Today as I was getting ready to go to the Dr. it dawned on me that I, like many others, get guessed up to go out, but don't think much about how nice I dress around the house. Why is it that many of us worry more about what we look like when we are among strangers than we do when around our own husbands; don't they deserve to see us look nice too? I know that we spend a lot of time cleaning, cooking, and wiping snot from children's noses and don't want to put on a dress that we would wear to a party to do such task. When we are picking out our everyday house clothes, or the patterns and material in which to make them, maybe we should put a little more thought into it and buy practical but pretty clothing. I've been thinking I should take the time to look nice for my husband when he comes home from a long day at work; give him something to look forward to. In the long run not only will this benefit him it will also benefit me, because it makes me happy to see my family happy, especially my husband. It will also make me feel better about myself when I look in the mirror and give me a better outlook. That in turn will make me more pleasant to be around, hopefully even when I've had a bad day, at least better than I would have if I'd seen myself dressed frumpy on a day like that.
I am not planning on telling my husband of this plan of mine, I am just going to implement it and see what changes come about daily when he comes home from work.
25.10.10
Moby Wrap give away
Are you a parent or grandparent of a young child? Do you know how wonderful it is to carry your baby? If you want this experience again or haven't yet experienced it, I suggest you register for the free Moby Wrap give away over at The Modest Mom. Good luck.
19.10.10
Women, Dresses and Skirts
As a young woman I liked dresses, but didn't want to wear them all the time. Two years ago I began wearing dresses out of necessity. You see I had spinal surgery and any pressure on my back causes excruciating pain, therefore I started wearing dresses all the time. The first winter I thought I would freeze when wearing them outside, but I didn't. It was very cold that winter too. I have really had a great experience wearing them. When I go out I notice that men open doors, tip there heads at me, and say hi. Please understand I am usually in my wheelchair that my husband has to push, so he is with me. I have asked several men what they preferred a woman to wear and they have said dresses. Honestly when I wear a dress I feel more feminine. I am really glad that I had to start wearing them and don't want to go back to wearing pants.
I make my own dresses so this saves me money and I can style them how I want. I even clean house in my dress. At first this was kinda hot to do during the summer, but I got used to it. I make my dresses tea length or longer, so that it is easy to get in and out of my wheelchair without being immodest.
I would like to hear other women's experience who wear dresses, those who have; always worn dresses, been wearing them for a little while, just begun wearing them occasionally, or those who would like to take a challenge to wear them for seven days. Please comment and share your good and bad experiences with wearing dresses. Let us encourage one another. Wordpress doesn't give me the option to let post appear without being approved, but I will be checking and approving post. We are blazing new trails down roads traveled by women in the past. Have fun and enjoy your dresses.
*Please understand when I say dresses that is to included skirts as well. I myself just can't wear them due to my pain.*
14.10.10
13.10.10
Use it up; wear it out; make it do or do without! - L Reid
"Use it up; wear it out; make it do or do without!" - L Reid
This was a popular motto during the Great Depression, but as times got better many people left behind this way of living. People over the years have become consumerist. Many think if they want something and have the money to get it or the credit available they deserve it. Their homes are crowded with clutter that they may not even use, much less realize what is there. We are bombarded with ads on television, the internet, and in the paper. We feel guilty because we don't spend enough time with our children, so we buy them things. We have a bad day so we go to the mall and buy ourselves something. We need to get away from this frame of mind and remember all that we have the Lord has blessed us with. Leave the television off, get rid of the newspaper subscription, and use an add blocker on your internet browser if you are tempted by all the ads and commercials you see daily. Spend time with the Lord and your family when you've had a bad day.
