Rallying each other and 2023...

 Lately I've thought daily about the need for women to rally behind each other, encouraging one another in our homemaker journey, whether that be full-time homemaking or a balancing act between outside employment/commitments and home life. 

In a world where there appears to be less and less enthusiasm for women to nurture their homes in the old ways, the tried and true ways, the roll up your sleeves and get to work ways, many of us are pushing back in order to assert our deep desire for the delight of creating a beautiful, welcoming sanctuary within our own walls. Many of us are choosing to live fulfilling lives of gentle domesticity once again.

So just as I did back in 2015 when I first launched A Year of Gentle Domesticity, I am once more going to rally behind each of you precious home-hearted women, and embark on a new year of living the gentle domestic life in 2023...

And just because the calendar has not yet turned a page into the coming new year, doesn't mean we can't dust ourselves off right now, reflect on what has been missing in our homes, and plan for bringing renewed and refreshing life into our living spaces right now. 

In my last post I wrote about sharing with you my plans for 2023, and the first and most important desire is to lift high the role of homemaker, to extol the blessings of what it means to be the woman of the house, and to look for as many ways as possible to encourage all of you who are journeying this path, whether it has been for many decades, or just a few months. 

I have two brand new block of the month quilts, one of them a paid membership program, and the other a month-by-month free pattern which will also include a bible study (shared here on the blog). 

Today I shall give you a peek at The Virtuous Wife, as this will be the free BOM, and the very first block will start on November 1st this year. Each block will be free for the entire 14-months of the project. x

Here's a peek...

If you do not want to miss any of the free blocks as they are released, pop over HERE to sign up for my free newsletter, which arrives via email every second week.

OR, sigh up HERE to receive every blog post as it is posted. 

Do you think you'll be joining in with The Virtuous Wife BOM? There's a lot of blocks so it will run either 14 or 16 months, and I encourage you to gather your favourite fabric scraps to sew along. I chose four fabrics for the entire quilt. Each bordered block measures 10.5" square, and I've used the Bright Hopes patchwork pattern for them. I'll have more instructions, photos, and the 1st block for you to download, on Tuesday November 1st.

NOTE: My other new Block of the Month, which is a paid membership running for 9 months, will begin later in November and I'll have a full blog post about that next week. 

Now, let's catch up on what happened this week around home, shall we?

I tend to make a few salads every Sunday afternoon, the kind that will serve me well for lunches when hubby's at work, or can be served on the side of a main meal in the evenings. This week I made a Burgul salad with roasted carrots and tomatoes, cranberries, pine nuts, and various other salad vegetables. 

Burgul is very easy to make, as you simply soak the grains in boiling water for ten minutes, then drain, cool and use.

I find with slowing down our lives that meals especially need to be simplified, and that's why we use the same salad dressing for most things...besides, it is delicious! I shake together 1/3 cup of apple cider vinegar, 1/3 cup maple syrup, and 1/3 cup olive oil in a jar and store it in the fridge, only mixing it into a salad when I'm ready to serve it. This amount will do us all week long, often longer, as we don't like too much dressing on our salads, but as long as you keep equal measures of the three ingredients you can make as much or as little as you need.

Our washing machine died a painful death this week so my husband quickly sourced another of the same brand we've always used (LG) and within 48 hours I was reading through the paperwork while waiting for the delivery man to install it. 

And of course, as I now have a new washing machine, one which we're praying will last the rest of our life here on earth, it was time to finally sew a new peg apron as my old one was beginning to perish from multiple everyday use. This pretty pink tulip fabric is linen, and I bought it about eight or nine years ago on sale, knowing that one day it had the potential to become something lovely and useful...and now it is.

Truth be told, I do not use these wooden pegs when hanging up the washing each day as I'm gradually moving on to stainless steel ones from the plastic type I've used for many years. I am just buying a pack every so often in my grocery order and soon I'll be able to ditch the plastic pegs, which constantly crumble in out extremely hot tropical climate anyhow - but the old wooden pegs, such as nana always used, really did look lovely photographed with my apron. 

 

Two new books arrived. This one is a reference for using my garden produce and herbs to make  medicines and salves, a needful skill indeed.

The other book is simply a delight. Dorcas Smucker was raised Amish, and then married a Mennonite minister. She has written a number of books, taken mostly from her blog posts over many, many years, and they are thoughtful, hilarious, and very down to earth. This book is a trilogy of her first three books...and I love it!

