Happy Spring! Sunday was my birthday and I enjoyed a sunny early spring day here in Michigan. Our church sings “Happy Birthday To You” if your birthday is on Sunday so I had that special treat. (Caroline was thrilled. LOL!)
Sometimes when I sit down to write these weekly posts I feel like my life is very lame and uninspiring. I don’t have pictures to share of all the fantastic things I did or created this week. I don’t have stories of places I went or people I entertained.
And then I realized something.
Most people throughout history have lived a life similar to mine. It was a day-to-day living of life with the routines of responsibility. Yes, the tools we use might look different, but there is a sameness to life that most people experience.
Caroline and I are finishing up reading These Happy Golden Years aloud. I was struck how at various times during these books the story jumps ahead months at a time. In just a sentence or two, Laura advances the story to the next “big event” she wishes to highlight. Isn’t that rather like our own lives? Many days and weeks and months where nothing very significant happens? Simple, daily living with an event of some kind interrupting the flow of sameness.
Obtaining and preparing food, eating meals, washing dishes, doing laundry, keeping the house clean, homeschooling, reading a book, going to church, talking with family around the fire, talking with a neighbor, and sleep.
Doesn’t that sound like the routine of much of the world for much of time?
In that way, I have a great deal in common with those who have gone before me.
In that light, I really don’t have anything exciting to share this week. Most of the work I did went on in my head, in conversations with others, and online so I don’t have any pictures to share. I do have a mostly clean house, laundry in process as I’m typing, a stocked pantry, and a happy family. That counts for a great deal in my book.
Maybe next week there will be something more exciting to share. In fact, I made the decision to move these weekly posts to Friday as a way of recording what I did each week instead of a goal setting post on Monday. So if you look for these posts, I’m going to try them on Friday for a bit.
So what happened around your home this week? Did you do anything interesting? Knock something off your to do list? Do you ever struggle with feeling like your life should be more exciting? Or do you feel comfortable with the sameness of life?
Artwork: “A mother and child at a window” by Carl Vilhelm Holsøe
Simple Living Means Making Adjustments
“Obtaining and preparing food, eating meals, washing dishes, doing laundry, keeping the house clean, homeschooling, reading a book, going to church, talking with family around the fire, talking with a neighbor, and sleep.”
This is EXACTLY my life and how I spent my week! Occasionally I do feel as though my life should be more exciting, but honestly I really do love the sameness of my life.
Pam
Hi Pam,
Most of the time I like mine, too. The only time it seems “bad” is when I wish I had something interesting to share here. LOL!
Good to hear from you!
Sallie
Happy belated birthday, Sallie! What you said is so true. I have had a little bit of change since my husband was permanently furloughed from his job due to “downsizing because of COVID” back in December. Things are a little out of sequence, and the house isn’t quite how I like it, but God is good, and I know He is working things out. I’ve been thinking along the same lines about the blessings of ordinary life myself. I have been reading Little House in the Ozarks. I’m almost finished with it. Maybe it’s the Laura Ingalls Wilder influence. LOL
Hi Cheryl,
I’m sorry to hear about your husband’s job. I hope something opens up for him.
I haven’t read “Little House in the Ozarks.” Caroline told me she wants us to read more books about Laura and Almanzo so I will check that one out!
Sallie
I’ve been thinking about this lately – it truly is the “mundane” that makes up our lives! I often watch podcasts and automatically get the feeling that I’m not doing enough or that I don’t know how to do anything compared to all these talented women. It’s then that I need to stop myself and take a break from it and remember that all these little things that we do at home are the things that we don’t see as anything special but they are! I always want homemakers to feel that what they do in their homes and for their families is very important and the Lord has put us here to get these things done. : )
Thank you for this post, Sallie. AND………….”Happy Birthday to you”!!!!!!!!!!!!!! : )
Hi Mary,
It’s funny because I enjoy reading what you write on your blog regarding your day to day home life. I think because we are so much alike that I relate to much of what you do and think. There’s a kind of comfort in hearing those same ideas from other women, especially when homemaking can seem rather solitary at times. Reading what other women do also fortifies me in a way. It provides a connection with others.
Thank you for the birthday wishes!
Sallie
Happy belated Birthday! I thought of you Saturday because I went up to Ann Arbor( I know it’s not MSU 😉 w/my daughter & her husband to have dinner with my son’s best friend who just finished Med school at UM. Thankful for the mundane things: travel safety on 94 in the rain w/road raging cars and semi’s – wow! Thankful it didn’t rain while we walked to/from dinner by the old movie theatres. Thankful for safe travel to/from Angola, IN from my home in IL. Thankful for clearer insight via CBS study of John this year. A few insights: the religious leaders were mostly corrupted by culture and more interested in keeping their own power system than in waiting for Messiah and making the obvious connection w/ Jesus. Jesus was so compassionate to women and outcasts <3 I am convicted that I have sometimes judged downcast women who are in terrible situations beyond their control; women in that culture had very little control of who married/mistreated/or divorced them. Jesus treated them with compassion and removed the cultural shame. Finally He laid down His life and took it up again- He had the authority – John 10. In John 18 that band of soldiers & corrupt priests and Pharisees all led to Jesus in the garden by Judas- all drew back and fell to the ground when Jesus answered "I am he" His presence was/is powerful and He was in charge of the conversation. John remembers and recounts such interesting details throughout the Gospel… he's writing it 60? yrs later… he mentions in John 20 that he & Peter raced to the tomb but he reached the tomb first – that makes me chuckle.
Hi Susan,
Good to hear from you! That’s a great list of observations from John. There’s so much that could be written about each one. I laughed at your last observation! LOL!
Sallie