I did not have a great start to my week. I had Depression Fest instead. Fortunately, it was short lived and I got out of bed and back on track fairly quickly.
Monday - I didn't wash on Monday. I actually did the laundry last Sunday when I spent the day in my sewing room which is right by the washing machine. Since I was sitting right there it made sense to just do the laundry.
Tuesday - still no ironing. This is going to be a tough one to get into!
Wednesday - I didn't mend, but I did sew. I guess technically I did "mend" because I started mending my sleep schedule which had been thrown out the window for Depression Fest.
Thursday - I shopped! And it was the best kind of shopping! I have the CVS discount card and I have started matching their cardholder deals to my coupons to get a better price. I won't bore you with my entire receipt, but I will share one highlight:
With my card, Rimmel mascara was buy 1 get 1 50% off. I had a $1 off coupon and a $2 off coupon. So the price was $7.69 (or something) and $3.75(ish) for the second one. By using one coupon on each item, I got two mascaras for roughly the price of one.
Hooray! I suffer from "inadequate lashes" (Brooke Shields diagnosed me) but the idea of Latisse coloring my eyes brown forever is frightening so I suffer along as best I can with only mascara.
Friday - I cleaned. Sorta. I really just picked up my messes and no one elses. This was not very kind of me, but it was all I had in me.
For Bake on Saturday, I am kicking around making baked macaroni and cheese in the new oven. I am hoping that counts. It seems only fitting that a week that started with Depression Fest end with the best combination in the world: simple carbs and baked cheese.
(Coming soon - a blog about the fact that I was not, in fact, born on Thursday. Instead of having "far to go", I am "full of grace". I don't know about that....)
Friday, August 28, 2009
Sunday, August 23, 2009
A Rest in Development
Rest on Sunday. This one is going to take a bit to figure out. I haven't really any idea what to do with this one off the top of my head. The rest of the week is pretty easy. It's just a matter of rearranging what I am already doing on a weekly basis. Ok, ok....so I DO technically need to get a lot better acquainted with my iron, but it's not as if I don't know what the basic chores are.
Rest, however, has me a bit stumped.
True rest, as in sleeping in and napping and going to bed early, seems too much like sloth.
On Sundays I sometimes like to sew or shop, but those are chores on Wednesday and Thursday, so perhaps I shouldn't do them so as to better rest. But if I enjoy those tasks on Sunday and they don't feel like a chore, then is that rest?
I could go hardcore. I could take a cue from my inner Orthodox Jewess (complete with her dowdy black skirt and covered head) and tear off the toilet paper I'll need the night before so I don't do that work on the Sabbath. But that would be interchanging the Sabbath (Friday night to Saturday night) with Sunday and that would not be right. The Sabbath is its own thing entirely and you can't just say, "hey, I'm a Christian so we'll do all the same stuff on Sunday." (IMHO)
All this leads me back to the original question of what exactly constitutes Rest of Sunday. God rested on the 7th day, but again, that was Saturday, the Sabbath. Even so, it seems reasonable to at take a look at exactly what God was doing that do as a hint as to what I ought to do.
I have a Key Word Study Bible (NIV) by AMG Publishers. My Bible uses the Goodrick/Kohlenbereger numbering systemto identify key words of the original language. So anytime a word is numbered (Hebrew or Greek) you can look up the index in the back and find a more full definition of the word.
And away we go......
Genesis 2:1-2
Thus the Heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.
By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating he had done.
Rested: Sabat - to rest, cease; to come to an end; to keep or celebrate the Sabbath; to be ended; to sever; to bring an end; have an end; to destroy; to cause to rest; let rest; to cease to exist; to remove; take away. The most basic meaning is found in Genesis 8:22, where God declared that "as long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat; summer and winter; day and night will never cease." The term is used of God's rest after He had complete the work of creation. Also used of men who cear from labor, land which lies desolate, travelers who rest from traveling and elders who "rested" from the gate (ie, did not go to the forums on the Sabbath). Other meanings include to put away, to put down, to be lacking and to eliminate.
That didn't help at all. I don't want to be like land which lies desolate (although sometimes spending a Sunday in bed with the TV and internets is not only appealing but probably looks fairly desolate).
So let's look at "doing" to see what God was doing that he rested from.
Doing: Asah - to do, make, work, create, accomplish, prepare, to obey, to offer, sacrifice. Essentially means to do or make in a general sense. Carries the connotation of ethical obligation.
