do.  I make a cup of tea, eat some left-over jello for breakfast and wash two loads of dishes.  I field a phone call from a friend who's off to grad school interviews today and then get dressed.

11:00 am - Samuel wakes up from his nap and we nurse and then have some cereal.  I get together everything I need to run errands and then get him dressed and in his outdoor gear.  We head off to pay the rent, go to the bank and return library books.  I also need to buy a gift so we spend a bit of time browsing the shops, also hopefully giving David some time to himself.

2:00 pm - We get home and undressed.  I have a sandwich for lunch while Samuel plays in his crib quietly.  Then we nurse again and David takes over to put him down for an afternoon nap.  I make another cup of tea and sit for a minute - walking for three hours with a 22 pound weight strapped to your chest is a little draining.

2:30 pm - With Samuel down for his nap I put some stock on to simmer and do another three loads of dishes.  I peel and core the older apples in the fruit basket to make applesauce.  I also take the time now to return a few phone calls and give the livingroom a quick tidy.

3:30 pm - Samuel is up from his nap so we nurse and cuddle a bit before I change him and bring him out to play.  We feed and water the cats and turn off the cooked applesauce to cool. 

4:30 pm - I write up my grocery list, gather grocery bags and wallet and get ready to head out grocery shopping while David stays home with the baby.

6:00 pm - Home from grocery shopping I take over from David who has to get to the hardware store before it closes.  Samuel gets into his pajamas and watches me put away the groceries, freeze the applesauce and start a pot of soup with the stock.  This is always the worst time of the day because he never goes down for bed easily, so we spend a lot of time nursing and patting.  I toss a frozen pizza in the oven for supper.

7:15 pm - Samuel finally falls asleep, so I have a moment to update my blog.  The soup is ready to be blended (It's roasted carrot and ginger soup) which I do quickly so that it doesn't wake the baby.  Then I pour it into containers to store for lunch tomorrow.  David gets home and we eat our pizza together and get a chance to catch up for a few minutes.

8:00 pm -  I take some time to gather up our dirty laundry and head to the laundromat to wash clothes.  I take my new magazine along to read, since this is my 'me' time.

9:00 pm - I get back from the laundromat and put away clothes, shower and get into pajamas before knitting a few rows on a new hat for David.

10:00 pm - I have paperwork to get done for a meeting tomorrow at 9am, so I settle down to finish it as quickly as I can.

11:15 pm - Samuel wakes up for his first night feeding. That's my cue to stop working on meeting paperwork and head off to bed.

Looking back at it I'm still not really sure how productive I was today, and when I look at my house you'd never guess in a million years that I worked hard all day, didn't really rest very long at all, and am tired after being awake and on the go for 15 hours straight.  There are still dishes, the rugs didn't get vacuumed, so much needs to be done, but at least, now, I have some idea of where my time goes.  I wonder if this would be a useful exercise to do even once a week?