The art of being a housewife, or: how Benjamin Franklin would have done it better

(4) "Resolution. Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve."

At the age of 20, Benjamin Franklin made a list of 13 virtues that he would strive to stick to for the rest of his life. Just a few keywords about how he lived: ate vegetarian to save money to buy books, no beer, only water to work harder, swam everyday when fitness wasn't even invented yet. He lived up to one of his 13 virtues every week, wrote an evaluation on Sunday and went on to the next. Although he never claimed to be perfect, his holistic approach to self improvement definitely paid off as he became one of the greatest people of his time. Respect!

Benjamin's approach highly appealed to me when I first heard about it. It was during my first months at university, and because I hardly knew anyone there, this was my chance to start afresh and create a new and better identity. (or so I thought at that time)

These days I'm in a similar situation. A new city (Shanghai), a new house, a new occupation (housewife & mother), no friends and family around (yet). Again I have all these great plans about what I'll be doing with my time here. A short evaluation of my self-improvement so far:

• Lot's of sport. I downloaded some pilates routines, ab crunchers and 'get rid of that baby belly' instructions. I do them. Sometimes. Half an hour of sit ups leaves me with a stomach ache for two days. I've checked out the swimming pool, haven't gone inside. I guess carrying Nelson around hours on end does something... (+/-)
• Lot's of routine in breastfeeding. Well. It's better than before. But. Every time I feed him hours before I had planned to, I resolve that this is really the last time. Only to do it again an hour later when he starts sucking on my arm again. (+/-)
• A clean house. Very effective. Only that it's Godert who does most of it before work when I go back to sleep again. A housewife that doesn't clean, feels wrong. (-)
• Meet inspiring people. Working on it. I am meeting up with some people from the KaosPilots network, my Ashoka network has proved helpful here as well. And what about all the Chinese Nelson admirers that I meet by the dozens every day? I'm sure they're nice people only that (+)
• Learning Chinese has fallen off the list. Even answering the most common question: boy or girl? Is out of my reach. We're meeting our teacher tomorrow for the first time. He might have some old Chinese didactic methods that help me out here. (thinking ruler, donkey ears...) (-)
• Read and Write lots. Yes! (+)
• Less computer, more fresh air. This is not the place to discuss air quality in Shanghai, but we have a lovely garden downstairs and I found the perfect spot between bamboo bushes, rhododendrons and other greens where Nelson can sleep in the shade, I can tan my legs and we're a little hidden from the admirers. Going there as we're speaking. (+)

By Inga Auðbjörg - my mascot

Not sure if Mr Franklin did long-term evaluations as well. Definitely my first attempt ten years ago failed awfully. Thinking of virtue number 4 about resolving, perhaps I forgot to take that one serious back then. I'll keep you posted on my progress this time. And as I'm not planning to be one of the greatest people of my time, but only aiming to have a great time, it might just be enough...