Dressing Our Little Girls

I have gotten to where I sew most of my children's clothing. Why? I have girls. I got tired of trying to find clothing that was appropriate for little girls. The clothing industry for our children is appalling, but for our girls is downright ridiculous. I go to one store and all I find are jeans and t-shirts. The t-shirts are so worn and thin looking that they remind me of the old worn out t-shirts that my husband wears only to work around the farm. However they want me to pay a small fortune for this horrible t-shirt. So I head to another store and the clothes are a bit more than jeans and t-shirts, but the problem here is that they are not appropriate for the age of my child. The clothing industry seems to think that our little girls need to dress and look like 20 year old harlots. They sport their short shorts, micro mini skirts, and revealing dresses. And since when were little girls supposed to wear 2 inch heels. I don't want my daughter looking like a rock star. I want her to look like a fashionably dressed young lady from a good Southern Christian Conservative family. No, I don't want her dressed like a nun or in any way dowdy. And no I don't see the need for her to wear dresses all the time. We live on a farm and a little girl in a dress is courting disaster (and lots of sewing repairs). I do, however, want her to look like a little girl and not a miniature tramp. So, the solution is that I sew most of their clothes with the exception of the jeans that my daughter wears around the farm. I know many women think that they cannot sew, guess what, neither could I. I had some sewing lessons in junior high school and believe me that was a long time ago. I bought a machine anyway and headed to the fabric store. Armed with nothing more than the desire to start sewing clothes for my children. I found some fabric and then started hunting for patterns. I also found a handy dandy little sewing guidebook. I started with some simple things and have worked my way up from there. Now, I am doing things that are a little more difficult. Whenever I find something I like, then I peruse the Internet trying to find out how to do it. I love bishop dresses. They are such beautiful dresses, but I had no idea how to smock. I first learned how to make one without smocking and now I am teaching myself with the help of the Internet how to smock. I will let you know how that goes. I also discovered a by-product of sewing my children's clothing. I save money. Boy do I save money. I have seen dresses in some of the pricier children's boutiques for 70 dollars or more. I would go home and learn how to make the same style dress and can make it for 10 dollars or so. I am a slow seamstress so it takes me awhile and sometimes I feel like I have taken on more than I can chew. I would love to have a machine that embroiders, but I don't. So I hand embroider, which I am also teaching myself how to do with another little handy dandy guidebook from the fabric store. My grandmother tried to teach me to sew when I was young, I had no interest. I know she would be laughing now as I desperately seek to find out how to do something. Patterns are great and I love vintage patterns. It seems that children prior to the 1960s were so much more well dressed than children these days. Today we dress our children as if they were just an afterthought, while children in the past were dressed as beautifully as any Madame Alexander collector's doll. I have found that I can pick up vintage patterns online, just google vintage patterns or check out ebay. I have even found some at flea markets. Now that I am sewing I am always on the hunt for sewing bargains. I have gone from having to run to the fabric store for every notion that I needed to having a huge supply to choose from. This came from just picking up a little here and a little there for a little of nothing. i once bought a whole gallon size ziploc bag of buttons at a yard sale for a dollar. There are tons of buttons in there and they were all vintage buttons. What a great way to add a special touch to an outfit. The point of all of this is that I now can dress my children like children, and not miniature adults. The second point is that I can save a ton of money doing it. Yes, it is time consuming and sometimes frustrating and tedious. In the end though it is definitely worth it. I have put some links to vintage children's patterns on the blog for any other mothers interested in taking control of their children's attire. God bless and happy sewing.

Loving Our Husbands

Tit 2:4 That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children
Wow a little verse that packs a big statement. It is easy for mothers to forget that their husbands are to come first in God's order of the family. I think we women tend to forget that our marriage is a covenant with God, but having children is not. I know I am guilty at times of putting my husband on the back seat while I raise the children in the front seat and sometimes God will send me these little reminders of our contract with Him. I am blessed that He sent me such a loving husband and a wonderful father and sometimes I forget in the rush of the day to appreciate that gift. I have though been accused at times of spoiling him and I have, but that is a good thing. My husband is my best friend, but sometimes I am not a very good friend. I think that happens with all of us at some point or another. We have been together for 15 years and we are still learning about this thing called marriage. We sometimes are not very good friends. Marriage is a work in progress, but if we don't uphold our end of the contract then our work is in vain and the progress stops. So today, I plan to do something to let my best friend know how much he is valued and may the progress move along for at least another 15 years. May God bless your friendship also.

My home management binder

I couldn't do without my home management binder. It is the workhorse of our home and farm. Mine is not as pretty as many women's I know. It's only decoration is the duct tape holding it together. However, I simply can't do without it and use it everyday. I got the idea when I discovered flylady . Her site is wonderful for anyone looking to better organize their home and time. I started out by copying her journal and then over the years I have tweaked it to fit my needs. I run a farm and wanted to be able to apply the principles to the whole farm, not just the house. I have tried to get the pictures to load and am having problems, so for right now all I have is the descriptions. I will try to get the picture thing cleared up.

