Keeping Promises
By the way,
I haven’t forgotten that I said I was going to write a series on a home management binder.
However, I have found several great blog series online already, so it seems silly to write my own when there are already lots available.
Also, I am not looking this time at making an actual binder, but wanting it to be a paperless, digital version. I have not yet seen a mom-version, a home-version of digital organization setups.
So, I am still in the research phase myself and not ready to write on it yet. But when I do, it will be a how-to set up a paperless, digital version of a home management binder.
Moreover, this blog will be moved over to a new domain and a new name in a couple weeks! I chose the name Healer’s Geste (and had a hard time finding the name!) to complement my husband’s blog, which was Ranger’s Tale, both of which fit for the domain pelennorfields. Matt shut down his blog a couple years ago, and mine is the only thing on this domain. Instead of keeping it going, it seems better to get a domain that is the name of my blog, and Healer’s Geste only makes sense in the Tolkien context. So, a new name and a new domain are upcoming.
My goal will be to have a series on a digital home management “binder” be one of the first series on the new blog.
Also, while we’re taking care of blogkeeping topics, I intend to host a book club on Ideas Have Consequences beginning in March. So, if you’d like to participate, you have a month to prepare. :)
pretty, happy, funny, real
Pretty
My January decorating effort:
Happy
Matt finished the trim in the living and entry way!
I love the way it turned out.
Now the last step is just touching up the paint job.
Funny
We had some friends over who had a little baby, so I had pulled out our Bumbo. The next day, Knox had a blast with it. Apparently, he did not read the instructions, which clearly forbid putting it on a raised surface. It’s not safe, baby.
Yes, he’s pulling off his socks and getting comfortable.
However, I don’t think the instructions said anything about putting it on one’s head.
Real
Knox thought the cornstarch should be decanted into a glass jar.
I’m glad Matt got our Oreck back online! It made short work of the mess.
Keeping House Book Club: Food
Food is so daily. So relentless.
Mealtimes call us to stop, sit, and reflect. We might try to ignore or reject the call, but we will be more likely to flourish if we listen.
Food is an anchor. Mealtimes ground us, define us. You are what you eat. You are a part of those with whom you eat.
Convenience foods may wind their siren calling, promising more time for productivity or recreation, but providing food for yourself and your people is the ultimate productivity, a marvelous opportunity for re-creation (taking one thing and making it into another, taking many things and creating a harmony, taking one thing — food — and with it growing something entirely different — a person).
There really is nothing quite like food, like cooking, like meals. Perhaps that is why it is used so often not only as metaphor in the Bible, but as reality. Food is social, not merely nutritional. In our world of so many, many specific and particular and peculiar diets, we can easily miss that valuable social aspect of food. Providing food for another is love. Eating with another is fellowship, is communion. Whom you eat with is just as — perhaps even more — important than what you eat.
For the last year my husband and I have been working at practicing — even pursuing — hospitality. It is something that gets easier with practice, even being able to have dinner conversation, which for myself is more difficult than preparing a meal and cleaning up afterwards. But I believe one hurdle we invent for ourselves in this regard is thinking that hospitality means entertaining, or hospitality means feasting. There are times for feasting, but hospitality does not require it. In fact, hospitality can even be hampered by it. The heart of hospitality is sharing your home, your table, your life with others. So usually, when we have people over for dinner, I don’t cook anything out of the ordinary, I just prepare more. Chicken alfredo and whole wheat rolls and salad; homemade pizza and salad; soup, bread, and salad. Simple fare, but plenty of it. The showcase is not the meal, but the sitting together and sharing this piece of life, this daily necessity of eating.
Of course, I do think that homemade bread (my hobby and, really, quite simple) and a bottle of wine add the festive note to the meal, whatever the main dish might be. Not only that, but it helps with the setting-at-ease.
It has been interesting to see this last year, just how much connection eating together does bring. Talking after church is one thing, but somehow sharing a meal does provide more “now we are comfortable together” connection to subsequent meetings and conversations.
