Is the Grass really Greener?. . . Day # 5

No surprise that Shane and I are experiencing yet another day hunkered down in the apartment. Blogging is one of my desperate attempts to reach out to the world beyond-clearly- thought it was encouraging, yesterday, to get mail for the first time all week!

Last night as I counted the number of consecutive days of which we would have not been at work once we return(A WHOPPIING 10!)- I realized the irony of it all. It wasn't too long ago that I posted about how much we wish the day away and pin all our hopes and dreams on the weekend. Now sitting here experiencing what feels like a perpetual weekend, I am struck by my inability to find contendedness. The cabin fever and lack of productivity have us going crazy when any other day we would give our right arm for a day off! We never quite want to slow down when it seems supernaturally ordained : )

We not only have had a week off from snow but this Monday, as you all know, is MLK day, and sadly the week off somehow dulls the excitement that usually surrounds a "3 day weekend." Oh to be happy with what he have!

Today as Shane tried to help look through our book shelves and piles to find something I hadn't already read and that piqued my interest, I came upon a book we found when we were engaged that we thought would be a fun "coffee table book." It was published in 1913 and is titled "Don't For Husbands, Don'ts For Wives."

I thought it would be fun to come on here every so often and share a fun quote or two from the book. It is clearly an instructional book and it is split up into different subsections: Personalities, How to Avoid Discord, Habits, Financial Matters, Evenings at Home, Jealousy, Recreation, Food, Dress, Entertaining, Household Managment, and Children : )

Why not start at the beginning?

Personalities: General Habits: Don'ts for Husbands

"Don't drop cigarette ash all over the drawing-room carpet. Some people will tell you that it improves the colours, but your wife won't care to try that recipe."

"Don't fidget. Some husbands are never still for a moment. They will walk in and out of rooms like the wandering Jew ; they play with the salt at dinner; they draw lines on the tablecloth with a fork; they tap the table with their fingers and the floor with their feet; they creak their slippers and drop the coal tongs on to the the tiled hearth. In fact, they keep their wives in such a state of tension, and the poor creatures would need nerves of iron to enable them to stand the strain."

"Don't worship your wife as a saint, and then when you discover that she is, after all, of common clay, spend the rest of your life mourning her deterioration. Probably she is what she always was, and it is only that you are looking at her through different glasses."

Don'ts For Wives: How to Avoid Discord

"Don't nag your husband. If he won't carry out your wishes for love of you, he certainly won't because you nag him."

"Don't object to your husband getting a motor-bicycle; merely insist that he shall buy a side-car for you at the same time."

"Don't be afraid of cold meat. A few cookery lessons, or even a good cookery book, with teh use of a little intelligence, will make you mistress of delicious ways of serving up "left overs." Some men like it, but cold mutton has wrecked many happy homes. "

"Don't give the baby the same name as his father, and then have to talk of "Big John" and "Little John," or of "Old John" and "Young John." Call your husband always by his own name, and let your boys have names of their own too."

Don'ts For Husbands, Don'ts For Wives, by Blanche Ebbutt

I hope you enjoyed those sweeping generalizations as much as I did!

-M.W.