I have been reading my enormous hard back copy of Home
Comforts with such .well, comfort. Smiles.
Loving home and making it cozy, clean and comfortable has
been with me for most (if not all) of my life. My mom said that when I was
growing up, she could tell the condition of my bedroom (almost every one was
shared with my
sister) by my behavior. If it got too messy, I misbehaved
and as soon as it was clean, my mood settled.
I also loved homes of just about any kind because I would
find something welcoming or inviting in them. I lived in or visited homes from
Georgia to Ohio on quaint streets, condominiums, apartments, mobile homes, two
story farm houses, all the way to the most simple of homes in the mountains of
TN.
To this day, I recall the dining tables, living room
settings, kitchen set ups, and much more.
When I grew up and ended up in my own home (and I've
lived in a little shack, apartments, mobile homes, military housing, rental
homes, and now the home we hope to stay in after being on this piece of land
for over 20 years) ... I love having my own routines, homey places and more.
There are aspects to homemaking that I don't love or I only like sometimes
(like keeping the floors clean, scrubbing the back and bottoms of toilets, and
organizing
paperwork) but I love making our house a home.
Home Comforts with Cheryl Mendelson
The first part of the book has a section on the author's
domestic roots while growing up and on through to her own places. She shares
some things on how her two grandmothers did homemaking their own way and shared
some of what those ways looked like. She shared a quote from The Odyssey that
said:
"Each day I long for home, long for the sight of
home."
Starting out a Home Comforts series:
One - I know we are busy. I was trying to do this
detailed, wonderful, and beautifully inspiring series for us from page one to
the end of the book.
I'm realizing that it might never be if I keep such a
perfectionistic view of how it must be. I will just share a bit as we go and we
can discuss as we decide. Sound good?
Our own Homemaking History: What do you remember of your grandmother
or grandmothers homemaking style? Do you remember how she/they washed dishes?
Cooked? Had special recipes? Sewed? Crocheted? Cleaned? What else?
What about your mother? What routines did your mother
adhere to, if any? How did she manage her work load whether from home or
between working outside of the home and being there?
My paternal grandmother died tragically before I was ever
able to meet her.
She had 12 children and one grandchild the same age as
her youngest child.
She went out on Christmas Eve to get the youngest child
(my dad who was
five) and her grandbaby a few more gifts. She got a ride
from her friend who drove a mail truck and on the way home, they ran into a
blizzard on the mountain. There was an accident and both driver and passenger
were killed.
So... I never had the chance to know her or how she ran
her home.
My other grandmother was in her 50's and died of cancer a
month or so after she was diagnosed and we didn't live close to her for most of
my life. I don't recall much but I remember her little home being neat and it
being important to her that kids keep their feet warm :) One of my only
memories of her was her scolding my mother for letting me go bare footed and
putting her own slippers on my feet and insisting I keep them on. I remember
the set up of her simple home and the roses she always grew around her porch.
My mother worked after the divorce (she left with the
four of us girls to be with her mother when she found out she was sick and she
and my dad ended up never getting back together) so there wasn't a lot of
domestic things, I guess. I do remember her loving simplicity and the scent of
vanilla... she simmered vanilla beads on the stove almost always. She was very,
very routine and had her coffee and breakfast by a certain time in the mornings
and she was always trying to make her own versions of what we wanted from fast
food places or restaurants. This was to save money and because it was
healthier. I went wild for the sausage Mcmuffin breakfast sandwiches at
McDonald's ... they had probably just come out! ... and she made some at home
by cooking eggs as roundly shaped as she could, cooking a sausage patty, and
putting those topped with a slice of American cheese on English muffins. She
put them in a lunch sack and microwaved them and they were amazing. I had one
every morning!
(for the readers on the email list - this is modified from our present Home Comforts discussion)
