First, I've updated my blog roll, including blogs that I like that have also linked to me lately. I want to start my blog roll representing more of a community, rather than just other blogs. So all the blogs at the side are people who have linked in to me, too, and who I'm also linking to! And if you have a neat blog, leave it in the comments, and link in to me! I want to form more of a community here. So check out those links!
I've been checking out my Delicious bookmarks for things that I've found interesting, and I thought I'd share some with you! First, here's an amazing post about how the big problem with modern life is that we've become disconnected. At Paratus Familia, Enola Gay writes:
We pay someone else to cook for our husbands and clean our homes. We hire someone else to grow our food, butcher our meat and milk our cows. Someone else provides our water and produces our electricity. Someone else teaches our children. We send our parents to nursing homes and expect someone else to care for them. When someone we loves die, someone else washes them, dresses them and prepares them for the grave. Someone else digs the hole and fills it in. We are absent from life. We are no longer engaged in actively living. And we are missing out. When we were connected to our family, we were connected to our neighbors and we were connected to our communities. If someone was in need, we, as a family member, neighbor or community saw to that need. There was resolution and accountability. Taking care of each other was a matter of life and death. It was not a perfect system. People fell through the cracks. Families were not perfect. But it was personal. It was connected. It was real.
She's right. There is something beautiful and satisfying about actually actively living, rather than just being entertained.
At the same time, I do not believe that we should attempt to turn back time. Often we romanticize prior generations, thinking that they had it right. They may have done some things better, but it was often a lonely, isolated life. It was a scary life, without modern medicine. It was a life with few possibilities of getting out of poverty. It was a life when a move a few hundred miles away often meant you never saw certain family members again.
So, no, I don't want to go back there. But there's nothing wrong with seeing how perhaps in our progress we have thrown out some good things, and perhaps it's time to get back to them, even if it's just committing to more home cooked meals and maybe an herb garden to share with neighbours!
Here's The Happy Housewife sharing 5 Ways to Be on Time with Kids! I like her way of thinking. The most controversial one: Skip pyjamas and let the kids sleep in tomorrow's clothes! I'm not sure--what do you think?
Echoing what I've said here before about taking an interest in your husband's hobbies, here's an older article telling women to watch the Superbowl with their husbands! I know the Superbowl's over, but I think the lesson remains: Don't wait for him to take an interest in your stuff; start taking an interest in what he likes. You need to form a life together, and if he won't take the initiative, you should.
Here is a super-cool tutorial on how you can turn unwanted catalogues into the cutest envelopes. It's really not that hard. And it will make you feel so crafty!
10 Surefire Ways to Cut Clutter. I actually do a bunch of these already, including skipping paper receipts (I take photos of the ones that matter).
Those are my links for today! If you want to follow me on Delicious and see links as I share them, I'm right here. And remember to join my Facebook Page, where I share interesting articles immediately!
Love this post and am excited about checking out some of your links. I'm not so excited about watching the superbowl with my husband but I do need to try harder there. Community has been on my mind alot lately and I feel the problem has taken over the church as well as the home. And the change begins with us. Here is the link to my blog, linking you mainly to a blog I wrote on feeling alone in the church. http://shandaoakley.blogspot.com/search/label/lonliness Now...off to read your links. Thanks!
Thank you for this post, I was just thinking about what I can do for others, this week. One of the things I do is to blog about our family experiences with our special needs daughter, in hope that it may help teach and encourage others in their journey. www.wendyeckwielen-specialneedsmom.blogspot.com
Hi Sheila! I can't remember when I first found your blog, maybe two years ago? Anyway, I have always loved the name and loved the spirit behind your blog. I just started a blog about a week ago, but have some really fun things planned! I hope to be part of your community. It is called My Mixer for the Master and you can find it at www.mymixerforthemaster.weebly.com. Thanks!
Oh I would love to be on your blog list. I love your blog and link to you or mostly share on facebook and tweet your posts lol. I agree with so many things you write about that it cracks me up. I have friends ask me all the time. Where did you find this article. I tell them about your blog. I have a mom blog http://blazeandcrochet.blogspot.com but I also have another blog that I am not sure what category it would go in. It is a healing blog and deals with abuse I went through as well as things I did and recovered from. So, you can do with that what you will. http://blazeingnewtrails.blogspot.com My son's name is Blaze in case you are wondering why I have Blaze in the title of both haha.
My sister has her three boys sleep in tomorrow's clothes. It works well for them. The boys aren't really concerned with appearance, and how much can jeans and a t-shirt get rumpled anyway. Of course for Sunday they don't sleep in their church clothes.
About Me: I'm a Christian author of a bunch of books, and a frequent speaker to women's groups and marriage conferences. Best of all, I love homeschooling my daughters, Rebecca and Katie. And I love to knit. Preferably simultaneously.
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Love this post and am excited about checking out some of your links. I'm not so excited about watching the superbowl with my husband but I do need to try harder there.
Community has been on my mind alot lately and I feel the problem has taken over the church as well as the home. And the change begins with us. Here is the link to my blog, linking you mainly to a blog I wrote on feeling alone in the church.
http://shandaoakley.blogspot.com/search/label/lonliness
Now...off to read your links.
Thanks!