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We have homemade toast or biscuits- not cookies- with homemade jam for breakfast and sometimes a boiled egg. Our main meal is around 4:30 because at lunch we’re busy with the grandchild. I am already missing November posts. Not many older folks blog. 

You have such a cozy house! 

I am learning lessons today. I learned that you are supposed to replace car batteries when they are five years old. If you wait until they are seven years old, they will probably quit right when you are trying to leave for an appointment. :) 

I tried using our electric jump starter on the battery, but it wouldn't work. After the internet told me a seven year old battery is way past its lifespan, I had to figure out what to do. My husband is away on his job. Our friends are too far for me to feel comfortable asking them for help, plus I wanted to fix this myself. I told my son to get the bike out. He said the tires needed pumping. I said okay, pump them up. He said the pump works off of the car. :) I said okay we can walk the three miles to get the battery. He said batteries are heavy. I had a bike basket and a cargo rack on my list of things to buy, but we don't have them. I finally decided to go to Amazon and order an old school tire pump, a bike cargo rack that holds up to 115 lbs., some bungee cords, and chose next day delivery. Once these things arrive, I can go get cash from the bank because we locked our credit cards up, and my son can go through the neighborhood on the bike to get the battery. He's already watching videos on how to install it in the car. 

I am glad this situation made me get more self-reliant and learn about things I hadn't considered yet. 

I'm doing the retirement readiness, too, although mine is about 6 months away.

I don't know how long I will live - none of us does as a rule! - but people in my family on both sides often live past 90 (7  of them, in just my grandparents and my parents' generations) and three of them passed 100.  I must remember that I may have to make my retirement fund stretch.

I have a one-and-a-half story house and the bedroom is upstairs.  I fully expect to move downstairs into a bedroom down there at some point.  Then the upstairs will be a guest suite, but I will miss it.  I love looking out the windows from up there. I have a programmable thermostat up there already that lets me keep the upstairs quite warm during the day in summer, quite cool during winter, but have the room cooling off or warming up for bedtime.  I noticed a drop in my electric bill when I started using the programmable thermostat.

Answering your questions:

I eat three meals a day, and I call them breakfast, lunch (also called dinner), and supper.  It's how I was raised.  I eat vegetables and a protein at all three meals these days, so I don't really have an actual main meal anymore.  Years ago, supper in the evening was always the main meal and as a kid, we ate it around 5:30 pm.  When I was a busy working mom, my family and I ate it around 6:30 to 7 on most nights.   I grew up eating eggs, eggs and toast, eggs and bacon/sausage, rice with milk and sugar, or oatmeal for breakfast as a rule. Not cereal!

I dry 95% or more of my laundry on racks and clotheslines.

A biscuit for me is a quick bread made of flour, fat, baking powder/baking soda, salt, buttermilk or milk, and butter, lard or shortening, mixed together and gently patted into a disk, then cut out with a circular cutter and baked in a hot oven until nicely golden on top.  Best served hot with real butter, honey, molasses/cane syrup, maple syrup, jelly or jam. 

Having tea for me means having a glass of iced tea with or without a meal, or in winter,  having the occasional cup of hot tea.  There is no tradition in my family of a tea time.

Edit: I meant to add that my mother was 12 in 1932 and the daughter of a city policeman.  Like now, small town police weren't paid well at all, and her family was poor, but policemen and their families were given free access to the movies anytime they wanted.  My grandparents didn't really go to movies, but my mother said she and her siblings spent most of their childhood Saturday afternoons at the movies, watching every acceptable film that came to their theater.  

 What do you eat for a normal everyday breakfast? We either eat toast and jam or marmalade, cereal or a boiled egg and toast. We always have a cup of tea as well- English breakfast tea and milk normally.

How many meals do you eat per day?  Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner? 3 meals a day for us. I had this conversation with my friends recently -I have always used Breakfast as the name for the first meal of the day, and then we have one main meal and one light meal. Dinner is what I call the main meal and it can be in the middle of the day or evening. If the meal in the middle of the day is small then it is called lunch and if the light meal is in the evening it is called supper but my friends all tell me this is quite an old fashioned term. Most people here (England) call their evening meal tea, or tea time and in the North of England supper would only be used to mean a small late night snack if you were hungry still at bedtime.

What time of day do you eat your main meal?  Mostly we have the main meal in the evening in work days and in the middle of the day at the weekend.

How do you dry your laundry? Usually either outside on the line or inside on an airer, in the winter I have airer that goes over our oven which also heats our kitchen as it is constantly on (an Electric Aga). If I have been very busy then I will use the tumble dryer but I try to avoid using it.

What is a biscuit? A sweet hard cracker such as a chocolate digestive or cookie.

Most importantly, what do you consider having tea means? If someone here says they are having tea I would assume they are having their evening meal.

I eat breakfast between and and 7 am as I start work (from home) at 8:30. Lunch is around noon.  Sometimes I will have something cooking while I am working and will plan to have it ready at noon.  Supper is a light meal around 4 and that is usually it for eating for the day as I am trying to give myself a longer fasting period.  

I use inside racks to dry my laundry (sometimes with a fan pointing at them) or I hang them on the outside line.   I prefer the outside line as there are often hummingbirds and dragonflies that visit me while I hang things.  And in October there are often really stunning cobwebs to admire hanging from the lines.  

A biscuit is a flour and butter bread quick bread made with baking powder.  Sometimes, my biscuits are made with sourdough.

Having tea for me means green tea; generally 2 cups with breakfast and one after lunch.  Occasionally I drink iced black tea in warmer weather. 

