I'm writing Day 3's post on the morning of the 4th because last night Phil and I concluded watching the PBS mini-series "Frontier House", and it ended late last night. If you have Netflix (which we just got), I recommend checking out this series. It's about 3 families who spend 5 months of their life going back in time to relive what it would have been like to live on a frontier in Montana. It's really an interesting program if you enjoy history, but also one of the things that impacted me was the children's view on the project. In the beginning they all wanted to go home because it was a lot of work.... they were literally given exactly the things that the frontiers moving out west would have had, which in a couple of cases, they had to build their own homes! Throughout the project, the kids adapted to the hard working schedule and actually found they enjoyed it and when it was time to end the project, they were leaving tearfully. They did interviews with the families 2 months after the project was over and one thing that was repeated over and over again was "today's society is overstimulated". The kids complained that they were bored, they could only go to the mall so much, and that they really felt they had a purpose on the frontier. This just clicked with me as I think of how many toys my children have and yet they rarely play with them and I just hear constantly "I'm bored!" And as I think about it, I've come to realize that children in today's home don't have a true "purpose".... by that, I mean all of our food is purchased at the market, so there's no need for them to feed chickens or milk cows. The parents are consistently the sole providers and it is our "purpose" to make sure that the children are fed, clothed, and otherwise well taken care of. But what if the children had a vital purpose to provide the family with something that was their own responsibility.... something that we depended on them for and if they didn't do it, it would let the family down. It's really had me rethink my own children's responsibilities in our home. If children live lives without having to do chores or help around the house how can they 1.) learn how to do it so they'll have the skills to when they are on their own and 2.) get a sense of pride when they accomplish a job? Maybe my light bulb moment is commonplace in most families, I dunno. Maybe every other family has their kids pitching in on Saturday's to clean the whole house before playing outside or watching TV? Maybe this is why I feel so overwhelmed, frustrated and occasionally resentful for having to constantly clean up everyone's messes.
I was reading an e-book online called "Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management", which is a book published in 1861 about running a household in Victorian Britain. The first chapter of the book is devoted to the duties of the mistress of the house. She begins by saying that the mistress of the house is like a commanding Army general.... she is the leader. How she leads, everyone will follow. It shows how she should lead in a firm, but gentile manner, her domestic help. There are a lot of insights here that when applied in a modern sense, is excellent advice on how to assign duties to our family members and what our expectations should be. It also has excellent advice for us on choosing friendships as "A gossiping acquaintance, who indulges in the scandal and ridicule of her neighbours, should be avoided as a pestilence."Advice as true today as it was then. Not to mention another favorite line of mine regarding eating during mealtime, "The French and other continentals have a habit of gargling the mouth; but it is a custom which no English gentlewoman should, in the slightest degree, imitate." I agree, lol...
Well, onto the promised photo's of the last couple days of my work. If you remember Day 2 I did the sink area. I thoroughly cleaned the sink using "The FlyLady's" step by step sink instructions as well as waxed the cabinets, etc. Here's my after picture (please don't mind the floors, they aren't done yet!):
On Day 3 I worked on what I call "The Oven Zone". Here's how that turned out:
Two of my favorite modern appliances live here... my red Kitchen Aid Professional 600 6qt mixer (insert Tim Allen's famous RUH-RUH-RUH here) I really do love it, not only is the engine amazing on this thing, but cleaning it is like shining up a brand new red sports car.... that's love people! Then my Advantium Convection Oven/Microwave. I love that this thing has a brain of it's own and can just sense when the food is done. These are two kitchen appliances that if I was going back to 1950, I'd want to take with me.
Today's project will be Part 2 of "The Oven Zone". I'm actually going to tackle cleaning the INSIDE of the oven! UGH! Now, now admittedly, I bought a pretty cheap oven. (I hate it, I really do!) It doesn't even have a self-cleaning feature. GE Appliances invented and patented the first self-clean oven in 1963. You'd think, by 2004 (when we bought our house) that self-cleaning would be a standard feature on ovens. Apparently not.
"Indeed--- what finer range could a busy housewife have?"
Well, I'm off to *gulp* clean the oven and microwave.... Today to help me through, I'll be listening to a 1950's online radio show. I've been doing that while I've been cleaning, and I find it makes me smile. =)
Til next time~
~Angela~
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