Every Day Has Its Work

This week was our "Little House on the Prairie Week." You may remember from my "summer bucket list" post that we came up with this idea after Maggie and I read all of the Little House on the Prairie books together. In "Little House in the Big Woods," Laura describes their weekly chores. Ma says that every day has its work: Wash on Monday, Iron on Tuesday, Mend on Wednesday, Churn on Thursday, Clean on Friday, Bake on Saturday, Rest on Sunday.

At least a year ago Maggie asked me if one day we could do a week like Laura, Mary and Ma had, where every day we did what their chore was for the day. This past week seemed like the perfect time to go for it. Obviously we didn't have a butter churn, nor do we wash our clothes with a tub and washboard. It was more important to me that we followed their schedule and Maggie got a chance to learn how to do some household chores.

On Monday morning we laid some stained clothes out in the sun to let the sun help bleach the stains out (this trick really works!). That afternoon Maggie brought in the clothes from outside and loaded the washing machine. She loved measuring out the soap and I took a minute to talk about the different settings on the washing machine. When the washing machine was done she transferred the clothes to the dryer, cleaned out the lint trap and started the dryer. After they were dry she helped me fold them. She told me, "I can't believe how much fun this is!" I can't believe she thought it was fun at all!

When I was a child my mom would wash all the clothes and my sisters and I would have to fold them. One day, tired of listening to us gripe about not wanting to fold a sister's shirts or our dad's socks, she said, "Well, you can either fold ALL of the family's clothes or you can be responsible for washing and folding your own clothes." We immediately decided we'd rather just do our own clothes. I was in fourth grade, Erin was in fifth grade, and Lindsay was in first grade. I think my mom helped Lindsay a bit, at first. I couldn't believe it when I went to college and my 18-year-old friends didn't know how to wash their own clothes and I felt so good about myself that I was practically an expert by that point. I want my kids to be independent (in many ways) long before college, so to me, it's never too early to start learning chores (even though most of the time it's much quicker/easier to just do it myself).

Anyway, back to our week. Tuesday was ironing day, so Maggie chose a favorite skirt that needed a little ironing and after I showed her how (with lots of emphasis on not burning herself!), she ironed it.

 Wednesday was mending day. Maggie had a dress with a torn strap and Finn had a Curious George stuffed animal which had a hole in it and the stuffing was gradually being distributed around the house. We decided these would be good to mend. I threaded the needle for her and she sewed the strap back on her dress.

 Here's the hole in poor George's head.

And after a little mending. 

Thursday was churning day, the day Maggie was most looking forward to. Have you ever made your own butter? Here's Maggie midway through our "churning." (Notice that perfectly ironed skirt!)

If you've never made butter before, you should. It's one of the simplest things you could ever make, with literally two ingredients, heavy cream and salt. You could have unsalted butter, but what's the point? Dump the cream into a bowl (we used my beloved KitchenAid mixer) and beat the cream with the whisk attachment until it looks like whipped cream. Don't stop at this point, just keep on mixing it (occasionally scraping down the sides) until you notice the cream is starting to look a little grainy and some liquid is releasing from it. Pour the liquid out (Hey! You just made buttermilk! Save it for your pancakes!) and then turn the mixer back on for one more minute. More liquid will separate out; pour that in with the other buttermilk. Now take the solids and put them in a bowl full of icy cold water. Knead them together for a second until it's one piece and then blot the water off with a paper towel. This water and paper towel step helps rinse all of the buttermilk off of the butter so it will last longer. Put the butter back in the mixer and put on the paddle attachment. Add salt to taste (I think I did half a teaspoon) and mix the butter well. At this point I took half of the salted butter out and put it in a small tupperware container with a lid. I added about a teaspoon of honey to the remaining butter and mixed it again. Mmmm...our toast the next day was delicious.

Friday was cleaning day so Maggie helped me with dusting and cleaning the baseboards with some watered down vinegar.

Saturday we baked brownies from scratch with a disappointing new recipe. I have no photos from Friday or Saturday.

Sunday (today) is the day to rest. Maggie took a nap and just woke up. She doesn't normally nap but decided to today since it's a day for rest.

I probably sound like a pretty good mom, right? Well, in the interest of presenting an accurate portrayal of myself, I must tell you now the truth about our churning and baking days. On the churning day I decided I didn't want to run the mixer during the little kids naptime because it was pretty loud. Immediately after lunch, before their naps, I decided to make the butter with Maggie. To make a long story short, Finn and Carolina wanted to get into everything, touch everything, all three kids fought over who stood closest to the mixer, who could squeeze in the honey, etc., etc., etc. Our churning adventure wrapped up by me yelling at everyone, grumbling about why I try to do anything fun with the kids, and huffily cleaning up the mess.

Saturday, baking day, pretty much happened the same way, except with me yelling at Maggie that she would be going to bed 15 minutes early and couldn't have any of the brownies that she helped make.

I am not perfect. My kids are not perfect. We get on each others nerves. They accidentally make messes. They make messes on purpose. I yell. They yell. Most of the time the fun things I plan turn out great and everyone gets along and we have fun, but sometimes, it goes to hell in a handbasket. Luckily I am really good at apologizing.

There you have it! The whole story, good AND bad.