Beautiful Homemakers

RetroRenovation.com   A Prayer for a Little Home God, send us a little home  to come back to when we roam. Wooden floors and fluted tiles, wide windows, a view for miles. Red firelight and deep chairs, small white beds upstairs. Great talk in little nooks, soft colors, rows of books. One picture on each wall, not so many things at all. God, send us a little ground, tall trees stand ’round. Homely flowers in fertile sod, overhead, thy stars, O God. God bless thee when winds blow, Our home and all we know.     ~ Florence Bone I moved into a cluttered home (and brought lots with me) which I wrote about here: http://keeping-house.blogspot.com/2011/04/learning-to-love-small-house.html .   I’ve been moving the clutter out for 9 years now.   Now the layer that is being removed is the baby-stage equipment, toys and clothes.   But I still need encouragement and know-how, and Cheryl Mendelson has helped me run my home ...

In my view, we have done a radical thing.   We have moved our child’s bed into our bedroom. photo credit Many women are screeching right now.   But we are getting a fantastic night’s sleep!   Deep sleep.   Contented sleep.   No waking up in the middle of the night sleep.   No little footsteps padding into our bedroom and snuggling into bed with us. It all started with a nightmare, that our boy still tells in great detail.   Or did it start with the big boy bed?   My sweet husband, when our child first crawled into bed with us at age 3, said, “I don’t get to see him enough during the day.   I want to snuggle him.”   I told him he’d regret it.   He swears he didn’t regret it, but he was getting tired of being whacked in the face with a stray arm, and kicked in the side to warm little toes.   He would joke that he was going to put his bed in our closet so that he could get a good night’s sleep. But that got my m...

A. Sarnoff You are as much serving God in looking after your own children, training them up in God's fear, minding the house, and making your household a church for God as you would be if you had been called to lead an army to battle for the Lord of Hosts .  ~Charles Spurgeon   Martha and Mary Martha was busy!  Mary was, too. Jesus might visit before they were through! “Swish, swish, sweep” went Martha’s broom. As Martha went to work, her face showed gloom. “Flap, flap, Flip” went the rugs Mary shook. As Mary went to work with a cheerful look. Soon Jesus came in the big front door. Mary was quiet, while Martha worked more. Hurry-scurry-fret-and-worry Martha rushed around. Doing helpful things for Jesus, while peaceful Mary just sat down. “Get up, Mary! Help me!” the frowning Martha said. “If you don’t work and help me, we won’t get Jesus fed.” Jesus looked at Martha with eyes that seemed quite sad. “Martha, sit with Mar...

Monday Morning by Sarnoff How will you spend your year? It took me about 40 minutes to really think how I was going to fit everything I say I want to do into one week.  I finally came up with: 11:00 – 8:00 SLEEP.  Yes, we need 9 hours.  8:00 – Get ready – this includes breakfast, exercise, and dressing/hair/make-up/jewelry.  9:00 – I determined that right now, I can only homeschool 3 days a week in order to keep on top of everything.  By this I mean h.s. that is structured, with my reading lessons to him and supervising every letter my kindergartner is writing.  The other days still have books on tape, Classical Conversations songs, reading before bed, reading to self, and practicing writing.  But I need the other 2 days to go grocery shopping, run errands, make meals, declutter, do chores, and do laundry.  Or to go to the park before lunch, when it is uncrowded and the sunshine makes the whole world look beautiful.  Mon...