A Short Note

I'm off for a couple of days. Comments moderation is on, I'll switch it back to normal on Sunday.

Dealing With Clutter

The third chapter of Home Comforts is dedicated to clutter. In it, Mrs Mendelson makes a tremendous discovery - Westerners generally tend to accumulate too much stuff which they don't need so that half of it is regularly thrown away while the other half clogs our homes and contributes to chaos and disorder. Say whatever you wish about minimalists, but some of their ideas are correct. We don't really need that many things and many a mother could probably stay home or at least, cut on her working hours if only we somehow got rid of rampant consumerism.

Clutter problem has reached such proportions that we now have books and magazines (and blog posts:) on how actually to deal with it. Yet, as Cheryl points out, good habits can overcome it. She then goes into detail describing the broken-window theory, that is the idea that if you once allow yourself a small dereliction of duty to uphold law and order, whether in your own household or in the neighbourhood, it will cause a chain reaction of increased chaos and antisocial behaviour.

Simply staying neat and doing the chores come hell or high water prevents a downward spiral...and this is how things were done until the middle of the twentieth century. (H.C., Scribner 1999, p.32 - emphasis mine). Mrs Mendelson conveniently avoids answering the question what it was that prompted such a change in attitudes towards housekeeping (of course, we all know the answer),  so the solution she offers is to relax the standards while still maintaining some semblance of order as having a place for everything, just not expecting that everything will be in its place all the time, if you know what I mean:)

It is actually a very good suggestion for modern busy households and she stresses that while our standards for toys and newspapers could be more relaxed, we should still maintain  strict order in the kitchen , bathroom and bedroom, as to do otherwise would be unhygienic and unsanitary (never leaving dirty dishes in the kitchen overnight is a very good rule which is, unfortunately, often broken nowadays and don't let me get started about some folks' laundry habits which are more fitting for a slum than for a decent middle class neighbourhood).

Cheryl also warns against accumulating junk in remote corners of the house and leaving it there, something we are all inclined to do, I'm afraid. She then adds that the only real manner to keep order in your home is to follow the old ways and stick to your routines and schedules whatever happens and in case of emergencies, to follow a basic schedule of providing "food, clean laundry, fundamental cleanliness" (p.33, idem) until you can get back to normal. The last piece of advice she offers, is to teach children to pick up after themselves, though she doesn't exactly go as far as saying that you need to teach the same to your husband.

As long as both work, yes, they both should pick up after themselves, but when one member of the household is a full time homemaker, I think she can cut her hard-working husband some slack...

Christmas At The White House

Including the Nativity scene:

Modern And Vintage Weapon Fair

My husband took me last weekend.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends!

Marriage Is A Real Thing

I found a very interesting article which in a rather sophisticated way argues about what I have felt for a very long time: namely, that marriage is something which exists on its own, like a thing or a being and to dissolve it is akin to committing a murder. Personally I have always thought about marriage as an institution, but I like the author's comparisons. As I'm getting older, I find myself rather agreeing with the Catholic point of view that a marriage can't be dissolved, only annulled.

The way most people, even those calling themselves Christians view marriage nowadays, treating it as something disposable at a whim of either spouse is downright scandalous, imo. I've read an article recently about a woman in UK who had left her husband and children for her African lover. People in comments wrote how she was a horrible mother but hardly a word about her betraying her husband. They even stated they could understand it!

The traditional Christian point of view is that the relationship between the husband and the wife is primary and more important than that of parents and children, after all, the kids will grow older and leave, but you are supposed to stay with your spouse till Death do us part! That's why the man wasn't allowed to divorce his wife if she couldn't have children or couldn't produce a male heir for the family. By allowing easy divorce we sacrificed the high position of a Christian wife for that of a concubine who could be kicked out for any reason. Of course, the same is true about women divorcing their husbands left and right and remarrying, something which Christian Bible calls adultery.

I'm not talking about really hard cases here and speaking of policy I'd allow divorce for certain transgressions, yet my point stands: marriage is the first institution divinely ordained and the way we treat it will bring judgement on our whole society.

Easy Dinner Ideas

One pot pasta.

Somehow this idea of hers was very controversial. Mine was made with onions, garlic, rasped carrots (and probably bell peppers but since the picture is from last week I forget) which were stir-fried first, then I added pasta, water, a jar of stewed tomatoes and a can of tuna. It tastes quite decent, but don't forget to stir while cooking so that your pasta gets equally cooked on all sides!

A Question For My American Readers

This morning I have been watching one of those homemaking videos I wrote about and the lady said they were using something like 3 kWh per hour when their heating system was on. I was like did I hear it good, because we use 3 kWh per day on average (yesterday it was only 2 actually). Of course, we heat with gas which is quite expensive,too; but still utility bills in the USA must be huge. Can anyone enlighten me about this issue? 

Something Lovely For In Your Home

I thought this blog misses something, for instance, a nice picture, like this one:

(Click on the photo to enlarge)

The little wooden tray with a moose, a pitcher and a candle holder is a present from someone. Aren't they cute?And though it's not exactly Christmas yet, I thought it's OK to start decorating for it a bit:) For those who don't know, God Jul apparently means Merry Christmas in Norwegian. Bought it at a Scandi Christmas market last week.