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April goals (and a book club giveaway!)

March 30, 2014 by Jana 7 Comments

I’m starting something new. I’ve seen it on other blogs and even tried it once before on a previous site. For some reason, it’s never stuck, but you know what? It’s worth a shot again.

What the heck am I talking about? I’m talking about sharing my monthly goals.

While I’m usually not one to put that kind of information out there, I think that it’s a good way to keep myself and my project on track. I have a tendency to self-sabotage when things are going well and I want to break that cycle. I’m hoping that by sharing my goals with you guys, it’ll keep me focused and also, because I did share my goals, I don’t want to seem like a huge slacker and I’ll actually be productive.

So here we go. For the month of April, I plan to:

Make homemade butter. This was the first pin I put in my pioneer project Pinterest board. I don’t know that it’s necessarily cheaper than buying store made butter but it’s one of the hallmarks of pioneer living. It’s time.
Crochet one dish cloth. After trying and practicing on a crochet hook and the knitting loom, I think crocheting is the way to go right now. It’ll be nice to put something homemade in my kitchen, too (you know, that’s not edible). I also have a goal to make it look nice, not like something my dog made.
Work on my business. Many pioneers were entrepreneurial, and that’s actually something I had going for me before I started this project. I own and operate a blogger mentoring program and this month, I need to finish the site redesign and update the menu of services.
Start our garden. This is more of my husband’s project than mine because he loves gardening. I do not. However, I need to be more involved and this means actually having an opinion on what we grow, how big the garden should be, and assisting in planting. It’s unpleasant but I’ll do it. Pioneers had to do shit they didn’t like all the time.
Participate in the Watch Your Wallet Challenge. I adore the concept of this challenge, hosted by Steph at Life According to Steph and Marla at Luck Fupus, particularly as you get to make your own rules. My rules for the challenge are: no stupid tax (late fees, library fines, etc), only make frivolous purchases using gift cards, stick to my grocery budget, use coupons more often, refrain from buying more craft supplies, and keep up with our 52 week savings challenge.

There are a few more goals on my list but there’s no need to share them. But what I can share is this nifty button I made for anyone who’s joining the Little House bookclub (it starts tomorrow!) and, below the button, is a giveaway for a complete set of the Little House books! That’s right, one lucky reader will get a chance to win all 9 books! Thanks to Steph, Jenniemarie, and Athena for assisting with the giveaway. Good luck!

P.S. Please excuse the horrible formatting of what you’re about to see. WP is being an asshole or I’m doing something wrong and can’t get it to do what I want. But I think you get the point.

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a Rafflecopter giveaway

Friday Five: I’m glad they’re gone

March 27, 2014 by Jana 14 Comments

Earlier this week, I chaperoned my daughter’s first grade class trip to a gunpowder factory turned pioneer times museum (serious question– what do you call the people who lived on the East Coast during Westward Expansion? You know, those who stayed and worked at a DuPont gunpowder factory instead of exploring the frontier?). Unlike most elementary school field trips, this one was actually interesting. Particularly due to the fact that a) I heart American history and b) this project.

The timing could not have been any better. And maybe I geeked out a little bit. And maybe I was sad that my phone died and I couldn’t take a ton of pictures to share with you guys. But what I can share with you are 5 things I am so glad we no longer have to use:

