The First Sin (The Cow vs 34-39 and Book 20:112-125)

This corresponding section of the Bible lays out the primary need and provision for salvation, that which is of first importance to Christians. The Koran tells a very different story, for all that the summary seems similar. “The devil is in the details,” they say, and in this case that is pretty nearly literal.

Did Adam and Eve mean it?

The Koran makes it clear that Adam’s sin was entirely unintentional, placing the whole blame upon the devil. When they ate, “their evil inclinations became manifest to them,” and they had to leave this garden. According to the commentary, the Garden was an allegory of a state of inertia, containing no inclination towards good or evil. I really don’t think I can say that all Muslims see the Garden as an allegory based on this one commentary, especially since some Christians see it as an allegory and many do not. All that aside, however, there is an important difference here in viewing the state of the human being.

As Francis Schaeffer put it so well in his radio series, which I’ve been listening to lately, Christianity is not Romanticism in that it does not assume that man is inherently good and getting better. Even the Christians who do not believe that every baby is born already stained with Adam’s sin, there is no denying that every one ends up in dire need of God’s salvation. We are unable to fix ourselves, and so we need atonement before we can even hope to reconcile with God. The story of Adam and Eve in the Bible ends with what is widely considered the first prophetic mention of Jesus Christ.

The dampening down or eliminating of Adam’s sin is necessary to remove the need for a Savior. Islam, claiming to be one of ‘the three Abrahamic religions’, once again distinguishes itself from Christianity and Judaism and joins just about every other world religion in believing that good works and wisdom alone are sufficient to pave your way to Heaven. Now, some Christians might chime in and ask why I place Christianity and Judaism together in this light. Although the Jews are still waiting for their political savior, even though they no longer perform animal sacrifice on altars as in the Old Testament, nevertheless they believe that a genuine repentance and accompanying forgiveness from God is necessary to wipe out sin. This is a work done nearly entirely by God, separate from any good deeds that the Jew or Christian has committed. Amid the various web commentaries on this section of the Koran, I found the statement, “A good deed cancels a bad deed.” This is not found in Christianity or Judaism.

Eve and Women as Individuals

In another important point, the Bible claims that Eve was persuaded by the devil (in the form of a serpent) and then persuaded Adam. The Koran up to this point has only addressed Adam himself or Adam and “his wife”. Some claim that the Koran is therefore more “woman-friendly”, having not placed the blame of the First Sin on Eve. (Granted, as the First Sin is entirely the fault of the devil and his ability to place evil thoughts into man’s mind rather than the more subtle leading-astray in the Bible, man doesn’t really take the hit either.) I see it a different way.

Eve in the Bible was her own person, an individual, who thought for herself and had the power to convince her husband to follow. She discerned wrongly, but she did discern! Though Adam tried later to shift full blame to her, God gave him a separate punishment, underlying what Christians already know: Eve does not carry full blame for the Fall of Man. However, her existence as a separate and important human being has already been shown in the Bible, in the Naming of the Animals, an emphasis missing in the corresponding story in the Koran. In the Bible, Woman shares in sin and its consequences as an equal person to Adam, with intelligence and influence, and God addresses her separately. Interestingly, this difference was highlighted for me in how the first human couple in the Bible are sometimes addressed as “Adam and Eve”, sometimes as “Adam and his wife”, and sometimes as “Eve and her husband.” In the Koran, it is always “Adam” or “Adam/man and his wife”.

Consequences

Although Christianity and Judaism differ in the role of the Messiah, they both place the primary emphasis on forgiveness of sin being necessary for a right relationship with god. Islam places more importance on good deeds and revealed Divine knowledge, and we begin to see that here.

Man must now leave the garden. Why? Because “some of you are the enemies of others.” Man, though he supposedly had not deliberately sinned, has nevertheless given in to his “low desires” and is now more likely to war with each other. Though Adam is said to have “repented” by turning back to Allah, this appears to be a direct result of Allah revealing knowledge to him. My helpful commentary declares, “Man is found too weak to overcome the evil suggestions of the devil or the [pre-Fall] evil inclinations in him… He [Allah] sends down revelation which, strengthening his faith in God [Allah], gives him the strength to overcome the devil and reject his suggestions.” There we have it; man couldn’t have known he was giving in to evil, but now he does, so he won’t do it again! Though it is referred to by the commentary as ‘repentance’, nothing appears to need forgiving. “Allah is merciful.” Under such circumstances, I would hope so!

The section ends, not with the punishment of man and wife and the promise of Satan’s eventual defeat, but with the simple promise that prophets will come from time to time with new revealed knowledge of Allah. This total departure from the Bible is necessary for Mohammed to claim any new revelation after the coming of Jesus. When you believe that the Fall of Man is corrected by a work already done, what is there to add? As well, if you are still waiting for your prophesied Savior, what use have you for someone who claims that there will not be one?

The Naming of the Animals (The Cow vs30-33)

This looks on the surface like the same Naming of the Animals story in the Bible. However, though the end result is the same, the stories accord the honor in different ways, leading to completely different lessons to learn.

The Koran claims that Allah taught man the names of the animals to prove his superiority to the angels, who doubted Allah's wisdom in putting a 'ruler' (man) on the earth. He then brought man before the angels and had man recite the names back to them, showing them that he had chosen to give man knowledge that they did not have. There is a notable lack of fellowship between man and Allah here, when compared to the Biblical story. Man is given the information in order to prove the the angels that he is superior, not apparently through any ability or work of his own, but because Allah chose to give him information that they lacked.

The Bible paints a very different picture. The angels are not even a part of the story. Yahweh (so called in this 'article' to distinguish Him from Allah) brings the animals to man to see what names man would give them. Yahweh had a couple reasons for doing this. One reason was to confirm man's authority over the animals. The other was to show man that there was no fit companion for him among them. This set the stage for the introduction of Woman, "flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone," above the beasts, recognized as the same race of man. She has equal intelligence and basic human dignity, recognized as an indispensable part of the human race.

The Koran apparently does not cover the origin of women at all, according to the web search I did when this part of The Cow failed to turn up any extra information. I will see in time whether this is true, or whether it is listed in a different chapter.

I find it interesting that The Cow vs 1-30 continue to emphasize Allah's superiority, the same simple theme carried onto the Naming of the Animals. Meanwhile, the Bible is already branching out to the purpose of man and woman, allowing man a greater measure of creativity and setting woman's place within creation. In the Biblical account, we are already seeing Yahweh's willingness to fellowship with His created man, giving man the honor of naming His creation the way a parent might ask his child to label his painted picture or sculpted model.

