Introduction

The Joy of Home.

An intense study into the role of who I am.

Recently, I wrote an article called, “The importance of HOMESTEADING,” which spoke on the germinated seeds that started to grow a few years ago within me.  If you have ever given birth to a child, you know about intensity, about how uncomfortable unborn seed can be.  The kicking, the pushing, the weight, the pain.  When you first are told that you are pregnant, it is exciting, but as the months of your pregnancy reach its fullness, you can’t wait for it to be over, until the doctor says push, and then you want to go home because you are exhausted, and the pain is intense.  The command, push, means more pain, it means an end is coming, but the breakthrough is almost unbearable.  Through gritted teeth, and intense pain, you push once more and hear the cry you have waited nine months to hear.  Soon and suddenly, joy overtakes all the exhaustion and pain, as you hold your miracle.  The life you spent creating.  You don’t know how it all happened inside you, a seed to a harvest, but now it is in your arms, and you see it. 

You take this bundle of joy home and find yourself fighting to stay awake in the middle of the night, as you hold your joy while feeding them.  You are exhausted in the morning, exhausted in the afternoon as you place yet another load of baby things in the washing machine.  You are exhausted making dinner, and you are exhausted as you crawl into bed, just praying for a solid five or six hours of sleep. 

Then you turn around, and your baby is having babies, and you wonder where the time went.  Your miracle is now producing a miracle of its own, another generation is upon the earth.  The countdown begins in that moment, the countdown to eternity.  Eighty, a hundred years from that moment seems like a long time, but it happens so quickly.  A vapor of smoke.  What happens from the moment of first and last breath determines more than rewards, wealth, and happiness, it determines the next generation, it also determines the next generation to follow.  Do you realize how much power and authority you have over your following generations?

Babies are born male and female.  We were created to carry out predestined roles, whether we realize it or not.  A man is a man, and a woman is a woman.  Listen I love everyone, and if you want to pretend to be a superhero and wear tights and wrap a cape around your neck, you can do that, but the truth is, you are still human, without the ability to fly, bend steal or leap over tall buildings.  If you want to use a litter box, you can, but you are and never will be a cat.  A man is a man, and a woman is a woman.  A man will always think like a man, and a woman will think like a woman.  You cannot be something you never were created for.

If you are born white, you are white.  You can paint yourself brown, yellow, purple, or turquoise; however, you are still white.  Don’t believe this is hate speech, it is not.  You are wonderfully, and gloriously made, whether you believe it or not.   You have a purpose in your life, whether you feel like it or not.  That is what this is all about.

What is this all about?

In the article mentioned above, it talks about manhood, womanhood, marriage, homesteading, homemaking, our roles, and vision.  I said that the word homesteading means more than most people understand it too.  It is so much more than land, animals, living off the land, it means home, love, endurance, patience, practice, it means living, real living.

Do you know what I mean about a vapor of time?  It seems like you just took down the Christmas tree and it’s time to put it back up again.  You make goals in January and January comes back and you haven’t met your goals, because time just went somewhere without you.  You are determined to not let it happen again, so you buy books on intentional living, slow living, goal setting, and one year later, you think, where did the year go?  Nothing has changed. 

Do you find one area of your life amazing and everywhere else is stale?

Intentional living means you are focused on something.  You take care to notice things in that area.  You can focus on positive things or negative things.  What you focus on will grow.  What you put your thoughts and money on, will grow.  Debt can grow or be destroyed.  A marriage can grow or be destroyed.  Your education, your job, your dreams, all can grow or be destroyed. 

Do you find yourself writing down goals in January, and by March you either cannot remember them, or after an extensive search for them, you can’t find them.  Did you know that even if you have dreams and goals written down and have a vision board before your eyes, you can fill your time with unimportant things, time wasters and laziness, and you never get anywhere? 

NOT THIS YEAR!

Last year we focused on, “Be in Season, Out of SEASON.”  This year, we are bringing that into 2024, but adding, REMOVE THE FEAR AND BE PREPARED.  If you allow fear in, it removes all faith and determination from your plate.  If you are not prepared for something, you will never get it.  If you want to be a veterinarian, you must prepare in high school or take upgrading after high school.  You need to apply at a veterinarian school, raise money to go, and probably move to another city.  That is preparation.  If all you do is at age fifteen is write in your journal, I want to be a vet, I believe I was born to be a vet, and do nothing about it, you will never be a vet.  Maybe you will be a dog groomer, and there is nothing wrong with that, but are you missing out because of laziness, lack of focus or determination?  THIS IS WHAT NEEDS TO BE TAUGHT TO THE NEXT GENERATION AND you PARENTS AND GRANDPARENTS PAY HEED. 

THIS YEAR we are going to prepare so we can receive.  We are going to fight.  We are going to dream and do the work to make those dreams come to pass.  It all starts with a foundation, a laying down of something to build on.  The reason we fail is because we are too weak to stand when the doctor says push.  We throw our hands in the air and say, it’s too hard, I am going home, this is not working. 

LISTEN:   We are not good at everything, but we are good at something. 

We are going to start at the entry level.  Now this is going to be the starting point, the planting of the seed.  When you plant a seed, some seeds germinate in seven to ten days, while others can take months.  A seed needs warmth, moisture, your patience not to dig it up.  How hungry are you for change?

