Housework and Childcare

The last few days have been frazzled ones. My niece (I'll call her Kitten) has been sick with a virus since the day her mother left. Poor thing! My brother-in-law and I took her to the emergency room last night as we were getting really worried about dehydration, but the doctor told us she was in good shape and the virus would just have to run its course. We just have to keep finding creative ways to get her to drink, drink, drink. And with a toddler - even with a low energy level - the last thing they want to do is be in the dreaded bed, so she's still up and about. I've been trying to find lots of quiet things we can do indoors. Just this morning, I'm starting to feel a little peaked, so I'm afraid I've caught the virus myself and won't be of much help in a day or two.

The first evening I was there, Kitten was still feeling pretty good. As I tried to wash up the dinner dishes while she was playing in the living room, I couldn't help thinking about housework as it relates to childcare. Mothers of small children really have to be quite creative and flexible in order to get anything done. It seems to be all about corraling them where you can watch them long enough to do a few dishes here, a load of laundry there. Naptime or bedtime seems like it would be a great time to get things done, but Kitten's nursery is on the same floor as the kitchen and living room, so I don't want to make too much noise until she's sound asleep. (It'll sound too much like there's some party she's missing!) Besides, I found myself taking a nap at naptime yesterday.

The manual mentions children frequently. The authors recognized how important it was in designing or redesigning work spaces that mothers be able to keep an eye on their children at all times. "One end of the kitchen, away from dangerous areas near the range, can sometimes be reserved for play space." Here, a "low cupboard" could be set aside for toys or "cooking equipment" with which children might safely play. They encouraged mothers to find housekeeping tasks that children could help with even when it made the job a bit longer:

Small children are always intrigued by the work that is done in the kitchen. Almost invariably they want to "help," and if this urge is understood and valued, the children will find tremendous satisfaction in cooperative work, besides feeling "wanted," which is important to happy family relationships. Then, too, the educational value of guided cooperative work is an important factor in child training.

The laundry room is also a space where mothers had to spend a significant amount of time before the process was better automated. An "enclosed play space" was recommended for this room so that babies and toddlers could amuse themselves under Mother's watchful eye. Older children could play outdoors, but a window should look out on the yard so that Mother could keep an eye on them, too.

A whole chapter is dedicated to furnishing rooms for children - from nurseries for infants to rooms for adolescents. The authors of the manual advise their readers, though, that children should spend most of their time with the family. By the 1940s, the age of nannies and governesses was long gone in the U. S., and mothers were expected to be the primary caregivers for their youngest children. Living rooms should also contain "child centers":

"A table, chairs, and shelves for toys and games can be assembled inexpensively..."

Here, on my own child-less home front, I've been getting along pretty smoothly. I moved Thursday's cleaning-of-the-bedroom to Friday evening. It occurred to me while dusting that it's no coincidence the manual instructs the housewife to dust everything before vacuuming. All that dust that's been building up on surfaces high and low should be lightly settled on the carpet before it's vacuumed. I also realized that my dust rag didn't get near as dirty this week as it did last week. If you're dusting your bedrooms every week, your cleaning materials will be easier to wash themselves.

I didn't plan my morning very wisely yesterday and ran out of time before making my bed. When I got home from the hospital, I was feeling so blue I skipped the evening routine entirely, but I wasn't too blue to notice how much it crapped to be climbing into an unmade bed. It's amazing how quickly I've become accustomed to that little luxury!

A Big, Scrummy Mess

My plan for breakfast this morning was an unmitigated failure.

It started out okay. The Corn-meal Mush came right out of the pan in a single piece. I sliced it into strips and started heating some oil in a large fry pan. Now, I have almost zero experience frying foods in hot oil, so maybe I used too much oil, maybe too little, maybe the burner wasn't just the right temperature. I don't know. The strips never browned. They just kind of sat there in the bubbling oil and fell apart every time I tried to turn one over. There were actually two different recipes for Fried Mush in my cookbook. The first suggests breading the slices of Mush before frying them. The second suggests skipping the breading altogether.

I'm not sure where I went wrong, but I ended up with a mound of oily, hot-ish, half-congealed Corn-meal on my plate. (Just the thought now makes me queasy.) I was very doubtful at this point my breakfast could be resuscitated, so I was sparing with the Sirup. And after a few bites for penance - I'd had enough. Blech! I'm still trying to banish the sight and smell of it from my mind...

In honor of Dr. King and the National Day of Service, some friends and I spent the morning picking up trash on the banks of a dry riverbed. We had a good time - my legs feel like jelly! - but we managed to clean up one little corner of the Earth. What a lot of litter is out there. I picked up lots of glass and bottle caps and cigarette butts. Plastic bags, pieces of styrofoam, dish shards. A $5 Monopoly bill, a shower curtain rod. What surprised me was how much fast food trash we found. Napkins, receipts, bags, containers. It's as if people are just throwing the remains of their drive-thru lunches right out the window when they're finished. Double Blech!