We are seven years retired and have slowly come to a schedule that suits us both. I am a morning person; he is a night person. I seldom make us breakfast for both of us. I have oatmeal or cream of wheat w/ fruits, molasses, and nuts; veggie omelets (especially mushroom, onion, and sweet pepper with a bit of fresh parmesan on top) and homemade bread toast w/fruit; English muffin w/ bacon or sausage w/ fruit;  yogurt w/ fruit and granola; or biscuits and sausage gravy. I eat at 7; he makes his breakfast at 9.
Our dinner (lunch) will either be light w/ a protein and fruit and side salad or a sandwich w/salad or a bigger meal such as meatloaf w/potatoes and a veggie. Dessert is served either at dinner or supper; never both. Dinner is strictly at noon. Supper is always at 4:30 and will rotate light or main depending on which we had at lunch. Tonight we had a main meal of fried chicken, California veg mix, mashed potatoes and biscuits. Lunch today was a small homemade meatball sub w/ apple, onion, pecan, and butter lettuce salad sprinkled w/ feta. I bake once a week making our bread and dessert (cake, pie, cookies)….

Our snacks are a small protein and fruit. You could say our evening one is our fika!

We live on a farm and I did milk and make all our butter and cheese until my cow had twins and it was too much for her. We have hens and goats as well. We raise a pig every other year. Usually I have a huge garden, but I had a stroke in May and wasn’t able to grow one. Thank goodness we have a lot of canned goods from last year and will be just fine. Next year, though, it will be all hands on deck to grow a big garden and can everything that doesn’t run away! 
Biscuits are bread made with lard, flour, and buttermilk! Lol 
Sorry this got long… it’s fun to see what everyone eats and when and how! 
I guess you can figure I’m a southern Mtn girl from our diet! Lol

The reason people went to the movies three times a week was to see the news reels which usually changed three times a week.  My dad used to go long enough to see the news reel without staying for the movie.  Back then source of news was newspapers, radio or magazines.  Seeing moving pictures of the news was to them what watching the evening news is today.  (Not that I watch it today as it seems more propaganda than news.)

I usually have 3 meals a day although sometimes just 2.  Breakfast varies from cereal to eggs to toast or whatever takes my fancy.  Lunch leftovers or a sandwich.  Evening meat, starch, veggie and sometimes dessert.  

Main meal is supper between 6 and 7 in the evening.

I dry laundry on outside lines in decent weather and in my gas dryer otherwise.  It doesn't use much electricity.  I have clotheslines in the basement but at 82 have no desire to risk carrying laundry down the stairs to hang it.  I have hung clothes all over the place on racks, but as long as I can afford the dryer, that is what I'll use.  

Biscuit to me is baking powder biscuit.  English version would equal to our cookies.

Having tea would equate to a mid-afternoon break. I usually have my daily (only) Pepsi then.  Yes, I know not good for me, but I'm no longer allowed tea due to the type of kidney stones I have.  I consider Pepsi a luxury, and the cost goes into miscellaneous not food budget.  When I used to have tea, I would usually have a cookie or two with it.  The Pepsi has enough sugar without adding anything else.

What do you eat for a normal everyday breakfast? Porridge made with oats, a few slivers of fresh ginger, a few chopped prunes, and blueberries. Plain yoghurt on top. I'm not much of a sweet tooth. The prunes add fibre and the ginger and yoghurt offset the sweetness of the prunes. 

How many meals do you eat per day?  Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner? Two only if I'm  home alone: breakfast and late lunch/dinner. Three when my husband and/or daughter are home.

What time of day do you eat your main meal? 4:30 when alone; either 1pm or 6pm if others are home, depending on whether it suits me to stop for a big lunch. I often prefer that, and a simple meal at the end if the day.

How do you dry your laundry? From around March to October (Southern Hemisphere): either on racks by the slow-combustion stove in the kitchen/dining area, or out on the clothesline, or a combination. In the warmer weather, outside on racks undercover or on the clothesline in the sun. Very rarely I will finish something off in the electric dryer, which is out in the garage.

What is a biscuit? Here, it's the same as a cookie or a cracker in the USA, I think. A sweet treat to have with tea or coffee, or a savoury thing you might have with cheese or some other savoury topping. I can't think of any that don't have a firm (eg shortbread) or crunchy texture. 

Most importantly, what do you consider having tea means?  When I was growing up, it was the evening meal - we now call that dinner usually, although sometimes the word "tea" pops out! Now I would mostly say it in reference to morning or afternoon  tea, when we break for a hot drink and sometimes something small to eat (such as a sweet biscuit). Even though I call it "morning tea" or "afternoon tea", people often drink coffee instead, these days. That is rarely me; I prefer tea made in a pot. We keep Earl Grey and English Breakfast tea leaves in the house. 

If people go out to a cafe for morning or afternoon tea (as opposed to having it at someone's house), they'd say they're going out for coffee. :)

Grandma Donna, this was an especially uplifting and inspiring post!

We are also wondering what life is going to look like when my husband retires.  We had chosen one date for the end, but ended up adjusting it.  There are several benefits to waiting, so the decision was made to put it off a bit longer.

Unfortunately, I had to stop taking an adjunct medication due to long term side effects, and without it I’m experiencing mild flare symptoms, so I have to change my diet again.  I had been eating more vegetarian meals and in particular eating very little beef because it is so expensive now.  I was also adding in some lower fiber produce, some whole grains, and rice.  We’ve decided I will increase my beef and other animal protein intake for the rest of September and also eliminate grains to see what the results are.  I’m very happy I underspent our grocery budget last month (which I base on the SNAP benefit in my state for 3 adults), because I have some funds to purchase meat.

How many meals do you eat per day?  Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner?  I had been eating three meals per day, but most likely will fluctuate between two and three now, since eating more protein leaves me feeling full.  We call the meals breakfast, lunch, and dinner or supper.

What time of day do you eat your main meal?  My husband and son eat their main meal at in the evening after my son gets home from work, I switch mine up between midday and evening but always join them at the supper table.

How do you dry your laundry?  We exclusively line dry all of our laundry and do not own an automatic clothes dryer.  My adult son hangs his own laundry, and my husband hangs laundry just as much as I do.