Of course, how much more is this true in our immediate families. With a table of six as it is, we constitute a little dinner party every night. You have to use your imagination most nights to see it that way, true, but that reality is lurking there underneath the mundane surface and the spilled drinks and the floor of crumbs. The children’s identities are being built up just as surely as their bodies are. And that makes the planning, the shopping, the preparing, and the cleaning up worth it, even when it’s difficult to slog through or difficult to see. It gives dignity and magic even to macaroni and cheese with hot dogs. It makes that work all eternally valuable ministry.
Keeping House Book Club: Laundry & Clothes
So, I am behind on the book club, but not because I have not been reading. I decided that instead of musing and writing on the chapter, it would be better for me to take action. And I did. Willa summarized. I shall report.
Laundry is one of my least favorite household responsibilities. Food is just as relentless as laundry, in fact, moreso, since it insists on attention three to five times a day. Still, I have always enjoyed cooking, and keeping a stocked pantry and a plan in the kitchen has been one of the challenges I have tackled head-on and tackled with vim and vivacity.
Laundry, not so much.
However, it might just be that the light is breaking forth in this dim area. And, probably not coincidentally, it has come only after I admitted defeat, sighed, and admitted I was going to have to deal with laundry every day, whether I wanted to or not.
A common concept that seems to run in self-help areas, whether it be housekeeping or paying off debt or weight loss or anything else, is that real change comes after the frustration level hits top, giving you the energy and motivation to kick into gear and Get Things Done.
The factor that fueled my frustration was hearing, more often than not, “Mom! I don’t have any pajamas/pants/socks/underwear.” Here I was, trying to deal with laundry as minimally as possible — that is, as infrequently as I could possibly manage — and more days than not that call for help would sound forth and absolutely break my bubble, ruin my mood, and start me fuming. For, of course, it wasn’t always true. And I maintain it’s not my fault that they have no clean socks if they have shoved them all under the bed or behind the couch. So, I’d have to go in, ready for the recriminations, but hounded by the fact that in one third of the cases, I really was at fault. Every time that plea came ringing down the hall, it was as if I was being hit over the head: “Fail!” Even if it wasn’t a laundry fail, then really, it was a “not running an orderly household” fail nonetheless. Defeat. Ignominy. Gloom.
I hate laundry.
And that didn’t help things.
So. I started my one-load-a-day routine, and that helped tremendously. There are often wet sheets in the mornings around here, so that helped feed the necessity to get the load going first thing in the morning. I just tossed in whatever needed to be washed in with the sheets. And, really, one load of laundry takes less than 10 minutes to fold and put away. I can do anything for 10 minutes, even fold laundry. Then, when suddenly it wasn’t an hour or more of laundry-folding I was staring down weekly, but just 5-10 minutes. It didn’t seem like such a big deal anymore. Who cares about laundry? It’s no biggie.
Whew.
Then, finally, the week after Christmas, after reading these chapters on clothes in Keeping House, I realized clothes management really would be much simpler and easier if I weeded through all the kids’ clothes and only kept what they need, what they wear, and what fits in the drawers we have. Really, Knox does not need 10 shirts, particularly not if I wash kid clothes every other day. So, I decided on the objective amount of clothes that was “right” for us (about 6 t-shirts for the older boys, and I packed up the ones that were starting to run small; 2 nicer pants and 2 play pants each; 3 pairs of pajamas each; etc.) and weeded. Some clothes got packed away for the next child up, some got packed to pass on to the next down the line in the church handmedown cycle, some just went to the Goodwill.
I hate putting away sheets, because the drawer I have for the twin sheets is stuffed so full it is difficult to open and close. Why do I have 3 twin beds and 9 spare twin sheets? I weeded through those, too, and kept 3 spares. Three of the weeded sheets were plain white or an almost-white green and soft, thin flannel. Those are in my bin to turn into cloth napkins. Others just went to Goodwill.
Oh, I do love the feel of a good purge! Now in the evening, after running a load for the day, I go around the house and toss straight into the washer my kitchen towels (they don’t get musty! They’re only damp with dishwater anyway), the cloth napkins from dinner, an assortment of kids’ clothes, and the hand towels from the bathroom and sometimes bath towels. That runs in the evening, first thing in the morning I move it to the dryer and start a regular load (jeans or whites or such). I must thank my friend Zoae for the inspiration for this routine; it has really been working for me!