Actually, when combined, I think this helps.
If my "doing" during the week is what I am obliged to do, what I do out of obedience, is made up of time that I sacrifice, then couldn't my "rest" be as simple as making the choice of what to do? Couldn't my "rest" be the same as my "doing" if my "doing" if I want to be doing it? I don't mean that Sundays should be spent being indulgent and only doing what my little heart desires. But in a more general sense, maybe "rest" just means to not be bound by obligation to the same schedule I have during the week. I *could* do some of the same things, but it must not be with a sense of obligation if it is to be restful.
An author I like is Lauren Winner. In Mudhouse Sabbath, she talks about how the scripture references the Sabbath. She points out that verses vary between "Observe the Sabbath" and "Remember the Sabbath". The point is that a person can "observe" the Sabbath that is approaching or "remember" the Sabbath they just experienced. The Sabbath is so set apart from the other days of the week that it really sticks out in your mind whether you are recalling the last one or looking forward to the next one.
I think maybe that fits in to all this too, although I don't see exactly how just yet.
This really is a rest in development. I do not have the answer yet.
Rest, however, has me a bit stumped.
True rest, as in sleeping in and napping and going to bed early, seems too much like sloth.
On Sundays I sometimes like to sew or shop, but those are chores on Wednesday and Thursday, so perhaps I shouldn't do them so as to better rest. But if I enjoy those tasks on Sunday and they don't feel like a chore, then is that rest?
I could go hardcore. I could take a cue from my inner Orthodox Jewess (complete with her dowdy black skirt and covered head) and tear off the toilet paper I'll need the night before so I don't do that work on the Sabbath. But that would be interchanging the Sabbath (Friday night to Saturday night) with Sunday and that would not be right. The Sabbath is its own thing entirely and you can't just say, "hey, I'm a Christian so we'll do all the same stuff on Sunday." (IMHO)
All this leads me back to the original question of what exactly constitutes Rest of Sunday. God rested on the 7th day, but again, that was Saturday, the Sabbath. Even so, it seems reasonable to at take a look at exactly what God was doing that do as a hint as to what I ought to do.
I have a Key Word Study Bible (NIV) by AMG Publishers. My Bible uses the Goodrick/Kohlenbereger numbering systemto identify key words of the original language. So anytime a word is numbered (Hebrew or Greek) you can look up the index in the back and find a more full definition of the word.
And away we go......
Genesis 2:1-2
Thus the Heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.
By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating he had done.
Rested: Sabat - to rest, cease; to come to an end; to keep or celebrate the Sabbath; to be ended; to sever; to bring an end; have an end; to destroy; to cause to rest; let rest; to cease to exist; to remove; take away. The most basic meaning is found in Genesis 8:22, where God declared that "as long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat; summer and winter; day and night will never cease." The term is used of God's rest after He had complete the work of creation. Also used of men who cear from labor, land which lies desolate, travelers who rest from traveling and elders who "rested" from the gate (ie, did not go to the forums on the Sabbath). Other meanings include to put away, to put down, to be lacking and to eliminate.
That didn't help at all. I don't want to be like land which lies desolate (although sometimes spending a Sunday in bed with the TV and internets is not only appealing but probably looks fairly desolate).
So let's look at "doing" to see what God was doing that he rested from.
Doing: Asah - to do, make, work, create, accomplish, prepare, to obey, to offer, sacrifice. Essentially means to do or make in a general sense. Carries the connotation of ethical obligation.
Actually, when combined, I think this helps.
If my "doing" during the week is what I am obliged to do, what I do out of obedience, is made up of time that I sacrifice, then couldn't my "rest" be as simple as making the choice of what to do? Couldn't my "rest" be the same as my "doing" if my "doing" if I want to be doing it? I don't mean that Sundays should be spent being indulgent and only doing what my little heart desires. But in a more general sense, maybe "rest" just means to not be bound by obligation to the same schedule I have during the week. I *could* do some of the same things, but it must not be with a sense of obligation if it is to be restful.
An author I like is Lauren Winner. In Mudhouse Sabbath, she talks about how the scripture references the Sabbath. She points out that verses vary between "Observe the Sabbath" and "Remember the Sabbath". The point is that a person can "observe" the Sabbath that is approaching or "remember" the Sabbath they just experienced. The Sabbath is so set apart from the other days of the week that it really sticks out in your mind whether you are recalling the last one or looking forward to the next one.
