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My mother passed away this past Monday. The last 6 months have been devoted to her care. I haven't given much thought to anything else.

Now I have extra time to fill. I put a lot on hold so I have many things to chose from to get back to. I'm not sure where to start. 

Today I washed the inside of the fridge though.

Greetings,

I have been focusing more on the food aspects in this study and also decluttering the more modern items I have bought and am not using due to their shoddy construction.

Really am streamlining the many choices I  had in my pantry. Two kinds of pasta instead of the plethora of shapes and sizes. Incorporating more lentils, beans and rice into my dishes.  Basic breakfasts of eggs or oatmeal or just toast. These small changes of not buying so many varieties of food is really helping my food budget. Fixing hamburger or sausage gravy over rice or mashed potatoes has become a go to dish.  Lots more vegetables served also. 

I owned and operated a restaurant for 5 years and also did catering jobs after that - I find it difficult sometimes to make smaller portions or less variety.  I did find several wartime recipes for cakes that make a 8x8 dish. I was surprised my family enjoyed those as much or more than the elaborate ones I used to make.  

As my family is not on board with this study - I have struggled with implementing many ideas I have to live a simpler life. Which is why I enjoy reading the pearls of wisdom from GDonna and the commenters. I can live vicariously through others. 

Margaret, my thoughts and prayers are with you as you go through this grieving period. 

Blessings, Tammy

Another reason to soak beans before cooking is that they will cook quicker and use less energy. We have a lot of projects we want to finish up this year, so we always have something going on. I feel like I have been doing and doing for years to make changes, and I want to be finished so I can finally enjoy my new life. :) That's why we're making a big push this year to get done. I am tired of making changes and just want serenity in my life from now on. 

My Mother's Day carnations that I planted last year are still doing great, so I am excited to have my special flowers on the holiday. :) The violets in the flower border will top my birthday cake as usual. I've ordered a special English rose bush and look forward to the beautiful fragrant blooms in the house. Easter will have the lilies of the valley again. There will be the bulb flowers in the yard and house soon, and sitting outside by the lilac bush in spring to catch the fragrance on the breeze. I guess my special touches are done with flowers. :) 

Margaret, I am sorry for the loss of your mother. When my parents passed after months of caring for them I found myself a bit "adrift".  More time but what to do first, take your time and I will pray for you.

I have been eating more in line with what I have read about rationing, a lot more veggies and very little meat. It helps that lately I have very little taste for meat. Tonight is broccoli salad and baked potato skins.  I made baked potatoes today to use in potato salad to be eaten tomorrow. I like my potato salad to sit in the fridge and meld. The potato salad tomorrow will be my main dish and will have carrot, and celery sticks along with it, maybe some crackers also.

I also soak my beans, sometimes I soak and cook extra and freeze a serving or two. It's hard to cook enough beans for just one person.

We have had false spring here in Indiana this week, many of my perennials are trying to poke through the leaves but I know better than to uncover them.  I really was tempted to clean up flower beds but didn't as I know there are birds and insects that need that cover. 

I have kept myself busy doing repair work on garden decor and some crafting with things I have on hand. 

I have started pouring any leftover coffee into a mason jar in the AM and reheating it as wanted. 

I try not to let outside news get to me, reading a lot of old housekeeping books from the 1890's. 

First, Margaret, please accept my sympathy for your loss. 

I have looked back before on the topic of diabetes in the past, because my late DH had Type 1. Insulin first appeared in the late 20’s but diet was still evolving. Matching insulin to carbs was not done yet, from what I see. If we were living then it would have been difficult because he would have been told to eat few carbohydrates. Rice, bread, potatoes, beans, starchy vegetables would have been restricted as carbs were to be only 40% of his diet and he would have been told to eat more animal protein. I’m not sure what we would have done during rationing but at least our need for sugar would have been quite low! 

I am also trying to figure out my new daily routine since I only have 2 days of work left before retirement. So far it’s a moving target. 

I am trying to get planting started too but this weather makes it tricky. Nearly 80°F today but possible 20’s Monday night. 

