This is the Way We Wash Our Clothes

Ahh…the laundry. I’ll tell you that I am extremely thankful to have a washer and dryer at home. I know it’s something that’s easily taken for granted until…it breaks down and you find yourself lugging your laundry to a laundromat. Add in a few kids or a baby and it’s tough.

But oh my! I saw this laundry video from the 40s and although it was making things easier back then…wow what a lot of work it was to do the laundry. When I was watching I realized this was probably the way my grandmother did laundry. And just to throw in a fun fact, my mom had an old wringer washer for awhile. Unfortunately, my brother got his hand/arm stuck in it! Ouch!

LAUNDRY TIPS:

1. Do a load or two a day. With a day off here and there.
2. Put away right away. Fold or hang your clothes as soon as you take them from the dryer to prevent a major pile-up!
3. Try drying sheets on a clothesline. Nothing like the smell of clean sheets from the line!

Simple Joys of Home

I think the true beauty of homemaking is the simplicity of it. I imagine my great-grandmother bent over a wash tub washing her six bothers heavy Levi’s. I remember my own childhood where I had to hang up clothes on the line because we didn’t have a dryer, but was so happy we at least had a washer so we didn’t have to go to the laundromat anymore. I have memories of my mother cutting my pancakes for me and making Rice-a-Roni for dinner. My mom was always a good housekeeper and kept the house neat and tidy. We didn’t have fancy things – just the opposite, but everything was in order. I think back over my life and my childhood and those are the things I remember about my mom the most. Those are good and cherished memories.

I take such joy in being home and doing these simple home tasks. From making two dollar kitchen curtains to recovering my husband’s great grandmother’s chairs to putting my hands in the soil to plant flowers and vegetables to occasionally hanging clothes on the line to decluttering and putting a room in order to scouring second-hand stores to find useful or pretty things for my house. It all brings me such happiness I think God did make this my calling. 

 

Second-hand Vintage-y Dishes

In my last post, I mentioned things I am looking for at thrift stores. One category was table stuff. Pretty dishes and linens.

Why?

I’m bored! To pieces. I have white dishes. Have had plain white dishes for many years. A few runners and a white table cloth. We do have some old family china but it’s so delicate that it’s not practical to use very often.

So I ended up at the second-hand store a few days ago and got lost on the dish aisle. I took my time and dug through it all. The dishes were half off so most of what I got was a quarter or fifty cents. I wasn’t setting out to find a complete set, but just some things I like. And things I plan on actually using.

All for under $5.00

I’m hoping to come across another plate like the pink one but if I don’t it can be used to serve food on.

I also found some fabric scraps. Can’t guarantee any of it’s vintage but it sure smells like my great-grandmother’s house!

Last year I collected a few vintage pastel cups and saucers. I will have to bring those out and keep looking when I go out. I think it’ll be fun to use these old dishes.

What have you found lately at the second-hand stores?

Second-hand Shopping List

During Christmas I was wishing that I had some things to decorate my table. Like a cheerful tablecloth, some red cloth napkins…something! I did look around at a few second-hand stores, but didn’t find anything I liked. I decided that before next Christmas I’d make it my mission to look for those things. I made a list of stuff I want to look for this year. Christmas and otherwise.

My handy dandy list:

Christmas table decor and linens

Nativity set

regular like-new cloth napkins

table cloths and runners

chargers

pretty dishes to use with my white ones

fireplace tools

candlesticks/taper candles

pouf or small ottoman

maybe a little copper for the kitchen

I’m sure I will add things to the list as the year goes on.

I love thrifting with a mission.

Do you ever write a list for second-stores? What are you looking for/hoping to find?

Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com

Silly Blog Names

It was kind of silly but kind of fun. A few years back, when my older girls still lived at home, I gave them their blog names. It was pretty funny. Mandie was Tales from the Noodle Bag because she was a kid that constantly liked eating dried top ramen from the bag. Sophie was Selfies with Sophie because she was always taking selfies. Savannah was Nanny Savanny because she loved helping with the baby and babysat a lot. The littlest one was Shea’s Shenanigans because she was always doing cute stuff. They don’t have blogs, but if they did, these names would be perfect.

My oh my how I’ve struggled to find a blog name that fits. The one I currently have I’m not super happy with. But tired of trying to think. Someday I’m expecting an epiphany to hit me square in the head and then I will have the perfect name.

Until then. if you have any ideas or suggestions for a name send them my way 🙂

Does anyone else give their kids or others blog names for fun?

New Changes in the New Year

I always love the beginning of a new year. It’s fun to think and plan the things I want to do. This week I had lots of fun changing up a few things around the house.

Santa gave me a little Christmas money so I bought a shower curtain and some new towels. Something I’ve been wanting to do since summer ended. My other shower curtain was very summery with navy blue stripes. My son did the artwork.

Another thing I did was make curtains for the dining area. I went looking for the white fabric that matched my curtains over the sink and ended up with this. I’ve liked it for a long time and was happy when it came up at only a dollar a yard!

My daughter gave me this pot for Christmas. Backstory: we both liked it when we saw it at the Goodwill and I told her to go ahead and get it. Glad I did!

I also picked up this basket for firewood and a frame for an old family picture.

My mother gave me this picture of our ancestors. My great-great grandmother, her parents and brothers are in the picture.

