My Week As A 1950's Housewife - Monday

   Here we go Monday! The first day in my 50's housewife journey had a rather slow start, due mostly to a terrible night of sleep (or should I say, NO sleep). Oh well. On today's schedule: doing the shopping for the week! A housewife in the 1950's would probably have walked to her local butcher, grocer, and so on from her house - and maybe with a child in tow as well! How lucky I am to have a car to share with my husband (and of course it helps that we work at the same place!). But before I could go anywhere for the day, I had to make sure I looked the part!

I decided to wear a pretty navy dress covered in polka dots, along with some red accents. Red lipstick has always been a favorite of mine, but I only wear it for special occasions - going to the grocery store counts, right? Well today it would! 

My hair has a good deal of curl to it, when it can be told to do so, and that's how I spent a good chunk of my time in front of the mirror Monday morning (that and trying to get the silly hat to be where I wanted it to be!). I seldom use a curling iron, I only need to wet my hair a little with hot water and curl it around my fingers, securing the ringlet with clips. I wait for my hair to dry (maybe 20 minutes usually) and then use hairspray. This method works for me, but it is all due to my hair being curly already - though weighted down by the current length. 

Underneath the navy skirt I wore a bright red crinoline, one of my favorites! I also wore navy heels, white gloves, a red fascinator, pearls, and a shiny strawberry brooch. 

 What can I say about navy and red? They are such a retro combo, wouldn't you agree?! This dress always makes me think of the 4th of July, it just seems like the perfect thing to wear on a sunny July day! I think the brooch goes especially well with this dress, it just stands out so nicely.

 Quinn and I usually do our weekly shopping together after church on Sunday afternoons. Because of this I am often dressed quite nicely, and often in a vintage dress as well. Though I may stick out a little I've never really noticed anyone stare at me or anything. Monday however, was completely different!

I thought perhaps since it was a Monday morning hardly anyone would be out shopping, wrong! Well, it didn't matter too much. Into the store we went, myself with a nice long list and Quinn with a camera. My goodness! It seemed everyone in the store had to stare at me! It didn't bother me of course, but I was stunned at how many looks I drew! Perhaps it was the red lipstick...ha! At least Quinn didn't mind either, and we sure had a good laugh about it as we walked away with all our bags!

Upon arriving home I put all the groceries away and planned out my afternoon around making dinner.  I hadn't been able to go through the scheduled cleaning routine that morning, so I took a little time to straighten upstairs, tidy the bathroom, and start a load of laundry. Of course I needed to put on a cute apron as well (it makes cleaning a little more fun I think), and I tied my curls back with a bit of red ribbon.

Today my main chore would be washing the Barn walls and some much needed dusting! For this I filled a big bowl with warm water, some vinegar, and a few drops of some pine essential oil. This would be a test, cleaning not only in heels, but also in a crinoline!

It turned out that most of the mud and dirt on the walls was from none other than Greta! She felt rather sorry when I confronted her about it, and offered to help me but...well she was't much help (and I know she'll be bringing in more mud tomorrow!). 

After all that shopping from earlier my feet sure were starting to hurt from the heels! It was nice to sit on the stairs for a while and scrub, but soon I had to go back into the kitchen and dust the pictures (something that hadn't been done in quite a while, oh dear!). 

Because of the cooking that needed to get done I didn't finish scrubbing all the walls, that will have to be added to my list for tomorrow. It seems I'm already behind and it's only the end of day one!

Monday's dinner menu was fresh baked rolls along with a chicken pot pie! The chicken pot pie recipe was one from my grandma Mona, and uses canned ingredients and even cream of chicken soup (something ladies from the 50's enjoyed putting into lots of dishes). I thought it would be a perfect fit for dinner, along with some rolls straight out of a 50's cookbook (you can find the recipe for poppyseed rolls here). The dough for the rolls would need to rise for an hour and a half total, so I started them first.



And now for a very silly story: I had determined to make some home-made rolls for Christmas Eve dinner at the family gathering. Quinn and I spent what seemed like our whole day making these rolls (a double batch!) but when it came time for the second rising I knew something was off. I relayed my fears to Quinn but of course he said to press on and to hope for the best. Dear Reader, those rolls did not make it onto the table Christmas Eve. What made the whole thing even more comical is that we baked the rolls in Quinn's family's oven next door (since our oven has some trouble staying at a consistent heat), making everyone excited at the prospect of fresh baked bread. With that memory fresh in my mind I prayed over the dough as I kneaded it, "Oh Jesus please let these rolls turn out better than last time, Amen!"

As the dough rose next to the warm heater in the kitchen I went about cleaning more of the walls and getting the dusting finished. I must have checked the dough every five minutes, I was so worried about it not turning out! Ha ha! When it finally came time to punch it down and to start shaping the rolls I was so relieved to see it was looking alright.

I made long braids of dough, cutting with a knife to break them up and laying them out carefully on a greased cookie sheet. Perhaps these rolls would turn out better than the ones I had tried to make Christmas Eve!

While the rolls rose for the second time I put together the chicken pot pie. I had boiled a big piece of frozen chicken which Quinn helped by cutting up for the pie. Corn, carrots, and potato all went into the pie, just looking at it made us hungry!

Once the pie was all put together it was time to butter the rolls and sprinkle some poppy seeds on top. In Quinn's own words "They looked great before, but now they look super great!" Yep, we were both getting hungry!

While the pie and rolls baked we set up the table upstairs for dinner. Quinn isn't working outside of the home as husbands did back in the 50's, so I can't kiss him on the cheek once we walks through the door and have dinner all laid out for him, but I think he still enjoyed dinner together (with no media distractions!).

Oh yes, I should mention. The heels? I made it until about five o'clock and finally decided my poor feet couldn't take it a moment longer! I'm still pretty proud of myself though, it turns out cleaning can be done in a lovely pair of heels! What do you think? Could you clean your home in a pair of heels all day?

Dinner turned out beautifully. Quinn and I hardly ever eat at our table (it's usually pushed all the way up against the wall out of the way of our small second story), so it was so nice to sit at it. It made the whole dinner seem extra special! The chicken pot pie was excellent and the rolls - I am happy to say - turned out fantastic. Candle light helped set the mood...

While I cleaned I had been listening to a set of CD's of popular 50's music played on my old fashioned radio records player, it made everything more fun, including dinner!


For dessert I had something special planned. To start off our week of living in the 50's we made banana splits! Quinn is a master at crafting a banana split, and I was captivated by how perfect his looked!As we ate our banana splits we listened to an old mystery radio program, it certainly kept us on the edge of our seats!

There were very few dishes to be done and it was so nice to curl up on the couch and listen to the "radio" for the rest of the evening. I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings! I hope you'll join me again  for another day in the 1950's!

To read the next day in my 50's Housewife Challenge, click here!