one loaf of bread at a time

much has been written about how modern technology designed to give us more time has actually robbed us of it.  we spend more time in front of computers, more time on the phone, more time in front of the t.v., etc.  i think the only area it may have really improved is the conveniences created to help with housework.  thank god for washer and dryers, dishwashers, vacuums, and stoves.  the photo above is something i saw at the dallas women's museum this week. it is of marjorie mcweeney, a housewife circa 1949, taken for life magazine. she's shown with a symbolic load of the work she will do, making beds, washing dishes, laundry etc. just looking at the photos makes me feel really grateful for my modernity, that, and the fact that long ago i swore off ironing!  

yesterday amy made whole wheat bread, grinding the wheat and everything.  she let cleo help and it was her first time seeing actual wheat and how we get the flour we use just about everyday in her pancakes.  as cleo helped dump in the freshly made flour, i got a little choked up thinking about the lost art of making your own basics.  these days people act like yeast is something to be feared! and kneading? forget it, who has the time!  most of us today wouldn't know where to start if we were forced to make our own bread.  but can you imagine a woman just 1 or 2 generations ago not knowing this?  things like sewing, baking, canning, they were simple facts of survival and doing them allowed you to "make" a home;  a place where you could be comfortable (and well-fed.) being a home-maker wasn't some silly, offensive moniker. i think it denoted having some serious knowledge.  people say you can't make a purse out of a sow's ear, but i'm pretty sure that is exactly what women have been doing for hundreds of years!  

don't get me wrong, i don't want to go back to the washboard and clothesline, but i am recognizing that for me, there is strength to be found in reviving some of those old school basics. not only are they cost effective, but everything you make at home and by hand is bound to be better for you than preservative laden stuff.  and just like i sometimes have to imagine that utah is a foreign country in order to cope with its peculiar culture, i think i'll try to look at doing this extra, time intensive "work" as a type of anthropological study: i'm learning about the customs of the past and helping to keep important knowledge alive.  the idea of being self sufficient is intriguing and it would probably make me feel like a superwoman if i really could make my own everything.  but the clothes at anthropologie are too cute and the thought of making my own blue cheese makes me want to barf.  so i think, i'll just start slow.  i'm going to start making bread.  and from now on, you can call me a home maker and i'll promise not to punch you in the arm.