The Hidden Art of Homemaking

I've been working on a lapbook to go along with The Hidden Art of Homemaking by Edith Schaeffer. This is an excellent book with lots of wonderful ideas on how to realize your full potential, while creating a fuller, richer homelife for yourself and your family. Mrs. Schaeffer works from the premise that everyone has God given talents, gifts of creativity given to us by a creative God, and we shouldn't allow our present circumstances to keep us from using those talents. For instance, Mrs. Schaeffer describes how to create a "home" that reflects your own personality- whether you are renting in the city, single and "waiting", living in a nursing home, or even living in a drainpipe. She also points out how stifling our talents hurts us and those around us, and gives pointers on ways that everyone, even a mother with many young children, can use their gifts of music, drama, drawing, or writing to bless their own small audience.  This book covers a multitude of other topics as well, including cooking, flower arrangement, clothing, creative recreation, and even integration. It is not a "how-to" manual, but rather an idea manual, guaranteed to get those creative juices flowing. 

In the process of re-reading this book, I was convicted of an area where I have been sinning against my children.  While I am all for art and creativity, I also have this practical side which can't tolerate what I consider to be a waste. So, when my children spend hours creating elaborate, artistically decorated notes, I get rather impatient with them. Why spend all that time and effort, not to mention the "waste" of paper, on something which could have been spoken in a matter of seconds? Yet I now see that this just one of their ways of practicing "hidden art." It is a good thing, given to them by a God who created all things to be good.  And just like Him, it is their desire to fill the world with beauty. (And they didn't even need a book to tell them how!)

The Hidden Art of Homemaking is an excellent book with lots of wonderful ideas on how to realize your full potential, while creating a fuller, richer homelife for yourself and your family. It covers a multitude of topics including cooking, flower arrangement, clothing, creative recreation, and even integration. It makes a great study for mothers to do alone or with their daughters.

My Life in Six Words

My blogging friend Jimmie has inspired me to stretch my brain by writing the title to my own memoir using only 6 words. I was leaning towards "you'll miss me when I'm gone" since that's what I tell my husband when he complains about something I've done. I also came up with a few that summed me up really well but were a little too personal to post on a public blog. But I finally settled on a fragment of one of my favorite verses:

YET, THE LORD THINKETH APON ME

"But I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me." Psalm 40:17a

What would your six words be?

Childhhood Games

Yesterday I was teaching my daughter a song I had learned as a child. It was actually used in a hand clapping game my sister used to do with her friends while we road on the bus (in the four years I attended private school before my parents began homeschooling). Unfortunately, I was the "pesky" little sister, so she never bothered teaching the hand motions to me.

The song went like this:

Say, say oh playmate

Come out and play with me

And bring your dollies three

We'll climb my apple tree

Slide down my rainbow

Into my cellar door

And we'll be jolly friends

For ever more.

After indulging in this bit of nostalgia, I began thinking about some of the other childhood games I remember but haven't taught to my children, and all the ones I've probably forgotten. I was thinking it would be nice to make some kind of website to record these games. That afternoon, I received this email from the Games for Learning Yahoo Group list:

"I have an idea I'm starting to put into action that I need your help with. I've created a group at YouTube for people to upload videos of step-by-step instructions of children (or grownups) teaching how to do different playground games. Examples would be clapping games, jump rope rhymes/games, Chinese jump rope, traditional or Chinese jacks, hopscotch, playground ball games, cat's cradle/string games, etc. The idea being to create a place to go to learn all these wonderful games from our childhoods and to be able to pass them along to the next generation. I want to see a resurgence of these games! I know they are still out there, but they don't seem as prevalent as they used to be, so I want to change that!"

Talk about providential! I love when God works things out like that, don't you? If you're interested in seeing what is posted or posting some videos of your own, please visit Playpalooza. Let's all renew our childhood memories this summer and help our children create some of their own. 

Will the Real Lilliput Station Please Step Forward?

I met my husband at a very small Bible college in South Carolina. There were seven of us all renting from the same landlord, living in two trailers (one for boys and one for girls) in the middle of nowhere. One of the students (who later became my brother-in-law) named the place "The Ranch." And the name stuck.

After being there for only a year, my (future) husband and I both returned home to prepare for our marriage the following year. Then my parents bought an old farmhouse in the country. My mom's lifelong dream was finally realized! Yet here I was six months from my wedding and once again uprooted. To make matters worse, our new "home" was just a backyard away from the railroad tracks. At nights they would come flying through. The house would shake, and I'd lie there in terror knowing that the only thing between us was the propane tank if one of them happened to leave the track. I did a lot of praying during those six months!

In an effort to make this place feel more like a home, I decided to give it a name. It had worked for The Ranch. Maybe it would work here too? I guess I was feeling a little small at the time. Why else would I have chosen the name "Lilliput Station"? I used that name again when I decided to start a Yahoo Group and a homeschool blog.   

I had no idea at the time that there REALLY was a place called Lilliput Station. Solomon was right, "There is nothing new under the sun." Follow this link to see the pictures.