Save like Nana did. She watches watches over the affairs of her household.
This verse actually goes "she watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness." Prov 31.27 How I love Proverbs!
My friend Patsy ends every post with "She looketh well to the ways of her household." Her blog is A Working Pantry. Whatever era we live in wisdom is the same. Everything I have come to realise about Mum and Nanas work and what it must have been like for my Great Grandmothers leaves me in wonder.
Imagine living through Epidemics, two world wars, the Great Depression, other wars our countries joined in... imagine having to wait weeks for news or letters that might let your know if your sons or brothers were alive... imagine housework before washing machines and vacuum cleaners! Also I think of how houses were small and families were big. Imagine washing day! Nana was the youngest of of 11. She was so small they brought her home from hospital in a shoe box lined with cotton wool. Her head fitted inside a tea cup. Nan told me of many of her childhood adventures when I was little. They lived out on a farm on dry land and caught a horse and buggy into school. I have thought so much about what their life must have been like and all they had to do to survive.
Think of all the things a household encompasses. From the furnishings and linens to the meals and clothing, the health and welfare of each member of the family. There are too many things to list. Yet Nan was on top of it as was Mum. So many things we took for granted from clean sheets to beautifully packed lunch boxes were work, almost work no body notices until no one does it!
The Proverbs woman considered her home, garden, provisions/pantry, clothing and was prepared and ready for a storm or long cold winter. It is easy to read these words without imagining what exactly did that involve? Having a well stocked pantry in a world with no supermarkets! This also would vary with where we live, our climate and what we can grow, good times and war times...
Mel shared with me something I have never forgotten. It proved that how a woman watching well to the ways of her household could make the most incredible difference. I will re post Mel's story...
This story just makes me realise how much the role of the older woman helping the younger woman is worth. There is just so much wisdom here. I think the lessons for me is how wise choices are going to affect GENERATIONS. Nan had been through such times and they knew the importance of wise choices and watching carefully over their households. It is both sobering and beautiful at the same time.
Watching carefully.... over the food in the fridge, the things the household is needing, clothing or new shoes that are needed, items the pantry is low on, produce that needs to be harvested, good deals, the pregnant cows in the paddock! So much watching... but so many savings from doing things in a timely manner and taking advantage of opportunities.
As we start a new week I have been thinking about good choices to make with the time ahead of me. I have no massive projects for a change! I can concentrate on looking well to the ways of my household as Nana did and I am so inspired by Mel's Grandmother. xxx
Dear Annabel,
ReplyDeleteThank you for reposting the story from Mel. I remember when it was posted the first time and how I took it to heart in our household. Now I have attained the age of being the advisor to my children and my nieces as they raise their children, as my sister passed away too soon 3 years ago and we all miss her terribly. I know that is what she would want me to do in her place. Every few days I check to see on the internet what might be in short supply in the coming days or year and make a note to stock up on the things we can use. Thanks again for this series . Cookie
This is so helpful, my Nan was amazing lady and if anyone turned up at meal time she always feed them. Meat was cut up and she would pop it into a Yorkshire puddings. Her pantry was always stocked and as a child I played shop with it, without knowing I learnt how to keep stock organised. In the front room was a sideboard and one side was her Christmas and birthday food. All year she would buy bits and save them in the sideboard. How I wish I could chat with her now. Nan was a loving and kind lady. Thank you Annabel.Denise
ReplyDeleteAll timely advice since the world is still not right and we need to take notice and keep on doing what we are doing to be ready for whatever is to come. Over the weekend we had our oldest son's family come from another state on short notice to attend a funeral. I was so glad to be able to get up Saturday morning after a late night text the night before and get right to preparing food to feed us all. If I had had to go out and do a big shop before I would not have had time to get ready for their visit.
ReplyDeleteLately I have been thinking of my grandfather who never thought 'I can't do that'. In his early 30's he bought a house on the side of a mountain for his family. There was no garage so he set about blasting out a garage in the mountain side at the road level. He also blasted out a tunnel that connected to the basement of the house in case they needed a safe place from a storm or something else since this was in the middle of WWII. Can you imagine taking on such a task? A few weeks ago my Aunt sent me pictures of that garage which is still there 40 years after the house burned down. I often look at those pictures and think, if he could do that what can I do that seems huge and impossible?
My mother grew up during the depression and would tell us stories. No running water. Baths once a week on Saturday night. Wearing the same thing everyday all week and hoping you didn’t fall in something disgusting on Monday. No electricity so laundry was hard hard work. Hauling and boiling water to fill the tub. Washing cleaner stuff first because you used the same water for all the loads. Winter was especially tough but my grandfather built a shed to hang the drying up in.
ReplyDeleteI grew up with a wringer washer that stood in the kitchen so mom could fill it from the kitchen sink and drain it there also. No clothes drier until I was 9 years old. Clothes hung outside in good weather and on clothes racks around the house in winter. Mom started working outside the home when I was 4 so laundry had to be done on Saturday with everything else. I learned to help around the house and can food at an early age.
I know we grew up poor but because on my parents hard work I never knew it until later in life. We always had clean clothes and food on the table. At 12 I began working in the berry and bean fields to earn money. I would buy the things I needed for school. Needless to say we didn’t get into much trouble when school was out. We were up at 5:30 to catch the berry bus so we were in bed early. In our area kids are no longer allowed to work in the agricultural fields that young. So many are bored or on their devices all the time like my own grandchildren. No wonder they don’t want jobs later in life. They have never learned to work. Hmm…there is my soapbox showing. Nancy in Vancouver, WA
Wise and prudent post. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteI love this series. I have, often, thought about all of the very hard work our ancestors had to do to survive. They were so much stronger than we are today. We have become weak, very weak, in comparison. Thank you Mel and Annabel for sharing.
