Beautiful Homemakers

Arthur Sarnoff Our homes help create the sense of a chaotic, out-of-control existence – or a sense of well-being .   Imagine a home that is cozy, serene, and warm .  A place to worship and have family altar.  A place to teach our children.  A place to love our husbands.  A place to renew ourselves.  Like mine, your home may not be structurally beautiful.  We may not have a fireplace, French doors, crown molding, or new furniture.  Yet we can still make our homes beautiful !   We can intentionally bring comfort, warmth, and sacred touches to our home .  We don’t have to do it all overnight – but we can be intentional over this next year (no matter what month you are reading this). Redundabundance – an unrestricted desire and ability to obtain more of what you already have too much of   ~Harriet Schechter Why is it so hard to conquer clutter?  Because it seems to go against our basic instincts...

We have so much FREEDOM in Christ that we are often very lax in our prayers.  When I see the rigidity of other religions I am reminded of two things: 1) We are FREE in Christ - free to worship at any time, anywhere (not to mention freedom from our sins); and  2) We sometimes abuse this freedom. We end up not praying regularly or with solemnity, or deeply.  We can jot off a "Help me, Lord" in the car, or in the bathroom.  Other religions may find such familiarity disrespectful. But since we are FREE in Christ to pray anywhere - and prayer in secret is encouraged - we often forget to bow down before our Lord!  We forget the power of praying ALOUD to our Father. I know that 60 years ago it was still common for a mother and child to kneel in prayer at bedtime.  What happened? My New Year's Resolution is more intimate, respectful, worshipful prayer, first thing in the morning, out loud. This year, we can all set the example for our childre...

Arthur Sarnoff It is important to change your body’s rhythms – that will take at least one week.  The KEY is that you are changing your NIGHT rhythm while actively changing your MORNING wake-up rhythm.  If you go to bed at midnight or later, your body gets less deep rest.  Every hour you are in bed before midnight is like TWO hours after midnight to your body.  In order to change your rhythm you must know your natural rhythm – how many hours does your body WANT each night – without using an alarm clock to get up, and without forcing yourself to bed at a certain hour?  Mine is 9 hours.  When I worked, I never got 9 hours, so I always had to make up for it on the weekends, which totally ruined most weekends.  My husband also needs 9 hours.  Many people only need 8, or even 7.  Some need 10 or even 11!  You must know this before you can correctly and successfully set your internal alarm clock. You know you have successfull...

Arthur Sarnoff 1955 Rule #4: Nothing on the Floor No More! ...Once you have a firm grip on the fact that a floor is not a big shelf at your feet, you can begin to clear the space…   from page 23 of The Beverly Hills Organizer’s Home Organizing Bible by Linda Koopersmith  Murphy’s Law means my neighbors only come to visit when my house is a mess.  No one drops by when it is sparkling.  Therefore, we now e-mail each other when our house looks especially good.  We pop over and ooh and ahh and laugh and compare notes.  We all have had hoarding tendencies and paper problems, and we all love FlyLady.  Keeping house is not about perfection or having model homes.  It’s about living and doing our best, without stressing over the small things.  But when those small things cause major problems, it is time to dig in and find new ways to solve the nagging little problems that cause continual frustration .  We need to constantly imple...

Photo by bridgetroll Finding Your Way Home by Lucynda Koesters is the most complete book I own on figuring out how you can stay home with your child, and I bought every book I could find on the subject.  Many are good, but this is the best. Part I includes 10 compelling reasons, in full chapter detail, on why someone would want to stay home. She discusses the needs of infants, toddlers, grade schoolers & teens. She discusses mental and physcial health, your marriage, family life, and having no regrets . Part II discusses your options, your finances (which is excellent), contingency plans, your new life, the Porch Swing Test, and even creating an action plan (very useful). Part III discusses how to be successful at home. Daily schedules, managing your children and your house, staying motivated, creating a safe haven, weekly routines, and being at home.   There is also an addendum for single parents and how they can come home too! I wrote to the auth...