Quill pens. Of course writing with a feather dipped in ink sounds like a good time but in reality, it’s a messy pain in the ass. You need to dip the feather about 76 times to get enough ink and then it drips everywhere instead so you have to blot it but then there’s almost no ink left. Also, if you don’t hold the quill properly, you can’t write shit. So, to quill pens I say good riddance and bring me a gel ink pen!
My daughter trying to write with one. You can tell by the look on her face she hates it, too.
Chamber pots. How do I even begin to describe the ways I’m glad that these horrible pee pots have gone away? Just seeing the thing made me cringe and say a little prayer of thanks for indoor plumbing. Chamber pots are probably the only thing I find worse than an outhouse and should I ever decide to live like an actual pioneer, I will probably hold it in the entire time. And back then, it was the kids’ job to empty them and honestly, I just can’t do that to my daughter. Or anyone really. Just say no to chamber pots.
Tight, narrow, spiral stairs of death. I’m not sure that the house we were in is entirely reflective of all East Coast homes of that time, but if they were, holy shit did those people have some coordination. This was the narrowest, steepest staircase I have ever climbed. Ever. As I walked up the stairs from the kitchen to the attic, two thoughts crossed my mind: One, how did these people navigate these stairs in the dark and/or drunk; and two, man, they must have been skinny. Nothing like a tightly wound staircase to keep your figure trim.
A washtub and wringer. Let me clear– I loathe laundry. It is my nemesis of household chores and if I had all the money in the world and wasn’t so damn picky, this is the first thing I would outsource. But when I looked at the washtub, cheese grater looking scrubber, and medieval torture device looking wringer, not to mention the all purpose soap, I wanted to go home and hug my washer and dryer. I could not imagine doing laundry for my family of 3 on that, let alone a larger family. What a huge, time consuming pain in the ass. The smell of fresh air dried laundry might be delightful but the cumbersome, pioneer process to get it? Not so much.
Doing laundry on this is pretty much a time consuming nightmare in the making.
A water pump. Not only did it bring us the ability to pee indoors but indoor plumbing made the water pump obsolete. Thankfully. I could not imagine having to haul my ass outdoors, several times a day, just to get a bucket of water. Sure, I’d probably have an army of kids to help lessen that chore but I can only imagine how much longer it made the laundry process. And cooking. And washing. I sort of understand now why they only bathed once a week. I would, too, if that’s how I had to get my water.
photo not taken by me. It was taken by a guy named Dave.

While there are many, many principles and items I’d keep from the mid to late1800s, these are not on that list. Modern conveniences FTW!

What would you get rid of?

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Introducing the Little House book club!

March 26, 2014 by Jana 15 Comments

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!!!

Beginning April 1, The Townhouse Pioneer will be hosting a Little House on the Prairie book club. I’m ridiculously excited about this and it has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that we already own half the series.

I decided to do this based on the amazing response to Monday’s post. I got the idea in the shower (where all good ideas happen), posted a question on the Facebook page and on Twitter (if you’re not following along over there, you should. There’s lots more good stuff like that), and got about a dozen positive responses, and we’re up and running.

Which is excellent.

But you’re probably wondering how it’s going to work. This is how.

At the beginning of the month, we’ll start reading one of the Little House on the Prairie books (my plan is to read them in order). Then, at the end of the month, any blogger who’s read the book will (if she/he wants) write a post. I’ll host a linkup on the last day of the month for all the posts. We’ll also have a discussion on Facebook so those who don’t have blogs can participate in the fun.

So, for our inaugural book, we’re reading Little House in the Big Woods. Posts discussing the book should go live the week of April 27, with a linkup on the 30th. I’ll try to design a fun little button, too.

That’s it. There’s no pressure to join or participate. Just because all the cool kids are doing it doesn’t mean you have to. But in all sincerity, I hope you do follow along. It’ll be fun!

What I’m reading: Pioneer project edition

March 24, 2014 by Jana 13 Comments

I. Love. Books.

Given the choice, I’d pick reading above almost every activity imaginable. I can’t remember the last time I went a day without reading at least a few pages of a book. And it recently occurred to me that if I were stuck in my house for days on end, as long as I had green tea, ingredients for grilled cheese, and books, I could entertain and sustain myself without getting bored.

It should come as no surprise, then, that as part of my pioneer project, I’ve done some research and identified a few books that are an integral part of the project:

The Modern Pioneer: Simple Living in the 21st Century–This is basically my handbook for my project. Many of the recipes, activities, and crafts I have planned are ideas taken from this book. My husband is particularly excited about brewing our own beer. I’m looking forward to having a completed sewing project that doesn’t look like shit.

Confessions of a Prairie Bitch–memoir by the actress who played Nellie Oleson on the Little House series. I love memoirs, and I am really excited that she wrote one. I hope she talks extensively about Michael Landon because he always seemed like such a nice guy. Also, I want to know what she thought about being hated and how she got through it.

O Pioneers!–part of a trilogy by Willa Cather about life on the prairie land. From what I’ve heard about it, it’s a little more accurate than the Little House series so I’m hoping to get an even broader perspective of frontier life. If this one is good, I’ll read the whole trilogy.

