Living Like the Past

I am doing this post to answer a question. I have a blog reader that is questioning having a child because of what she is seeing with her friends that are now having children. She knows that having a child can be a difficult life change but she is noticing that these new moms seem to make it all so complicated with constant worry, obsessively doting, have an over abundance of gadgets which brings on much complaining. This is concerning to the one in question as she would like to have children at some point but with her observation it gives her concern about having children, enough to postpone having a child of her own.She asked if I have any posts about rearing ch ......

We made our decision to not leave the 40s. However we have not yet studied the year 1944 and as many of you know we have been doing history projects of living like the 40s and finding out about the home front during ww2. There are many books about ww2 but not as much about the home front during the war. We have lived like 1942 and 1943 but not 1944. We did not go in that order and when we started we jumped right into 1943 to learn about rationing.We are a bit intimidated about doing 1944 because the war has ramped up big time and rationing is really tight during 1944. This month I have been putting together our 1944 notebook with newspaper articles ......

This is the first week of December and almost one year ago we started another one of our experiments that we like to do living like a different era. This year has been living like 1942. This link was the post I did the first day of January of this year. http://gdonna.com/living-like-the-past/hooray-it-i...This year we had a lot to learn and a lot to do. Some of you may remember about three years ago we lived like 1943 so we could learn about the home front during ww2 and learn about the rationing that went on during the war. I feel we did not stick to 1942 as well as I wanted because there were many things that sidetracked us. Modern issues and living in ......

This is Charles lunch today that I have packed for him. Also a banana for his morning snack and an apple for his afternoon snack.This above is a salad but you can't see it because it is under the sweet potatoes and onions. It is mixed lettuce and sauteed onions and mushrooms on top, avocado dressing and sauteed and baked sweet potatoes I put around the salad. It makes a nice full meal. Charles eats his meals in his car when he is working so I try and make them easy for him to eat.The little cottage on the front page of this post is our honeymoon cottage that is still there last time we checked.I think about my family that are no longer here a lot during the holid ......

We all have occupations. When we fill out a form and it asks for our occupation there is always something to say even if we are unemployed or retired.I am a homemaker, a manager. If Charles were retired he would be lawn care, maintenance and gardener but he is also a woodworker, designer and many things more. Charles still works outside the home so he has many jobs.When I was working for many years, raising a family and being a homemaker I held many jobs. If you really count all the jobs it was probably something like 85 jobs. I read a comment online from a young lady that said, I don't have time to be a homemaker, I have children to take care of! I ......

I hitched a ride with Charles this week and it was good for me to get out. We all need a break from normal routines every so often. This particular early morning it was foggy. We left the city and I thought you might like to ride along again. Last time was out to the dairy. This time we are heading west from our town of Dothan Alabama and so you can see what rural Southeast Alabama looks like.When I was a child I grew up in the city of Memphis Tennessee. When I was a young teenager we moved from Memphis Tennessee to River Falls Alabama. I am very familiar with these roads in Southeast Alabama.When we head west towards River Falls I feel like I am goi ......

I love cotton and lace. I have not always been this way about lace because I never liked foofy things. My mother loved lace and had lace curtains and lace tablecloths and such. Over time I started changing and looked at lace differently, I like simple lace with a casual and pretty touch. There is a difference. I started understanding my mothers appreciation for lace.I have always been fond of cotton. It just feels right on my body and I like cotton curtains, sheets and tablecloths. Maybe this comes from living in the deep south.I did not always know what I liked, I just accepted things, did not pay attention as much as I have since I got older ......

Cool weather is moving in starting today. I walked around the garden yesterday to enjoy the flowers before they are all gone. I enjoyed watching the bumble bees around the daisy chrysanthemums.I received an email from my blog friend Gail and she shared with me some memories of the past and when I read her story about Mr. Kempton's store it took me to my past when we owned a small grocery store. I asked Gail if I could post this to share on my blog and she said, I would be happy for you to include my memories of Mr Kemptons store.Gail's Story....I remember my grandmother would make a list of the grocery things she needed each week and I would walk to the corner shop, the o ......

I love screen doors because they normally led to those I loved. The squeak or creaky noise they made. Many times once you opened and walked through that screen door there were smells of cornbread and biscuits, peas and fat meat, turnips greens or Collards. A pie if fruits or pecans were in season and even if they were not there just might be a buttermilk or egg custard pie. In my family we had a lot of laughter. Our family, Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles, Cousins and extended family did not quarrel. I see families today quarrel a lot and I am not used to that.I don't have a lot of pictures of screen doors from my past they are mostly in my memory. It ......

I love this time of year when the Heirloom Chrysanthemums bloom. This is a very old variety that have somehow managed to not die off. They have a long history as they came from the home of an elderly postmistress. They were given to my mother and we dug them up several times and transplanted them as my mothers health was failing and first we moved her close to us then here to our home.In the past there were roles and an order of which things were done.It seems to me that we have gone too far from our roots. I feel people were grounded more in the past and I am very concerned that basic skills have been lost. Generations before us would pass down knowledge and te ......

