The Home of Tender Childhood

The house itself in which we live, with its surroundings and adornments, is important. Every home-influence, even the very smallest, works itself into the heart of childhood.

Homes are the real schools in which men and women are raised, and fathers and mothers are the real teachers and builders of life.

There is nothing in all the influences and surroundings of the home of tender childhood so small that it does not leave its touch of beauty or of marring upon the life.

~ JR. Miller, in Home-Making,1882 

Painting ~ A Critical Moment, Harry Brooker, 1848-1940

Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

It Matters Not

The First Birthday Party 1863, Frederick Daniel Hardy 1826-1911

It matters not how little or how much of grandeur, of luxury, of costly adornment there may be. Money and art can do many things, but they cannot make a home. There may be more of the spirit of a true home in a lowly cottage or in the one room where poverty finds a shelter, than in the stateliest mansion.         

~ J.R. Miller, in Home-Making

A Moment's Pause in Domesticity

Domesticity - home duties and pleasures 

Doing a bit of sprucing things up today. Energized by the morning light filtering through the trees out our back windows. Hearing the clear, joyful chirps of birds as they greet one another in happy song. 

Sunlight in the Blue Room 1891, Anna Archer 1859-1935

Being reminded that...

“Life was not intended to be simply a round of work, no matter how interesting and important that work may be. A moment’s pause to watch the glory of a sunrise or a sunset is soul-satisfying, while a bird’s song will set the steps to music all day long.” 

— from “As a Farm Woman Thinks,” in the Missouri Ruralist, April 15, 1923

The Richest and Best Things

God has so constituted us that in loving and caring for our own children the richest and best things in our natures are drawn out. Many of the deepest and most valuable lessons ever learned are read from the pages of unfolding child-life. We best understand the feelings and affections of God toward us when we bend over our own child and see in our human parenthood a faint image of the divine Fatherhood.

~ J.R. Miller, in Homemaking

Painting ~ Hush, John Henry Lorimer 1856-1936

Perk-Me-Up Zinnias

Domesticity - devoted to home duties and pleasures

With going through things and clearing out the garage and sending things to the dump and Restore, and taking things to the thrift shop, many of my home duties these days are not particularly pleasurable. Getting ready to move is exciting for me, yes, and therein lies the pleasure, but it's more of a dismantling job instead of tender tweaking.

So, I cut some of the bright zinnias from the front garden to brighten the supper table today. Just a little vase of color made stopping to prepare a meal a much more pleasurable task. They seemed to energize the room... and me! I think God intends flowers to do that and much more for us. They celebrate and console.

As someone has said, "God loved the flowers and invented soil. Man loved the flowers and invented vases."

The Nicest and Sweetest Days

I believe the nicest and sweetest days are not those on which anything very splendid or wonderful or exciting happens, but just those that bring simple little pleasures, following one another softly, like pearls slipping off a string.         

~ Anne of Avonlea

I hope you've had one of those kind of days. 

 
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.   ~ James 1:17

Keep looking Upward, to the source of all blessings.

Painitng ~ Chrysanthemums 1898, Daniel Ridgway Knight 1839-1924
Wiki Commons public domain

Homemaking ~ Creative Expressions

I went grocery shopping this morning, had a quilt class this afternoon, doctors' appointments last week, tomorrow and the next day. Some days can be a blur, and being a keeper of the home can certainly have its challenges in our hurry-scurry culture. It was particularly challenging when we were homeschooling, but I could have lived in those years forever. Seasons change and go on, though, which is the ebb and flow of life.

Thankfully, things will slow down next week. I very much dislike the feeling that I'm constantly facing a doctor's appointment month after month, so I intentionally set my 6- and 12-month routine appointments in January or July to get them out of the way and behind me. Gives me more planning space for something else. Like quilting. :-)

Talk at the quilt shop today went to the love of quilting and the dislike of housework. I was told many years ago that housework is like an artist's brush. You've got to keep cleaning it in order to create your work of art. That's a good perspective to keep. There's creative expression in homemaking, as Edith Shaeffer wrote in her book The Hidden Art of Homemaking. I read the original book back in the early 70s as a young woman. This is a book that keeps selling.

