It’s 10am and I’m trying to mend my new dress I bought. I’ve been trying to mend all week to bring in the top and bodice because it’s too big for me. The alteration I had planned was designed with a friend’s help but it’s just not working. It’s hard to explain. I’ve been persisting all week with it amongst taking breaks to mend other clothes that have been on a ‘mend’ list. Two pairs of Tim’s work trousers which he split, a favourite dress of mine which has a hole that I’ve patched to turn into a work/garden dress and a bra strap that came undone. Now I’m back to the dress. I’m looking for a magic trick right about now. A job that I though would take ‘a hour or so’ has turned into a week-long job. Now I’m so far into the job I feel like I’ve got to keep going to not waste the investment. I’m now at a crossroads. 1.) Keep persisting 2.) redesign alteration 3.) find someone to alter for me. I feel frustrated by the time it’s taken to do the task. I want to be doing other things.

I’ve stopped writing on my blog – something I’ve wanted to do. Somewhere along the way I’ve let other things become a priority. Like housework?!? The housework jobs never end. I’ve wanted to get on top of a job like altering my dresses I bought. Then these jobs take too long. I think *other people* wouldn’t bother persisting like I do. Now I think about the time I’ve spent already and definitely think I could have been ahead if I’d paid someone. Now I’m too far in. Committed already. There is a truth to paying someone to do something they are skilled at. There’s also a truth that we can learn new skills and some jobs are easy for us to do. I thought it would be in the ‘easy job’ list.

Such seemingly mundane things to think about sometimes. But in reality they are questions of household economics. I feel caught between two ideas sometimes. Paying someone to do something and doing it myself. I want to problem solve and be diverse in my skill set but I am also sure now that someone else would do a better job. Finding someone with the skills is a task in itself too. Recently we paid a local business to do a job for us. We were disappointed with their service – we definitely thought we could have done a better job than them. Even my husband who humbly admits he is not very handy said ‘I could have done a better job’. So finding someone with good skills is actually not a straight forward task, especially in a small country town. One of the challenges living in Broken Hill is getting stuff done in an isolated place. So it’s a risk to try someone out if you haven’t had a recommendation from anyone about their work.

But back to that dress. I have definitely been procrastinating what I am going to do about it by now writing a blog post about my conundrum. I must give back the sewing machine to my friend very soon. But writing this has been cathartic. And I really should read Annabel Crabb’s book The Wife Drought. I’ll get to it after I finish the housework.