One project I’m in the middle of is reorganizing the school/play room. I was blessed with my mother’s very tall bookshelf. It fits all of our school stuff and kids books.

I found these two pot-holders at Walmart clearance for 49 cents. Thought they were cute and not too Christmassy to use now.

What have you been working on around your house? What do you like to do at the beginning of a new year?

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old is gone, the new is here! – 2 Cor. 5:17

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone! We all can agree this one has been a doozy! Hard in so many ways. As we close the door to the old year and step into the new one, let us step with hope, faith and courage.

I like a fresh start for the New Year so I put away Christmas last night. I started late and it took awhile. I came out of it thinking, next year I’m having a simple Christmas! The closer to Christmas we got the more cluttered the tree got…cluttered with some good stuff like crafts and ornaments my little girl made and cluttered with other stuff like gobs of red tinsel….not so good. It seemed Christmas was scattered everywhere in the house.

I’m over it. Besides the tinsel-covered house, I watched soo many hallmarkish Christmas movies and Christmas home tours that exactly the day after Christmas I felt the same as I would have if I ate too much candy. A little sick of it. But it was all nice enough at the time. A good escape.

My goal, today, was to get the house cleaned up for the New Year, but I got a bit side-tracked working in the school/playroom. Not to mention helping to redo a Lego truck…ugh. Not my favorite. I will get up and work on things tomorrow.

I am a resolution person. They have definitely changed over time to the point of now I say things like I want to be healthier (more exercise and better diet), I want to get my house the way I want it…I never get there but sure having fun trying! That was one from last New Year’s as well and I have accomplished a lot but have lots to go. I keep talking about decluttering and now my storage room is filled with boxes of books and the hubby is bringing home his grandmother’s antique table and chairs from Texas in a couple days. I must be a glutton for punishment! I hope we can make it work in our small space.

Another resolution I always have is some kind of spiritual one. This year I want to put more thought and effort into praying for others. I prayed day and night for my mom and when she passed. there was such a void, it was strange. So when I see a prayer request on Facebook, I try to stop and pray. And of course I’m always praying for my family. But I’d really like to put more into it.

And then there’s the usual questions that circle around in my head all the time. Who am I? What is my purpose? All those questions. It’s been a long time since I had a word for the year, but earlier I thought that it should be “questions.” Because I am going into the year full of them. With so many changes happening this year, I’m left with what now? What can I do now? I can’t wait to see what God does this year in my life and in the lives of those around me.

So here’s to better days ahead! What are your resolutions?

Mom’s Books

I’m so happy we got my mom’s books. There were lots are good books. Religious books from our church and some cookbooks. There was one book, in particular, that I couldn’t believe I had overlooked when I went through her books at her house. I remember when she bought it and it was pretty expensive. It has a whole set of books in one volume. The pages are thin. I told my husband that finding this one book, made picking them all up worth it. (We had picked up my mom’s books from out front of a second hand store where my brother rightfully donated them – read “Holding onto Things” for the story – the post before last)

Bringing these books home, felt like the right thing to do and it turned out that it was. Now I can have the chance to thoughtfully go through them.

And that one book feels like a gift or even a Christmas miracle of sorts.

Merry Christmas!

Oh the day was good. A few of my older girls came over today and it was great. We had pizza and root beer floats and called grandpa on the phone. Usually, we go to his house about a week before Christmas and have a little Christmas celebration with him, but we couldn’t do that this year because of covid. So one of my daughters thought we should have the pizza on Christmas day. So we did. No cooking? Yes!

dumb tv was too bright!

We were thankful for all the goodness stuffed into a few hours. Yeah….from the mom of a large family whittled down to one kid left at home – it makes you super happy when you get several at home at once.

Hope you all had a wonderful day! Merry Christmas!

Holding Onto Things

It’s a weird year. Not because of Covid, although that’s been weird. My mother passed away in early November. I think about her everyday. A lot. That hasn’t changed. I thought of her constantly when she was sick, too. Prayed so much for her everyday. Now I think of how she won’t be here for Christmas, that I’ll never give or receive another gift of any sort from her again. How she won’t be eating anymore veggie tacos, how the kids no longer have their grandma, how no one automatically likes all my posts on Facebook anymore. How I can’t look at the childhood pictures my sister made copies of for me. How I have a lot of her books on my shelf stacked up that I can’t bring myself to read or look through and see her underlinings. It’s like I’m holding all that at arms length. I figure maybe someday, I will be able to read, use, wear the things of hers that I got, but for now, those things are left unopened or packed away.

My brother donated the rest of her books (that was the plan) to a local second-hand store but when we saw the pictures on Facebook of the boxes stacked up for free, outside, I realized that I wanted to get them. When I went through her books, in the first place at her house, I was rushing and only took things I obviously wanted. I wanted to go back and look some more, but my car broke down. I thought – forget it. But now, my husband and I are going to get the boxes of books so I can really go through them. It just doesn’t feel right that her books are stacked outside like that. I’m glad my husband is crazy enough to want to pick them up with me. I hope it makes sense later. I feel like I missed something so maybe just having the chance to really look over them, will give me peace of mind. Her books were important to her.

To do this feels spiritual to me somehow. Like God sort of arranged this. Funny this should happen on Christmas Eve. It feels like I’m getting another chance.

Thanks for reading and Merry Christmas.