Home Life

An article from USA Today was recently brought to my attention at http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2007-08-11-homemaking_N.htm

I realise the article has a religious twist to it, but I can only imagine how helpful a course like this would be.  I hear so many wives (or women in general) who want to know how to bake, sew, clean, etc. but they don’t know how, don’t know where to go to learn, and in many cases (I see this in the younger wives these days) were not brought up in a household where homemaking was just a part of life.  I am finding people around my age were raised in homes where parents worked long hours, hired house cleaners, ate out of boxes, had machines or disposable products for nearly everything, etc.  The “skills” that are a part of home making are being lost.  I’ve decided that is not an option in my home, now that I have a family of my own, I want these skills to be instilled in them. I want them to be self sufficient.  I’ve buckled down and am learning new skills one at a time, and do believe I’ve come a long way.  My kids enjoy helping me clean, garden, cook, and otherwise keep our home.  I enjoy spending that time with them.  I often laugh at life before I had kids.  My husband and I would eat boxed meals, we’d let the dishes pile up in the sink, we’d buy everything (forget about making bread from scratch!), and cleaning was something we’d do once a week because we hated it!  Then, my firstborn arrived and I developed a passion for home cooked meals.  We ate a lot of burnt meals and I had a lot of “oops” moments as I learned the basics of cooking.  Cleaning became a priority, even organization became something we needed.  Once my second was born we were well on our way in the homemaking way of life, and then I started dabbling more in the skills that would help us achieve a higher level of self sufficiency.  Now I find myself studying life on a farm, livestock management and care, solar power, composting, gardening, alternative transportation, and dreaming of one day living on a peice of land big enough that we wouldn’t need to depend on stores for our basic needs.  My dream is to grow, hunt and raise all the food we’d need through the year.  Preserve it for the winter.  Ideally not have to rely on anyone for anything except ourselves. Who knows if it will ever become a reality, but the more I learn about the elements of self sufficiency, the more I find myself realising I can do more for our family - even living in our apartment!  It’s very exciting to me.

Anyway back on track - reading this article made me wish we had more programs available for those wishing to learn more about homemaking.  Let’s bring back these lost skills!  I, for one, am in favor of this article for a few reasons but wish there was something closer.

One thing I’m finding out is that homeschooling families are sort of getting back to basics.  Having the children in the home for more hours allows the family the time to learn new skills together and instill skills in the children that will last with them through their lifetime.  As we prepare to start my oldest daughter in preschool at home this fall, I am reminded that I do want homemaking to be a part of our curriculum.  I’ll be putting together our own curriculum for at least the first few years, and starting now I don’t think it’s ever too early to begin teaching these skills. However, in our home the kids learn how to help with upkeep as soon as they learn how to make messes, so it’s a process that will not change through schooling but I do see us getting a little more involved with homemaking in the coming years.  It’s not something I’m really planning on putting in the curriculum in terms of actual lesson planning, it’ll just happen as a normal part of life through our days.

If you’re interested, there are books and courses you can find on homemaking for children.  Many are used starting at about age 6 or so and if you’re lacking in the skills department this is something both mom (and dad?) and children can learn together.

I know I’ve mentioned this before - and I still really want to do it: get some homemaking meetings started.  Just something where us gals can gather and we can learn new skills, learn from one another and get back to basic, simple living.  Let life settle down a little bit  (we had our third born on Aug 14th, at home!) and I’ll start getting some ideas together for this.  It may not be a college course, but I think our community has a lot to offer and we can learn a lot from each other.

We just had a baby (see details in the “birth and babies” blog) and I’m coming to rely on the same lifesaver I’ve used with my other children: a baby sling.  My personal favorite for newborns is a Maya wrap, and then a Mei Tai as the kids get older.  The maya wrap is, I think, better than typical front carriers because the baby can lay down (and still nurse while you’re moving around), be safely contained in 5 different positions, it keeps the baby snug against your body (particularly helpful for newborns who crave the closeness), can sheild the baby from sun and other weather elements (when they lay down, the sling acts as a shell and the baby acts like a pea!  Just kind of swallows the baby and keeps them protected).  You can adjust the maya wrap style slings to make the sling deep or shallow, and adjust the side rails.  If your baby is in an upright position, the tail of the sling can also act as a cover.  The baby is completely supported in a sling, so you are free to move around without having to always hold your baby (however your baby is feeling like s/he’s still being held snug and close).

