I'm not modern

 No, I'm not modern, I don't want to be.

It's not that I want to live in the past, it's just that I feel that the revolution of the 60' robeded us from so many good things.

The tendencies were not nice, in the mental field and in aestethics.

                         

Look at the clothes, for instance. Remember how people had nice clothes till the middle of the sixties.

Remember the 30's, the 40's.

 And the 50's. And the begining of the 60's.

From there things went down.

I know we had some things nice in the end of the 80' and on the 90', some very nice, but in the whole, we lost so much.

The mentality. From being a good thing for women to stay at home, people, most of them, began thinking that it would be best towork outside.

I'm not saying that is wrong to do it, I always did, it's just that I don't think that staying at home women are less interesting than the ones who work, most time is quite the opposite.

The morals. With the passing decades things got lost, even if there is still a remnant who follow God sent rules.

I long for a return to the good times and I do believe that it will happen.

But for now, I prefer to do what I can and I try to live in the old ways. I don't mean renouncing to techologic advances, that is a thing that I like. Why not? But I am old fashioned and I like so much to be that way.

Partying at

Costal Bohemian

A mess in the kitchen ?

Just look to that image. Don't we feel like that, in the end of the day, so many times?

We make dinner, everybody eats and then rests and we look at all the mess and feel so tired to take care of the kitchen.

Never mind. You would expect me to say now: 

- just engage everybody to help because you are not a slave; 

- you did already all that work making the dinner, now it's time to rest and let them do the cleaning;

- you can't let the kitchen like that, if they don't help, do it yourself

- don't go to bed with a messy kitchen

- God forbid to have a house like that

- and so on.

But now let's think: it's just to put things in the washer, so why to have a war because nobody helps? It's better to do it ourseves and in a minute it's done and everybody will be happy. Then you will have a tidy and clean kitchen, a happy faced family and you too will have some rest.

We must give thanks for having a house with a kitchen and food and family and a living room where to go and talk with your family and watch some television or a film or series.

- But I haven't a washer (for several reasons) and it's so much work.

Ok, then you begin, wash everything and let it to dry. Then you have two choices: either you put it way in the morning after being drying all night, which is ok, or someone will help you.

And clean the countertops, for some the sink it's everything, for me it's the countertops.

We don't need to be perfect, what we need is to live in peace. Do what you feel it's better and remember that you haven't to prove anything to anybody, just do what is needed for you to feel well.

- Oh, well, I have no energy at all in the evening, I just can drag myself to the sofa and rest. 

Well, now I will give you an advice that will raise a lot of eyebrows: do it in the morning if you know that you will have lots of energy then. Never mind what other people think and say.

Wake up earlier, go to the kitchen, shut the door so nobody will hear the noises. Put things in the dish washer or wash it by hand. Dry it and put it in the cup board. Clean the countertops. Sweep the floor.

Now look: isn't your kitchen so nice? Don't you feel well and victorious? And powerful? And full of energy !

And the day is beginning, the morning is such a wonderful time. And you have a nice, clean kitchen.

Now you begin to hear you children and husband waking up to a nice and tidy house. And all that begins with a tidy kitchen.

It's so good to have a home and a family. Thanks be to God.

Partying at Homestead Blog Hop, County Road and Modern on Monticello

You are not behind

Talking of homemaking I had been in a roller coaster for years: sometimes things went well, sometimes they didn't.

Even being a working outside woman with four children everything went well - or pretty close - till I had a change in my working times and everything went down the drain.

Add to the mixture several depressions along the years. Do I need to say that I still struggle ? But I have good news, I'm getting better and better.

Now I try to remember several times a day that Flylady says that there is no such thing as falling off the wagon. Jump in where you are, she says, you are not behind ! And do you know something ? She is right.

My house is getting better and better and I am too.

If this house - that is your real house and your body, in and out - is in need of a good tidying, don't feel down, just jump in. You are not behind !

I saw a post I did years ago when I was looking back to some goals and difficulties I had and I must say some are done and others I still struggle with.

Let's see them:

- To get up at 6.15

Oh, well, I don't need it anymore now that the girls have grown, no babies anymore and they help with their clothes and all so I don't need to get up that early.

Don't I ? That's why the clothes are piling to be folded and put away, not to mention other chores in the house.

So I will now have again that goal of getting up early and have some work done before going to work.

Maybe not waking up at 6.15 for now, later but not late and trying to get up a little earlier bit by bit till reaching the most convenient hour - and maybe that hour is not 6.15.

