Positive Monday

So a new working week has begun, the one when I will hopefully finally be able to restore my household to pre-holiday condition. There is still some paperwork to be done, the Christmas cards to be arranged neatly, some extra cleaning to be performed etc etc.

It's snowing outside. If it keeps freezing we can go skating on Saturday. So far we have had snow only once this winter and I missed it. The return of winter brings me in a positive mood, so that for today I chose this piece of music:

Turkish March by Mozart



You'll probably remember it was played by Caroline Bingley in the 1985 BBC version of "Pride and Prejudice."

Sometimes people just need to lighten up a bit. It's easy to concentrate on world problems and to fall for the Doomsday predictions, when ít's mostly little things in life which matter, so here are some more YouTube clips to make you smile:


A Fat Cat Makes Himself Comfortable In A Box

And this very touching one makes you want to get a dog:

A Dog Welcomes Home Her Soldier

Have a nice Monday!

Sunday At Home

Allow me to introduce my cat, Frodo:

Frodo is a large tomcat who is nearly five years old. He comes from aristocratic parents with a pedigree, but his behaviour is anything but genteel. Actually, we should have called him Grishnakh instead, since Frodo in the book had rather pacifistic inclinations. Our Frodo's chief hobbies are fighting with other cats and eating, in this order. He spends his nights outside, and only comes home to eat and sleep, and to heal from his wounds. As for eating, he'll eat anything which distantly reminds food. He tries to eat matches and dry spaghetti, and is known to chew on hay, meant for my guinea pig. By some strange reason, he seems to be especially fond of cookies.

Today we finally got some nice winter weather, but despite the temperatures falling below the freezing point, the cat still went out at night. In the mornings he always sits in front of the house, waiting for us to open the door and let him in, and so here he is, sunbathing in the dining-room:

Personally I think he adds to the coziness of our home and matches my carpets well:) He probably thinks the same thing about us, but with cats, you never know.

The Mark Of Zorro

Zorro is a character which probably needs no introduction, but I still consulted Wikipedia and found out that Zorro was a creation of an American author by the name of Johnston McCulley and was likely based on several historical characters, and whose direct literary predecessor was Sir Percy Blakeney from the Scarlet Pimpernel. There have been numerous adaptations of the story, both in Europe and the USA. I think that all of us have watched the one with Antonio Banderas from 1998.

Since I'm a retro fan, the film I 'd like to talk about is the 1940s version called The Mark Of Zorro. There were both black-and-white and colour versions, the black-and-white one can be watched on YouTube:

The Mark Of Zorro

It is a nice film, and also a very funny one, and even my husband who normally dislikes old movies, enjoyed it. Zorro is played by Tyrone Power, who in my opinion, did a great job. Linda Darnell plays the wicked governor's niece who Zorro falls in love with, and Basil Rathbone co-stars as the governor's chief henchman, Captain Esteban (not sure how to spell his name properly). There is an epic swordfight in the movie between the two of them, but unfortunately I couldn't find a separate video of it on YouTube. If you are a fan of the swashbuckling genre and old-fashioned romance, then it is a film for you.

Good Character

"Fascinating Womanhood" by Helen Andelin is the book some people love to hate, yet I have found that it can be very helpful. Of course, like other books, it should be taken with a grain of salt, nevertheless, it does contain some good advice and timeless wisdom. In one of the chapters, Mrs Andelin discusses what qualities constitute a good character. I thought it a good idea to write a series of posts discussing each of them with my take on the issue.

The author starts with self-control, a quality which, unfortunately too many people nowadays totally lack. The dictionary defines self-control as "control over one's feelings" or "the power to hold back the expression of strong feelings" (Longman Dictionary of English Language and Culture, the edition of 1992). Webster's Encyclopedic Dictionary of the English Language (unabridged, the ed. of 1996) adds actions to feelings: "self-control (is) control or restraint of oneself or one's actions, feelings, etc"; and gives us a list of synonims: self-discipline, self-restraint, willpower, levelheadedness.

For the purposes of this post, I'll discuss control of one's feelings and one's actions separately. Control of one's feelings or self-restraint is what the British used to call "keeping a stiff upper lip", not letting it all hang out. Of course, we live in the times of reality TV in which people don't feel ashamed to tell the most private things about themselves to total strangers, and drag their family name through dirt by publicly complaining and even writing books dissing their close relatives and even parents. Especially in the case of parents, it breaks the commandment to honour your father and your mother. Also there are some things which should be kept private.

Literature gives us a good example of both self-restraint and the lack of it in Jane Austen's novel "Sense and Sensibility" where Elinor hides her feelings and keeps on doing what has to be done, while another sister, Marianne causes herself and others around her a lot of problems and nearly dies due to inability of practising self-control. In the beginning of the story, when the girls' father dies, Mrs Dashwood and Marianne keep on grieving and leave the management of family affairs to Elinor, while secretly thinking that she must be cold and insensitive, because she doesn't spend her days wallowing in misery and self-pity.

Helen Andelin states that self-control is necessary to manage one's life successfully, "to keep commitments, manage time and money, control thoughts and words, subdue appetites, school feelings, overcome temptations, and reach goals." (p. 207, the ed. of 1992 by Bantam Books). You can't live a successful life when you go all to pieces if something happens and let your emotions and feelings rule you. A person's actions should not be based on feelings alone, but rather on doing what is right and what should be done, which leads me to the second point: control of one's actions.

