Crazy logic, or could it really work?

If every wife who has a full time job returned back to the home, wouldn't it open up more jobs for men? Wouldn't it put workers in higher demand, thus raising pay and benefits? Or have we gone too far for that?

KA

Living Wholly/Holy for Him

I've been struck today. I watched the Disney movie "Other Side of Heaven." I never thought I'd be touched by a Disney movie, nor one about a Mormon missionary. I am not Mormon, but somehow I was touched. It is based on a true story of a young Mormon lad fulfilling his missionary requirement to the Tongo in the 1950's. Letters from his true love back in America helped keep him going. In one letter she writes that she wishes him to lose his life in order to gain it (she does not mean die, she means to give up all worldly cares and focus on Him), to stop thinking on her so much and just give himself up to the Lord. Then when he returns home, she will find she is in love with the man God designed him to be. That got me thinking. And then I read a passage in my Daily Bread devotionals booklet. I suddenly felt I needed to really REALLY give myself up to God. I want in my life, to be truly and only focused on Him!

I think that's a problem when we become Christians at such a young age, as I did. We get used to Christianity and "being good." Things go stale and rhythmic in our relationship with the Lord. We get comfortable in our salvation and just let ourselves go. I feel I have let myself go. I've gotten caught up in worldly things under the guise of Christendom! For example, I'm an at-home wife and running the home proficently like a good Proverbs 31 wife should. However, I'm doing it disconnected from God. I'm doing it because He said so, not because it's a ministry, a form of worship and a way to honor Him.

I think it's time to let God back into this home, and into His temple......me. I want every corner of my mind to think like a Christian, to focus on Him and not on worldly things. It's time to give myself up to the Lord and be the woman he designed me to be!

KA

Equality

Why is it such a big deal whether or not a husband and wife are equals? I thought when we got married, we became ONE, not two competing with each other for equality.

My husband being the provider and my taking care of the home completes the circle and we are ONE. How can he be better than me or me better than him if we're the same unit? A unit can't be better than itself!

KA

Saddness in the store

I have been bothered by this lately. I've seen it quite often in the stores. It's either a senior-citizens couple or a gen-x/younger baby-boomer couple with similar problems:

I often hear an elderly man speaking very curtly and sharply and even downright mean-ly to his wife.

On the other hand, I often hear a gen-x/younger baby-boomer wife talking down and bossing her husband.

It certainly makes me examine my own behavior towards my spouse and gives me something to pray about.

KA

Save the Environment-Be a Housewife

Being an old-fashioned housewife is actually good for the environment!

1. We don't have outside jobs, so we don't pollute the air and use up natural resources driving to and from work every day.

2. We buy in bulk and make from scratch using less packaging and using fewer food products that require extensive manufacturing that pollutes the air and water.

3. Living on one income, we're naturally more frugal and tend to keep electrical use at a minimum, we keep our heating/cooling low, expending less energy.

4. We tend to keep our homes clean consistantly so we don't have to use harsh chemicals to cut through the dirt and grime once we find a day off to clean our homes.

5. If our children are homeschooled all resources are kept at home, rather than expending energy and resources to keep a large and inefficiant school building running at code.

6. Some of us use cloth pads and cloth diapers, not only saving money, but saving the landfills from filling up too fast.

7. We have time to recycle and we naturally reuse and since we have to live in it, we reduce.

8. We have vegetable gardens and sometimes even fruit trees and bushes and preserve our products in reusable glass jars. We also have flower gardens and trees which are all good for the environment.

9. One word: COMPOST It's cheaper to create our own compost piles than it is to buy fertilizers in plastic bags

10. Since we live on one income, we tend to have more modest houses that suit our needs rather than large manses that have more bathrooms than people living there.

11. If we own an SUV, it's because we have enough children to fill it, not enough money to flaunt it.... But we're more likely to own a van, minivan or station wagon...and get whatever has the best gas milage. (It boggles my mind why people with only a couple children or none at all get automobiles that seat 8)

I'm not saying that career people aren't environmentally sound, nor are all housewives environmentally sound. I'm just making a cute point. :)

KA

Please Don't Tickle the Katherine

Go ahead, laugh at this post. What a silly post for a blog about the home and femininity, but I just have to post this. Tickling someone who's quite ticklish is dangerous. Even though the ticklee is laughing and the tickler is just having some innocent fun, it's actually a type of stressful torture. Take it from someone who's very ticklish. Some parents like to think that when their child asks you to stop tickling while being they're being tickled, they only mean to want to be tickled some more. This is like saying a girl who says "no" to s*x really means yes. I remember as a child screaming for mercy, but the tickling would continue. Once the attack was done, I'd lay on the floor, gasping for breath like an asthmatic, trying not the pee my pants, and feeling all worn out, stressed out, and yes, even in tears from the pain and agony of it.

