Victorians Were Right

I don't mean to say they were right about everything. In fact, there were some things they were definitely wrong about, but they were absolutely correct when talking about keeping a stiff upper lip.

The point is, sometimes it's good to talk about your problems, but nowadays folks are encouraged to talk about their problems all the freaking time! We are supposed to let everything hang out and to bare our souls to perfect strangers.

In my opinion, it's wrong on several levels: first, it teaches people to complain and feel themselves victims and to relish this feeling, second, it discourages privacy and encourages familiarity, and as we all know, familiarity breeds contempt; and finally, the worst thing about it all is the fact that once you let yourself go, once your self-control breaks down, it's often too difficult to get it back. Once you start feeling yourself a helpless victim you establish a pattern which is often nearly impossible to break.

Further on, I have never noticed that when you are miserable, talking about it helps. In fact, the more you talk of it, the more miserable you feel. I also don't get it when those suffering from some dangerous disease and their family members are encouraged to attend meetings where the experts will keep informing them about how much more worse it's going to become in the near future. But, I guess, to each its own. Apparently, misery really likes company:)

Good Morning, America

And my readers from all other countries, naturally. Though it's not morning over here in Western Europe. More like afternoon.

It doesn't really matter though as you favourite Weekly Housewife is with you today. I can't promise you daily, but weekly? One could always try.

We are going to start our day with some music. Originally published on Lydia Sherman's blog, this song is dedicated to a homemaker. Probably overtly sentimental, it's still nice to know there are men out there who honour housewives.

At night she puts the kids to bed
She's making sure their prayers are said...
...she's not seeking glory on this Earth
Cause she believes in honesty and
the joy of giving birth.

Amen to that.

Now on to other things. The weather is windy and cloudy (sunny right now tho), the temps lie around 20*C.  The book of the week is The Virgin In The Ice by Ellis Peters:

Can't say that I'm a great fan, but it's generally decent reading. I like some of her books better than the others. This one should really be read during winter months:) Well, never mind!


The outfit of the day which I chose to remind myself that despite piercing wind, it still summer. Or nearly summer:

All ready to go outside:

Down to the sensible shoes:

You will have to excuse me but I only wear heels on official occasions. Such as going to an opera. Not like I've been much to the opera lately. In fact, last time I can remember was several years ago in Budapest. Def something to think about. Probably making a mental note that we should go again in the near future. Or, at least, watch one on YouTube.

We all know the importance of mothers staying home with their (young) children. In fact, as documented on this blog recently, even liberal newspapers like HuffPo run articles criticising daycare. However, being a housewife encompasses more than that. I'd like to recommend to your attention a post by a fellow blogger where she describes coming home out of he workforce.

Some highlights:

Me being at home isn’t so much about my relationship with my child as it is about my relationship with my husband. It’s not about being a “stay-at-home mom.” I’m not a stay-at-home mom, I’m just a traditional wife. And this will hold true even when our daughter is fully grown.

I couldn’t reconcile the beliefs and desires of my heart with having paid employment- even part-time employment. Part-time employment is still employment.

The same people who talk about two incomes being “necessary” are the same ones who talk about how they could never give up their independence, and the women who say they wish they could be at home are the same ones who turn around and start talking about how they could never just “sit at home” depending on a man and how they love to cash in those paychecks. You do the math. I believe modern women work because of ideology, not necessity.

The last sentence is especially true. Women in much poorer countries that those of the modern West chiefly manage to stay home somehow. In the end, it all comes down to the Enlightenment values, but it's the talk for another time. Right now we are going to move to a lighter stuff. We are going to talk vegetables.

The veg of the week is cucumber:

Why, will you ask? Well, why not! Cucumber is a versatile vegetable which is mostly eaten raw nowadays, but could be stewed and has some amazing health benefits, according to this article. It will protect you from cancer, ease your heartburn, stabilise blood pressure and even, I heard increase your fertility. It's very cheap too, so go at it!

The last thing I'm going to discuss today is apple juice. No, seriously, have you ever thought about apple juice? I don't do it all the time, but today I did. When in the supermarket, I was wondering whether to save money and buy apple juice or pay more for orange juice which, at least, is supposed to have some vit C in addition to sugar. Stinginess won but coming home I was relieved to find that  it has polyphenols (supposed to be awfully good for you) and vit C, too!

Three cheers to myself for saving 30 cent:)

Well, it was all for today. The next installment of your favourite internet edition will be next Monday.
Have a great day, everyone! 