My book budget is emptied now, so no more buying for quite a while, and that's fine because every book I have purchased this year has been purposefully considered, and not once have I regretted any of them. 

The rains came, two afternoons in a row, with thunder and lightning, and joy for my part as it meant God was watering the parched gardens for me. 

Harry-dog and Sophie-cat did what many pets do in thunderstorms, running inside to whine and meow and declare their protests. Sophie went and hid under our bed, whilst Harry had a cuddle and then escaped to his bed for a nice long nap. 

Whilst the rain brought relief to the garden, I had time to begin work on the pattern instructions and graphs for my other new block of the month. As I said earlier, there'll be a whole blog post with photos of this project next week, and you may enjoy the story behind it...

The roses love the rain, far more than water from the tap, and my vases are always full to bring beauty and colour to our home...

As I was taking these photos during the week, my heart really bubbled over with thankfulness to God for all we have, for all He has provided, whether in valleys or upon the mountain tops of life - and He does all this because of love, even when sometimes our own attitudes aren't as loving as they should be. 

Just near my desk, perched above the quilt stand, is this little pillow I designed years ago, with the gentle and true words of Mother Teresa...

It reminded once again that this is what homemaking is all about. The small things, the often overlooked and insignificant-to-others tasks, the quiet day to day rhythms we follow within our homes that don't seem, even to us, to be significantly important, and yet they are...when done with love. 

Precious woman, dear friend, even when nobody can see you tending, washing, baking, scrubbing...your Father watches, and His heart is overjoyed when you go about your day doing what needs to be done with a loving and willing heart. God is our 'audience of One', our constant companion, our help in times of trouble, the lifter of our weary heads, the provider of all our needs, and the ear which hears every prayer and answers in the way He alone knows is best. 

If you'd like to stitch your own little "Great Love" pillow, the pattern is my free gift to you. Use the link below to download it.

DOWNLOAD the "Great Love" pillow pattern

Until next week, be blessed, and perhaps pray and ponder the things you would like to pursue in the next year of Gentle Domesticity. If you have some thoughts or ideas to share, I'd love to read them...pop them in the comments below. You never know how your own thoughts may resonate with, or help someone else. Just like Terri did for me, writing this in the comments of my previous post...

"I too am thinking of 2023 already. I do this about this time each year. I always wondered why I felt compelled to think of the New Year ahead so early. It's because the Jewish calendar New Year occurs around this time! I am in sync with my Christian roots is all. You must be as well."  

We'd only just been celebrating the Jewish new year (hubby and I), and her comment made me realise that's exactly why I was already preparing for a new year ahead! Thank for that Terri. x

hugs

Enjoyed this post? Never miss out on future ones by subscribing HERE to receive Elefantz blog posts direct to your inbox. 

How are you today?

 It seems a bit rude to always be writing about what's happening in my little quarter acre, and not asking what's happening in your sweet abode too, so today let me encourage you to write in the comments about your own life this almost mid-July afternoon. 

Where I am in the northern tropics of Australia, we are well into winter, and though we had a few very cold (to us) and wet days last week, it wasn't long before blue skies returned and our usual glorious warm weather returned with all it's beauty. The gardens loved those few days of rain, and my goodness it is flourishing with growth spurts, new blooms and edible treats now. 

The day after my last post about our family having Covid, all except my husband that is, that dear man tested positive and so began his own seven days of home isolation. He had it quite mild from the start, though the second day experienced chills and fatigue so he slept a bit longer that morning. Once that passed he has occupied himself with a number of chores from a dusty "to do" list left over from his holiday break in April.

The garden is lovely and warm so between our individual chores we take morning and afternoon breaks with fruit cake and tea, sitting under the Poinciana tree. 

I feel fine now. The cough is still there, but less than yesterday, and my sense of taste and smell is ever so slowly returning (yesterday I could smell the slightest hint of garlic in a heavily-garlicked loaf of bread I'd baked)...apart from that, my only discomfort is a return of the vertigo I had earlier in the year. Aah well, counting my blessings I have nothing but praise for everything the Lord has done in our lives and how He has cared for all of us.

We have a lot of calendula in full bloom around the garden now, and tomorrow I shall pick most of the flowers to dehydrate for herbal teas. When you pick the flowers, it seems only days later that the plants are full of them once more. It's such a giving plant!