Some babies don’t take to the sling right away, especially if a sling is introduced later in their lives.  However, once a baby comes to experience the movement of being in a sling while mom or dad goes about cleaning house or whatever needs to get done, they (usually) quickly take to it and enjoy it.

You can easily make slings if you’re handy with a sewing machine.  Or you can buy them already made.  My favorite brand is the maya sling.  They are durable, safe, attractive and are eesy to use.  And, they include a free instructional DVD/VHS about how to use them.

“Storey’s Basic Country Skills” is an awesome resource for anyone interested in developing more self reliance.  There is something in there for everyone.  It’s on my list to buy (I just borrowed it from the library) and am very impressed with the amount of information in there.  It’s inspired me to make a zucchini chocolate cake and saltwater taffy, has great information on canning/drying/freezing (how to do it, what veggies/fruits are best, etc.), extensive gardening information (including helpful charts), lots of information on livestock/farming/building building, butchering, storing/smoking/curing meats and the information is put together in clear, easy to read and understand directions.  I am going to add additional herbs next year for some “herbal remedies” (first aid garden or cold/flu garden anyone?) and would love to put together a butterfly garden for the kids! 

When you learn the art of meal planning, you may very well notice your money is better spent, you spend less, you throw away less food, have less stress over what to cook, and don’t have to make multiple trips to the store during the week to get ingredients for a meal you want to make.

So how is it done?  In a variety of ways!

You can try “once a month cooking” where you spend a day or a weekend cooking a months worth of meals, then freezing them.  This works well if you have a lot of freezer space and the time to actually cook so many meals.  This cuts out the need to cook, and takes care of using all of your fresh produce within days of purchasing.  You can also do smaller batches - cooking for a week or two weeks, or just spending a day cooking whatever you can fit in, throw food in the freezer and have it available for a night that you can’t cook (just heat the food up and eat).

Another option is actually planning every meal (some people plan every breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks for a week, two weeks or an entire month. Then go shopping, store food as needed to make it last as long as it’s needed, and not have to worry about the question most of us wake up with “whats for dinner?”

My personal plan works like this (and feel free to share your own!).  I keep a master list of the meals my family likes.  On thsi master list is the name of the dish, the book/pg number I found it from, and the ingredients needed.  I typically plan two weeks of meals in advance, in synch with my husbands paychecks.  I am slowly working on re-writing all of these recipes into my personal cookbook so I don’t need to dig out cookbooks for recipes, I’d just turn to my own cookbook filled with the recipes my family knows and enjoys.

Generally, I pick 14 dinner ideas and about 7 lunch ideas.  I do not plan meals for each day, but pick what sounds best for that day, or go by what ingredients need to be used first before they go bad.  Usually, leftovers are eaten for lunch the next day so I don’t usually plan a lot of lunches.  Breakfasts are pretty simple - oven pancakes made with whatever fruit I buy, oatmeal, a mix of fruit and toast, or whatever we have on hand to make a healthy breakfast.  I don’t plan these, but I do typically buy the same fruits, when in season, so I know what will last and what is used best in breakfasts.  I will also usually get some lunchmeat of some sort so we can eat a sandwich if needed, and I always pick up salad fixings.  There are certain things I don’t plan into meal planning, but I know we’ll eat and they wont’ be a waste of money.  Now, if I try a new recipe, obviously that DOES get planned so I make sure I have the ingredients on hand and I make note of what meal if might compliment best, if it’s a side dish or something. Certain staples, such as bread that I make at home, I find myself checking ingredients before I shop, and if I dont’ have two weeks worth of ingredients on hand I will buy more. 