Granted, this part of the Koran seems so far to be merely a summary of the Old Testament. I also have seen a lack of complexity such that I am accustomed to from the Bible, but I am still pretty early in the book. Maybe it will change further in.

I would accept the notion that the Koran is merely meant to be a continuation of the Old and New Testament, therefore needing much less complexity in it's history lessons, but what I have read already shows a very different interpretation of the old stories summarized within.

Next Time: The Garden of Eden and Man's Sin

Quran from a Christian's Perspective Part 1

Al-Fåtihah: The Opening

Introduction

This is apparently the Muslim version of the Lord’s Prayer, only with more importance. It is the prayer a Muslim should make at the beginning of each day, beginning each lesson, etc. The prayer I use before each Bible lesson is rather different than the Lord’s Prayer, so I used the Lord’s Prayer in comparison when teasing out the nuances.

The Muslim opening prayer is a fairly simple seven-verse thing, listing attributes of Allah and requesting Allah’s help in being led on the right path, neither that of those upon whom wrath is brought down nor those who go astray. On the surface, there is nothing really wrong with it, and further inspection finds some quirks, but still a fairly decent prayer for a good Muslim. If I did not have the Lord’s Prayer to compare it with, I might agree with the author of my English translation that the concepts expressed are nothing short of sublime.

Divine Attributes

The divine attributes are four in number, being providence, beneficence, mercy, and requital. For all that, the English translation doesn’t use the word ‘providence’, unless it is hidden somehow in it’s mention of Allah as ‘Lord’. I get a gentle chiding here for the frequent English translation of ‘King’. An emphasis on the word used strengthens the definition from ‘King’ to something further, a ‘Master’. The difference is important, because a master could forgive his servants without breaking the law, while a king could not. I find that interesting, as it suggests that in Islam the forgiveness of sins is possible only because Allah is above the law, while in Christianity it is the fulfillment of the law through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Beneficence and Mercy barely need mention, as I pretty much agree with them. To a Christian comparing the Quran to the Bible, they need no explanation.

The one that really caught my eye was requital. I had to look up the word to make sure I had the nuance correct. It’s most common synonym is ‘reciprocate’ or ‘return’, the idea of giving back what is given to you. For a judgmental god, that makes some sense. You do good, you get good. You do bad, you get bad. Unfortunately, it leaves no room for forgiveness of sins, or for the Biblical verses about even our righteousness being no better than dirty rags before God’s glory. Again, the translator/commentator set me straight. The judgment of Allah is not apparently the rigid judgment of natural law, but the beneficent judgment of a loving Master.

Is that different from Christianity? I see one way that it is, and that one way is strengthened by what the Lord’s Prayer has that the Fatihah does not.

Forgiveness and Remission of Sins

The Lord’s Prayer and the Fatihah has concepts in common regarding God’s magnificence, beneficence, love and power. They both request direction in the supplicant’s life. The mention of “Thy Kingdom Come” and the meaning of it’s omission in the Fatihah will have to wait until I have more information. The two extra parts in the Lord’s Prayer are the appeal for sustenance (“Give us this day our daily bread”) and for forgiveness of sins.

While one of the words used to describe Allah in these seven verses refers to him as ‘sustainer to perfection’, I do not come away from reading the prayer with a feeling that you can request that sustenance of him, or a sense that forgiveness is something you specifically seek. The Lord’s Prayer suggests, as other words of Jesus confirm, that remission of sins is something that you can not only hope for but expect once you have made your request. God is seen as a faithful and steady keeper of His word, and that expectation is strengthened by the knowledge that salvation and forgiveness is the fulfillment of the Law and not it’s bypassing. For that Jesus’s sacrifice was needed.

For Allah, on the other hand, whose forgiveness appears to be above the Law, I see no guarantee of remission of sins beyond the simple assurance that Allah is loving and merciful, and it is not beyond his nature to do so.

Next Time: Starting the Cow

Quran from a Christian's Perspective Introduction

I have finally decided to give the Muslim's holy book a good look over. Being who I am, of course, I will be taking notes as I read, and writing up my thoughts afterwards. Maybe it'll become a book. Maybe not. At any rate, I'll post them here as I write them.

I've got a translation of the Quran from http://www.muslim.org/ with commentary from Maulana Muhammed Ali. I think that should be a fairly good representation of their text, not biased towards their detractors and with a genuine wish to make it understandable. So far, I find the commentary useful and the text interesting.

Let's see how long this lasts, and what I come up with in the meantime.

Spanking guidelines

I get the feeling that people who decry spanking of any sort for any reason, who talk about things like brutality and unacceptable punishment, really don't appreciate how hard it is to spank correctly. I don't think they understand how carefully calculated and measured it is, how much easier it is to perform much harsher punishments, like name-calling and other emotionally-damaging attacks. So for those who don't understand how to spank for one reason or another, I present my guidelines.

Do not spank in anger or without decisiveness. Never strike any person in anger. You can't help the mother bear slap of fear, especially with a toddler. That's not likely to do them any real damage. But never actually spank a child without a clear idea of why it is necessary and a cool head.

Do not spank for genuine forgetfulness, for absent-mindedness, or for accidents. I reserve spanking for deliberate disobedience. If he throws a toy in the house, I tell him no. If he gets all excited playing and does it again, I may remove the toy for a while. If I say "Do not throw toys" and he responds by looking at me and throwing another, that is call for a spanking.

I had a particular challenge with my son in this area. If he got put to bed early for acting thoroughly tired, he would refuse to pee before bed and then wet the bed. Was he doing it deliberately? Much as I hesitate to decide that, it seemed so. However, I do not feel it is right to spank a child for bed-wetting. How did I deal with it? By making it more of a nuisance to him than was worth. A thorough impromptu shower including a hair-wash, thorough change of clothes and bedding, and answering complaints with "You wet the bed, so we have to make everything clean again."

Measure the spanking and spanking tool. I favor hand or wood, the hand because you can better gauge how hard the spanking is, and wood because it is lighter and more flexible, stinging without injuring. A wide wooden spoon is good for this, spreading out the impact. Plastic hurts more, and I don't favor it. How do I measure spankings? This is a carefully administered punishment, not a beating opportunity. Just as I used the inside of my wrist to test his bath temperature, I use my own arm or leg to test the spanking before I deliver it. (You don't have to do this every single time. Just enough to get the feel of whatever you're using.)

Make sure he knows ahead of time how many spanks and what they are for. "One spank for disobeying me, and one spank for spitting at me." That reinforces his sense of fairness, understanding exactly what is deserved and why.