ReplyDeleteLove and hugs,
Glenda
Annabel, thank you for the mention! I delight in your 'save like nana did' posts, they have so much wisdom in them. I literally dissect each and every one to see what I can apply to my life, it's part of that 'looking well to the ways of your household' mentality.
ReplyDeleteThis is not a time for being prideful regardless of our ages, we need to stay busy learning everything we can that will help our families through these difficult times. Even when we don't have money, we can still learn, it all adds up and comes together for the better of our family.
Thank you, Annabel, for another lovely post!
Much food for thought here ... we will be visiting a 90-yr-old relative soon. I wonder if she feels like talking about this topic.
ReplyDeleteThank you for publishing Mel's story again. I remember it from the first time and it was certainly helpful when Covid hit.
ReplyDeleteAlthough my parents eventually had a basement full of food, this wasn't the case when I was growing up. They didn't think they had the need, or the money, and for sure they didn't have a place to put it! However, my in-laws were very instructive. They had a freezer full of wild game, bought food by the case and did some canning. This was in the back of my mind when I was 23 years old and my husband was in graduate school and we had an epic 48 inch snowfall. We were stranded for days. Fortunately, I'd done my grocery shopping two days before, so we weren't going to starve. This was at a time when I usually had an egg and half a bottle of ketchup left from the previous shop! I vowed we would always have food in the house. Thus began my efforts to build a pantry--small at first--and I learned to can from in-laws. I bought a freezer as soon as we were settled in our first home. I am not a prepper by any means, but I didn't even have to buy dry beans and toilet paper when Covid hit. Over the years, during weather events (never 48 inches of snow again), periods of unemployment, illness/hospitalizations, etc., we have never wanted for food or anything we truly needed.
Best wishes to Annabel, Mel and all of the Bluebirds!
--Maxine aka mikemax
Dear Annabel, this post reminds me of my Grandmother and Mother and gives me courage for the future. When I feel fear or anxiety for the hard days ahead I always raise my head, straithen my back and think I am the daughter and great daughter of amazing women! And then pray God for help. Because even if my Granny was working the field for the comunist agricultural organization and paid miserably, a young widow with 4 children and keeping a nice house and gardens at home as well she did not lose her femininity, her smile and a good word for everybody. She was ironing in the evening our handkerchieves for the next day at school, she kept pelargoniums on the windowsill in old tins or plastic buckets and always found time to caress the dog or the cat, to feed the pigs and chickens and to teach us a foreign language, little poems and good jokes. She taught us songs, how to sew and embroider and how good is to share with others. My Granny was a good taylor and made her elegant dresses for Sunday church and she sow us very pretty dresses, too. My Mum was more of a fighter. She was working in a factory with wood, nails and hamer and she was very proud to be strong and independent. She wore short denim skirts or jeans and we were listening good music: The Beatles, Elvis, The great French and Italian music of the '60-'70. She raised me well, taught me to make fire as we had to make one for every meal (we had just a stove) and we cooked and ate what we had, joking that it is so good, the king would lick his fingers. But it was very good, she was an excellent cook. She was an excellent knitter and we used to unpick old jumpers to make something new and we were knitting in the evening in front of the TV without looking at the needles ...So, being raised by them I am so glad we can stretch what we have, not waste anything and being very mindful of what we use and what we buy. It is not deprivation in any way, just a practical approach to any meal, any recipe, any harvest, any good deal on food, toiletries, clothes, etc. For example, doing the stock check on the washing detergent, I realized that we bought so well on a few occasions that it was over two and a half years that we had last bought detergent for the washing machine. I always look ahead to what I need to hunt some good prices on that item or something to get instead or do without. I am walking on memory lane and it is past midnight here, so good night to everybody. Many good wishes from far away . Laura_s_world from Romania
ReplyDeleteWell said, thank you for posting Mel’s comments. Hilogene in Az
ReplyDeleteThank you, Annabel for sharing Mel's post. And thank you Bluebirds for sharing memories. My grandparents had few memories to share from The Great Depression. But I was fortunate enough to get my hands on books and articles when I was a new bride on how to live frugally. We had to put our heads together and plan, plan, plan when we were expecting our first child. I wanted to be with my babies and take care of them myself! Bless my husband for working hard to provide all these years!
ReplyDeleteGod honored our resolve. And all our kids are happy, hard workers.
Blessings, Leslie
My mother used to put a bar of soap in each drawer to keep the moths away and to scent the clothing. Perhaps it was a nod to her depression and ww2 childhood. Neither of my sets of grandparents endured unemployment in the depression so they were fortunate but they would have known many not so lucky.
ReplyDeleteMy mom was a young child during the Great Depression. Her Grandparents owned a Dairy Farm in Oregon. They produce all their own food, the only item they bought was canned Pineapple. The Aunts made all their clothing. Between the Grandparents and parents garden. They never wanted for anything. They even bottled Rootbeer. Her favorite memory was the surrounding farmers would yodel to their cows to come in at night. The sound would bounce off the hills back and forth like music. She said “ my family was so productive, I never knew their was a Depression.”
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this post! The future can be scary or we can face it with reassurance that others before us survived and lived to tell about it. My grands were all young marrieds during the depression…hard times living in the Great Dust Bowl of Kansas/Colorado. My granny s lasting words were make due until the good times come, keep a list of what needs to be fixed, replaced etc. then when extra monies to come pull out that list and take care of business Wise words we ve lived by
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