I think maybe that fits in to all this too, although I don't see exactly how just yet.
This really is a rest in development. I do not have the answer yet.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Clean Sweep
Not exactly. I don't like to sweep. I love to vacuum because you can make cool rows of lines in the carpet with the Dyson, but I hate to deal with the hardfloors.
I didn't really clean much after all. I basically just put away some laundry and cleaned out the fridge. There was a bit of clutter to deal with and that's pretty much the extent of it.
It was a Pharisee cleaning for sure (just the outside of the cup for those who are wondering), but that is OK. Sometimes that is all you have in you. The cup can soak overnight and the inside can get cleaned another time.
During the course of my first week at this new chore schedule, I was thinking again about the fact that, from a VERY early age, I never understood the story of Mary and Martha in the Bible. The story goes that Martha had a roast in the oven, veggies steaming on the stove, a table that was only half set, there was an empty roll in the bathroom because Lazarus hadn't replaced the TP, and the floors definitely hadn't been swept. Mary was in the family room with Jesus with her feet up on the coffee table.
Martha asked Jesus to make Mary help her. Now, while I agree that tattling was not Martha's brightest move that day, I never understood why she was chided and why prissy Miss Mary got patted on the back for sitting with Jesus. If Mary had gotten up and helped, EVERYONE could have sat down and enjoyed time with Jesus AND a good meal in a clean house.
There was no need for Martha to have to do it all and "just don't do it" never seemed like a good answer to me.
Tomorrow is Bake on Saturday and I think it's not going to happen. I don't believe in microwave baking (it's sick and wrong) and I haven't found a crock pot baking recipe that doesn't sound like a mushy mess. I realize that EVERYTHING that comes from a crock pot is a mooshy mess (ie, mooshy stew, mooshy roast, mooshy Italian beef) but I don't think bready things should be mooshy.
Maybe I'll just Rest on Sunday AND Saturday. Perhaps Martha had it wrong after all.
I didn't really clean much after all. I basically just put away some laundry and cleaned out the fridge. There was a bit of clutter to deal with and that's pretty much the extent of it.
It was a Pharisee cleaning for sure (just the outside of the cup for those who are wondering), but that is OK. Sometimes that is all you have in you. The cup can soak overnight and the inside can get cleaned another time.
During the course of my first week at this new chore schedule, I was thinking again about the fact that, from a VERY early age, I never understood the story of Mary and Martha in the Bible. The story goes that Martha had a roast in the oven, veggies steaming on the stove, a table that was only half set, there was an empty roll in the bathroom because Lazarus hadn't replaced the TP, and the floors definitely hadn't been swept. Mary was in the family room with Jesus with her feet up on the coffee table.
Martha asked Jesus to make Mary help her. Now, while I agree that tattling was not Martha's brightest move that day, I never understood why she was chided and why prissy Miss Mary got patted on the back for sitting with Jesus. If Mary had gotten up and helped, EVERYONE could have sat down and enjoyed time with Jesus AND a good meal in a clean house.
There was no need for Martha to have to do it all and "just don't do it" never seemed like a good answer to me.
Tomorrow is Bake on Saturday and I think it's not going to happen. I don't believe in microwave baking (it's sick and wrong) and I haven't found a crock pot baking recipe that doesn't sound like a mushy mess. I realize that EVERYTHING that comes from a crock pot is a mooshy mess (ie, mooshy stew, mooshy roast, mooshy Italian beef) but I don't think bready things should be mooshy.
Maybe I'll just Rest on Sunday AND Saturday. Perhaps Martha had it wrong after all.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Churn, Baby, Churn......
There was no churning today. Scratch that. There WAS churning today but it was all internal. I'll spare you the details, but it appears that my "system" doesn't care to have me throw seared tuna at it three nights in a row. This is really too bad because I LOVE tuna served up nice and raw, preferably with some "Remi" sauce. That's a sauce that Remi McManus taught us to make with soy, sesame oil and that spicey red chili sauce that I can't spell or say. Srirachi???
There was no buying either, even though that is my substitute for churning. I decided that the last thing my belly needed was fiber so I didn't bother with spinach for a salad. And since our 30 year old copper brown stove finally died, I won't have an oven for "Bake on Saturday". No chocolate chips needed. I am thinking of experimenting with crock pot baking. Apparently you can bake some bread pudding kinds of things in them. We shall see what we shall see.
