Thoughts from Yesteryear: No small thing

It is no small thing to stand at the head of affairs, and be the motive power on which depend the welfare and credit, the health, temper and spirit of the whole family. A late breakfast sends father and brothers to business with the whole day thrown out of shape ; a poor meal leaves all the family to work or study without proper supplies to work upon, and they will feel weak, nervous and lacking in energy, perhaps in some vital crisis like that which found Napoleon at a memorable battle. ~ Anna Maria's House Keeping by Mrs. S. D. Power, page 23.

Is a Hope Chest Practical?

Is a Hope Chest Practical?

I think it can be. Or it might not be.

One factor that determines its practicality is the woman who possesses it.

One argument against its practicality might be that it doesn't make sense to store things in a hope chest waiting for some phase of your life which may or may not come, while you need those very items to establish your own household now. Why save all the pretties for later?

But not every woman establishes her own household before she is married. Many women choose to stay with their parents until they are married. For those who leave home before they are married a hope chest may not be practical.

Another factor that determines whether or not a hope chest is practical is what kind of hope chest it is. A traditional hope chest may not meet your needs and if it doesn't it isn't practical for you.

Some women, for example, might only want to collect dishware and feel perfectly free to use it in the mean time if they want to. While that isn't traditional, it may be practical. If you need to be untraditional with it in order to make it practical, that's okay. It is possible to keep the spirit of the hope chest while doing this.

Wordless Wednesday: Awaiting the Mushrooms

Thoughts from Yesteryear: Practice, Practice!

Excellence in the art of cookery, as in all other things, is only attainable by practice and experience. In proportion, therefore, to the opportunities which a cook has had of these, so will be his excellence in the art.  ~ Chapter 4 (#78) of The Book of Household Management by Mrs. Isabella Beeton (1861).

I Am a Woman

I wrote this "Anti-feminist Manifesto in 2007. I can't remember if I posted it here or not, but it has not been recently if I did. Sometimes it makes me gulp when I read it ~ especially that last line ~ and remember exactly what it is I stand for. It keeps me on track. :-) Perhaps it will bless you too!

I Am a Woman

Finding Recipes: More Recipe Links

Cooking Light
 

Vegetarian Times 

Better Homes and Gardens 

Vegan Cooking 

RecipeArchive

Have fun! :-) 

Sewing Tutorial

I just posted a tutorial on my other blog: Using Fabrics with Picks, Stains, and Other Flaws. If you have some less than perfect fabric you'd still like to use, check it out!

Wordless Wednesday: Daylily "Cabbage Flower"

 

Photo from Laurel Hill Nursery, LLC. Used by permission.  

The Menu Designer

This is a tool I have found useful in my own preparation and so I thought I would share it with you.

This chart helps you plan potential menus, test them, and then record your conclusions about them. The .pdf file includes further instructions.

Menu Designer

A few terms of use:
Please do not share this file or share printed copies outside of your immediate family.

Please do not direct link to the file. If you want to tell someone else about it, please link to this post.

If you download it, please leave me a note that you did. Thank you!

PS: the graphics are by www.patswebgraphics.com. If you like them, you should pay her a visit. She makes web graphics and some print quality graphics too. They are just beautiful!

Building a Recipe Collection

You could, I suppose, simply collect any and all recipes that sound interesting. I have a better idea, though!

This is the way I do it: I am building a personal collection of recipes of things I would want to be able to cook and I only put recipes in my final collection that I know how to make. I am combining the building of my recipe collection with gaining cooking skills. My collection will represent what I know I can cook, not just a lot of possibilities!

I will probably eventually put my recipes into a binder. For now they are in a computer file. If you prefer recipe cards, you could get a small file box and some recipe cards. Then, whenever you “conquer” a favorite recipe or test a new one enough to know you want to keep it and can do it, you could write out that recipe card.

A good place to start with your recipe collection would be to make a list of all your family's favorite recipes. Check off the ones you are sure you can make successfully on your own. Then systematically work through trying the recipes you didn't check.

I'm far behind where I should be in doing this. Anyone want to challenge me to conquer at least one more recipe before the month is over? I would say “challenge me to a duel” but some of you might be able to do a lot of cooking in the next two weeks and I don't think I will be able to manage more than one or two new recipes!

