Bright Start To A New Era

Like most of America, I watched the Inaugural proceedings most of the day yesterday. I watched CNN Live on Facebook and shared comments with my Facebook friends, it was a totally new experience for me and a great way to start off a new presidency. Now I feel I have a responsibility to change the way I live my life, or at least be willing to make some sacrifices and change the way I do some things. The tone that President Obama set in his speeches yesterday were of accountability, responsibility and the hard work and difficult decisions ahead. I have made a resolution to be mindful of the choices I make and to become more involved in my community.
To that end, I have started this Blog to keep myself on track, share insights and humor, and pass on all that "Depression Era" wisdom that my parents taught me over the years.
Both my parents lived through the Great Depression and the way I was brought up reflected a lot of the lessons they had learned and the hardships they went through. Some of my memories from childhood and the things I do in my home now as a wife and mother, are a direct result of their parenting, as is true for most of us. However, I bet most of your mothers did not have a full pantry in the basement with a year's supply of most canned and jarred foods. A common request from my mother was for me to run down to the basement and get her a can of soup or a bottle of ketchup. And there it all was--laid out before me. Neat row upon neat row of pickles, soups, ketchup, mayonnaise, baked beans, mustard, BBQ sauce, jelly, jam, tuna fish, condensed milk, vegetable oil, you name, we had it. Each in its own row, with 3-6 backups behind it, sorted by expiration date (never take from behind, only from the front otherwise my mother would notice and there would be a lecture!) Running out of something in our house was almost unheard of. All items were purchased on sale and with coupons and lists were kept so that when stocks were running low, sales would be watched for to replenish particular items. Household cleaners also had a place in pantry, Lysol, Pinesol, Scrubbing Bubbles, Windex, Comet-- all stockpiled in the same manner. Friends would ask to see my mom's pantry when they came over to play and stand in awe of the bounty before them. It was just how my mom was, the way we lived. Reserves of toilet paper and Kleenex were kept upstairs in the linen closet, reams of paper towels were kept on the shelves in the laundry room.
We laughed about it. My mother was very good natured and took a lot of teasing for her "depression era" mentality. You have to embrace your foibles, right? I will give you one guess as to what is in my linen closet right now.
12 boxes of Kleenex and 60 rolls of Charmin. Don't even look in the basement!


A Little Something I Learned From My Mother...
Old towels, t-shirts, even old boxer shorts (much to my dismay growing up) were washed, cut up and used for cleaning rags around the house thus eliminating the need for paper towels. Cost effective AND better for the environment. Barbara was way ahead of her time environmentally!


Money Saver For Today
Save money at the pump
and reduce your emissions. When you are at the ATM, the
drive-thru pharmacy, or just waiting to pick someone up —
don’t idle your engine, just turn it off! The American Society
of Mechanical Engineers proved in a recent study that
the average fuel-injected vehicle requires
the same amount of fuel to start
its engine as it would to idle with the air
conditioning ON for only 6 seconds.
Every second counts, so turn off your
car!