When I study history and looking to find what it was like inside the home, I feel the calm and simplicity. Not all homes were this way but I actually feel the people that are in my research through the diaries and maybe that is because of my family that came from these eras that I study and I remember that something about them that we do not see as much today.
It feels important to say that it is up to us to make this kind of calm home that once was. It feels like grabbing hold of something that makes complete sense. I wish I could show you or explain better of the things Charles and I have learned studying the home front and the home from 1900 through the 1940s.
The history studies were what helped us to get out of debt by trying to live more like they lived in the past. Getting out of debt is one thing, trying to stay out of debt with the economy is another thing.
This study of 1940 has brought much happiness to our home as the other studies have. Charles and I have been working on the 1940 budget, the menu planning, re-arranging our home with small sitting areas, cleaning out our desks and we have started micro managing down to the pennies.
The one dozen eggs shown above were $4.17 plus thirty three cents tax which makes the eggs $4.50. It is important to figure in what the tax is going to be in a budget because that can throw off our budget. We are concentrating on the things that we can control to whatever extent we can.
Living in 2024 is a difficult time for many of us. What we have done is use how they budgeted in 1940 and then made it our own way to accommodate for the modern things that we cannot seem to get rid of such as too many expensive insurances, mostly health care.
Above, Cottage pie.
Since we clamped down into the 1940 study, every meal is cooked here at home and we have not purchased any snacks such as chips, cookies, soda, crackers or anything pre-cooked. This is how we are staying on the grocery budget.
We went over the first week by $41.00 but went under the second and we are on our way to being under again this week. We started the budget at and odd time, the end of July but it is good we have done it this way because we have changed it a few times now because we have seen what we forgot to add and it made us re-think how we were doing this. We will be in a better position by September 1st with the budget.
Pork, cream gravy, cabbage and beets with onions.
What we are doing now is living this life as if we were living in1940 and intend to stay this way as if we are somewhere between the late 1930s and early 1940s. As we live like this we will keep adjusting and what I mean is rid ourselves as much modern as possible.
I have been doing some mending on the old tablecloth. It is one of my favorites and it is getting thin so I keep patching it on the bottom side.
I take a scrap piece of fabric from my stash and I place it under the hole and then hand baste the patch in place and then I sew over the top side with my treadle machine. I could hand sew the top as well if I did not have a sewing machine. Where my finger is pointing there is a hole and I placed a scrap that had some blue in it so that shows up in the hole to distract from the patch. I have patched this tablecloth several times now and that makes it even more special.
When we started watching the series All Creatures Great and Small that is based in England, we were shocked at how the inside of our home looked similar to the version we have of the series. We cannot watch the older version here in the United States. We have the same colors in our home, and many similarities of desks and sitting areas.
The series is about Veterinarians living in the Yorkshire Dales area in England and town of Grassington but the fictional name is Darrowby Village. The location of the Yorshire Dales is absolutely gorgeous and breathtaking. Also a good part of the series is also about their life inside of their home and small veterinary clinic. The story is based from the life of James Alfred Wight, Pen name James Herriot a British Veterinarian. The books are written by His son Jim, also a Veterinarian and his memories and stories told.
It starts in the late 1930s and what is important to this study of 1940 is that it moves into ww2 and shows the affects of the war on the family.
I have a treadle sewing machine like Mrs. Hall and for those that have seen the series, behind the metal singer you will see Tricky's cousin Bernadette!
We had a good laugh when we noticed a lace curtain over their front door similar to ours, or I guess now ours is similar to theirs.
The rooms in England are commonly small so we fit in very well. We didn't know that all these years of history studies that we were becoming like the house in the series of All Creatures Great and Small.
We don't have television and in the past here in the U.S. people went to movies quite often in 1940. So, I just named our tablet "Houston" because the local movie theater in our city was called the Houston.
We purchased the series that were available starting with the 2020 version, and then the book set through Amazon and this will keep us happy from here on out because we will just keep watching and reading it over and over.
Something in the show resonated with me when they were all sitting in the sitting room with a book and they were reading. Everything was quiet and each one was reading something. It was one of those before television moments that I remembered this feeling of the family reading with no noise in the house. We did that in our home before we had a television. Now it is an adjustment to live without so much noise all the time.
In the kitchen we are using this cabinet as a divider between the laundry area and the kitchen. Underneath holds a step stool and a lidded tote of washing soda and another tote of borax.
It makes things very handy with kitchen work and since I am very short less climbing on a stool. It is very handy to have the everyday dishes and pots and pans at reach. On the top I have set the cake tin, a large skillet that we frequently use, and two bowls that are used often.
We do not need new furniture to make things happen. There are thrift stores and yard sales and some people just throw furniture to the curb. This is how we found many of our old items in our house. This piece above we have had for many years but some of the other pieces we have found during the times we have done our studies.
Life is very short, and when we are young or middle age we may not realize how short it really is, all you have to do is ask an older person.
Make life fun and we can find fun right in our homes by just studying the past, learning new things such as learning to cook or sew, to build something by hand, learn about plants and wildlife in our own area and find out what they need. Grow a plant from seed and nurture it and watch it give back for that love.
If we stop listening to that negative person in our head that makes us worry, and find something that is so interesting that we cannot stop reading, or do some genealogy and get on a trail that we don't want to stop researching, or become determined that we will learn to make a pie crust and find that it was so simple that we cannot believe that it was so simple, or sing a song to a bird or frog or any kind of creature and not care if anyone can hear us. Then we will have found our way to to contentment instead of worry.
To make a pie crust keep it simple.
Above is my 1909 Congregational Church book that I have.
Above 1940
And if you want to make a simple butter crust,
1/2 Cup unsalted butter which is one stick if you are using stick butter or (113g)
1 & 1/4 Cup all purpose flour (155 g)
1/2 tsp salt 204 tablespoons ice water.
I haven't forgotten to post some of the diaries and recipes from my book, I just have not had the time with all of the budget and menu work here at home.
To answer an email, The diaries do not have pictures, these are authentic handwritten diaries. I do not share much information on research I may have done on the diaries due to the privacy of family members that may still be living.
I would love to hear from you up in the forum, have you found you are changing your routines or found new routines since this study has started? Do you have any special ways to mend? Do you prefer to hand sew or machine sew? Have you watched or read All Creatures Great and Small?
Practice makes a pie crust. Grandma Donna
