Every summer Mia comes to stay with Grandma for a whole week. Grandma always has tons of fun things planned for them to do together.

     Mia's favourite chocolate cupcake with pink icing is waiting for her on the kitchen table. Grandma pours herself a cup of tea.

     "What are we gonna do this week?" Mia asks excitedly as she licks the icing off her cupcake. Grandma's pitbull Goofy lays down under the table and waits for chocolate crumbs to fall.

     "Well, I'm not getting any younger," Grandma tells Mia. "I was thinking you could help me with the housework this week."

     "Housework!" That didn't sound like fun to Mia.

     "We'll have a wonderful time," Grandma says dreamily as she sips her tea. "We'll make a game out of it."

     "A housework game? Like on my iPad?" Mia asks hopefully.

     "No, Mia," Grandma shakes her head. "A real game. Look." She opens a kitchen drawer and brings out a stack of absolutely ancient dish cloths.

     "These are very special," she tells Mia. "We'll use them to play our housework game."

     "What's wrong with Grandma?" Mia whispers to Goofy. "We can't play a game with dish cloths! And these are so old and stained they'll probably disintegrate if I touch them."

     Goofy doesn't seem worried. He licks chocolate crumbs off Mia's face.

     "There are seven dish cloths, one for each day of the week," Grandma continues. "They belonged to my mother, your great grandma. She embroidered them herself when she was about your age."

     "What's embroidered?" Mia wants to know.

     Grandma patiently explains that embroidery is making pictures with a needle and thread. She tells Mia that the dish cloths are made out of flour sacks.

     "No way!" Mia protests. "Flour comes in paper bags."

     Grandma smiles. "Not back then. It came in great big cloth sacks. Great Grandma needed lots of flour to make bread and pie crust. There were no bakeries back then."

     No bakeries!

     Mia tries to imagine life without salted caramel brownies.

     "Tomorrow's Monday," Grandma says, pointing at a yellow dish cloth, "so we'll start with this one. Monday is wash day."

     "I think that red headed girl is making spaghetti in a big pot," Mia tells Grandma.

     "She's washing clothes in a tub," Grandma laughs. "Great Grandma had to heat water on a wood burning stove. Then she rubbed the clothes back and forth on a washboard. She even made her own soap."

     "Wow, that's a bunch of work." Mia's face falls. Goofy whines and licks her hand.

     "Is that what we're going to do tomorrow, Grandma? Boil water and make soap?"

     Grandma hugs Mia. "We'll do laundry but it's easier than it used to be. We'll just put the dirty clothes in the washing machine with detergent and push a button."

     "Does that mean we can go feed the ducks in the park?" Mia asks hopefully. Goofy wags his tail.

      "We sure can. Then we'll come home and put the laundry in the dryer," Grandma replies. "There will still be lots of time left to visit the dinosaur museum after that."

     "Yay!" whoops Mia. "But how did Great Grandma get her clothes dry?"

     Grandma explains how the wet laundry was hung on a wash line outside to dry, even in winter when it was freezing.

     "Gosh!" says Mia.

     Tuesday at breakfast Grandma gets another dish cloth out of the drawer. Mia looks at it while she crunches maple cereal.

     "What's she doing?"

     Grandma seems surprised. "Mia! Haven't you ever seen an iron or an ironing board?" she gasps.

     "Umm ... no," Mia admits. "What are they for?" Goofy tilts his head to the side because he doesn't know either.

     Shaking her head, Grandma explains how to put a piece of clothing or a sheet on a special board. "The iron is hot and when you press it down all the wrinkles in the fabric go away."

        "Oh. That's great," says Mia although she doesn't really care much about wrinkles.

     Grandma notices her lack of enthusiasm. "Well I suppose it doesn't really matter," she chuckles. "People don't iron their clothes much any more. Do you have anything that needs ironing?"

     Mia thinks about the jeans and tees tossed all over the floor in her room. She shakes her head no.

     "You know what that means? We can go the new swim park for the whole day!"

     "They built a swim park?" Mia screams. "Oh, wow, Grandma, I love ironing day!"

     "Me, too," agrees Grandma. They exchange a happy high five. Mia scampers off to find her swim suit.

     "Where's the Wednesday dish cloth, Grandma?" Mia asks as soon as she wakes up the next morning.

     "Why, Mia, it sounds like you're starting to enjoy housework," Grandma chuckles. The dishcloth is waiting for Mia by her breakfast plate. She studies it carefully while Grandma mixes up waffles.

     "She's sewing!" Mia exclaims. "I see a spool of thread, a needle and scissors."

     "That's right," agrees Grandma as she piles food on Mia's plate. "Wednesday is for mending."

     "I know what sewing is, but what's mending?" Mia mumbles, her mouth full of crispy waffles and sweet syrup. Goofy lays down by her feet under the table.

       "Mending is fixing rips and patching holes. People used to do that instead of just buying new stuff," Grandma explains. "Do you have anything that needs mending, Mia?"

        "The button on my jeans is coming off," Mia confesses. After breakfast they go to Grandma's sewing table. As she fixes the button Grandma tells Mia that Great Grandma had no such thing as a sewing machine. Little girls had to sit still for hours every day learning to stitch and embroider.

     Goofy yawns and Mia makes a face. "Yuck! I'm glad I don't have to do that."

        "Me, too," agrees Grandma as she gives Mia her jeans back. "How about we go to the zoo? Later we can get a pizza for supper."

     Goofy perks up his ears when Grandma says "pizza".

        "I'm afraid we really do need to work today, Mia," Grandma sighs the next morning. "It's cleaning day."

        "I guess that hasn't changed much since the olden days." Mia mopes as she spreads blueberry jam over her crumpet. On Thursday's dish cloth the red headed girl is sweeping.

        Grandma hides a smile. "Let's see how it goes. You can do the vacuuming."

        Mia pushes the start button on the robot vacuum and watches it zoom away. "Do you need help washing the dishes, Grandma?" she offers.

        "Thank you Mia," Grandma answers. "I just loaded the dishwasher so if you push the start button for me that chore is done."

        Grandma has two fluffy dusters. She mixes them up behind her back and lets Mia pick one.

     "I got the long one, Grandma!" Mia shouts. She pretends to be a butterfly fluttering while they dust. Grandma tells stories. Mia discovers that Great Grandma's floor was dirt instead of carpet or wood.

     "Keeping things clean with a dirt floor wasn't easy," Grandma chuckles, "but at least there was no bathroom to clean. That's because there were no bathrooms."

     "No way!" squeals Mia. "No bathrooms?"

     "Nope," Grandma assures her. "Just a shack outside and a bench with a hole in it. Afterwards you pumped water to wash your hands."

     "Oh my gosh!" Mia can hardly believe the stories Grandma's telling about the olden days. Before long the dusting is done.

     "That was fun!" says Mia.

     On Friday's dishcloth the red headed girl is pushing a cart with a baby in it. 

     "Are we going to babysit today, Grandma?" Mia asks as she devours scrambled eggs and bacon. "I love babies."

     Grandma shakes her head. "The picture shows a little girl taking her doll along when she goes shopping. Friday is market day."

     "Let me guess." Mia rolls her eyes. "They had to harness up the horse to the wagon and drive all the way to town."

     "Why that's right, Mia." Grandma looks pleased. "And what do you think they shopped for?"

     "Clothes?" Mia guesses. "Groceries?"

     "You couldn't just buy clothes," Grandma explains. "You went to the dressmaker's shop for fabric and made the clothes yourself."