It has been a whole month that we have been away from the blog while learning to let go of modern habits that have interrupted our life. It has been good for me and I hope for you that have done the same.
I feel like I went home for a visit and I brought back new lessons from my Grandmother. Our home is not like my Grandmother's home and I do not want it to be, for my Grandmothers home are memories in my heart. I hope that I can capture the sense and sensibility of the time that I am wishing for, while learning new strengths from our study.
To be all present again is utmost important. When we are seduced into void of scrolling, we lose our presence.
If you are new to my blog, we just finished a one month technology break during our 1930s history study. My husband Charles and I live an old fashioned life in the city and we do history studies and blog about them. I also blog about the old days and the current things that we are doing in our real current time. We cannot live in the past but we can live "Like or similar" to the past so we can learn skills and how to save money.
I took a break from my phone and computer and at first it was difficult to break the addiction of checking and listening to things, but then after about a week and half I started being the old me. I started finishing projects from my large stack of mending.
I finally pulled out my jumper dress and changed the neckline that bothered me. I replaced the neckline last year for another dress and this one has been in my mending box since before I sewed the other one.
It is one of my most comfortable dresses made from Linen and Cotton.
I was so happy to get this done. I also hemmed three pair of pants, two of Charles and one of mine.
I started knitting again and completed two dish/wash cloths.
These are projects that I had simply abandoned because I could not find the time. Now I found the time and where it was, it was hidden in the electronics.
Some of the weekday mornings we listened to half an hour of the news to stay informed and then we turned it off.
We moved a few pieces of furniture around and made a telephone area. At first I put my cell phone in the drawer with the receiver part and then we decided to buy the gadget that makes the old dial phones work. Now I take my calls in the chair to the right just like the old times. Now I have a fifteen minute limit more like it would have been a long time ago.
The girls have been getting a lot more lap time with Mommy because now I have found the time.
Speaking of time, we moved our clocks to standard time at the beginning of October so we would be more used to it when it changed November the 2nd. It was a bit confusing ,but we finally figured it out.
I was not able to start bandage making again as I hoped for, but I will now that I have made some life changes during this no technology month. I feel that I have a better perspective about the things that are important.
I talk about bandage making off and on throughout my blog after doing the war studies. Bandages have gotten very expensive now and these homemade knitted bandages are made from 100% cotton crochet thread and can be boiled and washed. They are very good, just like the way they knitted bandages during world war 1 and world war 2 and even before that time. The gauze pads can be knitted as well as the rolled bandages and you can find posts on my blog how to knit them using the search that is found on my front page, right hand side, on the computer screen.
It feels very right when time is spent mending, knitting, and sewing while sitting instead of wasting time on electronics.
Then I got my sourdough starter started back up again... something else I had stopped making..
It took several tries to get it started... I had Pascal, Leona, and Pepie...
Leona was the one that came through the best..
This was a yum!
I made the Charlotte Cake that is in the Tasha Tudor's family cookbook and it is for sure a keeper recipe.
I meant to take pictures of making the cake but I was much too present in my intentions. :)
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I made crackers and air sealed them in quart jars.. Twice :)
Charles really enjoys having homemade crackers in the pantry and so now I am doing better with this since I am getting more balanced with home management.
I am not all fixed though because it takes much time to find our balance. We are not suppose to live a strict or rigid life, but a comfortable and enjoyable life while being reasonably responsible to take care of our home and our family. This is what is important and should be done with happiness and love.
Many of us today live with much worry, and for sound reasons. Whatever it is that causes us worry cannot improve by worrying about it. There is a better chance there could be some improving our situation, maybe not the outcome that we want, but make it more comfortable while we are going through whatever this is and help those around us if we are not so tense with worry.
We have been doing repairs and replacing decking boards at the lake cottage. I pressure washed the deck while Charles was removing and replacing the rotten deck boards. There is much work to do up there and so we are trying to find our balance with this as well. A pressure washer was not in the past but needed for now. They did not have what we have today, but they had items that we do not have today.
I set two dessert plates of homemade egg custard pie on the table and when I came back in the room the sun was shining on the pie and I thought it was very pretty.
