Even though I grumble about the iron I am actually grateful

I have grumbled in recent posts about my lack of ironing ability. While I will rue my lack of skill for some time to come in reality I am actually grateful that I'm a housewife in such a modern age.

I've recently been re watching the excellent BBC4 series 'If Walls Could Talk' with Dr Lucy Worsley. Unfortunately it does not appear to be available on DVD, but there is a book.

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I loved this series. Dr Worsley is a really engaging presenter and the series was brilliantly balanced with each of the four episodes focusing on one room.

The series went back in time as far as medieval England, examining how our ancestors lived.

What really struck me was how much work house work really was in 'the old days'. Now I'm not trying to diminish what we Modern Housewives have to do because it's still not a walk in the park. However it was nothing like what a Victorian housewife might have to go through.

For example a Victorian housewife had to strip her bed everyday to prevent moisture from entering the fabrics, ruining them and potentially making its occupants ill. There were around 10 layers of various blankets and different mattresses to each bed. Stripping one, cleaning the various parts and putting it back together again could take over an hour. Everyday!

Even with my extremely poor and slow ironing it takes me about an hour of actual contact time (not counting the time the sheets are in the washing machine) to make my bed and that is just once a week. Imagine having to do that every day.

That's not factoring in the amazing amount of labour that was involved in washing all the household linen, cleaning and dusting, particularly difficult in houses using coal or gas and then the additional labour of cooking without any convenience foods.

I'm totally and completely exhausted today. The second trimester of pregnancy is meant to leave you feeling young and sprite like and while I do feel better then I did in the dreaded first trimester, I still don't feel up to much at all. So far today all I have achieved is making a light breakfast and lunch for me and the hubby, putting in two loads of laundry and loading the dishwasher.

Luckily because of lots of lovely and beautiful machines this hasn't taken too much work at all and I've been able to spend most of the day where I have needed to be, which is in bed.