Have you noticed the traditional homemaking skills are disappearing? It is so sad women think their role as homemaker isn't as important or even as equal to men working outside the home. I have nothing against women who work, and given the chance, I wouldn't mind doing something productive outside my home as well. But just because there are jobs women can fill, doesn't mean their work at home is any less ...well, special for lack of a better word :)
I actually find myself wishing highschools taught home ec. nowadays. Seems like when they did, women took pride in caring for the home, reguardless of their marital status. There were tricks for getting dishes to "sparkle" or at least not have water spots. Furnishings were homemade and better cared for - everything from furniture, to pictures, to rugs, to linens. You didn't get rid of something simply because it wasn't the latest model, or didn't match your new stainless steel color-scheme.
I think of it now as a lost art. Sometimes you will run across women who still live like this, and be astounded. Martha Stewart with her full crew has nothing on a woman who raised 10 kids on a farm during the depression and managed to care for her home, family and farmhands, cooking homegrown meals and sewing their clothes. Doing just about everything by hand (which honestly does a much better job than most modern machines out there).
Lately, I've been finding myself drawn to these traditional domestic "doings". I am hoping to take up quilting this summer, and decorate our vintage home much they way people used to (handmade things :) James just put the clothesline back up, so I can hang laundry out to dry, I scrub the kitchen floor at least once a week, and am trying to make better homemade meals. Jax and I also have some peas and beans growin! We are also trying to upcycle things, like saving paper towel tubes and popcycle sticks for projects. Hopefully, I can master these new old skills and pass them on to my kids so that somewhere in the world, there will be people who know the correct way to fold a fitted sheet :)
6 comments:
Wow! I completely, 100 percent agree Laura! I so wish I had those domestic gifts. I think that when a woman pays attention to housekeeping, she acutally does take more pride in her work and her vocation. As you learn the new old skills, you should post them on here, for the rest of us to learn! :) I would so appreciate it!
You're right; it is a bit of a lost art!
xxx
Awesome post!
And, Ooo! How DO you fold a fitted sheet??
Hey Laura,
I really admire this post. I would like to learn what you learn as well, please post. Oh, by the way, I am expecting again! Found out Mother's day! Please call me, as I don't have your new number. I do, but somewhere in my e-mails!
Love Ya,
Alisha
You don't know me, I saw your blog on Mary's (I've known her since I was eight) and was incredibly inspired by your post. I work 12 hours a day seven days a week on a ship as an engineer/supervisor (we get off for 45 hours between 7 day shifts). I have to say your post was incredibly uplifting, motivational, and awesome. I cannot wait to one day have a family. I've seen how parents directly influence their children later on down the road and I hope to be able to do something similar as you one day. God bless you.
Amen, Laura!
After all, as Titus 2 instructs, we as women are called to " . . . be in behaviour as becometh 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."
Post a Comment