I am writing down my plans and ideas and trying to see how much time the old ways will take. I will draw up a household plan - in pencil! - and I’ve made a list of possible purchases as well as possible discards. 

It’s in process. I come here for inspiration. 

Margaret P, my thoughts are with you while you go through your loss of your mother. Charles and I will keep you in our thoughts and prayers.  I understand the caregiving, all of the things to do after with paperwork and sorting, and the strangeness of where do I go from here.  Take care of yourself and give yourself time to process all you have to do. Cleaning the fridge is a good start.  Big Hugs, Donna

Margaret P., my condolences on your mother's passing.  

The year after my dh passed, I pieced three quilt tops.  I had one professionally quilted and found the cost more than my budget would allow so the other two are sitting in the closet unquilted.  I enjoy the planning, cutting and sewing but my hands cannot do the quilting, and my machine isn't up to it either.  I haven't done any more due to not being able to have them quilted.

When you take eggs from the carton, take one from each end to keep the carton balanced then it will not twist on you.  

I planted pepper seeds today and put them on the heat mat in the basement.  I'll turn the grow light on when I see they have germinated.  I'll start tomatoes around March 15.  I'm thinking of buying a timer for the grow lights since last year I keep forgetting to turn them off or on when needed.  In the basement out of sight so easy for me to forget.  

I agree all the varieties of pasta are unnecessary.  However, I get a bi-monthly food box that usually has a box of pasta of some kind, so I use whatever.  I will buy only elbow, spaghetti and spiral veggie for salads.  I have more than I can use of the whatever so will pass any new boxes on to someone else.

I've eliminated using the top cupboard shelves except for the front where I can reach.  I'm working on not using the backs of the bottom shelves to save my back.  I have my cast iron hanging on the wall but no wall space to hang the Revere Ware.  The only place for a hanging rack would be the middle of the floor so that's a no go.  If it was low enough to be useful for me, most everyone else would be hitting their heads.  I'm 5'6" and almost all my family and friends are taller with some well over 6'.  

Margaret P, I am so sorry for the loss of your mom. Even when it is expected, it's a hard transition. I will be praying for you.

I don't eat a lot of meat normally and less now because it is pretty pricey.  I do cook quite a lot of dry beans in my pressure cooker though and guess I would keep on eating them with rationing.  Favorite ways to use them are in a bean salad (I use a 3 bean salad recipe but leave out the green beans), making tacos with pinto beans instead of beef, a recipe I created ages ago that seasons pinto beans cooked with with onion and sliced apples and seasoned  with cumin, coriander, turmeric , and maybe some paprika (served in a whole wheat tortilla with salsa).  Also curry made with chick peas and plenty of vegetables, pots pies which are very good using chick peas instead of chicken, pasta sauce served with spaghetti and lentils is very tasty, and soups and chili.  Generally speaking I have found that chick peas work well for a chicken substitute in any thing like "chicken" salad or a casserole type dish.  I just make old childhood favorites and use various beans to stand in for meat and poultry.  This worked well when I ended up with my kids being vegetarian.  For dietary reasons and not rationing, I generally save any cheese eating just for Fridays when I seem to need it.  I don't miss a lot of things but I sure would hate giving up all cheese!  I have been weaning myself off sugar but again I would really miss it if I couldn't get any at all.  

I have discovered that there are a lot of small batch baking cookbooks or small batch baking recipes all over the internet which helps me get to more reasonable portions of baked goods.  I was particularly happy to find an excellent recipe for biscuits that makes just 4 biscuits for example.  But I have tried cooky recipes that make just 6 cookies, cornbread that makes just 4 servings etc.  Plus I can make the in a toaster oven without heating up the large oven which saves gas.  I think you can just about Google "small batch [fav cookie] recipe" and you will be rewarded.  I do it to avoid overeating sweets but would help with sugar rationing I expect.  

