Coffee Chat: Fresh Air and Sunshine

 

Hello dears.  Come on in and let's have a lovely chat.   There's coffee or tea and a variety of both to choose from.  Help yourself and have a seat with me here.

I think that these past two months have been a needed break for me overall.  In December I was caught up in the holiday doings that distract us from the day-to-day routine things.   And then in January we began the month sick, and I pretty much laid everything aside and just concentrated on resting and healing.  

I'm feeling the pay off this week in a surge of energy.  Along with that energy has come a surge of ideas for the blog and life in general that have me excited.  I'm just brimming with thoughts and ideas to share! 

All that time I took off being sick also has included a fast with our church.  I did a physical fast of certain food items that I am especially fond of choosing as a treat/comfort item.  Let's just say that I always think I've given myself an easy task and I always find it supremely difficult because those are things I rely on to soothe, comfort, or energize me when I need a lift.   It's forced me to rethink what I choose for comfort or soothing and to think how I might get a longer lasting energy boost.  I doubt that I'll permanently give up any of these items, but I do see the wisdom of limiting them more than I have in the past and learning to choose other, healthier means to accomplish the same end.

I also opted to do a fast from games.  I only have two on my computer, but I kid you not when I say that I devoted HOURS to those games.  It was my favorite mindless pursuit.  I'd play a game and drift along in my thoughts or half listen to whatever John had on television.  I'd 'hide out' when I was deeply disturbed by life in that mindless state I'd get into.    I knew I was wasting time, but I never saw how much of it was truly spent in being in a mindless state until I gave them up for this fast.

Take away a few crutches and you begin to realize that if you really want to get things done in your life, if you really want to read more say, you might just set those things aside permanently or at least severely limit them to a set day and time and no more.

Because of the lack of game time and because so many of the vloggers I've followed have taken off the bulk of the month of January (hello! Another time gobbler!), I've read more than I've read in probably the past year in a single month.  And I liked it!  I liked it a lot!  I've read a variety of authors even though I'm reading through two or three series at present.  I'm just taking a break between books by reading other authors instead of reading so much of one series that I'm sick of it before I get through it.   

I've read a variety of books:  old ones, modern ones and not all the same genres.  It has refreshed my mind, reminded me of my own interests.  I've found it has also decreased my anxiety and tension and I've slept better.  I can get just as lost as I do when playing games but it's not a mindless state.  I'm in an altered state that is benefitting me. I stop at certain quotes and think, really think, not just in that moment but again later.  At some point in my life, I've read every word in the books I'm reading now.  But I'm in a different place.  I'm reminded that some of the quotes I read ten or forty years ago changed me, molded me.  New things speak to me within the same texts.  I am changed and grow through what I read.   Because I have internet now, something I didn't even dream of 50 years ago, I can look up a song, a style of dress, a recipe, a piece of art, even another book mentioned within a book, and I've now become part of it in a way I wasn't in the past.  It's made me grow.   I didn't grow a bit when looking for objects in the one game nor in how many candies I crushed!

It wasn't all just reading.  John kept finding a variety of movies to watch.  Most of them were old ones but all were based, as my books, on different eras and genres.  Again, it was refreshing and enlightening.  I'd note an actor or a period of history or a place I hadn't heard of before and I'd do research so my mind was stretched in more ways than one.  

I mentioned many vloggers decided to take the month of January off or to cut way back on their videos.  I know how hard it is to work away at their task and create content repeatedly, etc., so I'm not faulting them in the least.  It's hard to keep inspired when you're burning out or caught in a rut.  But because so many of my subscription list weren't posting, I looked around at various vlogs and found some new ones that I really like (#simpleliving), smaller subscription base vloggers that cook the sorts of 'real' meals I might make, etc., or who truly understand the term 'budget meals' and cook good food from basic ingredients.  It's meant another fresh experience for me that has reminded me of what inspires me in my kitchen and in my life.

Being sick and not feeling like doing anything other than these four things truly ended being a blessing in disguise.  And as I said, the result is that I've found fresh inspiration.

Isn't the weather pleasant?  Yes, the mornings are cold, and it was downright chilly all day long over the weekend, but today the day warmed up so nicely.  We haven't had Caleb today, so I told John I was opening the windows.  I won't open them while Caleb is here because the interior windows are not as stable as I'd like.  A gentle bump can cause them to come crashing down and not only have I experienced them upon my fingers, one of the other grandchildren had his fingers smashed hard.  I just won't risk that with another child.  It HURTS.   

Good old sunshine and air is FREE, and it is worth bringing into our homes, especially when we've been ill, or we've had to keep it shut up tight for a few weeks.  It's always in plentiful supply and all we have to do is just allow it in.  This is something our great grandmothers knew too well and for goodness' sake, it costs nothing but the effort to open a window or door.

I've been thinking a lot about my grandmother.  Granny, as I've said, kept a neat enough home, but housework was just something she got through so she could go outdoors to work.  That was where her heart was when it came to work.    Now Grandmother kept a spic and span house. 

I realize now that she enjoyed her home.  She enjoyed keeping it clean and neat.  She enjoyed taking care of it.  That's in me, as well.

For all the years I knew her she kept a dishpan, usually a plastic one, in her sink.  Her sinks were always white porcelain enamel and she kept them white.  I recall that every time she washed dishes, she also scrubbed that dishpan and her sinks right after she'd washed her dishes.  I don't know just what she used.  I think bleach but the aroma of bleach was never overwhelming.  I just recall that every time she cleaned the sinks, they smelled clean.  She washed out her dishcloths and hung them to dry and they were always fresh smelling, too.  Her whole house smelled clean.  It wasn't perfumed aromas but the smell of her soap and cleansing powder and the stuff she sprayed on her dustmops.  

