Housewifery
“Practicing the Art and Mystery of Housewifery”
We took a trip to Williamsburg, Virginia in the summer of 2012. Standing in the hot kitchen building where the cooking hearth fire had just been extinguished, the living historian explained the duties of the woman of this house in the 1700s. She oversaw all the domestic activities and practiced the art and mystery of housewifery. I asked him to repeat that. He repeated this and added, you didn’t want everyone to know all your secrets. I am, however, willing and glad to share mine here.
My definition of Housewifery encompasses mothering, housekeeping, gardening, and cooking. And includes decorating, diapering, and ridding my house of squirrels.
Click On These For The Stories
On ‘The Good Mother’
Or read ‘Mommy’s Thought Thoughts’
On ‘Raising Fair Fiona’
Or read ‘Oopsie Daisy Mommy
On ‘Son Shine’
Or read ‘Ready or Not, Here’s Mommy’
On ‘My Joy of Cooking’
Or read ‘Beautiful Buttermilk’
On ‘How Does My Garden Grow’
Or read ‘My Brown Thumb’
On ‘To Clean or Not to Clean’
Or read ‘New Year’s Urge’
Sacrificial Squirrel
Gruesome sights, they’re everywhere. Wild and dead animals, vehicular crime scenes aplenty. Eyeballs popping out or just cold blackened stares. Bloody swaths on the street. Must be Fall. Beware the frenzied Kamikaze squirrels, ironically with only the business of survival on their minds. Beware the hunted doe running from bucks and bullets. Overpopulation is their unbeknownst doom otherwise. Compassionately I remove the carcasses, the now soulless bodies from the roadway. I delivered a handsome deceased fox back to the woods from where...
read moreDo You Belong to the Cult of Zen Okayness?
I had heard rumors about the Cult of Perfect on the internet. And although I have stayed away from much of the perfecty picture world, there is definitely a cult of Okayness that exists. Women posting about how zen their lives, clutching their cupfuls of okayness while they practice mindfulness and home school their children. While I aspire for the zen okayness, and no, homeschooling isn’t for me, I can’t help but sense that the perpetual claiming of this smacks of a Lady Macbeth flavored lack of achievement. If I keep claiming...
read moreProving I Can Do It
I took Sas Pethrick’s Self Doubt Archetype quiz to see what type of gal she defined me as it relates to my procrastination and fear. And what I found out is that I’m an Innocent. In my childhood, I wasn’t empowered to believe I could do it. And so I don’t believe I can do anything without help. I get kinda panicky when I think I have to do something I don’t know how to do. I am often a doubtful child in a woman’s body. So at home, I’ve begun to take care of home projects that are bugging me as a way...
read moreChaos is comfortable to me
After much thought about how to make more time in my schedule to be creative, I decided that I’d approach life more proactively again. I’d schedule meals, blog posts, and laundry so I could write more. And what happened was that I experienced more ease. You have less to do and you get more done. It was a lesson I’ve learned before and knowing this made me uncomfortable. Fear is so idiotic. Like those highway patrol people with their speed guns, it leaps out into oncoming traffic and has you pull over to the side of the road...
read moreGlam It Up
A 20 something girl got onto the elliptical next to me and I caught a whiff men’s cologne? Smells have a way of taking you to a third dimension, to memories and feelings that would not usually occupy your day. And now they do. I realize that the memories of the showboating that were my 20’s, could be a bridge to making my 50’s a little more interesting. I just turned 53 and I’m finding my life a little blah. It’s midlife motherhood combined with the aches and pains of becoming old … and I’m bored with...
read moreLabor of Mom Love
My sister asked if I had any plans for the day. I said nah, I’m not doing anything. Just my regular stuff, no big deal. And she says, I would say you do a lot of stuff and a big deal. And I realize that I just belittled myself and all the hard work I put into my house that I do make it look clean and easy. I am at the store with my son and he asks if this half a cart full of groceries is a regular size shop. I ask if he knows how many meals a week I am responsible for. 21 meals and that includes any that I have to pay for at his school...
read moreMy Key Lime Pie Recipe
After a few decades bringing food to potlucks, you develop your own go-tos to make. In the Summertime, my must bring is Key Lime pie. The recipe is ridiculously simple and the graham cracker pie crust tins make great carrying containers. Key Lime Pie One premade graham cracker pie crust 4 egg yolks and one egg white 14 ounce can of sweetened condensed milk ¾ cup lime juice Tub of Cool Whip topping Kiwi fruit peeled and sliced The premade crust asks to be painted with egg whites and precooked for 5 minutes at 375 degrees F. Mix egg yolks,...
read moreWhat Do You Do All Day Mommy?
Fiona says she thinks I need to go and get a job. That way she can get to go to daycare after school and play with her friends longer. I told her I had a job. What do you do all day Mommy? I write and do all those things that take care of my family and keep the house in order. Yeah, that’s not a job. This isn’t just words from a child’s mouth, I know many a male has wondered what we do with all of our “spare” time at home. Truth is that unless you’re a home keeper-upper, you have no idea the massive myriad of details...
read moreDo You Rage or Resign Yourself ?
Have you ever found yourself frustrated because you have a chore to do and you just don’t feel like doing it? It’s too hot to take the trash out. There’s dishes piled in the sink and it’s late. My feet are dirty and I’m too tired for a bath. There’s nothing to eat in the house but the thought of take out food turns your stomach? When things smack of effort, we can feel resentful, angry even. We don’t feel like it. But what we are also inadvertently saying is that we aren’t worth the effort. Life...
read moreA Summer Morning Walk in Denton
Missed posting this morning bright and early because the Garden Party happened. I took a long walk as the weather had broken and other than the fact that my feet hurt, it was a glorious walk. All the cottages in town looked proud and festive. The dappling of the Summer light through the trees was so enticing. And in the cacophony of cicada and cricket song from the trees to the meadow, I heard the lullaby of lazy days to come. Crabapple tree I owe you a garden and garden party post and now that I have time to do that, I’ll do that. And...
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