The Gentle Art of Domesticity

One of the few blogs that I follow fairly faithfully is elefantz.com  where Jenny is right now leading us in a book study of a book that has long been on my shelf and through which  I've made it halfway. I actually discovered the author Elizabeth Gaskill through this book and was excited to discover she's the author of the book that inspired one of my favorite mini-serieses, Cranford.
But, back to the gorgeous book entitled "The Gentle Art of Domesticity" by Jane Brocket.

It's such a kindred spirit, encouraging kind of book for me, lifting up the domestic life as one of creativity and joy and a loving blessing to our families and others, so I was tickled to get in on the book study.

Here's where you can find it if you want to join in.

Having just spent two weeks either travelling or caring for three grandsons, ages 5, 16 months, and 14 months, I don't have pretty pictures of recent creative-type domesticity, but I assure you, much was going on. And I do have cute grandson pictures, but you already saw some of them.

So, today's creative domesticity focused on hospitality and the making of two very tasty soups (even if I do say so myself). On Fridays an older lady from church comes to help Peanut with remedial reading because of her dyslexia difficulties. We invited her to stay for lunch and began to include other ladies from the area who are often lonely stay-at-home moms or this week we had a neighbor recent widow lady join us.

It's been a blessing to have fellowship of a variety of ages, from our 14-year-old, to our older daughters, to twenty-something moms, to a 40-year-old mom of five boys, to the older ladies (which includes me, the 58-year-old). We just enjoy a simple lunch, usually soup and bread, chatter up a storm, and have tea afterwards. Maybe sometime in the future I'll read some encouraging devotional now and then, but for now it's just good to have time together and get to know one another. It makes our worship time on Sunday so much sweeter. And we feel like we can be more of a help to one another throughout the week.

                              

We don't have a big house, especially the dining/living area, but it's cozy and we work at keeping it neat, though not perfect. We are in the process of taking out one of the upstairs/main floor rooms to enlarge the dining/living room area, so that will be a big help and I hope to be able to invite more ladies.

In her post this week, Jenny asked the following questions which I will try to answer:

What crafts or creative domestic activities did you pursue when you were young?

I have love all kinds of crafts since the very get-go. My mom taught me how to sew on her ancient singer machine with the leg bar (we were missionaries in the boonies of the Philippines and often used antiques). She let my sister and me make tiny aprons and such for our Barbie dolls. She also taught me the basics of embroidery and knitting (though the knitting did not progress much). A Filipina friend taught me to crochet and I did take to that well. I took fabric scraps to boarding school with me and hand-pieced various crafts including a small appliqued pillow I made for my sister's birthday. In high school some friends taught Mom, my sister, and me to cross-stitch and we all enjoyed that pursuit for many years.

Have you continued with them?

I have continued and progressed with most of them, adding card-making and scrapbooking to the list.

Is there one or more that fell by the wayside but which you'd like to try again?

 Yep, the knitting. At around 80 years old, my mom took up knitting again and makes the most wonderful socks. I want to learn to do that, too, but my patience isn't as developed as hers yet.

What inspired you in our study this week?

"...I am convinced that variety and choice are the keys to understanding the values and pleasures of the gentle domestic arts." (p.11) 

I love this statement because I have often felt like I'm an undisciplined creature because I have so many different interests and things I want to try within my domestic life. But this statement seems to validate my desire for variety and exploration of different arts. I have also learned through the years that it's best to think of life as a flow of seasons and different things are do-able during different seasons of life. For instance, when my children were little and in the younger school years, my creative focus was in making things for them (like princess dresses and Robin Hood capes & hats) and doing homeschooling projects with them. (There's nothing quite like making salt-dough models of the village of Fern Hollow from the Fern Hollow picture books!) Now that my youngest is 14, I have more time to make quilts, relearn knitting, etc. (once I get settled into my new craft room).

I'm looking forward to continuing this book study. Hope you'll join in.