Posted by: Lori | June 26, 2008

keepers of the home 101: home diaries

My blogging has been in kind of dull  lately, so I wanted to pick it back up with a bit more of an “exciting” twist.  I thought I would start with what the Lord has laid on my heart to do. 

I have felt, for a while, that I haven’t met the calling of God, as much I want to (as a mother).  I’m not going to post a “boo-hoo-cry-me-a-river” type post, but rather just explain and tell you what I’ve done about it. 

Like many of you ladies out there, I did not grow-up with a model of what a “Keeper of the Home” was - so I’ve really had to rely on the Lord to show me.  I just feel I haven’t been “deliberate” enough training our girls in the things they will be using in future years.  They not only need the training, but also need the practice with the skills they are trained with, so I thought, ‘it’s time to get started’.

When I run across a great idea on a blog, I try it, here at home, to see if it fits - if I read something spectacular, in a book, I’ll do the same.  But the kind of training I’m looking for, I haven’t really found one specific source, so I began praying about it.  I believe God has revealed some things that are going to be grand.  I am going to make this a weekly series letting you in on what I’m doing around my house to train our girls to be “Keepers of the Home”.  Keep in mind, our girls are old[er] (13 & almost 7) and many of these things will not apply to younger girls.  However, I’m kind-of thinking that the earlier to start them, the better - remembering they need to have practice before implementing them on their own.

I, myself, have a home management binder to keep all my priorities in order (I’ll post that later).  I thought it would be a great idea to have both of our girls make their own.  It takes effort to become organized - it isn’t something that MOST are just born with.  Our [almost] 7yo is one it comes to [more] naturally.  Our 13yo, which thinks the floor is one gigantic shelf in life which everything should reside on, it doesn’t come quite as easy, but she is getting so much better, even as we speak.  Clearly they both need the guidance, so we are going to embark upon “KTH101″ (Keepers of the Home 101).  I will post pics of what they look like, as well as descriptions later (my wonderful hubby is running the color pics, at work, for me today).

To begin with you will need to gather:

1 - 1″ binder with plastic insert sleeve covers (for each child)
10 - clear plastic page protectors (for each child)
10 - self-adhesive index tabs (for each child)
1 - ream of 20# printer paper

I’ll be back later today, after you’ve gathered all your things, and provide a better description of what we’re doing.  I’M SO EXCITED!!!

Responses

I hear ya, girl! Sounds great. Im looking forward to it!

Lori,

When I read that you wanted to teach your girls the things they’ll be using in a few years, I began to think.

I’d like for my daughter to be a keeper of the home when she’s grown and married. Everything I say to her and teach her is geared towards that desire for my daughter. However, my mother, MIL and all of my sisters (there’s 4 of them) are constantly asking my daughter “what she wants to be” when she grows up. She’s young still (3 1/2) and SO impressionable, and I just cringe when they ask, “what would you like to be when you grow up, S, a doctor? a firefighter? a teacher?” and S answers enthusiastically, “YEAH!!”

What are your thoughts on this?

Becky -

I come up against this same thing. My family still believes in “EQUIPPING” the girls to fend for themselves. And I also cringe when this happens - so far - this is how I’ve handled it.

First, I don’t want to sound, to my daughters, that I’m ‘disapproving’ of the answers they may give. When we sound disappointed and disapproving this tends to push them closer to what others, who are ENcouraging them, but I also don’t want to encourage them being outside the home. When this kind of thing happens we always talk afterwards about their answers - and I ALWAYS ask “are you sure that is what God wants you to do? Because we want to make sure we are in God’s will all the time.” This puts the focus back on God rather than on the questions others have asked. They are being taught at home, ALL THE TIME, what God wants from them, to be keepers of the home, so I believe God will vindicate Himself in the matter.

Besides that, we also talk about being pressured by the world (my family being the world - aka - non-believers). We are always talking about being persecuted for what we believe, but that we have to stand firm in what we know is true, in Christ. That standing in the place we know to be true is hard, indeed, but we are not put here to be ‘conformed of the world, but of Christ Himself’.

OK sister! I may take this journey with you. Sounds awesome! I will ‘gather’ my stuff:)

Great idea and they have some really great books out there that can go along with this.

This is a wonderful idea. Our cleaning lists have other sections as well - seasonal and yearly. We account for things by season, because we do different things in spring than we do in fall.

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