Times are tough right now and many fear we will sink into another Great Depression. How can we get back to the days when it was more important to appreciate and wisely use what God blessed us with? You can search the internet and see how other households are putting this motto into effect in their homes then try those ideas out in your own home. I know I get excited when I search the web and see families canning the bounty from their gardens, making their own jellies and jams, taking old pieces of furniture and making something new, or sewing their own clothes. The list goes on and on. It is helpful to see what others are doing, because it can inspire us, but it can also overwhelm us and leave us feeling guilty. We may like the idea of canning, so we start a garden and look forward to a plentiful harvest. We don't end up with the time to care for the garden and it becomes overgrown with weeds; we may feel downtrodden by the fact that we didn't get to can like others did. Like anything in our lives we first need to pray for God's guidance. Only He knows what tomorrow holds and what we are truly capable of doing. Maybe this is not the year for you to grow a garden, but a friend from church offers to show you how she takes scraps and makes beautiful skirts for her daughters. God wants us to take care of our families and wisely use our blessings; He will surely guide us as to how we are to "Use it up; wear it out; make it do or do without!"
This was a popular motto during the Great Depression, but as times got better many people left behind this way of living. People over the years have become consumerist. Many think if they want something and have the money to get it or the credit available they deserve it. Their homes are crowded with clutter that they may not even use, much less realize what is there. We are bombarded with ads on television, the internet, and in the paper. We feel guilty because we don't spend enough time with our children, so we buy them things. We have a bad day so we go to the mall and buy ourselves something. We need to get away from this frame of mind and remember all that we have the Lord has blessed us with. Leave the television off, get rid of the newspaper subscription, and use an add blocker on your internet browser if you are tempted by all the ads and commercials you see daily. Spend time with the Lord and your family when you've had a bad day.
Times are tough right now and many fear we will sink into another Great Depression. How can we get back to the days when it was more important to appreciate and wisely use what God blessed us with? You can search the internet and see how other households are putting this motto into effect in their homes then try those ideas out in your own home. I know I get excited when I search the web and see families canning the bounty from their gardens, making their own jellies and jams, taking old pieces of furniture and making something new, or sewing their own clothes. The list goes on and on. It is helpful to see what others are doing, because it can inspire us, but it can also overwhelm us and leave us feeling guilty. We may like the idea of canning, so we start a garden and look forward to a plentiful harvest. We don't end up with the time to care for the garden and it becomes overgrown with weeds; we may feel downtrodden by the fact that we didn't get to can like others did. Like anything in our lives we first need to pray for God's guidance. Only He knows what tomorrow holds and what we are truly capable of doing. Maybe this is not the year for you to grow a garden, but a friend from church offers to show you how she takes scraps and makes beautiful skirts for her daughters. God wants us to take care of our families and wisely use our blessings; He will surely guide us as to how we are to "Use it up; wear it out; make it do or do without!"
5.10.10
Sewing and Using our Time Wisely
I’ve not been able to sew much lately and my sewing list keeps getting longer and longer. I have many things I want to sew, but only so much time in which to sew. In fact because of my disability I am even more limited in the time I feel up to sewing. Due to these two restraints I have come up with a way to make the most use of the time I have. The first thing I do is make a list of all the projects that I want to sew, then I divide them up into groups of urgent needs, necessary, helpful, just for fun, and those I could do without making. This may sound like it is just extra work. If you have a lot of projects and they are constantly being added to by new needs and new ideas you’ve come across, then doing this may very well stop all of the confusion running through your mind. Writing them out on paper, may help you make the best use of your valuable time.
Now that I have an organized list, I need to figure out how to tackle it. I like to include my daughter in learning how to do things that are appropriate for her age, but when I have urgent needs this may take up more time than I can spend to get a particular sewing project done. An urgent need would be something like sewing a gown for my daughter, because she out grew all the ones she had for last fall and it is getting too chilly at night for her to continue wearing her summer gowns. When I have urgent needed projects to do I explain to her that it has to get done as soon as possible and why this is; she will need to know this as a future homemaker too. When my husband has rested from work I will sit down and explain to him that I have some urgent needed sewing to do and need to make time for it. This way he may be able to help me weed out other things I am spending my time on that I could put aside or drop altogether. He can also help me by spending some time with our daughter when I am working on these sewing urgencies.