They all understood it, so why don't we.Especially them, they understood it.Papa certainly had it. I had enough exposure to it that I know the difference in how it was and how it is now.So what did they have? PatienceWe are given this one life, we are not born perfect and what we do with our life is up to us.I found myself this past week frustrated. I was letting things bother me that are out of my control. It was the news on the radio, a simple trip to the grocery store was unnerving because people were so impatient and some were dressed inappropriate to be in a store. Some were downright scary. Traffic was bad and people were honking and gesturing and it ......

We are doing fine here after hurricane Nate. The feeder bands were kind to us only bringing breezy winds and rain. No damage here, cannot say the same for those west of us. I hope everyone in the path of what is left of hurricane Nate tonight fair well as it travels up to the northeast US.I spent my time mending Charles work clothes and planned some sewing projects. We have also been working on our camper called the Shabby Cabby. This past year the camper developed some leaks and it has caused damage to the floor. We have completely emptied the shabby cabby and are ripping out the floor which will take us quite some time since two old people crawling aro ......

Here we are first week of October has ended. This is the time of year our lemongrass is ready to harvest. I will be cutting, peeling and freezing the stalks and the leaves.But one thing stopping me from doing this and it is called Hurricane Nate. Yet another Hurricane, Sigh......The sunlight is fading from cloud cover now. I do get anxious from hurricanes because I am afraid of tornadoes they spawn. The hurricane will be coming in on the west side of Alabama and we are on the southeast side but the feeder bands that pull through can spawn tornadoes here and my main concern is our daughter and her family that live in Northwest Florida in Pensacola. Pl ......

The roses will be gone soon since it is fall now so I am sharing a beautiful rose in full bloom from our yard. This post is about lessons we have learned over the years and making our change to live more like the past. We do not have it all figured out because there are a lot of decisions to make along the way. We are aiming to live more like the past somewhere between 1900 and late 1940s. We are somewhat in this time period but still too modern. We are just working our way little by little and replacing things that have no real purpose with things that do.Above is a vintage slip. I love this old slip laying on the bed in the morning sun. I love the feeling of t ......

I like to be comfortable and also to make others comfortable. My nature is caregiver and I want to think that I have learned a few things during my life.I know that I have posted quite a bit about living prepared but due to so many disasters lately and what I have read in the news and looked at the pictures of so much devastation and suffering that I feel I should do more.Recently during hurricane Irma I heard on the news that they were telling people not to flush toilets due to flooding and sewers overflowing. But what I did not hear is anyone telling people what they could do.Actually there are many things people can do but there is little information about what or how to ......

This weekend Charles and I took an early drive to the dairy to buy some milk, cheese etc. From where we live it only takes us a few minutes to go from city to rural and then a pleasant drive about a half hour away to the dairy. I will take you along and share the drive.When we go to the dairy It always makes me remember my younger years and I think about how rural life is a better fit for me than living in the city but the city is where we live so for now I will enjoy the drive.When I was young I lived in the city but my grandparents and aunts and uncles lived rural. When my children were young we bought 10 acres of land in the country. Our house was a simple old farm house ......

The hurricane threw me off my routine. Actually I haven't had much of a routine lately but needing one. Our little hummingbird which I named Madeline is still with us. She stayed on our porch through the entire tropical storm. I have nicknamed her Maddie. She has two friends around as well.When I started cleaning up limbs that had fallen during the storm I thought about securing one of the limbs to our back porch for Maddie. Each time we go out the back porch Maddie would fly off the clothesline. The first day she was not interested in the tree branch but then she decided she liked it and this is where she has been resting ever since.The hummers batt ......

I want to let everyone know we are doing OK here at our house. I want to get this up pretty quick because I don't know if our power will go off. We have been hearing electrical transformers explode quite often due to the high winds here with Hurricane Irma.Our internet has gone out a few times so I am trying to get up a post quickly. I feel the worse of the weather is over but we are expecting high winds until midnight tonight and there is more to come for some of you as Irma travels through our country. We live inland about 84 miles from the gulf of mexico, 14 miles from the Florida state line. When Hurricanes move in people focus on the coastlines and the eye itself but hurrica ......

There are many ways to hand wash clothes and around the world people hand wash their clothing differently.I have always been fascinated with the cement wash areas in communities in different parts of the world and how some put in a flat stone that they use to wash the clothing.But many use buckets and tubs and pans.I have used many methods always trying to improve on this method because I want the laundry to be very clean. The one that works well for me the best and getting the laundry the most clean is using a narrow tall 15 gallon barrel. I don't put 15 gallons of water in it, I normally put 7 gallons of water. I use more water to rinse. I use the stick plunger thing to agitate ......

I was emailing with a blog friend and was informed that flu has been pretty bad this year in parts of Australia. They are in winter when we are in summer so our flu season will be starting up soon.I was talking about what I do in our house with the flu and that I have a flu box and she asked me if I would do a post.In the past people were very cautious and more serious about sickness. Many of my older family members would make poultices and such to go on the chest and people were isolated. It seems more care was taken.Just look at the way nurses and dental hygienist dressed in the past and were expected to be crisp and clean. They took great care to not spread germs.& ......