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I will be praying for you, Donna. I do hope you heal very well and steadily.

Your posts are so calming and always so welcome. You have such a lovely home and I do, very much, like your organized drawers.

I find myself staying away from technology more these days. It bothers my eyes and I need to do so much eliminating of items around our home that time is precious. I have a Fall goal to have our entire house organized and excess eliminated by October 1; preferably sooner.

We are in our mid-70's and are slower these days. Health issues limit our ability to stay on top of so much, plus we no longer want to do that. We garden and enjoy that, but way too much "stuff" wastes valuable time to care for and maintain it.

Your garden looks wonderful. I like your idea for simple meal plans. I have tried to go in that direction, also.

May God bless you abundantly,

Glenda

Dear GDonna, 

I came across your blog somehow and I wanted to let you know how much I love it! I have spent hours reading your articles and I have so enjoyed them. I feel we are a kindred spirit! I have learned so much! I love how peacefully you write. I hope all goes well with your surgery. May you feel God’s presence with you during, after the surgery and always :).   Sue Johnson

I plan the same 7 dinners for each week, and then tweak it seasonally.  My ancestry is more than 85% from the British Isles, whereas my husband's ancestry is 25% Italian, 25% British Isles, and the final 50% is a combination of Spain and indigenous Mexico (my final 12.5% is also Spain and indigenous Mexico).  So we do have variety in our meals.  Right now we are eating everything from our freezer and pantry as we prepare to have our house fumigated for termites, but as soon as that is complete we'll begin our summer meal rotation, as follows: Sundays are roast chicken with quinoa salad and vegetables, Mondays are pinto beans, rice, and vegetables, Tuesdays are leftovers, Wednesdays are pasta and vegetables, Thursdays are potato salad and fruit , Fridays are salmon with quinoa and vegetables, and Saturdays are fried eggs served in bowls with rice and zucchini. Potatoes don't keep well in the summer where we live, so I only cook potatoes on the day I get groceries.  Meat has gotten quite expensive so my husband and I are eating less of it, and getting protein from eggs, tuna sandwiches, etc.

I don't get bored with the same simple meals each week, but my family sometimes fatigues on them, so switching them up every 3 months to change with the seasons works well for us.  I take summer off from cooking soups and stews, and we look forward to having them again in fall, along with baked pasta dishes and chicken pot pie. Then in winter we add in some fattier, denser meals with more braises, root vegetables, winter squashes, and cabbage, before greeting spring with quiches and frittatas, vegetarian pizza, and perhaps a bit of lamb.

Best wishes for a complete recovery from your surgery!

I love the look of your home and how orderly and neat it appears.  I can see how that would make for a calmer environment for everyone who lives there.  

I will be keeping you in mind for the next little while------thinking about your surgery and sending positive thoughts out to you.  It sounds as though you have everything all organized and ready to make your recuperation go more smoothly for you and Charles.  

Take care.

I do hope your surgery goes well, I love your blog it is so calming and 

something I think we could all benefit from in these times of chaos :)

Take care God bless xxx

Thank you for this wonderful post. Living in the Netherlands I recognize the meals. 

We use a lot of simple meals too. Just veggies with cooked potatoes and a piece of meat. We make mash with potatoes and kale and eat it with smoked sausage. Sauerkraut mash with potatoes, combined with pineapple and smoked sausage is a favourite too.

My husband and I usually eat a pasta dish, a rice dish, a fried potatoe dish and veggies with cooked potatoes and a little meat for the rest of the week. Sometimes we make stew. I really love aubergine stew with onion, tomatoes, zuchini and chorizo, we eat that with rice.

lots of strength and well wishes for the surgery. Take good care.

Sweet potatoes have become very popular over the last years - I even grew some a couple of years back when I still lived in France. I noticed plants for sale here in UK too but we don't have the space to grow them here. We Brits do love a curry - stems from our time in India so I like to have one every week or so. Meat and two or three veg was always the mantra - roast on Sunday with the leftovers on Monday which is when you would have your cottage or shepherds pie. Sausage and mash is always popular and meat pies too. Then don't forget fish and chips on Friday. I must admit I like my food more spicy and varied. 

Love your cucumber arbor - we have one plant in our greenhouse and we are cutting already. Hope all goes well with your op. xx

My thoughts are with you my old friend.

I wish you lots of luck with your surgery and a speedy recovery.

