A Lovely Home Life

I was in the city, shopping and travelling all day yesterday, with my three daughters.  My oldest two live far away from me, and I rarely get to see them.  But we carry "home" with us wherever we go. There is a dignity and an honor we have for our family name.  We have certain habits, cultured conversations, mannerisms and humor that are with us to remind us of Home wherever we are. . . As long as we are together in heart and mind, in person, in a letter or on the phone, the loveliness of home will always be with us.

I love to visit the homes of my grown children. I love to see the decorations, the housekeeping and the foods they make. Their homes are an extension of mine.  Their lives are an extension of mine. I am grateful to be their mother.

To add some culture to our homes, keeping it lovely, we try to avoid conflict. We try to make light of difficult situations. This limits the stressful moments.  Instead, we bring in lovely things. This might be classical music or classic literature.

This can also mean classical conversation. . . The other morning I commenced the reading of Dombey and Son by Dickens.  This puts me in a distinguished kind of mood that startles and amuses my children.

Here are some examples:

I might say, "You are to dine with the Smith family at the noon hour."   This translates as, "Your friend Joe Smith and his Mom are going to McDonald's and want you to go with them at 12:00."

or, if one of the kids brings in the mail and says, "Oh, here is that letter you have been waiting for!"
I would translate this, in casual conversation, as "The letter was announced."

Listening to Beethoven while cleaning the kitchen, or serving homemade pizza on fine china, are all special ways of making home lovely.

Painting my old kitchen an elegant sage green and calling my purple living room a Parlour are other ways to make things lovely.

These little daily actions of creating beauty and happiness are examples of loveliness.

These little touches of grace and refinement, make even the most humble home a happy place to be. My grown  children have often said to me, "Mom, we never knew we were poor. You always acted like we were rich."

blessings
Mrs. White


The Greatest thing to pass on - Their Memories of Home.

It takes effort to have A Virtuous Day.

All I Ever Wanted was to Be Just a Regular Mom.



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Who Will Weep For You Now?

I read this story once, where a travelling preacher stopped by the side of the road to see a Father and his older children, weeping and distraught. They explained that the wife had died leaving the children motherless.  The husband described his wife as a precious saint, who had prayed for them all. . . and loved them all dearly. The husband cried out to the preacher, feeling so alone and abandoned, saying, "Who will pray for us now?"   The preacher led them to the Lord and encouraged them on their way. This greatly comforted them.

Over the years, as I have visited with people on my way to church, I have heard them call out to me, "Please say a prayer for me, while you are there."  This gives them a good, safe feeling, knowing that someone is on their side, before the Lord. . . Knowing that someone is there pleading for their well-being. And this is good.

Mothers are known for weeping in prayer for their children and for their families. Mother's love and concern is so great . . . and so strong. . . that those kinds of tearful, heart-breaking prayers, bring about great things from God.

Grown children know that each day, at the appointed time of family worship, their Mother is back at home, praying for them.  They know Mother is weeping when they do wrong. They know that Mother would be heartbroken if sin got a hold of them, or if danger was in their path. These children feel as if a guardian angel is watching over them, when they have their saintly mother's prayers to hold them up.

But what happens when Mother is gone? What happens when that Mother has passed-on to her eternal rest? Who will pray for them now?

Will you, like the family on the side of the road, be led to the Lord and carry on the beauty of the Mother's prayers?  May it be so.

And you, who are the precious Mothers. . will you keep your eyes on Heaven and your hearts on things not of this world, that your prayers be not hindered?  May God help us all!


Blessings
Mrs. White

What Do You Think? - Should Mother Work Outside the Home in 1981?

The Blessing of Mama's Songs.

May All Our Homes Be Like - The Mission House.


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Building our Homes with Little Money

I grew up in the same house my mother grew up in. It was a beach cottage that Grandpa spent years rebuilding, while Mother was a small child. By the time I arrived, it was a large 2 story house with enclosed porches and an efficiency apartment in the basement. It had charming french doors and windows in the living room, which led out to one of the porches. There were stone steps and a small decorative fence on part of the property, close to the lilac bushes.  Not only did Grandpa rebuild the house, he also cultivated the land, creating a garden, and encouraging the growth of lovely plants.

Part of the foundation of the house was on a mine of rocks. These rocks were in a section of our basement, piled high, with the house built on, and around it.  The rocks were also on the great hill beside the house. This hill has been covered with dirt and grass and was a wonderful place for children to play in both summer and winter. We sled down the snowy hill, or rolled down the grass in the nice seasons.

