The Joyful Housewife

I’ve been having a rough few weeks. As you may know, depression runs in my family, and it’s something I struggle with from time to time. I’m managing it well and I’m a positive thinker (you may find that hard to believe when you read the rest of this post!) but still I struggle at times. Currently, I’m just feeling run down and fatigued. This has been the year of small illnesses for me, and my body and mind need time to recover. I’ve been cutting back on bad behaviors (no more glasses of wine with and after dinner, and no more venti cappuccinos) and when I start perking up again, I’m gonna go bananas on that Clutter Kick 2010!

For now, I want to share with you my deepest held opinions. Some of which I’ve always meant to blog about, and in some cases have already, and some of which I never intended to reveal on here. Case in point, number one:

I am pro-abortion. Yep, I think all women should have at least one. Kidding! But I can get really angry about the pro-life/pro-choice dichotomy. For anti-abortionists to call themselves pro-life implies that all of us people who think it ain’t nobody’s business what a woman chooses to do with her body are, what? pro-death? pro-abortion? Furthermore, I hope you all realize that abortion is just a ruse to cover up way more important issues going on in government during elections. That’s what really gets my goat.

I don’t believe that Autism is caused by immunization shots. From what I’ve read, there was only one research study done that made that connection between the two, and it was later proven false (I’m making a bold assertion here, I’ll hunt around for the sources to support my statement if necessary). Second, Autistic children tend to develop normally for many months to a few years before they start to show signs of autism, so if your child suddenly appears to be autistic after a shot - it wasn’t the shot - it was happening already.

I don’t believe in raw food diets. Sure, we shouldn’t cook our vegetables to mush, or eat charred foods, but as Alton Brown points out (this, according to my husband) cooking begins the breakdown process of some foods, which aids in digestion and absorption of nutrients. This invention allowed humans to spend less time preparing and digesting food.

I do believe in slow food. Just because I like that cooking helps me digest food and that it speeds up the process of preparing palatable foods, doesn’t mean I’m against spending time in the kitchen making food a an integral part of culture. Ironically, we don’t spend enough time on food in America. We were not made to eat pseudo-food while running from one commitment to the next. Food should be a focal point for relaxing and bonding with families. We should eat whole, organic, local foods, and make more things from scratch.

I don’t believe in factory and industrial farming. I’m thrilled that the “Green” movement is finally catching up with this and other environmental and social facts, but I’ve known this stuff was harmful for our bodies and the world since I was twelve. Why is is so difficult for people to think critically about what goes on around them? Once agriculture became big business, we were all screwed. Remember the four food groups?! We were told that milk products should be one quarter of our diet and that all meat products should comprise another quarter! Connected to this:

I don’t believe that humans should drink cow’s milk or that we need as much protein as we’ve been lead to believe. Look, I love cheese and yogurt. But as for drinking glass upon glass of milk. That’s just BS. We are told that we need the calcium in milk, yet cows milk has other stuff (that’s a scientific term) which actually prevents the absorption of that calcium! Leave it for the baby cows.

I believe that savers are losers. The American dollar is losing value faster than you can earn 5% interest on it. Poor and middle class people in America must pay taxes that rich investors are exempt from. The only way to get ahead in our economy is to play the game. You must be an entrepreneur and, or real estate investor if you want your money to grow and to be free from the very real fear of not having enough to retire on.

I believe that marijuana should be legalized. Get over it. It’s a plant. Sure people shouldn’t drive, or work while on it, but they shouldn’t be driving or working while drunk either. Alcohol is far more dangerous to our bodies and lives than marijuana. Plus, marijuana has been proven to help people manage the pain of chronic or terminal illnesses where other medications have failed. Alcohol can’t do that, in fact it causes deaths, but it is legal.

Finally, as I’ve said on here before: I think that it’s a load of crap that woman can have successful careers and be successful mothers. Society isn’t set up to support that yet. Yes, we can go out and succeed in the career world, but not often with kids. With kids, women take hits in pay and seniority that men with children do not. Some women are very successful. Often they have family money and advantages to begin with. But the 10% of high achieving career women do not represent the capabilities of all women. I, myself, do not have the constitution to fight this battle. So, go to work while your babies are young! “Stay home” for several years - or forever - I don’t care! But stop spreading the lie that woman have attained equality in the workplace. Things are changing, yes - we are even starting to see men “stay at home.” But it ain’t finished yet, and it’s a choice in which each woman must balance the sacrifices for herself. We cannot have, or do, it all.

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One of the tons of wonderful things I’ve learned from my husband is how to make vinaigrette. He’s very anti-bottled-dressing (I’ve gently reminded him that I grew up in a single parent home and wasn’t even aware that there was an alternative, aside from ambitious, gourmet types).

It’s incredibly easy and it’s almost the only thing we put on our salads. The only bottled dressing we’ve used this past year is Annie’s Goddess dressing (and ranch, which we don’t put on salads, but which I use to dip many, many different foods into, from veggies to pizza.)

Anyway, it’s so easy that, although we were too tired to cook tonight and Tim picked up pasta from our favorite Italian restaurant on the way home, I still made a salad AND a dressing.

