Since I have this blog people are curious how do we live old fashioned in this day and time.
To answer some readers questions I will just start here.
I get up between 4:00 AM and 4:30 AM most every day. Normally I get up at 4:00.
Why? My husband is still working and he goes to work early but even if he did not I would get up this early because truly it just takes a full days work to keep house properly.
Doing things the old way takes longer but it seems that details do not get overlooked as they do when using all the gadgets we have today. I get up in the morning, wash up, brush my teeth and then go into the kitchen and put on the water kettle then the coffee pot.
We use a water kettle because we drink warm water for our health. We do not drink any sodas at all and we sip warm water throughout the day.
I start breakfast, normally something like scrambled eggs, grits and toast or biscuit.
Other times maybe french toast or cinnamon toast if I am in a hurry. Maybe boiled egg and toast. On a Saturday we will have bacon to go with our breakfast. On a very special occasion I will make a dish that my mother made often that she called Eggs ala Goldenrod. It is a white sauce with chopped eggs and spooned over toast.
When I have the time I will make cinnamon rolls like pictured above. This will be rolled, sliced and put on a cooking sheet for baking.
Before breakfast is when my husband and I have our prayer time.
After breakfast it is time to start the laundry if there are things to wash. I must put the clothes out on the clothesline early for them to dry. If they are not dry on a particular humid day I will finish drying them on an inside line.
Then there are our pets, we have inside pets and they require a good bit of my attention in the morning. If my children were still young I would be talking about getting my children their breakfast and seeing to their needs then the pets.
During the day there is much to do. I make homemade bread and cook from scratch so generally there is something simmering, or rising or waiting to be peeled and sliced.
Then there is the house to clean and the outside garden and constant leaves or weeds or sticks, moss, slime, something that needs cleaning.
With the increased dust in the world there is the endless dusting of things which little by little I am ridding us of figurines and items that really have no purpose that require dusting.
I don't have a schedule that is rigid, I have somewhat of a routine and certain days I do things, weather permitting that I will wash sheets and things like that.
Growing vegetables takes a good bit of work but it will not happen if we don't plant. It takes planning ahead and getting dirty so I keep old clothes and shoes to wear when I work outside. While others are inside watching television or staying on the computer I am outside working in the yard or garden or inside cleaning, repairing or cooking something.
It truly is very rewarding when we make that place we call home become all it can be.
People live so different now with so much less consideration about our homes. Take the back of this chair. It needs dusting and polishing which I will do because I appreciate this chair. It is my sewing chair and I find it quite lovely.
Most of the items in our home have purpose and not just for decoration.
Getting up before or with the sun each day no matter where we live can show us new things each day if we only look.
Here is a a Gecko sleeping on a potted mint. I love finding them in the morning before they have awakened or at night as they have bedded down to sleep. They can stretch out or curl up in the most brilliant places. It was actually barely light when I took this picture, my camera makes it look lighter than it was.
A very busy bumble bee pollinating the rosemary.
I like to watch what goes on in our yard, I mean truly study and watch because it is amazing what goes on when we are not paying attention. Even the smallest of things such ants carrying my lettuce seeds off to their homes.
If we learn to watch and listen to the things going on around our home we may be surprised to find that we are the only ones not doing our part to make things balanced. Do we just use and not give back? Do we not do our part in caring for what is around us? Do we even notice?
We have quite a few Wren families in our yard. A wren is a small brownish bird, and they are constantly busy cleaning out a nest, finding bugs and feeding their babies. This is one of the reasons our garden should be organic and not use pesticides and we cannot keep taking away their space. We need to be considerate and provide them all we can because they are very important to us.
Even if we live alone we can make the most of our home.
Fanny Bell lives alone and makes egg custard pies to share with her friends and family. Everyone loves Fanny Bell's pies. Susan lives alone yet she sets a formal place setting at her small table for each of her meals. Esther sewed quilts, the most precious lady I ever knew.
An abandoned home will decompose quickly if no one is there to spark life. Our homes need our attention and in return it will provide us with shelter and memories.
I love turning back the sheets and making my nighttime nest. This is when I get to read whatever book I am reading. My husband does the same thing over on his side. We get our pillows just right and our books and glasses perched on our nose and read until we get sleepy.
My husbands Great Aunt Evelyn lived down the street from us. She lived alone with her two cats and she had her routines. She loved to read and she went frequently to a small used book store a few blocks away. They would buy back books and she would carry her books in to the store and come out the door with more books to read.
At night she would turn on her bedside lamp and make her nest and read for hours. If my husband and I were out late at night and pass by her house we could see her lamp lighting through her curtains and we knew she was in bed reading.
Since we did away with television it seems to be easier to have more routine and our home is more settled. We have now established our night time reading routine.
I am not sure we are living old fashioned or new fashioned. When you really don't want to leave this place and time then maybe something good is going on. Maybe this is how it should be.
Grandma Donna