I've been thinking of a lot of old fashioned experiments I can try and use to fuel my blog. I read today about "no poo", which sounds really appealing considering the aforementioned tuna-induced tummy issue. It actually refers to not using shampoo. Apparently you rotate between baking soda scalp scrubs and cider vinegar rinses. After your scalp gets used to the idea that it doesn't have to over-produce oil because you aren't stripping the natural oil with shampoo, things settle down and you have fabulously healthy hair.
I'm not entirely sold yet, partially because some of the crowd that advocates this believe that shampoo is giving you cancer through your skin. I'm not so sure about that conspiracy theory. But it does sound intriguing and since I work from home, I could plan to do this when I won't be traveling anyway and can wait out the oil glands in my scalp.
Up for tomorrow is Clean on Friday. This should be pretty easy. I usually clean on Saturday and since everyone pitches in, it really isn't too bad to get this place into decent shape. It may take a little extra elbow grease this week since we're coming off of a bunch of houseguests last weekend, but all in all, it shouldn't be bad. I'm excited that moving my cleaning to Friday night should leave my Saturday wide open for more pleasant activities. It's not like I was doing much on Friday night anyway!
There was no buying either, even though that is my substitute for churning. I decided that the last thing my belly needed was fiber so I didn't bother with spinach for a salad. And since our 30 year old copper brown stove finally died, I won't have an oven for "Bake on Saturday". No chocolate chips needed. I am thinking of experimenting with crock pot baking. Apparently you can bake some bread pudding kinds of things in them. We shall see what we shall see.
I've been thinking of a lot of old fashioned experiments I can try and use to fuel my blog. I read today about "no poo", which sounds really appealing considering the aforementioned tuna-induced tummy issue. It actually refers to not using shampoo. Apparently you rotate between baking soda scalp scrubs and cider vinegar rinses. After your scalp gets used to the idea that it doesn't have to over-produce oil because you aren't stripping the natural oil with shampoo, things settle down and you have fabulously healthy hair.
I'm not entirely sold yet, partially because some of the crowd that advocates this believe that shampoo is giving you cancer through your skin. I'm not so sure about that conspiracy theory. But it does sound intriguing and since I work from home, I could plan to do this when I won't be traveling anyway and can wait out the oil glands in my scalp.
Up for tomorrow is Clean on Friday. This should be pretty easy. I usually clean on Saturday and since everyone pitches in, it really isn't too bad to get this place into decent shape. It may take a little extra elbow grease this week since we're coming off of a bunch of houseguests last weekend, but all in all, it shouldn't be bad. I'm excited that moving my cleaning to Friday night should leave my Saturday wide open for more pleasant activities. It's not like I was doing much on Friday night anyway!
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Ironing: No Flags. Mending: Six Flags.
You probably have the 6 Flags commercial in your head now. Sorry 'bout that.
Tuesday: I didn't iron. Not even a little. I hid behind the "Jaime is still here and we invited Dad to dinner too" excuse. Jaime is only here once a year, so I think that part was legit.
The truth is that I hate ironing. Hate. It. My husband likes ironing and even uses spray starch when he has the chance. But he learned pretty quickly that I hate ironing so much that it was worth it to have the dress shirts laundered and pressed professionally rather than wait for me to get to it.
I'm not sure where this started. It's not as if I was made to slavishly iron as a child or something. It's just SO tedious and because you are just going to put the clothes on, the are going to wrinkle right away. It's a chore that you undo as quickly as you do.
I'll try again next week. I usually have an ironing party once every few months when I really need my nicer clothes. Maybe I can get into a routine where I do a little every week rather than save it all for the "party".
Wednesday: I mended.
Now, before anyone applauds, I mended stuff that got ruined nearly a year ago. Lance crashed about 15 minutes into the Twilight Criterium of the Gateway Cup which is held during Labor Day weekend. He broke his collarbone, as injury he recognized immediately because it was the same collarbone he had broken a few years before. And I had that moment of race wife ESP and when the announcer said "crash in turn 3", I knew it was my Lance. "The Other White Lance", as my mom used to call him.
We spent the evening in a downtown St Louis ER, awaiting our turn behind the GSWs and car accidents. Lance was kind enough to sit by the crazy man so I didn't have to. Our token black friend came to see how Lance was and realized he really has become white after all these years and lacked the "cred" to sit in the waiting room. (BTW, Tim would laugh if he read this and recalled that night.)
Unfortunately, Lance didn't heal well and ended up having to have surgery in December to plate the bones. The recovery was slow and painful. He's still having some odd pain, especially in crummy weather.
