More than ever we need to think about our home as our refuge because that is what it is. Our safe place, no matter what type of home this is or where it is. We either take care of it or abuse it or neglect it. A home will rot, decay and the earth will take it back when no one takes care of it. It is there to provide us shelter, that is what a home is, our shelter.
When we embrace our home or even our little space, camper, room, whatever that place is that we reside, then we can make it special and make it how we want it to look. Sometimes it is just giving it a good cleaning and some fresh paint. My mother bought an older home and painted everything with white paint. It turned out very nice.
Many people have had to relocate due to the situations the pandemic has caused. It might not be an ideal place that you want to be but it still can be made comfortable in some way because home is wherever you are right now.
Long ago women would make their own textiles or order fabric, thread and yarn from the mercantile and they sewed curtains and made lace to add special touches. They would make table coverings and napkins with beautiful embroidery. They would knit, tat, weave, crochet and braid just naming a few ways they would use their hands to make their own items for their home.
Men would carve and make bowls and furniture for the home, they would make handles for their tools and made use of most anything to provide for the family. The man and woman had specific rolls and then they also worked together. Children had chores and the family was a unit. This was home.
I am not suggesting that everyone live like the past, but learn from the past.
Our generations before us had so much common sense and had skills that we should never let slip away. They also understood much that goes unnoticed today such as weather fronts and signs of change by the way birds, insects, and other creatures behavior. I was always told to pay attention to the crickets because they can tell you what the temperature is and changes in the weather and that mosquitoes will bite more just before rain. Last year Charles and I sat out counting the chirping from a cricket to see if we could tell how accurate it was. We could not figure it out because of the other crickets. Black birds will line up on powerlines before a big weather change but they might line up for other reasons but our ancestors understood. I do know the birds let me know when there is a snake in the yard or a hawk in a tree.
The neighborhood was also a part of the home because neighbors came in and out for visits or to borrow something or to help in some way. People would get together to shell peas or beans or make quilts.
It is nice to have a neighbor that we know so if we have an emergency we could call. Making or receiving a pie or a piece of pie from a neighbor was always a nice thing and still can be.
Today I want to say, we can embrace our home and make it all that we need in a sensible way. We live in a time when people feel their home is suppose to be some kind of perfect place. We cannot have a perfect and put together home every single day if we live in our home, it is not realistic. So we embrace our imperfect home.
The only way I know how is we just get rid of everything and buy what we need and use it and get rid of it and buy another when we need it and only come in for bathing and sleeping and eating our take out but even that will make a mess and that is certainly not practical.
If you are looking how to keep a perfect home this is not where you will find it. I have tried and it is not going to happen here and all these years I have lived the only perfect homes I have seen is when someone knows you are coming for a visit and they spend days exhausting themselves to clean the house. It is a false impression. Have you done this? I have.
We should all relax and try the one room proper cleaning I have talked about and even if you still have clutter, at least your house will be clean. The people I loved the most would pick up the newspaper off the couch and push things aside to let you sit down. That is what normal is.
Photo above, I save twine and cut strips of cloth and keep it in a draw string bag to use to secure things, to wrap around a sandwich that is wrapped in wax paper or most any kind of use. I reach for this bag often, I am always wrapping something or securing something together.
The time that we are living with all that is going on, it is very important that we embrace our home and make it comfortable, practicable, clean and safe. We need to stay home as much as we can and there are many things we can do to keep us occupied in a good way. It is so easy to learn new old things today if we just research what it is we would like to do. No better time to embroidery or learn to embroidery, white work or cut work as was done in the past.
Charles built him a work table where he can sit and do repairs. He has a small carving set that he uses to make things or do repairs. He carved out a new piece of trim work that had been damaged.
Another way to embrace our home that does not cost money is by mending and sew on those missing buttons and hems that are coming loose and mending linens. Hang the laundry instead of using the dryer. While we are at it, wash the windows.
I have gone through this almost a year and half with this pandemic just like you and I am still not finished with all the things that need to be done so I will continue to embrace my home and make it our most comfortable place to be.
Please be safe, be responsible, the doctors and nurses are very tired and they need to be able to have a normal life too.
I have a new video that goes with this post.
Grandma Donna
