Christian Homekeeping

This is becoming a series of sorts I guess and you can read the previous post on My Once-A-Week 3-Hour Cleaning Marathon.

I used to do 7-14 loads of laundry a week and I'm not kidding!  I would do small, frequent loads and didn't realize how much it was costing us to use the washer/dryer everyday UNTIL I switched to doing it all in one day.  Now I have it down to 5 loads most weeks, unless I'm washing rugs, bed sheets or our comforter.  Not only do you only have to wash laundry once-a-week, but you save on electric and water costs because you are washing extra-large loads instead of several small loads daily.  It really does add up and is more efficient and takes less time this way.

I start as soon as I wake up on Monday morning by throwing a load in the wash.  I don't have to sort because it's already sorted with that great laundry unit I posted about here.  It is so handy to just grab a bag and throw it in the wash!  For towels/rags, I keep those in a tall basket with holes so it has air and won't grow mold.  I also try to air-out my rags before I put them in the basket so they aren't so wet.

Here are my main 5 loads and water temp:

1. Whites - hot
2. Colors - warm
3. Delicates - cold; sometimes 2 loads
4. Husband's Work Clothes - cold
5. Towels & Rags - hot

As Christians, we can read the Bible and find out what God's will is for our life.  We find that women are to be keepers at home, loving their husbands and bearing children.  Our role as women, is to our homes, husbands and children.  So why would you raise your daughter to be anything else besides a homekeeper?

Just what are you raising her to be?  Are you raising her to be "somebody" that the world deems worthy?  When in reality, the somebody she should be is what God designed her and all women to be - keepers at home, wives and mothers. There is NO greater calling than what God set forth in His Word and its up to you to teach your daughter what she was designed for.

There are even Christians, who believe in the woman's role, that are raising their daughters to be everything BUT a homekeeper.  They never teach them homemaking skills but applaud them at worldly pursuits.  They wonder why when their daughter becomes a woman, she has absolutely NO interest in being a homekeeper.  Why would she when she molded to think upon the world's design for women and not God's?

The time to weap isn't when our daughters grow up and scoff at homekeeping and have no desire to marry or bear children - you are the one that plants the seed in the heart of your daughters!  You are the one who God commands to train them up in the way they should go.  It isn't up to the Sunday school teacher or preacher, it is up to YOU as a mother to raise her to be what God created her for - a help meet to her husband, mother and homekeeper.

I've had some local acquaintances make comments to me and laugh that my daughter is like a little homekeeper.  I'm thinking.....these people BELIEVE in a woman being a homekeeper and they think it silly that I'm teaching mine to be one!?

It could be because they are of the thought that you kick your daughter out the door at 18 and she has to 'grow up'.  Just who came up with that?  It isn't the way my husband and I feel about it.  Our belief is that daughters should stay AT home under their father until they switch heads, so to speak, to their husband.  Most of the girls I've seen thrown out of the house at 18, got pregnant out of wedlock, rebelled and had no thoughts about being a homekeeper since they were raised their entire life to think about "what they want to be when they grow up."  We need to get back to the old-fashioned principles that worked and ditch this worldly feminist woman that is so greatly uplifted in this society.  Because let's face it - she is never satisfied until she becomes what she was designed for.

If we raise our daughters to be worldly-minded then we can't complain when they grow up and become just that.  How about raising them to be Godly-minded and raising them to be what they are created to be?  It is high time that we have a "return of the daughters", as I've seen a documentary on that very title.  Pure, Godly, Holy, God-minded daughters need to make a comeback and its up to US to plant those seeds in their hearts early on!

Facebook is not only is a den of gossip, full of vanity, promoting a superficial image of yourself, creating superficial friendships and is cited as the reason for divorce in 1 in 5 divorces, but now its being used for its original intended purpose - valuing others based upon looks.  This could cause depression, low self-esteem and eventually suicide.  Think of how many lives have been destroyed, don't forget marriages, by this tool.  How sad that parents would even let their children use such a thing.  God help us!




I like how this 21-year old got rid of his Facebook and wrote about it, he is more mature than most adults!

Facebook, we need to have a DTR (defining the relationship) talk…It’s not all your fault, it’s mostly mine…This is the end of you and me, Facebook. I’m leaving you because I have spent more time browsing your pages than I have been spending in the pages of The Good Book. And I can’t live like that anymore. I’ve let you become a monster…you’ve taken too much of my time and my thoughts. Maybe it’s just my lack of self-control or discipline, but you’re addictive to me. I’m ashamed of the number of times I check you daily. If I were able to grasp how much time I have spent swimming though your endless ocean of profiles, I would be able to bear the guilt.

Here’s why: because of your profiles, I’ve become lazy. Because of you I found myself talking with person after person, asking them questions that I already knew the answers to. On many levels I’ve substituted and even avoided personal interactions with people because of your artificial and superficial means of communication. You have diluted my perception of true social interaction.

You’ve made me a coward. There’s a difference between a Facebook friend and an actual friend. Everyone knows the difference, but when one tries to reach across the barrier from Facebook friends to actual friends it just isn’t the same.

Facebook, you’re not all bad. You have your benefits. I must admit, you allow me to network and keep in touch with people with whom I normally wouldn’t have been able to…but at what cost? Wasting time Facebooking people I’ll never meet has distracted me from meeting the person sitting next to me in class, or has kept me from calling up and hanging out with an old friend because Facebooking is just as good? I beg to differ.

In some form or another, you’ve hindered my investment in the relationships with those genuine people hiding behind the idealistic profiles they’ve made of themselves. Let’s face it, I don’t perceive myself in the same way someone else perceives me. From now on, I only want to know people for whom they truly are; not for what you (Facebook) says they are. I just can’t trust you.

