“We who live in quiet places have the opportunity to become acquainted with ourselves,
to think our own thoughts and live our own lives
in a way that is not possible for those keeping up with the crowd.”
― Laura Ingalls Wilder
In a previous blog post, I had mentioned a portrait of our winter lifestyle, a season of change that I truly love. While the spring and summer months are filled with wonderful adventures of bountiful gardening and new farm life, fantastic outdoor living, exploring the ocean shores and beautiful summer nights … winter is the opposite.
And yet, it is one of my favourite seasons! In fact, all my children love winter.
It is more structured, there is school to be accomplished, music lessons are arranged, the days are darker earlier, the sunlight times are shorter; however there so many sweet blessings in the winter season.
Sseeing as we do not have to garden in our province from November to May, we are blessed with a season of cocooning in the home. This season brings us bountiful time to enjoy life. All those fun, lovely details will be discussed in detail later.
Let’s just start off by suggesting that you need to love
being home. The Bible commands that women are to be
keepers at home, to be busy with our hands and to mind our own business. The world will tell you otherwise and tempt you to roam away from home. We need to be wise and guard our time as mothers and Keepers of the Home. Too many outings, too many church events, too many social engagements, too many going-to-the-store moments will rob you of your valuable and precious time at home. Your home needs you. Your family needs you at home.
If you are not happy at home, it may be time to start praying and asking the Lord to give you a desire to be the home keeper you need to be.
But what if you don’t like your home? Let’s start off with some practical ideas, because if you are not happy WITH your home in the winter, it will be challenging to be happy AT home.
In the winter, I spend much more time indoors – in the summer, we’re outside all the time – therefore, the winter is my time to refresh rooms and make the house a home.
Is your home clean and tidy and filled with good smelling food, awaiting the next dinner?
Or is your home cluttered and dirty? When is the last time you refreshed a room to your liking? Do you see beauty when you walk into your home or do you see piles of clutter and junk, papers that need to be put away or stinky shoes that are not stored properly at the back door (that can be a problem in our house with 12 people! I am constantly tidying up the back room area where people enter and exit our home.)
Does your home look nice to you?
Does it smell nice?
Does it smell clean and fresh or musty and dirty?
For me, this little room picture here on the post is very important because it is one of our entryways.
Yes, it is the laundry room.
It is also the bridgeway room between the sunporch , where people enter our home, and the kitchen, where we usually welcome those who are visiting. Therefore, this room needed to be bright and cheerful, clean and tidy and 90% of the time, free of dirty laundry from any surprise visitors. For some strange reason, I have always had a laundry room that is visible to the visiting public of our home. In every house, my laundry room has been on the main floor, just off the kitchen or at least near the door where people enter. I have grown accustomed to keeping my laundry very clean and tidy and realizing it is a public location.
And I will admit that keeping up with the laundry, with a dozen people in this house, is never ending. I have, however, created a system of order out of chaos and our laundry is not a big dilemma for me. Every day, I make sure to do two loads of laundry. The summer schedule is different, but we are talking about winter right now.
In the winter, I start my laundry load right after dinner, after everyone has taken their baths and showers. The wash is done even before we finish our Bible devotions as a family. A few of the girls and I will hang the laundry beside the kitchen wood-burning stove to dry the clothes overnight. My husband is in the middle of installing a second system to dry clothes, but right now, we are at a limit where eI need to use the dryer and the drying rack at the same time (and this is a huge Mennonites-style drying rack). This ensure that when I wake up in the morning, even before breakfast, the two clean loads from the night before are dried and folded and ready to be put away.
[For bedding, the older girls are in charge of washing their own bedding. We all wash our sheets and bedding weekly. I do the three boy beds all on one day (Fridays) and my bed on Mondays. We can still use the laundry line outside for some of the bedding, especially airing out duvets and wool blankets, and also use the indoor drying rack to help dry the large quilts, if the weather is not agreeable.]
Seeing as our laundry room is visible to everyone, it needs to be clean and tidy, cheerful and welcoming. And even if no one ever saw my laundry room, I would still want it to be a welcoming room, one that is inviting and not depressing.
{The white cupboard to the left is our Milk Cupboard, where we store our milking supplies for our cow.}
I make my own candles; which is a lovely hobby. Here is a little candle I made – clean cotton scent – for the laundry room, using an antique canning jar. I store the laundry soap in the Anchor Hocking glass jar and vinegar in the antique milk bottle. Sometimes I will also use the glass milk jar to hold stain remover.
{Here is my sweet sink that is just an absolute favourite of mine. My husband bought it from an old college that was closing.
The sink is deep and oh so sturdy. It fits all the milk buckets just perfectly and is a dream to clean up!}
{Seeing as everyone passes through the laundry room to the kitchen,
I covered the washing machine and dryer with some lace curtains. My husband built the countertop to be used a works surface. I find it very practical and also helps the laundry room look less industrial.
Personally, I don’t prefer the look of appliances so I wanted cover them.
The large laundry basket, hanging on the wall, is something I prayed for for three years.
I finally found one used and was so grateful.
It is a gem to me!}
{You can see the dutch door leads to the mud room/sun porch – and to the right of the photo is the entrance to the kitchen.}
{I love to incorporate and use antiques in our daily life.
I could not resist this adorable carpet sweeper when I saw it on a used site.
Here is some fascinating history on this carpet sweeper.}
{My husband and I found this antique ceiling light at a local barn sale. It was painted white and although I think white has it’s place, I knew
I wanted to clean it up and strip the paint off to reveal the brass. I used a crockpot method, where you soak the brass in warm, soapy water over night. The next morning, the layers of paint peeled off very easily. I polished the brass and was so pleased when my husband installed it.}
{All my little plant starts, staying cozy in some milk vases I have collected.}
Right now, we have a snowstorm and winds howling outside. It’s just lovely. A wonderful winter storm is brewing! It will not bother me in the slightest to be snowed in for a few days.
And so, I have a task for you this week: start creating your home to be a lovely place for you and your family, a place that is comfortable for you while you are at home. As you are indoors more in the winter, this is the perfect time to start on that project that will help refresh your home.
Learn to love being home and these winter days will be so much more appealing.
I have so many more things to say about winter … but today is my daughter’s birthday and we are off to celebrate. I will be writing more. Please do share your thoughts and join me on this journey of Loving Winter.
by Gigi
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