Quietly Content at Home

Mother wore an ample apron to cover her clean dress. She'd tell you that's what it was for if you asked her, I would guess. But that apron had more uses than I could even count. It brought in eggs and vegetables and could hold a large amount. I've seen her use that apron to wipe her dripping brow as she labored over the big range that's just an antique now. Her apron could bring giggles in a game of peek-a-boo with her newest, sweet grandbaby as she hid her face from view. When we kids were hurt or crying we'd run to find her lap. She'd wipe the falling tears away with a bit of apron flap. That apron dusted tables and shooed away the flies. It did just fine as oven mitts to take out bubbling pies. But the greatest of the treasures that old apron could hold, was the endless love from Mother abiding in each fold. by Joyce Johnson, 2010 This is my favourite poem at the moment. It captures the warmth of motherhood and homemaking so well.  This poet has written...

Afterschooling means to supplement a school based education with explicit home learning in the afternoons and weekends.  My five year old daughter and I started a new unit of Charlotte Mason inspired work a few weeks ago. It has been a lovely experience. She can already read and write, and she adores math, so I've been using MyHomeschool' s Kindy Lite as a base to extend her while spending quality time together. So far she has fallen in love with Blinky Bill stories, we have finished The House on Pooh Corner as a read aloud, she is two chapters in to a Billie B Brown chapter books as her 'own choice' and we've brought out the Waldorf Math Gnomes her big sister made during lockdown homeschooling to make mental math more fun. The best of all is the formal introduction of the nature journal. MyHomeschool and Simply Charlotte Mason podcasts have been a great source of information with setting these up and its made us more aware of the plants in our own yard. Since she...

 It seems it was another lifetime, but my husband and I met in another city at university. Of the things I studied during that short time before we decided that our new family was more important, creative writing and archaeology were my best subjects. Feeding all my old drafts, manuscripts and notes (including a novella and a poetry collection) through the shredder a few years back while decluttering old tax papers was the most freeing and cathartic act. What I was writing wasn't bad but those papers had served their purpose back then in my pointless, lonely university days and have no place in my happy, full adult life of family and meaningful work so I joyfully shredded them. And you know what happened next? After thirteen years of writing nothing beyond thank you notes and grocery lists, the words began to flow again. I started with a story about my daughter finding a fairy blown in her window from a storm, then another about my other daughter trying to name her pe...

 Make it your goal to live a quiet life, minding your own business and working with your hands. 1 Thessalonians 4:11 I have really been leaning into this verse lately. I have very few memories of my grandmother speaking her opinion out loud yet she was the centre and head of the family through living by example. I cannot find the artist, if you know them please tell me When I say "It's been one of those weeks" I am not complaining about my wonderful life. My home, children, marriage and work are wonderful. What I am referring to is the small, seemingly endless one thing after another worldly problems that pop up and suck away energy and contentment. Things in your own home like one of the children figuring out how to get netflix or something on an old device they were using as a calculator and binging an entire season of some useless show. This child then wandered into the kitchen at 9.30pm asking for help with an assignment due the next day when they "resu...

 I love cross stitch magazines, my Addi knitting machine, making personalised icy pole holders with my Cricut and pumping out dozens of bookmarks. But picking up a crochet hook and some yarn is like arriving home after a long drive. I browsed through a crochet magazine on my library app and reading the patterns was like hearing my first language after working so hard on cross stitch for so long. Attributed to Tasha Tudor I have been using my girl's crochet play purse pattern to make little presents for a special little girl's second birthday. I am so happy with how the rainbow variegated one came out. Making it brought me so much joy after a long and tiring term. Left, centre are my crochet pattern linked above. Right is a daisy square by Melanie Ham I made into a bag.