I saved the most important for last. Ensure that the spanking wipes out the offense. Once it is finished, it has done the job of restoring him to good graces. Don't reward him afterwards, but do not withhold hugs and let your voice revert to it's pleasant tone. Treat him as if the offense and punishment has not happened at all. If you are raising him as a Christian, you are teaching the most important spiritual truth in this way; total forgiveness and remission of sins.

I hope my little guideline list has helped you understand how I use spanking for punishment. I was one of the lucky kids who learned how to spank from my own parents. My husband derived similar rules from his own experience. It is useful to keep in mind that what your child learns from your spanking habits will affect the way he punishes his own children, your grandchildren. And grandchildren are perfect, aren't they?

Changes

I'm revving up for December, cleaning, preparing, and doing a bit of renewal as well. My website is getting a complete makeover, and soon I'll be changing the descriptions and purpose of this and its sister blog as well as making it a little easier to find me in other places. So hang on and I'll tell you when it's all set!

But I wanted to peek in and let you know something, in case you're a foreigner or a recently-arrived alien from another planet. You've probably figured out that something big is happening. It isn't so easy to tell exactly what it is.

iVillage.com, for example, is all set up for this 'holiday'. View houses decorated for the holiday. Holiday ideas for cooking. Shop for holiday gifts. New trends in holiday decorations.

At bhg.com, a favorite of mine (probably in part because I consider The definitive cookbook to be the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook), you find a better clue. They actually tell you what's coming up.

It's called Christmas. Make a note.

Busy Day Dinner

1 Turkey Carcass
1 cup rice
About 4-6 cups water (estimated)
1 can of peas that are going to go bad soon if they aren't used

So I put the carcass in the crock pot, along with the turkey neck. I don't like to waste parts of the turkey if I can use them! When it was good and soaked and warm, I picked all the meat off with my fingers. Ow! It was hot! But your fingers work MUCH better than a fork.

That left me with water and chicken. Some of the water I put in was saved from when I'd boiled the neck and giblets together in a pot. I just put the neck and water into a container to save for later, and now is later! What do I do with turkey giblets? I eat the liver and give the rest to the cats.

I added the rest of the gravy to make a good broth, and added some chicken boullion and a quarter cup of golden sherry just to make sure it's a good broth. Then I put in the rice and the peas.

I started the carcass heating at around noon, and it's a little after 2:30pm now. Supper is at around 5:30, which should give plenty of time for the rice to be rice and the alcohol to cook out of the broth. It's in a crock pot on high, doing its thing. I shouldn't have to worry about it anymore. Around 5:30 I'll heat up the rest of the rolls from the turkey dinner and serve them with the soup/stew/mash/whatever comes out.

The crock pot shows it's value whenever you are not going to have much time in the afternoon or evening to prepare dinner. It also does if you are going to kind of feed people all day as they go in and out. On Mondays my kid has Children's Choir right around the time that I'm usually cooking. Sometimes my mother brings him and my youngest sister, sometimes I bring him and my youngest sister, and sometimes we go together and chat while they're singing. In the latter two cases, the best meal is one that I can start before I leave and is safe to leave in an empty house. I balk at running the oven when I'm gone. The crock pot, however, is safe.

You can crockpot cheaper cuts of meat because several hours of slow-cooking in fluids will soften up just about anything. If you're doing that, I personally recommend doing it on high to make sure the stuff is heated safely. If you're running it overnight, you probably want it on low.

I love soup in particular in the crock pot because you can start it early and just add stuff whenever you think of it. It'll take a while longer to cook, but it'll get there! As long as you've got enough liquid in there, you can't really burn anything. Meat, rice, barley, certain kinds of beans, just toss a handful in and let it think about soup for a few hours!

As you can guess, I don't cook to recipe so much as I put things together with a creative flair that sometimes goes wrong and often turns out alright. So when I mention what I cook and how, expect a lot of leeway!

Superclean

Let's see what I can do with my messy kitchen in one day.

First off, I've taken some pictures with what I'm starting out with. This is what happens when a housekeeper gets depressed! Let this be a warning for all of us! I went through a rather dark period just the past month or so, and this weekend I had to stop and shed a lot of undeserved guilt about things that happened years ago. Now, at the beginning of a new month and a new monthly cycle, I'm full of energy and ready to go!




Ok, I started by putting my dishes away and washing the rest. I washed even what would usually go into the dishwasher, because I want them all clean and there isn't enough to make a load. Actually, I started by putting a load of clothes in the laundry and setting the timer for a half hour. Ok, it's 8:20, here I go!

10:30am I pop in to write that I was 'sidetracked' into taking care of all of my overdue cans. One by one I opened them and dumped them into a container that my son carried to the compost each time it was full. Rinsed them and filled up an entire tub. I'm going to have to drop the recyclables at the dump today. This is still kitchen focus, so that's ok!

11:00am Break for lunch.

12pm My pace is going to be slower, but I bet I can still get something done. I'm crockpotting dinner, so I'd better get that going first. I'm going to get the meat off the turkey carcass that we cooked Friday and make a soup. I do that in the crock pot. So far I've taken care of the old cans and thorough-cleaned between the sink and the stove. The stove itself needs a good scrub.

1pm Finish! I thorough-cleaned between the sink and the refrigerator. The stuff in the sink is all new from lunch, which was pasta. I washed out both recycling bins, discovering in the process that the garden hose does in fact spray water when you aren't holding down the handle. So I had to change clothes... In taking care of all those cans, I opened up an entire kitchen shelf that I can use for other things now.

Ok, I admit I'm done for the day. I'll spend the rest of the day dealing with correspondence, taking my son to Children's Choir, making supper, etc. So here's my progress...





It's still going to take another couple of days to really get the kitchen where it should be. This is a good start, though. The crock pot is kind of hiding much of my progress, but it's been made!

How do these things happen to me?

So I was going to go pick up the kids. My mother drops them off, I pick them up. I had to reset my seat because Husband Big-Legs had driven my car last, and then I headed on out. As I took the last corner of the driveway and pulled to a stop at the street, I heard something in back of me go Scriiiiiiitch..rattle..rattle..thump. My husband had last taken this car to the dump. I figured he left a can or something in the back. No sweat. I pulled out.

Screeech-rattle-rattle-thump-sliiiiide-rattle-thump. I saw something drop off the roof from my rearview mirror and lie still on the road behind me. I hit the brakes. I looked at the little huddle again. "Oh, God. I've killed a cat."

The thing stayed there and I stayed there wondering what to do. "I'd better check it out." So I put the car into reverse and backed up to it. "Is that a cat?" In the increased light from the car being in reverse, I wasn't sure anymore. So I put it in park, put on my flashers, and got out of the car to investigate.