First I will describe the binder. It is a three ring binder and each section is divided by a divider.

Section 1 Daily Routines and Reminders: In this section you will find my morning routine, my afternoon routine, and my bedtime routine. Establishing habits is a good step to organization because a habit is done without thinking about it and no effort. So this section I have established my habits. I also have in here my little reminders to myself. I tend to be forgetful and have a lot on my mind so this keeps me from forgetting quite as much as I used to.

Section 2 Weekly Plan I have a basic weekly plan on household duties that need to be done. Into this plan I will insert chores that tend to be seasonal like canning and soapmaking. I can during the summer and make soap in the winter. If you have been following my daily chores this week you will have noticed another seasonal duty, putting up pecans. So onto a basic routine that remains the same each week, I will insert seasonal chores. I also keep in this section a running list of projects or repairs that need to be done. That way these things are easily inserted into my daily routine so that I don't forget them.

Section 3 Deep Clean Zones Each week I take one section of the house and one section of the farm to do a deep clean. In the weekly plan is the light cleaning, but this section contains deep cleaning. Furniture gets moved around, drawers get straightened and purged of unnecessary items and such. I have the home and farm divided into 6 zones so that each zone receives a really good deep down clean every 6 weeks. The weekly clean keeps them tidy and company ready the rest of the week.

Section 4 This section is my weekly menu planning and grocery list. I make 6 weeks worth of menus. I have 3 sets of these that I rotate out to keep things interesting. I always make sure that I have the food necessary to cook all these meals on hand at the start of the 6 weeks. Technically if something happened I could do without the grocery for at least 6 weeks. When I use something out of the pantry then it goes on the grocery list. Before I go to the grocery store I go to our backup food storage. Whatever is gathered from there I place a check mark by it on the grocery list so that I know it needs to go in the backup and not the pantry. It sounds tedious and complicated, but really it isn't. It just keeps my food supplies rotating so that nothing gets old and stagnates.

Section 5 Recipes This section not only includes my most used recipes, but also all recipes needed for the meals in the menu section. That way they are handy and I don't have to try to remember which cookbook that certain recipe was in.

Section 6 Food Supply In this section I keep an inventory of what I have and what I need to replace. This helps from season to season in that I know, maybe next year I need to put up more jelly because I ran out before the berries ripened or some other such need. Another example is that last year we put 4 deer in the freezer. We were out of deer meat by late summer and hunting season didn't start again until November. So during that time I had to buy more meat from the grocery costing us more money on the grocery bill. This year we will try to put up more deer meat.

Section 7 Budget and Finance In this section I have our family expenses and budget. I have a ziploc bag in which bills that are paid and ready to mail go. My husband gets paid twice a month. I mail out 1/2 the bills one paycheck and 1/2 the other paycheck. My income is erratic so I do not enter that into our budget. I also keep labels and stamps in this bag as well to make bill paying speedier. A task I certainly hate to do. I also keep calendar pages here with all of our appointments and such on it.

Section 8 Homeschool This is the section where I keep references to websites that I want to use throughout the year and other sources that i want to use. I also keep a written account of what I would like for us to accomplish when. That way I can easily keep track of these things without having to go to the computer and look.

Section 9 Emergency Contacts and Personal Contacts I keep emergency numbers here as well as the numbers and addresses for the people that i contact the most.

Section 10 Writing In this section I keep submission guidelines to all of the magazines and websites that I submit articles to. I also keep a list of articles written, when submitted, where submitted, whether they sold or returned. this helps me keep tracks of where all I have articles out and how long they have been out. Many magazines will keep an article 3 to 6 months before letting you know if they will use it so that is a long time to remember. I write it down.

That is it, my binder in a nutshell. You can adapt this binder to fit your life and your needs. I just know that having the routines established makes the non routines fit in smoothly without upsetting a whole day. I hope you have fun working on your binder and enjoying the freedom that it gives you.

Gumbo Recipe

Tonight we are having Gumbo. The great thing about Gumbo is that it is a great way to us those little bits of meat that you have leftover. The next best thing about Gumbo is that it can be cooked in the crockpot. Here is a great crockpot Gumbo recipe:
Needed:
3 tbls. flour
3 tbls. oil
2 cups frozen cut okra
1 large onion chopped
1 stalk celery sliced
1 bell pepper chopped
1 tbls. minced garlic
1/4 tsp. ground red pepper (optional)
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1 16 0z. can undrained diced tomatoes
3 cups meat of choice (chicken, turkey, ham, smoked sausage, shrimp)*
1 1/2 c. uncooked rice ( I use brown, you can use white)
3 cups water
Instructions:
1. In small skillet combine flour and oil on medium heat and cook til golden brown (about 5 min.) then lower heat to medium and cook until reddish brown (about 10-15 minutes)
2. Place flour and oil mixture (this is called a roux) in 4 qt. crockpot. Stir in all ingredients except shrimp (if you are using), rice and water.
3. Cover and cook on low 7-9 hours
4. When ready to serve cook rice in water as directed on package.
5. If you are using raw shrimp add to the gumbo while rice is cooking, mix well. Shrimp needs to cook about 20 minutes in covered crockpot. So time your dinner wisely.
6. Serve gumbo over rice and enjoy

*you can use one meat or any combination of meat that you have handy or wish to use. If using chicken I always cook it first. I usually use chicken left over when I bake a hen so it is cooked. If you are making without using leftovers then I suggest cooking chicken and turkey.

