Monday, August 05, 2013

"I Learned from My Mother"

"I learned from my mother . . . that everything at home can be made more beautiful with some thought, a little care, and extra attention."

--Alexandra Stoddard,  Daring to Be Yourself

9 comments:

Farrah said...

You excel at this Anna.

Anonymous said...

So very true. I find it helps to rearrange things on those days when our home just feels 'off', and I am not feeling the love towards it.
blessings, jill

kath said...

I agree. We were driving through an unfamiliar area in another state recently and we could tell the difference between the nicer areas and the not-so-nice neighborhoods just by the conditions of the front yards. The "nice" areas all had mowed lawns and flowers planted in the yards. The "not-so-nice" areas had tall grass, trash strewn about the yard and looked pretty unkempt. Imagine, less than an hour a week of maintenance made all of the difference.

Anna said...

Well, Farrah, I learned from my mother!

Flepandco said...

And with it comes the much sought after blessed contentment.

Polly said...

Alexandra Stoddard has some lovely words of wisdom, and I particularly like these.

I learned many good things from my sweet mother, but not so much about making things beautiful. (She was more into spontaneous fun--we ate out a lot, or popcorn for dinner!)

So here's something that piques my interest and curiosity: how did your mother do this, in the midst of raising a family that is undoubtedly much larger than most modern families? In a culture where fewer children are the norm and families seem so busy, I feel that there's something bygone and lost that some of us, who weren't raised with a model of domestic skill, would love to recapture and pass along to our children. But lo, when you learn from scratch, it's a hard business....

Anna said...

Polly, it's true that she did carry a very large domestic load--the food shopping, cooking, and laundry would have slain a less-energetic woman! On the other hand, she always had two days a week of cleaning help, so didn't spend time doing the hands-on cleaning. She also really likes things to look good, so was always puttering, arranging furniture, creating tablescapes, and sewing little things for the house.

Adrienne said...

Thank you SO much for your blog...http://adrienneand.blogspot.com/2013/08/pleasant-view-schoolhouse.html

Polly said...

Two days a week of help cleaning--now *that* is smart living! I find that I am constantly trying to strike a balance on this. And I've only got the two! I enjoy laundry and don't much mind the cooking, but sometimes I feel that's all I've got time for in the midst of doing the other things--you know, swimming in the pool or splashing in the mud puddles.

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