Thoughts from Yesteryear: One of the Most Essential Pieces of Cooking Knowledge

To be acquanted with the periods when things are in season, is one of the most essential pieces of knowledge which enter into the “Art of Cookery.” ~ Chapter 3 (#74) of The Book of Household Management by Mrs. Isabella Beeton (1861)

Finding Recipes: Recipe Links

Cooking.com

Taste of Home

Cooking for Two

Recipe Zaar

AllRecipes.com

Fun Food Fabrics

For all you fabric lovers!

From Robert Kaufman 

Modern and fruity Metro Market

This collection isn't my style but I do like this one.  

Fruit Basket

I like this one and this one the best.


From Benartex

An Apple a Day

It's near the top of the list.

From Timeless Treasures

Farm Fresh

You will need to search for the collection.

From Red Rooster Fabrics

Harvest Town

From South Sea Imports

Apple Harvest

First Course

Enjoy! 

My First Regency Gown: Installment #5

I'm eager to sew (and get the final product) but I've got to get it right first! 

I've been making pattern alterations this week. I think the reason I kept avoiding working on this project was that I thought these alterations would be difficult. I was right!

Firstly, I'm using the neckline supplement because the regular neckline is too low for me (or at least seemed to be based on my muslin). I'm trying the high, ungathered neckline. The “instructions for modifying the original pattern” are, in my opinion, more like “a few comments on the subject,” not instructions.

The pattern pieces for the supplement are also confusing and not clearly marked. Detailed, step-by-step instructions are needed here. Be prepared to be confused at first, but if you pay close attention to “these guides are meant to be used as overlays” from the beginning that will help. I think I halfway missed that originally which only added to my confusion. You'll want to figure out what all those unlabeled lines on the supplements mean before you trace.

Second, I needed to lenghten the bodice. I thought I read somewhere for a more modern empire waist to lengthen the bodice 2” all around the bottom edge. The pattern doesn't have any instructions about how to do this and doesn't even have this note. I lengthened each of my bodice pieces at the bottom edge as best I could (it wasn't perfectly clear to me how to do that with curved pieces). That isn't the usual place to lengthen pattern pieces.

I was very concerned about this method of alteration so I looked on the pattern website's “Sewing Tips” page. No comments there about lowering the empire waist, this way or any other. So, I'm torn. Do I try it this way (I'll be making a muslin) or do I back up and lengthen the bodice pieces the usual way (by slashing them and inserting the extra length)? Or both ~ two inches at the bottom to extend the bodice and one inch in the bodice to accomodate my long torso. Hmmmm.

Motherhood Challenge of the Month: March 2010

The Motherhood Challenge of the Month is designed to help us prepare to be excellent mothers.

If you were a mother, would you be a mother just like every other mother?

And be not conformed to this world: 
but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. . . . 
~Romans 12:2 (first part)

Would the nature of your motherhood be conformed to this world?

Renew your mind on the subject of motherhood. What it means to be a mother. What mothers do and don't do. Be transformed into a different kind of mother, not one that is knowingly or unknowingly conformed to the world.

I just realized this is a huge topic. I'm going to let my readers take it pretty much any direction they want to, within a few guidelines.

Firstly, I'd like you to look at whether or not your thinking on motherhood is conformed to the world. What is “worldy mothering”? How does your society and the mothers in it view motherhood, do motherhood, understand motherhood? What do they expect from mothers (including themselves)? How do/should mothers relate to their children? What do they do for their children? What does the mother's job consist of? What elements of motherhood that you typically see in the world have you adopted and are these ideas biblical, accurate, beneficial, practical? What ideas about motherhood have you chosen and what ideas have you picked up from those around you by default (where did you get them?)?

Secondly, What does motherhood mean to you? I'm not looking for dictionary or scientific definitions here. *smile* What does it really mean to you?

Do you think it would be different if you lived in a different historical setting? That question might be fun to play with!

Is this meaning consistent with what you came up with in step one, as you looked at your ideas about motherhood and how it should be carried out? If not, what are the differences?

Regardless of your ideas and ideals, what kind of mother do you think you would really be?

Thirdly, in addition to looking into the above questions, do something this month to renew your mind on the subject of motherhood, separate from the world (undo your previous conforming) in the area of motherhood, and/or work toward making your ideas and ideals a reality in your life (that is, do something that will bring you closer to being the woman who would be the kind of mother you think you ought to be).

Finally, please share what you've done this month to meet this challenge. You may share in the comments or leave directions to your blog posts.

