Finding joy in the everyday

A few months ago I wrote a blog post about the taking an audit of the skills that young women need when when they marry and start a family. One of my readers asked if I could do a post looking at what skills a young modern women needs when they marry and set up home for the first time and when they have children.  Women do a lot of things and the list is diverse. None of us go into marriage knowing everything, but there are basics we really should know and should have been taught growing up i.e. how to cook a simple meal, how to wash the clothes, vacuum, make a bed etc... If we are lacking these skills we will run into problems on day one.  Basic "female" skills are becoming endangered with fewer young women able to iron a shirt, cook a roast chicken or hem a skirt. Just as more modern men are unable to complete traditional male tasks, new research shows Generation Y women can't do the chores their mothers and grandmothers did daily ( source ) Sadly many...

Sometimes I don't have a clue what to write about and today was one of them!!!  I rack my brain for ideas and sometimes nothing comes  . . . then I stumble across an interesting fact and think that perhaps I could write about XY or Z!!  My interesting fact for today was the that women of the past use to spend up to 4 hours per day caring for their stoves — that is a lot of time and energy and thought how blessed I was to be a woman of this modern age where I have electricity, gas, plumbing and lots of mod-cons that make my life so much easier.  I really don't have a lot of complain about.  So as a result of my little fact, I though I would re-visit the home of a woman 150 years ago, perhaps a pioneer woman a long way from civilisation and her family — they knew what hard work was all about. We really don't have a clue, but that doesn't stop us from complaining about our tough life!  These days, we no longer need to spend all day everyday doi...

I am currently reading Joanna Weaver's book " Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World " . In the book she tells the story of the "Overloaded Wagon" by Rosemarie Kowalski.  Every woman will relate this story as we all do it from time to time, or perhaps all the time. It is a long story, so do set aside a little time to read it - it is SO worth it.  Its all about learning to say  "no" for the right reasons.  And many thanks to blogger " Faithful Provisions " for having it all typed out so I didn't need to.  Tomorrow I will list the suggestions from Joanna Weavers book on how to dump the rocks in our lives. Saying no can be difficult which is why we don't generally do it.  **** The story is told of a man who met God in a lovely valley one day.  ”How are you this morning?” God asked the fellow. “I’m fine, thank you,” the man replied. “Is there anything I can do for you today?” “Yes, there is,” God said. “I have a ...

Running a home can be  hard work . Lets not pretend otherwise. Some people really struggle and others seem to breeze through. She watches over the ways of her household (Proverbs 31:27) But no matter how hard housework is, we need to find a way to do it as " building " and " watching " over our homes is one of our major responsibilities as a Christian wife and mother.  These days keeping house is considered old fashion, out of date, politically incorrect. It is an area of many arguments about gender roles and equality. "The children of baby boomers have now grown up and become doctors and lawyers and journalists who have made their parents proud. And they have learned to hire a cleaner to do the work that they don't have time for and often don't know how to do. " (Source: Keeping House by Cerentha Harris) Many young women today leave their parents home with inadequate (or no) skills to run and maintain a home. Many mothers sad...

If you had one extra hour in your day how would you use it? This question was asked in the Huffington Post the other day and I thought it was interesting. Here are the of the responses from a US survey: Relax (36%) Sleep (27%) Time with friends and family (27%) Exercise (24%) Housework (20%) Watch TV (19%) Sex (15%) Cook (12%) Play music (10%) Study (9%) Home repairs (9%) Office work (5%) Something else (13%) Not sure (11%) What would I do - sleep, read, hobbies, go for a walk but it wouldn't include housework!! More time with my husband and children. I could sure do far more praying and bible reading.  And you? Perhaps the question should be - do I use the 24 hours I already have wisely? I am sure there is a reason why God gave us 24 hours in a day and not 25 or 26 hours. 

If you have teenagers (in particular boys) you might relate to (all or some) of this! When my son comes to visit, the first thing he does is check out the fridge, I have leftovers and he wants to eat them!! He thinks my leftovers are always better than his. I do have to say that my sons never trashed the house, it wasn't worth it!!  I don't tolerating trashing and they knew it!!!  And they were also quite good at cleaning - once again, when mum says to clean, mum means it. Yes, I was always tough with my kids when it came to helping with the cleaning. No mess in my house:))))  Have a wonderful weekend.

