Living Like the Past

As keeper of our home, I take my role with utmost importance. I was born before computers, cell phones and television. I remember a time that was more quiet and respectful.I grew and changed and experienced and now I realize the burden of too much. The way this world is today has become scrambled, out of balance and spilling over. I want our home as simple as it was long ago. I want to be the Grandma with graying hair that has a garden and wears baggy overalls and old shoes and a big floppy hat. The wife, mom, grandma, great grandma that wears an apron as I am all of these things and I want to resemble my Grandmother as I remember her and hope I can become as ......

The morning sun is shining in through the windows. Another day to do the best we can. Another day to continue on with the things left from the day before.This is all we can do, we are just one person and truly we can only do one thing at a time if we want to do it well.This day will come and then it will go and it is up to us to use this time we are giving to do the best we can.I feel the best we can is when we focus on just that one thing at a time. If I have many things to do and try to do them all quickly then I normally will not finish them all and it would not have been done well. These are long beans that have germinated and have emerged from the soil. There ......

Before I get started with this post, I would like to say that our kitchen walls are not this color of yellow. I have noticed that in most all of my kitchen pictures on my blog that the yellow show anywhere from school bus yellow to orange yellow to whatever color than how it actually is. My camera does not show the color of yellow as it really is for some reason. The yellow on the walls are a soft pale butter cream.I have decided to paint over the yellow paint anyway so this part of the kitchen will be changing. I am not painting over the yellow because it shows up a non lovely yellow in photos but because I do like white paint in the kitchen and it a neutral color and when I chan ......

Long ago I lived in a little white wooden house. This was in the 1960s and I had only been married for a few years. I was new a being a keeper of my home. I have been thinking quite a bit about that little white house. It had two small bedrooms, one small bathroom, a very small living room and a combination kitchen and dining area.There was no telephone and cell phones had not been invented at that time. There was no television or cable anything. There was no computer anything because we did not have them in our homes at that time. Life was good. Our bills were few and our military pay was low but we were happy. We had all we needed. ......

Sometimes we get stuck where we are. Some people can move on, pack up and start over but some people, at least for now must stay where they are. This does not have to end your dreams or never live like you want to live. I cannot speak for others and I can only talk about the things I know about. With this blog it is about real life and experiences just for us. Some people that write to me tell me that they come to my blog for peace or to feel home. Some are searching and many of us do search for something that we feel we do not have but often we are not sure what that is. It might be right there and you just do not recognize it.Charles and I enjoy a simple li ......

In this photo it is early dawn. Just as we adjust to the days with less daylight it starts to change again. Many people do not consider when daylight begins and sunset ends the day. This is because of modern electricity and often people have lights on all hours of the day and night. It seems that in this modern world there needs to be a better plan to not upset our Circadian Rhythms. If we could only let our bodies adjust to morning light and evening darkness naturally.There are things we can do at home to bring a more settled and restful state in our home.It seems to me that it helps us to wake with a softer light and give our body time to wake slowly. A blog friend and I w ......

As we moved into March, I thought and looked back at where we were in March of 2020 and as the old saying goes, a lot of water has flowed under that bridge. What a year it has been. It has had it's highs and lows but the most important it also has been a learning experience.Charles and I started this notebook taking our temperature and blood pressure and pulse every morning. We have not missed one single day. On March the 14th it will be one full year of taking these vitals. We added columns to our book, we started recording oxygen levels after we purchased a finger oxygen monitor. We also added our weight. We took this virus serious at the very beginning and we a ......

Long ago families were much closer than we are today. They often lived close enough to visit. and If they did not they visited with neighbors and friends. Many of my older diaries spell out this information.People took care of one another and also they took care of their homes and they had in their homes the tools to live without electricity and running water because they did not have it. They had the items needed to live a life not dependent on food stores just around the corner.I cannot name the number of posts I have done on living a more prepared life before this past year happened. But I just cannot quit trying to get my message out that we all need to take responsibil ......

It is up to us how we choose to live. Life is full of choices.I enjoy living more like the past and I cannot remember one single home that was minimalist in my earlier years, unless it was because they were just starting out. Keeping home long ago was wonderful because often many items in the home were homemade. Quilts and curtains, tablecloths, placemats and rugs. My grandmother would make doll clothes, several of my Aunties and family members were very skilled with sewing and knitting and crochet. This is tatting and my mother passed down to me a very old tatting shuttle. Sadly I had to teach myself to use it because those that used it before me were no lo ......

This week Charles has been busy with his work and I have been at home doing some research, laundry, housework and cooking. Charles and I have put on weight this past year and his psoriasis has been acting up so we are back to our elimination diet. I have a lot of inflammation in my body, pain in my back and nerve endings etc. It is good for us to shake up our diet occasionally.At my last visit at the doctor we discussed that many people have gained weight since the covid virus and has made such a upset to our lives. He is seeing that patients have gained from 10 to 30 pounds. We can all understand why so if you have not gained weight from covid stress that is good.So we are ......

