Gracious Living: Lessons from the 50s

I've just picked my daughter up an hour early from day care, feverish and with a stomach virus. I'm leaving in 2 hours to drive the 3 hours to Houston so I can attend an appointment with my dad's cancer doctor tomorrow. Which means my husband has to work from home on the beginning stages of a big project while caring for our sick daughter tomorrow without any help from me. He's half an hour late; I haven't packed; and the daughter has just gone down for a nap.

What would you do in this situation? Me, I borrowed a page out of 1950s home economics and made my home an oasis of calm, collected domesticity. Toys picked up. Table cleared off. Radio off. Placemats, dishes, napkins on the table. Enchiladas (hardly homemade) in the oven. Fizzy water chilling in the fridge. The thing is, those 1950s "how to please your husband" texts actually knew something... when you've come to the end of a stressful day home should be your refuge. Taking 30 minutes to eat dinner together renewed us enough to move on to the next task in our out of control day.

If you've never done this; I encourage you to try it.

(And yes, my husband has done the same for me...)