homemaking

Stop Apologizing for Homemaking, Stop Bowing to Judgment!

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My First YouTube Video2 of 2023–A Hooray in Two Parts!

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The Maker’s Marriage–Romance Reimagined

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Finally! I have just now gotten the new and expanded Maker’s Marriage on Amazon Kindle (paperback and hard cover are “in review” and coming soon).

Please check it out–it will be a nice gift to someone else or to you and yours!

See the last post first, this is Part II.

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Yay! I’m back and have good things for you!

~ Bev Parker ~ Leave a comment

I have successfully navigated my site and got things going again–finally!

This means, dear readers, I can begin sharing what I’ve been up to on YouTube, which I will now do with today’s broadcasts. If you like these, please do share them, and thanks very much!

Bev

P.S. There’s a Part II – still working out how to keep everything on the same video . . . So, come back for Part II or go to YouTube and search “Bev Parker at Home”.

Calling Writers and Other Artists

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Today’s broadcast will be for those who believe Bill Johnson’s exhortation, “When at war, create.” The first of many Wednesday broadcasts dedicated to all creative endeavorers, but especially to writers, this one will be about becoming childlike.

Also, because this is my broadcast, there will necessarily be mention of at least one helpful book–today’s authors are Fiona Ferris and yours truly!

I would like to say join me at 11:00, but with our current internet status (on/off, on/off due to efforts at installing a new system) I will just say, “Today, yay!” and pray.

Thanks,

Bev

P.S. Before you think this is probably not for you, remember all of life is an opportunity to create, to take something in your imagination and give it substance. I am speaking particularly here to homemakers, those of you imagining a perfectly lovely life at home (I wrote my first book–quite awful, but still . . . when I had four little kids at home). This video will be short and sweet, so tune in and be glad you did.

Taming the Tongue and John Adams with Tea

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I am not even four hours late! Since it appears that our “new and improved” internet service isn’t really quite that (on and off all day) I am not going to promise to be on at 11:00. But I will be on!

As for today’s broadcast–Tea and Tongue Taming and John Adams (plus other good things, like low-cost and low stress tea parties), here you go, and please remember to pass it on, subscribe, like, and rave about it to anyone who might enjoy it:

Thanks!

YouTube, etc. Coming Right Up!

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We’re home from a lovely trip to see grandkids (yes, and their parents) and watch the sunrise at Port A (aka Port Aransas, TX) and much more fun–John loved going to look for aliens in Roswell, NM and I could have stayed in Gruene, TX or eaten at Emma’s and Ollie’s (or is it Ollie’s and Emma’s) in Fredericksburg every day.

I’m finally completely unpacked and making notes for my new adventures on YouTube and possibly other avenues, with the starting date just a little later than I first thought–on Monday, July 18 at 11:00 a.m. Mountain Time I’ll begin. I’m not sure of all the details, because I don’t know yet how best to proceed–do I try Facebook Live (I’m not very happy with their scooting my stuff out of their way in the past)?; what other avenues are good fits, and how do I know which ways to go?

As usual, there are plenty of reasons to postpone, but Monday, July 18 it is! More details to come!

Wealth–It’s Not About Diapers or Tomatoes

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In answering a question about my view of wealth, I once answered “tomatoes.” I was thinking of my grandmother’s adept peeling of hot-off-the-vine, sun-split tomatoes from her garden, and eating their sliced deliciousness with nothing but salt and myself. Wealth.

That same grandmother once said, “Well! He did that just right.” She was watching John carefully fold and gently apply a soft, cloth diaper to Rebekah’s baby bottom. Wealth.

Rebekah, like her sister Hannah, didn’t fuss or cry when her diaper was wet. She sent in my direction a businesslike grunt of sorts and I responded immediately. No soggy bottoms on my watch, no sir! Wealth.

A lovely woman once discussed cloth diapers with me, telling me how other moms thought she was ridiculous for using them. “I enjoy the extra time, the interaction,” she said. I knew what she meant. We shared something precious, an understanding of the beauty, the wealth found in taking that extra moment to make things “just right.”

It’s a matter of opinion and preference, of course. With our fourth child, when John was changing a smelly diaper, he said, “We are not this broke. No more cloth diapers.” I didn’t argue. There was a new wealth at this time, one made of cash, one not as rich.

I am not suggesting you use cloth diapers or grow your own tomatoes. I am simply suggesting that wealth is made of moments shared.

Control or Contentment? Success or Selfishness?

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I’m hearing lots about eliminating “toxic” people from my life–those who don’t contribute to my “success”–about walking away. I really like this idea, but does God?* In listening to and reading motivational “success” gurus I know I’ve gotta get up at 5:00 a.m. if I’m going to “be somebody.” But God says I am somebody. People always want to know what I “do” and the temptation is to say, “I’m a writer,” as this, unlike homemaking, is an approved occupation. But God approves of me. Just because.

Still, the messages are so compelling, as are the ideas of writing bestsellers and achieving other lauded goals, having an actually heeded day planner, and checking off my to-do lists each day. And the facts that vision boards don’t work for me, and my plans almost always are superceded by “life” doesn’t faze me. It can’t be that all those people are missing something–after all, they’re “successful”–I MUST TRY HARDER. FASTER, FASTER, WORK, WORK!

As I ponder all these things, and wonder why Christian motivational speakers consider non-Christians “successful” simply because they’re famous, I suddenly remember something I once heard, and now I am listening: If at first you don’t succeed, fry, fry, a hen. Ah, now that sounds like success to me. My daughter recently roasted a fat chicken in the Hobbit way – bacon, butter, herbs, and those things under as well as atop the skin. The chicken was first rinsed and then patted dry, to be cooked on high heat, and all in pursuit of a very crispy and delicious skin. Roasted along this dear bird were root vegetables, and all hearts were made glad.

When Rebekah asked what I wanted done with the chicken I could have told her my plan. Rather, I asked for her suggestions and out came An Unexpected Cookbook–The Unofficial Book of Hobbit Cookery. Not my plan, but better than. I’m liking the sound of that: Not my plan, but better than. My daughter is happy, my family enjoys an excellent meal, and I don’t have to cook. Success!

* In Andrew Murray’s classic book, Humility, he writes: “Look upon every fellow man who tries or vexes you as a means of grace to humble you.”