This is a socially busy time of the year. It costs the family a lot of money to go along with holiday traditions and all of this is man made. Somewhere the festivals traded for holidays and now have no resemblance at all of what once they were started.
Here at our house we don't pay much attention to man made holidays, we celebrate in our own way. We acknowledge the seasons and our faith is year around.
To live a simple life we set our self apart in a way but we still are social but in a much calmer way.
After all we are the keepers of the home. We do not have to be boastful or proud as there is no need for this as we become more knowledgeable of important things.
Each day is filled with things to do such as harvesting baby greens to have for dinner.
Our Heirloom Chrysanthemums show us when it is the season of Fall. Without a calendar or being around others I would know the time of year from these Chrysanthemums.
The satsumas are ripening just as November is arriving.
Our first year the satsumas were small and tart. Then they became larger and less tart and now this year they are very large and very sweet.
If we just do the planting and give them care and time they will give back.
As the keeper of the home I make warm meals.
I use the clothesline when weather is permitting and I take the time to turn pants inside out so the sun will not fade the dark pants. I try to not take shortcuts because they are expensive.
In real life some of the laundry hanging on the line is not as pretty as the pretty sheets and tablecloths blowing in the wind. However, they all come off the line with that fresh air sun kissed smell.
Sometimes we have to catch up with the housework when other activities have taken us away from our normal routines. But what is most important is we stop the non necessaries to do this catching up. We put our cell phones down, we turn off the computers and tablets, we don't go anywhere in the car. We do what it takes to get things done. We can make a voice mail message explaining we cannot take calls at this time.
In the past we did not have these distractions and it is a very draining problem we have today.
As keeper of the home I feel better when my home is clean but it is not always clean as we are real people in real homes that get dirty.
Charles and I enjoy reading. Before we started living more like the past we watched television and hardly ever picked up a book to read. I had a problem focusing on what I was reading until we made the change to live more like we did long ago. Now I crave knowledge.
Living like the past has given me a special problem. No matter how I try, I cannot seem to find a place to keep these electronics. They stick out like a neon bandage on a sore thumb.
As some of you know that follow my blog I have tried many ways to hide these computers. I put them in a closet one time we built a wall around them, I have moved them from one end of the house to another. I cannot use my desk with computers sitting on top. So now we are in search for a cabinet that is a desk with doors but until now we will leave it here in the foyer of the house.
So once you get past the electronic desk area the rest of the house is mostly vintage. We have recently added a secretary desk.
Sometimes it takes us a long time to find a piece that we want. We cannot afford to go to the expensive antique shops so we browse the thrift stores and yard sales. Many times our pieces we purchase are in need of repair. This is how we afford the older pieces.
Occasionally we have purchased a few things from one of the antique stores that is not as expensive as others.
Now my menu planning cards and household management paperwork has a home. Possibly I will mail birthday cards and letters once again since I have everything together at my desk.
I have found that I do need routine. A few years ago I was asked what was my routine but I did not have a routine. My life has gone through many changes and times of our life we can get by without a routine but now I need a routine.
Literally living our lives more like the past has required practice and working out solutions and moving things around as we learn or re-learn how to do things.
Take for instance the bathing wash bowl area was moved four times. One of those was because we changed bedrooms. Then twice we moved the wash area until we finally got it figured out.
This is how it ended up and it is important to have it right because of the need for routine.
I absolutely have to have a cooking routine which is still not complete but functional. This is meatloaf cooking in the oven, I call Monday, "Meatloaf Monday" even though we do not eat meatloaf on Monday. We eat chicken on Monday. If I did not call it Meatloaf Monday I might forget to cook the meatloaf for Tuesday and Wednesday Sandwiches.
The meatloaf sandwiches are for Charles lunch he takes to work. He looks forward to his meatloaf sandwiches.
Two sandwiches for Charles to take to work..
It does not take much room in his bag.
I eat mine open face with only one slice of bread as I do not eat much bread.
This meatloaf is an older recipe.
1 pound of ground beef
2 eggs beaten with a fork
half onion diced
half large bell pepper or 1 small to medium bell pepper diced
15 crushed saltine crackers or use bread crumbs
1 can of tomatoes diced, 14.5 ounce there or about., you can buy petite diced tomatoes. Drain the canned tomatoes and reserve the juice for topping I will tell how later.
salt and pepper
mix well together, I use my freshly washed hands and squish it together well.
place in loaf pan and bake at 385 degrees for one hour and 10 minutes.
For the topping
Put the tomato juice that was drained from the canned tomatoes in a small sauce pan and add two heaping tablespoons of brown sugar. Bring to boil then to simmer and stir often until it has cooked down to a sauce that can be spooned over the top of the meatloaf. I carefully remove the meatloaf 10 minutes before it is done then I spoon the topping over the top and place the meatloaf back in the oven.
As head of the household, Charles has his own desk.
We read books from today and from the past to learn to do things as they did in the past. This is helpful for gardening, seed saving and pruning but really gardening is trial and error and each years season has its own surprises.
As keeper of the home I do garden and yard work but not as much as Charles. I do the planning what to plant and I do most of the planting and removing weeds but we both water and Charles does the heavy work. I can rake and help but I cannot mow the grass as I once did.
I make the cookies/biscuits that go in this biscuit dish. :)
Cooking easy meals is important because it keeps us more routine than trying to make elaborate meals that take much time.
We live the old fashioned vintage life but we do not use the old cookware other than we do use cast iron. We have gotten rid of most of our aluminum cookware and replaced it with stainless steel. Some of the vintage items were not healthy. It is the way we live and not necessarily using vintage things.
We have replaced many things that were cheaply made by better vintage items.
We are living like the past, people used cookware so we just use a healthier version of cookware.
Living a more simple life, a life as our generations before us did is more about going back to basics.
I use a pressure cooker to cook meat quickly when I am short on time. When the children were young and in school I used the pressure cooker often and then they got older and I used it less. But now I have been using it again as we have been so very busy.
A pressure cooker is different than a pressure canner. This lid goes to the pressure cooker for meals and has a spout for the weight gauge.
I always check the rubber ring and keep it clean and all is well.
This is the pressure cooker cooking a roast. I have just put the lid on.
That is the pressure canner up on the top shelf I am pointing to and next to it on the right covered with a cloth is a water bath canner. The canners are used to can our food in canning jars.
Learning to use these important items is a very good thing to do. Because we need to bring back canning skills for food preservation.
The peas in the garden are reaching for the trellis so things are looking up in the garden. More in the next post on the garden as we are finishing up what has been going on in the backyard Since Hurricane Michael.
I do love being keeper of the home. :)
Grandma Donna