There are others in the class who are in the same school of thought, so we encouraged one another in our perspective that it's much better to tend to responsibilities first, then savor our leisurely sewing time. Add to that the pleasant feeling when dirty dishes, unmade beds, rushed meals (or undone exercises) aren't calling my name, and I find a sense of satisfaction with the day.

Do drop by again when you have a few moments, and I'll try to show you over the weekend my homework for the quilt class.

Painting ~ Quilting Bee, Henry Mosler 1841-1920

via American Gallery public domain

Simple Goodness in the Home

Feeding Time

It is necessary that the whole home-life and home-spirit should be in harmony with the teaching and training, if these are to make holy impressions. Simple goodness is more important than the finest theories of home government, most thoroughly and faithfully carried out. There is nothing in the daily routine of the family life which is unimportant. Indeed, it is ofttimes the things we think of as without influence, which will be found to have made the deepest impression on the tender lives of the household.

The Home Life ~ J.R. Miller,1882

Painting ~ Feeding Time, Eugene Zampighi 1859-1944
Wiki Commons public domain

Held In Our Hands

Home is the true wife's kingdom. There, first of all places, she must be strong and beautiful. She may touch life outside in many ways, if she can do it without slighting the duties that are hers within her own doors. But if any calls for her service must be declined, they should not be the duties of her home. These are hers, and no other one's. Very largely does the wife hold in her hands, as a sacred trust, the happiness and the highest good of the hearts that nestle there. The best husband—the truest, the noblest, the gentlest, the richest-hearted—cannot make his home happy if his wife be not, in every reasonable sense, a helpmate to him.

~ J.R. Miller, Secrets of Happy Home Life

Painting ~ A Ray of Sunshine, Carlton Alfred Smith 1853-1946

Wikipedia Commons public domain 

Something Better

The woman who makes a sweet, beautiful home,
filling it with love and prayer and purity,

is doing something better
than anything else her hands could find to do beneath the skies.
 
Secrets of Happy Home Life, 1894

J. R. Miller

Painting ~ Breakfast Time, Harry Brooker 1848-1940

via I Am A Child in Art History

The Wise, Thrifty, and Cheerful Regulation of the Household

I was looking through a vintage magazine this evening that had caught my attention not long ago at an antique shop—The Modern Priscilla, published January 1920. I liked the cover, so I bought it.

U.S. involvement in World War had taken a toll on the American economy, and The Modern Priscilla referred to homemakers as the Woman Army. The introductory article entitled "The March Toward Better Things" gives the mission of the magazine--"If we can help the women of today to the realization of greater beauty in their homes, ... to the wise, thrifty, and cheerful regulation of their household--if we can do all this, and add thereunto the relaxation of a good story, with now and then a thought to carry through the busy days--we shall feel that we have a rightful place beside her in this Woman Army's march toward better things."

And so to encourage the wise, thrifty, and cheerful regulation of her household, the publishers of The Modern Priscilla ran a Budget Contest and published three prize-winning manuscripts. I found the winner of the “Over $2500” category (the highest of the three categories) particularly interesting. She explained their reasoning behind their family budget and gave a rundown of their “Monthly Division”. They were newlyweds, with a mother living with them. Old Dear is the husband. It’s evident in her writing and the budget itself that this young homemaker is not self-focused and looks well to the ways of her household.

Savings $65.00

Insurance 12.00

Lord’s money 15.00

Rent 31.50

Sundries 1.00

House expense 45.00

Clothes 15.00

Health 5.00

Recreation 10.00

Entertainment 2.50

Old Dear 30.00

Mother 10.00

Yours Truly’s pin money 8.00

She writes—

“When we returned from our honeymoon last September, we sat down together to a delightfully serious session and discussed finances. There, I believe, stands the first principle in budget-making. The budget must be a joint proposition. It must represent the added experience of both husband and wife. They are partners in a going concern; both must take financial responsibility; both should know the resources and liabilities of the family. Then, if one of those distressing accidents which will sometimes happen, should occur, money affairs will go on smoothly and not prove an added burden. Then, too, if there is mutual frankness and confidence, the working out of the budget will not prove irksome.”

     She sums up the advantages of a budget:

1. It insures saving. You save a definite amount, not what is “left over.”
2. Having a definite amount makes wise investing easier.
3. It insures money on hand for all ordinary, and some unusual needs.
4. Prevents extravagance in any one direction.
5. Prevents marring the serenity of the home or bickering over finances.
6. Makes the wife a real partner in the firm.
7. Gives the humblest clerk the fun of managing a real business.
8. Makes for a balanced life. Sometimes the figures show startling facts.

