Loaves and Fishes Thoughts

For months now, I have been feeling wordless, or at least inarticulate when I try to write anything. Letters, journal entries, notes - - all have been few and short. All my energies instead have been funneled into my roles at home.

I remember how Jesus took the little boy's wee lunch of the loaves and fishes and multiplied it to feed the masses. I'm going to be praying that He will do similar miracles with my small amount of energy these days: take it and multiply it so I can bless my family with good wife-ing, mother-ing and homemaking. Dear Father, Please stretch my energies and multiply my efforts so I can fulfill my role here and be the girl You want me to be. It is so much easier to read about homemaking and mothering than to actually do good homemaking and mothering! I need your help, please. Amen.

Bible reading at home with children

Hello friends!
By the end of summer, I thought to myself "hm, I guess I took some time off from blogging!"

Well, I hope you are all doing wonderfully. I guess I needed some time off from this.

Lately, I have kept my study Bible open on the dining table, and have been picking it up and reading a few Psalms out loud with the little girls each morning.

Elena, who is 29 months now (!), listens with interest, and at the end of a Psalm usually smiles and says: "Another one!"

This warms my heart! wow.

So, the other day I read a Psalm, and then another, to which she replied, shaking her head "That not a good one." !! What should my response have been? I contained myself and did not laugh as hard as I would have liked to, but wow, that struck my funny bone.

Now that she knows our routine, Elena will point to the open Bible and ask me to read some to her.

I'm glad that I read about the way Ruth Bell Graham had her Bible open on the kitchen counter as a young mom, and she would snatch a verse here and there in spare moments. This new household ritual of ours, reading a few Psalms together each morning, is really wonderful and wonderfully easy.

We have long been in the habit of having Bible time from the children's several Bible story books, but this is great having some readings from the actual Bible.

Traditional Marriage Roles are Working!

This week I have been finding great refreshment in the roles that my husband and I agree to fulfill in our home. It has always been one of my greatest desires to have a home that is a haven.

The home in which I grew up was very clearly not a haven.

So I know, in a special way, how important one is. (Though let me clarify that there are all different ways to learn how important a haven-like home is!).

My husband is the breadwinner and I am not. I am the homemaker and my husband is not. He does the outside-of-the-house tasks, and a very tiny few of the inside tasks. I do not do the outside-of the-house tasks.

This agreement of ours to embrace traditional roles works SO well. We each know what our own daily and long term tasks are, and we nearly never trip on one another when it comes to who is expected to do what.

Before we got officially engaged we talked about what we hoped for in a marriage and in a home, and honestly, I was quite intimidated to bring it up - this fact that I wanted to be a full time homemaker even before children. I didn't know anyone young who lived like that. But I knew that I was called to do that. Phew. He wanted that, too! In fact, he was thrilled that I wanted that.

I get tense when I hear about couples who are trying to go into marriage without this sort of plan. But I know of no tactful way to warn them....I am not perfect, we are not perfect, I'm not in a position to tell others how to live their lives. But we can show others by quiet example how well this works, right?

When the husband is not prepared to be a provider and the wife is forced to work outside the home, my heart aches, and their home is not what it could be. But this is so normal a situation, even within the Christian community, unfortunately.

Deep sigh. I have been thinking on this lately, as some of those I love are caught up in such situations.

At one of my bridal showers all the young ladies gathered around me and laid hands on me and prayed for our marriage, and prayed that our home would be a haven. This was very moving, and those prayers have certainly been answered.

Let's pray for families!

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, who settest the solitary in families: We commend to thy continual care the homes in which thy people dwell. Put far from them, we beseech thee, every root of bitterness, the desire of vainglory, and the pride of life. Fill them with faith, virtue, knowledge, temperence, patience, godliness. Knit together in constant affection those who, in holy wedlock, have been made one flesh. Turn the hearts of the parents to the children, and the hearts of the children to the parents; and so enkindle fervent charity among us all, that we may evermore be kindly affectioned one to another; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

From the Book of Common Prayer, p 829.