So how does one make a vinaigrette, you ask? The materials I like best are a small teacup (see photo), because I’m usually making a small salad for two people, and a fork to whisk with. I’ve tried a bowl and a real whisk, but for me, the fork works better (I also use it to scramble eggs for french toast batter).

Next, choose your vinegar. We have been using sherry vinegar lately, but in the past we have used red or white wine vinegar, or balsamic vinegar. I’ve also heard you can use lemon juice, but I haven’t tried it. For myself, I’ve used a fancy fig flavored balsamic vinegar that I bought for my husband and he never used once. I put this on a salad that featured strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries.

Put one or two tablespoons in the cup or bowl (eyeball it.)

Next, add seasonings that you would like to dissolve in it. I always add salt and cracked black pepper. You can mix it up by adding a dash of cayenne, as well, or white pepper instead of the black. This is also when we often add garlic. Usually a fresh clove pressed in a garlic presser. Raw garlic is very good for you but causes potent burbs, so beware!

The final ingredient before the oil is a tiny bit of dijon mustard. We sometimes leave it out, but it’s very good in the dressing. Try not to use too much.

Whisk a bit with the fork to mix the additions into the vinegar.

Finally, add extra virgin olive oil. A good rule is about 2:1 oil vs vinegar. If you are using a teacup, completely cover the top of the vinegar with the oil. Whisk, whisk, whisk, and taste. Add whatever you think is missing, toss on salad, and enjoy!

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Yikes! I’m sure you’re all familiar with the studies which show that women are still earning less than men, or the studies which demonstrate the supposed monetary value of a housewife, but a Vanderbilt professor of law and economics, Joni Hersch, has found that housework decreases the earnings of both men and women. That is, the more hours a woman spends on housework, the lower her hourly wage will be, regardless of her profession outside the home.

You can read the story here:

Women’s and Men’s Earnings Hurt by Housework

I suppose that’s why such successful career-holding mothers as Caitlin Flanagan, and Penelope Trunk have - or have had - nannies, cleaning services, and “House Managers.” (And by the way, when Penelope Trunk announced that she hired a House Manager, her reader response was off the charts. People do NOT like a working mom who can afford such luxuries. Surprisingly, of her 175 commentors, it was the men and fathers who were most supportive of her decision.)

I think the moral of the story is that you cannot have it all - there will always be a trade-off.

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Here is a list of websites for the frugal Housewife via Housewifeology (go there for the full list).

Extremely Frugal - Perusing the ideas on this blog I’m left thinking, “That’s either crazy or brilliant.” And often just, “Huh….”

I’ve paid for this twice already… - The author of this blog is my new hero. My husband and I have large school loans and small credit card loans and we’ve been drowning in them since I finished grad school and decided not to work full time. The entire reason I’m writing this blog is to shape up my life - both in the housework area and financially.

Frugalwiz: Frugal Living Blog - Some good tips on living frugally.

Frugal Village - Very attractive zine style website.

Vegetarigan Frugal Housewife - While her talk about spiritual channeling may not be for everyone, this is totally my type of blog. First of all the current post has a delicious looking recipe for “Meat” loaf with Beef-like Mushroom Gravy which I’ve been wanting to try to make at home for months. Second, she talks about knitting, another passion of mine.

Frugal Hacks - Worth visiting for the extensive blogroll and visitor’s articles.

There are many, many more, but these are ones I’ll check out again.

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As if figuring out how to do the housekeeping at age 30 isn’t enough, the hubby and I are really, really  broke these days.

The funny thing is, since we’ve gotten back from a month long trip to a Navajo Reservation in Arizona, we haven’t been able to get my car to start. This is funny because I’m not spending any money on gas but we are still way in the hole.  (The other funny thing is - we take road trips - long road trips, across the country. With gas prices these days, that is definitely not frugal.)

And we are not big materialists. Both of our CRT TVs were so old this year that the color had gone wonky. All green and yellow for the one upstairs, and all red and blue for the one down. Conveniently, when we moved into this old house in June I bought an awesome TV for $30 at a garage sale - much better color - still not a flat screen.

Furthermore, we, like my best friend and her boyfriend almost never buy new clothes. She says they just realized that in nearly every photo for the past three years they are wearing the same outfits. That sounds familiar.

Mostly we spend a lot of money on food and wine. My husband is a big foodie. We don’t have cable anymore right now and we borrow old episodes of Julia & Jacques and Two Fat Ladies from the library, since we can’t watch the food network. So we are saving on cable but still indulging in food and wine. Way too much.

(If you’ve never actually watched Two Fat Ladies, check out this article: The Two Fat Ladies…and Why We Love Them, by Mecca Ibrahim or watch this video clip.)

But we’ve been really diligent about eating at home this month, so I hope that if we keep it up, we’ll start seeing a difference. I’ll post more about that in the future.

For the time being, I had no idea that there was a genre of blogs about personal finance. How weird is that? They’re actually very educational, and hence fit in well with my goal to overhaul my house and my life this year.

Get Rich Slowly’s post for today scares the heck out of me, but I’ll have to face this issue sooner or later.

(I discovered this blog via Paranoid Asteroid, which is pretty entertaining, and slightly educating.)

Anyway, that’s enough of the issue of finances for the day. I’m going to go veg for awhile and think about nothing until my job interview tomorrow morning.

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