And, I am never short on kitchen towels (I purged and sorted and rearranged these, too), the bathroom always has a fresh hand towel, and the kids don’t run low on clothes and pajamas. And the drawers are half empty and thus easy to open and close and use.
Not only have I had these successes in this area of former dread and defeat, but laundry is losing its status as a foe, and is actually, just maybe, beginning to feel like something I might actually be getting good at.
After all, now I am succeeding not so much at the doing of the laundry, but at the goal for which laundry is only a part of the process: clothing my family and having at hand what is required.
Capturing Contentment
Pretty
I found a new coat and I love it!
Thirty (coming in June) means I can be grown-up and sophisticated and put together without being silly and pretentious, right? I am afraid someone is going to tell me thirty is the new thirteen and I still count as a kid and not a grown up.
I am ready to meet the next decade, particularly if I get to do it in this coat.
Happy
I finished a cowl and I love the way it falls. (p.s. Elly: This is the yellow I found that actually looks good on me)
I made up the pattern as I went. Since I really like the way it turned out, I had better record what I did. It is quite simple:
Crochet hook K 2 skeins Vanna’s Choice 1 skein Jiffy wool blend variegated 1 skein Peaches & Cream cotton
With Vanna’s: Chain 90. Join into a round with one twist in the loop. Single crochet in each chain, slip stitch to join. Do two rows of double crochet in each sc, then another sc row, joining with slip stitch each time. Fasten off Vanna’s and switch to Jiffy. Do 3 rows of double crochet. Fasten off and reattach Vanna’s. 1 row sc, 2 rows dc, 1 row sc. Fasten off and attach Peaches & Cream. Do one row of half-double crochet. Fasten off and reattach Vanna’s. 1 row sc, 2 rows dc, 1 row sc. Fasten off and attach Peaches & Cream. Do one row of half-double crochet. Fasten off and reattach Vanna’s. 1 row sc, 2 rows dc, 1 row sc. Fasten off Vanna’s and switch to Jiffy. Do 3 rows of double crochet. Fasten off and reattach Vanna’s. 1 row sc, 2 rows dc, 1 row sc. Fasten off. Weave in all ends.
I love cowls!
Funny
The boys were playing together with Legos during quiet time and came racing down afterward to announce, “Mom! We built the Siege of Jerusalem! Our guys are Crusaders!”
I love homeschooling. I had no idea they knew about the Siege of Jerusalem. I, of course, allowed them to photograph their feat. When I checked my camera next there were 99 photos taken. I’ll spare you 97 of them.
Real
I had been hoping we’d make it through the winter without snow this year, but it was not to be. I caught them just in time; I sure wasn’t going outside just to get a picture!
What is SOPA & PIPA? — “I’d be worried.”
Yes, it really is bad enough to warrant Wikipedia, Craigslist, Google, and many others to black out for awareness and to protest.
Khan Academy explains why it’s scary, creepy legislation.
PHFR: Back to it
I am going to regularly post a pretty, happy, funny, real post, and for several reasons:
- It makes the rellies happy.
- I want to take more photos, and this helps keep it in mind.
- The tagline “capturing contentment in everyday life” is a good goal, and I find taking a picture does help me see the event from a better perspective — seeing it with more of that rosy glow that memory might cast.
- Moving toward more humor and cheerfulness in the day to day is my goal for the year, not a measurable resolution, but more like my “word” for the year. Taking pictures helps me see the pretty, happy, and funny more often, and keeps me in the habit of looking for it.
So, here we go:
Pretty
My pretty little girl turned four this week! She is quite pleased about it, as am I. She is tall, thin, and spunky.
We made her cake (chocolate with pink frosting) and ice cream (strawberry) together.
Happy
I got a few good pictures Christmas morning before breakfast.
