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How to Be a Hippie Homemaker 18

Filed under how to do everything, the home
Written by Annie on 7th Jun -10

A sarcastic look at stereotypes as part of the series: Modern Homemaking REdefined.

  1. Wear Doc Martens or Birkenstocks. This is, in fact, the only footwear you are allowed to own, unless you score some vintage lace-up boots at the thrift store or get into making your own flip-flops.
  2. Obviously, you’ll be burning incense before and after you clean the house. Bonus points if you do a spiritual house cleansing as part of your weekly cleaning routine.
  3. Except never mind on the last part of #2, because you won’t have any sort of formal “weekly cleaning routine.” That’s much too restrictive. You’ll go with the flow, cleaning as you feel moved.
  4. Don’t get irritated at muddy footprints, smudges on the windows, and other signs of life. This is the evidence that your children are growing and embracing life.
  5. NO make-up (duh.) No perms or hair dye. NO toxic cleansers, synthetic fragrances, or man-made material.
  6. You should definitely learn how to sew. This is, like, basic Hippie Homemaker requirement.
  7. Repurposing should be a way of life. Buy vintage so much that you forget there’s actually a “new” option.
  8. It goes without saying that you don’t shop at Wal-mart. Or Target. EVER.
  9. Embrace a communal, hospitable mindset. Your door should always be open to friends, family, hobos, strays, and, of course, other hippies. Cook up large batches of food every night just in case.
  10. Experiment regularly with culturally-iffy changes to your home and person, like going without deodorant, getting rid of all your children’s toys, leaving the windows open 24/7, growing hemp (ahem), and letting your yard become a natural prairie rehabilitation spot.

Bonus points for any of the following:

  • dredlocks
  • vintage fabric hand-sewn items as Christmas gifts
  • beans as 90% of your protein
  • home birth, natural birth, water birth, home-natural-water birth
  • thinking about being a doula
  • DOUBLE bonus points if you ARE a doula
  • inability to name even three or four of the top ten tv shows

    • {moment of truth: what’s your score?}

    Okay, fine, I’ll go first.
    Bomb on #1. I wear flip-flops or am barefoot 90% of the time in warm weather, but don’t own any Docs or Birks or vintage shoes (unless the AE boots I’ve had since I was 16 count as vintage) and don’t plan on making my own flips.
    #2. don’t even own incense. Wow I thought I was more of a hippie than this. And #3. I do have a weekly cleaning routine and it saves me.
    #4. Well, I don’t get very irritated at stuff like that because at least it means we’re outside in the real world, doing stuff. Mud cleans up.
    #5. Huh. I wear make-up (albeit not much) every day. My hair is dyed. I am slowly getting rid of toxic/synthetic stuff… but it’s taking a while.
    #6. Huh again. I am a hippie fail. I have sewn 2 things in my life, and neither very well.
    #7. I like repurposing and vintage; I do prefer them to new.
    #8. I LOVE TARGET! Take that you hippie freaks!
    #9. Okay, I’m pretty good on this one. I love to cook, and we love being hospitable, having friends/relatives/strangers/anyone over, anytime, with no notice… Every now and then I will call a “family only” night, and we chill with a movie and don’t invite or answer the phone. Otherwise, it’s a come-on-in environment.
    #10. OOooookay, so I’ve tried/done all these except hemp. And the prairie thing wasn’t really purposeful… just oversight…
    BONUS POINTS:
    No dreds! Can’t sew! I like meat!  But (whew) I do get 3 points for the birth: my kids are home/natural/water births, all 3 ‘of em. I have thought about being a doula. Briefly. Then I started writing again, instead… it was easier… And on the tv shows… I don’t watch them because we don’t have cable or otherwise… we watch movies instead, generally, or we sit on the porch and wave at people driving by. Yep. Exciting life, that’s us.

    Ok. Your turn.

    Fess up!

    How hippie are you?
    Answer below, or answer on your own blog and leave a link in the comments. If you have any articles related to the hippie-esque mentions above, link them up too. That way we can all be more hippie together. We could start a commune… but only if we all keep wearing deodorant.

    Annie Pseudo-Hippie Homemaker out. Going to cook some beans. Then go to Target.

Modern Homemaking REdefined: I Commend the Enjoyment of Life 2

Filed under the home
Written by Annie on 7th Jun -10

This guest post is written by Betsy Ball Clark. If you’re interested in writing a guest post for Sister Wisdom, see the guidelines here.


