45 + 2 = 47

My scale and I are friends again. 2 more lbs. are gone and I weighed in this morning at 147 for a total weight loss of 47 lbs. since April. Can I make my mini goal of 145 by November 7? I'm sure going to try! I've been beating off the cravings for comfort food like crazy this week. Every time I worried about the lump in my breast and the tests coming up on Monday, my thoughts turned right to food. And the richest, fattiest, sweetest, most carb-laden foods you can imagine. None of those things is going to fix the problem that's worrying me, though. I know the same problem will be there still when I've cleaned my plate and digested all those calories --- and where will that get me! There's nothing I hate more than wasting hours of exercise on a snack that doesn't do me any good.

I've made it through six days now without caffeine. Almost. I slipped up last night during happy hour with some friends. I've gotten used to sipping a diet cola while they drink their beers and panicked at the last minute when I remembered that the diet cola would have caffeine in it. What's left to order besides a glass of water? I doubt most bars or restaurants stock any caffeine-free sodas. Maybe I should've tried ordering a sparkling water. This place we frequent is kind of a dive, so I'm not even sure if they'd have even that! I'll have to come up with a new solution for next time.

My special focus for the last few days has been getting my morning housekeeping routine back up to par and that's going well, too. I have to be a little extra disciplined with myself, but it feels good to be back in charge. Of something, anyway!

So there's my progress report on the last few days. Now on to something more exciting... One of my new tasks when I'm giving the living room its weekly cleaning is the care of any upholstered furniture:

Brush upholstery if necessary. Straighten covers. Plump up pillows.

The only brushes I've been using in my housekeeping are the brush attachment on my vacuum - for weekly cleaning of AC/heat registers - and the little brush I use to clean out the tray under my toaster. I do have one upholstered piece in my living room, though, that needs some care. It's a big club chair (with matching ottoman) upholstered in a wine-colored velveteen. This sounds like a topic I'd better do some brushing up on. What does America's Housekeeping Book (1940) have to teach me?

It is an expensive mistake to allow upholstered furniture to become badly soiled. Light surface soil which does accumulate slowly, despite regular cleaning, can be removed from certain fabrics by home methods, but deep soil calls for professional care. Greasy soil and perspiration, if allowed to remain on the fabric, will affect the dye, and there is no remedy except reupholstering or slip-covering to hide the damage.

The necessity for shampooing can be staved off for long intervals by regular care. It is sometimes necessary to brush the exposed surfaces every day with a whisk broom or upholstery brush. At least once a week the correct attachment of the vacuum cleaner should be run slowly over all exposed surfaces. Use the brush attachment for napped upholstery and the suction tool for smooth fabrics. Once a month, or oftener if necessary, a thorough cleaning is in order:

1. Remove all cushions. Clean them on all sides, using the correct attachment of the vacuum cleaner unless they are down-filled (the suction is apt to pull the down through the fabric).

2. Run the vacuum attachment slowly over the entire surface of the chair or davenport, not neglecting the backs, or fabric underneath.

3. Use the slender suction nozzle to get down into all crevices.

4. Replace the cushions.

This sounds like a doable plan. Once a week, I'll hit the "exposed surfaces" of that chair and ottoman with my brush attachment. When the living room moves into my rotation for a more intensive cleaning once a month, I'll give the chair a more thorough cleaning with both vacuum attachments. I can look at things like shampooing the upholstery once I start adding some seasonal chores to my housekeeping.

It occurs to me how bummed the 1940s housewife without a vacuum cleaner must have been as she read this portion of The Manual. There's such a focus in this section on vacuuming technique. The authors just seem to take it for granted that everyone knew exactly how to use a whisk broom or upholstery brush in caring for furniture. If those were the only tools a housewife had at her disposal, she must've felt like she was being left behind as the world on every side of her rushed pell mell into an electric future. Even today, sixty years later, just reading this piece makes me want to go out and invest in a more powerful vacuum cleaner. My little bagless stick vac might be okay for a little light carpet cleaning, but it's certainly not sturdy enough to do any serious damage to dust.

Attachments

So I'm putting the finishing touches on my lips in the bathroom this morning, when suddenly - out of nowhere - comes this terrific explosion and sound of shattering glass. From the kitchen.

I jumped, then cringed inwardly, ticking off the things I'd last done in my kitchen. Had I left the glass I'd just washed on top of a burner that hadn't been turned off --- as happened in The Casserole Dish Disaster of 2007? Had some of the leftovers in my fridge imploded? I reluctantly tiptoed out towards the kitchen and what should I see but my ceiling fan with a bare bulb and the glass globe in fragments. Everywhere.

Scratch what I said a few weeks ago about cleaning those lighting fixtures. Maybe that's not such a good idea after all!

It's Thursday evening. The glass has been cleaned up - at least all the glass that's visible to the human eye (I'm sure my feet will find some more) --- and it's time to get cracking on my weekly cleaning of the bedroom. I think I'd also like to start using some of the tools on my vacuum cleaner to really get into the edges of the room where the carpeting meets the wall. As nice as it is just to vacuum those wide, open spaces, it's the edges of my bedroom that seem to accumulate the most dust and little bits of paper and things. The Manual has lots of advice to offer on operating and caring for vacuum cleaners. Here are some of the gems:

Operate the cleaner slowly in a straight line, lengthwise of the rug.

Go over each section twice to remove embedded dirt and grit.

Familiarize yourself with the attachments and their uses. Once you discover how easy it is to attach them and how many tasks they make easy, there will be no danger of their becoming a poor investment through lack of use.

Pick up pins, hairpins, tacks and any small sharp objects before using the vacuum cleaner.

Empty the dust bag after each use (suction action is lessened by dirt in the bag. Shake the dirt into a deep waste basket lines with a paper bag, to avoid scattering dust.

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!