Everything Old is Food Again

Reading through the sections on food and health I am impressed by how much of what this book says stacks up with what I consider good - but uncommon - advice these days. Things like being sure to eat whole foods, combine foods properly so as not to eat too many carbs (pre-Atkins!), and much more. Reading about all of this food prep has stimulated my appetite, and though the Beecher sisters would frown on such an indulgence, perhaps, I have mixed myself a mug of hot chocolate to enjoy as I continue reading.

Day By Day

I am in the part of Stowe and Beecher's The American Woman's Home where they describe what is necessary for health. To encourage mothers to train their children in domestic exercise, they describe how all of the parts of the body work together - the mind, emotions, muscles, etc. - and how if one part is over-used, the rest suffers.

My life now is much less involved in study than it once was, but overall I am much healthier. I can study for about two hours without pushing myself. That's the point when I want to do something else. Right now, that's all I can study per day, so it works out fairly well. The rest of the day is employed otherwiswe, in working around the house, taking care of kids, running errands, going to church, writing e-mail, etc. When I do get to study, I really eat it up.

I am in better physical shape than I've been in a long time, thanks to Zumba, which is downright FUN. I feel it's important to dance, and to get in a groove. Other kinds of exercise don't excite me. Stowe and Beecher discuss the importance of exercise that one finds interesting, to keep the mind engaged, so the whole person develops together. Smart ladies.

Now that I am in better shape, I can sit and concentrate longer. Plus, I can make it through the day with a bit more energy. I imagine that in a few years I'll have more study time each day, assuming I do not have another baby in that period of time. But that is a whole different topic. :)

Blog Clog

I am backed up one day. I completely forgot to study yesterday, except for the time I spent reading a Kindle book while I was nursing an infant. I guess I am just not in the habit yet.

Habits. The Beecher sisters had good ones, and good ways of talking about them. Their manner of speech/writing is winsome and friendly. The chapter I'm on talks about how to decorate your house for cheap for the comfort as well as intellectual and moral benefit of the household. They argue that beautiful things help the young to be glad to be in the home, and certain statues and pictures can stimulate intellectual curiosity. I think they are right.

It's fun to learn what $80 would buy in the 1840's. According to the chapter, you could either buy one ugly rug, or create a matching sofa, two ottomans, curtains and tablecloth, buy wall-hangings and I'm not sure what else. Basically they decorate and furnish a whole great-room.

I am definitely inspired to make my house more beautiful.

The American Woman's Home

Returned from a visit to the Wester History Collection at the University of Oklahoma library tonight, where I put a copy of HBS/Catherine Beecher's The American Woman's Home on hold. Our library has at least three non-circulating copies of the book, and I chose the WH copy mainly because the facility is open until ten on weeknights.

I have been reading the book on Kindle for iPod. It was a free download. I guess I've read about 40 pages of the 500-page book so far. I couldn't tell until I looked at the book in the library, because the Kindle version I'm using has no page numbers.

The whole idea of Kindle editions would take Stowe a little bit of time to get used to, but I have no doubt she's hurdle the learning curve and get right in stride with technology. Reading The American Woman's Home, I am struck by the knowledge and capacity of these two women. It is like reading Better Homes and Gardens, if the advice in the magazine were taken seriously and not just as entertainment. The sisters present a design for a house and have it and its furnishings and utensils planned down to inch measurement. It's a really rare thing these days to find housekeeping advice that meticulous.

One surprising reason for this is that the sisters were trying to raise the profile of housekeeping and mothering by somewhat formalizing training. Doctors and lawyers, they argue, take ten years to prepare for their profession, while mothers are responsible for the health and safety of the most vulnerable population, and yet their work is considered the lowest form of professional degradation. They do not say, as I expected them to, that women have no training.

They go on to argue that the job is mostly manual labor, but that Jesus and Paul were both manual laborers themselves. They go back and forth between the humility and the honor of the job. I wonder if mothering and housekeeping really was so poorly thought of. I'm sure these sisters knew the field. It is so strange to me, though, to imagine that these female roles really weren't respected.

On a personal note, I certainly can use help and advice, but wisdom is what I most need. Wisdom is applying the right advice in the right situation. Sometimes the more parenting advice I read, the less I know what to do. I wonder if trying to "professionalize" something necessarily raises its profile. Ugh. Sometimes I am very glad I am not "paid" for this job. The pressure would be too intense. And how in the world would I be evaluated, anyway?

I am reading for the sake of research, but I hope to glean some insight on how to run my home, too. I would like to be as well-versed in how to manage my budget, furnishings, clothing, etc. as I am in how to download a free copy of an out-of-print book onto my iPod.

In the Tide-Mud

Last night, to enter back into the research stream, I read a chapter of Stowe's biography by Joan Hedrick. It was a chapter about Stowe raising kids at home while her husband, Calvin, was away raising support for Lane Seminary, where he, along with Stowe's father, was employed. Money was tight. The house was full of boarders whose rent was to buffer the family budget. Around May of 1844, Stowe told Calvin in a letter:

Since you have been gone, I have had a great pressure of care upon me - The arranging of the whole house with reference to the new system - the cleaning &c- the children's clothes, & the baby often have seemed to press on my mind all at once. Sometimes it sems as if anxious thoughts had become a disease with me from which I could not be free.

Part of Harriet's problem seems to have been that she overcommitted. Her husband chided her in another letter:

Will not experience and no suffering teach you, that there are certain boundaries which you have no right to pass over?

In the middle of this "tide-mud of the real," as Harriet called it, this daily-ness of raising kids, making meals, making sure everyone is clothed, trying to save money, I am of necessity learning to let go of some things that entangle me. I say learning, because I can't honestly say I've broken free of them. But under this "tremendous pressure," it is hard to avoid coming to the conclusion that I can't do everything and still do the things I must.

And my life is not all drudgery. I am removed from HBS's way of life. I don't actually have to make clothes or hang them all to dry. I don't have a house full of boarders, thank heaven. Just my little tribe that keeps me going from sunup until I turn out the light at the end of the day and hope they'll keep sleeping.

I was actually a bit depressed after reading this chapter. Maybe it was a little too real for me. I am glad to know that Stowe had struggles like mine, and yet, wish that someone could have transcended them better.

The First Day of the Rest of My Blog

I have decided to embark on a new project within this blog.

I am watching Julie and Julia this morning, a movie about a woman who, in 2002, cooked her way through Julia Child's cookbook. The movie is about the lives of both women.

My blog has a similar parallelism. I am officially beginning work today on my dissertation on the rhetoric of motherhood among nineteenth century american christian women writers. Meanwhile, I am a full-time mommy of two myself.

I am pretty conservative myself. Extremely conservative for my time. But still not as conservative as Harriet Beecher Stowe and her ilk. And I certainly don't know as much about housework and childraising. How will these women intimidate, surprise, or encourage me? How will our lives be similar, in our devotion to family, and different, in our different household arrangements and technologies?

I figure I will be working on this dissertation for at least two years. I aim to post five times per week. It will keep me going, keep my thougths together, and might even be interesting to other people.

I am going to have a piece of flourless chocolate torte to celebrate this day. It happens to be my husband's birthday; hence the cake. My blog is not about food, but I think the idea had to do with the movie. Like AA, Julie says, it gives you something to do every day. This is a place to talk about my personal reflections on what I learn about the lives of these women. I have professional questions, of course. They have an outlet - the dissertation.

Cake time!