April Is No Fool: Goals

 


I thought I'd just go ahead and make my plans for the new month about to occur.  My thoughts have been filled with April's plans since we headed into this week so it's high time I started jotting down my intentions.  

First, I want to do a quick review of March goals...I haven't even looked at them so I've no idea how well I did or didn't do!

Quick rundown of March goals:  I did get some candy for the church's planned Easter egg hunt this Saturday.   They wanted to fill 35,000 eggs this year and made their goal.  The hunt is open to the community so that's why so many eggs.   

In My Home This Week: In the Pink!

 


As with most of the kitchens I've been featuring this one is from the early to mid 1940's.  Why so fascinated with this time period?  Lots of reasons, really.  Number One is the often imaginative and awesome use of color.  As one who has seen quite enough white and grey interiors these past ten years,  I simply adore the colors.  

Second is that the kitchens are often real work horses with many functions encompassed in one modest room.  The use of space is nothing short of brilliant.  

Third, I love that these kitchens still have some form of dining space, either as the only room in which to eat a meal or as a less formal space.    Honestly I've never quite liked the dining nook in the living room (which is what I have now).  I sort of like the table in the kitchen.  My dislike of it in my present home was that the eating area (where I now have my kitchen sitting spot) was simply too small for a full sized table and full sized family to eat in though we did cram ourselves in that space for the first 14 years we lived here.  

Diary of a Homemaker's Week: Buzz Buzz Buzz

 


Saturday:   We had quite a long afternoon away from home but it's been awfully nice in some ways.   For one thing we went to the funeral.

I didn't refuse to turn around and come home, which John immediately put in to do after the service.  I pointed out that we could do as he suggested but by the time we got home it would be about 5pm and that meant leaving home again by 5:30 since we had to stop and pick up an item that we were requested to bring with us to the group meeting tonight at 6:30.  John could see quite plainly that going home really was a waste of time.   

So we went out to eat at a pizza place we haven't been to in quite a long while.  I hadn't thought we'd get a meal out today but it made sense to stop and have something since we typically have light snacks only at the meeting.  As we sat there I kept feeling vaguely dissatisfied.

Over the Fence: A Friendly Neighbor Chat

 


Hello, loves.  After years of having morning coffee or tea chats I thought I'd retitle this section as Over the Fence, harkening back to the days when neighborhood women and men stopped to speak to their neighbor as each was puttering about outdoors.  Women might be hanging out laundry, or supervising  children at play or gardening.  Men might be doing some diy project or lawn work or mechanic work.  Whatever the task, I recall Grandmother often spoke to her neighbors over the fence and so I thought how cozy it would be to return to that gentle way of visiting.  Mind you, you might slip through the gate and come have a visit with me  but we start by chatting over the fence...

We were working in the graveyard again this morning.  I said "Just one hour..." but it almost always moves on towards being two before I start to feel I've done enough for the day.   Afterwards, John sits down on the plinth that has fallen from Catherine's grave and I sit on the pedestal portion (always apologizing to her first and thanking her afterwards) and we survey the amount of work we have done or have left to do or both.  We are making very real headway.  Soon the whole of the interior will be trimmed of young trees and privets that have gotten out of hand and the thorny vines that wind about everything from the ground to the top of the trees.   

 After our first morning of work in the graveyard we'd cleared Capt. and Catherine Wiggins' graves...

Gathered Fragments: Expired, Leftovers, and Older Freezer Items



Expired:  1 box of Sure Jell (make jelly or jam)

1 can coconut milk

1 can table cream

5 packets of dry powdered milk (Mix up one packet to use as baking/cooking milk)

4 cans of peaches (gracious!  I thought I'd used more of these up!  I'll put a can in the fridge.  John will eat them plain if he sees they are there)

This Week In My Home: Spring, Spring, Spring!

 




This week's kitchen is from the early 1940's.  I don't know if it is an Armstrong kitchen but I'm suspecting it might be since the floor has an inlay of stripes and the counters appear to be covered with linoleum as well.   This kitchen caught my eye because of the central work island, a concept that for some reason I thought was distinctly 2000's rather than 1940's style, but there you are.   Just goes to show that nothing is truly new, doesn't it?

In this kitchen we can plainly see the fridge next to the sink counter there, so we don't have to wonder if this kitchen had an ice box on the old back porch.   What I note is that there is no drainboard on this sink counter.  No indeed, there is a double sink and I think that is rather a new thing in kitchens at that time because so many of the kitchens I've been looking at are a single sink with a built in drainboard.  

Diary of a Homemaker's Week: Hurry and Stop



Saturday:   Yesterday I went into the local grocery to pick up some things for the weekend.  Since we haven't yet been to do our proper once a month shop for routine stuff, I asked to run in on our way home to get cheese for Saturday's pizza lunch.  No problem.  As I got out of the car to go into the store, John mentioned I might want to buy chips for the weekend, as well.