The items I mended needed way less attention and yet it took me a year. The jersey itself was basically just really scuffed and had a few holes rubbed into it courtesy of the pavement. All I could really do was stitch around the holes in order to keep them from growing. He can at least train in the jersey, even though it's really not race worthy. The Craft base layer was simple to repair because I am the one who cut it. The ER folk always want to slice into your kit and you have to stop them and demand that your wife cut your kit off of you so she can salvage it. After all, the kit is expensive and isn't covered by insurance! A good little '50's wife like me can salvage your kit if you let HER be the one to cut it off you!
So that's my Wednesday. I did my husband's mending. And then I rewarded myself by working on a couple of aprons.
Thursday? Churn is traditional but I'm turning "churn" into "shop". We don't need groceries at all. In fact, we don't need anything at all. Oh, wait, we do need baby spinach. And chocolate chips so I can "Bake on Saturday".
Tuesday: I didn't iron. Not even a little. I hid behind the "Jaime is still here and we invited Dad to dinner too" excuse. Jaime is only here once a year, so I think that part was legit.
The truth is that I hate ironing. Hate. It. My husband likes ironing and even uses spray starch when he has the chance. But he learned pretty quickly that I hate ironing so much that it was worth it to have the dress shirts laundered and pressed professionally rather than wait for me to get to it.
I'm not sure where this started. It's not as if I was made to slavishly iron as a child or something. It's just SO tedious and because you are just going to put the clothes on, the are going to wrinkle right away. It's a chore that you undo as quickly as you do.
I'll try again next week. I usually have an ironing party once every few months when I really need my nicer clothes. Maybe I can get into a routine where I do a little every week rather than save it all for the "party".
Wednesday: I mended.
Now, before anyone applauds, I mended stuff that got ruined nearly a year ago. Lance crashed about 15 minutes into the Twilight Criterium of the Gateway Cup which is held during Labor Day weekend. He broke his collarbone, as injury he recognized immediately because it was the same collarbone he had broken a few years before. And I had that moment of race wife ESP and when the announcer said "crash in turn 3", I knew it was my Lance. "The Other White Lance", as my mom used to call him.
We spent the evening in a downtown St Louis ER, awaiting our turn behind the GSWs and car accidents. Lance was kind enough to sit by the crazy man so I didn't have to. Our token black friend came to see how Lance was and realized he really has become white after all these years and lacked the "cred" to sit in the waiting room. (BTW, Tim would laugh if he read this and recalled that night.)
Unfortunately, Lance didn't heal well and ended up having to have surgery in December to plate the bones. The recovery was slow and painful. He's still having some odd pain, especially in crummy weather.
The items I mended needed way less attention and yet it took me a year. The jersey itself was basically just really scuffed and had a few holes rubbed into it courtesy of the pavement. All I could really do was stitch around the holes in order to keep them from growing. He can at least train in the jersey, even though it's really not race worthy. The Craft base layer was simple to repair because I am the one who cut it. The ER folk always want to slice into your kit and you have to stop them and demand that your wife cut your kit off of you so she can salvage it. After all, the kit is expensive and isn't covered by insurance! A good little '50's wife like me can salvage your kit if you let HER be the one to cut it off you!
So that's my Wednesday. I did my husband's mending. And then I rewarded myself by working on a couple of aprons.
Thursday? Churn is traditional but I'm turning "churn" into "shop". We don't need groceries at all. In fact, we don't need anything at all. Oh, wait, we do need baby spinach. And chocolate chips so I can "Bake on Saturday".
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Wash Day
My first "Wash on Monday" was a bust. There were a couple of reasons for this.
1) Because of having Kenda Procycling (presented by Spinergy) at our house for the weekend of races in Downers Grove, I had to launder nearly every towel and sheet set in the house. I never even got to washing clothing because of all the linens.
2) It was rainy and then muggy and then rainy so I couldn't put anything on the clothesline. I use the clothesline in the backyard nearly exclusively during the spring, summer and fall, but I can't use it when the weather is bad. It needs to be breezy at the very least and preferably sunny too.
It could have been worse, of course. I could have been washing down by the creek with a washboard the way the women who wrote the rhyme did their washing. I could be making my own soap.
