What's on your Monday Menu?

Hello Friends, Happy Monday! Wait, it's Monday, right? I feel like that 4 day weekend was like a month, which is nice...but I could still use another few days :) I had a lovely time celebrating Mom's birthday, Christmas with the family (virtually), and I also spent lots of time getting organized and doing things around the house. The house itself still looks a little messy, but I spent a lot of time getting the drawers and closets super organized, Home Edit-style and it feels great!

QOTD: Would you do well living in the olden days without today's modern conveniences? I was watching a show the other day about some people who are trying to revive an old working Victorian Farm and all I could think was that I would have been a disaster in that time period! On the one hand, I think I would enjoy the opportunity to make things by hand, garden, and make everything from scratch, but I think I'd only like it for a weekend... not for life! It looked cold and exhausting. We have it so good!

My accountability was pure sh*t all weekend--way too many opportunities for little treats that added up to big calories. But I did a lot of meal prep & planning for the week and I think I have a plan I can follow, well. I saw a photo of myself this weekend that was a wake up call. I looked fat, and it was horrifying.

My grandmother told me things about the good old days. They lived in a cold-water flat in Brooklyn with a shared bathroom for each floor. She said the men could not wait to use the bathroom in the morning, so peed into the kitchen sink.

They did the laundry inside their apartment building and then opened the window and reeled in the clothesline to hang the laundry over the street to dry. When my mother was five years old, my grandmother got pneumonia from hanging the laundry out in the cold winter air. It was in 1928 and there were no antibiotics available at that time.

The doctor came and told my grandfather that his wife would probably die. My mother remembers kneeling by the bed praying for her mother to get better. She heard her aunts discussing whether they would try to raise the kids or just send them to the orphanage. Her mother recovered and that was somewhat rare. Most people who contacted pneumonia then died from it. The doctor said it was a miracle that she survived.

None of my family ever wished to go back to the good old days.

Mary if you ever get a chance to go to NYC, please please please go to the Tenement Museum! It's the best museum I have ever been to and I am dying to go back for some additional tours. They took an entire city block on the Lower East Side and completely refurbished it back to what it was like for the different poor immigrant groups who would have inhabited it over the years. They actually looked up the real families who lived in these apartments and you follow their real lives.

I just looked up their website and see that they are doing virtual tours! I am totally signing up!!!

NYC is at the top of my After Pandemic bucket list. I did know about the museum and consider it and the World Trade Center memorial to be must sees. I had not seen the website and had no idea that there were virtual tours. This is really exciting for me and I can't thank you enough. I will be doing the virtual tours.

When my mother was fifteen, her father bought them a house in Brooklyn. He told her that they were moving up in the world and that she was never to go back to the old neighborhood. So she had to give up her best friend.

Many years later, when she was in her 80's, she went with her brother to look at the old neighborhood. They found the building where they used to live and stood on the sidewalk looking at it and talking about their old memories.

There was a pizza shop at the corner and they went in and ordered some pizza. While they were eating their pizza, a lady came over to the table. She said, "I saw you looking at my building earlier. Why are you so interested in it".

It turned out that the lady was my mother's best friend that she had not seen since they were fifteen. She had stayed in the neighborhood, married, bought the building and made a lot of money renting out the apartments. She had moved to Florida, but was back in New York for a visit.

My mother and her friend talked on the phone every day until her friend passed away several years later.

I never heard of the Tenement Museum. So interesting!

We were there maybe 15 years ago (??). I agree with Julia - it was great!

That is a good reminder. Unfortunately, I worry we might be about to find out what the good old days were like and how unromantic they really were. I am reminded just a little bit every summer when I fail my garden or when I feed my chickens and see how much they crap and only 1 is laying regularly and on a good day, maybe 2. Let alone our current strained medical system that could bust any day or the medicine shortages, etc. I had a neighbor once who was a vet from WW2 and they buried their 5 yr old daughter and never were able to have more children. My grandmother birthed 14 children but only 10 survived childhood. I just cannot imagine. It was very sad. I used to think about the idea of good old days but hearing stories about them...or less developed countries where infrastructure is weak.... nope.

you and I both and im sure many others...

I tried allll the things. I overate and didn't move enough. Here is what I learned: eating like crap makes me not have gas, but trying to get back on track does... haha I also- don't like crockpot candy, do still love magic cookie bars, my moms sweet potatoes taste like pie in a good way, I don't like rice or potatoes hardly at all. roast with too much fat makes me feel ill. I do like starbucks coffee with eggnog added. that was a ;treat;

then it came time for pictures and I looked huge and that put me in a funk since. 2 out of 3 dogs got very ill Christmas day. We had gone to my moms to spend a couple days. The blind puppy got into something first then whatever he threw up the chiweenie ate then she got sick, they were foaming at the mouth, diarrhea, and vomiting all over me. I had to wash clothes several times...

so trying to get more on track today, yesterday went pretty well except for all the fiber gas and feeling bloating.

QOTD: I have a feeling I would be a hot mess in that time frame. DH and I always watch Alaska the last frontier and homestead whatever shows- my DH would has is awesome at all that. he is super into alternative energy and off grid and whatever. I just want to be warm and go shopping for myself and others!

ok so food:

b: egg/egg white/frigo stick/ half lavash wrap?

b2: shake

l: chicken strips or chicken sausage

d: chicken strips or chicken sausage

also have some vegetables I need to eat but i'm really not feeling it.

Poor pups!

Haha, yes I should have mentioned that I would fare fine in the olden days if I had Grim to live with--he'd rock that rugged lifestyle! I think it would look like an episode of Green Acres, watching us ;)

same here! we totally need a meetup one day...