Even so, the "she rises when is still night" is still very important to me.

- To fold 40 pieces of clothing everyday

Just let us aim to 20 and we will see how things go.

- To put away those folded clothes everyday instead of leaving it in the basket.

Very good goal, I must say. I do like to do the laundry, to wash it, to put it on the line, to pick it up and, sometimes, to fold it. To put away is my struggle. I must work on it. Again.

-Declutter the Laundryroom everyday a little bit.

Major problem, the laundryroom, for years. Some time ago, and I mean just months ago, I managed with the help of my eldest, to have the dreaded laundryroom done. But you know what? Things are not anymore as good as they were. I really must do some work there. Again.

- Pray the Rosary everyday

That is very important ! I always prayed the Rosary but I must say that some days went on without it. Not good as Our Lady in Fátima said to pray it everyday.

Do you know what? I now pray the Rosary everyday without failing a single day ! This is going for months and months now ! And I can see the results. Do you doubt it ? Ok, just try it and you will see.

Most people just have things for granted and there is no much prayer in their life. I always had and I'm having more and more prayer in my life, thanks God.

I can see that I still struggle with some of those problems but I'm very pleased to see that on some others I am better.

And what about the others that I didn't mention here ? I jumped in and I'm getting better and better.

Yes, I'm not behind !

Partying at :
Dishing it & Digging it at Angie the Freckled Rose
Amaze me Monday at Dwellings
Inspiration Monday at Refresh Restyle
Inspire me Tuesday at A Stroll Thru Life
Home and Garden Thursday at A Delightsome Life

A fridge story

So now I will tell you about my fridge, or I should say fridges.

Years ago we moved. Our fridge was old and small and we needed a new one.
There I went to chose one and I came home very happy with a nice fridge that was much bigger, pretty and new. And it worked very well.

Years later, not many, we moved again and the new house had a fridge already, the kind that we look at it and it sembles a armário but we open it and it's a fridge and a freezer.
I didn't want at all to loose my old new fridge and my husband said that we should keep it because in a big family two fridges and two freezers would not be too much. And he was right.

Now, many years later, the one that was already in the house decided to not be cold inside at all. A man to fix it was called and he proclaimed that the money to make an old fridge and freezer work would be better spent in a new one. We agreed.

Now enters the one that we brough with us. He still works well but we made a big decision and some not yet done decisions are to be made.
I will explain.
We went to the shop to see new fridges as the one that stopped working and realized that for the price of one like that we would have another very good, big and not so expensive that would not be inside a armário. We decided then to buy a normal one -we stil didn't do it - and transform the armário where is the old one that must go to the rabbish. It wil be a proper armário. Yay ! I'm really happy with my decision.
We will keep the old one and buy a new one just not one inside a armário. Ah, that empty space transformed in a armário. I'm already thinking on the big help it will be because it will be a place, as Winnie the Pooh said, to put things in.

Then I began thinking: what about, instead of having two fridges, if we had just one but big ?

Oh, well, I couldn't decide yet. I will tell you when I do.

Adventures in the laundry room

This is my old washer and I will tell you her story.

When we married and later when we had our older children in their younger years, we had a washer, as everybody does, no big deal in that. The problem is that with time she became making frequent visits to the man who repaired washers.

Then, tired of those visits, we decided that was time to buy a new one. My husband decided that we had to have one that was a dryer at the same time as it would save space. So we bought two in one.

It has quite a lot of years now and we had to call the repair man some four times and another: the first ones were because with the years going by either was the dryer that didn't dry ( it happened only once), or that the tube where the water went to the washer was dry and the other was that it was the tube where the water went out, which it happened the same thing to the other one. Another time was that the rubber in the oppening was too dry already and leaked a little water.
Then, and this time was much worse, the mecanism that was the heart of the machine decisions and programs was tired and stopped to work - which I understood as it was already getting old.
The repair man was called and he deliberated that it was such a good machine, a good brand (Zanussi) and we should repair it instead of thinking on buying a new one. Well, ok, we accepted.

Now, some two or three years past, it stopped working. It began with a big bang and the basket was a bit loose but it still worked. Now it stopped.
The repair man was called again and he said that, to be honest, he had to tell me that it's better to buy a new one because that repair would be too expensive to an old washer.

Now that I must buy a new one I decided that I don't want a special brand at all, I only want one that works and is not fussy and no way of buying a dryer at all as we have plenty of sun and we hardly use the drier. That's final !

I will keep you posted on next episodes.

Ah, Saturday...