What is a biscuit?  For me, a biscuit is a quick bread made with flour, butter, salt, baking powder (and sometimes baking soda), and milk (fresh or buttermilk), usually cut out, sometimes drop.  Occasionally I’ll make dairy biscuits for my son using palm shortening and soy milk

Most importantly, what do you consider having tea means?  For us at present, “having tea” refers to having a cup of hot tea, either from tea leaves or herbs.

I sometimes only eat once a day but mostly 2 times a day. I don't eat breakfast, never have...it just doesn't set well with me.

I have a smoothie sometime between 11 and 12:30 made of homemade yogurt, frozen fruit from my freezer, and half of a banana. Sometimes with the addition of 1/4 cup cottage cheese and always with my collagen powder as it helps my joints and pain points.

I call my other meal supper and it is usually between 5:30 and 7PM??? depends so much on my appetite and what I have going on, and during canning season it seems I always have something going on. LOL Sometimes it is a full meal sometimes I am happy and content with either oatmeal or cream of wheat or rice.

A biscuit for me is made with flour, butter/lard and buttermilk. I love biscuits.

We call our tea time "coffee o'clock" and it is a chance to set and rest, visit and go over our day.  We mostly will have a cup of coffee but sometimes a pot of hot tea. I live alone and have my coffee many times alone but sometimes I will go to the DD's and we have coffee. Just depends on how tired I am on that day or if they have had to work over.

I dry my laundry on lines outside or racks inside. I have a dryer but it's more like a decoration at this point. In winter I hang things around my woodstove or in doorways on hangers.

I feel like my home is very cozy and a reflection of my personality. I love antiques and vintage and use what I have.  It's the calm and peace that I need.  I don't do well in large crowds or gatherings. I prefer a small circle of like-minded people.

I am the one with food allergies in my family, so I typically only make dinner for everyone. That way my husband and son aren't stuck with only the foods I can eat. They love my oatmeal pancakes with no wheat in them, so I make those for everyone on the weekends for breakfast. 

Sometimes I eat breakfast, and sometimes I don't. I usually have a scrambled egg and hash browns and fruit for breakfast. Sometimes I'll scramble my egg in some Mexican rice for a change, or have a smoothie. 

Dinner is the main meal in the evening. 

A biscuit is a Grandma Donna's recipe for buttermilk biscuits. 

Having tea means I have a tummyache, and have made some tea with mint from the garden. 

I mostly dry my laundry outside. With winter coming, I've been thinking about how to dry it in the house. I don't have a way to boil my laundry so I've started getting myself into the habit of ironing. I have a steam iron, and that is supposed to be effective for getting rid of germs. I have put a portable heater near my drying rack to dry clothes before. I think a combination of that and the ironing should be good. I'm going to have a line put in my bedroom for drying laundry this winter. Maybe two lines, depending on where I find the studs. 

I get up at 4:30am and breakfast is at 5am.  Oatmeal with b blueberries and walnuts.  I watch Adam 12.

Three meals is the usual.  A light lunch at noon and then dinner.  My larger meal varies, depending on what the menu is.  Dinner is usually at 5pm and my stomach is generally growling when I finish reading at 8:30 pm.

I use the dryer only for my husband's work clothes.  And only long enough so they don't wrinkle.  I hang everything else indoors.  Yup, sheets, too!!

Biscuits are not sweet.  They're a smaller version of regular bread, I'd say.  They taste great with gravy for dinner or jam for breakfast.  I don't eat a lot of bread.

I'm a summer drinker of iced tea, but I love hot tea in winter with a shortbread cookie.   When I lived in Los Angeles, there was a wonderful tea house that served little sandwiches, scones and cream, and a variety of bite sized desserts.  That was a wonderful way to spend time with friends!  I'm strictly a morning coffee drinker.  

My favorite hot tea is elderberry and my favorite hot coffee is Irish Cream.

Dear Grandma Donna ,  I have a question, hoping you will answer. We've been going through our dishes and trying to rid ourselves of anything withe lead, yet not wanting to repurchase a bunch of dishes! They really add up for a larger family.

Do you have any advice on this topic? Do you and Charles concern yourselves with this when it comes to dishes, cutlery, etc?

God bless

Rose

I would like to answer a few of your questions.

We eat 2 meals a day.

10:00 and 6:00--main meal being 6:00

Usually no snacks, maybe a plain homeade biscuit. These are old fashioned baking powder biscuits.

We eat lots and lots of potatoes and eggs! Homemade Bread from scratch everyday. We also eat a lot of chicken.

Believe it or not, I haven't owned a dryer since 2008. I truly haven't! I do all of our laundry by hand, and hang my laundry . In the winter up North, I would hang it inside in the kitchen by the wood burner. Now I do the same, here in the south ,but I just don't do as much at one time.

Another wonderful post, Donna. I, too, scroll too much and have been convicted of it. The Lord has laid on my heart to stop wasting precious time. I, most likely, won't have ten years left and I do have things I want to complete.

I think of a biscuit in two ways now. Either the fluffy American kind or a British cookie. I don't drink tea as it is full of tannin, unless herbal. I do drink one cup per day of tulsi herbal tea.

Our city has an ordinance that won't allow clothes lines or hanging any clothing items outside. Hence, we use our dryer. I do have an extra large clothes drying rack and space in several rooms to use it if necessary.

I eat three breakfast cookies, for breakfast, that contain granola, bananas, very little sugar, flax seed meal and are gluten free. I grind sorghum berries and my husband is a good baker. I can't eat eggs, so we either substitute with mashed bananas or ground flax seed. Flax seed is a good source of omega 3, which helps with inflammation; I need that for the arthritis in my body.

We eat our main meal at noon each day. Around 4 or 5, in the late afternoon, we will each get a small snack for the evening meal. We usually arise sometime between 4 or 5 in the morning, so our day starts early.

Thank you, again, for your post.

Such wonderful photos, I love looking at them while I read. 

How many meals do you eat per day?  Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner?

