“Oddly, it is not real cooks who insist that the finest ingredients are necessary to produce a delicious something…Real cooks take stale bread and aging onions and make you happy.”
~ Susan Wiegand, Cooking as Courtship
It’s hot in my house today. I’m afraid the weather forecast doesn’t give much hope for the rest of the week. It’s gonna stay hot and humid.
What do you do when you’re living in an old farmhouse with no A/C?
You adjust.
We have.
We usually wake up early and work in the cool hours of the early morning, and then rest in the heat of the day.
We let the kids play outside after supper until dark so they get their fresh air when its cooler.
We try to keep fans running on us when we are inside.
We don’t run the oven. I use my crock pots, the electric skillet, or the stove top, or even just eat a cold meal.
I try to do something special in the afternoons so the kids have a treat to look forward too. It might something cold and special for snack time in the afternoon, like a homemade popsicle or pudding pop, a root beer float, a slushie, or just even a glass of cold lemonade.
When the kids were younger it was time in the wading pool under the shade tree (mom, too!).
Now we sit and watch a movie in the heat of the day, with the shades pulled and fans blowing on us. It’s a nice rest and by the time the movie is over, things have cooled off a little and we’re ready to work again.
Most of all, we have learned to give ourselves a little “grace” during these hot spells. We accomplish what we can and know that our energy level will be better as soon as the mercury lowers.
One of the biggest secrets to thrifty living is learning to make do.
A truly frugal soul always looks for a way to “fix” a problem before they go out and buy new. They will find a way to improvise, substitute or adjust.
That’s why we have mongrel mowers. When a part breaks on one, my husband looks over the fleet and adjusts, borrowing parts from other nonworking machines. He might pair a front axle from one machine with the cutting blade of another.
When he says we need another mower, I have every confidence that we truly need another mower because duct tape and baling wire didn’t work this time.
I can also be sure he’ll buy the best used mower he can find at the cheapest price.
I have the same philosophy in the house. I don’t change my decor every 2 years because I’m tired of it. But I’m very glad other people do! I pick up their things cheap at garage sales to keep my decor fresh and updated.
Same things with our clothing, the kids toys and books, even our vehicles.
Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.
My Mother-in-law was here for supper the other night and we had quite an interesting discussion on foods that were eaten during the Great Depression.
Both my Dad and my husband’s dad were alive during the later years of the Depression and it left a lasting impression on their eating habits and memories.
Some of these include:
* Eating a bowl full of crushed saltines covered with milk as a snack.
* Enjoying radish sandwiches every spring.
* Melting lard over popcorn instead of butter.
* Eating rice with milk and cinnamon and sugar.
* Enjoying a dish of cooked macaroni noodles, crushed saltines and melted butter.
* Taking a lard sandwich to school for lunch.
It seems that their parents learned to be content with what they had and just made it work. The kids didn’t seem to even know the difference! They learned to like what they were served and did just fine.
They gave new meaning to the word Thrift, not because they wanted too, but because they had no choice.
“Contentment: Being happy with I have.”
Contentment is not easy to obtain. There are things in all of our lives that we would love to change, things that we just aren’t happy with.
I ran across a great quote this week:
“Whenever I’m in the kitchen smelling the aroma of beans slowly cooking for our evening meal, my mind goes back to my childhood when this food was vital to our survival. We may not have had many material things, but we never went hungry thanks to beans and corn bread.
This simple meal reminds me that the essentials of life need not be extravagant. We often think that to be happy, we need bigger and better things. And yet, when I was growing up, there was so much love in our family that we just didn’t think about needing anything more.
I’ve never forgotten that period of my life, or that depression-era meal. It remains one of my favorites, and I still enjoy cooking up a ‘potful of the past”‘
~ Oneta M. Whitlock, excerpt from We had Everything but Money: Priceless Memories of the Great Depression
“But Godliness with contentment is great gain.” I Timothy 6:6