Q&A | Home Ec., personal growth, dry chicken, & traveling alone

Lots of unrelated topics today. Let’s go!

First, two questions from Lina, a German reader we met last October.

1. When I grew up in Germany we didn’t have home economics classes. But my Swedish husband had them when he went to school. Recently, I found his old textbook and found it quite interesting to read: the major part were recipes, but it also had a chapter about cleaning the house, doing laundry and a part about the actual economics (budgeting, saving money, saving resources, environmental protection).

I found that very interesting and the environmental part quite progressive for the late 1980s when he was a school boy. Did you yourself had home economics lessons when you were home-schooled? And did you teach this kind of stuff to your children? 🙂 if yes, did they think it was interesting and/or useful?

So, I don’t think we had much in the way of an official course in home economics when my mom homeschooled us, but I learned in a more casual way.

My mom had us do chores, of course, so that’s where my first experience with cleaning happened.

She also taught me how to sew clothing, and how to make bread. And then when I was a teenager, I took a big interest in cooking, and I unofficially took over a lot of the cooking for my family, of my own accord.

As far as money goes, my parents taught me the basics, but I honestly think my very frugal attitudes about money are sort of inborn. No one had to tell me to squish the last bit of bar soap onto the new bar; I just did that kind of thing because I thought it would be wasteful to throw away the sliver!

When it came to my own kids, I approached this pretty similarly; they all had regular chores and they all did their own laundry, start to finish, from the time they were pretty young.

I taught them the basics of setting aside money for giving, saving, and spending, and of course, they all had first-row seats to frugal living and environmentally-friendly, waste-avoiding strategies. 😉

I think kids will often run with whatever catches their fancy or fits their personality, though. For example, my mom showed me the basics of making bread, and then I went way further with it than she did.

I showed my kids the basics of sewing, but Sonia really got into sewing and has made a bazillion outfits for herself (while I generally only sew to mend things!).

I gave all of my kids similar exposure to financial management, but Lisey is a natural-born saver, and she set up a retirement account at her grocery store job when she was 15. I deserve no credit for that; she’s just naturally savvy with money, I think.

I do think parenting matters and I do think we influence our kids, but also, I think an enormous part of how they live their lives is determined by their own personalities and interests. Some of it (a lot of it?) is out of our hands!

2. A bit more personal: I saw your back story post on Instagram and I am sooo impressed by your personal growth. For me it is sometimes hard to see my own personal growth, sometimes it seems I am stuck or I am even making steps backwards (especially when I think about some traumas from my childhood or youth). Do your exercises of gratitude (thankful Thursdays) or other techniques help you with that?

Oh, that is interesting. For me, looking back a bit does help. For instance, I think about how much I had to cry and process through in the first year when I left my marriage, and I can see that that has subsided a lot!

It also helps to get feedback from others; my support group friends who have known me since early in my separation are good sources for letting me know that I have grown. I wonder if some close people in your life could provide such feedback for you!

I know it’s a truism that time heals all wounds, but I disagree. Time is mostly helpful if you are doing things that help you process and heal! As I look back, I see my progress as evidence that the things I’m doing are helping me heal…things such as:

• therapy
• support groups
• writing out my thoughts
• sitting with and welcoming the feelings
• treating my body well (exercise, sleep, and nutritious food)
• acknowledging the hard while also looking for the good in my life
• doing things that move my life forward
• focusing on what I can control, and letting go of what I can’t

I know that what I have been through will leave some marks and scars no matter how much healing I do, but I trust that the above strategies will get me as healthy as possible.

My rotisserie chicken gets so dry after half a day. Any tips on that?

-Maggie

Oddly, I have never had this problem! So I am not sure what to suggest. Does this happen no matter what store you buy the chicken from?

I will say that the leftover breast meat is usually a little drier than the dark meat, but I think that’s mainly a function of the fat content. I haven’t noticed rotisserie breasts being drier than any other chicken breast meat, though. Hopefully some readers can help you out with this one!

What do you recommend one to do while visiting Jim Thorpe? and have you considered planning a frugal girl group weekend?

-Michelle

There are some great bike trails that run through Jim Thorpe (I’ve been on those) and I also know there are activities like white-water rafting, train rides, trolley tours, and so on.

I have been through a tour of the Asa Packer mansion there (it gives Downton Abbey vibes a bit!) and I’ve also toured the Old Jail (which I thought was a little depressing).

This time around, though, I mainly went on walks, visited the little shops, walked down by the river, and relaxed in my AirBnB.

Oh, and I also packed a few weights so that I could maintain my workout routine, like the good little personal training client that I am. Heh.

Traveling Alone

On traveling alone: no one asked a specific question, but some people said that traveling alone would make them feel depressed and lonely, and since I was working that day, I didn’t get to pop into the comments.

Mainly, I wanted to say that I do not think this is an issue of right/wrong, good/bad! It’s just a case of preferences.

I think I am an ambivert; I consistently ride the line between introvert and extrovert. Sometimes I am energized by being around people, and sometimes I am energized by being alone.

So, I like to travel with people who are good company, but I also was very, very happy at Jim Thorpe all by myself.

I also wonder if some of this has to do with how much alone time/social time you have gotten in your life. I went straight from living with five people (my family of origin) to getting married and then pretty quickly living in a houseful of people again, where I was a stay-at-home, homeschooling, work-at-home mom.

This means that my life to this point has not exactly been characterized by solitude. So, it kind of makes sense that my ambivert self would be a little hungry for some time where I am only responsible for me!

I would not want to be alone 24/7/365 for the rest of my life, of course. But the scales of my life have been tipped so far on the side of non-solitude, there’s still probably plenty of room for some solitude before I reach equilibrium.

Also, as I was saying to a friend: there is a difference between being alone by choice and being alone without having chosen that.

I do have relationships and I could have had a travel buddy if I wanted; I just truly wanted to be by myself. 🙂 And I want to acknowledge that is different than feeling like there’s no one to go with you even if you did want companionship.

Thoughts? How do you feel about traveling alone? Any tips for dry rotisserie chicken?

And of course, any other topic in this post is open for discussion as well. 😉