 I eat two and a snack. I have the same thing for breakfast pretty  much daily, after I workout and get the pets fed and I shower, around 730am.. A mashed banana with collagen powder, homemade yogurt, blueberries and strawberries (fresh or the ones I froze during the season for winter) and a sprinkle of homemade granola with home made london fog hot tea. On a very rare occasion I will have oatmeal. For second meal I have my go tos: salad or homemade chili or homemade soup or homemade rice and beans. I eat that around 1:30. I then have a cup of hot tea (earl grey or chai) before work. I work from home from 3-1130pm. Sometimes I add a piece of homemade sugarfree and gluten free banana oat bread as a treat. I don't eat after this. 

I both machine and line dry my laundry. I dry my clothes on the line. I do towels in the dryer, but there aren't a ton so it goes quickly and I do laundry once a week. My skin just couldn't handle the roughness of the towels. 

What is a biscuit? Is not sweet, like a bread...I miss them!

Most importantly, what do you consider having tea means? To me having tea means having a hot cup of tea twice a day. I call my meals breakfast and lunch. 

I would love to read by candlelight, but I just can't see!!! I do need to go to the eye dr for new prescription though...lol

I do not have the regular social medias (like facebook, insta etc) I do watch some you tube videos (I love Real vintage Dolls house, she is awesome and does rationing weeks and experiments like that, she lives vintage lifestyle). I can find myself scrolling my phone  for information though. I would love to get rid of all the tech stuff like computers and phone etc. but I work from home and pay bills on it. My cell is a smartphone because my youngest in still in college and likes to facetime me a couple times a week to catch up and I wouldn't give that up for anything!!!!! I tend to live slower, I don't shop unless I truly need something. I do grocery shop twice a month. I try to make my life slow and quiet. I still have a landline as my mom is hard of hearing and has trouble hearing me on the cell (and we don't have the greatest reception in this area). I love the blogs and the forum!!!

Thank you, Grandma Donna - I am loving this topic, and so interested to see everyone's responses.  

I turn 50 in a year, and live alone now. My meals are a little bit in flux, as my only child left for college a month ago (single mom). For the first time in a couple of decades, I can have whatever meal schedule I like. :-) 

My normal everyday breakfast has typically been oatmeal or some kind of overnight oats, oat-bread toast, granola, granola bars; my Scots heritage runs strong and I'm more content with some kind of oaty fiber in the morning. Eggs, pancakes, waffles, muffins are common on weekends. Oh, and coffee. I relish my single cup of coffee every morning.

I have eaten 2-3 meals per day, either a late brunch-ish meal (around 11) with a mid-afternoon snack, and then dinner, or a traditional three meals.  I'm still figuring out what works best for me now. My main meal has always been dinner (evening meal here, 6-8 PM) tho I'm reconsidering this. 

I dry cotton and linen items in my electric tumble dryer, and everything else (wool, synthetics, etc) is hung to dry on the very long clothesline in my basement.  I am blessed with extremely low electric rates, here in my small town in western New York State; nearly all of our electricity comes from Niagara Falls.  In addition I have a very dry basement, especially in cooler weather. It costs me $2-$4 per month to run the tumble dryer.  I am lazy enough to be content with that (I work full-time, hybrid). 

A biscuit is a savory item made with flour, baking powder, butter, salt, milk, usually a drop biscuit, often I add cheese.  I eat them with homemade soup. 

I'm American, so tea is a beverage for me, not a meal or a time of day. I drink a ton of tea in cool weather.  Tea can mean a large mug of mint, echinacea, lemon, and elderberry, to ward off colds, or a pleasant herbal blend to warm the soul, or a large pot of decaf black and cinnamon tea, with milk and sugar, in my grandmother's inherited bone china cups and saucers.  

Oh I completely agree with you. I am trying to break myself of the scrolling thing. It’s mostly in the evenings, but I find I sleep better if I don’t have my phone before bed. I leave it in the front room during the night so not on the bedside.  
Your “apartment” is looking cozy :-)

If we aren’t working, we default to brunch and linner (haha).  When working it’s breakfast and lunch and hubby will have a little snack in the evening.  My typical breakfast is two eggs sprinkled with Parmesan

I hang my clothes, but funny enough, as I’m reading this I have the dryer going because I washed the bathmats and wanted them soft. 
Bet Charles (& you too) is counting the days.  Congrats to you both.  

I live in the US -midwest. I usually eat 3 meals a day. But often will skip any one of those depending on how busy I am. 

I love picnics. But don't get to have one very often.

I use our gas dryer. I do occassionally hang things on our rack on the porch. If I had a clothesline I'd use it.

We eat three meals a day, Breakfast, lunch and tea as we are in the UK :)

For breakfast it’s is toast with either preserves or eggs, occasionally in winter we will have porridge ( oatmeal) as it is filling plus warms you up. This meal is at 7.30am. Lunch is either a small portion of leftovers or a bowl of soup & a roll and then our main meal or tea is eaten at 6pm when my husband gets home from work, this is our biggest meal so I try to have it more or less ready so our tummies can deal with it before we go to bed at 10pm. It tends to consist of protein of some sort, a starch and lots of vegetables. 

We do have a tumble dryer but this is only used in an emergency as I try to dry outside as much as possible or on airers inside if it’s raining.

A biscuit is a sweet baked treat, harder than a cookie and perfect for dunking in your cup of English tea :)

Interesting point on pets not liking us to be distracted on our phones, we recently rescued an adult female dog and she will actually push the phone out of my hands to get the attention back to her!

We will both retire in 5 years and I am always thinking about it and planning (prepping)!

Breakfast: 7 a.m. I don't eat breakfast, but my husband does and he has a spirulina smoothie with apple juice and a banana, plus plant protein powder. I eat morning tea - 2 Ryvita with vegemite and a little cheese. When I used to eat breakfast I would have porridge of some description.

