From an 1895 book on life…

Women Who Make the Best Wives

1. Conscious of the Duties of Her Sex. - A woman conscious of the duties of her sex, one who unflinchingly discharges the duties allotted to her by nature, would no doubt make a good wife.

2. Good Wives and Mothers. - The good wives and mother are the women who believe in the sisterhood of women as well as in the brotherhood of men. The highest exponent of this type seeks to make her home something more than an abode where children are fed, clothes, and taught the catechism, The State has taken her children into politics by making their education a function of politicians. The good wife and homemakers says to her children, “Where thou goest, I will go.” She puts of her own inclinations to ease and selfishness. She studies the men who propose to educate her children; she exhorts mothers to sit beside fathers on the school board; she will even herself accept such thankless office in the interests of the helpless youth of the schools who need a mother’s as well as a father’s and a teacher’s care in this field of politics.

3. A Busy Woman. -As to whether a busy woman, that is , a woman who labors for mankind in the world outside her home, whether such an one can also be a good housekeeper, and care for her children, and make a real “Home Sweet Home!” with all the comforts by way of variation why! I am ready, as the result of years practical experience as a busy woman, to assert that women of affairs can also be women of true domestic tastes and habits.

4. Brainy Enough. - What kind of women make the best wives? The woman who is brainy enough to be a companion, wise enough to be a counselor, skilled enough in the domestic virtues to be a good housekeeper, and loving enough to guide in true paths the children with whom the home may be blessed.

5. Found the Right Husband. - The best wife is the woman who has found the right husband, a husband who understands her. A man will have the best wife when he rates that wife as queen among women. Of all women she should always be to him the dearest. This sort of man will not only praise the dishes made by his wife, but will actually eat them.

6. Bank Account. - He will allow his life companion a bank account, and will exact no itemized bill at the end of the month. Above all, he will pay the Easter bonnet bill without a word, never bring a friend to dinner without first telephoning home, -shore, he will comprehend that the woman who makes the best wife is the woman whom, by his indulgence of her ways and whims, he makes the best wife. So after all, good husbands have the most to do with making good wives.

7. Best Home Maker. - A woman to be the best home makers needs to be devoid of intensive “nerves.” She must be need and systematic, but not too neat, lest she destroy the comfort she endeavors to create. She must be distinctly amiable, ,while firm. She should have no “career,” or desire for a career, if she would fill to perfection the home sphere. She must be affectionate, sympathetic and patient, and fully appreciative of the worth and dignity of her sphere.

8. Know Nothing Whatsoever About Cooking or Sewing or Housekeeping. - I am inclined to make my answer to this question somewhat concise, after the manner of a text without the sermon. Like this: To be the “best wife” depends upon three things: first, an abiding faith with God; second, duty lovingly discharged as daughter, wife and mother; third, self improvement, mentally, physically and spiritually. With this as a text and as a glittering generality, let me touch upon one to tow practical essentials. I the course of every week it is my privileged to meet hundreds of young women - perspective wives. I am astonished to find that many of these know nothing whatsoever about cooking of sewing or housekeeping. Now, if a woman cannot broil a beefsteak, nor boil the coffee when it is necessary, if she cannot mend the linen, nor patch a coat, if she cannot make a bed, order the dinner, create a lamp shade, ventilate the house, nor do anything practical in the way of making home actually a home, how can she expect to make even a good wife, not so speak of a better of best wife? I need not continue this sermon. Wise girls will understand.

9. The Best Keeper of Home. - As to who is the best keeper of this transition home, memory pictures to me a woman grown white under the old slavery, still bound by it, in that little out-of-the-way Kansas town, but never so bound that she could not put aside the household tasks, at any time, for social intercourse, for religious conversation, for correspondence, for reading, and, above all, for making everyone who came near her feel that her home was the expressions of herself, a place of rest, study, and cultivation of affection. She did not exist for her walls, her carpets, her furniture; they existed for her and all who came to her. She considered herself the equal of all; and everyone else thought her the superior of all.

“They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. The millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight out battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave…There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable-and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come.”

-Patrick Henry : “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death”

March 23, 1775

“Sarah, my love for you is deathless, it seems to bind me with mighty cables that nothing but omnipotence can break. And yet my love of country comes over me like a strong wind and bears me irresistibly with all those chains to the battlefield.

The memory of all the blissful moments that I have enjoyed with you and I feel most deeply grateful to God and you, that I have enjoyed them for so long. And how hard it is for me to give them up and burn to ashes the hopes and future years, when God willing, we might still have lived and loved together and see our boys grown up to honorable manhood around us.

If I do not return my dear Sarah never forget how much I loved you, nor that when my last breath escapes me on the battlefield, it will whisper your name.

