Rest at Home

Hello Ladies,  

A friend and I were discussing ideas for having a day off in the home. Usually around my house, it is a day off for the one who has a birthday. We were talking about how the whole family could have a day off from their usual chores.

Painting by Albert Lynch

Taking time off would require some careful planning, particularly for meals and cleanup. Food could be prepared the previous day. 

Children would be free to do whatever interested them, from having adventures within the realm of home and yard, to painting a picture, and just about any thing as long as it didn't prevent some other family member from having a peaceful day of rest.

Morgan Westling (American)

Ladies who take a little time for water color or some other quick art or craft have lowered their blood pressure,  decreased anxiety and developed confidence and physical stamina.

Spend a little time gathering some things to spoil yourself with for your time off at home. You might want to locate your favorite books and teas, bath products, craft and art supplies, movies and music and other things.

Another friend of mine said she gets a pile of reading material and sits in a comfortable chair with a blanket , then proceeds to read to her heart's content.

I wondered how I would take a day off without planning a schedule for it, but it naturally fell into place. I did have to make sure the kitchen was clean and the laundry caught up so that I could truly relax. It was hard for me because I do not like to sit still for very long. 

I want to share with you what someone told me about the importance of rest for women, to prevent strain on their backs and to promote good health in other areas:

Never stand, when you can sit, 

and never sit when you can lay down.

Ilya Repin

I can certainly understand that. We go, go, go, like we are racing to a finish line and we imagine it promotes good health, but some of us have found out it is not good at all, and that rest is just as health-giving as exercise.  You might notice after only a minute or two of rest, how your body seems to revive and refresh! You may ask, "How long should I recline and rest?"

 but you do not really have to ask that, because your body will begin to "tell" you when you have had enough rest and you will feel a good urge to do something after only a few minute's recumbency.

Someone else told me she loves to sit in her reclining chair and look through cookbooks.  That is such a great idea, since one does not often look through a cookbook unless desperately trying to find a recipe for a certain occasion.  Leisurely looking through these books is a lot more relaxing, and then you will become more familiar with where the menus and recipes are.

Maybe you cannot take a full day off, but you can take "moments off" throughout the day. Recently while sewing for an entire day, I tried it. I sewed "step one" on the sewing instruction sheet, and then got up from the chair for a refreshing drink and a walk around the house, inside or out.  After sewing "step two" on the instruction sheet, I arose from the sewing chair and put in a load of laundry. After step 3, I put dishes into the dishwasher, and after step 4, I cleaned the bathroom sink.  After other steps in the sewing project, I relaxed with a little bit of gentle rocking on my outdoor swing, and after sewing a seam,  I was able to walk outside,  breathing in the lovely scents of the season. I was quite surprised that the sewing project was finished in a day. I usually try to sit and sew until something is finished but it is very tiring. 

We bring nice things into our homes to make the place comfortable for everyone, and yet for vacations we want to get away from it. This is a way to make those investments pay off.  

Mr. S. gets so much done, I am always trying to figure out how he does it. I finally observed that he does things for ten or twenty minutes and then gets up and does  something on his list that requires physical activity. He completes a lot of things without tiredness setting in. 

The free online homemaking coach called Flylady suggests taking 15 minutes to work on a room where there are things that need to be sorted through, instead of trying to complete it all at once. In a busy home where there are meals to be made and floors to be swept, and people to look after, this makes time for everything else. I have done this when I was painting walls. I painted one wall and then put the paint supplies away.  Years ago I would take a week off to paint and make myself miserable, but now I am experiencing the success of doing things in increments. 

As I was asking around about taking time to rest at home, one lady told me she makes sure she has a day to spend time taking  care of her hair and her skin. I knew immediately that was why she was looking so vibrant and healthy!

Take time to look out the window, walk outside, sit on the porch, smell the scents, and really listen to the children. The resting times make the rest of you function a lot better. The more often you rest, the more it combats the world's stress. Rest builds strength physically and emotionally.

  

In quietness and confidence shall be your strength. Isaiah  30:15

Frank Weston Benson

Take a little time also and look up the artists and the paintings for many more. Morgan Westling had a lot of paintings of women in creating relaxation, painting, reading, writing, etc.