Lunch: 12 p.m we always eat a sandwich with protein filling (unless its cold and we will have soup and toast), plus 2 pieces of fresh fruit, and a muesli bar. I often don't have afternoon tea, but if I do it will be a piece of dried fruit: dates or a fig and a cracker/cheese. 

Dinner: 5 - 5.30 - p.m Main meal, protein (plant or meat), vegetables, salad, coleslaw, starch of some sort. We often eat soup and toast for dinner at least once a week.

Biscuit: for us it's a sweet, crispy baked item eg. what you would call a cookie in the U.S. We generally don't eat sugar, and I don't bake much anymore, other than very low sugar muffins or a fruit scone.

Laundry: I hang my washing on fold up clothes racks and put them out on our covered verandah most of the time, but if the weather is still and very damp and camp, the clothes rack will stand in front of our fire place to dry. I rarely use the the clothes dryer, even though we have a new energy efficient one.

Tea/Coffee: I drink one cup of coffee per day (made with my espresso machine) - delicious !!, normally at lunch time or sometimes at morning tea time. Early morning we drink a blend of earl grey/English breakfast tea made in a large pot, which we somehow always get through. After lunch I drink decaf English breakfast tea, usually no more than 2 cups.

I really enjoyed participating in this. I live in New Zealand.

Blessings ~ Linda

Grandma Donna Wrote,

Rose P, several years ago Charles and I went down that rabbit hole about our dishes.  We rid ourselves of some of our dishes and I felt sad about it afterwards.  We purchased the swab testers online and they did not react to our dishes but we were still in question about them so we got rid of them.  We did keep one set of our dishes in question due to age but those never showed a lead reaction either.  I even purchased another tester in case ours was a bad one.  We kept our bone china, and our fiesta ware was lead free because it was the newer type without lead. I really have no answers, I do not have any of my grandmothers dishes that she had, and I thought about how old hers were and yet they lived into their mid 90's and why I quit worrying.  If you are concerned there are tester kits, maybe they have new types of testers.  I wish I had more information to tell you.  Donna  

* Edit here, I just looked online and there are some different types of testers than I used online now, I saw some on Amazon.  

Thank you Grandma Donna. I pulled out many of our dishes yesterday and some of my children were really sad as well. So many of these were gifts from one another.

I'm still deciding. One of my daughters wrote me a beautiful letter about it with references to Scripture about fear and the Lord being in control of life and death.....

Now I need to consider these things.

Thank you again and I love your "apartment". You're always such an inspiration to me.

Lead free mama has a blog and tests things with some kind of tool. From her advice, I got rid of my dishes and cookware a few years back, and replaced them. I use lead free glassware for dishes and mostly stainless steel for cookware, with the exception of my favorite Netherton pan that's spun iron, and not supposed to be toxic. I changed my silverware too. I felt better almost immediately. Not everything I do for my health makes me feel better, but this one did. I had more energy. I'm just telling my experience. 

I also bought interior plant-based paint for the painting we're doing. I'm very sensitive to certain chemicals, so I try to be careful. 

I have some suggestions for Charles knees and hips while outside.  When working on the ground he can wear knee pads and carry a 5 gallon bucket with him.  He can put tools in the bucket and if he needs help getting up he can use the bucket.  Also turned upside down it will make a nice stool when he needs a seat.  I don't know if this would work, but if he can get the cover off the water meter while standing and then take a picture with his cell phone, he could enlarge the picture and see the usage.  That is probably the hardest thing to check because they are on the ground at least when we had a meter it was in the ground and you had to pull the cover off to see it.  We now have well water.

I would not worry about the neighbors.  If he has done this since you moved there they know it is just something he does every morning.

We normally eat 3 meals a day sometimes if we are busy I will eat early breakfast and then a meal about 3 and then a snack before 8.  We would normally eat our main meal between 4 and 6.  Tea is a drink and not a meal or snack time.  

Biscuit is a quick bread.  I make a gluten free biscuit with gluten free flour, baking powder, little salt, egg, water, and a little honey.  Gluten free baked goods need an egg to help with the raise.

I use a dryer for most of my laundry.  I have been receiving social security over 10 years and my washer and dryer are in the basement.  I don't want to bring a load of wet clothes up the steps to hang outside.  It is just simpler for me to run them around in the dryer.  I am trying to simplify my yard and things I need to do around here.  The yard is the biggest problem now, trying to get rid of a lot of things in the yard so can just mow without a lot of trimming.  I have a garden in raised beds.  If I didn't have raised beds I don't think I would have a garden.

 what do you eat for a normal everyday breakfast? I have toast with homemade hummus (made from dried chickpeas) most mornings. I make all of our bread, so this is a protein-rich, quick, filling, and inexpensive option. I will occasionally have avocado toast, if avocados are on special. I'm the only person in my house that eats breakfast.

How many meals do you eat per day?  Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner? I eat all three, but my partner only eats lunch and dinner. My adult son and his partner live with us, but handle their own food preparation.

What time of day do you eat your main meal? Dinner is our main meal, although it isn't always the biggest. It is the one we both sit down at the table together for. In the summer we usually eat dinner between 6 and 8 pm. It stays light here until after 10 pm during the summer months. In winter, dinner creeps earlier and earlier, and sometimes we eat as early as 5 pm. It can be dark by 3:30 pm, so we naturally seem to shorten our days in the coldest season.

How do you dry your laundry? I try to line dry outside or in, but often I get frustrated in winter and use the dryer. It is very wet and rainy in the Pacific Northwest in winter, and we are far enough north (about as north as you can get in the US without being in Alaska) that it is also cold, so it is very difficult to dry clothes before they begin to mildew. If we had a fireplace, it would probably be easier. 