When I make my shopping list, I have all of the ingredients i”ll need for a particular meal on the master list.  I combine all of these ingredients into a shopping list.  On my list are usual items I have to buy over and over again - milk, butter, eggs.  I keep a checklist of ingredients to check on - do I have enough sugar, flours and other pantry items to last through my meal planning and snacks?

Then, it’s time to go shopping.  I gather the kids and myself (and if I’m lucky, my husband too) and we hit 3-5 stores depending upon store deals, if I use coupons (rarely, considering most of my purchases are for produce or meats), and what I normally find at the best price.  I also like hitting the farmers markets most for locally grown produce, for whatever isn’t growing in my garden.

Then when I get home, I store everything as needed.  If I’ve bought grapes or strawberries, I wash them and store them in a container.  I like to cut up a certain amount of veggies to have as snacks.  I’ll usually go raid my garden now too, figuring I might as well while i’m packaging food. 

This year and next I expect to do a lot of experimenting with new foods, as my husband will be hunting rabbit, duck, goose and deer.  I’m also hoping to buy a side of organic beef to have on hand.  I’d love to stock my deep freezer with meat to last an entire year and just cut that expense right off our grocery bill.  We still have some venison steaks and ground venison and a few ducks in my freezer that I am going to get some recipes for.  But I’m hoping my husband will get lucky enough this year to fill our deep freezer with a decent amount of meat.

I borrowed a book from the library called “Fix it and forget it” which is stuffed full of recipes for slow cookers.  I plan to buy this book as it features tons of recipes I plan to try.  In fact, for the next two weeks (I just made a two week meal plan and went shopping according to it) will be mostly crockpot meals trying these recipes out.  I’m interested mainly in the main courses, which features recipes for venison, rabbit, beef, chicken, turkey, pork, etc.  All of which I have in my deep freeze waiting to be eaten.  I made a meatloaf and veggie dish today and will be doing a chicken and veggie meal tomorrow.  

I love slow cookers because it allows me to fix a meal in the morning, which can be accomplished when my kids are eating breakfast.  Then I can forget about it until the evening, and when I’d normally be dancing around the kitchen preparing dinner, I can sit and relax.  One of my biggest stresses of the day is “what is going to be for dinner?”  To help reduce this stress, I make meal plans (or, I come up with 14 dinner ideas that can be made large enough for leftovers and possibly freezing, and about 7 lunch ideas for the days when I have no leftovers, and whatever sounds good for the day is what we go with.  Generally I will decide the evening before, and prepare my meals in whatever way I can beforehand).

My crockpot is convienient for more than one reason. Obviously, there is no chaos in the evening as I fix dinner for a hungry family.  But it prepares a delicious and healthy meal without heating my kitchen or using a ton of electricity. 

I have tried to find recipes and ideas for cooking in the crockpot, and a lot of what I find online is put together with processed foods, soups and other additives.  This book actually has a ton of healthy, wholesome meal recipes.  And when it calls for a canned soup or additive, I know I can easily create that on my own at home before hand.  Typically I make my soups in bulk and freeze them in single serving sizes, then thaw when the time comes to use them.

So check this book out - from your library or see if our local bookstore has it.  I know I want to buy it after looking at the recipes and basing the next two weeks worth of meals from it (and there are still many recipes I want to try, but will be returning the book before then). 

I’m reading an interesting book called “Homestead Hints”  which is “a compendium of useful information from the past.”

It’s full of many interesting hints and tips for the homesteading way of life.  A few things I found interesting are on p. 29

• Painting houses-the paint will harden better and last twice as long by being applied late in autumn than during the hot season.
• Bee stings may be quickly cured by applying repeatedly a soft paste made of baking soda and water.

And a home-made insecticide on p. 46 gives instructions to boil the stems and leaves of the tomato, then once cold syringe it over the plants attacked by insects.  Supposedly this kills black or green flies, caterpillars and leaves a odor that prevents insects from coming again for a time.

There is a lot of helpful information in here.  What old time tips and tricks do you know of?