To control one's actions one should possess sufficient willpower, which can be trained. The book gives some suggestions on how to do it, mentioning prayer and fasting, demanding quotas of oneself and doing something unpleasant or difficult every day. I did a search on the internet and found the following article:

How To Strengthen Willpower

Now the website above is obviously geared to men, but I think their suggestions can be helpful for anyone. After all, the woman at home needs a strong willpower to be able to function properly and to fulfill all her duties, without an overseer telling her what to do. Being a housewife is comparable to being self-employed, and in the age of broadband internet there are various temptations and distractions present in your very own home. Which reminds me that I must be off making dinner! So till the next time...

Loki

I am still reading Nordic Myths and yesterday came to the chapter on Loki, who was a very interesting character. Originally he was considered the personification of fire and the spirit of life, later he was portrayed as a devil, and the king of lies and slander. Loki was married three times, his second secret marriage was to a very ugly giantess by whom he got three monsters as his children: Hel, the goddess of death, the terrible snake Iormungandr and the grisly wolf Fenris. His love adventures didn't actually stop at that, as the story tells us that he once turned himself into a mare and seduced the horse called Svadilfare by whom he got an eight-legged stallion called Sleipnir which became the favourite horse of Odin (those Vikings sure had perverted imaginations:).

In the book Loki's character is compared to that of Thor who is always serious in all his pursuits, while Loki sees the whole world as a joke and this habitual mocking of everything finally brings him on the wrong path. He loses all his love for goodness and becomes self-centered and evil. In the end, the gods tire of his mischief and punish him terribly, making one of his sons out of his third marriage kill the other one, then binding Loki with ropes, made out of his dead son's intestines. Later the ropes are turned into chains and thus Loki has to wait till Ragnarok when he will be finally set free to take part in the last battle and to be slain by Heimdall, one of Odin's numerous sons (whom Odin got from nine giant women simultaneously - don't ask me how it was possible!). 

As if this was not enough, a snake is put above Loki's head whose poison keeps dripping onto the unfortunate god's forehead causing him to swear and convulse in his chains (which, according to the myths is the actual cause of earthquakes). Here, however, Loki's third wife Sigyn comes into picture. She takes a cup and holds it above her husband's head and thus collects all the poison into it, which she faithfully keeps doing day and night, without rest or sleep, only going away to empty the cup.

There are more examples of faithful women in literature, such as Penelope who waited for Odysseus for about twenty years, but her husband, outside of little philandering was essentially a virtuous man, while the same certainly can't be said about Loki. There are lots of women who stay faithful to good husbands, but would you stay faithful to such a one as him?

Housework Is Important

Housework has a bad reputation these days. Supposedly it is drudgery, and something to be avoided at all costs. In real life though, you'll have to do at least some housework, if you don't want to live in a pigsty. As a housewife, I want my home to be clean, organized and cosy. I found out that having a schedule can be very helpful, as one does certain activities on certain days, so that it becomes a routine. You can then alternate the days with more and less intensive workloads. If there are schoolchildren in the family, the schedule has to be built around their school times, and it's probably better not to do too much during vacations, so there is more free time to do nice things with your kids. Just like any other job, the one of a housewife needs a lot of planning. If you have domestic help, it's easier if you decide beforehand what she is going to do next time she comes (unless she is a live-in or somebody who is present in your household the whole week, which is a different story). Ideally, the workload should be divided in such a way, that the housewife has some time during the day which she can devote to creative hobbies like reading or knitting, or for a friendly visit to the neighbour lady.

Here are some helpful resources:

Routines Can Relieve Stress

A Schedule Example

A Day In The Life Of A Housewife Part1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

The links above are meant as a suggestion, since every household is different, what's important though is to remember, that the housewife's job is essential to the well-being of her family, however small it may be, because she creates order out of chaos. And that is a very satisfying experience.

O Fortuna

Today being Monday, it's time for another classical music post, so here it is: O Fortuna, from Carmina Burana by Carl Orff:




I've seen it performed live but not by Andre Rieu. Here is the variant with lyrics in Latin, English and German. I hope you'll enjoy it just as much as I do.

Apple Jam

This week apples were on sale for the price of 0.99 cent per kilo, so  I decided to make apple jam. My Granny who is a very experienced homekeeper, always used to make it when I was a little girl, but I have never done it until recently. I simply got a craving for the thing, so I bought 2 kilos of apples and went to work:

The recipe on the package of jelly sugar calls for 1:1 proportion, but as apples are naturally rich in pectin, I used 1 kg of sugar for 2 kg of apples. I did have to cook it longer though, 12 minutes instead of 5:

Here is the end result:

 It tastes great, too, though rather sweet. I know because it's the second time I have made it this winter. Hopefully this summer will be better than the last one, so I'll be able to make some bramble jam, too!

Buying Clothes

I think it's important for a housewife to be well-dressed. If she is frumpy, not only she will project the bad image of her chosen occupation, but her self-esteem will suffer, too. For a woman to feel feminine, it's important to look well and to know it. Being well-groomed is a sign of class. This includes maintaining the healthy weight and taking good care of yourself. Why is it that every woman I know was glued to the telly when they were showing the wedding in the English Royal Family? It's not only because we women get sentimental if someone marries, or due to vulgar curiosity, but because of all those pretty dresses the ladies were wearing.

Of course, these dresses are rather costly and most people aren't rich upper class aristocrats and can't afford custom-made clothes, myself included. However, with years I have come to conclusion that while trying to save money ít's important not to fall into another extremity. namely buying cheap low quality stuff which falls apart after the first washing. It's generally a better idea to wait until the more expensive shops have big sales (they usually have them twice a year, in January and in the end of summer) and then search for bargains on brand name clothes. They normally fit better and wear longer.  Personally I feel inspired when I see a lady making an effort to look well, which is possible at any age:

(This is a photo of the Swedish Queen taken last year in Paris).