It was a chicken.

"Uh oh, I've killed one of my sister's chickens." But the head was moving about. "Broken both legs, I bet," I thought, and approached the bird, one of two Rhode Island reds in my sister's brood. It rose to its feet and started wandering away. I picked up my pace. It picked up its pace. I tried to grab it, but it ran off into the trees. I stood there, again weighing my options, and finally got back in the car. I had to pick up those kids.

They were out, of course, and came walking right up to the car as I pulled into place. "Sorry I'm late, guys," I said. "I've got a really good reason." My brother looked up as he opened the car door.
"Did you know that you've got... a lot... of frozen bird crap... on your roof?"
"Uh, yeah..." I said wryly, "I figured I might."

Fashion Bugs

Women claim to dress for men. Men claim that women dress for other women. When you put your clothes on in the morning, for whom are you dressing?

Oh, plenty of women like me (homemaker bloggers) will talk about modesty, and I'm sure everyone's got their tips. Personally, it seem to me that some outfits are immodest for all women, while others are immodest for some and not others depending on body shape and size. Each woman has to develop her own awareness of what she should and should not wear. I'd like to introduce a method to figuring this out, and the main idea behind the method is to consider for whom you are dressing.

This came to my mind because today, this Sunday morning, I am dressing for a small group of 10-year-old girls.

I didn't make this dress for them, I made it for me. I used this pattern, a Simplicity costume pattern.



My particular gown is made up like the yellow flowered dress, only my material is a lavender muslin overlaid with lavender eyelet. The lace trimmings are white eyelet, like the picture, and the trim ribbon is dark purple. I made it because it's pretty and comfortable and I love long skirts and close-fitting bodices.

As I was walking through the church after the morning service one day, I realized that I'd caught the attention of a group of girls. I turned and smiled at them, and their 'leader' told me what they'd all apparently been whispering about.

"We love your dress. We think it's beautiful. It reminds us of 'Felicity'."

Felicity is one of the "American Girl" dolls, her story set in colonial times. I suppose I can see the resemblance.






I did a curtsey and thanked them. :) To me, that was a compliment. They were thrilled, and I hear them every time I wear this dress to church. "Oh! You're wearing your 'Felicity dress'!"

When you're dressing for a small group of 10-year-old girls, you don't wear low-cut shirts or skin-tight jeans. You don't wear skirts with slits up to mid-thigh. What pleases them most is your best princess look, the lovely dresses they so adore filled out as only their Barbies can. And it makes such a good impression on them to see women daring to do so.

Lest you think I'm a skirts-only person, I own and wear jeans and sweatpants as well. I have several t-shirts, including my "shocking" black Epica bandshirt and a few tank tops for summertime. My closet is quite eclectic. But I do love those vintage dresses.

Combat ADHD

I read an article today talking about a test done on common artificial colorings and flavorings in foods and their effect on children.

Parents have long maintained that food additives cause hyperactivity in their children, and now there’s a new study out of Britain confirming their belief. In an authoritative, double-blind study, the Brits have proved – contrary to food industry skepticism – that common food dyes as well as the food preservative sodium benzoate can trigger hyperactivity in many children.

How definitive is the study? In light of the new findings, Britain’s Food Standards Agency issued an immediate advisory urging parents to limit their child’s intake of food additives if there are signs they affect behavior.

Part of a homemaker's job is to act as a nutritionist. Usually the homemaker buys the food, so she ends up reading the labels. Check your labels! People wonder what homemakers do all day. This is one of the things that they do. It takes extra time and energy to make sure you're preparing the best foods for your family. That's part of your job, to take the extra time and energy. Unlike most parts of society, culture, and technology, optimized to save all the time you can, a homemaker's job is to spend time to save money and optimize health.

Your husband (or wife, if you're a male homemaker) is working so hard to let you be at home so that you can do things like this in such a way that saves money. Get to know where your local farms are, and watch for sales and availability of non-prepackaged foods. A good homemaker will eventually gain the skills to feed her family the best foods without having to double the grocery bill.

Revving Up

So this week I'm adding a subject to Lil B's schoolwork. I'm going to start teaching him math every day. I figure I'll introduce subjects slowly, like introducing foods to an infant, always giving him enough time to expend his energy.

I was talking to someone who pointed out what he saw as an "us vs. them" mentality among homeschoolers when dealing with the public school system. My first thought was, "Yeah, duh..." But I took a moment to explain, not justifying, but simply explaining why. I think the 'why' justifies itself.

Most homeschooling families start out trusting the public school system and have to get 'burned' before they start taking the precautions that more experienced families do. Over and over I see the case briefs, and so many of them start the same way. "Mrs. S. sent in her notice to homeschool her son in the interest of cooperation. Unfortunately, the school board decided to report her for truancy although her notice followed all state guidelines..." Variations on a theme, some involving police pounding down the front door, some merely involving months of paperwork caught up in red tape, most of them requiring the involvement of an attorney to get the school to back down.

On "ERIC", the Education Resources Information Center online, I looked up 'homeschool'. One of the results, a published study, caught my attention. Rather, the language in the abstract caught my attention.

While the recent growth of homeschooling in America may not be an overall threat to public education in America today, some school districts are reporting that they are experiencing declines in their enrollments, which ultimately means a revenue loss in their school districts (Hetzner, 2000; Vater, 2001). (emphasis mine)

That really sums up the "us vs. them" attitude. The Department of Education and it's various public school systems see homeschoolers as a threat. Their revenue is based on enrollment, though it is paid through the taxes that homeschooling parents pay. Public school districts have little or no influence over private school, but in many states they are presented with a 'letter of intent' for homeschoolers, which gives them a chance to show their displeasure.

I'm not saying all districts are like this. Ours is pretty good about not harassing homeschoolers. Unfortunately, any homeschooling family in our area looking to use any public school resources at all, even offering to pay for these tax-supported services, are finding the door slammed decidedly shut.

Personally, I'm not even going to try. I may turn to the local Catholic school, which cheerfully and readily agreed to administer my SAT's when I was the homeschool student several years ago. I'm going to put in my intent notice with the minimal required information. I don't need to personally be burned to know that "they" are not inclined to be friendly towards "us". And anyone who is actually going to review any portfolio or ask any further questions... well... I will begin by giving them the benefit of the doubt and see if they are decent people personally before deciding if they are part of "Them" or simply good people doing their job.

Well, it took a while...

I have finally put my fall decorations up. Not a lot... my big decorating effort goes towards Christmastime. But I really like fall. It's a wonderful time of year. It feels more like the beginning of a new year to me than January, but maybe that's because I've always, consciously or subconsciously, been running on a school schedule.

