Sunday, October 17, 2010

A Day of Rest

Sunday Evening Tea
Sir Knight and I try to make Sunday a day of rest.  We are not always as successful as we would like to be, but that is the goal.  I have found, that it is hard for women to not work on Sunday.  There are always things to be done.  We have to make meals and do dishes, but, with planning, we can make our work load tons lighter.

A number of years ago, I took to making our "Sunday Dinner" on Saturday.  This makes so much more sense to me.  I make a menu plan once a month and try to plan meals according to what we have on hand.  Our Saturday dinner usually revolves around a roast a chicken or a ham.  I make rolls on Saturday, so we can enjoy them hot out of the oven with our "Saturday Dinner", but I also make extra so that I can heat them up to go with soup on Sunday.  Usually, I make a double batch of roll dough, so that not only do we have rolls with dinner on Saturday and Sunday, but also Cinnamon Rolls on Sunday morning.  Rolls are quick and easy and don't require a lot of effort, but they are well worth the effort they do require.

Sunday has become our "Soup Day".  I use leftovers from the day before, cut it up and make soup.  After a roast dinner, we have Beef and Barley or Beef and Cabbage soup. After a Roast Chicken dinner, it is Chicken Rice & Dumpling soup or Chicken Noodle.  When we have a ham, our favorite soup is Ham and Black Eyed Pea soup.  Occasionally we have Minestrone, Potato or French Onion soup.  Soup takes little time and can easily be stretched to feed a crowd when you have the unexpected joy of practicing hospitality.

Our Sunday meal is usually eaten early in the day, so about five in the evening or so, we all begin to feel a little peckish.  Rather than making another meal, we fill this void with Afternoon Tea.

As most of you know, Sir Knight and I have tea every afternoon when he gets home from work, but Sunday Tea takes on a different flavor.  Our usual afternoon tea consists of tea only, or tea and cookies.  But Sunday Tea is a little more substantial.  Crackers and cheese, French bread and cheese or our favorite, Welsh Rarebit (which, for those of you who don't know, is essentially toast and cheese).  Yes, we do go through a lot of cheese (you can see why I miss my cow!).  We accompany our main dish with cookies or scones or muffins - whatever I happen to have on hand.

My work load on Sunday is greatly relaxed.  I look forward all week to snuggling next to the fire with a good book or looking through magazines that I never seem to have the time to pick up during the week.  I don't vacuum, sweep or do laundry.  By Monday morning, my house looks like a hurricane went through, but I don't care.  My Sundays are God's gift to me - and I like it that way!

9 comments:

  1. I too have taken the practice of cooking my Sunday meal on Saturday. It is such a blessing to just reheat and be done with it.

    Blessings to you and yours!

    Amanda <><
    Matthew 6:33

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  2. Often, I wonder who does for you? You do so many loving and thoughtful things for your husband and your children, even on Sundays, that I wonder if anybody does similar things for you? Do the kids ever wash the dishes? Does your husband ever cook a meal? I know you have defined roles in your family, but I do think it would be so wonderful for ALL of you if there was some leeway and occasionally you got to sit down, kick back, and have somebody else do some of the loving things for you that you do for your family. And not just on Mother's Day or your birthday. Such an idea may be in direct conflict with your Proverbs 31, Titus 2 lifestyle - in which case I apologize for my insensitivity.

    "A man works from sun to sun,
    But a woman's work is never done."

    That little couplet was my mom's favorite saying. When I got married, I learned why!!


    NoCal Gal

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  3. It is so hard to really relax on Sunday, but I make my best effort each week. Having a day "off" is essential to meet the work of the Monday!

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  4. Greetings, Enola!
    I have been following your blog for a few months now, and enjoying every post. Thank you for taking time out of what must be a very busy life to share with us your thoughts and experiences.

    I am a mother of eight, seven at home, and I have a question that I'm hoping you'll have time to answer for me. I am without a dryer for the first winter ever, and not in a hurry to buy a new one. Our summers are long and hot, so line-drying is a great option for me, but what to do in the cold, wet months of winter? I have a wooden drying rack, and plan to buy another, but it won't be nearly enough. We rent our home, so I am reluctant to hang a retractable clothesline...is there a better way? How do you do it for your large family? I'd love to hear any suggestions you might have for me.

    Many Thanks~~Birdy

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  5. afternoon tea...how wonderful. it is a nice tradition. i too enjoy my afternoon tea and snack or coffee and snack. usually around 3 in the afternoon. just a little something that will keep me going until suppertime. not only that, but in my home that is when i use the best china and get to be creative and prissy with the snack. and if the kids are home at that time it is also a very good time to teach them teatime etiquett in case they have to do it for themselves or friends.

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  6. I haven't been by to visit in a while and I've missed reading your posts! I'll catch up in a minute, but I wanted to comment about this post.

    I've been thinking about how to make this happen, too. I've started gathering my "sabbath menus" with the prep on Saturday firmly in mind.

    I love how you make time for tea. I'm still working on that one . . .

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  7. My dearest NoCal Gal;

    You are wonderful to think of me! I have found that the more I do for my family, the more they want to do things for me. They all have chores - dishes, getting wood in, cleaning - really, we all work together, which is the fun of it! They are always asking to get me a drink, or give me a back massage or even massage my feet. They are a wonderful family and it is my great pleasure to minister to their needs!

    Roxanne;

    Welcome back! I have missed you!

    Enola Gay

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  8. What lovely traditions, Enola. Tea time every day, and Sundays for rest. This is on my agenda for this weekend. I really enjoy your posts, and thank you for sharing.

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  9. Birdy;

    I haven't had a dryer in over 10 years - and to tell you the truth, I don't miss it at all! When we first moved into our shouse, I used drying racks placed in front of our wood cookstove. It worked, but it took up a lot of floor space and it ate up all of the heat from the stove. After about 6 months of hanging clothes here and there, moving racks from in front of the stove to upstairs (which I hated having to tromp the wet clothes up the stairs) I thought there had to be a better way. And then it hit me. Years ago I was looking through a book of English cottages and saw a "clothes horse" on a pulley hanging over the solid fuel range in their kitchen. I told my idea to Sir Knight, who bought some 2x1's and some dowels and proceeded to make a big frame and put dowels in it to form a clothes horse. We had an old well pulley that we hung from the ceiling, strung ropes on the clothes horse and hung it in front of the wood cookstove. We lower the rack to about should hight to load it with clothes (it holds about 3 loads) and pull it up and out of the way so the clothes can dry. I love it! It is the perfect solution for our family! Hope this helps. I do have pictures on my blog of our clothes horse, if you want to look through older posts.

    Enola Gay

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