A perfect post

Lady Lydia has the perfect blog post up right now. It's for Daughters Taught at Home it spoke volumes to my heart. It is so the vision I have for my own home and family. The one thing that really caught my eye was she said something about the more daughters you have at home the more lovely your home should be. Now I don't think she is necessarily speaking to the moms of three daughters under three. No, she is speaking to me. The mother of soon to be four daughters. At 13, 10, and 8 they should be assets to our homemaking. Instead they don't finish jobs, don't do them well, or only do a half job. My oldest tried to sew a skirt and because the whole project was to overwhelming for me (really, a skirt?) it became to hard for her because she had no guidance. Now it sits half sewn. I blame myself.

Why do my girls not do their best when it comes to homemaking? Because I do not do my best in training and teaching them. I do not do my best because I am overwhelmed when I look at all that needs to be done. I never learned. I never even tried to learn. Why do I want to pass that legacy onto my girls?

So I am going to start today. Today I am going to work beside my daughter who is in charge of cleaning the bathrooms. We will go down the list and do each chore. I am a bit limited in what I can do, but I think just me being there and being joyful will go a long way. I will also instruct her and show her as we go. My plan is to spend the rest of this week with her in the bathrooms and then next week when she is in the kitchen I will spend the week with her there.

I might have the girls clean in shifts for the next few weeks (with a hiatus of course for me when Lily comes) and spend time with each of them showing them the joy that can be had in homemaking.

I plan to put together some craft kits for the next few weeks and have them do some creative stuff for at least an hour every afternoon. After Lily is here and we settle into more of a routine we will spend that hour in the afternoon going through the books Keepers At Home and Raising A Maiden of Virtue. I started the Maiden book with Karly but we did not finish it. Now I want to go through it with all of the girls again.

Also my plan is one day a month to have daddy and the boys go out and do something or stay home and do something and the girls and I will have tea and a craft day at home or a nice brunch and time to browse craft shops or something like that out. We will probably start that up in the fall.

These are all things I have been thinking about lately. Funny the great ideas you have when you can't implement them.

I am looking forward to bonding with my little ladies. To teaching them the joy that is to be had in being keepers at home. In serving those around them. Of course to show that joy I will have to learn it.

I admit as much as I love the thought of having this new little baby to love and the miracle that she represents. And as much as I look forward to having more, I am not a good pregnant person. I don't know if it was the stress that permeated the last year and the first half of this pregnancy or just being so ill of health. I have been very ill through it all. But that's another post. This one is focusing on my little ladies.

I will be posting a baby update soon. I will be 38 weeks on Sunday. Almost here! :)

Be Blessed!

Happy Homemaking

As the mother of three, soon to be four, young ladies I am so EXCITED about this new website. How many of us lived with mothers who worked 40-60 hours a week and just did not have the time and energy to teach us how to be proper homemakers?

The description of their blog says it all:

Raisinghomemakers.com is dedicated to inspiring, teaching, and blessing mothers who have an interest in raising their daughter in godliness and preparing them in the arts of homemaking to the glory of God.

I went into this whole homemaking thing thinking that it would be easy. Add in three little girls who I am now responsible for showing the way and it is very overwhelming. It's hard to teach something you have NO experience with.

These past few years have been learning experiences. Tough ones. We are learning and failing and learning and succeeding every day.

I am thankful for a website that will seek to educate other women in this wonderful area.

Please rush right over and check it out. They have an awesome contest going on!

A New Journey

So yesterday I stepped into a new phase in life. The mom of a 13yo daughter. Yeah, I have no idea what I'm doing. LOL Then I thought I had no idea what was doing five years ago when she came to live with me. We have survived thus far.

She's a special girl. A hard start to life for her, but she has come so far. Don't ever tell her she is a victim she would scoff at you. She looks forward to running her own home and having a family one day. She has gotten a little short changed this year because her BIG birthday fell right in the middle of a time of overwhelmingness for me. When we talked about her tea party that she was supposed to have she readily agreed to wait until August when I would be better able to plan it. She is getting so mature. She is going tomorrow or Thursday to get her birthday present. She's getting a netbook.

A few years from now she will be of an age to wander to her own little nest. Instead of treating these next few years as wild party do what you want years we will be focusing on training her to be a godly woman. We decided when we first became parents that we would not have "teenagers" in our home. We would have young adults. Believe it or not she loves that phrase. She loves being considered a young adult and not a teenager. To the point that I had to correct her from correcting adults when they called her a teenager. I did it with a smile, of course. LOL

Be Blessed!

Books I'm Reading

Can you guess what I'm planning? :)
I am planning a big one in April when Karly turns 13. That's what started me reading and collecting tea party books. She will be 13, a young lady. I want to make that important step a big deal. She will begin to put away childish things (though not too many too soon!) and learn how to be a godly young woman. We will have a nice tea for all of the girls and women that we know. I am so excited and so is she.

Of course I have decided that we should practice. :) So the girls and I will make it a point to have tea at least once a month while the boys go do a boy thing with daddy. Hopefully we will be able to do it more, but for now I will just aim for once a month.

What are some of your favorite tea party books?

Click on books to go to Amazon.