My oldest daughter recently handed me a tiny strip of paper on which she had written, “Do you have secrets about me, that you are keeping from me?” I laughed when she gave it to me. “Like what?” I asked, “That I found you in a basket on my front porch on a cold rainy night with a note that said ‘Please take care of this baby’?”
Now she laughed. “No,” she said, “That you dropped me in a ton of toxic waste and I have super powers.”
Some days I wish I had super-powers.

Perhaps at first glance, my home would appear to be somewhat conventional; my husband works. I work at home (I prefer “Domestic goddess”), and home school my children, but the ideals I had in my mind about orderliness in home making have turned out to be anything but “Ideal” in my home.

Nature abhors a vacuum, and I abhor clutter. I have declared war, but so far, nature is winning! Periodically I sink into pits of despair about my lack of organizational discipline. I make attempts, and hopefully each time I am taking small steps to grow in this area. But the real hope I have in making a home is the loving, growth and shaping of four wonderful people I love more than anything else in this world.

Three Things I Want to Achieve

1. Love my husband well.
My children watch how my husband and I interact with one another. They see us fail, and they see us succeed. I want to model true, self-sacrificing love to them. I also want to model that self-sacrificing love requires renewal on occasion. I want them to know that healthy self-sacrifice doesn’t require becoming a non-person. Just as I want them to become the best that they can be in who they are, I want them to see us doing the things we enjoy and living life fully.

2. Help My Children Discover their Passions.
Things they love, and things they really, really like. Children are each so very different and sometimes I expect them to fit neatly into proper little children boxes. I am learning to train and teach them uniquely in the ways that will be most effective for them, as the distinct and beautiful creatures they are. This is a continual learning process for me. My oldest is a fiery, passionate “artist” in the making. My second, as a classic boy loves “the machine” (technology) and relationships are not as openly important to him. My third is all about inter-personal relationship, and has perceptions and interactive skills that blow me away!

3. Help my Children Discover and Pursue their Purpose.
Our passions surround our central purpose as spokes on a wheel. I believe God’s purpose for each of us is to glorify Him. This may look different for each person. Enjoying the good gifts He gives and thanking Him for them is to bring Him glory. Serving others, creating, working, playing, laughing, weeping with the sorrowful, loving, and finding the vocation you want to pursue, all have to do with our passions. Colossians 3:23 says “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.”

This has become somewhat of a life verse for me. My understanding of what brings God glory has grown from a narrow “Stained glass” view into a flourishing, rich tapestry that all of life; doing dishes, changing diapers or performing surgery can be a magnificent expression of honor to God if it is done as to Him.

As my small children grow, my place in their lives moves from one of control (while they were babies I did everything for them) to one of influence. Their external behavior can be somewhat controlled by environment when they are young, but if there is no change and redemption of their hearts, when the circumstances change, they will change with them. As they grow into adults, I long for them to be securely anchored to an unchanging Rock of Jesus Christ that will safely guide them through all the storms of life.

It is a wonderful thing to know that you will always be loved and treasured by Him as you enjoy the rich gifts He has given while you make a temporary home here on earth. I would love to share how you can be in relationship with Him if you don’t know Him yet!

Really, if you live in a home, you are somewhat of a home maker. Homes are the hubs from which we live life. We rush in and out, to soccer games, or church, or the grocer. We fuss over how we want it to look and feel. We invite friends to share time and food together with us. All these things are important. They are the things we do, but overall, the home is only an expression of who we are. It can be warm and cozy, and a little messy. It can be perfect and sterile, like a picture in a magazine (sometimes I wish I lived in a magazine, or at least had a maid who made it look like I do).

I shall bear my discontent about my housekeeping imperfections. I shall strive to overcome them, and be grateful when my husband is patient with them. But most of all, I shall enjoy the gifts one day at a time of the ones I love, here in my imperfect home.

Today’s 2 Cents Courtesy of:

Betsy Ball Clark is a second generation homeschooler living in Greensboro, NC with her husband Greg, and their three children, whom she homeschools: Jessica – 9, Joshua – 7, and Grace – 3. She enjoys being with family and friends, hiking, coffee, and fun. Betsy and her family attend Seacoast Church, and try to live by Ecclesiastes 8:15. She writes at her personal blog and at Beauty – Women Only, which is primarily for the purpose of encouraging women.