Funny
In our house, the birthday child gets to choose a cold cereal for their birthday breakfast. Usually the children prefer to pick the giant Malt-o-Meal bags, because it’s quantity that counts with them, not pictures on the front (yay for kids who practically never see commercials and have no brand recognition!). However, a local grocery store had a breakfast sale a few days before Ilse’s birthday and so she got to pick boxes (I let her pick 3 to make up for the quantity factor; there was disappointment that boxes were the only choice). Anyway, the funny for the week was the health claims on the boxes. It cracked me up that Lucky Charms was supposed to be a good source of fiber, and Cinnabon “multi-grain” was a good source of vitamin D. What a riot. Matt suggested that maybe by “whole grain” they meant they actually did use one whole grain. Of course, it also said multi-grain, so maybe they managed to get two grains in there.
Merriment and mocking abounded, at the boxes’ expense.
Real
Hm. I wonder how these pictures got here?
Non-Fiction Books I Plan to Read in 2012
These are all books I own that I really want to read. I am sure that I will read library books and buy more books this year, but these ones have sat unread on my shelves for too long as it is. It was very difficult to narrow this down to 24, or 2 per month, but that was my resolve.
Fiction Books I Plan to Read in 2012
My goal is to read at least 1 fiction book per month. My plan to make that happen is to keep my in-progress fiction by my bed to read in the evenings to unwind.
Top Ten Books of 2011
Everyone’s doing it. I’m late to the party now, because I let this post languish in my drafts folder.
I read 44 books in 2011, with 6 still in progress. Forty-four was my total for 2010, too. A little short of my goal of 60, but still not too shabby for a homeschooling mom with small children, I think. Actually, most of the reading was done at the beginning of the year, and my reading petered out by the fall. I’m not sure what that means.
Anna Karenina. Audio. Despite being Russian and depressing and partly about the economics of the time, this was a really good story. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
L’Abri. Besides Hidden Art, I haven’t read or really known about the Schaeffers at all. I found the story of L’Abri fascinating and intriguing.
Poetic Knowledge. Amazing. It was the first book club I got to host, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Picadilly Jim & Leave it to Psmith. Every year needs a dose of Wodehouse. Lots are free for Kindles on Amazon, just in case you need an incentive.
One Thousand Gifts. Ann asks hard questions and tells the story of her learning the answers after approaching them through gratitude rather than resentment. Thought-provoking and inspiring, though rather overdone.
Practical Happiness. Believing in God’s sovereignty should look like something in our lives; it should look like joy and contentment.
Shaping of a Christian Family. Excellent. It was both Elisabeth Elliot and recommended by Cindy, so I knew I couldn’t go wrong to procure and read a copy.
Knowing God. Unexpectedly wonderful. This will be in the children’s middle school must-reads.
The Graveyard Book. My brother tricked me into reading a vampire book (it isn’t, really). It is a good tale, though I was mildly disappointed by the ending. Hans’ review: “It seemed at first like it would be scary, but then it wasn’t.” Still, it won’t be to everyone’s tastes or standards, so do preread before handing it to your own. Personally, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Loving the Little Years. Short, but incredibly encouraging. Boy do I need to get more cheerful!
2012 Resolutions
This year I am limiting my resolutions to ten definite, check-off-able tasks I want to accomplish.
Publish, market, and sell my Pantry Meals book.
I’ll probably give away more copies than I sell, but it will be an interesting project to attempt. A blog overhaul (including a new name and URL) is part of the project.
Complete & hang cross-stitch piece.
It didn’t happen last year, so maybe this year.
Go paperless: Cloth kitchen, cloth napkins, cloth kleenex. Computer record keeping & filing.
We won’t be totally paperless, of course, but where it is feasible and more convenient, we will move paperless. Here is the place to admit that Matt surprised me with an iPad 2 a couple months ago (he received an out-of-the-blue $500 AmEx gift card at work and decided it was an iPad) and he recently replaced his home computer (which broke in part due to an unsupervised toddler) with a MacBook Air. So with Macs all around, and portable ones at that, we should be able to work out some compatible system betwixt us.
Read a minimum of 12 fiction titles and read at least a list of 24 books selected from my library.
I will post the lists later. I didn’t read enough fiction this year; I found I couldn’t really settle my mind down and shift gears enough to enter a story. I don’t think that’s a good thing. So I want to read at least 1 fiction title a month. Also, since I have a huge number of books I really, really want to read on my shelf, I decided I would limit myself to a list of 24 (2 a month) that I would definitely get to this year. Again, the list will come later.