Tulips at Floriade I have been home for five weeks and now I am returning to work.  You may not understand this, but  part of me is looking forward to going to back to work and let me explain why. Whilst I enjoyed eating breakfast in bed every morning and having time to read without being rushed, I did feel rather lazy by the end!  Whilst I liked being my own boss and doing whatever I wanted during the day, I ran out of things to do (constructive worthwhile things). I found myself dusting when I didn't need to and I finished any housework well before morning tea and this left me with almost an entire day to do what every I wanted e.g. reading (managed seven books), gardening (all the weeds have been removed, mulching is now complete and the vegetables planted), going out (and spending far too much money as I am no good at window shopping), eating (I eat far more when I am at home), watching DVD's (not terribly constructive at all but I did finish the Christy seri...

Fresh laundry by Charlene Winter Olson D on't mystify homemaking. Don't make it sound so complicated that a young woman wants to run a mile to avoid it. Homemaking has been done for centuries, it isn't new, it isn't complex, it really is a necessity. Many blogs that talk about homemaking make it sound so complicated and time consuming it becomes scary.  If I was young woman who knew very little about homemaking, I would be very nervous about learning the craft as some homemakers really like to mystify it and make it far more complicated than it needs to be! In reality, women have been doing it forever and it isn't hard once you have learnt the basic skills. Once you have these skills, what you do next is up to you. Each of us interpret homemaking differently. What creative angle you add to your homemaking is up to you. How slow or quick you do things, is also up to you. You may have long lists of activities, others just wing it.  It doesn't ...

As I was doing the housework/bread making on Saturday morning I was thinking of a blog I had recently read . . . it was mulling over in my mind.  I really shouldn't have taken it to heart, but sometimes these things happen.  The topic was about creating a home for ones husband and family and several comments were along the following lines:  that working women do " housework " and not " home-keeping " therefore they are " not creating a special home for their husbands " as they don't have the time to spend doing those finer details.  And because they don't have the time to " clean thoroughly " (deep clean) it isn't quite as " good/clean ".   This really upset me. Very silly I know, but I don’t like these sort of comment as it tries to say (perhaps unintentionally) that some women are doing a lesser job because they aren't at home all day and if you aren’t at home all day your house suffers.   I have many working women...

I know most of you are stay-at-home mums, however there maybe a few out there that go off to work or perhaps you know someone who is working but not coping very well with the stresses. These tips might be useful. The most important message I can give anyone is to keep your home TIDY (thanks mum).  If the house is a mess, it can quickly lead to frustration and stress.  If I get up in the morning/arrive home from work in the afternoon and find a tidy home everything runs smoothly—I feel better. The motto in our house is " a place for everything and everything in its place ”.  Nothing is left lying about—something my sons learnt early.  Another thing that is also important is keeping up with the chores by doing a little each day.  By the time the weekend arrives there is very little to do (except to buy the groceries). Planning meals and buying all the food in one go also saves heaps of time and avoids stopping off on the way home to buy bits and pieces that ha...

Have you ever started cleaning your house and ending up doing something completely different that you never plan to do. The other day I decided to clean out Ruby's kitty litter tray.  To do this I turned on the kettle to boil water and got out the vacuum cleaner.  Whilst waiting for the kettle to boil I thought I would vacuum the lounge room.  As I stood in the middle of the room and looked around I decided to move some chairs.  One thing to led to another and before I knew it I had rearranged the whole room! I had also cleaned the walls, dusted, rearranged books, ornaments, cushions and even moved paintings on the walls + had a pile of things to throw away and another pile to take to the Lifeline  book fair this coming week. Two hours later I re-boiled the kettle and cleaned the kitty litter tray plus vacuumed the rest of the house.  I quite these surprises, starting on one task and ending up doing a whole bunch of other things!!  It means I never ...

  It is in winter that I really can't imagine what it would be like to be without a washing machine. At this time of the year I wash every second day and and imagine if I had to do it all by hand in a cooper!! Washing every second day is to avoid that huge pile of washing growing bigger and bigger by the end of the week. In summer this isn’t a problem as I can put all the washing on the clothes line (we have the traditional Hills Hoist below) and the clothes dry very quickly.  In winter I dry my clothes in the house on a “clothes horse” (airier) and with the central heating it dries overnight.  We do have a clothes drier in the laundry but I only use it occasionally — I don’t like the idea of running it every second night for 90mins. I also like the smell of freshly washed clothes that have dried in the sun/wind.   Finding all the clothes that I need to wash can be difficult.  My husband is fine, he creates a pile on the bedroom floor every night and I move it...