What is a biscuit? A biscuit in my house is usually a tall buttery concoction, similar to a savory scone, that tastes best with butter and jam or smothered in gravy. Occasionally it also means a somewhat dry and crisp, slightly sweet "cookie" similar to a graham cracker, but that is only when we are feeling fancy and splurge on a treat at the international grocery store :)

Most importantly, what do you consider having tea means? We use tea and coffee interchangeably to mean an afternoon snack (except the morning cup of coffee, of course). If we skip lunch or find ourselves hungry in the afternoon, we'll have a tea or coffee with a light, usually sweet, snack. It could be toast and jam or some sweet treat we have in the house. We tend to avoid dessert after dinner, and instead prefer to have it in the afternoon. Usually, whichever one of us that is feeling peckish will say, "would you like tea/coffee?" and then that person brews it and puts some nibbles on a plate. 

Sibylle M, I have autoimmune inflammatory bowel disease and cannot tolerate beans or legumes, nor most whole grains, nor high fiber produce (or much produce at all).  I also have multiple food allergies (too many to list fully, but peanuts and all tree nuts, coconut, bananas, avocados, pineapple, and mango are some of them) and allergic reactions to chicken.  My GI doctor believes the severe reactions to beans and legumes may be partially due to allergies.  I was fully whole food plant based before being diagnosed, and have eaten whole food plant based for the majority of my adult life.  All of our bread (home baked, of course) was made from 100% home milled whole wheat berries.  This is how I was eating when I was diagnosed and my inflammation was sky high.  At the point I went to the hospital last year, following a whole food plant based diet, nearly every system in my body was stressed.  I had multiple heart symptoms related to nutritional deficiencies and inflammation.  My hemoglobin and ferritin were extremely low despite iron supplementation, and my vitamin D levels were dangerously low.  I used to sing the praises of plant based diets, and I still believe that whole food, plant forward diets are optimal for humans, but I no longer demonize animal protein or animal fats in the diet.

Some lovely questions by Grandma Donna and some interesting replies. 

I'd like to comment on two things. Firstly for people in the UK tea can mean drink or food. I'd like to focus on the drink of tea. Putting the kettle on to make a cup or teapot of tea is an institution over here! When we say to someone "I'll put the kettle on..." it means so much more than "let's make a drink". It can mean "you've had a rotten week, your boyfriend broke up with you... your boss is being difficult.... you feel unappreciated..." But that cup of tea with someone helps them feel less alone. 

Breakfast for me is so important. I'd rather miss dinner than breakfast. I have either a fruit kefir smoothie or toast with unsalted butter and homemade jam. I make kefir as it has healthy bacteria for the micribiome. Having good bacteria in the gut is a big help to health and functioning. We need serotonin to function properly and have a good mood and emotional state. Approximately 90% of our Serotonin is made in the gut by good bacteria. 

It feels nice to have good food and home made recipes. I'm glad to have been reading these forum posts and enjoying a simple life. 

Stephanie G, I’m happy to read that you made changes in your dishes and flatware and feel much better!  We also use lead free dishes, and I use silver for my flatware.

When we realized repairing our natural gas stove/range was going to cost more than a new stove, we decided to switch to an electric induction stove/range.  In doing my research, I leaned about the connection between natural gas use inside the home and headaches, which I experienced nearly daily.  After switching to the induction electric stove I stopped getting headaches so often, and now it is only every couple of months I experience a headache — that’s a really big change.  I also saw a significant reduction in my asthma!  I found out that even modern gas stoves with electronic ignition still leak small amounts of natural gas.  Also, it seems most of us have exhaust fans that are completely inadequate to ventilate our homes when we cook with natural gas.  I had terrible headaches and asthma as a child, and grew up in a home with a pilot light gas stove (meaning the gas was always on) that didn’t have an exhaust fan at all.  That house also had a pilot light furnace right outside my bedroom

Somewhere I read that God gives us common sense in addition to free will.  Just as we don’t cross the street into oncoming traffic, expecting God to miraculously stop the cars barreling toward us, we also have a responsibility to care for ourselves in other areas and not expect miracles where common sense would have worked just as well.  I try not to jump at every news story about environmental toxins, but I do pay close attention to the science.  I believe the humans living on the earth now are experiencing more toxins than any humans before us, especially with so much air pollution (full of heavy metals and carcinogens) and with microplastics, and many with some of the food chemicals.  What was a “safe” load of one environmental toxins in the past might not be safe any longer, because our bodies are so very burdened with everything in our air, soil, and water.  Yes, my grandfather lived to 85 and had been a heavy smoker and heavy drinker into his 60s.  That doesn’t mean I can be a heavy smoker and heavy drinker and expect the same life span.  When he was a child he wasn’t ingesting microplastics and a wide array of food chemicals.  There weren’t as many cars on the road (by far, as they were fewer people living in the United States and most families didn’t own cars).  Chemical fertilizers were new and not heavily adopted, as big agriculture didn’t rule farming.  Modern synthetic pesticides didn’t exist.

I kept my vintage 1951 Haviland china, but in truth we haven’t used it in years — I just enjoy looking at it.  I also gave away my vintage Pfaltzgraff made in USA Winterberry dishes because of lead in them.  Most of the lead and cadmium are in the colored portions of the design, but food does touch those portions.  We use Corelle (plain winter white and newer lead safe designs) — it’s lead safe, lightweight, break-resistant, inexpensive, and doesn’t take up much room in the dish rack or cupboard.

I eat big meals for breakfast and lunch. Baked oatmeal, eggs on toast, maybe bircher muesli. Some combination of oats, grains, dairy and eggs basically. 
Lunch I like soup, or something potato based. I'm making a pot pie some time this week.
I have another small meal but a hot one at dinner. My mum makes it, and she always makes something different every day. Meat veg and carb, preferably 2 veg.
My main meal is at lunch because that works best for me. That's why I cook.

We dry our clothes in the dryer, we don't have a clothesline. I don't own the house, so I don't have control over adding one :)
A biscuit is a scone without any flavourings or added sugar. A scone has extra sugar and maybe extra flavours (like dried fruit)
Having tea... Usually earl grey, maybe a small slice of cake or a cookie. It could also be some light sandwiches. Nothing too large, but keeping you going until dinner.