And—the figuring takes very little time, far less than that consumed “wondering where the money goes.”

Good advice for those of us managing a household in 2011 as well!

She looketh well to ways of her household…Give her the product of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gate. ~Proverbs 31

A Great and Noble Task

The Hardworking Mother, Chardin

I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.

~ Helen Keller 

 

... applying all diligence, in your faith supply  

moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, 

knowledge, and in your knowledge,  

self-control, and in your self-control, 

perseverance, and in your perseverance,  

godliness, and in your godliness, 

brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness,  

love.  

For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, 

they render you neither useless nor unfruitful 

in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

~ 2 Peter 1:5-8

Painting ~ The Hard Working Mother 1740, Jean Baptiste Simeon Chardin 1699-1779
Wikimedia Commons public domain

Little Known...Yet Influential

She was little known beyond her home; but there she silently spread around her that soft, pure light, the preciousness of which is never full understood till it is quenched.

~ William E.Channing

Painting ~ Family In An Interior ~ Giovanni Batista Torriglia 1858-1937
Wiki Art public domain

A Hundred Virtues

Hanging the Washing ~ Helen Allingham

Thank God every day when you get up
that you have something to do that day
which must be done whether you like it or not.
Being forced to work and forced to do your best will breed in you
temperance and self-control,
diligence and strength of will,
cheerfulness and content,
and a hundred virtues which the idle will never know.
~ Basil Carpenter

.....

Daily Details

 “In His wisdom God gives to each of us a limited, finite number of hours a year in which to achieve our goals, both material and spiritual. He gives us these hours in sequence, day by day, month by month. If they are wasted, however, they are neither repeatable nor refundable. He gives the same amount to the rich and to the poor, to the young and to the old. Whatever successes we may achieve in this life will come from the purpose to which we put God’s priceless gift—time.”

Leon, A. Danco, Ph.D. as quoted in
Feminism: mystique or mistake? by Diane Passno

Dishtowels that Organize the Week

Today was another snuggle-in day. My daughter in SC has been in 12 inches of snow, so our mere covering further north seems a bit mediocre. We didn't get the inches that were expected, but it was still nice and cozy to be snowed in. So I lingered with a cup of tea during my quiet time this morning and worked a bit on a new quilt this evening since church was canceled.

Between the bookends I did a couple of major tasks--prep for my homeschooling class tomorrow and caught up on ironing, inspired by a Christmas gift from my thoughtful sister-in-law who hand-embroidered a set of dish towels for me. I always said I could clean and re-organize my kitchen around a new dish towel. Well, she gave me one for each day--and I'm organizing my week around them!

I had been considering for some time how God did a major act each day of creation, and so I had begun to set my major home tasks in order--sort of "in his image" kind of thinking. There's a Sunday towel, Monday is grocery day ("Market Day" on the dishtowel), Tuesday is laundry day ("Wash Day"), and today the "Iron Day" towel is out. Thursday I'm using the "Gardening Day," towel, but since there's no gardening in the middle of winter, I'm designating that towel for my homeschooling class day until spring--sort of a something-extra-kind-of day. I'm using the "Cleaning Day" towel on Friday to get the house spiffy for the weekend and Sunday rest, and the "Baking Day" towel on Saturday to do just that.

Nestled among all the majors are the minors, the just-for-funners, and the R&Rs. I heard Nancy Leigh DeMoss give an illustration of putting the larger balls (major priorities) in a container (representing a day) first, then filling in with the smaller balls (less important activities, etc.). Voila! More gets accomplished, rather than the other way around--puttering away the day on the minors and funners, with little or no room left for the majors.

Thanks, Connie and Nancy, for the inspiration to get my home duties in order!

An Abiding Influence

There is nothing which has a more abiding influence on the happiness of a family than the preservation of equable and cheerful temper and tones in the housekeeper. A woman who is habitually gentle, sympathizing, forbearing, and cheerful, carries an atmosphere about her which imparts a soothing and sustaining influence, and renders it easier for all to do right, under her administration, than in any other situation.

--from "American Woman's Home" 
by Catharine Esther Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe 1869