I want to share a bit more about how we do things with our history projects. My intentions with these studies is to learn about the strengths of our generations before us and what was home. What did home really look like and feel like. When I am reading the old newspapers I often fine offensive articles full of prejudice words against race and there are quite often articles that I can clearly see that are written for the purpose to direct people to live a certain way. But then there is evidence that many women do not pay any attention to these things that are written in the newspaper. There are not a lot of photos from long ago showing the inside the home because cameras ......

Through our studies of the past I have learned that many women were very routine with when they did their wash, when they did their ironing. Many of us have seen those pretty kitchen towels that have the days of the week.Monday is wash day, Tuesday is ironing, Wednesday is Sewing and Mending, Thursday is Market day, Friday is cleaning and Saturday is Baking. I have read old articles that mention that Friday is Baking day and Saturday is cleaning day. In our family it was Saturday. We have learned that shopping and calling on people were often done on Thursdays. When we read something such as, Mrs. Hammond called today. This does not necessarily mean telephoned ......

Who doesn't want to curl up in a soft fluffy bed and a favorite wooby blankie? I thought this was a good time to post a soft puppy picture. This is our little Dachshund Katherine. This morning where I live it is a very chilly and rainy day, I feel a mixture of emotions that I will keep inside and stay away from what so many people are talking about today in this real time of January 7, 2021. Yesterday, January 6th was a very difficult day in our country as if a covid pandemic is not bad enough.As we are studying History, and starting our new year of 1932 I decided to check the news to see what was going on on Wednesday January 6th 1932.Actually it was a very calm day in the news, ......

Happy New Year! It is 1932 again at our house!Charles and I have decided for our history project this year we have returned to 1932. Our past history project got hijacked by a pandemic.Even though we are still in the pandemic we are picking up our history project and are going to do our best by starting over. One thing we learned last year is boy do we need to study and live more like the past than ever before. Smack dab in a Great Depression seems like a good place to start and I will explain more about this statement.There is so much to learn about 1932. I have five diaries, many newspapers, some 1930s learn how to books as well as a montgomery ward catalog and endl ......

In the middle of the night our clocks strike twelve times and we call it midnight but it is the beginning of a new day. Many of us are sleeping.But then the sun starts to come over the horizon and dawn is breaking, it is time to start our day.Today we often do not notice the sky or ever see the sun emerging over the horizon as dawn breaks. Long ago the stars and the moon, the sun and the clouds were a very important part of our life.I have always enjoyed early morning. I feel I am not wasting my day if I get up at the crack of dawn or just before. I admit it is a bit more difficult as I get older but I still get up at this time.Long ago it was necessary to get up early to get out and feed th ......

When I do not feel like cooking, I bake a one pot meal. It is a very simple meal, one whole chicken, potatoes, carrots, onion and celery. I sometimes add lemon slices. I seasoned it and added a few sprigs of rosemary from the garden.The ingredients are so simple and very little prep work to do. Very easy to clean up.Bake it in the oven for a few hours. And while it is cooking in the oven the kitchen is clean.The other thing is it is a healthy meal.:)When we look at the home of long ago, people ate simple meals. Many times we enjoy cookbooks from long ago as well as current time and I do enjoy these books but often families ate traditional meals at home that did not require a ......

My last post I ended with saying that moving Windsor (our 1920's icebox) back in the house caused more shifting of furniture and such and how it taught me some lessons.During this year of this awful pandemic I have had my ups and downs just like many of you. Often I found it difficult to focus and at times I was not keeping up in the home and then I would get back on track and then the decline again. I feel this is perfectly normal to react to stress. When we had a lot of unexpected issues on Thanksgiving week with the laundry room flooding and the freezer dying we rallied with it all and took care of things, including moving Windsor back into the kitchenWhen I had to move my moth ......

Today is the first day of December. This cactus is a Thanksgiving cactus that blooms out during Thanksgiving week and continues to bloom for a good while during December. There are Christmas Cactus as well and I have no idea the difference other than when they bloom.The blooms are so beautiful. So here is how it all went down.... and then back up. :)You may have seen that some houses built long ago have a door on the side of the house that enters into a laundry/storage room that is built into the house but can only be entered through the outside door. That is what we have.I am not one to be brave in the dark. One night long ago I had gone out in the dark to get clothes ......

This is a satsuma and to me it is a cross between an orange and a tangerine. It is harvest time for our little tree. It did not make as many this year but we are going to harvest the ones that it did make.There are two clusters like this on the tree. I hope it will have better start next spring. This past spring it would set blooms then a cold spell would come and some of the blooms would die. We are in a zone that we can grow satsumas but a bit precarious with a cold snap.Even though it is still warm here, winter is near so we have pulled out all the snuggies. Warm beds, blankets and throws. Katherine likes this puffy bed.Elizabeth likes to sit in my chai ......

There is so much to learn while we are here on this earth. I like to live my life so that I always have something to look forward to. It is up to each of us to put this in motion so that we do have something to look forward to.We travel season to season and again season to season. As it comes around and then fades away it makes room for the next season. We can work towards and prepare for it to come back again.If we do our best to learn all we can to understand our seasons then there is always something to look forward to. I never get bored of learning about nature nor do I of keeping a house a home.I like to divide and transplant flowers in the garden so th ......