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| When I keep up with my chores - and my home is clean I feel overall better anyway- don't you? |
Copied from the New Homemaker website:
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Long ago, the rhythm of the average American housewife's life was fairly standard no matter where you went. Each day had its own task, and so the work got done in a logical, orderly fashion as the week progressed. It went like this:
Monday: Wash Day
Tuesday: Ironing Day
Wednesday: Sewing Day
Thursday: Market Day
Friday: Cleaning Day
Saturday: Baking Day
Sunday: Day of Rest
With a few variations (some folks had a gardening day instead of a separate ironing day, or the days were not quite in this order), this is the way everyone kept house for more than a hundred years. It was such a common scheme that day-of-the-week dishtowels emblazoned with that day's chore were everywhere. (You can still get Aunt Martha iron-on embroidery or paint transfers with this scheme--I collect them, in fact.)
There was logic behind this. Laundry was far and away the heaviest task a housewife faced, requiring a great deal of strength and fortitude to hand-wring clothes and carry big baskets of wet laundry to the clothesline from the basement washtubs. Monday was the day to do it, when you were still fresh and rested from Sunday. Tuesday's ironing followed Monday's wash. Mending and sewing on Wednesday made sense when you'd just been through the clothes and noticed what needed a button or a patch. And so on.
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Well, I did find this posting on The New Homemaker website very interesting because I had recently seen the dish towells made with this order of chores on them and this is what made me look for an article about the houskeeping weekly guide! Then I realized that I have a small painted fabric hanging that I bought 3-4 years ago at a festival/jamboree in Smithville, Tn. that has a spiritual depiction of these chore days!
I love it and want to share what HH used on their artwork; wouldn't it be wonderful if we could organize this into our daily chores as well?
It says:
Sunday - The Lord's Day - O God, I have prepared my house for you. Please come into my heart as my honored guest, so I may spend the day in your presence.
Monday - Wash Day - Lord, Help me wash away all my selfishness and vanity, so I may serve you with perfect humility through the week.
Tuesday - Ironing Day - Dear Lord, Help me iron out all the wrinkles of prejudice I have collected through the years, so I may see the beauty in others.
Wednesday - Mending Day - O God, Help me mend my ways so I will not set a bad example for others.
Thursday - Cleaning Day - Lord Jesus, Help me dust out all the many faults I have been hiding in secret corners of my heart.
Friday - Shopping Day - O God, Give me the grace to shop wisely so I may purchase eternal happiness for myself and all others in need of your Love.
Saturday - Cooking Day - Help me my Savior, to brew a big kettle of brotherly love and serve it with clean sweet bread of human kindness.
I would love to know who originally did this "spiritual chore" list but I find no source on the artwork and HH is all the signage I see. But isn't this a lovely idea? -- Maybe it would be fitting to set aside a chore for house and spirit for everday of the week that is meaningful to our modern lives.
Organization does simplify our lives beautifully!!!
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