The Week Ahead: Balloons and Cakes

 

Our kitchen this week:

It's a real one!

I was blown away when I saw this seemingly original kitchen in a home.  Isn't it pretty?!

We can't see the stove nor the ice box in this room but let's just look at what we can, okay?  I always open the picture in a new tab so that I can see it in a larger format.  Starting all the way over here at the left of the picture...

Underneath those three drawers is what appears to be a massive cutting board/dough board that you can pull right out to use.  I love those broad cabinet doors there on that end, too.  So nice for storing a bit stock pot or serving trays and huge old roasters.

Next note that the windows are either side of the sink.  Right above the sink are what appears to be three soap holders.  I wonder why they needed three?  Perhaps one is a heavier duty soap, like a pumice type soap for scrubbing hard to remove things and another is just for handwashing and one is for routine dishwashing?   Anybody else know or want to guess?

The open space under the sink apparently opens still further.  It appears there is a little step stool to one side.  I wonder if there's a stool there, too, where one might sit while washing dishes or pull over to the dough board.

There are double sinks there, too.  How very modern was that to do at that time?

As we swing to the right we see a huge wall of storage.   It appears to be set up as a Butler's pantry.  The drawer on the bottom right...Is it a deep drawer?  It looks to be.  But it also almost looks like an oven, doesn't it?   But there are no controls anywhere so I'll stick with cupboard or drawer.

The tile is the thing I just love.  So many kitchens had been of wood or brick but tile was seen as a 'cleaner' product to use for the modern 1900's kitchens.   It was believed to be easier to keep sanitary.  Sanitation was a big deal along about this period.  That's why so often the tile extends far up the wall.

I think the white with green just looks fresh and lovely.   I would love to see gingham curtains or even plain curtains in yellow with a trim of some sort.  

A brand new month will be upon us come Monday morning and I've made my goals for February.  I'll share those in a bit.  I'll keep this simple and to the point this week.   This is what I have planned:

Work:  

Zone 1:  Kitchen/Back Entry/Laundry   This month I want to focus on cleaning now that everything is freshly organized.  The blinds in the kitchen sitting area are dusty.   There's little bits of dried leaves and crumbles of dirt about the plants.   There are drips and dribbles on cabinet doors and the floors need mopping.  I also want to try to clear the counter tops a bit.  This is an ongoing battle of mine.  What to do with those things I use on a routine basis and yet can't stand looking at?   And how do I make storage room for them when there's none to spare?   I'll try to puzzle this out this week and I hope by week's end my kitchen looks as fresh on the surface as it feels underneath.

Big yard project starts this month.  Not something John is likely to have much to do with but it does mean that I need to rethink how I've been dealing with some spaces and what I mean to do about them.   As well I've been given a lot of border material which I'm excited about but now I must figure out how to make it work for me and look consistent.   This is a vast job and will definitely need to be attacked in small bites.

Do a complete Freezer inventory and pull forward those things I need to use sooner rather than later.  Also to give me an idea of what I might need if sales appear.

There won't be a big grocery shop this week but we will go pick up a few items like lettuce and tomatoes and onions.

Go get a haircut.

Work up our bills for the month.  I have a few that need to go out this week and I need to total up the checkbook from the past month.  I do keep a running total but I make any adjustments I need to make, note which checks are in and which aren't, etc.  I then have my updated total.  We're usually pretty much where we need to be without any issues.

Take donation items from my room over to donation center. 

Buy birdseed.  My birds are hungry ones and they are going right through my seeds.  I ran into town today to buy a bag but we'll definitely need more.

John has a busy weekend coming up and then  a busy week following.  I think if we're going to celebrate our birthday in any way, we might do it later in the month but I'll plan a special meal for us that I make at home.  

I really enjoyed working on the genealogy posts and I want to gather information for two posts in February.

In the meantime though, I have birthdays to buy for.  I need to go buy gifts for two young ones.  I need to get Amie's gift in the mail to her.  I'm a bit nervous about mailing it but I'm never going to get it to her any other way.

Menus:

Aside from the first two these are not in order of how they will be served.  I'm not likely to serve chicken on Tuesday after eating it all weekend long.  I simply grouped things by protein in order to think better about what we might have.

Items marked with * are or contain Gathered Fragments from my pantry inventory last week

Chicken Pot Pie (leftovers), Green Beans, *Peaches in *Orange Gelatin

GFC (Gramma's Fried Chicken), Potato Salad, Broccoli, *Peach Cobbler

Tuscan Tuna Salad (*cannellini beans), Tomato Basil Soup(*powdered milk), Garlic Toast

Chicken Parmigiana, *Spaghetti, Green Salad

Corned Beef, Cabbage, Potatoes, Carrots, Homemade Bread

Steak, Baked Potato, Salad, *Angel food cake with *Lemon Curd

??? I want to do something different but haven't as yet determined what different is going to look like.  I' think I'll just fill this space with a Leftovers meal.

