Making My Home A Haven is important to me. Sharing homemaking skills. Recipes and food. Bible Studies. This is a treasure chest of goodies. So take a seat. Have a glass of tea and enjoy. You will learn all about who I am.
Food: One of the Most Unifying Tools in the Hands of Homemaker
Every family has their own food culture. Favorite recipes and traditions passed down through generations, foods from an ethnic heritage, as well as lifestyle foods based on health, convenience, and economics all make up the circumference of foods a family regularly enjoys. Certain foods in each family are also traditional for certain holidays, and occasions.
“Imagine a porch filled with rocking chairs and people sitting in those rockers with dogs laying at the feet of those around them, screened doors pulled open and slamming shut as kids dash out to play tag with one another, glasses with perspired edges filled with ice cold sweet tea, good smells coming from the kitchen, siblings pulling out card tables to set up extra seating because there’s not enough room at the family dining table and mom swatting at dad’s hand to stop eating all the deviled eggs before the pastor arrives. It’s almost time for Sunday dinner.”
“In contrast to the wise woman, the foolish woman is not content to be a keeper at home. She is not satisfied with where God has put her. One of the things the feminist movement has done so successfully is to stir up discontent in women with being homemakers and to convince them that other pursuits can increase their sense of self-worth… Fueling discontent and pushing women out of their homes in search of greater meaning and satisfaction has resulted in off-the-chart stress levels for many women who can no longer survive without pills and therapists… The greatest spiritual, moral, and emotional protection a woman will ever experience is found when she is content to stay within her God-appointed sphere. This does not mean that she never leaves her house, but rather that her heart is rooted in her home and that she puts her family’s needs above all other interests and pursuits.”
~Nancy Leigh DeMoss
From Sarah : As You can see , I went way back to the start of this wonderful series.
Start at the very beginning or pick and choose the topics that interest you the most. What do you need help with most?
The skill of homemaking seems to be a lost art in our world today. We have tools and gadgets our great grandmothers couldn’t of imagined to make our lives easier and more efficient and we seem to have less time in the care and upkeep of our homes. Most of us in my generation and younger (ahem – much younger) weren’t trained in the basics of managing a home and caring for a family. Some of our moms were working moms, if our moms were home we were in school all day while she was taking care of the day to day management of the home and missed learning valuable life skills. Many times our mothers did everything themselves in the home and didn’t’ take the time to let their daughters work alongside them and learn.
I am guilty of this last one with my own daughter. It was quite a bit later in life that I captured the Titus 2 vision and started teaching my daughter how to care, manage and be a keeper of her home.
I would like to share with you in this series what I have learned after 27 years of being a keeper of my home. My hope is to not make you keep your home exactly as I do but to motivate you in areas where you are struggling and give you ideas, examples and other resources to be a help in the management of your home. Let’s make this a community where we minister to each other by sharing your tips, ideas, thoughts and questions here at the blog and on Facebook.
Some areas we’ll cover in this ongoing series are:
The Importance of Our Role
Our time with the Lord
Basic Homemaking Skills
Healthy Eating and Meal Planning
Stewardship/Budgeting
Time Management
Schedules and Routines
Organization and Decluttering
The Pros and Cons of Technology use in Homekeeping
Hospitality Tips
Home Decorating
Caring for our Physical Appearance
The list above just gives us a small sample of all that we deal with as wives and mothers on a day to day basis. We have a lifetime ladies, it will never be mastered while we live on this fallen earth but we can continue to be learners and with the Lord’s help live our lives in a way that please God. Not perfection but “working heartily as unto the Lord” (Colossians 3:23). This series is for women in all seasons of life. Single, married, young children or older children, and empty-nesters.
As always I am going to encourage you to enlist an older “in person” woman in your life that can help keep you accountable and give good guidance and advice. Stay teachable and don’t think you know it all young mama when you are talking with your mom or an older woman in your church about home management and child raising. Give her the benefit of walking this road before you and she has much to offer biblically (if she is a believer) and in life experience that you haven’t experienced yet. As we grow older we realize how much we still have to learn. We look back at our younger years and are reminded we didn’t know more than our parents but needed to heed their advice more often than we did.