After I’ve finished all my urgent sewing I can set aside a particular amount of time once a week or more to work on things that would be helpful in our home. One of the things on this list for me is another dress for church, since I don’t have very many. I could’ve put this on my urgent list, but I do already have some I can wear, sure I go through the same dresses every few weeks, but I am not there to please others, but to please God. My young daughter can help me to accomplish this by doing things she is capable of doing with my supervision and that she won’t get hurt doing. I start by explaining to her what we are doing and why, then ask her to help me. Here again she is learning future homemaking skills.
On my list of just for fun are usually lots of little things I can make with my daughter and/or my whole family. One of the things on there at this time of year is a handmade ornament for our Christmas tree. Usually I will get out enough supplies for everyone, read over the directions then get started. Many of the ideas for ornaments come from online sites. We like to make our own, because they are more memorable to us; not only because we made them, but also the time we spent as a family. It is nice doing things as a family; it helps us to grow closer to one another.
And last of all is the list for things I could do without making. When one is surfing the blog you may jump from one website to the next adding more and more ideas to things you’d like to make. That’s fine, but when you make out your sewing list you need to go through them and be realistic as to what you need and what you could do without. I keep this list to refer to when the same ideas pop back up again. For us sewers it is like being in a candy store when we see beautiful handmade things that we can make also. Be realistic, God has blessed us with the money and/or supplies to create things for our family, but we need to be good stewards of these blessings and our time. Our family will appreciate the time this frees up for them to spend with us.
If you have other ideas for how to accomplish your sewing projects please leave a comment with your ideas and I will add them to a future blog and give credit to you, or leave a blog address for me to post. Your ideas may help others in our situation. Thank you if you contribute and thank you all for reading.
Now that I have an organized list, I need to figure out how to tackle it. I like to include my daughter in learning how to do things that are appropriate for her age, but when I have urgent needs this may take up more time than I can spend to get a particular sewing project done. An urgent need would be something like sewing a gown for my daughter, because she out grew all the ones she had for last fall and it is getting too chilly at night for her to continue wearing her summer gowns. When I have urgent needed projects to do I explain to her that it has to get done as soon as possible and why this is; she will need to know this as a future homemaker too. When my husband has rested from work I will sit down and explain to him that I have some urgent needed sewing to do and need to make time for it. This way he may be able to help me weed out other things I am spending my time on that I could put aside or drop altogether. He can also help me by spending some time with our daughter when I am working on these sewing urgencies.
After I’ve finished all my urgent sewing I can set aside a particular amount of time once a week or more to work on things that would be helpful in our home. One of the things on this list for me is another dress for church, since I don’t have very many. I could’ve put this on my urgent list, but I do already have some I can wear, sure I go through the same dresses every few weeks, but I am not there to please others, but to please God. My young daughter can help me to accomplish this by doing things she is capable of doing with my supervision and that she won’t get hurt doing. I start by explaining to her what we are doing and why, then ask her to help me. Here again she is learning future homemaking skills.
On my list of just for fun are usually lots of little things I can make with my daughter and/or my whole family. One of the things on there at this time of year is a handmade ornament for our Christmas tree. Usually I will get out enough supplies for everyone, read over the directions then get started. Many of the ideas for ornaments come from online sites. We like to make our own, because they are more memorable to us; not only because we made them, but also the time we spent as a family. It is nice doing things as a family; it helps us to grow closer to one another.
And last of all is the list for things I could do without making. When one is surfing the blog you may jump from one website to the next adding more and more ideas to things you’d like to make. That’s fine, but when you make out your sewing list you need to go through them and be realistic as to what you need and what you could do without. I keep this list to refer to when the same ideas pop back up again. For us sewers it is like being in a candy store when we see beautiful handmade things that we can make also. Be realistic, God has blessed us with the money and/or supplies to create things for our family, but we need to be good stewards of these blessings and our time. Our family will appreciate the time this frees up for them to spend with us.
If you have other ideas for how to accomplish your sewing projects please leave a comment with your ideas and I will add them to a future blog and give credit to you, or leave a blog address for me to post. Your ideas may help others in our situation. Thank you if you contribute and thank you all for reading.
22.9.10
Homemaking Link-Up!
If you have a blog and have a post about homemaking, please go join the Homemaking Link-Up! over at Raising Homemakers.
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