Roasting pecans

Roasted pecans are a great healthy alternative to other salty snacks. They are also easy to do. Here is the recipe:
About 4 cups pecans
3 tbls. butter
salt to taste
In a skillet melt the butter, once melted add the pecans and stir to thoroughly coat them with butter. Then salt to taste. Place them on a cookie sheet spread thin and bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes. I imagine this recipe would be able to be applied to whatever nuts you have handy or growing in your area. Here in the South we have pecans. Enjoy.

Good Morning

Good Morning! What a glorious day it is today! It is pouring down rain. I love the rain. It has such a cleansing effect on everything and when it is over it all smells fresh again. A good day for writing as Wednesday is a big writing day for me. Being so busy with home chores and duties means that I have to force myself to make the time to get all of those ideas written down. I sold two articles this week, which I am delighted about and have another article ready to send out. I pray that it does. I have had to rely more on my article writing than my art for income. With the economy art sales have literally stopped. In fact one of the shop owners that carries my work asked me to come and pick up some of it. She still has quite a bit, but nothing has sold out of her shop in 6 months and very little sold from the other two shops that carry my work. A little over a year ago I started producing prints (limited editions), card sets, and bookmarks. I swore that I would never produce prints, but because my originals stopped selling I needed some income. Now even the prints sell rarely. Last year I still had commission work and this year none. Usually this is my busiest time of year for commissions, needless to say I am getting a lot more sleep than I used to. Well, that is the nature of the business and I am blessed that at least my articles are selling. I am blessed in so many ways that I thank God everyday that I awake to new challenges and new opportunities. The extra time has allowed for extra study of God's Word, allowed me extra time for my genealogy hobby, and extra time with my family. I am certainly not as tired and sleep deprived. The loss of income is rough for our family, but it gives us the opportunity to be creative. I take this time to thank God for my tribulations because without them I would never build character. Without them I would never be able to discover how with Him all things are possible. He is my rock and I gladly accept the opportunity to draw on His strength when my own is so weak. I pray that you all find strength and courage in these troubling times with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Feminism vs. Femininity

"I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully. For some are already turned aside after Satan." —1st Timothy 5:14
Prior to the 1960s women stayed home. Rarely did they work if they were married. Most women looked forward to the day when they managed a home and raised children like their mothers and grandmothers before them. This is not to say that women were dumb or uneducated and fit for nothing else. Actually quite the opposite were true, women of that time were very well educated. My great grandmother graduated summa cum laude from Oglethorpe University in the late 1800s. She certainly was not dumb. Nor were any other women who were to run a home. Running a home requires much knowledge and the ability to apply it. Something happened in the late 1960s and that something was the full blown force and movement called Feminism. While it was active and growing prior, the 60s was when it hit full force. This movement has ruined every generation of women and men since that time. Feminism is not to be confused with women's rights. Women's rights are basic human rights that everyone is born with. The right to be treated respectfully as a human being. Feminism on the other hand demands that women be equal to men. This rejects God's lawful order and authority in which women are to be help meets to men. Feminism teaches women that they are oppressed and have no value or worth unless they behave and act like a man. Feminism has confused men as to what their role in society is. Men are afraid to be men and be the heads of their family because they have been raised to think that this is oppressive behavior. Feminism in society has taught women that in order to have any worth they must get out of the home and be like men. What has happened is that women are now trying to play dual roles and are in a constant battle against themselves. Many career women spend their days wishing to spend more time at home raising their children. Instead, they think that if they do that then they are nothing more than slaves. They are in constant conflict with themselves. Unfortunately society has almost made it so that families cannot live without two incomes. I blame the feminist movement for this and not the woman sitting at a desk regretting the time missed with her children. This is one reason we have chosen to step out of society. I believe that this is one reason we see so many women today on antidepressants and so many men stepping away from their role as head of the house. Men have been neutered in their masculinity and women have been deprived of their femininity. A feminine woman is like a treasure to a man. Something delicate and fine to be cherished and protected. Modern day feminists are hard and cold. Instead of creating the diamond out of coal, society has reversed the process and instead turns diamonds into lumps of coal. Women working outside the home should not see this as a jab at them, just use these things to further assess your life and priorities. We are always to examine ourselves against the Word of God, and this is one opportunity for all of us at home or not to do just that. May God Bless you in your journey.