I used to watch Grandpa working on that hill with his tools. He was covering the rocks, or working the land in some way. This was when I was a very small child. (We children lived with our parents and grandparents in the same house, just as my parents now live with my family.)

Years later, I learned that much of the supplies and lumber Grandpa used to rebuild the cottage was from salvaged items found on the shore of the nearby beach. This was typical for a generation of hard working Americans who knew how to find necessary items and create things with very little money.  But this wasn't just the Depression-era Americans.

Remember when Pa Ingalls would build an entire cabin out of the woods? He would cut down trees and work with the land to coax it, and to create, with his own labor and skills, to make a Home for his family. In these days that would be called "scavenging," But it was the normal way.

Now we buy everything at the local hardware store or lumber yard. I was thinking the other day how much I want a glass, French door for one of our rooms. I had thought for months about going to the store and buying one. But where is the fun in that? I would rather wait and search for such a treasure, scavenging it just like my ancestors did a few generations ago.

I remember when we lived in Massachusetts and I had gone into this thrift store, when my children were very young. I found a white wicker shelf unit that was faded and worn. I brought it home, set it up on the porch, and spray painted it a glossy sage green. It looked beautiful! It dried on that porch in the lovely sea air, since we lived near the ocean. Later, when I set it up in the house, it brought something artistic to our home, something amazing, because I had taken special care with it. It probably cost me around $4, including the paint, and I loved it.

If we can only look back at our American History and understand how homes were built using labor and local resources, rather than spending thousands of dollars at the local shops, we could have a stronger sense of appreciation and pride. We would gain a tremendous ability to survive. The money we could save, over the course of a few decades, and the example we set, would create a precious inheritance for the next generation.


Blessings,
Mrs. White

What We've Done - Building a Strong Work Ethic in our Children.

When we had no Money - To Encourage the Downcast Housewife.

A Joyful Day blessing my Family - Spending the Day in the Kitchen.

Joining with
Frugally Sustainable


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This post is part of The Christian Home Magazine in the Financial category. To see more articles in different aspects of Home life, please visit the latest issue, hosted at Day by Day in our World.

The Godly Home, Marriage and Family

This morning I listened to a sermon by the late L. R. Shelton, Sr. It is about the sacredness of an old fashioned, life-long marriage. It is encouraging, convicting and sobering. The sermon was preached in the 1960's and the message is valid for all time, because it is based on sound Biblical teaching.



[Note - If you are receiving this through email and cannot see the embedded sermon, please visit the blog directly to listen.]

Blessings
Mrs. White

* A Very Precious book, written in the 1940's is by Clifford Lewis, God's Ideal Woman.



When the Nest Begins to Empty - a picture of a life-long marriage - Are you Still Tricking your Wife?

Encouragement to keep you cheerful - Mother's Domain.

May we be sweet and beloved - Aging Gracefully.

Joining with
Yes They're All Ours


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The Early Years of Homeschooling

When my five children were little, we spent much of our time at home. We managed to venture out only once a week. This was our big errand day. We would leave early in the morning, just after breakfast. We went to the post office to pay the bills and pick up an enormous box full of mail. (We all had numerous pen-pals, lots of home-published magazine subscriptions, and were producing our own home made publications, which brought us plenty of letters and orders.) We did all our grocery shopping just before heading home. But in the middle of all those errands, we went to our favorite place - the library.

The children all picked up cart loads of books to keep us occupied for the week.  The youngest children were delighted with The Berenstain Bears, or books by Lois Lowry. The older children (up to age 15) were selecting anything from biographies, historical documents, trends in fashion to the latest math textbooks. We also scoured the classic video department and came home with several films from the old days, like the Andy Hardy series, Fiddler on the Roof, For Me and My Gal, It's a Wonderful Life, and so many others. This, too, was part of their education.

But the best part of our day was coming home to a homemade lunch, and settling beside each other on the couches and floor to delight in other worlds by reading for hours.  This was the most important part of our home education.  The quiet, scholarly devotion to learning from books was invaluable. This was the slow-paced foundation of our academy at home.

Looking back, I dearly miss those early years of homeschooling. I really must find some classic literature to read to my last student (age 14) before our homeschooling years fade away entirely.

Blessings
Mrs. White

Passing on the Legacy  - A Homemaking Lesson Learned from Mother White.


A lovely way To start the morning with a Formal - Breakfast at Home.

Need help with Homeschooling? - Index of stories and ideas from our School at Home.

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