Bootstrapper: From Broke to Badass on a Northern Michigan Farm–I picked this one up on a whim at the library but had so many books out at the time, I made a note to read it later. The book is another memoir, this one about a woman who had to employ survival skills that would have made the pioneers proud to save her farm after her divorce.

I’m also in the middle of reading the whole Little House series with my daughter and, because it was essential to the pioneers, I’m trying to read the Bible.

I hadn’t originally folded reading into my project plan but I figured, why not? Many pioneers valued reading and devoured what they could get their hands on. That’s right in line with what I do anyway, so adding just seemed logical.

What books would you add or recommend?

Fighting the good fight

March 20, 2014 by Jana 12 Comments

On my old site, Jana Says, I talked extensively about my depression and anxiety issues. They’re a huge part of who I am, even if I don’t want them to be and instead of a monkey on my back, they’re like these two giant, annoying, asshole neighbors who are constantly spying on me, trying to get all up in my business, making everything difficult and most days, impossible to accomplish anything because they’re just…there. They pull up some couch and sit and they never quite know when it’s time to go home. And, being the good hostess I am, I have to entertain them.

As a result, most days are a huge struggle to even get out of bed. But deep down, I know that I’ll feel even worse if I mope about, staying in bed, not doing anything except Facebook stalking and taking BuzzFeed quizzes (for those who are interested, I should live in Portland, Tina Fey will play me in a movie, I’m a sandwich, and Scooter is my spirit Muppet) so I haul my ass out from underneath my cocoon of covers and dogs and go about my day the best that I can.

Some days I succeed, some days I don’t. It’s a crap shoot. It all depends on what phrases I tell myself first thing in the morning. Occasionally, I have a Stuart Smalley moment. Most days, I don’t. Negative self-talk is something I am extremely proficient in and even my year of therapy couldn’t change that. I don’t need people to be hard on me because I’m hard enough on myself. You know that song “My Own Worst Enemy”? Yeah, that’s me. Or, even more accurately, this:

Thanks, Dukes of Hazzard, for making me feel like I spelled "hazard" incorrectly — Thanks, Dukes of Hazzard, for making me feel like I spelled “hazard” incorrectly

While it’s true that I am not one of those people for whom things come easily, and I have to work twice as hard as some people for a third of the results, I know that some of my problems are of my own doing.

I shut myself off from people when life get too hard instead of reaching out for help.
I don’t work as diligently as I should because I get overwhelmed with my to-do list and instead of ticking things off one at a time, I quit.
My blog and business aren’t growing as fast as I’d like because I’ve told myself no one cares or wants to be part of them (and I’m terrible at self-promotion and instead of getting over my shit, I hide).
I let myself be overcome with jealousy at others’ successes and tell myself that I’ll never get there because I don’t deserve it.
I let myself feel intimidated by others’ productivity and ability to manage their time and instead of working on improving, I stop doing everything because I tell myself I can’t keep up so there’s no real sense in trying.

Admittedly, I’m a fucking disaster. Because absolutely none of my problems are the result of anything other than the fact that I have a messed up way of thinking. Because consciously, I know this is all bullshit. I have tangible proof that it’s all bullshit. I have intangible proof that it’s all bullshit. Yet, day after day, I convince myself it’s all true.

If I believe it’s all true, it begs the question–why the hell do I even keep trying?

That’s a question I ask every day.

Sometimes, I don’t know what keeps me going or why. Other days, I keep trying because I need to prove my demons wrong. I like being right. I like winning arguments. I like telling people to suck it because they didn’t believe in me. I like a good fight.

And most of all, I keep trying because I want to be different. I want to have a positive self-image. I want to be confident and determined. I want to look in the mirror and be happy instead of overly critical.

That won’t happen if I quit.

Besides, if I quit, what would the pioneers think of me? They didn’t quit because someone else had a better crop or a larger homestead. They didn’t quit because conditions were too harsh or because there were too many chores to do. They didn’t quit because their family in the East didn’t believe in them. If anything, that made them push harder. They fought through everything hard, unpleasant, and ugly. They fought to make a better life for themselves.

And so I fight. I fight for a better life for myself. Even on the days I fail or I don’t think I deserve it, I fight.

And since I philosophically refuse to quote Christina Aguilera, I’m using this as my new affirmation instead:

April goals (and a book club giveaway!)

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