Fall is harvest time, the time when things like apples and squashes are cheap and plentiful. It's got a lot of good celebrating days. There's Thanksgiving Day, of course, and in our family, Pie Day precedes it. My mother, aware that most of the extended family has places to go on Thanksgiving, invites everyone over on Wednesday to eat from the various Thanksgiving pies that she always makes a little ahead of time to cut down on the cooking time on the holiday itself.

I try to keep track of Columbus Day. Whether or not anyone in the family has it as a holiday, I try to do our Indian Supper the night before. The Indian Supper is merely suppertime made with only the ingredients that could be found in "the New World" before the Europeans began settling here. Generally it centers around fish and corn.

There are several birthdays in the fall, and my mother does a Halloween party with donuts and dressing up. Last year Lil Bernie (my son) dressed up as a butterfly for Halloween. This year he may be old enough to go to the church party as well. Of course, after Thanksgiving starts Christmas Season, a month full of chocolate and glowing lights and brightly patterned paper. I love Christmas Season!

Anyways... I put up my fall decorations, and here are pictures.

I always like to put a garland over the tapestry in the living room. This tapestry was first purchased by my father for his college dorm room, from a music shop, because he didn't want posters of bikinis or racecars.



Note the "Pooh Pumpkin"...


I don't like clutter in my kitchen, but I spend so much energy in that room, I like to be reminded of the seasons.


My dining room is generally my fall decoration focus. A vinyl tablecloth costs so little, and does so much in defining a seasonal theme! Those lil bear Thanksgiving figurines I bought at the Dollar Store for, of course, $3 for all three!


The 'living area' is mostly upstairs, as downstairs is mostly bedrooms. I didn't see a need to decorate every room in the house. It's too much work to remember where you put everything! But the den holds our big TV, entertainment center, enough seating for an extended family, and it needed some 'fall pizazz'. The little bear figures are more of the same dollar store set. :)

Changing of the Guard

Today is the last day of August and the end of summer. In my household, the seasons change meteorologically, not according to solstice. September 1st marks the beginning of autumn. It will be the first autumn since 2003 that I will be able to put up the fall decorations promptly and readily. I'm going to enjoy that!

First I need to make sure the 'habitable sections' of the house are good and clean. This doesn't, of course, involve the "stuff room", that last bedroom where everything that needs to be sorted has been put. I just need to clear out the living areas and entertaining areas. Then I can pull out the summer tupper and take down the summer decorations. I have a white-flowered garland above the tapestry in the living room. I also have a summer-themed tablecloth. To be honest, I have more fall decorations than summer...

A change of seasons is a good time to go through what you have, consider where your life is, and renew your determination in housekeeping for the new season. Later I'll list the things that I do during the fall to ready the house for wintertime, and I hope some people will add their lists as well!

Starting again

The nice thing about being a homemaker is that if you've been slipping on the job lately, you can always declare a start point and renew your efforts.

The cold is beginning to recede. I'm out of the nasal-congestion stage and into the coughing stage. My energy has perked up a little, and I'll be able to get some real cleaning done. It's the benefit of an increasingly organized house that the 'damage' isn't too bad. I'll be able to make actual progress in cleaning pretty quickly. I also have a lot of organizational things to do.

Our favorite of the local agricultural fairs is happening this coming weekend. I need to budget the money we can spend there. It's a rare 'splurge time' for us, in which we bring a certain amount of carefully-budgeted money and then just spend like maniacs until it's gone. Well, my way of spending like a maniac is to find the things I like best, figure out how I can afford as many of my favorites of them as possible, and then buying. I buy things like jewelry, scarves, india dresses, sheepskin slippers, specially-colored wax candles, and similar with my allowed money. I'll also get ride tickets and 'german fries' and perhaps a bag of tiny fresh donuts. My husband is not overly enthused about all these little fair things and has the habit of spending his share of the money on me. I think that's really sweet and he's an awesome guy!

The woman exalted in Proverbs 31 is known for some of her work in the marketplace, and I will not be much different this fall. I've been offered an adjunct teaching position at the community college, a single three-credit course. I've taken it, and I start this Saturday. Attitudes differ about homemakers working part-time. I think each family will have it's own profile that will change as the family changes. My mother did not work at all when she had four children all in school age (except when she had to that one time, but that's a whole story in itself!). But now, with one in highschool and one in elementary school, she works part-time at the local post office. With one child starting homeschooling this fall, I've decided that a part-time job that requires me to be gone Saturday mornings, with the rest of the work done at home, is by no means overly intrusive.

Down time

Homemaking, especially mothering, is not like the typical workweek. There is never a typical homemaking week. Even the best schedules don't always work unless they are flexible. Homemakers will end up with Crazy Weeks and Downtime. This week appears so far to be Downtime.

Starting on Tuesday, Little Bernie and I came down with a bad cold together. For the past few days we've been staying mostly at home, resting frequently. The kitchen has remained clean, the laundry is pretty well caught up, but beyond that not much has been happening on the cleaning-and-repairing front.

Sometimes you just have to sit out for a bit. Sometimes downtime just happens. You can still make the most of it. I've done some paperwork, some organization at the desk. But some of it has just plain been quiet bonding time. Lil Bernie and I watch Disney movies together and discuss them. I take a moment to sit in the living room and enjoy the work I've been doing. Our pantry is still plentiful thanks to last week's preparations.

So next time you find yourself stuck in downtime, don't get into a guilt trip about it. Just relax, do some stuff you usually don't take the time for, and accept that this is the other side of the Crazy Week.

Just try to not let the dishes-washing slip...

Watch your priorities!

My sink is a mess of dishes that I should have done yesterday before going to bed. But they can wait until after the morning service.

My son and I are going to start walking early to the service. Taking off, hand-in-hand down the road, with my husband picking us up probably about a half hour later in the car. The church is a good three miles away, after all.

He'll be exercising his little legs (my son), out in the sun and fresh air, gathering memories. The 'model homemaker' might have decided to do the dishes instead and make sure the kitchen was fresh and clean in case we had anyone come to lunch. (For shame! Yesterday's dishes!)

But homemaking is a means to an end, and it is better to focus on the end while performing the means. Because every now and then, the end is not found in a sink full of dishes, but in a long country road and a little boy.

Housewives and "Men's Work"

We see it more and more in today's media world. A woman, living alone, being 'self-sufficient'. She doesn't need a man to do home repair for her! "Today's Woman" can repair furniture. She's up on a ladder cleaning out the rain gutters. She's a novice electrician, replacing fixtures and even doing a little easy rewiring. There she goes with the lawn mower again.