Use the cork collection.
We have saved our corks for the last 9 years, and we have a big basket full. There are several projects I want to make with them, so this year I’ll get that done. The project I want to do the most is a cork letter for the wall; first I will have to narrow down what kind — there are lots of different tutorials online!
Decorate Ilse’s bedroom.
This will be her birthday present, so it should get done right away. It is part of my slow-and-steady decorating resolve.
Create & complete my own supplemental cleaning task list.
Following through on the 31-Days-to-Clean project opened my eyes to how many cleaning tasks never even occur to me. So I want to take that cleaning task list and customize it to my house and style and come up with my own annual task list. I think I’m going to shoot for 50 15-minute tasks — approximately 1 15-minute task a week.
Read through the Bible.
This is a Good Thing. I would like it to become a yearly habit. I usually make it through the New Testament several times, but I need a more methodical plan to make it through the entire Old Testament.
Complete a household notebook on Evernote.
I have paper versions and bits and pieces of my household notebooks from the last 10 years (I’ve probably made about 5 partial iterations). Time to move it to digital, especially since I really have been improving in working the systems since I did the GTD series.
Get a long row of raspberries planted, staked, & established.
The garden goal for the year. I have the place picked and the vision of what it should look like, so this year will be the year to make it happen. The strawberries were such a surprising success in 2011, that I am excited to tackle raspberries as well.
Resolution Check 2011
2011 Resolutions
No overdue fines at the library.
Um, no. Sigh.
Finish my cross-stitch project: completed, framed, and hung.
Um, no. I never spent enough time with it to figure out where I was. The farthest I got was finally hemming the fabric so it would stop fraying.
Accomplish 5 home-decorating tasks.
Yes! The biggest accomplishment being decorating our master bedroom!
Organize & inventory the gift stash and wrapping supplies.
Yes! It needs attention again after the Christmas mayhem, though.
Complete data entry of all contacts into the Mac’s contact program.
Yes!
Be able to wear size 8 jeans.
Um, no. Sigh.
Freeze surplus strawberries, sugar-snap peas, and green beans from my own garden.
Well, strawberries anyway. The snap peas were gobbled up and the green beans were overripe before I discovered them. But I am happy that I put away 2 or 3 gallon bags of strawberries, even while we ate quite a lot! And, what I wasn’t counting on, we also put away a few bags of cherries from our discovered tree.
Cull magazines and folders of cut-outs from magazines. Create a large “inspiration board” for the wall in front of the office desk.
No! Why would I want that sort of silly project? I tossed my cut-outs and magazines (which were mostly friends’ castoffs) and I joined Pinterest. Same concept, requires zero space. So, I still count this resolution met. I can send an invite to anyone who wants one, too.
Complete a through-the-Bible-in-a-year reading program.
Well, in two more days it will be completed. :)
Do not buy any books except school books and library sale books. However, you may only take $5 to the Giant Library Sale(s).
Um, no. What a dumb resolution.
6 out of 10. Hm, well, better than half anyway. I am pleased.
Now on to the New Year and New Resolutions! The future sparkles with potential.
Refining Our Family Logistics: Self-Examination
Both Mother’s Rule of Life, which Brandy has been blogging through, and Large Family Logistics — more than how-to manuals, based on establishing conviction in the realm of homemaking. MROL does this more narratively, showing how she came to conviction through experience and logic. LFL, on the other hand, arrives at conviction in a thoroughly Protestant manner: strings of proof texts.
Proverbs 31
In the first section of the book, she exposits on each section of — wait for it — the Proverbs 31 Woman.
Sigh.
Now, her writing on the subject really is quite good and I don’t fault it at all, yet one easily tires of falling short of this touted paragon.
So, take a deep breath with me, try to dispel the bad attitude on approaching this text, and I will list some of the pertinent points she draws out about what the Proverbs 31 woman tells us about home management.
- She is prudent, increasing her husband’s prosperity through careful management; her husband trusts her.
- The prudent wife is called blessed, which can also be translated happy.
- She clothes her family willingly and attractively.
