Hello Ladies,
I hope to share a few interior photos in a future post. In the meantime, please enjoy my offering of a few outdoor scenes around The Manse.
It is always a thrill to be greeted by the cute gray rabbit in the morning while I do my outdoor rounds. Of course, as my children say, "Mum, when you have a garden, a rabbit is not cute."
Today I thought I would write a few suggestions about the many things you can do yourself, and lose some of your dependence on the outside world.
Of course we know that enterprise is important and has been, from the beginning of time. We can learn to do something ourselves, but one day we will appreciate that we can have it done for us, and that we are helping someone earn a living. So it is not as if we are trying to deprive anyone of their own living.
You can cut your family's hair. I learned the value of this when I got a book called "How to Cut Your Own or Anyone Else's Hair." There are free instructions available on youtube videos. It is so much easier and thriftier to do it at home. It saves all the time to make appointments and it saves a lot of time away from home. If you have a family of boys, it is so much easier and more comfortable to sit in a chair at home and use the family hair cutting equipment, and no more spending whole days in town getting everyone's hair cut.
Establish Good Food Preparation Skills because meal times will become the focus of the family when you are living at home most of the time. There are so many resources for learning and improving this skill. Many people have posted videos you can watch online and you can order limitless books and cooking magazines. Eventually you will end up with a reasonable collection of things that work well for you.
Learn to print and hand write legibly enough that you can write your own newsletters and books.
One book I had when homeschooling the children was called "A Reason For Writing" which was a handwriting book for beginners. I have suggested that if you are a school teacher, the idea of ordering an ABeka book catalog and ordering yourself a curriculum and doing it as though you were a student, to see the effect it has on your heart, mind and soul. A handwriting book and an art book are two great tools because a child will enjoy illustrating what he writes, both in letters to loved ones and in little stories. We enjoyed writing letters to each other and living them in designated letter delivery places in the house. I wish we had done a lot more of that!!
Practice Dressing Respectably No Matter What the Circumstances. Don't wait for the rest of the world to get better or straighten out. You've only got one chance at good memories, one chance at your history. Create some good history for yourself with good habits of dressing respectably at home. That way, you wont feel awkward when you dress up to go elsewhere.
Plan Something At Home. Do not wait for the sun to shine or to get "better off" to create your own celebrations. It is even more enjoyable if you name the occasion creatively such as "Opening the new bag of flour day" or " Putting the clothes out to dry in the sun day" or just any unique, creative and humorous thing that your own family can dream up. You are a lot better at it than I am!
Create a List For Yourself at the Start of the Day and even if you aren't able to follow it completely, you will have a goal and a focus enough to feel a purpose.
Improve Yourself in Some Way Every Day either by learning something of value and use, or by improving your attitude, your manners, your habits, and your skills.
Finish Something Every Day as close to perfection as you can. Don't just unload the dishwasher and load it again. Clean up everything around it and put a little finishing touch--a fancy clean kitchen towel, a little jar of fresh picked herbs or flowers, or a newly set table with pretty dishes. You all have them, and can use them for the memories.
Always plan for better days ahead. That is why we are getting things all cleaned up at home. That way, we won't have to scramble with all kinds of stress cleaning when something sudden comes upon us.
Find Out How to Clean and Arrange a House and most of all, enjoy doing that. There are going to be plenty of new careers coming out of the stay at home trend. You never know what skills will be developed that will be important in the future. There are training videos for people working in the hotel business, which are sometimes helpful in the home, however, there are also many pages of housekeeping/homemaking instructions available at your fingertips.
Do One Relaxing Thing every day that you are looking forward to.
Don't Indulge in Gloom and Doom Thoughts or Talk. If you want to succeed and want others to succeed in their lives, (including magistrates, and those in power) pray for them.
These days at home for most of you, are normal,and life has not changed, but for others who aren't used it it, it will take a few days to feel settled and focused on something worthwhile.
Learn to look at it as a cruise :
Also take a look at a new blog here
https://rosefountainofblessings.blogspot.com/
and if you are interested in a more encouraging message in the current political mess, check daily for this video:
https://www.youtube.com/user/X22Report It updates what is really going on and for what purpose. Also
https://www.bitchute.com/video/N8jw0wprRtlf/
These are more optimistic than network news and more truthful
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=b4Spym4OVTI
