Monday, November 11, 2013

Day 1 - Crappy first day...sort of

Started out at 5:50 instead of 5:30 this morning. I set my hair in foam rollers after my shower last night but my hair was still wet this morning, so no Doris Day curls. No dress for cleaning this morning; unlike popular belief, women didn't wear pearls and heels when cleaning their home. Those who did don dresses in the home wore what is referred to as a day dress or house dress.

Not exactly sexy.
However, a majority of women cleaned their homes and worked their gardens in trousers. I'm in search of a good pattern for a pair of traditional trousers, but as of right now I only have jeans. (Refuse to wear my good slacks to clean this house!) Because I only have tennis shoes or heels I chose the former to clean in. Normally, on my day to day ritual, I prefer to be barefoot. Shoes collect and drag dirt through the house so it bugs me when my family clomps through in their shoes.

Having said all that, I did make the face and hair presentable:
Complete with updo, liquid liner, and red lips!


However, ummm, yeah.....not so much with the clothes:
Not exactly June Cleaver (if you look behind my right elbow you'll see I laid out my husband's change of clothes for after work, just like a good wife is supposed to *wink*)
Okay, so I got up early, made breakfast, did my face and hair, and...well, got dressed. Hey, at least I got out of my pajamas before noon. After the kids were out the door (which I did the good mommy thing and walked them to the door and waved them goodbye. They asked me not to do that again.) I proceeded to do the dishes and off to clean I went. I seriously cleaned for nine hours straight. I found dirt in places there shouldn't be dirt. How in the world do you get walls so dirty? I mean, really? I have teenagers, so it's not like they're coloring on the walls. There were actually streaks going down the walls where someone walked down the hallway dragging their hands along my beautiful butter cream paint! WHAT?! Why? *sigh* And why in the world can kids (and men) not know how to change a toilet paper roll? AND, if the trash can is right beside you throw the trash in the can, not beside it. Oh, oh, and did I mention I found candy wrappers ON TOP of the entertainment center? I am exhausted! 

Okay, I'm okay, I got it together. About noon I decided to make myself some coffee (hello caffeine withdrawal) and of course used my percolator. I put the grinds in the canister, filled the pot with water and turned on the burner. Last time I was out at the chicken coop one of my hens was laying so I went back out to retrieve the egg.

Here's what I came back in to find:

I don't know when but apparently something fell below the burner and caught fire while I was outside. Luckily it went out on its own instead of me walking in to a kitchen fire! Emergency avoided, on to the coffee...right? Ha! It turns out I don't remember how to use a percolator.

I'm pretty sure it wasn't supposed to look like this:


Ummm, isn't the coffee supposed to stay inside the pot?


After a few minutes of looking at this bubbling mess and scratching my head I gave up and poured myself a cup. There was more grinds than coffee. At that point all I could do was chuckle, pour the mess into the sink (the same sink I had diligently and dutifully scrubbed out, mind you) and went to my trusty back up:



 Notice the red lips on the mug?
*sigh* I have to admit, today did not go the way I had hoped. Tomorrow WILL be better, dammit! I can say my house looks and smells great, but after a while I had to actually return to the 21st century and sit down after dinner and rest of my feet. They were damaged months ago and were really killing me after hours on them. Dinner has been made, dishes are done, laundry is COMPLETELY caught up (seriously! There isn't a single piece of clothing in the laundry room! Happy dance!) and now I'm here talking to you. There is my disaster of the first day of my version of the 1950s housewife experiment. Not exactly June Cleaver, but I tried. Honestly, the hardest thing today was fighting the temptation to get on Facebook and update everyone with the failures and successes of the day. I really didn't miss television, and I loved that I didn't get many calls or texts today. My phone usually goes nonstop, so the quiet was great! Oh, how I miss you all!


*I almost forgot, everyone knows I'm terrified of spider, right? Well, I was at the front door cleaning my hardwood floors and something above my head caught my attention...a spider! I grabbed my handy can of spray and sprayed the demon spawn. FOUR MORE came crawling from the doorway and the jam! I have a theory - they were all waiting for me to walk below them and they would all jump on me at the same time, causing a heart attack. They would then rule the house! That's my theory, anyway.*

2 comments:

  1. Sounds like a "real" 50's housewife day. The tendency is to romanticize such past ways, when in reality, women had to overcome all kinds of daily gliches. One time, my mom made ten loaves of homemade cinnamon-raisin bread for the family. We were poor and it was out treat for the week. Dad was so thankful for mom's wonderful effort that he scraped together the $1.25 for soft serve ice cream cones for all of us after dinner. Mom set the pans with rising dough on the kitchen counter and off we went for a very special Friday evening treat.

    When we got home, Skipper our tri-color collie dog had climbed onto the counter and eaten ALL ten loaves. Yes, he almost dies when the yeast finished rising! Poor mom cried.

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    1. I think I would have been despondent! Making fresh loaves of bread takes forever and is very physical! After pounding all the dough I bet your mom was exhausted!

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