Homework
Each post is going to leave you with a voluntary homework assignment so we might as well begin right now. I’m going to give you some encouraging reading assignments to do at your leisure. Below are some links to several articles and some scriptures to meditate on and read.
If you don’t want to miss a post in the series let me pop quietly into your inbox. There will still be other posts on the blog in addition to this series but my hope is to get a weekly post up for the Homemaking 101 Series. I will do an occasional surprise giveaway for a resource or tool that will help you in your home keeping.You can subscribe here to Thankful Homemaker. I’ll put a tab at the top of the blog for the series and a quick link on the sidebar too. You can also follow me on Facebook or Twitter for updates.
An Encouraging Resource: My dear friend Jennifer at The Focused Homemaker has made a wonderful DVD called Homemaking 101 and it goes beautifully with this series. Jennifer brings us into her home and shares with us how she deals with the day to day task of keeping home. This is a DVD for women of all ages, but young moms you will be blessed by Jennifer’s heart for her family and home. She covers time management, cleaning, cooking, budgeting, home decorating, hospitality, chores, scheduling and much more! You will be encouraged and motivated by this DVD and will turn to it again and again to remind you of the important role the Lord has called you to.
From Sarah : Jennifer has a wonderful blog as well. Check it out.
Hospitality Hints is a monthly feature on our blog with some helpful hints for being hospitable in everyday life. Our hints may involve inviting people over, but not always! Most of the time, they will be about having a posture of hospitality—welcoming others into our lives.
Almost exactly a year ago, unspeakable tragedy rocked the world of one of my closest friends. As I sat in a memorial service on a sunny Sunday afternoon, I remember looking toward my friend and her grieving family and thinking, helplessly and hopelessly, “What now?”
As I’ve walked with my sweet friend (and, at times, watched her walk alone) through the last 12 months, I’ve learned that grief takes many forms, depending on the person and situation and day and hour and moment. There is no cure-all or band-aid or Grief for Dummiesworkbook. But there are a few consistent truths about grief that can help you show hospitality to those you know walking through the process.
Hospitality Hints is a monthly feature on our blog with some helpful hints for being hospitable in everyday life. Our hints may involve inviting people over, but not always! Most of the time, they will be about having a posture of hospitality—welcoming others into our lives.
Whether someone you know just had a baby, moved to a new home, had surgery, or is grieving the loss of a loved one, there are many times in life when meal preparation is hard. During these times, hospitality may not look like we traditionally think of it. Rather than inviting people to your home, sometimes the way you can love and serve someone best is by taking them a meal.
But then the questions roll in.
What do I make? How do I get it there without it all ending up on the floor of my car? What if they’re allergic to everything I’m good at making?!
Well rest easy, sweet friend. We’ve got some hospitality hints that will make your meal-taking experience easy, efficient, and stress-free.
May we suggest soup?We love making soup for so many reasons.
It’s easy and inexpensive to make in mass quantities.
In our modern, bustling world, nearly everyone would agree they want to be more present in their own lives. We want to catch coffee with friends and sink deep in meaningful conversation without digital distractions. We want to savor well-cooked meals without racing through it to get to the next thing on their to-do lists.
But then there’s the reality of day-to-day life. We yearn to show up and dig into the moments we have in front of us, but there’s always something demanding our attention. So when the pull of texting, social media, or email is just too magnetic, practice these tips to ground yourself back in the moment at hand. Be present, showing hospitality to those you’re with.
Hospitality Hints is a monthly feature on our blog with some helpful hints for being hospitable in everyday life. Our hints may involve inviting people over, but not always! Most of the time, they will be about having a posture of hospitality—welcoming others into our lives.
As we approach the holiday season, we’ve been thinking about who will be around our tables this year for our feasts and celebrations. A few of us grew up in homes where there would always be a stranger at Thanksgiving dinner or a new friend gathered ate pancakes with us on Christmas morning. We love how inviting others to gather around a table shows hospitality in a very New Testament way—Jesus was often seen at tables and the early church was said to break bread and fellowship with one another regularly.
This may all sound like a great idea to you, but you’re unsure of who to invite. Many families already have traditions around the holidays, but there are many people who do not have traditions or for whatever reason are unable to celebrate with their family this year.