Girlhood Challenge of the Month: March 2010

The girlhood challenge of the month is similar to the womanhood challenge of the month but is designed for girls under eighteen years (whereas the womanhood challenge is for about mid-teens and upward). It doesn't really have a lower limit so if you are a mom or big sister you can help your young daughter or sister meet the challenge if you'd like to.


This month's challenge is about cooking and has four parts.


#1 Choose to learn to cook. Choose to become a good cook, starting now, and to, throughout your life, lovingly, faithfully, and cheerfully prepare and serve satisfying and healthful meals (although not necessarily fancy ones) for your family. Your attitude toward cooking and toward those you cook for is more important than your actual cooking skills. Your comittment to becoming a good cook has nothing to do with whatever interest you may or may not have in cooking.


#2 With your mother (or whoever is in charge of you and of cooking), make a plan for how you can take a regular part in planning, preparing, serving, and cleaning up after meals (this is obviously a very small part for little girls!).

#3 Cook something this month. It doesn't have to involve actual cooking or baking, but it does have to involve the preparation or serving of food. Choose something appropriate for your skills and abilities. Little girls may just learn to make toast (in a toaster) or stir food without spilling it. Older girls and teenagers, however, should be able to do more even if they have no real cooking experience.


#4 Share what you are doing to meet the challenge. You can share in the comments or leave directions to your blog posts.

Womanhood Challenge of the Month: March 2010

Choose to live healthfully, and particularly in what you eat and drink. 

Why? Here are a few reasons.

#1: Your body belongs to God. If you intentionally hurt it you are damaging God's property.

What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

~ 1 Corinthians 6:19 and 20 

#2: It's your "reasonable service".

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
~Romans 12:1 

Notice it says living sacrifice. Not one your personal habits have made sickly and half dead. You may not have perfect health in this world, but give God your best.

#3: Thou shalt not murder. That includes yourself.

#4: Thou shalt not steal. When you abuse your body you rob your family of your service and maybe even yourself. You also rob God.

#5 A lifestyle of self-gratification is degrading to womanhood. Satisfying one's wants is a good thing, within reason. Making the satisfaction of one's desires paramount is disgraceful and beneath the dignity of a true woman of God.

#6 The results of an unhealthful lifestyle interfere with a woman's ability to do what she has been called to do.

The challenge? 

Choose to live a healthful lifestyle. For God. For your family. For yourself. For your future family.

In particular, choose to eat and drink healthfully.

Do something this month to improve your eating and drinking habits.

Do something this month to set the stage for further improvement, or for the maintenance of good health practices, in eating and drinking.

Share what you are doing to meet the challenge. You may share here or leave directions to your blog posts.

March 2010 Scripture of the Month

. . . Let us not be weary in well doing . . .

~ Galatians 6:9

Let's face it, shall we? It is easy to get weary with the responsibility of cooking. Even if we like cooking it gets old. We're tired. We'd like to do something else for a change.

Don't. You may be weary of it but don't allow yourself to be so weary that you don't do it or that you do a bad job. Just keep cooking . . . cheerfully.

Psst Again . . .

The new coupon code is up in the sidebar!

Thoughts from Yesteryear: Good Food Isn't Everything!

Better is a dry morsel, and quietness therewith, than an house full of sacrifices with strife. ~ Proverbs 17:1

What Happened?

I haven't posted much in the cooking department this week, have I? We had a funeral in our church/family this week, which ate up Tuesday and Wednesday. The only "work" I did was sending an order. Certainly no blogging! I wanted to spend the time I was at home with our visiting family.

But Thursday, on the other hand . . . . What's my excuse? I must confess that I have spent most of the day playing with my new file cabinet. *grin* In the process, I found my desk again so maybe I can work more efficiently now. I am SO thankful for this (free) file cabinet! I was really tired of "papers, papers everywhere, and I can't find what I need!"

I will be back before the end of March. Maybe even tomorrow.

Wordless Wednesday: Yummy Daylily

Photo of daylily "Decatur Cherry Smash" from Laurel Hill Nursery, LLC. Used by permission.

March, 2010 Theme

Welcome to March!

This month's theme is . . .

Cooking! 

Learning how to cook is absolutely necessary and sometimes fun (at least I'm going to try to make it fun this month here at The Hope Chest).

Join me, and call your friends!