Saturday, May 02, 2020

Do It Yourself


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

14 comments:

Unknown said...

Read the entire post! I hope you know just how much you help us, I appreciate you and all the creativity you pour into your blog and videos. Such wisdom๐Ÿค— thought I'd share with you, that I started writing a newsletter for my kids and leave on the dining table so when they have breakfast they have reading material ๐Ÿ˜‰ they told me they want me to do it everyday! Thank you again lovely lady and the lord bless you!

Lydia said...

More ladies could do their own newsletters!!! They will become family treasures.

living from glory to glory said...

Hello Lydia, I liked the title "Do It Yourself" When I look back over the years and think about how many haircuts I have given to our family, We did save a bundle.
Also planning meals or at least know what you are doing each day sure helps the food budget. And it does take away the stress of dinner time. And it is also very nice to have books to inspire in ideas for new things!

I agree that always starting my days looking like I didn't sleep in my clothes LOL
Keeping a running list of fun ideas helps to keep our days interesting. I do wish I had prettier handwriting!
Great Post!
Hugs, Roxy

amulbunny's random thoughts said...

Love your lilacs. When I was a little girl in Wisconsin we had a huge lilac bush by our clothesline. It was planted next to a mock orange bush which filled the air with orange blossoms.

Mrs. Laura Lane said...

Dear Lady Lydia,
I read your paragraph about cutting hair, looked over at my adult son (who really needed a cut) and offered him a trim. He said yes! So I stopped immediately, grabbed my scissors and clippers, and trimmed his hair before reading the next paragraph!

Great advice as usual. Be blessed dearie!

Laura of Harvest Lane Cottage

Laura Jeanne said...

Excellent suggestions! The only one I might struggle with right now is getting dressed up...I am in sore need of some fresh clothes for summer as my skirts and tops from last year are very worn. (I wear the ankle length skirts from Costco all summer, and they are made from a cotton knit fabric that although it is very comfortable and cool, unfortunately gets really stretched out with time and accumulates small holes as well.) I can hardly believe that all the clothing stores and thrift shops are still closed. I guess it's time to get out all my sewing supplies and see what I can make from my fabric stash.

I find that with the lock down, the two places I have missed the most are the library, and the thrift store. :) I guess Walmart is still open, but last time I was in there the clothing section was just about picked clean!

Lydia said...

Dear Lydia,

I really enjoyed this post and your recent homemaker video as well! You gave us a cornucopia of fabulous ideas for doing things ourselves at home. Excellent! I want to create and share handwritten newsletters with a group of homeschooling girls in my “American Girl “ group that meets in my home monthly. You have given me some inspiration from your “Elect lady” newsletter to do that. Thank you for investing your time in sharing your ideas and for encouraging us to live our daily lives in a meaningful, celebratory manner!๐Ÿ™‚

Blessings,
Holly

Lydia said...

It would be sweet to know that many women at home are making these newsletters for family and friends. My ladies class love it and when I don't make one they ask me where it is and why they didn't get one. And yet it isn't great or glossy ; its just simple and its something.

Anonymous said...

I wrote our first family newsletter and had it on the breakfast table Monday morning. The children were thrilled! I added an, "accepting news, events, drawings, etc." at the bottom of the letter so they can be official contributors. So much fun!
Thank you
Mrs.O

Lydia said...

Hello, dear Lydia!
I would like to thank you for the reference to historical brides books! I have been wating something like that for a very long time. For so many years I have been reading non fiction and plenty of health books, I just wanted something light, clean, easy to read.

Funny ladies would criticize yet watch movies/ t.v. series?
Even Little House on the Prairies, Waltons, and a few other widely accepted have plenty of love stories....and oftentimes feminism!

At any rate, I am now reading Prairie Brides and I have Lighthouse Brides on the way. I plant to move onto Beach, Homestead after those!
It really has been years since I have just read an easy going fiction...I'm in my glory!!
Love
Mrs.O๐Ÿ’

Mrs O. even the historical movies had a lot of feminism in them.

Mrs. Laura Lane said...

Hello Laura Jeanne,
I find that the library and thrift stores are what I miss most as well! May I suggest you look at your clothing and see if there is anything you can alter, take it etc? Sometimes we can repurpose things. I made a skirt simply by taking two lengths of fabric, sewing seems at sides and putting in an elastic waste. In fact, it was a piece of elastic that came from another old skirt that was beyond repair.

Be blessed,
Laura Lane

Laura Jeanne said...

Laura Lane, that's a good idea. I also have some old thrift store sheets stuffed in the top of my closet (I buy them as cheap cotton fabric) and I wonder if I have any that are thick enough to make into a summer skirt. I use thrift store sheets for lots of things - most of the curtains in my house are made from them. :)

Lydia said...

Dear Lydia,
After listening to your last radio talk, which was helpful in many ways, I created my first newsletter today.
Recently my grandchildren sent colorful drawings of their garden- bed plans, so I used the garden as the theme of my newsletter in response back to them.
Perhaps I spent more time than I should have on it but I had so much fun searching in my books for ideas, sketching pictures, coloring with pencils, etc.
I'm grateful you suggested trying this project!
I am also grateful for the suggestions in your most recent written post, which I put in my homemaking folder.
Kind regards from Lynnea

Lydia said...

This newsletter thing is very interesting and calming too. I always look forward to Wednesday because that is when I do my newsletter. I only make a couple of copies but its such a nice time of getting my thoughts together and putting something on paper. I like your garden sketch idea. Be sure to save a copy of every issue. You'll want to keep them all in a folder and look at them later.