We are in southern England and we have breakfast, lunch & supper.  I think there's also a divide between northern & southern England.  Our friend from 'up north' calls the evening meal 'tea'.  The meals when we were at school (cooked in the school kitchen) were - and still are - called, 'school dinners' - meaning the meal at mid-day.  (When I was taking the register in the morning at school, the children would answer, 'school dinners' or 'packed lunch' ).

A biscuit is a crunchy thing you can dunk in your tea. I had to learn to call them cookies when I lived in America.   What Americans would call a biscuit would be called an plain or unsweetened  scone in England.

As for hanging out washing - I hang it on a line in the garden if the weather forecast says there will be no rain.  During the winter, I dry it on a stand in front of our oil-fired heater.  Now there are only two of us at home, I delay doing washing if it's going to rain.  Sometimes, the weather doesn't co-operate & I will use the last resort - the tumble drier.  (Years ago, I borrowed a gadget from the library to record how much electricity any plug-in item uses & I decided to avoid the tumble drier if possible!)

The more I think about it and the different words we use in a small country & with Americans, it doesn't stop us communicating wherever we live!

We have homemade toast and eggs and bacon or sausage for breakfast.  We tend not to be hungry for another meal until around 1-3 and that’s when we have been having our big meal of the day.  If we are hungry in the evening we have a bowl of cereal or popcorn.    I like having the big meal earlier in the day as I find this frees up the rest of the day for gardening or mainly quilting.

I’m glad Charles already has a focus of interest that will carry through into when he retires.  It keeps the brain sharp.  Right now I have been reading Nella Last’s War.  Such a fascinating book that is a diary from WWII Britain.  Reading it makes me profoundly thankful I wasn’t around to live through all that.  I especially like that she talks about her thinking and feelings and how the war is changing her without her realizing sometimes and what she feels she is doing that is helping her.  And she talks about what she sees on peoples faces and their reactions as well.  There is much I had never considered.  So revelatory of human nature especially under stressful times.

what do you eat for a normal everyday breakfast?

We have a variety of things.  Were it up to me, I'd have cheese toast and some fruit, or a bowl of grits with toast or a bowl of oatmeal.  My husband likes a bigger breakfast, so I compromise.  We split the week between a big breakfast one day and a lighter breakfast the next.

How many meals do you eat per day?  Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner?

All three each day except Sunday when we tend to be out late.  So it's an early breakfast and a early supper.

What time of day do you eat your main meal? 

Typically about 5:45pm

How do you dry your laundry?

When I do laundry, it's hung to dry.  When Hubby does laundry, which is most of the time and by his choice, he hangs shirts and pants to dry but often tosses other things in the dryer.  He sets the timer but he never lets it dry for as long as he sets it.  He  will pull out what is dry already and throw things back in to finish on the timer or not, depending on what he moves on to do next.

What is a biscuit?

Georgia girl here, so for me it's a mixture of flour, shortening and milk plus leavening.

Most importantly, what do you consider having tea means? 

It means I've vowed to give up coffee for a little while...Or it's very hot and I'm having it iced.  

Hi Ruth, it was lovely to see "I'll put the kettle on" in your post. My Granny's door was open to everyone and anyone, anytime of the day or night. When someone arrived, she'd usually greet them from the kitchen with "Oh, lovely! I'll put the kettle on!" She was a kind, loving figure in many people's lives.

It's true that many problems and sadnesses especially become far less significant once you've shared them over a cuppa.

Something I never see mentioned in articles is about how people were outside more in the old days...even in colder places. 

Grandma Donna. Your home looks so lovely and inviting in your photos. I really like your new old chairs. After reading your blog post today, I put my phone down, turned the radio on and cleaned out some kitchen drawers. It's crazy how much time we waste these days on technology. It was a good reminder to put the phone down. Thank you. 

For breakfast in cold weather I have porridge with homemade yoghurt and some dehydrated fruit. Sometimes, two eggs on a slice of homemade bread. In hot weather I have two hard boiled eggs eaten cold with a piece of fruit and a few nuts. 

We eat 2-3 meals a day. We will skip a meal if we are still full from the last one these days. We don't seem to need as much to eat now as when we were younger.

We aim to have our main meal at 6pm. When my husband eventually retires we will probably have a late breakfast and a mid afternoon main meal and call it done. 

I hang clothes on the line to dry in the sun. When it rains I hang them upstairs on clothes racks, dining chairs, curtain rods, you name it. I've never owned a dryer. 

A biscuit is a sweet biscuit to have with a cup of tea such as a ginger snap or a milk arrowroot biscuit. 

Having tea is having dinner. If we went to tea it would be to have tea and cake, scones and cream or fancy finger sandwiches. It's something I have done with my daughter for her birthday. 

My in‐laws who are in their 80s have a light breakfast. They usually skip lunch (or may have some cheese and a piece of bread if needed). They have sandwiches for dinner. Maybe occassionally a hamburger. They eat more if they have company. 

Now that my husband's retired like his parents I tease him when do we start having sandwiches for dinner? I'd rather not cook! 

Kellie O, thank you for sharing your story of your granny. How valuable it is to have those older generations to think about and remember. I appreciate the memory of mine more as I get older even though they are long gone and I'm middle-aged.

Also, don't forget the time honoured British tradition of putting the kettle on for tradesmen:  plumbers, electricians, chimney sweeps, etc;  no matter what they are there to fix, we always make the offer, and most of the time they take us up on it.  Five year old daughter asked me privately why both bricklayers we hired (to repoint a wall) had two sugars in their tea;  we are a no sugar family with diabetes (husband), sensitive teeth (self) and behaviour issues (child).  Husband overheard and said, "Builders always have two sugars in their tea!"  We keep a small bag at the very back of a tall cupboard, just for such occasions.