photo credit What time do you plan on eating dinner?  Most organized women begin dinner preparations at 4:30 p.m. OR, preferably, before breakfast!  Early risers lay out all the nonperishable ingredients and dishes, and do preparation such as chopping celery and grating cheese.  Shocking, but true!    I'm not an early riser, so in the beginning 4:30 p.m. was always my starting time, unless I was using a crock pot, in which case preparation must be done in the morning, and at 2:45 p.m. if using a bread maker.  You must begin at 4:00 p.m. if you need to clean up your kitchen beforehand.   If you plan to eat at 6:00 p.m., then 4:30 is your LATEST starting time! Have a child set the table.  Check his or her work.  Make sure you have taught them properly, and remember to SMILE and praise them!  No criticizing!  Ask your children to come up with a centerpiece.  Keep a Bible handy to read a passage right aft...

We cut 60% from our grocery and eating out budget when I quit working.  photo credit Sorry! This post was so outdated that I removed it.  An updated and greatly expanded version appears in my book How to Thrive on One Income.     

1951 Arthur Sarnoff The aged women likewise, that they be in behavior as becomes holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children; to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. These are not suggestions; they are God’s will for us! To be Sober:   To be moderate, self-controlled, humble, well-balanced, steady, calm, cool, collected, quiet, thoughtful, serious, earnest, sincere, use common sense,  to do one’s duty, to simplify, and to learn to make wise decisions and judgments. To Love Their Husbands: Be sexy for your husband!  Love on him physically and provide a place he wants to come home to.  Meet his physical and material needs in the home. To Love Their Children:   Seems like an easy one, but I hate it when I hear mom’s bagging on their teens....

AdvertisingArchives I knew that God had called young women to be “Keepers at Home” (Titus 2:5), but someone recently pointed out to me that raising my son at home is a “sacred responsibility.”  God has given me a sacred responsibility!  Am I living up to it?  Am I doing what God requires of me?  Am I wasting money?  Wasting the hours of my life?  Wasting the hours of my son’s life?  Am I content?  Fearful? In the past I have been very unhappy with our home.  It just wasn’t what I had in mind.  Slowly, through prayer and hard work, I have accepted the house and have been making it more ours.   There were so many little detail things I could have done to make it nicer, and I am finally accomplishing them.  My heart is now fixed on my home. I have always wanted to “keep house,” but not moving into an empty or clean home when we married really put me off balance.  I felt I was failing miserably, first because I ...

RetroRenovation.com I have always wanted to be “at home” and so I am reveling in it.  I thoroughly enjoy each day.  I know I have taken excellent care of our son, and myself….but my husband and our home?  Well, I had wimped out.  It “wasn’t my fault” I came into a dirty, cluttered up house. I have always wanted to care for my home, and did just fine before I married my husband.  I enjoyed cleaning, laundry, and decorating to a degree.  I’d get up early and bake muffins and light candles and dream about the future.  After I got married and real-life hit, I wasn’t quite so good as I thought I would be about being a homemaker.  It was easy to just pick up after me, but do HIS laundry?  Clean up his kitchen messes?  I certainly was not his slave, and I was feeling like a martyr.  Once I “came home” I first adjusted my attitude, realizing that while I finally had my dream of being home, my husband still had to go off to work...

Wendy Hilty 1955 When I first moved into my new husband’s house, I developed asthma.  The place was so dusty that I would begin itching whenever I entered it (he hadn't been living in the house).  I began to see an allergist and found I was extremely allergic to dust.  When we removed the carpet we were relieved to find hardwood floors underneath.  Eliminating the carpet eliminated my asthma. Decluttering all the rooms & drawers took a long time (I still have one room I call the junk room that is filled with family memorabilia I haven’t gone through yet).  But during this time of clearing out clutter, I began to feel physically bad.  We found lots of products, including banned pesticides like DDT, and I began to wonder just how much my new environment was affecting me.   H ome Safe Home I bought the book Home Safe Home by Debra Lynn Dadd which has 400 pages of How to Determine If a Product is Toxic To You, How Safe is Your Home, I...