- She plans her menus, purchases food (she is no locovore), and has food ready for her household (she’s organized).
- Even as you provide physical food, you should also provide spiritual food for your children — Scripture & prayer.
- Her hands are active and adept as she does what is needful as well as what will beautify.
- She is looking at her own household, not anyone else’s, not a busybody, not comparing.
- She is diligent, steadfast, self-controlled, strong, and confident; she is not idle. She does not squander resources, neither money nor time.
- She is generous to the poor and an advocate for the needy.
- She has increase, she has time and energy left over to have a home-based business.
- She is not afraid or worried; she laughs and she is kind and wise.
Such wisdom and right action comes only from God working in us, not from us seeking to be worthy. Prayer is our ally as we work to increase our sanctification, and sanctification will lead us toward a likeness to the Proverbs 31 woman. This is God’s revealed will for us, so we know it is His plan for us. That means that He will give the grace, strength, and ability for us to grow in this way.
Eight of twenty-one verses in the passage pertain to “housework.” This is an important focus that she maintains. But her efforts go beyond this. Two verses relate to a home business. One is related to physical and/or spiritual strength. One is related to ministry. Two have to do with her attitude and character. Three are directly related to her husband’s confidence in her and the blessing he receives from her faithful labors.
Goals
As I mentioned, here we get the proof-text approach. I don’t think it’s the best way to use Scripture, but she does not seem to use verses out of context and she does have a point.
Where there is no vision, the people perish; but he that keepeth the law, happy is he. Proverbs 29:18
Mrs. Brenneman encourages us to have written, intentional goals that we pursue, and she offers these guidelines in creating them:
- Serving and honoring and obeying God is the point of all the goals; all of them should be ways we pursue our ultimate end: glorifying Him.
- They should be made with our husband, as ways we can complement him and bring about his vision for the family (after all, this is a Vision Forum book).
- Plan goals in different areas: personal, family, spiritual, home, community outreach, educational, physical, recreational, financial. Set long-term goals, short-term goals, and immediate goals.
Where you will be in three months is determined by what you do today. Make your actions today count toward the future. The immediate daily and weekly goals will be the stepping stones to the short-term goals. The short-term goals are the steps taken to reach the long-term goals.
Success breeds success, so build upon the areas in which your family makes positive progress.
In the rest of the section, she walks you step by step through working out a long-term goal, to short-term goal, to small steps to achieve the goals. One thing I appreciated was that she begins with determining the why behind your goals. It is easier to stay motivated when you keep the big picture in mind. The little things can seem insignificant when we don’t remember that these are tiny pieces of the big picture, the end goal.
Planning out your goals and resolutions puts feet under them. Soon, if you put your step-by-step plan into practice, you will be so improved that your New Year’s Resolutions will not be the “same-old, same-old” ones. You will not give up on setting them, and you will be reaching higher.
It Starts with You: Self-Discipline & Attitude
Getting from gaol to execution requires self-discipline. Self-discipline is amking yourself do something that you don’t want to presently do. John MacArthur says it this way, “Biblically, self-discipline may be summarized in one word: obedience.” [...] When we have a goal, we must delay the gratification for the instant fleshly thing in order to achieve long-term reward and blessing.
- Keep your eyes constantly on the goal.
- Seek first God’s kingdom: study the Word & pray consistently & daily.
- Fix your eyes on Christ, put away selfishness.
- Memorize Scripture & replace bad & negative thoughts with good & scriptural thoughts.
- Gaining self-control begins with small steps and small victories. The small things will add up to the large victories.
- Forming good habits makes it easier to deny self-gratifying impulses.
- You will fail, and you will lose momentum and lose good habits, but having worked at it once makes it easier to return to it and get back on track again. Self-discipline is not despairing, but getting back on track again and again.
- We must be the ones leading by example, if we want our children to be disciplined, then we must start with ourselves.
It’s only by God’s grace and mercy that we can do anything right, and we should give glory to Him whenever we excel at any pursuit. [...] While perfection in human terms will not happen in this world, we as Christians should seek to emulate God’s perfect character. We are to work towards that goal, not just give up and say, “I guess I won’t even try” [...] Matthew 5:48 tells us, “You therefore be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” We cannot walk around with our head hanging with defeat. We must continue to strive.”
