I know exactly what you mean Leftys Buoy. I get up with her in the morning at stupid o'clock, make her lunch, start the car for her, see her off to work, which is always when I hear those words, "clean the house, do chores." Then I come back in and start the daily routine that keeps the house clean. (SHHHHH, sometimes, in fact many times, that routine includes going back to bed for a few hours because I haven't slept well.) I feed the cats, scoop the litter or change it when necessary. (they're her cats she had them long before I came into her life, I just inherited them afterwards, and they like my rubs better than hers, in fact they will leave her when she's rubbing them and come to me for a rub and all I have to do is look at them and point to the footstool beside my chair lol.) I do all the cooking and the dishes. Yep I even do windows once in a while lol. When she isn't working, I'm her chauffeur.
I don't think she understands that I do certain things around here on certain days and because I have a "routine" it doesn't take me that long to get things done. I clean the house, she comes home and makes a mess lol and it's always the same question when she gets home, "what did you do today?" I tell her nothin. Sometimes I think she forgets that the house doesn't magically clean itself and that on those days when I've decided I'm going to go fishing, or have other plans, ie taking my truck to the repair shop and spend the day visiting my parents while it's being repaired, the day before I go, I do what I would've normally done the day I've decided to go fishing or have other errands to run so everything still gets done, AND on those days when I go fishing or take the truck for a repair or routine maintenance, she'll be chauffeured to work and then home again when I pick her up. She comes home to a hot meal, and a clean house every day. My son refers to me as my wife's "man b**ch extradorinaire." She calls me something slightly different and every once in a while, she'll acknowledge how spoiled she is by bringing me home a treat but that requires being consistent in the routine for an extended period