Speaking of which, several friends of mine DO make their own laundry soap. I have been thinking that once I master this whole chores of the week rhyme that maybe I'll branch out into stuff like that. I'm not entirely convinced that homemade laundry detergent will work as well as the big orange bottle of Tide, but it might be fun to give it a shot. One thing I will NOT try, though, is hand washing anything. Homemade soap is one thing. Using the clothesline just makes good environmental sense. But hand washing? That's taking it too far!
Iron on Tuesday is coming up next. This should be interesting as I usually iron about once a quarter and have a bit of a backlog to catch up on.
Friday, August 14, 2009
Rhyme Time
I can't remember exactly when I started thinking about it. I think maybe it was when I saw the Julie/Julia movie commercial for the umpteenth time or read an article about the storyline. The story is that Julie decides to cook her way through Julia's cookbook and blog about it. For whatever reason, I thought about blogging about sewing but I don't sew quite enough for that. From there I free-associated to some sort of "structure" (like a cookbook) I could use as the framework for a blog. And from there I free-associated to the old "Wash on Monday" rhyme.
Wash on Monday
Iron on Tuesday
Mend on Wednesday
Churn on Thursday
Clean on Friday
Bake on Saturday
Rest on Sunday
I am pretty sure I first heard this in Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prairie books. I thought I'd see if I could find the origin of it, which I have not exactly been able to do. However, rhymes.org did introduce me to an old English version which is as follows:
Wash on Monday
Iron on Tuesday
Bake on Wednesday
Brew on Thursday
Churn on Friday
Mend on Saturday
Go to meeting on Sunday
And so begins my task of reorganizing my life to follow this age-old pattern. I don't know if it will work better than my current routine, but there must have been some reason women did it this way for hundreds of years. Hopefully, I'll find out why they did this. Or I'll find out why we all stopped bothering with this structure. Maybe it doesn't fit well in the modern world.
I've opted to use the first and more familiar version of the rhyme for a couple of reason. The primary reason is that I haven't come up with a good substitute for "Brew on Thursday". For churn, I will substitute "shop". I do plan to make butter at some point, but I don't see it being a weekly event.
I picked "Wednesday Girl" because I like "mend" the best of the items on the list. That said, using "Wednesday Girl" could cause some confusion if you are aware of the rhyme about a person's disposition based on the day they were born. Here it is:
Mondays child is fair of face
Tuesdays child is full of grace
Wednesdays child is full of woe
Thursdays child has far to go
Fridays child is loving and giving
Saturdays child works hard for his living
And the child that is born on the Sabbath day
Is bonny and blithe, and good and gay
I don't want my blog to be about woe. I was actually born on a Thursday, but I don't like the idea of "far to go" or of churning.
So Wednesday it is.... Wednesday Girl stitching things together. The past and the present and the future. Hopefully, it all comes out in the wash.
Wash on Monday
Iron on Tuesday
Mend on Wednesday
Churn on Thursday
Clean on Friday
Bake on Saturday
Rest on Sunday
I am pretty sure I first heard this in Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prairie books. I thought I'd see if I could find the origin of it, which I have not exactly been able to do. However, rhymes.org did introduce me to an old English version which is as follows:
Wash on Monday
Iron on Tuesday
Bake on Wednesday
Brew on Thursday
Churn on Friday
Mend on Saturday
Go to meeting on Sunday
And so begins my task of reorganizing my life to follow this age-old pattern. I don't know if it will work better than my current routine, but there must have been some reason women did it this way for hundreds of years. Hopefully, I'll find out why they did this. Or I'll find out why we all stopped bothering with this structure. Maybe it doesn't fit well in the modern world.
I've opted to use the first and more familiar version of the rhyme for a couple of reason. The primary reason is that I haven't come up with a good substitute for "Brew on Thursday". For churn, I will substitute "shop". I do plan to make butter at some point, but I don't see it being a weekly event.
I picked "Wednesday Girl" because I like "mend" the best of the items on the list. That said, using "Wednesday Girl" could cause some confusion if you are aware of the rhyme about a person's disposition based on the day they were born. Here it is:
Mondays child is fair of face
Tuesdays child is full of grace
Wednesdays child is full of woe
Thursdays child has far to go
Fridays child is loving and giving
Saturdays child works hard for his living
And the child that is born on the Sabbath day
Is bonny and blithe, and good and gay
I don't want my blog to be about woe. I was actually born on a Thursday, but I don't like the idea of "far to go" or of churning.
So Wednesday it is.... Wednesday Girl stitching things together. The past and the present and the future. Hopefully, it all comes out in the wash.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