Where do we start?  What’s our foundation, that is common to all?

Everyone is born a male or female.  Each person has a role, a responsibility within a family.  We have a home to clean, a family to feed and our personal needs; however, how we serve one another determines whether everyone receives the needs they need within this setting.  If your home life is a mess, your entire life will be a mess.  If your foundation is built on sand, it will collapse because you cannot stand when it is time to push.  If you get your foundation built properly, you will be able to withstand any storm and be strong enough to push when the time comes. 

There are so many words to describe this world we are about to enter, and we will discuss them all, activate them and live them together.  Some areas you might already have control over and conquered, while others will take time to bandage and heal.  You have a choice to make:  Grab hold or back down.

Here is a short list of things we are going to tackle and have victory over:

• Our gender roles
• Money – saving, giving, debt freedom.
• Homemaking/housekeeping
• Decluttering
• Cooking
• Organizing
• Health
• Balanced living/family life
• Pets and animals
• Productivity
• Honour/respect – given and taken.
• Emergency preparedness
• Laziness/boredom
• Full-time and part-time work outside of the home.
• Time wasters
• Crafts/hobbies
• Gardening
• Harvesting
• Yard care
• Tackling the to do list.
• Basic homesteading skills

If you are thinking none of this applies to me, you are wrong.  It does because you are human and have needs and wants.  No one lives without longings not being met.  No one lives without regrets.  No one lives without some dreams being fulfilled.  This is going to require work.  If you don’t change, your life will not change.  YOU CHOOSE.

We are going to talk about homemaking first

Because every single person has some place to clean.

Whether you are living with your parents, single, divorced, separated, married, or a student at school, you have a place that needs attention.  The lessons learned here will carry you through your education, work, homesteading, parenting, in fact, every part of your life.  If you work it, you will be ready for the push.

There are so many ways to keep a home, so many styles, so many ideas.  This groundwork will help you find your way, because you are you and can only be you.  As the weeks go by, as the months go by, as we delve into other things besides housekeeping, your place, your space, will emerge. 

We will look at:

• Vintage housekeeping
• Modern housekeeping
• Minimalistic housekeeping
• Frugal housekeeping
• Too much stuff/hoarding
• Homeschooling and housekeeping
• Working outside the home and housekeeping
• And more.

There is no right or wrong way, there is your way; however, even your way needs a foundation to stand on.  Wishy washy, doesn’t cut it.  Nor does obsessive cut it.

Get absolutely perfect out of your mind.  Perfectionism is wrong, as this will overextend you, depress you and leave you weak and helpless.  We are after excellence, and everyone has their own idea about excellence.  For some it will be okay to leave dishes in the rack or dishwasher overnight, for others, it will be okay to leave coats and boots by the door instead of in the closet, and again for others, a decision to only dust every two weeks is fine. 

I want you to think about this, if your laundry pile is running down the hallway, trying to make it from the bedroom to the washing machine on its own, the dishes are three nights in the sink without being washed, the dust on the television is so thick it makes the picture hazy and your bedsheets haven’t been changed in a month, does this show the world what is going on inside you?  If this is you, are you proud of it?  What are you teaching your children?  If you can’t keep your house clean, is this reflective of your outside job and the reason you can’t keep one or not promoted?  Are you being fair to your family?  I didn’t say this would be easy, change rarely is, but it is going to build you a foundation, nothing is going to blow over.

HERE WE GO:

 Choose one of the options below to do every single day, Monday to Sunday, over the next month.

1. Make your bed in the morning before you leave the house.
2. Clean up the dishes before bed, every single night.
3. Take vitamins every single day.

Keep this activity going all month. 

Also, I know this might sound old-fashioned, but either make or buy an apron or two.  Thrift stores sell them, or maybe you already have one.  When you make dinner or clean the house, wear it.  It’s a psychological thing as well as practical. 

As stated before, everyone has their own style and their own ideas of what is clean and acceptable.  If you watch influencers on social media, don’t try to become them, be yourself.  Take their ideas that you like and place them into your day.  If you work, like me, outside the home, your house may not be as fabulously clean as someone who stays at home.  BUT it can come close.  IT CAN.  As this year unfolds you will be amazed.

We are going to first look at vintage housekeepers.  Don’t get overwhelmed and quit because it seems impossible.  Take what works for you and start to apply it.  You must start somewhere.  REMEMBER with these magazine homemaking lists, they are written for the perfect housewife, on their schedules, and their era.  I don’t mean that you dismiss everything, because it seems hard, change things little by little. 

for inspiration, help and learning videos.  I will try to add something daily to help you organize your home, lift your spirits, and help you through difficult times. 

Post your thoughts and what you are doing, how you are doing it because it helps other people.

*****I am not the perfect housekeeper.  I am not a hoarder but declutter at least twice a year.  I spring clean and do what I call Christmas clean in November.  I have three dogs and a cat, which means dirt, sand and hair on the floor and furniture.  I don’t have a dishwasher, so all my dishes are handwashed.  I decorate my home with vintage furniture but own a flat screen television.  I work outside the home full time, I garden, preserve food, sew, crochet, and enjoy reading.