Of Cabbages and Kings, and Whirling Dervish Heather.

My blog is fast turning into the kind of blog that used to really irritate me. You know, the kind that has a blogger who only writes rarely. I'm sheepishly grinning right now, because now I understand that kind of blog. I would read them, get interested, then, bam, the mom has another child or something else super interesting happens in the household -- and what kind of posts follow this?


Not many.

But I get it now! Of course the mom couldn't post! She was otherwise occupied.

So, to be honest, those kinds of blogs don't irritate me anymore (partly because I don't have time to read them at all), and partly because I am humbled to admit that there's another kind of blog that irritates me instead: the kind of blog that always has thoughtful posts and always is interesting. I am amazed by those women who are able to do this blogging stuff as well as keep up with their homemaking. I salute you!

I am just quickly checking in here, while one child splashes in the tub off of the office where I type, and while Baby Madeline slumbers. (I have the monitor right here by the mouse).

This morning I was someone who, according to my wise husband, I'm not supposed to be. I was who he refers to as Whirling Dervish Heather.

I did laundry, I filled the dishwasher, I fed the toddler, I popped batches of cookie dough into and out of the oven, I chopped vegetables for a beautiful soup, I invited the neighbors over for lunch, I nursed. As I did all of that joyfully and with great zeal, I felt happy and at home and at ease and capable.

I thought about how NOT to overhostess, and pulled off an impromptu lunch pretty well. Yay.

But, as she always does, Whirling Dervish Heather is now completely exhausted, and alas, she has not yet made dinner. Sigh.

The baby awakes, and I must trot.

My Retro-Themed Kitchen: the tea portion of the garland.

Happy little people drinking tea! This is right over the section of my counter devoted to tea-making. I often stand at this spot while pulling together everything that goes into making and serving a nice spot of tea. And this sign below always cracks me up!
And now let's all sit down for a good cup of the wonderful brew. Shall I pour?

Once More into the Breach! My Retro-Themed Kitchen: the Betty Crocker illustration garland.

Don't you just adore old cookbooks? The thing is, though, in my own experience I have not found them to be particularly great sources of recipes. However, I have a soft spot for the illustrations in them. So one day this winter, I got out my scissors and attacked this old Betty Crocker - - and made a garland for my kitchen cupboards. It is right at my eye level, and is nice and inspiring to see as I cook and clean and such around my little kitchen. Here it is:
The story seems to begin with a lady in an apron planning, then shopping,
then stocking her fridge,
then working in the kitchen,
then taking the fruit of her labor out of the oven, then presenting it to loved ones,

and then repeating that age-old process. Thus, the life of a homemaker! This garland of illustrations reminds me that I am joining the parade of women homemakers who have gone before us. They may have had kitchens that appear slightly different from ours, but they were doing the same thing: serving their families and making (I hope) tasty and healthy food. Onward, my fellow cooks, mothers, wives, homemakers! Once more into the breach!

My Retro - Themed Kitchen: the new wall hanging.

Hi! Things are going well here at home; I must say that the addition of a second child seems much more peaceful than the arrival of the first. I'm still groggy and not as organized as I strive to be, but our days are basically in pretty good shape.
Here are pictures of one of my latest projects: I've made a dear wall hanging for the kitchen. Above you'll see the before and after photos, and then close-ups of the hanging itself.

The fabric was from Fabric.com and all I did was finish off the edges, sew on ribbons, and hang it by a dowel at the top. The little retro images show ladies in aprons doing various everyday household tasks, and the motto reads Domestic Divas Do It All.

I find it greatly encouraging throughout the day as I pass by it doing the billion-and-five domestic tasks that only show if I do not do them!

Oh, and don't be alarmed by the background of the ironing close-up shot: Baby Madeline was under my attentive supervision as she stretched upon the guest bed.