Modern Homemaking REdefined: Ditch the List 1

Filed under self, the world
Written by Annie on 3rd Jun -10

Today’s guest post is by Sarah Jessica of From Tolstoy to Tinkerbell. If you’re interested in writing a guest post, see the guidelines here.


As modern homemakers, we love lists—any type of list. If we didn’t, why would we make them daily? We have our to-do lists, our grocery lists, our school supply lists, our chore lists, our book club reading lists. Written in brief bullet points, rattling off the essential needs for the household to run smoothly; lists give us power. They show us that we are reasonable, rational beings who can minimize text for maximum efficiency and benefit.

We also cling to other important lists such as People’s 50 Most Beautiful People, Forbes‘ list of the most influential people, and perhaps the most intimidating (or at least for me) The New York Times bestseller list. Perhaps, we glance over this book list, go the local bookstore and peruse over the recommended titles. (Maybe the New York Times bestseller list is not one that you follow. Insert whatever book list whether it is romance novels, Christian devotionals, classic literature—whatever books’ lists, the specific list is not important.)

Books from self-help to postmodern novels to presidential memoirs stare down at us with their glossy dust jackets and $25.00 price tags. We may leave feeling disillusioned, disengaged, or worse: buy an expensive dust-collector for the ever growing collection of expensive dust-collectors. We return to the mundane, wishing to engage our minds, but despairing in our lack of fortitude since we did not follow the book list. All of these books come highly recommended by “the book list,” our fellow book club friends, everyone except us.

Reread that last sentence (I helped you out with the wonders of copy/paste)– “All of these books come highly recommended by “the book list,” our fellow book club friends, everyone except us.” We disengage our minds because we are too busy comparing our desires, interests, and emotional responses to others. By comparing ourselves to others’, we set ourselves up to be disappointed.

engage your mind: quit comparing

The first step to engaging our minds is to give up comparing our likes/dislikes to our friends, co-workers, neighbors, and mostly importantly, the recommended book list. We must openly admit that there are books, blogs, magazines that we DON’T LIKE! I have a list of authors that I have tried, really, really hard to enjoy—Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Faulkner, D.H. Lawrence, Harriet Beecher Stowe—to name a few. This does not in any way negate those who do enjoy these writers from appreciating these texts. I would prefer to have my tongue nailed to the kitchen counter everyday before breakfast than read these authors’ works. I have learned to admit what I don’t like so that I can spend more of the precious time I have reading what I DO LIKE!

engage your mind: be enchanted

The second step to engaging our minds is to be enchanted with our reading. I believe Emily Dickinson in her poem best describes how we women should approach our minds/reading:

I think I was enchanted
When first a sombre Girl –
I read that Foreign Lady –
The Dark — felt beautiful –( Poem 593).

Enchantment. When was the last you time that you picked up a book, enthralled by its contents, smell, the feel of its pages, utterly absorbed in the emotional ecstasy of the written word? After we discover what we like to read, we must move to what we LOVE to read.
Books that we love should move us toward a higher plane, ignite within us a new curiosity, encourage us to think deeply. Books I love are the ones I read over and over just because I continually find new facets of the plot, characters, or the language itself. The books that have enchanted me always give me a reason to return to their well-worn, ink-marked pages.

engage your mind: join a community

The final step to engaging our minds is to find/create a community. Once we are enchanted with a book, poem, short story, blog, we need the support of others to keep our minds focused. There is no right or wrong way to find or create this community. Whether you choose to write a blog professing your love of zombie haiku, or gather other people who share your passion for cookbooks and create a five star worthy French bistro dinner—we need community. Community opens up dialogues, and dialogues reaffirm our enchantment with the written word.

Today, I am enchanted by Emily Dickinson’s poetry (if you couldn’t tell). My love for her poems has been rekindled. I’m enthralled, enchanted. I invite you to join me.

“There is No Frigate Like a Book”
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!(Poem 99)

What book has enchanted you?

Today’s 2 Cents Courtesy of:

Sarah Jessica grew up reading, thinking, musing which led her to pursue a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in English. This Virginian settled in the Carolinas where she lives with her husband Mark, two beautiful step-children AJ and Ashley, and three rambunctious English Springer Spaniels: Ginger Snap, Cupcake, and Ophelia (Ophelia was thus named when no one in Sarah’s family was hungry). She is currently writing blog posts for From Tolstoy to Tinkerbell, and you can follow her on Twitter.

Modern Homemaking REdefined: Reflections of an Ordinary Girl 5

Filed under the home
Written by Annie on 31st May -10

This guest post is by Leslie Ann Jones. Are you interested in writing a guest post? See how here.


