Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Homemaking Tip – Three to Choose From

While our garage and yard may be in disarray, the big wind the other night blew all these 
leaves into one big pile just outside the garage door.  It was such a sweet act of service. 

I’m not very tippy today.  In fact I’d feel like a hypocrite if I even tried to share one, for I have no answers.  Our garage is a mess, the lawn is at its ugliest, the outside of the house needs painted, the garage door needs replaced, the chicken coop has half a tree lying across it, and I’ve had wet clothes sitting in the washer since . . . yesterday?

However, while jogging this afternoon I listened to a podcast about the pioneers on their travels west.  Those women had a few tips to share:

One woman went off among the brush to gather buffalo chips in her apron for fuel and came back the next morning with her newborn baby wrapped in it instead.  
Tip:  Wear an apron. 

Another woman baked an apple pie in her cast iron pan and put it on the buckboard to cool.  While she turned back to the fire to tend the rice, the cow ate her pie.  The rice burned when she climbed in the back of the wagon to tend the baby, and the buffalo chips blew into her biscuits.  
Tip: Don’t put too many pots in the fire at once.

The pioneers still managed to sing and dance around the fire at night even after long days of walking and birthing and cooking and tending.  
Tip:  Save some energy for the evenings. 

I could benefit from all three tips.  As Wallace Stegner said of these early settlers, "The men were strong and the women were amazing."

12 comments:

Deanna/Mimi said...

Choice blog message Jane. I couldn't help but laugh and feel bad for them at the same time. They did have it hard...but they were amazing. My 3rd great grandmother Calista Bennett Holmes was out helping her husband plant the corn. She had to turn the furrows ...cover them up with her foot. She was in labor. She went off to the side, gave birth and was out in the fields right after. Don't ask me where the baby was...the story didn't say. And don't you feel badly about things undone...but just think of all the things you do each day. You surpass most of us very easily. Thank you for your example of being a wonderful daughter of God in every way.

melanie said...

I love your blog. Every single post. Right now I think I'll choose tip #3. Quite fitting for me right now. Once I get the kids to bed, I don't do much. I should save some energy and seize the quiet. I should jog like you too....

Cali said...

Why yes they were...

I hope that isn't true about the woman leaving for buffalo chips and coming back with a baby. I don't like feeling that kind of pressure.

Cali

Deidra said...

It sounds like general "waiting for the weather to warm up" chores. No shame in that!

Every time I want to grumble about being big and uncomfortable, or not being able to sleep well, I think of how good I have it. I'm reading a book on the history of childbirth, and suffice it to say, we have it pretty good these days! I can't imagine the physical strength, let alone the emotional strength required of generations past.

michelle said...

Goodness me. The physical fortitude those women had is truly amazing.

Save some energy for the evening. I would love to learn how to do that!

SANDERSON / MCCONKIE FAMILY said...

Oh, how I love those stories. I am finishing my food storage update. As I pack cases of food and barrels of wheat and fill up water jugs...I will not murmur...I go in a warm car, buy whatever I want and place it on clean organized shelves. Thanks for the "reality check"!!! Think I will grind some wheat, make some bread and push a button on the dishwasher to clean up the mess!

Derek-Jenny-Kaitlynd-Ethan-Dylan said...

Save some energy......hmmmm, that is a novel idea!

Susan said...

Oh ho, I'm glad I wasn't a pioneer. I'm not sure I could go out for buffalo chips and come back with a baby and be just fine about that. Nope, couldn't do it.

Tiffany Fackrell said...

I knew there was a reason I was born when i was. I don't think I would have survived.

BusinessKata said...

Ha ha love tip #1

Kim Sue said...

#2. Sometimes I wonder if I can go about a day without too many irons in the fire. I try to remember my mom's words "you are juggling too many balls, you WILL drop one, careful or it might be your favorite ball"

Brenda Goodrich said...

Cali,

Wear an apron.