Good Times at Home

Being a home keeper can require being on your feet more than you plan, while keeping things in order, and the other things that keeping the home requires.  Wouldn't you love to go out to a grand place away from it all and sit awhile? For many of us it isn't possible due to distance, cost, and pressing responsibilities at home, however, almost everything you want to go "out" for can be reproduced at home, at least for the time being. Want a musical comcert, a book review club, a sewing circle, a ladies Bible class, morning teatime?  There are ways to do this when you cannot go out to it. And to paraphrase Jane Austen, "Since you cannot be brought to the fancy hotel, the fancy hotel must be brought to you!" (Does anyone know what the correct quote is?)

Have you ever been unable to leave your house for some important reason, but longed for someone to come and bring you something special to cheer you up?  That happened to me, once, a long time ago. A lady that I knew showed up completely by surprise  and brought in a folding table and set up a tea party for me, complete with savories and tea, with cups and even hot water which she brought in thermoses. I did not think at the time to get a picture but the vision of it is still very clear in my mind! The table cloth and napkins, the silver teapot (which she uses for travel because it will not break) and her brightly colored dishes are still a fresh memory.  

In lieu of the expensive hotel tea when it is not feasible to leave your house, you can set this up in your own home as a reward for completing the things you have been trying to do. I always look forward to getting a room cleaned and then standing back and looking at it with a feeling of accomplishment.  Remember after each day of Creation, God said, "It is good!"  As we create order at home and add beauty, pleasant scents and sounds, let us do so with the intention of being able to say "It is good!" Having a nice place to go when I am finished is a good motivation, but when it is not possible, I can bring the nice place to my own living room.

I like to get the rooms closest to the front door--the ones I see when I first come in the door- presentable first. That way if I do not get the other rooms completed, here are a couple of places at look nice enough to keep me encouraged. (I keep goimg back to look at the nice rooms, even while tackling the messes in other rooms. It gives me something to look forward to.). 

So if you are lagging a bit and not really making the progress you like, create one small space where there is order and put all the elements you would expect to see if you went "somewhere nice"--- a bright flower arrangement, a fire in the fireplace, soft, low lighting, books, music, and of course, afternoon tea in the living room.