Leisure:

It's time to pull out my February magazines to read through.  

Apparently I'm not so keen on two of the books by my chair, so those will be put away and I'll try to pull a new stack to try to read.

I've lost my little bag of yoyos I was working on.  I'm going to dig around in the craft room and in my magazine basket next to my chair and see if I can find it once more.  I think that taking a half hour daily to do a bit of hand sewing would be awfully nice.  I may also drag out the embroidery stuff and work on something.  I'll let you know what I'm going when I get at it.

A spa day is in order.   Mask on my face and lips and hands, foot scrub, body buff, etc.   It's just time to pay a little extra attention to myself and this always makes me feel a bit pampered and a bit luxe, too.

Coffee Chat: One More for January

 

Hello, loves.   It is Shabat evening and typically I do not write at this time.  I usually wait until Saturday evening after sundown and then I begin the posts that will go up for the weekly things.  You know, the plans and the Diary, etc.   But I realized with a start this afternoon that after this weekend January is done.  February is short and will fly past.  I wanted to talk to you one more time here in January.  I do not like to let a month get away from me without a chat every now and then.    How shall we maintain our relationship if we don't visit?   

It is true that among friends, days and weeks and months can go by and yet you can remain friends, picking up right where you left off, but it's so much nicer to stay apace of one another and keep up, isn't it?  I think so.

Worth Sharing: Fireside

 

Don't you stay at home of evenings? Don't you love a cushioned seat in a corner, by the fireside, with your slippers on your feet?

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

The Week Behind: Wide Open

 

Saturday:  I've been enjoying my work in the house these last few weeks.  It feels good to rid myself of things under which I'd buried myself both physically and mentally over the past year.  Letting go of paper work that I've held onto for too long has been the most freeing thing of all, I think.  Statements and receipts and long ago service records for vehicles and slips of paper that I ponder, trying to determine the reason why they seemed important enough to keep.    

You'd think it would have also decreased my anxiety, all this letting go of stuff,  but it has not.  That continues to some degree, though less than in the summer.  However, letting go of what I can does give me some small sense of control over my own life in which I so often feel I am floundering out of control.  Housework is very grounding.  Going deeper and clearing out what is unnecessary furthers that sense of grounding.

Gathering Fragments: The Pantry Project

 

I found quite a few things I'd like to go on and use.  It's going to be long list for me to work my way through.  

Initially I was pretty stoked.  I didn't discover but one can from 2019 and everything else I pulled off the shelves was near expiration in a month or two,  but then I found a plethora of things that expired in the autumn of 2020.   Mind you, nothing I'm terribly concerned over.  Most of it is canned goods or dried fruit, things that will hold regardless of 'best buy', but I do know that the longer I delay using them the less the quality of what is inside the can/bag.  

The Week Ahead: Planning for What?

Here's our neat little kitchen for this week.  It looks as though it's a smaller kitchen once again.  I can see that the stove, sink and refrigerator are all in the same frame...and unless I miss my guess there's a dishwasher there next to the sink as well, though it is just possible that might be a hot water heater.  I've seen some shaped like that in the past.

The big thing in this kitchen is that corner set of cupboards.   That's a lot of room for storage and it makes good use of what is typically dead space in any kitchen.  In my own kitchen that bottom bit of corner measures 25 inches deep...And not a bit of the cupboard space under is accessible!

Worth Sharing: Lovely and Wonderful Things

 

                                     Sunshine In The Living Room by Carl Holsoe

Not too long ago, I was trolling around Pinterest and an image caught my eye and made me stop and simply stare.  It was a lovely portrait, and the artist's name listed was Carl Holsoe.  I found the image above as a stumble upon last night and again I was completely captivated and simply sat staring at the painting.   When an artist's work makes me stop dead in my tracks and causes me to feel I am in a familiar room, I pay attention to the artist!

Diary of a Homemaker's Week: Third Week of January

 

Saturday:   How is it even possible that we're starting our third week of January?  It is my hope that we won't fly through this year.   I would much prefer to meander slowly along, window shopping and being a tourist of the year, in no great hurry to get anywhere much...Sort of the way we act when we are in St. Augustine and we are parked where there is no timed meter ticking away our visit.   We stop and rest and we get up and wander down interesting little streets and we sort of savor the whole thing.  Now I do realize that '21 might not be all that savory.  But it might be and I don't want to rush headlong through the month.  

