Well, this last week has been a mixed bag.
It's been successful in some ways --- I was able to get all my weekday walks in and made it through five laps at the park yesterday. Today's goal: six! I filed my federal tax return on Thursday and mailed off my state return yesterday, so $638 should be winging its way to me within the next few weeks.
It's been unsuccessful in others --- I'm really struggling to find the motivation to do anything at home. I'm not having any trouble shopping, however, so I have been enjoying buying some new spring clothes to fit my new body and some new bedding to fit my new mattress. I find myself resisting the thought of having to start from scratch, but I guess there's no other way out of this hole. So I'm making a pledge right now - whatever else I do or don't do this week - to put the routine back in my morning. Remember these? These nine simple steps I adopted one at a time beginning in November 2007. They became the core of my housekeeping routine:
Open window in bedroom on arising, for free circulation of air.
Throw back bed covers, including top sheet.
Carry soiled clothing to the hamper. Hang up other clothing. Put away any personal possessions out of place in the bedroom.
Prepare and serve breakfast.
Clear away dishes and misplaced articles from dining room, after breakfast.
Operate ventilating range hood while scraping, rinsing, and stacking dishes in the dishwasher. Leave pots and pans to soak in sink.
Put away food.
Make bed.
Close bedroom window if air conditioning will be used during day.
There's no excuse in the world that feels as good to me now as I used to feel having accomplished these nine simple steps every morning of the week. Whether I'd like the extra sleep or not, my body is used to getting up at a certain time and getting things done, so I can't even truly enjoy re-setting my alarm and spending another hour in bed! I just lie there, tossing and turning, feeling stupendously unaccomplished for not getting up and doing my chores. I'm resolving, in fact, to do every one of these chores before I press "Publish Post" on these very words this morning. By the time you read this post, I'll have finished each and every one of them...
There, I've finished the first three steps. Now for a little fun. I've asked my parents over for a vintage dinner party on April 11 before they head back East for the year. It's the Sunday after Easter, but I'm planning a 1940s springtime menu complete with vintage table decorations. I've been doing a little research into Easter menus from that time period. Leaving out the meat, of course, I'm sure to be able to mix and match from these dishes to come up with a menu appropriate for my dinner party. Which one is your favorite?
Milwaukee Journal (April 18, 1943)
Broiled Ham Slice
Parsley Buttered Potatoes
Steamed Peas in Orange Cups
Fresh Fruit Salad
Baking Powder Biscuits with Honey
Cake [made with coconut and candy eggs] and Fresh Pineapple
Coffee
Better Homes and Gardens (April 1945)
Baked Ham Slice
Easter Eggs
New Potatoes and Peas in Cream
Little Green Onions
Carrot Curls
Rosy Radishes
One-a-Penny Buns
Mile-High Lemon Chiffon Pie
St. Petersburg Times (March 18, 1945)
Cream of Fresh Vegetable Soup
Celery Crisps
Chicken Loaf
Frizzled Ham Slices
Glazed Sweet Potatoes
String Beans Hollandaise
Fruit Fan Salad [segments of chilled citrus fruit, strawberries, apple slices, and raisins for garnish]
Toasted Crackers
Cheese Spread
Toledo Blade (April 16, 1946)
Orange and Grapefruit Cup
Fried Chicken
New Potatoes with Watercress
Butter
Fresh Asparagus
Endive and Hard Cooked Egg
Salad
Corn Meal Muffins
Rhubarb Cream Pie
Pittsburgh Press (April 1, 1947)
Three Fruit Cocktail [frosted peaches, grapefruit, strawberries]
The Easter Ham [garnish of peach halves]
Sweet Potato Puffs
New Asparagus
Mock Hollandaise Sauce
Molded Spring Salad
Hot Biscuit or Rolls
Preserves or Jelly
Meringue Shells with Ice Cream and Strawberries
Coffee
Candy
Sliced Nuts
Tomato Consomme
Crisp Wafers
Olives
Radish Rose
Celery
Roast Chicken with Stuffing
Mashed Potatoes
Green Beans with Celery
Mixed Fresh Fruit Salad
Frozen Strawberry Dessert
Coconut Frosted Cup Cakes
Coffee
Candies
Fresh Fruit Cup
Crown Roast of Lamb with Mint Apples
New Potatoes in Cream
Buttered New Potatoes or Cauliflower
Spring Vegetable Salad
Daffodil Cake a la Mode
Coffee
Salted Nuts
Candies
[Spokane] Spokesman-Review (March 18, 1948)
Fruit Cup
Baked Ham
Creamed New Potatoes and Peas
Candied Sweet Potatoes
Jellied Gingerale and Pear Salad
Relishes
Hot Cross Buns
Orange Chiffon Cake
Coffee
Southeast Missourian (April 14, 1949)
Consomme with Cut-up Vegetables
Roast Leg of Spring Lamb
Mint Sauce
Brown Gravy
Surprise Baked Potatoes
Green Peas
Buttered Asparagus
Parkerhouse Rolls
Butter or Fortified Margarine
Watercress Salad
Angel Pie with Crushed Strawberries and Pineapple
Coffee
Milk
You can definitely see some trends as to what kinds of foods were considered springlike in the 1940s, even if there was no way on God's green earth most Americans could put fresh peas, asparagus, strawberries, or pineapple on the dinner table in April! Unless you lived out West, you probably wouldn't be able to pull that kind of thing off 'til June. Most housewives would have had to rely on canned (or frozen) fruits or vegetables for an Easter menu like these. Maybe that's what these Easter dinner menus are really all about --- a taste of what's to come in a couple more months. A hint of your first harvest from the garden, even if it's weeks away and those seedlings aren't even yet in the ground!
