Lost Knowledge, Part 2
The situation we find ourselves in as homemakers requires humility, teachability, and intentionality.
Lost Knowledge, Part 1
The whole reason I started this blog, this group, read homemaking books all the time, and look for tenders in stories, is to train myself to value homemaking.
Leaving Room (Part 4)
Our homes are chronically frantic because we are attempting to rid ourselves of false guilt.
Leaving Room (Part 3)
Another big part of leaving room in our lives is getting better at what we do, learning new things, and preparing for coming trouble
The Tricky Part
I adore anything and everything that romanticizes and elevates the ordinary. Anything that draws back the veil on the mundane and routine so that we can catch a fleeting glimpse of the magic working behind the scenes. For just a moment, we catch sight of the intangible
Speaking to Ourselves
We have a responsibility to engage in the good the Lord has provided for us. Just like a good Mom wants her children to enjoy life, our Good Lord has gifted us with many beautiful things He wants us to enjoy. Are you enjoying them?
Setting the Feel of the Home
One of the tools we can apply to do our work is to sit down and decide what we would like the vibe, the fragrance, of our home to be. What is the ultimate production we wish to set our hearts and hands and minds to producing? What is the ultimate fruit we are seeking to produce? What is our endgame? What are we pointing and working towards
Holiday Recovery
One of the biggest blessings of the holidays is their ability to get us out of the rut of life. One of the other big blessings is their ability to help us appreciate the rut.
Leaving Room (Part 2)
Leaving room isn’t doing nothing, it’s making the choice to engage in things that are productive but flexible instead of mostly things that are rigid and productive. This is one of the true baseline delights of homemaking.
Leaving Room (Part 1)
The more you take the productivity of the home seriously, the more you see what the home can produce. This is the deep magic of homemaking. Production leads to deeper and greater production. But it can also be a siren song of busyness.
The Patience of the New Matron and the Perseverance of the Mature Matron
New Matrons are going to be tempted by discouragement because everything feels so unfamiliar and overwhelming while Mature Matrons will be tempted to boredom and stagnation because everything has become too routine and comfortable. We can help each other out of these troubles if we work together and engage each other in the grand work of homemaking. This
Doing the Hard Things in Community
The real challenge, the hard thing we must do is express amazement at marriage, children, housekeeping, and church membership. Our hearts are Babylon, and we must plant flowers there and wait on the Lord. We must do the hard thing of rejoicing in the laundry, cooking, cleaning, and dishes. We must find the delight in the opportunities that sickness provides to closely tend. We must be thankful, even joyous in the grief, burdens, and exhaustion. We were made for this and we do the hard things.
Holiday Productivity
Productivity is better measured by the love of our traditions not the number of them. It is measured by the delight and wonder of our people not the number of parties we rush to. It’s measured by the joy and enjoyment of food, not by how much food. It is measured by our hearts not our stuff.
Femininity (Part 2)
Ladies, we must realize we have been robbed of everything that defines us by the feminist movement. They’ve erased all that is good, all our natural gifts and graces, and left us with only the worst of ourselves to carry into the night.
Meal Planning
Meal planning is an important skill to learn as a homemaker. Start somewhere and patiently playtest until you find a system that works for you. Not meal planning leaves you open to waste and excessive spending, frustration and anxiety, and blind to what is happening in your home.
Productivity
Productivity is abundance, and abundance can be found in many places. Maybe the first place we should start is by seeking to love abundantly and to have an abundance of good attitudes.
Complaining
Complaining will rot our souls, ruin our homes, and destroy our relationships with our husbands, our children, and our churches.
So You Want to be a Homemaker? (Part 4)
When you get to know people, you start to learn about needs. This is where you plug in and become part of the knitting circle yourself.