That's the joke, really. For generations, homemakers have engaged in these activities, 'even' with a man in the house. Oh, of course he helps out on the weekends, to ease up the workload a little. But there's no reason why a homemaker today, in addition to cooking and cleaning, should not know these things. They are but one of the many facets that make homemaking so much more than knowing how to turn out Grandma's brownies and get blood stain out of an outfit. The mundane chores that so many people speak of as being the largest part of homemaking is only the routine stuff that should be doable within a relatively small part of your day.

Over the past month, I have been putting my home improvement skills into play. My sister and I cleared out a small bedroom downstairs that I have decided will be the 'library', a room housing my sewing table, our piano, a computer desk, and an impressive array of books. I looked up multiple articles on color-choosing before selecting the precise hues I wanted, designed the look of the room around a prominent print (the curtain, in this case), and bought what I needed.

Interior decorating hasn't been my only work, however. I also refinished the deck. Yes, homemakers, your wood deck probably needs a new coat of stain/sealant about once every two to ten to twenty years, depending on your location and the stuff you use. I picked out the best form of sealant available, with a ten-year guarantee that comes out to more like eight in this area. Why? Because apparently great extremes between heat and cold (my climate ranges from 105F in the summer to -5F in the winter), plus increased humidity and violent storms (I live near the shoreline), can really do a number on a good sealant. Your deck needs to be able to shed water and withstand sun if it is going to last.

In some families, they make enough money to hire somebody to refinish the deck for you. This is not one of them. I knew I was going to have to do it myself, since my four-year-old son is too young to work at it. Now, in some households, the homemaker is not sturdy or limber enough to go out and spend all morning on the deck with a paintbrush and roller. (Another topic entirely: the importance of keeping yourself in sufficient shape to take on your tasks!) I am capable of it. And so I saved my husband the work and worry and did it myself. The only part I was unable to handle was lifting the glass-topped table off the deck. This we did together in the morning before he had to leave. (My in-laws gave us their old deck furniture, a beautiful set of chairs and table.)

Thanks to my willingness to learn, ask, and simply work, we protected our deck for the next ten years on a total of about $30. The last time it needed doing, I was working and so we hired someone for the job. It cost us $150. This is yet another example of how a good homemaker can save the household a lot of money with a bit of intelligence and gumption.

Sunday for Rest

Tomorrow is Sunday. Me being the sort of Christian who attends church on Sundays, it is my day of rest. Now I don't have a problem with people who chose Saturday as a day of rest, or even Tuesday or Friday. I do feel that it is important to the health of a person, especially a homemaker, to have one day each week of rest.

I do not start or perpetuate huge projects on Sunday. Of course I'll cook and clean, I'll do dishes, even hang laundry, pick up around the house. But I do not engage in heavy projecting. I'll fabric-paint a shirt, or sew, or draw, because I enjoy doing these things. I enjoy my housework, too, but I won't move furniture about, change curtains, or alphabetize the DVD's on a Sunday. Instead, I take some time to contemplate.

I attend the church service in the morning and take notes on the sermon. Sometimes I'll look up the text on eSword just to see what other commentaries have said on it over the years. I'll also plan my week out, make lists of things I might make for supper and make sure my tasks are all entered into their various programs to remind me throughout the week.

Sometimes, well, maybe monthly or so, I'll have a time of introspection when I review my life goals, modify them as desired, and ask myself how I'm proceeding towards completing them. Tomorrow will be a day like that. I've been going through a lot of changes in my life with coming home and being a full-time housewife/mother just for the past three weeks. Time to evaluate what I've accomplished, what I have left to do, and how I can regain my motivation.

A less known part of homemaking

As much as people who actually stay at home can tell you that this is a definite part of the process, it usually isn't listed on the various tellings of what a homemaker does! Keeping the furniture in working order is definitely important, especially in this family where most of our stuff is hand-me-down. In fact, I'd have to say that every single bit of furniture we own was given to us.

There's a rip in the arm cloth of a lovely comfortable plush chair in the living room. A simple rip I could sew back, but this material is stretched tight and it's opened up over the foam-padded chair arm. My solution was to wait for an opportune sale, which opened up at Ocean State Job Lot (surplus store) this week, and buy a slipcover. Slipcovers are a good way to freshen up a piece of furniture. Unfortunately, they tend to be expensive. Even the one I found in that great sale was all of $20.

Little Bernie, my son aged 4, spilled milk some time ago into the loveseat cushion in the living room. As much as my husband rinsed out the block foam cushion, it just didn't ever get properly clean again. So I took all the covers off the cushions to wash, only to find a little dark dry spot on the other bottom cushion. I sniffed at it. It appears that our son has graced the loveseat in another way as well.

There is a way to fix this, but it isn't cheap! I put one of the cushions in the back of the station wagon and took it down to a place that sells foam. There are places like these. Look under "foam" in the Yellow Pages. I tried already looking under "furniture" and "refurbish" and such. It's under "foam", trust me! It costs $55 to replace a single bottom cushion, about 6 inches thick and I don't quite remember how wide. Anyways, he measured it, said he had to order it, and it will be in tomorrow morning to pick up. So I will be making another trip out tomorrow.

A kitchen how-to site says that you can freshen up your kitchen cabinets with some furniture polish. I do know that furniture polish works wonders on a tired-looking bit of wood furniture. I'm going to try it with the cabinets and see how it does.

Our downstairs couch was hand-me-down, and it has had a musty scent clinging to it even after a few weeks in it's new home. I bought some carpet-and-furniture spray from the carpet-cleaning part of the supermarket and I'm going to try that. We'll see how it goes.

Someday I'm going to learn how to build some simple furniture pieces. The stuff is expensive, and it can't be all that hard to do, as long as you don't mind Shaker-style, which I love.

Kitchen Upkeep!

How things change! Since my last update, my husband has landed a job and I have quit mine. I am now a full-time mother and homemaker proper! It didn't take long for me to launch headlong into long-neglected housework and today is no exception.

How often you need to do this really depends on how you run your kitchen. Since I've been quite lackadaisical, this badly needed to be done. I basically took all of my non-refrigerated goods out this morning and put back only what was still good. Come to think of it, everyone probably could stand to do this maybe yearly. Even the best housekeeper may end up with a three-year-old box of brownie mix in the depths of her cupboard.