Fashion Plate

In addition to an adjustable or built-in ironing board, the manual recommended that the 1940s housewife keep her board dressed to the nines in pads and covers that might the job a bit easier:

A well-dressed ironing board is not covered with old blankets and worn-out sheets. That's false economy. Ready-made pads and covers come packaged separately or together to fit ironing boards of all sizes, and the covers have either drawstring fastenings or elastic gathers. Keep an extra cover or two so you will always have a clean one while a soiled one is being laundered. Asbestos ironing board covers are available today, also. They give long service and protection from scorching and burning.

The cover on my own ironing board is so thin that the pattern of the metal board sometimes shows right up on the pieces I'm ironing. And a pad? There's a super thin layer of foam between the cloth and the board, but I don't think it could possibly qualify. (I've honestly never even considered removing the cover from an ironing board to wash it!) Judging from these words of caution from The Good Housekeeping Housekeeping Book (1947), though, I'm not the first woman to try and make do without the state-of-the-art in terms of equipment. "Old blankets and worn-out sheets" may have been what the mothers and grandmothers of '40s housewives once used to pad the surfaces on which they did their ironing.

This morning's breakfast was super simple:

Stewed Dried Apricots
Corn-meal Mush

I wish I hadn't boasted about having become so good at dividing my recipes, because I promptly whipped together a batch of Corn-meal Mush this morning that yielded six servings. Six servings! Without even stopping to consult that last line in the recipe's instructions. Haste is my downfall when it comes to housekeeping. I end up having to throw away grease-stained clothing because I haven't taken the time to remove the stain before throwing it in the laundry and forget about the stain by the time Wash Day comes 'round. I make six times the breakfast needed because I don't take the time to read all the way through the recipe before getting started.

In the spirit of 1940s thrift, I came up with a possible solution. One of the breakfast menus in the back of the cookbook mentioned turning one day's leftover Corn-meal Mush into a dish to serve at lunch the next day - Sauteed Corn-meal Mush with Cheese Sauce. Apparently, you can ladle the leftovers into a shallow pan, cover and refrigerate, then cut it into pieces, and fry them up. (Sounds a little bit like polenta.) Instead of serving mine for lunch, I'm going to make it for breakfast and serve it with Sirup - which is also suggested in the recipe.

A Comedy of Errors

My housekeeping routine fell prey to a comedy of errors this morning - all of them mine, of course. I could blame it on my cold. (I am feeling a little foggy and disoriented.) But that wouldn't be entirely accurate...

Before I begin, here's yesterday's vintage breakfast menu:

Apple Juice

Cracked-wheat Cereal

I should mention that I added some raisins and brown sugar to the Wheatena. Normally, I try to stick quite literally to the menus, but Wheatena needs something extra just to be edible - and that magazine article did suggest adding dried fruits to make cooked cereals more tempting!

I knew that Corn-bread was on the menu this morning, so set my alarm 30 minutes early so I'd have time to do a little baking. 2 cups corn-meal, 3 tablespoons baking powder... Wait a second. Baking powder? Maybe it was too early to do any baking, because there wasn't any baking powder in that recipe - or even in any of the recipes on that page of the cookbook! I'm left facing a mixing bowl full of corn-meal covered with baking powder. The recipe actually calls for baking soda which I don't have in the house right now. It's been on my grocery list, but I must have been thinking I wouldn't need it for another few days. So I whip out my 1990s Betty Crocker cookbook. Nope. No emergency substitutes for baking soda. Can I find another vintage recipe for Corn-bread that calls for baking powder instead? I didn't have to look very far, but all this casting about definitely ate up the extra time I'd planned. I ended up using a recipe from a little booklet published by Clabber Girl, probably in the mid- to late 1930s. Conveniently enough, there's baking powder in every recipe.

Tomato Juice

Hard-cooked Egg

Corn-bread, Honey

The icing on the cake? Not a drop of Honey in the house. Turns out I tossed the last jar shortly after using it on my Griddlecakes a few weeks ago and then realizing it was expired.

The Corn-bread was very tasty with margarine - or should I say oleo - so breakfast turned out okay. By the time I'd finished, however, it was high time to be leaving and my bed was still unmade. On any other day, I'd have taken the few extra minutes to make my bed. But I needed to stop by a mailbox on the way to work. Badly. You can guess how that debate won out.

What a morning! Just a sample of the chaos my household used to run on - and had for ages. My kitchen, my wardrobe, my pocketbook... There's no way I'm going back to that place. Ever. My new routine may be a bit more work everyday, but it also brings a kind of serenity along with it that I've become accustomed to in a very short time.