And please just write blog post when you feel like it, this way it is heartfelt and cozy to read - and fun for you to write. As long as you keeps blogging I'm happy (I'm addicted ;)).

lots of e-hugs 
Sanne, Denmark

Dear GDonna,

I'm so glad that you are doing well. I'm praying that all goes well with your surgery and you have a complete and speedy recovery. I do love your posts. There is such a sense of calm and peacefulness. I do think most of us have too much stuff and as we thin it we acquire more calm to our lives. We moved a year ago and I am still trying to figure out the best place for things and we still have more thinning out to do. You are such an inspiration to so many of us. 

Blessings always,

Carol

What a nice surprise to have a post from you in my mailbox.  Years ago we worked up a menu plan that runs for three weeks. I am trying to cook on the weekend for at least 4 days for Monday through Thursday. I stew 2 chicken breasts and then sauté with peppers and onions and that gives us topping for rice one night and quesadillas another night. Things like that because we are in our early seventies and care for our active nine month old grandson every day. Praying for a successful surgery 

I don't have British meal suggestions - I don't think that anyone in my background was British.  If they were, their customs sure didn't carry through.  

I appreciate your blog.  I feel myself pulling back a little more from modernity as I age and doing things more like people used to do, although I admit I really enjoy some modern things like my big freezer.  Still, I'm reaching for a simpler, thoughtful lifestyle, and this blog supports my efforts to calm down, slow down, and simplify.  

Best of luck on your surgery!

I'm always so happy to see a post. I know on days (or months) like I've had, I can enjoy a peaceful read that really speaks to me. Thank you.  I know though, you may be stressed as well with the upcoming surgery, however, I am praying for you and can't wait to hear from you once it's over.  The drawers look lovely and the house looks definitely in order!  I just had 3 main rooms painted and I feel like I need to cull. So much is not going back into them.  Plus it was beyond a lot of work prepping the walls, removing things from drawers and cabinets so we could move the furniture off the walls. I kept thinking of you redoing your floors. I think I could not do that. This darn near killed me. LOL.  Your garden looks fantastic and cukes like that....oh.... yummy! 

Dear Grandma Donna,

I was filled with joy when an email arrived to say you'd written a new post :) and it contained the same lovely wisdom that you always share - thank you !

To answer your question about traditional food. I grew up in the South Island of New Zealand and our people originally came from Scotland/Ireland. My Nana cooked simple food which I loved as a child and still do to this day. I cook a lot of those similar recipes myself. My body seems to prefer simpler, less spicy food as I get older anyway. I did have a chuckle when I saw Cottage Pie as that is a favourite here too. My Mum would normally always cook a roast Mutton on Sunday. Then on Monday we would have Shepherds Pie from the leftover roast meat (the cooked cold meat was put through a hand mincer, seasonings and gravy added, then into a pie dish with masked potato on top, grated cheese and baked), then Tuesday was cold mutton, salad and boiled potatoes. We often went to school with the mutton on our sandwiches too ! We ate sausages with mashed potato, peas, carrots and gravy; beef casserole with probably the same side vegetables and occasionally roast chicken with roast potatoes, peas, carrots, gravy etc.

The seasoning ingredients for cottage pie or a stew are pretty similar: Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, tomato sauce, beef stock cube, salt, pepper, an onion, mixed herbs.

I still cook this way, but also add in a bit of Mexican cuisine occasionally, plus we have soups quite often.

I hope this was helpful. Blessings and prayers over you for your upcoming surgery dear Donna ~ your friend Linda

Hello and a good afternoon from a sunny British Isles!

As always your blog is an inspiration and I have been having a good think back to the meals that my Mum and Grandma used to cook for us on a regular basis, here is a list below of the ones that are still a firm favourite in my house today, nothing fancy, just good home cooking.

Cottage Pie - beef mince, 

Shepherds Pie - lamb mince

Sausages featured regularly so Toad in the Hole, Bangers and Mash or sometimes Mum would make one big Yorkshire Pudding and put the sausages inside with a thick, onion gravy.

Homity Pie, this was one of my favs, it’s an open pie made with potatoes, leeks & onions, topped with cheese and baked.

Lancashire Hotpot

Marrow stuffed with savoury mince

Egg and bacon pie, open flan using up odds & ends of bacon joint.

Hope that is a few ideas to be getting on with, the bbcgoodfood website has thousands of recipes and is a valuable source of information.