My house is a bi-level, and the kitchen is pretty small as kitchens go. I don't have a lot of cupboard space. There are two shelved closets in the hallway, and one of them is my pantry. There I keep dry goods, cans, etc. In my kitchen, I keep baking goods (from rice to vinegar to baking soda to cane sugar) and the simplest common things I have more often, like my trusty jar of Ovaltine. Down in the cellar, I have a shelf on which I keep things like extra boxes of cereal that I bought on sale and the cases of ramen that my husband persists in buying periodically for himself. I cleaned up the kitchen this morning, getting everything off the floor for once and giving it a good scrub, so I had plenty of room in which to pull everything out of the cupboards and pantry and go through it all. Wow. I ended up dumping easily half my inventory.

I hate putting so much stuff into the garbage. I live on a four acre lot, and I have designated a small area for compost. You don't even need to have four acres to maintain a compost bin. You can do it on two, even one acre, depending on what you compost. Meat is not recommended as it attracts carnivores. Most dry cereals, pastas, and vegetable leftovers can be composted. I filled a container with old potato flakes, ancient bread crumbs, aged pastas and similar, and my young son carried it out to the compost and emptied it out for me.

Hopefully this will help me keep from buying things that we already have, that I just plain couldn't find!

Finances Part 2

Of course, finding out where your money goes is only the beginning. The next part is to control where your money goes. There are some things you simply can't control. You want to focus on the things that you can. This may differ from household to household. These are some of the things that I control.

Electricity - It goes without saying that you turn off the lights that you're not using. That will give you a little bit of savings. You can get further savings very quickly by seriously cutting down on your A/C use during the summer, especially if you use the window units. One window unit and a few fans generate less electricity than three window units. We're on the window unit system now, saving up for central air someday in the future. One unit takes care of the entire house, along with about four floor fans pushing the air around. It is my husband's pleasure to tweak the system until every corner of the house is affected. Now, not everyone can do it that easily. I live in a bilevel, so the lower floor is always cool and the upper floor has a ranch-like layout. Still, A/C during the summer really spikes the bill! August is my highest electricity usage month. (Now, in different climates there will be different challenges.)

Another important way to save electricity is to hang your laundry to dry. The washing machine takes up a certain level of electricity, since it's got motors in it. The dryer, though, dealing with both motors and a heating element, is a real electricity hog. I have a real, honest-to-goodness outside line that my husband put up for me. Of course, when you do your laundry this way you have to plan. Sunny days make excellent laundry days. Keep an eye on the weather, and consider a pre-emptive load if you're about to enter a week of rain. Hung laundry does not actually freeze until the temperature drops below 32F, and even then it might not if your line is in the sun. Hanging laundry can be done in my area from March through November, and a hung load in the June sun with a light breeze will dry in a little over an hour, which is about as long as it takes in the dryer anyways.

I could write an entire post on line drying. For now, let's move on.

Gas - Believe it or not, gasoline for the cars is the highest non-mortgage percentage of our salary, higher than food and significantly higher than the electric bill. My husband and I each own a car. I commute to work, and he used to use his to attend classes, as the college and workplace are a good 45 minute drive in opposite directions. There are a few things you can do to save gas, and the feasibility depends on your situation. Personally, I don't live close enough to any minimart or supermarket to walk instead of drive. 12 miles walk in July and the milk is already bad. So when I was home full-time, I'd try to consolidate my shopping and errands into one day each week.

It also helps, of course, to own a car with a decent fuel efficiency! Granted, my vehicle is old. It's an '89. It's a small station wagon, though, not a truck or an SUV. Some people do need trucks, but they generally don't make the best commuting vehicles, unless you're a farmer. My ancient vehicle gets 30mpg on average, and that's an actual calculation, not just taken from the GM website, where miles per gallon numbers are often skewed. If you're looking for a vehicle to ferry the kids around and get groceries, get a station wagon or a minivan if you must!

Food - Last but not least. This could use a post of its own, to be honest. Let me just say here that you can probably greatly reduce your food bill. Hey, I could greatly reduce my food bill. The trick is to pick lots of the simpler foods that can be cooked into a variety of meals and fewer 'special foods' that can't. Stock up on potatoes, beans, rice, and oatmeal, and ease up on the Froot Snax. One of the beauties of the American food market is that cutting your grocery bill will likely result in eating healthier and reducing waste costs, not shortchanging your family and ending up with scurvy. It takes a little while to learn the recipes that make up easily and quickly, but it's well worth the effort, and should not be considered too much of a bother for a full-time homemaker.

There are two simple tricks that can result in a smaller food bill and healthier family.

1. Buy on sale. Use 'them' coupons! A lot of stores will actually mail you their listing of sales for free, so that you can make up your list ahead of time. Until you get a good feel for when certain fruits and veggies come into season, it'll help you figure that out as well. By The Way, buying the fruits and veggies in season will not only lower your costs, but it will ensure a decent variety for you and your family.

2. Avoid packaging! The more packaging that's required for an item, the more wary of it you should be. Obviously, this doesn't count for matters of hygiene, like an extra wrap around your raw meat. But small granola bars in foil-lined packages inside larger boxes inside bigger boxes present more garbage than your own banana bread and probably have more unpronounceable ingredients in them, too.

I did finally get around to my bills last night. To my delight, I was able to pay off the entire balance of the credit card again. My goals for this month is to lower our credit card spending, using the debit/checking instead, and tracking my spending to see where our money is Really going.

Finances Part 1 - Analyzing

Either today or tomorrow I plan to do the monthly bills. Each homemaker works out her own system for bills, and mine is to collect everything that has come in from the previous month and settle it out all on one day. I usually deposit my paychecks (being the working person as well) by the first of the month and settle the bills preferably within the first week of the month.

Controlling the finances is one of the primary jobs that used to be standard for a homemaker. The wife always saved as the husband worked. Nowadays, even among stay-at-home wives/mothers, I hear that the husband often retains control of the finances. In this family, however, I handle them. Don't let your lack of control in that area provide an excuse to go soft on financial learning! You should know how to handle money, whether you do or not.

We were in bad shape for a while, since my husband was putting his tuition and books on our sole credit card. He has since switched to student loans, which do need to be paid off. I finally zeroed the credit card balance last month. Let's hope I can keep it that way! A credit card is not evil, and most of them offer at least a 30-day (some, a 60-day) grace period for purchases. I'll use it for online shopping or large purchases, with an eye towards paying it back in full at the end of each month. Never use a credit card as a loan. Don't put more on it than you can pay back each month. If you see something you want that will take a couple of months to pay off, for heaven's sake wait the couple of months and save up for it!

Saving, now that's another matter. It wasn't easy for me to get into the habit of saving. Nowadays, when I do my bills, I place a certain amount of money into savings and pretend I don't have it anymore. The amount that I impress upon my mind as what I have to spend is what is left in checking after the bills and savings have been dealt with. That's worked the best for me. My mother always said that you should have enough in savings to replace a car AND a major appliance, should they happen to go at the same time. I'm nowhere near that, as I couldn't save when I was putting all our extra money into the credit card. Now I'm slowly making progress. Both our cars are old, so I hope I will have the money to replace one before it goes belly-up.

