Dressing Well May Aid in Doing Well

Hello Dear Friends,

Please join me for an hour to focus on the home and shut out the bad reports of the world.

I hope you will nurture good thoughts today and bring yourself and your home up to a level of dignity and respect, beginning with your appearance.  

In reference to hair care, I referred to this link:

Pin Curl Diaries

I told you about a video I listened to that had some very useful information about how gratitude affects you. 

Your Brain on Gratitude

Gentle exercise can give presence-of-mind that is so important for focus and memory. Try warm-up exercise several times a day for relaxation and good feelings. This channel has many to choose from:

Two Minute Warm Up Exercise

I referred to things in these books:

I read the first paragraph from Wives and Daughters and suggested starting a Wives and Daughter's Summer Reading Program with many other activities. The first paragraph is an interesting way of introducing a character in story. 

I spoke to you today from the guest room at The Manse. I like to change things around in this little room by covering the bed and cushions with cloth from my sewing stash.

I thought of this hymn because of these words:

"Take from our souls the strain and stress..."

Hear it and sing along:

Please enjoy being home, sort through a shelf, a box, or clean a room while you listen:

Your comments are welcome here, and if you have trouble posting,  you are welcome to email me and I'll post them for you.  Thank you also for your Paypal contributions. They are very helpful!

Lydia Ruth

For the Wives and Daughters reading program  

you will need to make yourself a journal with unlined paper, or find something you can write in and use in other ways for the activities.

Activity #1

  Read the first paragraph of Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell; first, silently and then aloud, with expression. Then write a paragraph about your location using the paragraph as a guide to make a description.

Watch the first episode of  the BBC Wives and Daughters.

First paragraph example:

(posting later)

Dressing for Home, Activating a Character Quality, "Dont Lose the Sale."

Hello Dear Friends,

It is still uncomfortably cold here but "we are enduring it as best we can."

We have the natural blue light half an hour before sunrise:

This is what The Manse looks like in the morning fog and blue light. You see the layer of mist on the top of the land in the distance.

I spoke to you from The Ocean Room, and here are some sand dollar cookies with fog tea :

I have been looking through this book to see what might be enjoyable to do:

Other things I talked about in the broadcast today:

From old merchant methods:

Don't devalue yourself or sell yourself short at home.

Don't lose the sale.

Don't give away the store.

The explanation is in the third part of the video, but you can probably figure it out yourself.

One of the exercises I tried:

Seated Exercise

 

The character verses I read:

2 Peter 1:5-11

I discussed the word "activated". Among other things, it means to trigger, get started, set in motion.

I used it in relation to the problem of memorizing scripture but not activating the teachings into life.

Some of you may be interested in these videos that contain soothing home decor:

Cozy Victorian Home Tour

Regency Era Home

Entryways

Blue and White

Please enjoy your responsibilities at home while you listen:

For those of you who are waiting for a book, I am trying to catch up to everything but hopefully will get to that soon. Remember not to order Just Breathing the Air from the web, as they have put the price too high---we are trying to get that fixed. Write to me instead (its $29-$32 when I order it for you, which is the same price I pay for my copies.)

Also, some of you have insisted on sending contributions, which are always greatly appreciated. There is PayPal link on the side of this blog, or you can get my postal address by emailing me. My email should be on the sidebar.

 

A Few Things That Help the Homemaker

(View From My Window: Eastern Afternoon)

Hello Ladies,

I am so glad you are visiting and I hope you can get some things done that you've been putting off, while you listen to the broadcast today.

I was in "The Ocean Room".

There was a rainstorm and a bright rainbow today.

What I wore:

With an apron:

Please enjoy your work while you listen:

Here is one of the Lucy Wyndham-Reade exercises  I spoke of,

and here is the "exercise snack" video, and here is

one of her 3-minute routines.

She also has a gentle 5 minute walk after a meal.

Today I talked about the Jane Austen Summer Reading Programs that I often see on YouTube,

with an eye on doing something similar with Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell. This list of things could be turned into a summer reading program accented with art, crafts and social things.

Some of the possible activities would be:

Reading the book silently and aloud, with emphasis on personal speech improvement.

Written observations.

Creating a mini-journal, games and activities of the story.

Describing the characters

The purpose of various type of their clothing.

A social event with participants choosing to be a certain character.

Researching the fashion and customs of the era.

Observing their manners and conversations, plus the way they interpreted life's ups and downs.

Trying the food mentioned in various chapters.

Emulating the music, social activities, pasttimes.

Family beliefs and practices.

Things they liked to read and study.

Creative ideas of the times.

For anyone who wants to begin watercolor (such as on the edges of letters and envelopes) there are many "shorts" you can follow Just pause, replay, repeat!

Here is one, and another one.

Try some of the small things on this channel.

If you are wanting a place to start, just go to YouTube and in their own search area type in "Beginner (watercolor, acrylics, or what you are looking for) and "floral, landscape, doodles," tutorials.

In the broadcast I suggested getting an art pad from the dollar store, but I forgot to mention using a set of children's watercolor paints, also available at dollar stores. I always get these supplies when the descendants come, so because they are so economical that those of us who are still learning, can paint with full abandon trial and error!

Ideas for dressing well at home can be found on this Pinterest link.

Here is the letter painting I shared from Victoria magazine winter issue. Simply use art paper (from dollar stores)for the letter.

I also brought up the tendency of the prevailing culture to avoid a simple answer. It is easy to use three times the words necessary and go around the answer and not really answer it. I think they call it "word salad."  

I used Philippians 4:7 about how to cure anxiety.

This was in reference to anxiety that is the most common. I did not intend to apply my talk to those who have suffered from personal disastrous life changing injury, illness or loss that is more than chronic anxiety. 

This quote by General MacArthur is indicative of what the press and the various public powers will do to keep us in a constant state of uncertainty:

Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear -- kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor -- with the cry of grave national emergency... Always there has been some terrible evil to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it by furnishing the exorbitant sums demanded.