I get asked all the time if it is possible to cook and serve a nice family dinner when you have littles underfoot. And I can tell you, unequivocally, yes. it is possible. It isn’t always easy to know how, though, and often we didn’t learn it in our own families. So here are my […]
How to Have a Nice Family Dinner (When You Have Little Ones Underfoot) Read More »
Planning for a Busy Vintage December Once again, it is time for the famous (infamous? no, no, definitely not!) Very Vintage December Challenge! Time to Jingle Bell Rock! As an overview, each day, I will be doing a vintage homemaking activity from the Betty Crocker Country Kitchen Almanac from 1958. Get Your Christmas Chores Done
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I really love using vintage schedules. They are so precise about the goals and the actions you take to get there. It’s a lot of fun! I have read the Babywise series, Gina Ford, and Tracy Hogg, but all of the advice they give is just vintage mid-century parenting advice, repackaged for a new audience! This is the vintage schedule for preschoolers that I am using for my youngest children.
Vintage Schedules For Preschoolers (What a REAL 1940s Expert Recommended) Read More »
I never learned to clean the kitchen properly. So I found out how the women who KNEW how to keep the house clean did it. Here’s the step-by-step method that you should follow to keep your kitchen clean. How To Clean The Kitchen Here is how to clean the kitchen after a meal: put away
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In most homes, you only have to wash dishes from a proper dinner for 10 at Thanksgiving. I have to do it every single day. And I want my dishes to sparkle! So I follow a vintage method to get my dishes clean. How To Wash Dishes By Hand Scrape all the food and soak
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Monday is wash day, but did you know that the housewife (and teenage girls) were taught to wash their stockings, lingerie, and foundation garments by hand, every day? Especially when stockings were made of silk! The Routine For stockings, you were supposed to wash them each evening after you took them off, but at least
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Happy Easter! Here are the menus for Holy week. During this week, I finish my spring cleaning (by Wednesday), and then spend Holy Thursday preparing for Easter. On Good Friday, I fast and make a pilgrimage, so those menus also look different than usual. And on Holy Saturday, the children and I finish preparations and
Mid-Century Menu Monday for April 11 to April 17 Read More »
It’s Spring Cleaning Week! It’s also super windy this year — but at least all my bedding and mattress are getting well-aired! And on top of that, I am sick! But since Spring Cleaning is time-limited by Easter (traditionally), I am doing my best to clean anyway. I will try to rest a lot the
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It’s time for the latest list in my series “The Top 5 ’50s Housewife Books!” This one is all about vintage books to help you become a more gracious and elegant lady. Mostly, these are the books that will help you with the 4th Pillar of Vintage homemaking — show pride in being a Mrs.
The Top 5 ’50s Housewife Books for How To Be An Elegant Lady Read More »
Spring is here! Or close enough that many a vintage housewife is starting to consider her spring cleaning plans. So just in case you want to know how to REALLY THOROUGHLY clean a home, vintage-style, here’s the complete, step-by-step list of cleaning tasks that a 1950s housewife would have followed. As one of those vintage
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