If you read my blog you know that I keep talking about Saturdays. A good deal of posts are about that blessed day of the week.

Days in the week I like most:

Monday.
Why ? - are you wondering. Is that I like so much to work outside that I'm happy to go back to the stress of getting ready in the morning, do lunch boxes, yell at the children to be ready and fly off the door so we will not be late ? No. It's because it's a new beginning and I feel the hope of being better this time.

Wednesday.
Ah, it's the middle of the week, such a good time, when I go home in the end of the day I know that the following day will be so close to the weekend.

Friday
Ah, Friday!... The day after is Saturday, I will not go to work, I will be home with my family, I will delight myself with the pleasure that is to stay at home. I will... Yes, all the world will be in my reach when it's Saturday because I will not go to work.
And I wonder and dream and plan...As if would be no end for Saturday.

Saturday
At last ! At last ! Ah, blessed day !
In the early morning I will get up and spend a good time flying the internet, I will be on Flickr a good deal of time, I will spy what is going on in Facebook and if I can I will even go to Pinterest.
Then I will get ready for the day. Oh, the endless possibilities that lie ahead. Not to be outside, mind you, I am outside my home all week long, Saturday is the day to celebrate domesticity, to be happy at home and pretend I am a stay at home woman. And I am, at least for this day and next one.

Sunday
It's the truly blessed day. Day to go to Mass and not to work much in the house because it's rest day, Our Lord's day. I can just stay in the sofa and read, watch movies - notice the plural, movies. Or series.
Life is good.
The problem is that the day after I must go back to work and that part is not so good - even if that work is good but not so much good as staying at home.
Never mind, Monday is good to make plans and try to be better - a week at a time.

On Kitchens

One thing I am sure, I know what I want and I like about kitchens. Each person has his own style and likes so this is not a critic to anybody. At all. Each person has the right to like what they like and want what they want. It's their house and it's their kitchen. But today I will talk about mine. The kitchen, I mean, the one I have and the one I dream about, the one I want to have.

First. I don't like soft lines in the kitchen, you know those floating lines like someone in a painting of Chagal, as if they were a kind of ghost or smoke. I like sturdy kitchens. I like a kitchen that we look at and feel safe, we feel strong - the kitchen and us. Well, that doesn't mean I must have a farm, a country kitchen, those really sturdy, I just don't want cupboards and countertops with soft lines, I want to look at them and feel strength. 

Then I need life in the kitchen. I keep seeing wonderful, beautiful kitchens all over the internet who are so nice and tidy they look they are in display in a shop to be sold. No one lives there. No, my kitchen has to be lived in, with signs of people, even if they are not absolutely tidy. I don't mean messy, just lived.

So I like strong lines on the doors of the cupboards, granite or marble countertops. I like wooden colour doors but I accept that a white kitchen lights up my soul and makes me feel well, wanting to live.

I need some strong colours to complement the white: greens, oranges and yellows. Or maybe red and yellow - even more lively, a kind of vintage even. Or blue and pink. Colours.

And wood accents, no doubt.

I do like my kitchen but it needs some improvement, I don't want to change it, just to make it better.
As I'm getting more and more out of my depression, I feel the need and the strength to live, to really live and my house is my world where I want to live fully.

Oh, life is good, let's live it !

...

I'm at this Parties:
Tweak It Tuesday @ Cozy Little House
Share Your Style @ Northern Nesting
The Scoop @ Cedar Hill Farmhouse

Cleaning fridges

Oh, well, my fridges were in good and overdue need of a good cleaning and the freezer of defrosting.

Yes, I have two because when we bought this house there was already a big, for European standards, fridge in the house but I had bough one, in the previous house, some time before.

What to do, I thought and asked my husband, very sad with the idea of getting rid of my new fridge. Oh, we will keep both , he said, as we are a big family - again, for European standards, mainly for this corner of Europe.

So we kept them both.

I like that idea very much because it's so good to have plenty of room for everything. The problem is when the time to defrost arrives. So I delay it. Procrastinator as I am I always find a good way to procrastinate about it the most I can - till the days when we can hardly close it because we have so much ice in it that is more a box of ice than a freezer and it's difficult to keep things in and close the door.

So...we abstained to buy fridge food the most we could so it was possible to move everything from one to the other and clean it.

So I did it and also the fridge. Everything clean.

But then... I though, oh, no, it's not at all like so many people in those blogs I see where fridges are so neat and beautiful with everything so well organised in pretty containers.

Ok, never mind, it's clean and nice with some containers I had previously.