Our cucumbers are almost ready to begin harvesting, one or two each day as we eat them, and we've enjoyed the big 'beefsteak' heirloom tomatoes already, along with rocket (arugula) in salads.

The pumpkin vines are doing very well, though there are no bees around (due to that very cold few days I think?) so I've been hand pollinating and it's working fine. 

I also planted out runner beans, two types of radish, strawberry spinach, beetroot, cress and nasturtiums at the end of June. So far all but the cress is doing well. 

Our guava tree is in flower with some fruit already forming, as are the lemon and lime trees.

My petunias have been in flower for a couple of months, but there was one type which simply lagged behind until last week. It's a double petunia and is glorious!!

Crochet takes up much of my time each evening, and now that Cully May's blanket is finished and ready for her birthday next month...

...I've been able to work on a UFO which was barely begun in 2019 when I packed it away because I didn't like the colours. But after the brightness of Cully May's blanket (above), the soothing coastal palette of the yarns in this almost discarded project really captured my heart and I can tell you it's already just days away from being finished! Initially I considered unravelling it, and I'm so glad I knocked that thought on the head and kept going. 

In daylight hours, between homemaking, cleaning, gardening and cooking, I'm sewing. Just in the past few days I began a new tote bag using some of my cherished stash of Cath Kidston drill fabric and a lovely pink/white spot for the lining. The idea came from a set of pink leather bag handles, rescued from an older bag which I literally wore out...together, I think these will make a  lovely new tote!

I've gotten to the stage of hand sewing on the leather handles, but have decided to give my fingers a rest first as they're very taxing on the hands. So, then I thought it was time to do a spot of mending. 

I've had this white Actil pillowcase for about a quarter of a century, and if you're in Australia you will know the quality is marvellous. But time and use will cause damage, so when I discovered a hole in it last year it was quickly put aside in the mending basket until I could think of a way to repurpose this lovely cotton pillowcase.

Yesterday I drew up a sketch of a flower and leaves, then cut out the pieces for applique from some very old Cabbages & Roses fabrics in off-white and blues. Needle-turn seemed the prettiest option for this particular makeover...

I did my best to darn the hole over with a zig zag stitch on the machine, then set to work with the hand applique. The darned hole sits behind the centre of the flower. 

So far I love how it's come together, but will add a few stamen inside the petals later today. I also discovered a side seam coming loose and stitches along the edge unravelling as well, so now my thoughts are to do a few more embellishments...but I'll think more about that and hopefully show you it all finished later in the week.

Do you remember my Block of the Month from 2019, "Phyllis May's Kitchen", which was made in honour of my Nana? If not pop over HERE to have a look. 

It's not available at the moment, but for a while now I've had a plan to remake it, not as the large memory book which was the original display, but as a quilt...and so, it begins again, but this time as Jennifer's Kitchen.

I recently bought a fat quarter bundle of Cook Book by Lori Holt, and that's what I'll use to make the quilt and the individual blocks.

If you're interested in doing this with me, I'll consider adding all the patterns into my Etsy Shop. Otherwise, I shall happily be playing with this for the rest of the year and will show you my progress along the way. 

For a while I barely cooked due to Covid and simply not being well enough, but life has gotten back to normal, a beautifully quiet and slow normal, so we're eating lots of vegetables and fruit, and enjoying plenty of fresh water and herbal teas.

Today we had a cous cous salad for lunch, loaded with freshly roasted beetroot and carrot, some cranberries and pine nuts, spring onions and coriander from the garden plus cucumber and tomatoes...served with avocado, feta cheese and cayenne pepper. The dressing was made with olive oil, lemon juice, fresh grated garlic, lemon rind, cumin powder, celtic sea salt and Moroccan seasoning. 

I also baked a Matrimony Slice with the last of the raspberry jam, and a baked rice pudding which we'll have with fresh strawberries tonight. 

Apparently we're in for some very cold nights this next week, but the days will continue to be bright and sunny. Hubby will return to work on Wednesday, and I shall have Blossom and the children come visit - life will really return to our kind of normal. 

From my home to yours, I wish you well, and pray that no matter what you are facing today, there is a God in heaven who loves you dearly and is waiting with open arms to carry you when you cannot walk alone...He is faithful, He is faithful, He is so so faithful.

Hugs and blessings,