We woke this morning to the wind roaring overhead.  It only does this in winter and it's usually well above the house and tree tops.  We might note a breeze on the ground but the volume of the wind, both sound and quantity, are always well over head.   I could hear it in the tops of the tall pines but it was not rattling branches and leaves on the ground.    It makes such a lot of noise and can be unsettling when it goes on for days on end as it has done occasionally, but this just started this morning and by afternoon had settled down to a normal ground level winter breeze.  I wore my winter coat when we went out and it was very welcome.  It was COLD!

Budget Eating: Healthier Than You Might Think

I was making dinner the other day and realized that there are five items in my pantry/fridge that are fresh ingredients, always on hand and budget friendly.  I find them to be versatile, healthy and easily available year round.  They tend to have a long shelf life if stored properly so they are wonderful for the once a month shopper to keep on hand.

Besides their common availability all five also have in common  that they provide nutrients, fiber and many necessary vitamins and minerals.  

Coffee Chat: Wisdom Of Ages

 

Hello, dears.  I didn't mean to go so long without a coffee chat.  I've started four, but they irritated me.  One sounded too complaining.  One sounded too confrontational.  One sounded boring.  I gave up and went away and now I am back.  We shall see if I come up with anything reasonably between the three previous failed ones!

There are no real sweets on hand, since John is fasting sugar until next week.  I expect he will want to cut way back following this fast of his and I shall do my best to accommodate him.   

The Week Ahead: Sunny Winter Days

 

This week's kitchen is likely from the early to mid 1920's.  It's a simple room and straightforward.  I love the windows...I admit I'm big on having a well lit kitchen and even on a dull day a kitchen with plenty of windows will have some light.  

Let me begin this room examination with a confession: I'd love a stove like that one pictured there.  I've seen the most dainty little gas stoves in flea markets and antiques fairs.  I can't tell if this is gas or more likely wood.  At any rate it's small and delicate looking and not at all imposing as the great huge Home Comfort stove that graced a home I lived in once long ago.  I love that the stove is slipped into that built in nook, much like a big old English kitchen fireplace nook.  

Diary of a Homemaker's Week: Second Week of January 2021

 

Saturday:  We've had a nice relaxing Shabat in our home.  It was so cold!  It never went over 38F today and the promised sunshine?  Peeked in the window about 4:30 and then slipped behind the clouds again and was never seen again.  Pooh!

We kept the little propane heater on all day long and even so the heat pump would periodically come on in an attempt to keep the temperature up  indoors.   I don't think we ran the propane heater much last year or the year before.  In fact, I distinctly remember feeling sorry for the propane company because they made little money off us those two years.  Perhaps this year will be better for them.  I always figure propane into my budget starting in August since we typically get our first fill-up in September.  Some years the last fill-up comes in March and others it's in April but never beyond that do we see the man unless it's time for tank maintenance.

The Week Ahead: Hold On!

 

I have loved this kitchen since first I saw it some years ago in one of my magazines.  I'm pretty sure it's the colors that draw me in jut at first, but there's so many details here one you begin to look it over.

First let us go right to that floor.  You know, the guys who laid linoleum in those days must have been artists.  Look at those scallops!  

Diary of a Homemaker's Week: First Week of January '21

 

Saturday:  We had a very quiet New Year's Day here.  Just me and John and the rain.  I didn't do a thing except an extended Bible study in the morning.  We had a Submarine sandwich that we ate for our midday meal, with the last of the Christmas cookies, a soda and chips.  We paid far too much for that silly sandwich but we sure did enjoy it.  It made us feel we'd done something special for New Year's and that was what we'd meant to do.

Today was not a quiet Shabat day as we'd usually like to have.  We'd had a rather desperate housebound Daddy text asking please could we take the boys.  They do live in a small house and it had been raining for two days.  I told him we'd take them for the midmorning to mid-afternoon time frame and I quickly made plans.  I found pizza dough in the freezer yesterday and set it out to thaw.  The boys love pizza almost as much as they like pancakes.

The Week Ahead: Sharing What's Ahead

 

Well hello and welcome to a new year.   While the year is brand new, I tend to change things up a wee bit, just to make it feel as new as it seems to me at the moment.   Truth told it's mostly a lot of the same old things but a little refreshing does a great deal towards improving a familiar meal or a comfortable chair, and a blog.

First I thought I'd reintroduce the retro kitchen photos.  I know that many of you enjoyed seeing them and commenting on what you liked or didn't.  I thought it would be fun to go back to sharing those for a while.  And I'll just go ahead and comment on this one: I love the reverse tile color from one side to the other but honestly doesn't that dining area seem a bit too snug for three?  I'm assuming it's a living/dining room opposite that divided wall but personally I'd like a bit more elbow room at the table, even if there were normally just the two of us.