Tammy K_2,  it sounds like you are doing more of the study than you realize.  Keep taking slow steps so they will never notice.  :)

Stephanie, Charles and I are making that push as well, we want to settle and this month we have made the most progress towards that.  We are at the point now that we are starting to find peace in how things are placed and our drawers are thinned out. We seem to fit better.  When you described your flowers, I felt like I was walking through some of my Aunties gardens where those same flowers and bushes grew year after year.  When I was younger, the lawn and gardens seemed more set in place and the flowers were so beautiful.  It seems that things grew better.  I did not realize that the yard needs settling as much as the inside of our home to be able to just live it.  It is partially there but now I know more of what to do to get to that serenity. Thank you for that memory  :)

Joyce C, Charles and I have been cutting back on meat and I too have not been wanting much meat.  When I do I have very small portions.  I like all of the things that you are doing from the food  you are eating, to your mason jar for coffee and I love reading the old housekeeping books pre 1900.

Joan S, Oh my goodness, two days left before retirement!  So much change ahead, you will have the time to adjust even though you may be working even more at home. We are still figuring our way through this change and now we know that it will take much longer than we realized to adjust.  But it is a good thing. :)  We are the same with the temperatures here.   

I am so sorry for your loss. I will pray for you. Accept my sincerest condolences. 

Grandma Donna~ Your family and friends have had a blessing in you and how you make things special for others and put much thought and consideration into all you do. I am finding I am becoming more aware of what I purchase for meals, and what I plan for meals, to not be wasteful. My mom always set the table even for small meals and made things special for us. I used to do this somewhat out of obligation, but have grown to realize it builds tradition and helps with family identity. 

My deepest sympathy for the loss of your mom, Margaret.  I wish you peace.

I was wondering if the person reading The View from the Corner Shop enjoyed it as much as I did.  I hope I got the title right. 

Donna, I adored the story of Albert.  It would make a darling child's book.

Debby,

I read the View from the Corner Shop last fall. I found it to be funny and witty at the characterizations of the customers and heartbreaking at the work they went through during the rationing years. Definitely a different view of the war years.

One of my favorite stories is about onions.  "As for onions, we have yet to see our first in the shop....Customers think we have secret onion parties at dead of night and use them all up."

Very well written. Another book I highly recommend.

Blessings, Tammy

Thanks for answering, Tammy.  Yes, I let out a loud hoot when I read about the onions.  I might have to read it again!

Margaret P, I'm so sorry on the loss of your Mom. It does leave a hole. Please accept my sympathies.

Stephanie G, I get it on the projects. We had new flooring installed last April (talk about home uphieval!), new countertops a few months after, and just completed a tub tear out for shower. Still have to hang new towel rods and the painter is coming next week. I so need to just enjoy! I'm tired of being under construction.

Ann W, I'll take your Revere Ware, lol. ;)

Joyce C. I haven't bought beef in so long. I just refuse the pay the price, knowing how awful the cuts look. 

Frankly, I just stay away from the news. I read Epoch headlines and leave it at that.  Still though going through the house to see what I can change to make it easier on my horrible back. I'm 5'10" so I want everything high and nothing low. I sort of ran out of cabinet space with that idea. LOL.  Now I'm trying to see what I can decanter that I use daily and keep on the counter rather than constantly walking back and forth to the pantry, especially since I'm starting to cook a lot more.  But pots and pans are problematic.  I was pondering the reuse of the pantry.

When we had the floors installed, it really made me rethink all these armoires and large/heavy pieces like an entire wall of all oak bookshelves/cabinets. It's never getting moved again.  I have a desk armoire that I use in the kitchen for appliances and to hide the tv Mr. Grumpy must have while he eats, but I had hopes it would fall apart with the floor redo. Oh well.  Then there's the armoire in the bedroom and the huge entertainment center I wanted to dump. Lots to dust!   At least it's all quality, at least compared to what they are producing now. 

Margaret P  My condolences on the loss of your Mother.  I hope that you have good memories of her to comfort you in the future.

sara_m  Thanks for the suggestion of using chick peas.  I have a long uphill road to convince my husband that we don't need meat as a main dish every meal!  We do need protein, especially as we age, but there are many sources of it other than meat.   Also, thanks for the reminder to goggle small batch recipes.  I used to do that, but have gotten out of the habit.  