Forgive my many faults, and the many pains that I have caused you, how thoughtless how foolish I have sometimes been, but oh Sarah, if the dead can come back to this earth, and flit unseen around those they love, I shall always be with you in the brightest day and the darkest night, always, always. And when the soft breeze fans your cheek, it shall be my breath;  the cool air on your throbbing temple, shall be my spirit passing by.

Sarah do not mourn me dead, think I am gone and wait for me. For we shall meet again.”

- Sullivan (Ballou)

July the 14th, 1861

“abridged version”

Does Being Loved Mean Being Made Much Of?

“For many people, this is not obviously an act of love. They do not feel loved when they are told that God created them for his glory. They feel used. This is understandable given the way love has been almost completely distorted in our world. For most people, to be loved is to be made much of. Almost everything in our Western culture serves this distortion of love. We are taught in a thousand ways that love means increasing someone’s self-esteem. Love is helping someone feel good about themselves. Love is giving someone a mirror and helping him like what he sees.

This is not what the Bible means by the love of God. Love is doing what is best for someone. But making self the object of our highest affections is not best for us. It is, in fact, a lethal distraction. We were made to see and savor God-and savoring him, to be supremely satisfied, and thus spread in all the world the worth of his presence. Not to show people the all-satisfying God is not to love them. To make them feel good about themselves when they were made to feel good about seeing God is like taking someone to the Alps and locking them in a room full of mirrors. “

John Piper, Don’t Waste Your Life

Breakthrough-the Beauty of Christ, My Joy

“…Why do we cherish being forgiven by God? There are answers to this question that would dishonor him, because there are benefits from forgiveness that a person may love without loving God. We might say, “I cherish being forgiven by God because I hate the misery of a guilty conscience.” Or “… because I hate the prospect of pain in hell.” Or “…because I want to go to heaven to see my loved ones and have a new body with no sickness.” Where is God in these reasons for cherishing forgiveness? In the best case he is there in all these reasons as the real treasure of life.

If so, then these delights are really ways of cherishing God himself. A free and clean conscience enables us to see more of God and frees us to enjoy him. Escape from hell at the cost of Christ’s blood shows us more of God’s commitment to merciful holiness and his desire for our happiness. The gift of seeing loved ones highlights God’s  wonder in creating relationships of love. Getting a new body deepens our identification with the glorified Christ. But if God himself is not there in these gifts-and I fear he is not for many professing Christians-then we do not know what forgiveness is for.”

John Piper, Don’t Waste Your Life

The Goal of Life- Gladly Making Others Glad in God

I was reading the book, Better English by Norman Lewis, and I came across this quote:

“Don’t do nothing I wouldn’t do” is called “incorrect” because such a grammatical pattern is not customarily used by educated people.”

Even though it does contain a double negative, if we aren’t doing nothing, then we must be doing something See how long a conversation can last based on this one quote.

I love my old books! They are so quaint and have such stories surrounding them as they passed through someone’s hands, sat on different shelves, and were read by so many voices to countless listeners. From Chemistry books to The Coral Island by R.M.Ballantyne, the books are unique from their tattered covers, through their yellowing pages, to their loose binding.

From their crisp new pages that was given to an adventurous child at their birthday, through the years when they were then placed on shelves in a local library, and in their last remaining readings when a creature thirsty for literature flipped rapidly through their pages. Soon after, their bodies grew weary and hopefully found refuge on a sturdy shelf in the home of old book lover…like me:)

A Book by Emily Dickinson

There is no frigate like a book,

To take us lands away,

Nor any coursers like a page,

Of prancing poetry.

This traverse may the poorest take,

Without oppress of toll;

How frugal is the chariot

That bears a human soul.

“To me, homesteading is the solution of all poverty’s problems, but I realize that temperament has much to do with success in any undertaking, and persons afraid of coyotes and work and loneliness had better let ranching alone. At the same time, any woman who can stand her own company, can see the beauty of the sunset, loves growing things, and is willing to put in as much time at careful labor as she does over the washtub, will certainly succeed; will have independence, plenty to eat all the time, and a home of her own in the end.”

Letters from a Woman Homesteader by Elinore Pruitt Stewart

The light, the spell-word of the heart,

Our guiding star in weal or woe,

Our talisman-our earthly chart-

That sweetest name that earth can know.

~

We breathed it first with lisping tongue,

When cradled in her arms we lay;

Fond memories round that name are hung,

That will not, cannot pass away.

~

We breathed it then, we breathe it still,

More dear that sister, friend, or brother,

The gentle power, the magic thrill,

Awakened at the name of mother.

by Fanny J. Crosby

Homeschooling: the type of education where one can wash the dog in between cultural geography and physical science and still be able to have a successful day