I am up in the night … it’s 2:10 am. I just put a loaf of banana bread in the oven. Later on today, my son John and his precious wife and son are coming to visit. They are so fun to have. Christine is a wonderful homemaker and Romeo Paul, all boy, was 3 this past May. I am writing while my bread bakes. Then I have to get back to bed.

This morning, after some sleep, I plan to make Romeo some chocolate chip cookies. And for Grandpa, I am making an apple crisp. The kids love apple crisp, too. But Papa has been hinting for about a week now about apple crisp.

I did a cleaning project when I first got up around midnight. I have the one window in the kitchen and is it a wild window. We have a window air conditioner here in the dining room and it keeps the kitchen cool, too. I wanted to open that window for fresh air but just hadn’t gotten to it. And I mean, if you don’t have an imagination, you wouldn’t even think of doing that window.

I get the mind set of, “Ok, now what would the mothers during the Depression era do with a window like this?” And then I go from there. Well, actually, right below this window is an old trap door to the root cellar? It’s covered up with linoleum. But one of these days, Papa will take it all up again and I will use it. When we first moved here, I used it as a cellar door. But then we got worldly and covered it up, and I wish I hadn’t. I cudda kept my still down there and no one would have been the wiser. (Just kidding … just kidding!!!! I haven’t got a still.)

Anyway, Papa had painted the kitchen a few years ago. But he left the window as is because it needed to be all scraped of old paint and new stuff put on it. But we haven’t gotten that done yet. Sooo I just prayed and went at it when I got up at midnight. I just thought of my foremothers who had to move to a chicken coop when they lost their homes, and I just followed their example and made do. I opened the window and put in an old baking pan to hold it up. Kitty Peggy Sue loves it. I washed the window, even though it helped little, as most of the dirt is on the outside. I think maybe later Jim will take the outside window off and wash it.

But the window is all chipped up. I have a cute valence around it. And then I tucked a cute old cloth tablecloth at the top of the window to hide a lot of the chips. Ya know how a ledge would be at the top as the window is pushed up? Well, up there, I put an old blue ball jar with a neat glass lid. Also an old brown Aunt Jemima syrup bottle. Also, I put this little candle job up there. It’s like a pewter box with a handle and a place for a candle in it … it’s old and it has a glass front and two little doors, and a little chimney at the top to let the smoke out. It would be something a housewife could carry with her outside at night to check the chickens. The lighted candle is enclosed and the wind won’t blow it out, if you need light for outside. It’s a favorite of mine that I got at a garage sale.

Then under that window is an old table. Remember the wall with the one window is like about seven feet wide and has a cupboard next to it … my only built-in cupboard in the kitchen. Well, so, under the window is this little probably 1920s table. On this, I have one of those washtubs and I put kitchen things in it. Under the table is a green wooden bushel basket and I put stuff in there, too.

So half way through the window I have a curtain rod with no curtain on it. Its a caf