She was the sort of housekeeper whose home always looked clean and smelled clean and was as clean on top where you could see it, as it was down deep in closets and cabinets and drawers where no one saw it.  She wasn't obsessive about it.  She just was good at keeping house and she enjoyed it and it showed.  And yes, she's been my inspiration all these latter years.

While I was digging in a box of books looking for some for a sick friend of Jenny's earlier this month, I came across two home keeping books from the 1920's and 1940's.  I've set them both aside to read.  I want to learn to keep a clean, truly clean, home.   

I do realize however, that Grandmother had only adult children at the time I knew her and that my keeping a two-year-old is a small hindrance in achieving my goal, but I am hoping I can discover small things I might do that will enhance my housekeeping and lift it to a new level.

Watching all these new to me vloggers has helped me remember that I want to use all the foods that come into my home.  Grandmother was a frugal woman and a good basic cook. She never wasted a thing, but she lacked imagination. If there was one tablespoon of anything leftover it went back on the table at the next meal, just a little dish with that single tablespoon of food.  She never made anything over or added it to a soup pot.   She did stretch hamburger with leftover mashed potatoes but if she wasn't having hamburger, it was plain old, mashed potatoes on the table again and again until someone finally ate it.

I think the passion for making my leftovers count has expanded my budget. The other day at Sam's, Bess shared how they made a tamale pie with leftover chili.  She said, "I got the idea from my dad..." and Sam said, "It was good...but Mama knows."  I nodded.  "It was always our second meal off the pot of chili."  Sam laughed and said, "Yes it was. You had a lot of 'second meal' ideas from leftovers."   It was pure desperation in how to feed a large family on a small budget that led me to discover how we could.

Those old experiences led to some wonderful recipes in my file and many a good meal.  I'm always looking for more ideas.  I'm inspired hard just now by cooks who truly do use it all.  Patsi mentioned last week that she dehydrated and ground the stems of collards.  I love collards, but the stems are tough (as are the stems of kale).  But those stems have just as much nutrition as the leaf.  Once dehydrated its nutrition that can be added in a form that isn't tough.

Jessica of Three Rivers Homestead saves the fat that cooks out of her meats.  She reminds me that beef fat contains the same good B vitamins that is in the meat itself.  And Lisa at Boone Farm uses her sourdough discards to make biscuits, waffles, pizza crusts and many other bread items.  When I made sour dough bread it pained me mightily to discard that excess starter.  Homemakers who share with us online can inspire us to do more, or to better use what we have.

I no longer make sour dough and I don't have a dehydrator, but I can incorporate still more things into my kitchen economy.  I know I can.  But I'm going to share something else I've learned and have been reminded of here of late:  If it isn't good, it doesn't matter how far I stretched that food, how cheap it was or what I made with it.  It's less than a loss. It's a trial and test we have to sit through.  It's finding the balance between the economy and the luxury, between the make do and the lovely that makes it all worthwhile for me.  And no amount of money saved will feed my soul half so much as something that tastes good and looks lovely on my plate.  

I've spent most of my life learning to make do and going without.  I'm not complaining.  It's what life has been.  But I learned long ago that I have to feed my spirit as well as my body.  I like to look nice, and I like my home to look nice.  Some women have a knack for making beauty out of cast offs and pinched pennies.  I've learned from them to do the same.  

Amy Dacyczyn was an inspiration for me years ago, but it was Tracey McBride's Frugal Luxuries that carried me to the next level of moving beyond simply stretching the budget to trying to make our home and lives as lovely as we could while continuing to live on a budget.  A 25c teacup picked up at a yard sale became a much-loved object in our home.  It was the cup I used to make the girls Cambric Tea when they'd had one of those days.  It was my go-to cup when I needed a cheery cup of coffee to keep me going.  When the cup handle broke off, I used it to pot up a tiny flowering plant.  It gave me many years of pleasure.  It was a dearly loved object in my home.  I might have bypassed it and said "That's 25c I could use elsewhere," but could I?  I needed that lovely thing in my life, and it gave me a little happiness, it gave others comfort, it enhanced our lives for years.  Would the 25c spent elsewhere have gone as far?  I don't think so.   

I noticed the birds were busy at the feeders all last week when it was so rainy and then just plain cold, but today they've pretty much been busy elsewhere.  They too are enjoying the warmer weather.  That's something else I remembered this month.  I really enjoy watching the birds at the feeders.  I have two feeders up and a third one I mean to hang as soon as I get nylon cord or chain for it.  I see quite a variety and they are a constant delight.  This is something worth splurging on in my opinion.  It means I have to find the room to afford this in my budget rather than say, "I can't."  

It's the same with flowers.  I bought a bouquet of flowers on December 31.  They lasted me until last Thursday when I finally had to admit they were just too far gone to extend their life any further.  At the time I purchased those flowers, I spent $16 on them.  I could have gotten less expensive ones, but that particular bouquet was what caught my eye and filled me with joy.  I debated on whether I should buy them at all, but in the end, I put them in the shopping cart and I enjoyed them every single day for four solid weeks.  Four weeks!  Yes, they were well worth it! 

We have little control over our lives.  Whether we like it or not, people and things beyond us will affect our lives.  We none of us plan those things.  No one planned the Pandemic.  No one planned for shortages and delivery backlogs.  No one plans for unemployment or illness.  It happens.

No matter what we think we've got covered, how well we think we're prepared for all eventualities its always something we didn't see coming that blindside us.  But if we know how to feed our soul, if we will step back from those things that don't give us any sustenance and we embrace those that do, we'll stand far stronger than we would otherwise. 

Look all around for the things, the people, that inspire you.  Take what is there, just like fresh air and sunshine.  Enjoy all the benefits of living well.