I will not give my fridges as an example on how to keep a perfectly organised fridge and freezer. But mine are clean and tidy and that is good enough.

Did I say I cleaned both fridges and both freezers? Well, I did and I am very happy about it.

I know my blog will never be an inspiration for people who want to have a perfect home but it will be good enough to inspire people to cope with a non perfect home.

Still, it's my home and for me it's the best place on earth !

...

And now I'm going to this Party:

Amaze Me Monday@Dwellings The Heart of Your Home

The bliss of Saturdays

There's a thing on Saturdays that make me feel happy.

I work full time and even if it's a good, peaceful job, it doesn't compare to being at home. To be a stay at home woman is the dream of my life - well, one of them.

Most of my dreams have come true: to grow up and being a wife and mother, to have my own grown up home (being married) are some of my dreams and truly the most important ones.
But living here it means to work full time and I did.Not because what the others would say if I didn't, it's just a normal thing that grows with us and it's so normal as going to school.

But  don't want it anymore. I had enough. So I dream on having an earlier retirement. This moment it looks like to wanting the moon but I will not despair because one of these days ( years) it will  come a law that will allow me to retire before the extreme date of retirement. It must be !

Meanwhile I play the full time housewife on Saturdays and Sundays and on holidays. I even can have a free day each month providing I do those hours through the month. Ah, on those days I do play house.

Today is Saturday and I can't stop dreaming about all those chores I will do in the house.
I can already feel the smell of those clothes freshly ironed, the light of the morning sun through the kitchen window and the voice of my children waking up happy because it's not school day and they can stay at home - like their mother, they like to stay at home.

The blessing of having a house and being able of giving thanks for it.
Thanks God for everything He gives us.

All clean and tidy

I wish...(sigh)

All clean and tidy is the title of this picture and the dream I have for my home.

I work all day long, all week so I keep dreaming about Saturday, the wonder day when I will, at last, clean and tidy.
In the week days, as I arrive so tired of body and mind, I just do the bare things and look for inspiration for that wonderful day when I will be a stay at home wife and mom... And that day is Saturday.

So, to keep my spirit up, in the week I look for inspiration in those beautiful blogs written by amazing homemakers who can have their houses so clean and tidy, organized and beautiful.

I add blogs and blog to my ever growing list and when I am reading them I feel happy because I feel encouraged. I feel that even if I can't be as god as them, for sure I can be better than now.

I was thinking on add here a tiny list of my favourites on homemaking and organizing, but I can't. There are so many good ones.

If someone knows about a really good blog on organizing and/ or homemaking - one that is not in my list, that is - please tell me.

A site I follow, not a blog, is Flylady, I wonder if someone here knows her.
I found her years ago and things were going pretty well but I fell of the wagon twice and the second time it was a very big fall. First time it was when we moved, years ago. I recovered quite well after that and everything was getting better and better. Then...I had a depression and only now I'm having the strenght to go back to normality. It has been a slow wagon but each year has been better than the previous one. Last October I felt I really should try harder - and I am.
Some days are just a big fall, others go better.

I think now I'm ready to go (almost) in full steam.

On Rainy Days and Laundry

I wonder why, I like very much to do the laundry. I think it's  one of my favourites homemaking chores, or should I say, Missions.

I don't know about you, but I have a Laundry Plan, which makes all the work much easier.It's scheduled and I haven't to think about  it.

But  then, there it came a problem: the rain.

Now you are thinking why is the rain a problem.

First I must say that I like so much the rain and I can't stay longer without it but, on  the other side, being a homemaker makes me long for a whole week of sun.

And now you are thinking why this woman doesn't just put the washed clothes in the dryer? Or can it be that in her corner of the world there is no dryers? Yes, there are and, in fact, I have one and it works perfectly. Why the problem, then?

Oh, well, this woman who has a dryer likes to put her clothes in the line to dry. The little pleasure to see the cloths all in a row in the line and the pegs, the sun on them, the smell of washed clothes bathed by the sun...Pure poetry !

We are having unstoppable days of rain. Should I stay happy with it or should I go sad because I can't put my clothes on the line?

Well, better to find a compromise. I have a place to put small things to dry inside so I will wash just the little ones.

Oh, how life is easy after all, why we make a problem of it ?

Laundry, laundry, here I go.

Saturday happiness approaching

Saturday is approaching and, with it, the perspective of a happy time. You know, I am an outside home working woman, yes, full time ! So, to be happier, on saturdays I just think that I am full time house wife. Oh, happiness. So, today I am already dreaming on everything I will do on Saturday.

