My standard joke is that I graduated from St. Bonaventure University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism/Mass Communication and an advanced degree in laundry.

See, I was the manager for the women’s basketball team for four years and doing the team’s laundry is one of the major duties. That includes doing laundry on the road trips. I distinctly remember walking around Philadelphia, with the grey laundry sack slung over my shoulder and a pocket full of quarters, searching for a laundromat to wash the uniforms for our next game.

Laundry has always been the one household chore I actually enjoyed. I’m not great at organizing. I’m terrible at cleaning toilets, washing floors, doing the dishes. I don’t know if I’ve ever washed a window in my life, with the possible exception of helping my dad when I was a little because I could do it for 30 seconds and it was considered a cute Kodak moment.

When I got married last year, one of the amazing things was having a husband who helped share the load. He cooks. He cleans. He does his own laundry. As life threw me a curveball when my mom got sick, he picked up pretty much everything around the house. It was one of the biggest blessings of my life — to have a partner who took the lead when I couldn’t.

Now, it’s my turn.

My husband is a nurse and his work world is uncertain and chaotic during this time of COVID-19. That means we’re on self-quarantine as much as possible to reduce the risk of exposing other people. Meanwhile, I was laid off from my job, a casualty of the virus as cultural non-profits take a hard hit in funding.

So I’m home. Really home. Home with no telecommuting for work and a job search that is limited as (a) few places are hiring and (b) everyone and their grandmother is in the same position as I am.

How can I contribute? This was the question I asked myself last week. Unemployment was filed. Job searching, resume constructing, and vision-board building were underway. But what could I do to contribute to my household right now? How could I help?

I decided to become an American Housewife.

This, granted, is an oversimplified version of being a housewife, a role which has been much maligned throughout the modern age and a moniker that with a bad taste for many as it’s now part of what I affectionately refer to as the “trash-TV” genre. Personally, my role as housewife is not very big. We have no small children, although we do live with my 84-year-old father-in-law who sometimes plays the role of petulant 5-year-old just for good measure. We live a rather comfortable, sometimes even soft, life. Still, this was a way for me to feel as if I was contributing to our collective cause — step up on the home front, take care of laundry and meal prep, make sure things stay organized, and attend to the little things that creep up in a household.

This is no different than what millions of people do every day. It’s not much different than what we do in our home, either. Everyone has to wash the clothes, cook the food, and clean up the dishes. Everyone has to find a way to run their own household with their own unique set of circumstances.

In reality, all I’m doing for my husband is what he did for me while my mom was sick — taking care of the daily tasks of life so he has one less thing on his to-do list. I want to give him the opportunity to take care of himself, so he can continue to go to work and help others who are sick.

But who said life didn’t come with some style points? Who said we couldn’t have a little fun with this? There’s something for me about taking on the role of American Housewife and putting my own spin on it that feels not only helpful and important, but an opportunity for a little creativity and lot of (much-needed) levity.

So welcome to Becoming an American Housewife: The AmyMo Edition coming to this blog space every Wednesday.

This week’s entry:
Don’t cry over too much milk

Originally, I was going to share one of our healthy dinner recipes. Because thankfully my husband and I share a desire to eat good, healthy, plant-based foods the majority of the time. I’m lucky in that he will experiment with tofu and loves vegetables and quinoa. (I know, it’s weird, right?) And right now we’re both committed to being as healthy as possible.

But, into all well-balanced life some chocolate must fall.

And when my husband had gone to the grocery store last week to stock up, he bought a gallon of milk. He doesn’t drink milk, you understand. He can have milk in recipes and desserts, but he can’t do straight cow’s milk. And I drink milk but not a gallon at a time.

What to do?

Pull up a recipe to make homemade chocolate pudding. A treat for us. Less waste for the planet.

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Homemade Chocolate Pudding

2/3 cups sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cups chocolate chips
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. In a large saucepan, whisk together sugar, cornstarch, cocoa powder and salt until well combined. Whisk in the milk. Heat the mixture over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens and starts to bubble lightly, about 6 to 8 minutes. Remove from heat. Stire in the chocolate chips and vanilla extract.
2. Divide the pudding into six 4-ounce ramekins. (Or whatever you have on hand!) Place a bit of plastic wrap or waxed paper ON the surface of the pudding to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate for several hours.

From goodcheapeats.com