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My mom and dad would prepare whole meals sometimes for neighboring families. I have a platter my grandmother gave to a family when their house burned down and probably 50 years later her daughter returned it to me

We are fortunate to still have community in our church and neighborhood.  Our neighbors are just awesome and we will not move from our large house for that reason. We all look out for and help each other.

Our go to is always homemade bread or rolls.  Some have told us that after a death in the family the only thing they could eat was those rolls or bread.  My husband is the bread baker and I am the roll maker.  

The rhythmic week sounds so nice. There is so much freedom nowadays, but sometimes little things remind me how much we have lost by not being bound to traditions of rhythm and seasons.

Our church is very good about taking meals to each other. Everyone does have a specialty: Miss Georgia makes the best light bread and Miss Barbara makes the best tea. It’s like the stone soup story. Everyone brings a bit and soon there’s a feast! Do you remember Wednesday night church suppers? I loved them for all the good food at midweek and everyone shared leftovers so Thursday night supper would be taken care of too! It was a lovely tradition. 

I definitely remember this. My mom was known for her pumpkin pie and my aunt for her sweet potato pie.  That's all gone south.  I wasn't really taught how to cook, other than turn the oven on to a certain degree and put it in there.  I think a lot of this was lost when mom's worked. I to this day hate to cook and despise potlucks.  (I've seen people's kitchens, yikes!)  And it's just not my thing.  So many good things lost over time. Thanks for the reminder.  And I really wish you could print your blog into a book!

Neighborhoods and Communities were different back then, for sure. I miss that time more than I can express. Neighbors don't bother to be neighborly any longer. Everyone is caught up in their own life.

When my sister-in-law died, our Ohio relative was astonished to see food brought to the widower. It’s still a habit here in North Florida, but dying out. I take breakfast muffins because the morning of the funeral, most don’t want to cook. 

We used to do more of this. I wish we still did. 

My church is good about taking food to families with a need.  We also serve meals after funerals.  Last one was a couple weeks ago, and we served 100.  Tomorrow is another one.

My mother and grandmothers and probably most of the other women in town stuck to the doing chores on certain days.  They also did many more things such as gardening, canning, volunteering and some worked either full or part time.  I think reserving certain days for certain chores ensured the necessary got done and left time for the other work once the necessary was finished.  

When I was first married, I followed the weekly schedule including always scrubbing the kitchen floor on Friday.  When I went back to working full time when #1 child was two, I didn't get the floor scrubbed on a Friday or the next Friday and I discovered the world did not end.  Since that time, I scrub the floor when it needs it not on a schedule.  

Same with laundry, when the hamper is full works for me.  However, back in the day before automatic washers' laundry was a huge task and could take most of the day.  Once I had my own wonderful Maytag wringer washer, I had a laundry day to handle the weeks washing.  My dh purchased a used wringer washer at an auction and to this day I have to say it was the most appreciated appliance I ever received.  Washing by hand or going to laundromat was a pain.  I love having an automatic washer, but that wringer washer was ever so wonderful.   Doing without is a strong incentive for appreciation.

When my friend's husband was hospitalized because of a serious accident (he nearly died) another friend was setting up a schedule to get her some meals. Well I said I'd contribute but after a week she still hadn't gotten the schedule done. So I spent a couple days just cooking and cooking. I made enough food for a month. 

People do occasionally do this. When the husband of a woman at church died unexpectedly an email was sent out to sign up for meal donations.

I don't think it happens as often as it should though.

After I had my first child, I joined a nursing mothers group. They were fantastic at organising rosters for home cooked meals when a new baby was born. I used to enjoy cooking a meal and dropping it off for the family with a newborn but still managed to feel surprised when I had people knock on my door with a meal when I had a new babe. It was so nice to be thought of.

At my children's school, you used to be able to put your name down as someone who would cook a meal, do some ironing, organise lifts to school or help in some other way if a family had a death or illness or was having a hard time of it. 

I don't know if people are as receptive to help anymore. I feel that people don't want to be seen as someone needing to receive charity. My father had a massive heart attack at 33 when my mother was 7 months pregnant with me and that put them in serious financial trouble. They always talked about how wonderful the Salvation Army were to give them some money for groceries. They never forgot it and my father always gave generously to them his whole life.

When we moved into our home 23 years ago, it was an old established neighbourhood and our yard had a concrete path from our clothesline to the back fence with our neighbours who were in their 90's. There was a gate there and when it looked like rain and we were out, Ivy our neighbour would come over and take our clothes off the line. I used to thank her and she would say, well I didn't  want them to get wet.

I like to have a big lasagne in the freezer with lots of vegetables in the meat sauce, so the recipient doesn't need to prepare a separate serve of veg.

To be honest, I haven't done this in a while, but I used to make and freeze two lasagnes a week: one for us and one to share.

Today's post has inspired me to get back into that habit.

This week has been so lovely, reading your very interesting posts, Grandma Donna, and reconnecting with everyone in the comments.

PS: a good idea is to provide a list of the ingredients, if you don't know the people very well, just in case.

Thank you, Grandma Donna, for all the work you have put into your blog and this community over the years. They have been such a blessing to me!

My grandmother made the very best pumpkin pies with the family recipe of crust made from lard. I have never been able to replicate it. 

Our family also had a house fire in the 1970s when I was a teenager. Our church community really stepped up and helped us. Since it was the summertime, many families went on vacation for a week or two at a time, and they invited our family to stay in their homes while they were gone. We were given clothes, and my gym teacher took our clothes home and washed them to try to get the smoke smell out. 

We also are using solar lights outside, which saves on the electric bill.