Back to work. Let's face it, my kitchen's a mess. And the last thing I feel like doing is any kind of baking or cooking in a mess. I've been stalled up on this last week's breakfast menus ever since Tuesday's called for some baking. I need to address that, but I can't do it before eating my breakfast this morning - so I'm going to shoot for something simple, but filling. How 'bout Thursday's menu:
Grapefruit Half
Poached Free-range Eggs
Toast
I've just finished steps four, five, six, and seven. It's literally the first time in weeks I've eaten a meal sitting at my kitchen table. I've still got two more steps to take, then I can publish this post and go forward with my day...
Check, and check! I'll have to share some of the decorating I've started in my bedroom in another post. For now, my bed is made. The room has been aired, but it's warm enough these days that I should be able to open the window again in a couple hours and leave it open 'til sunset. Thanks for holding my hand while I worked my way thru these chores. Clearly - even after all this time - keeping things clean and organized does not come naturally to me. Will it ever?
12 comments:
Thanks for posting the menus. It is interesting that the menus call for new peas and potatoes. Wouldn't had anything growing in this part of the West. It is possible that these items were shipped in especially for Easter, but they would have been really expensive.
Glad you are up and around, but please don't over-do. Each 4 or 5 days add one new thing. Give your body a chance to adjust. Please?
Hi Jitterbug -- I've read your blog from the very beginning because I enjoyed it so much. I hope you recover quickly and completely from this illness, and I'm very glad that you're determined to keep on going!
Autumn Hazen
Please give yourself time as you find you need, not only for your body, but for your mind. I've had chronic illnesses over the years, and I find that the body adjusts far easier to being well than does the mind. So, rest. Watch His Girl Friday and laugh. Do your work, yes, but please don't overdo too soon. I've done that a lot, and I find that the addage "Slow and Steady wins the race" really is true. See you soon, Jitterbug. Amanda.
Personally, menus #2 & #4, are my favorites. Any rhubarb dish/dessert says SPRING to me.
Feel better soon!
Glad to see you back, but do take it slowly. Baby steps, and rest when you need it.
As for the menus, it would be hard to select one. Anything that had asparagus and either rhubarb or lemon merangue would be a hit in this house!!
Howdy! I've given you an award over on my blog! Thanks for inspiring me!
So glad you're coming back. I agree with the slow but sure comeback philosophy. As for menus--I like the first Pittsburgh Press menu but I'm lobbying for a sentimental favorite to be added to it. Parker House rolls, mentioned in another menu, remind me of a my husband's lovely grandmother, who used to set out an elegant luncheon straight from the 1940's. It was lovely and of course, included those delicious rolls.
Well Jitterbug... I just read your whole blog. I started with 50s gal and I found you there. I've been in a blogging funk and a life in general funk and you two have made me feel better. I hope you feel better too. I feel like I know you now even though I haven't commented and I'm worried you haven't been writing as much. Please take it easy!
I just wanted to say thank you so much for the inspiration.
Oh and what happened to "curly"??
rue
Thanks for all the encouragement to take it slow and steady... It's been another week of halting progress, but progress all the same. Now if I can just manage to get thru the afternoon at work without ravaging the chocolate bunny somebody left on my desk!
It seems to me that just about anybody enjoying an Easter menu like these back in the day must have been spending a pretty penny on the groceries. Most of this stuff just isn't "in season" - even if Easter falls in late April.
LuLu, I'd love to try my hand at Parker House Rolls sometime. I've had miserable luck so far, though, with anything involving yeast. So maybe not when guests are expected!
Welcome, welcome to all my lovely new readers! One of these days I'll begin posting a lot more regularly - and we'll get to know each other even better. Thanks so much for your sweet comments. Rue, I'm glad you're feeling some inspiration. I could use my own lately! :)
Curly's just a lovely, sweet mystery --- maybe he always will be. He's started to relax around me a little bit, so we're getting to know each other better, but there's still all this crazy sparkly tension - at least on my end - that makes me feel like a 14 year old. All thumbs around him. Does he feel that, too? Who the heck knows any more. I'm guessing "no" or he would've made a move long before this. It's not like I'm hiding under a rock or anything!
Ham and lamb always seem to be recurring favorites; lamb probably because of half-remembered religious traditions from the Middle East, but why ham?
Because freshly-killed meat was too expensive in the spring, but every farm family had a ham hanging in the smokehouse, I wonder?
Anyway, we're having steak. Happy Easter, all!
Hello Dear Jitterbug,
Congratulations on getting back on the horse! It is difficult, when one is ill and gets off track, to get back on.
As you know, I adopted your housekeeping routine so look to you for inspiration. I struggle but am getting better all the time. I, like you, find it difficult but force myself to do. Tonight, since I worked late, I started on my weeking cleaning of the livingroom at 10:00 p.m.--not something I really wanted to do. But, I did, and you are partly to thank. :0)
Have a wonderful day!
Ha ive bee reading your blog for a few days and im loving it, and was surprised to see my hometown newspaper in the post. Im a Spokanite! lol. Your blog is very very encouraging!
Post a Comment