Classical Homemaking

Welcome to the Homemaking Party!

Are you curious about this strange looking photo? Well, I have no explanation for what's in the foreground, but here's what's in the background:

I found this neat vintage cabinet at a yard sale a couple weekends ago and really mulled over getting it. It was $10---but then there was this neat dolly high chair too that I've always wanted---also $10.

I decided to splurge and buy them both. Ha! When I got up to pay, the guy said I could have them both for $10---I didn't even have to say a word! Pretty sweet, huh?

I can't wait to look up all these names and imagine what this could have been used for. I have a feeling it came from Mississippi or Arkansas (judging by license plates and other things in the sale). I recognize the names Oral Roberts and Gordon Lindsay as Pentecostal evangelists, so it should be a fun search!

I apologize that I have no featured bloggers up today. Like most of us, I've been super busy these last few weeks as the weather has changed and school year activities have wrapped up. It's funny how busy I am during the traditional "school year", even though I homeschool!

Anyway, thank you all so much for linking up and I'm promising today to get my act together and bring this blog back around to a community instead of just a place to promote ME ME ME!!

Hope you'll link up with the Homemaking Party and show off your great posts of the week!

Blessings,
Mrs. Sarah Coller

Linking with:
Beverly's Pink Saturday
Show and Tell Saturday @ Be Different, Act Normal
Or So She Says...
Saturday Nite Special @ Funky Junk InteriorsMotivate Me Monday
Modest Monday @ The Modest Mom
Matrimonial Monday @ A Proverbs 31 Wife
Make the Scene Monday @ Alderberry Hill
Inspire Me Monday @ Create With Joy
Masterpiece Monday @ BoogieBoard Cottage
A Round Tuit @ Creating My Way to Success
Monday Funday @ C.R.A.F.T.
Better Mom Mondays
Manic Monday @ Cupcake-n-Bake
Mommy Mondays
Making Your Home Sing Monday
A Return to Loveliness @ A Delightsome Life
Cottage Style Party @ Lavender Garden Cottage
Courtship Connection
Women Helping Women @ Teaching What Is Good
Domestically Divine @ Far Above Rubies
(Titus 2)s Days @ Time Warp Wife
Tending the Home Tuesday
Tuesday Link Up Party
Wisdom Wednesdays @Simply Helping Him
Winsome Wednesday @ My Daily Walk in His Grace
Whole-Hearted Home Wednesdays
Encourage One Another @ Deep Roots at Home
A Wise Woman Builds Her Home
Homemaking Link Up @ Raising Homemakers
Home @ Rose Chintz Cottage
Inspire Me Wednesday @ MamaBuzz
Watcha Work-Up Wednesday
What's It Wednesday @ Ivy and Elephants
Simple Living Wednesdays @ Our Simple Farm
Wednesday Link up at Adorned from Above
Shoe Lace Linkup @ Living In the Shoe
Home Link Up at Raising Arrows

Thank you for stopping by our 6th week of Blessed At Home. We sure appreciate everyone who has visited and shared our articles on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. Please visit the Contributor Page to read more about this excellent ministry from some of your favorite homemaking bloggers.

Today's featured contributor is Tauna from Proverbial Homemaker:

Tauna, Proverbial Homemaker

I am wife to a wonderful husband and mom to a small brood of sweet children. Both my husband and I are native to the Northwest and live in beautiful Oregon.

I'm an ordinary woman who loves an extraordinary God. One who changes, redeems, transforms, and loves like crazy. I write this blog for Him as well as to be an encouragement to you!

It is my hope that you'll find support and encouragement at Proverbial Homemaker.

Here are some things I write about:

Following Jesus
Biblical marriage and parenting
Homeschooling (pre-k/k/early elem.)
Loving and serving others
Making our homes a haven for our families (from a recovering messy)
Gardening (from a recovering brown thumb)

You will not see perfection there. My life walking with Jesus began in my adulthood, and much to my surprise and delight, He completely transformed me.

This journey as His daughter and pursuing the call of wife and mom is a recent one. Truly, me being a wife, mom and homemaker proves that anything is possible with God.

As He guides me, I promise honesty and transparency, and to share what I'm learning from Him and the wise people He's placed in my life.

Today's topic is, Serving Together

Sarah, Hope In Every Season

Jamie and I have always had sort of a motto that goes like this: "If I serve you and you serve me then both of us have our needs taken care of and neither of us is being selfish."

Thinking this way has helped us so much, over the years, to really remember that we were put here to serve others, rather than to look out for ourselves.

We do our best to instill this in our kids, as well. No matter the age or ability of our children, we want them to know that their lives are not their own. Each one of us was born to serve those around us in some capacity. What a blessing to live in a place where we are able to freely serve God, and one another, as a family!

Judith, WholeHearted Home

"But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me." ~Luke 10:40

I have a vision that our family will serve together, and often we do. We play in a brass band with other families in our church. We get all dressed up but sometimes when the 'lights' aren't focused on us we don't shine so bright!!