One website I have used is "onedishkitchen.com"  The have all kinds of dishes, from main dish to baked goods, geared to one serving.  I have used them mostly for baked desserts.  My husband still works and leftovers are always used up for lunch for him.

GDonna  loved the post and the pictures of early spring in your part of the country.  We still have snow covering most of the ground as the thick ice covering is taking a while to melt.  It is just a matter of time.  Every year I am amazed at how much farther nature is along where you live.  No sign of anything here!    Were all of the vegetable you posted pictures of under cover though the winter? 

 I agree with your comment of  "we are living through a very unsettled time and not only here in the U.S. but in many places in the world.  We should know enough to be informed and to keep ourselves and our family safe but we must do our best to stay mentally and physically healthy"  and on keeping informed yet making our house a refuge.  I actually find many parallels between what was happening in 1942, and the lead up to those events, and today.  I try very hard to be "someone's ray of sunshine", something you wrote about years ago that stuck with me.  I am generally a quiet person, but find I have become quite chatty and sociable in public.  Like in the grocery store, where I have had some really funny conversations.  It helps me too!  This blog in many ways is a refuge--thank you and Charles for sharing your lives with us.

As usual, I find your posts fascinating.  When you mentioned people hoarding, I’m reminded of a family from a town where we once lived.  The patriarch was said to have made his “fortune” by buying up used car batteries during the war and then reselling them.  Unfortunately, people claimed some of these batteries were defective and some even exploded.

My parents were children during this time.  They both recalled sugar rationing and developed different feelings to the substitutes.  Daddy had a lifelong love of honey and felt deprived if there was none in the house.  Mom, on the other hand, couldn’t stand honey.  They both liked sorghum, and she made sure to keep that on hand.  

Daddy never mentioned gas rationing because his family always lived in town and could walk any place they needed to go.  Mom also lived in town and, during the week, everyone walked.  Her mother’s family lived on a farm a few miles away.  Her father would save their gas ration allowance for weekends when he’d drive his wife and children out to the farm to visit the grandparents.

Maybe because things were so tough during these years, my grandparents and older relatives rarely mentioned the war years even though two of Daddy’s older brothers fought in Europe.  He learned years later that his oldest brother fought in Patton’s army in Southern Europe.  The second one was scheduled to be part of the D-Day invasion but (for an unknown reason) was sick and confined to a hospital in England.  One of Mom’s uncles was captured and imprisoned by the Japanese.  Otherwise, my knowledge of those years has come from books and movies.  

Thanks for your interesting post! I'm very surprised that your apple trees are already in bloom. We still have some snow here. 
It would be a shame if the frost destroyed the blossoms. I cover my flowering trees if there are late frosts at night. That has often saved my harvest.

If food were rationed here tomorrow, I would probably cook a lot of potato dishes, because potatoes are our staple food. But I could also cook well with peas, beans, or lentils. They provide valuable protein.
Luckily, we have a garden, and I learn something new every year about how to increase the harvest and preserve it.
In an emergency, that would be a huge help. One can't start practicing too early, while simultaneously hoping that a serious emergency doesn't occur.

My deepest condolences!
You did a wonderful job caring for your mother.

My sympathies for the loss of your mum, Margaret.  It's a hard time for us all.  My own mum died in hospital, alone, in the middle of the night, totally unexpectedly - we live a thousand kilometres away and had no idea until my dad rang me in the early hours - it was such a shock and none of her children were there for her when she died which always saddens me.  Two of us lived far away and my brother was away on holidays at Christmas.

The world to-day is a very frightening place - I try not to think of what lies ahead, we're in very unsettling times.  I'm grateful that I've lived in times of relative peace although there have been terrible things happening during those years as well. 

Margaret, so sorry to hear about your mother.  Give yourself some time and you will get there.

Anne, I do a little quilting and I know the cost of having someone quilt a quilt together.  I understand about not being able to hand quilt, but  would you be able to tie the quilts?   You need to be able to tie a square knot.  I don't know if you put the binding on your finished quilt or not, but to sew through the layers of the quilt sandwich you need a walking foot.  After you get your quilt sandwich together you can roll it and starting in the middle work a strip and do something like stitch in the ditch or go corner to corner on squares.  I just hate that after all the hard work you put into piecing that you can't use your quilts.  If you want to make another quilt you might look up quilt as you go on Youtube and work in small blocks and then put the blocks together.  I want to try that.