Each day has been homemade meals and we continue to purchase groceries on our very strict grocery budget and make everything that we can from scratch. For the past three months we have had money leftover from our monthly grocery budget of $400.00. We have not eaten out at all, no take outs no purchase for food other than in the grocery store. Every bit of food that we eat comes from that $400.00.
I use the leftover grocery money to spend when a food item is on sale or buy one get one.
I make chicken broth each time that I purchase Chicken. We always purchase a whole chicken, that is the only way it was sold in the 1930s. Remember that in the times of the great depression and also today, the nourishment is in the broth be that of vegetables or meat.
Now to the "new" news. We are backing up a bit with our studies. When we study a special time or year we remember that adults in 1930 would have been born before or just after 1900 depending on their age and they would have gone through many historic events by the time they started going into the great depression.
For those of you that are doing the 1930s study along with us, we have made a change and we have moved back to the year 1930 so we can sync ourselves with the dates and days. We are getting a start over to sync with the time, and this is due to leap years that throw things off. Now by making this change we have synced our studies.
Saturday November the 1st, 1930 and Saturday November the 1st 2025 is 95 years apart to the day. By making the adjustment, each year we will remain synced to newspapers and research as far as day and date as we move through the 1930s.
Example; on January the 1st, 2026 we will move the study to 1931, this way we will be synced with their time during the years of the 1930s.
I learn many things from reading the old newspapers but just like today, many times I do not agree with their language or unfairness to others but we cannot change history. We can learn from history, what Charles and I look for in doing history studies are how did they do the things that they did without the modern things of today? What was it really like in the past and how did they manage during very difficult times to help us get through difficult times.
We need this information today to help us through our difficult times and since they are not here for us to ask, we research...
We will continue our journey to find the best parts of the past and to use them in every way we can. As keeper of the home I feel the need to have purpose for all of the things we have.
Charles is retired now for one month, and we are learning our way to merge the things we do so that when it is time for one of us to depart this life, we each know how to do what the other does.
We have several friends and family members that have gone through very difficult times after losing a spouse because they did not have the other spouse's passwords or financial information nor even know where things were kept or be able to cook a favorite meal they enjoyed while together.
Charles and I want to protect each other from going through this so we are trying to set up everything in a way the other has the knowledge and experience to carry on. If we make a change, we tell the other about the change. We are cooking together and teaching each other how to make the food that we eat. Fortunately Charles enjoys cooking, I enjoy baking. I cook with a more country southern style and Charles has a more Chef style with adding more flavor. We realize that we would miss the meals the other cooks so we are teaching each other what the other one does.
We have made sure to have our legal matters taken care of so there are no issues with the other spouse moving forward. It will be difficult enough just not having the other one here.
It will take us time to adjust to both of us being retired, we are having issues with knowing what day it is or how we want to do things in general. Charles has to rest and heal his body because he worked until his body was getting worn down so we are working at a slower pace while still moving forward. The things that we have done this past month were very needed. The deck boards were unsafe so we feel better about this now.
For the blog and forum, I am working on a better plan of how and when I blog so I can minimalize the use of modern technology. I will not go back to scrolling and when I am using technology it will have purpose for researching or blogging. It is a discipline issue and prioritizing the things we do.
I have corrected these things by removing them and not including them in our main areas. My computer has a new designated area in the furthest back guest bedroom, or rather I say bed chamber. :) Yes, some were still using the term bed chamber in the 1930s, it was starting to be replaced with bedroom but how lovely to say bed chamber.
As you saw above the telephone is now in it's designated area, it is a matter of putting the cell phone away when not being used for an important matter. There is no television in our home so that is not a problem, the radio is in the living room. We absolutely have seen a difference in our ability to focus and our new love for reading means we are focusing better.
I will be happy to hear from you all. If you post photo's please resize them down before posting so they will not distort the page size, if that happens just delete the photo and resize and repost and if you need help just send me an email for help, I will pop in and correct it if I can.
The forum cost nothing to join or comment, just a simple sign up and that has a purpose to keep our forum safe from spammers. Please remember to not send links or links to websites for this must be approved for safety. Also at times someone will try and use my blog or forum to promote their blog and this is not permitted without approval.
I hope to hear from you soon. Grandma Donna