Daily Housewife

Wouldn't it be nice if someone started a newspaper called Daily Housewife? It could be read online and would feature recipes, crafts, an outfit of the day, inspirational videos, child-rearing advice and all other topics so dear to the heart of an average housewife? Something to check up early in the morning which will provide you with validation and give you energy for another day of battling domestic entropy? Something with concern for home and all thing pertaining to housekeeping and shilling on behalf of the homemaker instead of big banks and corporations?

I wonder why haven't anyone thought of it yet???

More 1980s Stuff

I just couldn't help buying this book:

Chiefly because of the pictures and not because I've been doing much crafting lately:

Some of these models don't actually look too dated, do they?

 Or maybe, I'm just nostalgic about my childhood...Oh the time when life was more relaxed and women spent their free time doing needlework instead of facebooking:)

Lion Of London

Just an ordinary (nearly) middle-aged football fan who attacked terrorists with his bare hands:


"I stood in front of them, trying to fight them off. Everyone else ran to the back. I was on my own against all three of them, that's why I got hurt so much.
"It was just me, trying to grab them with my bare hands and hold on. I was swinging. I got stabbed and sliced eight times. They got me in my head, chest and both hands. There was blood everywhere."

As long as we  have men like this, there is still hope.

HuffPo Criticises Daycare

In Sweden. It's old news, but still interesting:


Ninety-two percent of all 18 month to five year olds are in daycare in Sweden. Universality is a much admired principle and it's true that this has been achieved.

However, the outcomes are otherwise unremarkable, even negative, for psychological health, learning, maternal health and parenting.

Let's start with the ever deteriorating psychological health of Swedish youth, which has become a major concern in Swedish public debate today. A 2006 investigation by the Swedish government reveals that Sweden is worse in this regard when contrasted with 11 comparable European countries since the 1980s.

Other studies show similar results. And if you interview any Swedish school teacher with a few decades of experience they will confirm this.

Examining attachment-based developmental science, it is very hard to deny a possible connection between daycare and these outcomes. This is especially true since Sweden is doing extraordinarily well on a host of other indicators such as equality, low child poverty, education expenditure and a generally high standard of living.

On international educational (PISA) scores, Swedish school results have dropped from a high position a few decades ago to merely average among OECD countries today. A Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study shows that disorder in Swedish classrooms is among the worst among comparable countries.

The government blames the schools but an increasing view among Swedish teachers and school psychologists is that the school problem is, to a great degree, a family problem. Children are simply not sufficiently emotionally nourished to be teachable in school.

Read the whole article over here.

R.I.P. London

UK in the news again

This is happening weekly now. I probably should create a R.I.P. tag on my blog. We had guests yesterday evening so I learned about it later. It's crazy like that, you don't check news on your phone/laptop for several hours, and then this...

King George V

King George V was a grandson of Queen Victoria and reigned from 1910 till 1936, when he died. The Catholic Illustration published an article about him in its May, 1935 issue, since UK was celebrating 25 years of his reign. Of course, there were pictures:

King George and his wife, Queen Mary and the crowns of the Kingdom and the Empire:

A family album photo from 1873: The future King George is the one sitting, the boy standing is his eldest brother Duke of Clarence who died in 1892, making him the crown prince. The little girl in the center is the future Queen Maud of Norway, the one on the right is Princess Victoria, the girl standing next to the Duke is the eldest sister, who died young, too.

Here are George and Mary in their daily clothes, travelling through England in 1925.

King George loved the sea and in 1903 he became a vice-admiral. The picture above is out of the time of WWI and is taken on board the submarine. The king was then 52 years old but still quite agile, as you can see.

Here he is steering his own yacht.

Travelling through rural England

inspecting his Scottish gurards

riding horses with his cousin the German Emperor whom he later went to war with (we all know how this ended)

and, not for the faint of heart, hunting in India:

He died relatively young, at about 71, but I keep thinking it was probably better for him that he didn't witness the WWII and the slow destruction of everything what was still left of the Victorian England afterwards.

A Nice Magazine

Nice things come out UK, too, like this magazine, for instance! I first bought a Christmas edition last year, and fell in love immediately, but then it disappeared from the store and now finally I found it again. It's quite expensive but I thought I deserved a present:)

LandLove has beautiful pictures and articles about gardening, nature, crafts and seasonal recipes:

My husband liked it, too!