Obedience is a choice. Do not say that you can’t do something that you should do. You must. You can. You will. “We say ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.’”
Our goal is not to have outward conformity, or good appearances, but to have the outward be effects of an inward reality. Keep a watch on your heart and your attitude, and repent daily. Otherwise, all efforts will tend toward hypocrisy.
Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. Proverbs 4:23
Keeping House — Sheltering, Fostering Gratitude
I’m not sure what I was thinking, assuming I’d be able to blog this week with Confection Selection — a fancified bake sale my mother and I coordinate at our church to benefit the local Pregnancy Center — on Saturday. My time in between directing children and disciplining a particular toddler is totally consumed with baking. I’m hoping for a finally flop-free year. This is the tenth year. Maybe I can do it.
I mastered caramels, so there really could be hope.
However, I don’t want to get behind on this book study. So I want to get at least a little something in.
Willa has an excellent summary again, so I’m going to quickly add my own riff to the chapter.
Gratitude v. Discontent
The author was developing how changing our perspective to gratitude for our house instead of thinking about dream houses, breeding discontent, can change how we feel about our house and therefore how we live in our house.
In our ten years of marriage, we’ve lived in 2 apartments short-term, bought 3 houses and rented 1. I have definitely learned that the layout of the house shapes how you live. A small open layout such as we had in our rented house (the living room, dining room, and kitchen really were all one room) was perfect, really, for a preschooler and toddler. I could always see them. The shape of the house naturally led to tomato-staking, whereas in the other houses, I had to consciously set things up to facilitate such training, and it has been more difficult in our current house, with its many separate areas.
But I have also noticed how my attitude about our house, about decorating, about setting-up and organizing, have shifted between all those other houses and this one. This is the house, Lord willing, that we will stay in indefinitely. We have an acre, yet we’re in the middle of town with the library and grocery store less than a mile away. The house is a comfortable 2500sqft, and the layout (tri-level) is a good one. It’s not completely updated (it’s a late 60′s house), but the kitchen is, and that’s what’s important. But I think the biggest shift is not the type of house, but the mentality that this house is “it.” No more thinking about building, with all the open-ended options possible, no more thinking, “Well, we’re only going to be year a year or two or three, so it’s not worth putting things on the walls.” I have boxes that had stayed packed from our first house, moved through two other houses, that I finally opened up after being here a year — picture frames, pretty things I had before kids (and before growing up, too; my taste has developed significantly since the time I was 19 and registered for silly things).
Now I feel like I can afford the time to finding what I want for certain areas; I’m in no rush. However, I also want to find the right thing and make the place feel like our home. It’s “worth it” now. If I don’t have the space for something now, then I simply don’t have the space. This house is what I have to work with, and possible future options are closed off. Personally, it has been freeing and relieving. Even if it ends up not being true for some reason, I will be glad for the mentality. Limits foster creativity. This house now is my limit, my canvas, my home, and I love the feeling. Even while looking at magazines or such, there is no more “Well, maybe in our next house….” Now it is, “Hm. I don’t have a spot for something like that.” Shrug and turn the page.
I thought living unattached to the house we were living in was a good policy. It made it easy to move. It’s true, it did. It also made it difficult to like the house, and to own it personally. Being attached to a house, even one with 60′s bathrooms, is wonderful.
Large Family Logistics, an introduction
Continuing on with our series on home management, we now move on to examining Kim Brenneman’s system put forth in Large Family Logistics.
My plan of attack for this book is to break it into 3 parts:
- Self-Examination
- Meals & Laundry
- Days & Rooms
Then, in January, I think I’ll spend a month of Mondays going over setting up a household notebook, pulling ideas from LFL, Mother’s Rule of Life, and various other sources I’ve encountered over the years. I think I’ve set up 3 notebooks over my home management career, and it’s time for another one now. I’ve never actually used the created notebook much, but the process of thinking it through and writing it out is helpful nonetheless.
This is all for today. Today I am actually going to have to get some housework done. Imagine that. My plan is to post the Self-Examination post sometime this week, though.