Added to the bookshelf

(Click on picture to direct to Amazon)


I picked up this book at our local Christian bookstore the other day. I'd been waiting and waiting for them to get it in. I suggest everyone read this book.
I remember clearly about a year ago I listened to three mom's that I know of teenage girls talk about the boys coming around. "What can we do?" was the sigh by all three moms. I turned to tell them about courtship and then promptly stopped. They were all smiling about it. They honestly thought that any thing other than dating would never work. We could never ask these young girls to give up their "right" to date.
I climbed back into my shell and ashamedly did not even mention courtship or anything like it.
My daughter is only 12 what do I know anyway?

These kids are way to precious to me to just send out at 13,15,16 and say good luck! Hope you pick a winner! In the above mentioned book, Reverend Baucham suggests we not only protect our daughters and actively help them in choosing a mate, but that we also spend the time it takes to raise up young men to meet these expectations. Why should we focus only on training girls to be wives and mothers and forget that we need to train our sons to be husbands and fathers? As much as we need to show our girls the right way to find a mate we need to show our sons how to respect his future wife enough to be ready to court her properly.

This girl. My 12 year old, lives in a world where boys and dating and relationships are constantly thrust at her. On every tv show/movie geared toward her age every girl is interested in some boy or dating some boy.... we don't watch them here but she is still exposed no matter how careful we are. Even in church girls her age are going out on "dates" with boys. Sometimes with parents along, sometimes with friends. Twelve year olds?

I got this book for her mainly. So that we can know how to guide her. So she can see that there is an alternative.

These boys are going to grow to be men. I have a serious problem with the Peter Pan syndrome of today. Men who never grow up. I know one man who is going to be 40 soon. His ex girlfriend had his baby over a year ago. He picks him up on Saturday night, brings him back on Sunday night. His new girlfriend watches the baby. He balks at paying child support. Seriously? GROW UP!

Our boys are going to be raised to be responsible. When it's time, they will take a wife build a family. We are training them to be protectors, providers, priests, and prophets of their homes. And unless God wills it they will not be doing those things at 40.

Read the above referenced book.

These two little girls will hopefully benefit from any wisdom we pick up while charting these waters with their sister. At 9 and 7, they have not really noticed boys yet. Beyond their sister telling them about a cute boy.

One of the great illustrations used by Voddie Baucham and also by Paul Washer is a man's prized car. Maybe it's an extended cab brand new truck, shiny. Maybe it's a Porshe that a man saved his whole life for. Would he hand over the keys to this to a pimply faced boy of sixteen? No? Well then why would he hand over his precious 16 year old daughter?

Be Blessed!

Teaching Our Daughters to Be Keepers At Home

As I mentioned previously, Karly and I had a great discussion the other day while working through her Raising Maidens of Virtue book. It was all about being a wife and mother at home.
We looked at Titus 2:4-5: That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. And 1 Timothy 5:14: I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully.

We examined these verses and did not find anywhere that it said, young women should prepare for a career. No where that said a young woman needed to head out into the world and find herself before giving in to matrimony and child bearing.
I explained to my daughter that this is a subject I am passionate about. Mainly because it was never taught to me. I grew up in the church. I had wonderful Christian parents. I was surrounded by preachers, deacons, godly men and women my whole life. But I never once knew that God had priorities for me as a woman.

I plan to give that option to my girls. I plan to make it their vision. The best way to do that is equip them. Give them the tools and the know how and the excitement of being a wife, a mother, a home maker.

Karly and I talked about how she is learning what she needs now. Every dish she washes, every diaper she changes, every time she is obedient, respectful, helpful she is learning to be a wife and mother and homemaker.

When she gets married she will be at such an advantage. By knowing how to run a household of our size now she will be fully equipped to keep the home of her husband. We talked about all the opportunities she would have as a young bride. Her housework would be done early, dinner prep started. She could spend extra time sewing, scrapbooking, decorating her home, ministering to mothers of small children or the elderly, learning even more homemaking skills... She would not have to wait to have children. Her home and family would be prepared from the moment she became a MRS.

When the children came she could be joyful. Not overwhelmed and clueless. Of course there is a bit of that for every first time mom, but she would be equipped to deal with that better than most young ladies.

So much different from my experiences as a young wife and then a mother.

Here is a paragraph from the book that I copied out for her. We decorated it and put it in her notebook, but I plan to make another copy and put it somewhere that the girls and I can see it everyday. We think it's the perfect goal for our young daughters.

A young maiden should be well-trained, well-spoken, well-educated, and thoroughly prepared, for her future life as a Christian woman who is ready, willing and able to make an impact on a humanistic culture at war with God. Her education should be focused on assisting her future husband as his valuable helpmate, not on becoming her "own person". This is where true reform in the family and ultimately in the church will be born.

Be Blessed!

All In A Day's Work

Phew, it's been a busy day! Good and productive. My favorite!
I worked on some life skills stuff with Adrian and Karly. Then I ran out of time. I will work with Kelsie and Tamara on Wednesday.
I made two loaves of bread (one of which is gone!), did laundry, helped Karly make banana bread, watched a cake decorating video and a crochet video, and did general cleaning.


Who says being at home is boring or dull? There are so many things on the list I DID NOT get to, that I will have to work on tomorrow and Wednesday. I had a great discussion with Karly today from our Raising Maidens of Virtue book. It was all about preparing to be a wife, mother, and homemaker, and what she can do today to be ready in a few years.

Yep, a few years. In April my oldest will turn 12. I only have a few years left to help her to be prepared for her years of marriage. I'm so thankful for the resources available, because I would be at such a loss if I were on my own.

What are you doing to prepare your daughters for marriage and homemaking?