Decoration Day at Home

The Peaceful Village by Henry John Yeend King

Someone gifted me with a subscription to Victoria magazine, and this month I found  myself looking more often at several photos in it, so much that I was carrying the magazine from place to place, even in the car, to look at the ones I was most attracted to.

Finally I took the magazine to the Dollar Tree and sized up the pictures with frames.

Most people do not like o cut up this kind of magazine, but the pictures I chose were repeated in the magazine in different ways. 

I like this photo but am not at all fond of the blurry photo foreground trend, so I didn't use this one.  Still, I would like to build this gazebo, if someone would tell me how to do it. My only skill is sewing.

I took the glass out of the frames to reduce the glare and decide if the pictures look good on the wall, before I add decoupage glue as a surface glaze to the picture.

And, because these little frames have a stand in back, and are lightweight, I can include one of the pictures in a tea-cup package for someone.

This house picture has a summery, take-my-breath-away look:

I do hope Victoria magazine goes on to use higher quality paper similar to what MagCloud provides or Jean de Arc Living; so much nicer to the touch. As of now, the quality is no better than BHG or Family Circle, and they aren't worth keeping for a long period of time.

When searching Pinterst, I came across this saying:

I wish someone had drummed this into my mind decades ago. It is better to invest in your family and your own home, first and foremost. That is your ministry and your responsibility. I know a lot of women at home that are made to feel guilty for being home, and they are sometimes told they are privileged, and then thy feel they should help so many other people. Then, they become exhausted, while at the same time they neglect their own homes and families.

Also, along that line of thinking, homemakers can feel they shouldn't indulge in creative enjoyment or any interest other than the work of housekeeping. Leisure and work can exist together in a good balance. 

This has always been the occupational hazard for preacher's wives.  In years to come, it is your investment of time, money, wisdom, etc. in your own family and house that will bring dividends to them and to you.  Regarding charity, I had to make a rule for myself to help others that I personally knew in some way, (email, blog, phone, neighbor) rather than donate to causes I had no personal contact with.  Women at home are not big corporations with extra money to give away, and so, with what they have, they can give to their own family and friends without guilt. This is particularly difficult when you see and hear requests for charity all around you.  We give the church amount we have purposed in our hearts (a free will offering according to as we have prospered) and then, as individual Christians, we can do things for others as we please.  

I have a ladies Bible class in my home each week, for which I provide  the lunch and tea time, and we make cards after class, to send to our members and our friends and relatives.  I believe this is a reasonable amount of time and expense. We don't have to always personally know someone, in order to make them a recipient of any gift we send, but we try to involve people we can trace back to people we actually know.

Women are natural helpers and nurturers, problem solvers, etc. but if that desire and drive is not regulated and confined in some way to the family and their sphere of influence, they can neglect their own people. Women only have so many hours in a day, and must use that time to create comfort for their own family.

There is no doubt a lot more to be said about is, but in general, being careful to direct our emotions to our family and friends, and not get too worried about the rest of the world (which we can't possibly support or solve or help) is a good way to keep stable and save your own family.

Today I'm adding these magazine pictures to my house, and choosing one to give away, just like we used to do in the old days.  I remember even back before frames were so available, how we decorated our walls with scenery pictures from magazines, as if it was wallpaper.   We also used our own art.  We had rough looking scrapbooks made of brown paper, in which we pasted (from glue made of flour and water) pictures from magazines. When we were sick in bed or were confined to the house because of cold weather, we enjoyed looking through these scrapbooks.

So if you are worried that you do not give enough charity, make an extra loaf of bread or a few cinnamon rolls, or give a little something of your own talent, but restrict the majority of your time for the family and the house.

This is one of the photos I liked, but I wish Victoria mag. would use a higher quality parchment type paper, more pleasant to the touch, similar to Jean De Arc magazine. The publication is worthy of it.