Sending you all best wishes for a successful operation and a speedy recovery
 

How nice to see a post from you today!  Your garden looks lovely, as does your house.  Question....in the 8th picture from the top, there a small folded table near the doorway with a lovely doily on the top.  Is there a name for that style of table?  Looks just like what I need for a small area.

As far as meals, I don't do a lot of planning, beyond what time I need to thaw something from the freezer or to take into account cooking times.  I often check the refrigerator first to see what needs to be used up and incorporate it into whatever I am making for supper.

Good luck with your upcoming surgery.  Keeping you in my prayers!

It's either a drop leaf table or a gate leg table.  The difference being how the leaves are supported when they are extended.  We have one quite like that one with a narrow top about 14 inches wide with leaves that drop down about 8 or 9 inches.  Very handy since when the back leaf is folded down it can go flat next to the wall with the other leaf extended or not depending on how much surface you need at the moment.

Debbie------just another thought.  You could probably find a nice sturdy one at an antique store or mall.  We have over the years acquired quite a lot of furniture at auctions or antique stores.  The quality of the wooden pieces is generally much superior to what you would pay a lot more for at a furniture store.

Grandma Donna wrote, Debbie in PA,  we love our little side table.  Thank you Victoria for describing this table.  I have not ever been sure myself.  It is a drop leaf on both sides with a swinging leg on each side that comes out to support the leaf in the middle.  One side can remain down and the other side up so it can be flush against the wall.  Both leaves up it can be a small tea table.  It can be used for extra dining space. I have used it for a writing table when I was doing some genealogy and when finished I put it away in it's little space.  It is very charming. (heart)  

Thank you to all of you for your posts, I am reading all of them.  My son Tim will post after my 

surgery. 

Hello Donna

You have mentioned most of the everyday British meals like cottage pie but I will add a few more to the list. All of these would be cooked from scratch.

Fish pie, fishcakes, kippers with bread and butter, cauliflower cheese, egg and bacon flan, lambs liver with bacon and onions, faggots with onion gravy , Lancashire hotpot, Coronation chicken, Cock a leekie soup, stuffed and rolled breast of lamb. Puddings were always served back in the day as a way to fill tummies. You probably know most of them-  bread and butter pudding, fruit crumbles and pies, stewed fruit, fruit fools, sticky toffee pudding and all sorts of steamed puddings, my favourite is Sussex Pond pudding, Eves pudding ,also Summer pudding is food of the gods, Eton Mess. 

There's lots more but my brain needs another cup of tea! Best wishes for the surgery.

Penny

Praying for a successful surgery and a quick recovery. You are in my thoughts and prayers.

This may bring a smile to your face. On Saturday, the 17th, Tom and I went to our first auction since 1976. We bid on a wringer washer and won! Yay! For $50, we got the washer and it even has the original book. I was afraid that even though we were told it works, it wouldn't, but we took it home and it does work. Double yay! I will think of you as I wash clothes. I am thrilled. I missed the one we had. 

Wishing you peace during your recovery~

How cool is this?  :) :)

victoria w. thank you for the information on the table.  I will start searching for one.  That is just the sort of furniture I like!  Grandma Donna--all the uses that you described are similar to what i was thinking.  The best thing I like it that it offers so much flexibility for use while taking up so little space, and it looks so nice!

The lady who bid on the washer and found it works sure made me smile! I love looking at those appliances and antique items. We called our tables like GD's a drop leaf table. I see them for sale quite often, but most are open all the way and never folded up on one side or both. A dish that wasn't mentioned or at least that I didn't see mentioned is Bubbles and Squeek. I remember in the 90's when people started cooking Hollywood style as we call it. Our family enjoys eating the basics that I fix like meatloaf, potroast, etc. It takes the stress out of dinner time and even if something comes up where your late getting to dinner it's still possible to get it done in a resonable time. Your placemats are so bright and cheerful!

Hi Donna, I just love the sweetness of this post. The dresser with the napkins reminds me so much of my aunt and my grandmother, who each had a dresser in the dining room, with napkins and table linens. This seems to be a lost art. I am also inspired by the rotation of meals, as someone stated - we Americans have too many choices! Too many choices causes decision fatigue, in my opinion. I often get overwhelmed at trying to decide on meals, over and over.

I hope your surgery was a success and that you are feeling better. Take care and may the Lord bless you today :)