Sometimes at home when we are just our family, serving together doesn't quite pan out the way I'd like. I serve our family from early morning before the sun comes up until late at night but to be honest, sometimes in my heart and tone, I get kinda ruffled when we don't serve together quite like I'd like.

I love the story about Martha because she is a woman who has such a heart for the Lord but she is kind of messy too!! I know I don't neglect the 'good part' but if you made a comparison between Martha and Mary and asked one of my children someone who I emulated the most, the answer would be Martha!!

When my children were growing up and we were busy homeschooling, our home ran like a well greased wheel. I made a chore schedule and the home was cleaned, chickens and rabbits cared for, as many hands make the work light.

When I am tired and overwhelmed and the list of things needing to be done piles high, I can be like Martha, whining in my heart that no one is helping serving together. When I don't give my 'To-Do List' to the Lord, that whine can be heard escaping my lips and my husband's response, "Judith, Judith, you are cumbered" sounds a bit like Jesus.

I have asked the Lord to do "Anything" in my life and to do that I first have to allow God to remove sin from my life that would hinder me from a surrendered life. I have to remove the fig leaves that I was hiding behind.

As long as my children and I were busy serving together, it was harder to see that my heart needed to be more willing to serve. Martha was caught up in her perfectionistic serving, so much so that it was hard to see that she really didn't have the heart to serve.

Even when I am beyond tired, it is detrimental to the family to complain, and it somehow squelches any possibility of truly serving together.

To serve together, I as a mother have to first set the example of serving as unto the Lord, so that my children (grown or little) will also choose to serve.

Mrs. Smith, Just a Country Girl

I am quite "old fashioned" when it comes to families and how they are

to function. I believe that the man is the head of the household, with the woman coming next, then the children. Husband and wife are

equal, of course, but husband gets the final say so. This is what keeps a family functioning properly, and helps us all to serve together.

To serve together adequately, you need order. To have order, you need rules and structure. This order of the household can apply to so many situations. Child wants to do something; mom says she needs to talk to dad first, dad okays it, and child may do it. Big decisions need to be made; husband and wife must consult each other and make an appropriate decision together. And so on.

With this order in place, a family is able to serve together, in whatever way may be needed. To serve together, a family needs to respect one another. That means, following suit, so-to-speak, with the children doing as they're told so they may serve well. Just like we need to hear from God how to serve properly; a child needs to hear from their parents how to serve, too. We need to train up our

children to have a servant's heart. What better way to teach a child to serve than to SHOW a child to serve? Spouses serving each other; serving others in your family or community, etc. In this way, we show our children what it means to have a servant's heart and how to serve together.

Christy

I love seeing families serving the Lord together. If your family learns to serve together, no matter what problems you face, the unity of your family will keep you prosperous.

Some of the ways you can teach your children to serve together are:

Sharing the housework
Helping their younger siblings (with a smile)
Conversation together as a family unit
Praying for each other

If we all serve the Lord together and praise Him for what he gives us, and praise Him also when times are tough, we will prosper and live a happy life.

Tauna, Proverbial Homemaker

A few years ago I went to a seminar by Michelle Anthony, author of Spiritual Parenting. She introduced an idea to me that was so simple, and yet profoundly impacted how our family serves together. It is simply asking the question, "What needs to be done?"

I began talking to my kids about asking this question of themselves whenever they enter a room or a situation. What needs to be done?

Does someone look lonely and need a friend?

Is there some way I can help?

Can I pick something up?

Should I hold the door?

Can I volunteer to help?

Is there a way I can be encouraging?

Needless to say, my perspective was changed as well. And when our family goes grocery shopping, it's like having a 5 year old clean up crew on site, always saying, "Look Mama! Something needs to be done!"

Misty, Simply Helping Him

In my mind and my heart, I have a dream...that one day my hubby and I will have a marriage ministry together.

I have never spoken of this dream until now. When I think of this dream, my mind tells me how unlikely that it is. That ministry is my heart's desire, and not my hubby's, etc.

I love to share my heart, experiences, etc., while my hubby prefers to keep things to himself.

In looking back over our 8 years of marriage, I am reminded of all the unlikely and impossible circumstances that God performed a miracle through.

So, while serving together in a ministry seems completely improbable right now, I know firsthand that God's ways are not mine, and neither is His timing.

Patiently I must wait.....in the meantime I serve in my lil corner.

Linking with:

Wisdom Wednesdays @Simply Helping Him

Winsome Wednesday @ My Daily Walk in His Grace

Whole-Hearted Home Wednesdays

Encourage One Another @ Deep Roots at Home

A Wise Woman Builds Her Home

Homemaking Link Up @ Raising Homemakers

Home @ Rose Chintz Cottage

Simple Living Wednesdays @ Our Simple Farm

Wednesday Link up at Adorned from Above

Shoe Lace Linkup @ Living In the Shoe