Donna, your winter garden has done well.  Maybe your apple tree will be in a spot that is a little protected from the freeze and you will get a good supply of apples from it.  Crossing fingers.

On what we would eat if there was rationing here.  It would be hard.  My husband has type 2 diabetes and he didn't do well on the pills and he didn't want an injection so he does diet or should I say we do diet.  There is a lot of meat and it is expensive.  Then I have a lot of allergies so I can't always switch brands and things I can eat are expensive too.  I cook most all our meals from stretch.  There are a few soups we can eat and I will stock those to have on hand.  Of course some gluten free bread for a sandwich is good for when I don't have time or am too tired to cook too.  I used to make wheat bread, but now that I can't eat wheat I have never made a good loaf of gluten free bread.  We don't eat much bread any way, a loaf will last 4 to 6 weeks and I keep it in the freezer.

I think I would have to take up fishing.  We are not too far from a lake and I could walk or bike over there and catch fish which we could both eat.  Or I could set out rabbit traps and I can't eat rabbit meat, but my husband can and he needs the meat protein.  I can eat rice and beans for protein.  We have a garden and we can grow a lot of vegetables.  We also have apple and pear trees and if the weather will cooperate we would have them plus wild black berries.  

We might all do good to try to learn what foods grow wild in our areas so we can harvest them.  If you have ever read Clara's Kitchen she talks about how she would pick things to eat for her family on her walk home from school.  Clara has a lot of depression cooking in that book and we have tried some of the recipes.  Your library might have it.

I have started seeds inside for a spring garden, us in the northern part of the world need to be thinking what to grow.  Would like to hear more about everyone's gardening.  I would like to hear about suggestions to keep the deer from eating the garden.  Last year was the worse year we had.

CindyD W

The deer took all of my beets this last year.  We have a lot of deer around here and they are so smart! It's like they know where hunting season is in because they crowd into the woods around here. There are too many houses around to have someone safely hunt them. They have ruined so many of my pine and cedar trees. I just keep planting.  The deer come up to my sunroom windows during the winter and look in LOL.

I spent this morning cracking open peach seeds, I have them soaking and will plant them either tomorrow or Monday, I hope to get some to grow and will plant out for the bees and hopefully a few peaches. They probably won't be true to the actual peach that they came from because of hybridizing, but we shall see. It costs nothing to try.

We need to plant a lot more carrots and onions this year, green beans will be fewer. Always need tomatoes. I wish we could grow sweet corn but the deer and the rabbits wreak havoc every time. 

We are still in the throes of winter, more snow predicted for tomorrow.  

JCKitty

Debbie in PA - you can also just extend a chicken dish with chick peas or a beef dish perhaps with lentils or black beans.  You can even cook the lentils in beef broth to make it more appealing....  I will check out the one dish kitchen site. 

Expecting more than a foot of snow starting tomorrow morning.... I am so ready for spring already.

Joyce C,  I had to laugh when I read about the deer looking your sunroom windows.  Do you have plants in there?  Maybe they were trying to figure out how to get to them.  We have the problem of deer coming up by the house during hunting season too.  Last year the deer ate my green beans so I planted green beans within 20 feet of the house thinking they would not come that close, but they did.  They also ate my sunflowers and pumpkins.  I am trying to figure out an easy way to make a cage of something to keep the deer away from the beans, but pumpkins cover such a large area I don't think I can do anything for them.  Maybe not plant pumpkins and figure if I want to preserve them I will have to buy pumpkins.

We have raised beds and the rabbits can't get in there.  When I used to grow beans on the ground the rabbits would eat them.  Now it is deer.

I have broccoli, cabbage, kale and Asian greens coming up from where I have started seeds, but I still don't have the layout for the garden down yet.  I will be planting onions in March.  Then tomatoes, green beans, peppers and squash for the summer.  I hope that this will be a bonus year for gardens this year.