Mission Possible

My crazy week is finally over. I heaved a great sigh at about 1 p.m. today, took a long afternoon nap, and am just now re-emerging to face the damages. I didn't do all that badly at home this week, all things considered. Missed the routine almost completely on Monday, did it partially on Tuesday and Friday, and got everything done on Wednesday and Thursday. The only thing I did wrong yesterday was that I completely forgot to straighten up the living room at bedtime. I was so exhausted and so looking forward to being finished with everything at work today that I just went to bed without even thinking of housework. That's the trouble for me right now with saving that chore for another part of the day - remembering to do it. Until it becomes a habit, I think I'll make myself a little Post-it reminder and stick it somewhere where I won't be able not to see it before going to bed!

Thursday's Corn-meal Muffins are no longer even edible, they're so dry, so I moved on to the next menu this morning which was happily a simple one:

Apple Juice
Prepared Cereal

Post Shredded Wheat fit the bill for Prepared Cereal. I did some homework last night looking for some alternative pancake and muffin recipes in some vintage magazines. And found a recipe for Corn Bread in the November 1945 issue of Better Homes and Gardens that looks quite promising. It's made with twice the egg and twice the "melted shortening" as the recipe I tried on Thursday, so maybe I'll be able to make a moister batch next time. I also found a Basic Pancake Recipe in the February 1947 issue of Better Homes and Gardens, but can't tell yet whether it's going to turn out any differently. They have all kinds of tips on making "perfect" pancakes, so I'm crossing my fingers. It stinks to invest time in baking or making a treat like pancakes and have them turn out half to middling.

I've been doing a lot of reflecting during the last few days on what I've learned during this first month or so of The Great Housekeeping Experiment. And I'm looking forward to sharing some of those reflections, but first - some business. Clearly, I've been struggling since adding this fourth mission to my early morning/bedtime housekeeping routine. As much as I'd like to move on to adding something new, I think it's important that I continue working at making these missions more habit than chore. In just a few days, I'll be off to Connecticut to spend the holidays with my parents and my older sister and brother-in-law. I think I'll continue working at this fourth mission right up until my trip. While I'm on the road, I'll keep the steps up as a houseguest at my sister's place - straightening up the guest room each morning, helping to prepare breakfast, cleaning up after breakfast, and straightening up her living room at bedtime. (I hope she won't object. Maybe I ought to read some '40s etiquette on being a guest in somebody else's home!) It'll help, I think, not just to abandon ship while I'm away. I'll be home on New Year's Day and my plan right now is to add the Monday Wash to my routine shortly thereafter.

I'll be back soon with another post, but will head out now and do a Christmas errand or two before the day is done...

ZZZZzzzzzzzz

Is there such a thing as too much beauty sleep?

Little Miss Jitterbug got her crazy week off to a smashing start by waking with a jolt to realize it was already 6:25 and she'd overslept!

Life. Well, I did a bang-up job on the first step in my early morning list of chores this morning. Just picked up the bedroom. No breakfast. No Air-O-Hood. No rinsing and stacking. No tidying. Just a speedy rush through the door and on to work.

Here's to a better morning tomorrow. And perhaps a little less pillow time.

Plan B

Alas, I fell off the wagon today.

I tried to squeeze way too much in the way of holiday baking into my evening at home yesterday. Went to bed late and got up extra early to finish doing up the packages for my workmates. Before I knew it, it was time to head to work and I was still trying to clean up the breakfast dishes... So my living room went untidied this morning, and I cursed myself as I stumbled over something walking into my dark apartment this evening. I've gotten used to clean floors very quickly!

Instead of hurtling myself right on into my new mission on Sunday, I think I'm going to continue with these early morning chores for another week - effective tomorrow. Make sure I take the time to really get them down before adding anything new. I've got to kick Ms. Night Owl out of this nest. And be careful not to overextend myself during this busy holiday season.

On a brighter note, my breakfast menu felt positively luxurious this morning:

Grapefruit Half

Prepared Cereal

This is the first time ready-to-eat cereal has been on the menu. No boiling, no stirring - just add milk and enjoy! The menus in this cookbook often suggest Prepared Cereal as an alternative for warm weather, but it only pops up once in awhile during the winter. Cold weather = hot cereal. I found some Shredded Wheat at the grocery store. The old fashioned kind that comes in paper packets. Three "biscuits" to a packet.

My mom served Grapefruit Halves all the time when I was growing up. I remember my sisters and I sprinkling our grapefruit with sugar and then trying to dig out the segments with our spoons without squirting ourselves in the eye with pulp. It was a talent, let me tell you. And you had to have just the right spoon - something with a nice thin edge. Too bad I could figure out how to cut a grapefruit crosswise this morning. I actually ended up with grapefruit quarters!