The terrible thing was, when people found out I was/am ticklish, they would all try their hand at tickling me. It got to the point where I couldn't even be touched at all. And some people would even get mad when I'd run and hide to avoid being tickled. No one understood how torturous it was for me.

Now I'm not saying no one should tickle or be tickled, but use some better judgement. Tickling can be harmful.

KA

America's youth cannot speak

**Warning: this post may contain language that may offend more sensative readers**

What happened to education, thought and speech being important factors in developing oneself? I was listening to an interview on a local Clear Channel station. The talk show host was interviewing a young lady who just graduated with high honors from a good teaching college in our state's capital. Her answers to the host's questions consisted of school girl giggles, valley girl "like" after every other word ("Like, you know, it was like totally hard, but I like made it through ok, 'cause I like studied instead of partied all the time?") and an inability to come up with more accurate words for her feelings and thoughts. I thought, "This is who is going to be teaching America's children?"

Granted, not everyone who comes out of higher education talks like they didn't have any education at all, but I've still noticed a decline in the ability to communicate. My thoughts were confirmed by an article I read in the paper. It spoke of how today's youth, high schoolers and college students are finding it more difficult to communicate because jargon, slang and cursing has replaced the English language. Learning language skills, literature, math and science has been replaced with computer technology, cleaning one's bong, and how soon can I get in someone else's bed. In the article (and I wish I remembered who wrote it so I could reference it) the author gave an example of this generic jargon that replaces the English language. Today's teens often use the term "pissed off." However, it lacks communication because "pissed off" could mean anything from annoyed to saddened to enraged. Which is it? How can anyone be of service to you when they are unsure just how "pissed off" you are? Also, that multitude of four letter words doesn't help the situation any.

We no longer feel the need to articulate. It has become "uncool" to be intelligent and well-spoken. In the meantime, we scratch our heads wondering why we can't communicate. Webster gave us a lovely dictionary filled with words. I bet we hardly use half of them now, and many of the words we use either aren't in the dictionary or are labeled under slang.

Please learn to speak, children. Schools, please encourage vocabulary.

KA

The Way to a Man's Heart....

Some say the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. Today, I'm musing about another way to a man's heart. The way to a man's heart is through handiwork like sewing or embroidery! Do you find that hard to believe.

Oh, we all know that feeding a man's stomach makes him physically happy. Men seem to love nothing more than flop back on the couch and pat their stuffed tummy and smile at the little lady who fed him all that good food. My husband does that often. I always know it's a good dinner when he's prostrate afterwards with an enlarged abdomen asking me why I make him eat that "junk." :)

But what does needlework have to do with satisfying a man? It doesn't satisfy him physically like eating does. It satisfies him emotionally....something men don't seem to get a lot of.

I like to do needlework and will often bring it with me places, like waiting rooms or picnics. It's amazing how it seems to calm men down. They seem kinder, gentler and softer as they watch me move the needle in and out of the fabric. I wondered why until one gentleman actually approached me and said very softly and sweetly that it was a beautiful to see a woman doing handiwork and that the last time he saw a woman embroidering (like I was) was his grandmother back at the turn of the 20th century! It's nice to see a woman doing something feminine rather than acting like a guy.

And their hearts explode when you make them something! My father has a scarf that's well over 30 years old and the out-of-fashion colors of the era. It's moth eaten and well worn but he keeps it and wears it proudly. Why? Because my mother made it for him before they were married.

I know, in our own house, I catch dearest husband watching me intently as I stitch a button onto his shirt, or mend a tear in his pants. Then, he proudly displays my handiwork from the mended tear to the homemade curtains to the dressing robe I made him mostly by hand.

It makes me wonder....back in the old days, after a hard day's work a man would come in from the fields, eat dinner and then relax by the fireplace. His little wife would sit near him and do some darning, knitting, spinning, or some form of needlework. Was it therapy for that man? Did it help him sleep at night? Did he cherish his little wife for those fingers that are never idle?

KA