Some people say you should have three months' income saved as your 'nest egg'. That's probably not a bad idea. Of course, being able to replace a car and a major appliance would take about three months' income for me.

I'm embarking on an attempt to keep track of all our expenditures for a month or two. It's tedious, sitting down once daily to remember if you've spent any money and where it's gone, but I hope it will pay off! I'd like to be able to show what percentage of money we use on things like electricity, entertainment, gas, and food. From there I may have a fuller picture of how to budget.

A simple budget is easy as anything to set up. My mother used to have me set them up in highschool, and I quickly started doing it just for fun. I start by listing all my bills, then making categories for each spending type. Then I do a bit of math to see how much money I have left over. I have mine set up in a spreadsheet file with formulas linked together, so that I can add the increased price of gas and my Required Income Level rises automatically.

We're probably considered a middle-class family. Of my gross paycheck, 6% goes to federal income tax, 6% to Social Security, and 5% towards our medical benefits. When the government is done with my paycheck and my healthcare benefits are paid, I have about 80% of my paycheck left. Out of that, about 40% goes to the mortgage payment. After my mortgage is paid, the next highest percentage of spending is gasoline for the cars. We spend more on gas than we do on food. This sort of breakdown not only helps you understand where your money is going, but it may inform your politics!

Next time I finish a post, it will probably be about the second part of finances, which is controlling what you spend. I could take my own advice a little better in this area...

Let's start with an introduction...

I'm 30 now, a wife (of one, of course!) and mother of a four-year-old boy. I live in a fairly rural area surrounded by small cities, so it takes about a half hour's drive to get anywhere, but that 'anywhere' contains just about everything I might need. It takes that long to get to the nearest grocery store, but I can also find cinemas, restaurants, hairdressers, clothing stores, and what I like to call 'weird stores' containing everything from herbals to goth jewelry to dragon t-shirts and more. I do my fair share of browsing in 'weird stores' and have a couple of favorites!

I currently work full-time as a 'software engineer', mostly dealing with reports and charts, mostly dealing with Visual Basic for Applications, Let me tell you now, if you are an aspiring programmer, never let on that you have a clue how to use VBA. You'll end up playing with Access front-ends and Excel auto-updaters for the rest of your career. Pretend like all you can do is Java and make them put their databases in Oracle, PHP, or something similar! Anyways...

The reason why I work full-time is because my husband was laid off over three years ago with no college degree and found it very difficult to find a job. In those intervening three years, he's attended college full-time and is now the proud owner of a Bachelor's in Computer Science, just like me! He's got... seven job applications he's watching, according to his whiteboard, and one at the point where they might give him an offer within the next few days, we sincerely hope. He's only been searching for about two weeks now, so that's not too shabby.

Full-time work in a cubicle environment has seriously not been good for my health. I don't know what is "wrong with me", but I've gone consistently downhill with various health issues since I started working full-time again. My little boy was only one years old when I started, and I've felt the loss of my homemaker status keenly. A social anxiety added onto that has probably contributed to the downturn. Right now I am just about at the end of my tether, with a case of gastritis that was diagnosed Friday by gastroscopy and a rather serious case (according to descriptions I've read on medical websites) of burnout. I'm on "Family Medical Leave", working until I feel too sick to do anything further, and coming home early each day to just sleep for hours.

I'm an INTJ by the Meyers-Briggs test. Although people might diagnose me as ADHD Inattentive, I've found my various foibles explained perfectly by "Dabrowski's Overexcitabilities". I'm 'overly creative' as I put it, with a deep urge to express all the things I see in my mind. That overflows into everything from writing to sewing to drawing with a love for just about any craft I come across.

I live in a bi-level, which is the proper name for the kind of home that people tend to call 'raised ranch'. The kitchen, living room, dining room area, etc. are all on the top floor along with the main bedrooms, and the other bedrooms and den are on the lower floor, half-buried in the ground. Our front door leads you to a small landing with a choice: Upstairs or down? It's a decent sized house, four bedrooms, and we manage to fill it with three people due to a packrat having married another packrat.

I'm starting at the beginning here, with a decision to assert my homemaker occupation despite my current status. Probably I won't get so much done at first, but I hope in time to transform my home from it's current state into something much cleaner and more organized, more like how it was before I started working full-time!

Last but not by any means least, I warn my readers that I am a Christian. How long has it been that this is something to warn people about? I know there is a lot of criticism against Christianity nowadays, and I've faced a lot of bitterly angry people simply by admitting that I am one. I might as well get that out of the way at the start! I attend a nondenominational church, a 'country church' of about 500 people with a pastor who is also a farmer who preaches plainly from the Bible. I would describe my own standing as "Prima Scriptura", which does differ from "Sola Scriptura." From the Wiki article:

Implicitly, this view acknowledges that, besides the Bible, there are other guides for what a Christian should believe, and how he should live, such as the created order, traditions, charismatic gifts, mystical insight, angelic visitations, conscience, common sense, the views of experts, the spirit of the times or something else. Prima scriptura suggests that ways of knowing or understanding God and his will, that do not originate from the Bible, are in a second place, perhaps helpful in interpreting Scripture, but testable by the Bible and correctable by it, if they seem to contradict Scripture.

Now that we've got that cleared up...

Today is a good day to start a new homemaking effort. My house is mildly cluttered in many rooms and badly cluttered in a few. A lot of the regular stuff has to get done. Today is Sunday, and I hate to use a Sunday for work! As a result, I won't be attempting any big work projects today. Instead, I'll content myself with making the kitchen clean and picking up around the house. I've got a lot to do...

A decent beginning

Ah, my very first post on a new blog. It's kind of like having a brand new notebook with nothing in it. It's always fun to write the first few words there.

This blog is here to encourage me to be a better homemaker. I've chosen that as my primary vocation, and I hope to settle more fully into the role in the next few weeks. I've found that a lot of women outside of my church have very little idea of what makes up a homemaker's life. It doesn't help that a lot of news media stories present a very biased view, acting as though homemaking is a last resort for stupid women instead of the intensely creative, demanding endeavor that it truly is. I'll describe a bit of the kinds of things I do in hopes that people reading this can understand some of what goes into what I do!

I should probably start with an introduction of me. I'll put that in the next post, so that it can be commented on separately. In the next few weeks, I hope to get my old website in order and my link list up, so that you readers can find out where I put all my various things online.