Although I live "up north" in the UK as it has been mentioned above, I'm not from these parts and neither is my husband;  I sometimes have to correct myself when talking to my local friends:  tea is the evening meal, not dinner (which I would normally say, but it means a hot lunch around here).  And I am a dinner lady by trade;  that is, I cook school dinners, aka lunches.

Three cheers for being a dinner lady!    I think it's a job that never has the recognition it deserves.    I completely agree about making a cup of tea for any tradesmen.  They would not think kindly of their customers if no tea was offered. 

We are the same, both non-sugar adders to our tea or coffee so a special bag is kept in for any relatives that do or tradesmen that come to the house. Oh and a plate of biscuits if they are regulars :) We live in the eastern part of England but my husband is a proud Lancastrian so over the years he’s worn me down and the evening meal is now called tea

Kate E, how is this tea served to the tradesmen?  Do they enjoy at the kitchen table? I think this is a lovely tradition. 

In the US, I think certain parts of the country would offer refreshments to workers (I'm thinking of the South).

It's not a custom where I live but my husband and I do occassionally offer a can of Coke or bottled water. We have bought them or made them coffee. (We grew up in the South.) They usually enjoy as they continue working.

Good morning.

You mentioned that in ten years many of your family elders will be gone.  I had that same thought two weeks ago, most of my remaining family and many of my friends will be gone.  Astonishing thought and it has really helped me focus.   We don’t have much runway left so to speak, best use it wisely.  While I am “only” 69, I realize that the next ten years are the best, in terms of capabilities, most likely.

anyway, on to your questions:

what do you eat for a normal everyday breakfast?   After a lifetime of weight problems, I finally do a low carb diet and am a healthy weight…so my breakfast is 5 scrambled eggs and some cheddar cheese.   Sometime I have bacon.  Not usually.

How many meals do you eat per day?  Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner?   I eat two meals a day, breakfast and lunch.   I feel much better when I do not eat dinner (I also wake early and go to bed early).

What time of day do you eat your main meal?   Lunch  usually 11 am

How do you dry your laundry?   Dryer (50%)  and the rest hang dry on racks inside the house.

What is a biscuit?  ;)  I live in the US so think a biscuit is what folks in the southern US mean.

Most importantly, what do you consider having tea means?    For me, having tea is drinking a cup of tea, nothing more.

I love your writing, thank you for the time you spend to create such a wonderful community and find really good topics to think about.

If service people are at our house for a long time, we offer them beverages and to go pick up food for them. I've had many service people tell me horror stories about how dirty most people's houses are and even though my house is clean (that's what they remark on before telling about all the dirty houses), we offer to pick up take out food for them. 

I feel very empowered from getting our bike assessories! :) I was sad that I have to go back to using our car now that the new battery is in. I've decided to only use my car in October on the two Fridays in the month when I have to pay bills in person. I think margaret p is right that people were outside more in the past and I want to do that too. 

I've loved hearing about everyone's meals. :)

After a couple of months now, I think I can safely say that dedicating one day of the week to each major homemaking area like the 1930s is not working for me!  I am going to return to Grandma Donna's One Room Proper principle for the cleaning -- it works far better with the limitations of chronic illness and my aging body.  Only twice in the entire time I've been trying to do the study have I managed to get the whole house clean in one day, and that was with my husband working alongside me.  I also found myself dreading the cleaning day!  I find that the One Room Proper simplifies the process as well, and eliminates the need for assigning deep cleaning days each month, because over the course of the first month or two each room becomes cleaner and soon all of the deep cleaning tasks are being completed over the course of doing the one room proper each week.

For the laundry, I can probably do it all on one day for the rest of September, but as it cools down and the days shorten I'll return to following the weather.  When it is cold/cooler and the days are shorter I have to spread out the laundry on the umbrella drying rack. skipping every other line, and even so, it takes longer to dry, so from November through February I only plan on one load per day.  In October, March, and April I might manage two loads per day.

That has been the hard part for me, needing to change up the days according to weather and illness, and now I have to also add in according to solar output.  If I wake up with plenty of electricity stored in the batteries combined with sunny but not-as-hot-as-usual weather, that is the day I should bake.  If I wake up to less electricity in the batteries and cloudy skies, I should not bake.  My goal is to work with the sun on this and not do things on autopilot as it could end up with me having to buy electricity from the grid.

I am preparing for our low tech October experiment!  I am already signed out of my social media accounts on all devices.  I deleted quite a few apps from my phone that either don't use or don't want to use in October.  I thought about some of the high tech things I use and whether I want to continue them or not.  I plan to use YNAB for entering transactions and managing the budget, but have decided to move my price book to a small paper notebook rather than keeping it in Notes.  I'm also going to make paper grocery lists instead of keeping them in Notes.  I'm going to print out any recipes I use regularly and haven't printed out, and for October I will go to my recipe binder or cookbooks -- no searching online for recipes!

I researched print newspaper subscriptions and they are too expensive for our budget, so October will be a low news month for me.  I'm hoping the library still has print editions to read.

Stephanie G, We did a big clean out in 2023 and gave away our bicycle cargo trailer, which reading your story seems like it may have been a mistake.  We weren't using it and needed the space.  I never really thought about needing it if a vehicle wasn't working.  Since then I purchased an e-bike, but it would be difficult to carry home a car battery with it!

However, one nice thing about living near downtown is our proximity to many places of business.  The closest auto parts store is 8/10th of a mile from our house.  I do have a stroller wagon that can be used to carry home heavy items, so as long as it wasn't raining I would be okay.  In good weather I use it to walk to the grocery store (closest is half a mile away and Trader Joe's is 9/10 of a mile away).  I've never used it for a child, lol -- I just wanted it because it is much easier to push than the typical push cart you see people with when walking.  We just found out our little dog has a heart murmur and the beginnings of a collapsing trachea, so I also plan to use it for him in warm weather or on long walks, as the vets say he shouldn't get overheated or overexerted.