So I will dust

clean some windows

do the laundry: wash, put on the line, pick up, fold and put away



iron it

clean the refrigerator ( yes, again)

and do a lot of work in the kitchen including make a cake.

Well, to say the truth, I will do a million nice things around my house. This is just a tiny bit to give you an idea. 

Oh, happiness.

When is still night

I always thought that the wisdom in Proverbs 31:15 is a good advice for every homemaker and it has been a good source of inspiration for me.

There was times when I rose when it was really darkm still night but now I have been rising when the sun is born. 

To say the truth, in these last mornings it has been so dark, really night still.

Oh, it inspires me. And my house shows that inspiration doesn't stay still, it rather makes me move.

So I'm decided that from now on I will go back to the going to bed early and rising when is still night.

My home and family will apreciate it and I wil feel so good about it.

The Kitchen

I don't know why when I think of homemaking, of cleaning and tidying I always think on the Kitchen or Laundry. Well, maybe also on some Bedroom tidying.
As for today, I'm thinking of heading now to the Kitchen and make those counters and things on it sparkling.

As somebody has inspiration for that also? I have so... here I go.

The Laundry

Some years ago I found in a blog a Chalenge called  "21 Days Challenge to Becoming an Effective Wife".

It didn't mean that we had to come everyday at our blog and make a repport  of how well we were doing, we only had to say it every Monday.

I was reading what I posted about it then and realized that I still have the same problems.

Here it is the first post I made about it then:

Her Southern Charm is doing a 21 Days Challenge called 21 Days To Becoming an Effective Wife.

She says we must write about things we want to change and make a new habit in 3 weeks. So we must think on something that is really important to us and come here each Monday to tell about our progress – or not progress.

On April 5th we post about it also but not about the end of it, if we managed to accomplish something and reached our goal(s).

This comes very well and in the right time as I am strugling with some aspects of my life. They are things that are a part of my life but I’m falling off the wagon.

First of all, it’s laundry connected.
This a field of homemaking that I like sooo much. Nevertherless, as we are six and I work outside – yes, another thing to deal with in due time, God help me – I always have lots and lots of laundry to do. I must say I like veeeery much to wash, I like to put it on the line – when I am overwelmed my big girls help me – and I don’t mind , I quite like actualy, to take them out of the line. Folding, I don’t mind because I can do it seated down. Now it comes the big problem: put it away. I can’t stand it!

Well, now let’s beging the listing:

· Get up at 6.15.

I get up at 6,30 or 6,25 or – now – 6,20. I want to get up ealier. It was always important to me.
She rises when is still night.
It means a lot to me.

· To fold 40 pieces of clothes everyday.

· Put away those folded clothes everyday too.

If I fold it in the night I’m alowed to put away the next day but everyday I must take the baskets full of clothes upstairs and put them in their places.

· Declutter the Laundryroom, everyday a little bit.

It is so much in need of a bit of atenttion...

· Pray the Rosary everyday.

Now I must explain. I try to pray it everyday but as in a lot of things, sometimes the day is gone and I didn’t pray it completely.
By Rosary, I mean one thirth of it, as in portuguese Terço and in spanish Tercio, the five Mysteries of it not the fifteen.
Pray the Rosary everyday, Our Lady said in Fatima. I must

And then, some days after:

Days Challenge to Becoming an Effective Wife

This post was for Monday but, after I have tryed, I couldn't post any pictures, so I tried each day and now I gave up and here it is today.
In the 21 Days Challenge to Becoming an Effective Wife at Her Southern Charm, we must have some items that we want to improve in our life and come here every monday to tell about the progress - or not.
Here they are mine.

Get up at 6.15.
Done most of the days. Sometimes I get up some minutes later but in the whole, is quite good.

To fold 40 pieces of clothes everyday.
Put away those folded clothes everyday too.
Quite well to the part of folding but not the one to put away. Let's see if I can improve this week.

Declutter the Laundryroom, everyday a little bit.
Bad. Not big progess yet.

Pray the Rosary everyday.
Most days, done. I need to give more atention to Our Lady and Her Son through Her. Apart from the Three Hail Mary Devotion - everyday in my life since I was a child as my grandmother teached me - not much prayer.

Well, I hope to have more progress to report next monday.

---

Now I still fight with myself to have the Laundry done on time - there are always loads to wash, fold and above all to be put back in its place. I still need to declutter the Laundryroom and still there are days when I don't pray the Rosary in all the five decades.

Time to REALLY try to get on track !