Of course that led me to think of breakfast which typically is bagels only we had none.  I thought cereal and bananas would be a nice change.  I go back to the car with my few purchases (never just the one thing you start out for is it?) and mentioned to John that I'd got bananas and cereal for Saturday breakfast, as well as the snacks for the weekend.  "Well what about milk?"  "I have the shelf stable milk in the refrigerator.  We'll use that.  I won't buy milk here as I dislike the way their only brand  tastes."  "Oh," he said in a flat tone of voice that let me know the idea of my savings didn't appeal.

The Week Ahead: Springing Forward

 



This week's kitchen is another of Hazel Dell Brown's designs, this one a little more of a Keeping Room meant for perhaps an older more historic home.

I love this sweet blue and white kitchen.  Of course, the brick pattern Armstrong Vinyl plays an important role in the room and appears authentic to the history of the house.  The lay out of the kitchen is not really visible, but it appears to consist mostly of that back wall.  Just in that nook behind the fireplace to the right is a window with the kitchen sink.  I have no clue where the fridge might be.  It appears we move from the stove to a short counter top space and then right to the Hutch or Welsh Dresser.  

Diary of a Homemaker's Week: Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

 


Saturday:  As I sit here tapping away this afternoon the house is filled at present with the aroma of fresh baked peanut butter cookies.  I used the 3 ingredient recipe and cookies were ready with little mess or fuss in under 15 minutes.  It took longer to preheat the oven than to mix up and roll the cookie dough.   I am patiently letting them cool at present, awaiting my 3:30 cup of coffee...

John is enticing me to shut my eyes and take a quick nap as he's doing...My eyelids do feel quite heavy.

I think of all the days of the week I like Saturdays best.  Not just because it is Shabbat, but because I concentrate only upon feeding us and so our meals are usually unhurried and I don't bother with dishes except to rinse well and stack to wash later.  

Coffee Chat: Spring Has Sprung



Hello dears.   Do come in and join me with coffee.  I haven't a thing sweet to offer to go along but there are biscuits left from breakfast.  Would you like one toasted with butter and spread with jam?  It does seem more fitting to tea perhaps and we've that, too, if you'd prefer.

I looked out across the fields this morning at all the white blooms and the pale tender green of barely there new leaves.    In the long ago old days, when girls wore white dresses it was always pink or blue ribbons tied about their waists.  Why not pale green, do you suppose?  How lovely that should have looked to see pale green against the white, just like spring.   

There's one especially tall white tree on the fence line, swaying gently like a young girl swaying to a quiet strain of music.   I know that hidden in that tall white column of a tree are branches with long cruel thorns and the flowers themselves stink to high heaven.  But against the pale blue of the sky and the soft warming grey of about to burst into leaf trees behind it, the tree is lovely.  And I'll take it's loveliness at face value just now.   One can appreciate beauty even if it is merely a disguise.   The knowledge that it's only skin deep is key though. 

My First Stitch Fix Box

 


It was purely on a whim that I joined Stitch Fix this month.  Truth told I'd been curious for the past couple of years and had seen many vloggers and bloggers alike share their items.  Bess had joined a few years ago and I'd been impressed with what she'd gotten from them and knew that she still had many of those pieces.  

So after watching Frugal Fit Mom try on her latest box of things, I thought I'd take a chance on one. I had some birthday money set aside and was hopeful it would cover the cost.  I went online, did the style quiz, gave an honest account of my weight, height and sizes in tops and bottoms and shoes and played a little multiple choice game where I tagged which pictures of outfits appealed to me.

Just to compare two sites, I also considered Wantable but they wanted measurements of length of arms and inseam and this and that and it seemed like far too much trouble to me so I quickly closed that page and skipped that long winded process.

This Week In My Home: Fair Sailing

 


I almost skipped this image.  At first glance it's chaotic but the time frame is 1948 and that is smack in Hazel Dell Brown's design days at Armstrong Flooring so I decided to give it a second and third look before discounting it completely.  It slowly dawned on me that I recognized this kitchen somehow...

You might actually recognize the design, too.  We saw it in a different color form not too long ago. 

 with the doors closed...

and with the doors open.

Diary of a Homemaker's Week: Nothing As Planned

 


Saturday:    I find that these days I'm waking naturally closer to the hour I originally set my alarm for two months ago.  I think this is a seasonal thing.  The light in our room is much stronger by that hour than it was two months ago.   

It was an easy day.   I put dishes away but left all else as was today.  Not even the bed was made.  I've found that the morning has a very real tendency to become a 'routine' and that's something I want to avoid in work on Saturdays.

March 2021 Goals



As usual I try and review what my goals were in the previous month.  

I'm pretty happy with what I planned, low goals as they were.  I made it to the donation center which was a January goal that got pushed to February.  It was done before the first week was over.    We ate out for our birthday dinner on the same day.  It was just lovely.

The Long Quiet: Day 21