Last Thursday night, I was sitting at my desk in the office, singing along with Martina McBride on iTunes, packaging several sets of custom stationery from my etsy shop, glancing over my shoulder at my 8-month-old daughter rolling around on the floor, listening to my husband talk about his day at work, and thinking about starting to cook supper when Dennis, the aforementioned husband, let out an alarmed yelp.

Immediately, I swirled around to check out Micah. Had she swallowed a hairbow, a feat she had attempted the night before? Had she rolled into the bookcase? Had she ripped apart the newspaper? Thoughts of the worst flashed through my mind.

But none of them were the reason for the yelp.

An entire tub of salsa spilled in the middle of the carpet was the reason for the yelp.

I stared at the tomatoey mess soaking into the white carpet and wondered how to react.

I chose to laugh. Because really, what good would have come out of yelling?

I turned back to the desk and continued packaging the stationery.
Then I took pity on Dennis, who was frantically trying to clean up the mess with a roll of paper towels.  And I helped.
Helping meant that I took over the cleaning task while he watched Micah and ate chocolate chip cookies.

Later, as I cooked supper, I started thinking about why I do what I do. I double-majored in college and came out with degrees in communication and religion. Then I went on to seminary, where I earned a master of divinity degree.

Then we decided that it was time to make a baby.

So I didn’t look for a job in Christian ministry when I graduated from seminary. Instead, I began sending out writing samples and query letters to various publications. As my belly grew, so did my writing assignments, and I thought freelance writing was a perfect occupation for a stay-at-home mom.

Then I actually had the baby, and writing was the farthest thing from my mind. I was entirely too busy thinking about feeding schedules, establishing a routine, and wondering why Micah refused to take naps to actually sit down and write. Concentrate on anything for an extended period of time? Not a chance. But as Micah grew, so did her affinity for sleeping, which did wonders for my sanity. I could be a mom and a writer too. And because I’ve always loved pretty paper, I began designing custom stationery as well.

I spend my days shuffling between the den (where I nurse Micah and we play together), the kitchen (where I encourage Micah to eat something other than milk and wonder what in the world we’re going to eat for supper), and the office (where I savor Micah’s naps by writing in my journal, reading my Bible, writing on snippets, and filling orders for Senojal Designs). Occasionally, I throw a load of clothes in the washing machine. Even more rarely, I scrub the bathtub. When it’s time for Micah to take a bath, I wash the dishes in the sink so there’s room to suds up my child.

And I couldn’t be happier. I’m so thankful to have the freedom to live this life. Being a homemaker allows me to embrace all the different parts of me that make me who I am. If I was just a writer, I wouldn’t be able to indulge the part of me that wants to be a stationery designer. If I was just a stationery designer, I wouldn’t know the pleasure of spending days with my sweet little girl. If I were just a mommy, I wouldn’t be able to participate in some of the most fulfilling work I’ve ever done. Being a homemaker allows me to be a wife, and a mommy, and a writer, and a designer.

When people ask me what I do, I never know how to answer them, because what I do doesn’t fit into a neat and tidy box. I’m just an ordinary girl who tries her best to keep all her plates spinning at the same time. I stay at home with Micah. I write. I design. I keep house (albeit not very well). I teach Sunday school. I cook supper. I keep our pantry filled. I hunt for cheap diapers. I check e-mail and facebook a little too often. I make pretty paper. And I hope that somehow, through all of it, I am becoming the person that God created me to be.

I do what I do because this is what’s best for my family and me right now. It may not always be best. -But right now it is, and right now, life is good.

Today’s 2 Cents Courtesy of:

Leslie Ann Jones is just a girl who’s trying to wear about 10 hats at one time. She’s a mother to a precious 8-month-old baby girl. She’s a wife to Dennis. She’s a freelance writer for various publications. She’s a stationery designer for Senojal Designs. To read more bits, scraps, & morsels from her crazy life, visit snippets, her online home.

What’s your 2 cents?

-
Image courtesy of D Sharon Pruitt.

Modern Homemaking REdefined: Question of the Day #1 9

Filed under the home
Written by Annie on 25th May -10

Do you feel like your home is an accurate representation of YOU, the person? Does it fit like your favorite pair of jeans, make you feel pretty like your black heels? Or is it more like that ugly, scratchy sweater your Mom made you wear over Christmas in 5th grade?

Put in your 2 cents!

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