‘This might seem radical, but I have to make up for lost time. This hurts me just as much as it hurts you, but I have to take a stand.

Logging out for good,

Kyle

Related: Who in the World Isn't on Facebook?
The Hyper-Socialized Generation
Technology Shapes Our Personality? Tech Addicts?

I only clean once a week on Mondays and just wash dishes and wipe counters on the other days.  I do, what I like to call, a cleaning marathon.  It takes me 3 hours to clean my home - that is TOTAL for the week.  Remember, I don't have many dishes because I haven't had to cook dinner meals since October with freezer cooking, so dishes are very minimal most days, except on baking days.  I also get all of my laundry done on Mondays, saving the towels/rags for last after my cleaning is finished.  I start a load first thing Monday morning.

Your house should stay clean for a week if everyone picks up after themselves.  My house stays "picked-up" (most of the time) meaning I make my daughter and husband pick up after themselves and then I pick up after myself.  If you do this all the time you shouldn't have to go through the house and pick up before you do your weekly cleaning.

Here is my routine for my cleaning marathon and I almost always follow it exactly.  I will have my mp3 player on and water bottle nearby because it is a workout!  I'm not just slowly cleaning - I'm running, sweating and burning some serious calories and so I don't schedule a workout in for Mondays because this is it:

1. Vacuum entire house - I start with the rug in the laundry room, one in the kitchen and the rugs in both bathrooms.  Then do the 3rd bedroom, hallway, dining room, living room and bedroom at a cardio pace.  My daughter vacuums her room, so it isn't included.
2. Dust entire house - I use a damp cloth for dusting.  I dust all the bookshelves, dining table, computer armoire, desk, printer cart and surfaces in the bedroom.  Then I clean my glass coffee table with glass cleaner and a t-shirt scrap.
3. Empty trash - empty all trash cans in the house.  
4. Clean bathrooms - toilets, sinks, chrome fixtures and mirrors in both bathrooms.  I use my all-purpose cleaner for everything except the toilet bowl; I use comet there.  I use 1 rag for counters/mirrors/chrome fixtures and another rag for the toilets.  Tubs are once a month.
5. Clean Kitchen - clean all surfaces and appliances
6. Sweep all floors - sweep kitchen, laundry room, both bathrooms and entryway; I mop when needed or once a month because we take our shoes off at the door and if something falls on the kitchen floor, I simply clean the spot right then.  My floors have stayed clean this way and only need mopping monthly.

This post has been on my mind for a long time and I thought it would be encouraging to women, like me, who have always been "night owls".  I've tried a lot to fit into the mold of the early riser but even when I did stick with rising early as I could, I found myself not getting hardly anything done.  It was like I was fighting my own body and my husband would tell me "Bev, quit fighting yourself and just go with it!"  After years of trying to fit into the mold of everyone else, I realized that I was just wired different and though others perform great in the morning, my mind and body are in high gear around evening and night-time.

When I was in the Air Force, I worked 12 hour night shifts from 7pm to 7am and it was great!  I felt like it was made for me and although I don't stay up that late, I still do my best at night.  Growing up and going to school was so difficult to me because I couldn't fall asleep until around 1am and would have to wake at 530am.  It really hindered me and I would fight sleep during the school day.

Just because the majority may perform best during the morning doesn't mean that everyone does.  I have learned that I do the most, perform the best - when I don't fight against my body.  I also perform best at 9 hours of sleep but definitely no less than 7.  Studies have shown that you must have at LEAST 7 hours of sleep to stay healthy.  That is the amount of time your body needs each night to heal properly.

Take into account my church's schedule.  We have service at a time that most school-age children go to bed. Then we don't get home a lot of times until 930-10pm.  How could I possibly put my child in public school and have her waking up before the sun even thought of coming up when she can only get to bed by about 11 or so?  Homeschool just works better for her because her age needs at least 10 hours of sleep a night.  You do the math.....most kids I know are so sleep deprived and the parents wonder why they do so poorly in school.  Also, when we return to Bible College in a few years (if that is God's will for us)......we won't get home from class and picking up our child until midnight.  So how could I possibly follow the "mold" of the "go to bed at 9 and wake up 4 or 5" crew?  I can't unless I want to not go to church at nights and forget Bible College LOL.  I could go on less sleep but that has proven to hamper your immune system, which makes you end up sickly and don't forget the grumpy part.  You hear some brag about how early they get up, it seems to be a badge of honor or something but show me what you do with it.  You don't hear a lot of bragging about "I woke up at 10am this morning!"  But.....seems like waking up at 4am is something others love to share with everyone.  Am I the only one that notices this!?

Then you will have the super spiritual person that says "Well, so and so in the Bible woke up when the sun came up".  Come on folks let's get real.  If we use that, then let's throw in the Proverbs 31 woman who burned the midnight oil ok?  Or let's say that the Bible shows MEN waking up early but women staying up late.  You could go on all day with silly stuff like that, let's just follow our best time according to our bodies.  My brain goes into high gear at night and yours may shut down then, who cares!?  Just perform at your time and I will perform at mine, amen?

So what does a night owl do that doesn't fit in the mold?  Go with it!  Since I took my husband's advice and just quit fighting my body......I can sleep at night, wake up about the same time every day and I get SO much done!  I can homeschool, keep the house clean, do crafts, blog, church activities and spend over an hour in my Bible every day and time praying.   Sure, I get the occasional look or criticism from others about how late I stay up or how late I wake up but you know what?  They need to eat their own bread lol AND if they look at how much I accomplish - they will have no room to look down on me for my sleep schedule.  I know a few friends that hide their sleep schedule from others because they are ashamed but I say don't be!  Night owls unite and its time to stand up for ourselves!