Making Your Home a Sanctuary

Cooking, cleaning, dishes, laundry, children and chores day in and day out can get discouraging and tiresome. We wake up everyday and are faced with all of the same duties as yesterday. This makes it even easier to lose the vision of virtuous, beautiful, homemakers. We forget why we do what we do. Our mission here at Young Keepers of the Home is to keep that vision alive and refreshed. Our homes and all that we do in them is a sacred calling from the Lord, given to us as women specifically, why? Well let’s just say that we are the only ones who can meet the qualifications! Men….eh, not so much.
; )

Our homes are a palace to our loved ones-if we remain stead-fast and faithful in our calling. We have the power to make our men and children feel secure, loved, and enveloped in Christ simply by having a joyful heart while doing the dishes! There are several ways to make our homes feel like a sanctuary to everyone who enters our humble abodes. I’ve made a fun list that might spark your imaginations and inspire you.

1. Play worship music all day-setting the atmosphere is key to making your home peaceful. You can do this by playing a worship station in the heart of your home-such as the living room. You can listen to worship on Pandora, Spotify, K-Love, maybe you have albums on your favorite Christian artists? Anything will do the trick!

2. Keeping the house tidy-this is what drains us, I know! But a quick 10 minute “sweep up” of the house 2-3 times a day is simple and can really make things more pleasant for everyone. This can be difficult with young children, dinner calling your name and school books waiting to be read. But it will make the difference! 10 minutes, 2-3 times a day, you can do it girl!

3. Scent is Key! Studies show that 75% of emotions are triggered by smell which is linked to pleasure, well-being, emotion and memory. I find this fascinating and quite true. I love candles, like, I’m literally overly obsessed with candles. I have like 8 candles in my room and am always begging mom to buy a new candle every time I stop in the candle aisle at the store-weird, I know. My point is-light some candles or plug in a Glade product because this contributes more to the home atmosphere than you may think!

4. Light is Life! Light puts the rhyme in all of the poems that you hear about home, it is the beauty that never fades in our minds and it should always be bursting through our windows, our hearts, our faces and our light bulbs (kidding about the last part)! Make sure your home is always bright in every way possible! Open the curtains, smile more and laugh often… All of these contribute to having a cheerful, less stressful, more beautiful home.

5. Laughing is the best thing you can ingrain in your family’s minds! Wouldn’t it be amazing to be remembered as the girl, the wife and the mom who was always full of laughter? This gives you a brighter countenance, an unexplainable feeling in your heart, a cheery outlook on life, and it’s contagious! Home is not the same when laughter is lacking.

6. Flowers-it’s always a good idea to have some flowers (fake or real) in the home at all times. It just gives the home a little color!

7. Something baking in the oven-nothing beats a homemade baked something! Some days this cannot be obtained, but try to throw some french bread, a cake, some cookies or biscuits in the oven from time to time. These seem to give the home a soothing feel.

8. Family photos on the walls-a lot of people have halls, walls and boards chuck full of photos of their families. Some people may not have this option or simply haven’t gotten around to hanging pictures up. But they are great reminders during the day of what your family is made of!

9. Family devotions and prayer time are one of the most important things you could ever do to invest in your family’s well being. Don’t skip this! Try for at least 5 minutes a day to spend in the Word and in prayer with your family. It is what makes the family able to operate!

10. Your heart is the heart of the home. I don’t know who you are-whether you are a daughter, a sister, a wife, a mother or all of the aforesaid mentioned, but being that you are a woman this message is for you. You cannot in any way, make a home a sanctuary if your heart is not in the right place. If you have bitterness, pride, or hatred in your heart for anyone or anything, all of your efforts to make your home nice or peaceful or even functional, will avail to naught. Ask God every morning, every afternoon and every evening to empty you of yourself so that you might be a willing and clean vessel that the Lord can pour His Spirit into-so that you might be used for His glory. This is a moment by moment process-especially in the life of a homemaker! It can be tough to remember or to have a desire to do, but it is the only thing that works and it is the only thing that can get you through the day side by side with Jesus.

I hope this list has given you an idea of what you can do to make your home a blissful experience for all who enter! Please try them out and let us know what you think in the comments! We love hearing from all of you.

 

Blessings on you, your family and your home,

~Lisa

Doing the Dishes Again!

Doing the dishes again? Woman, I feel your pain. Dishes are one of those chores that piles up so, so quickly and right when you think you are done, look! There they are again! I asked my little sister Cali what she thought I should write more of on my blog and she said “Write about doing the dishes!” I laughed but thought about it… It’s true. Dishes are so annoying. I could be having a really good day but when I stand in front of the sink about to scrub some dishes, I get in the worst mood. It triggers my anger… So, I grab a pot and scrub the life out of it! Kids, laundry, dishes, school, lunch, dishes, snack and play break, then more dishes. It’s aggravating how many times one woman has to do the dishes. Some women don’t really mind doing the dishes. They say that it’s the same as other chores and they even offer to do dishes for others; while the rest of us down here on earth are boiling mad by time mid-morning comes and we’re on our second round of soapy water and wrinkly hands!

So, what am I getting at? Well, for one, I am telling you that you’re not the only one who feels that way. A lot of us can relate. Also, some of the older women in my life, including my mom have said that they felt the same way about doing dishes when they were young moms with a lot of young kids underfoot. But they found that doing dishes can be an asset to keeping your sanity and peace of mind…literally. For example, while doing dishes, maybe this is your only “alone time” and you can pray and talk to the Lord while doing dishes. This is a time that you could sing or get some thinking time in. Put some verses on index cards and place them in front of the sink and read them to yourself or even memorize them while doing the dishes. There are endless possibilities to what you could do while cleaning dishes. Listen to music, light a candle, time yourself to see how fast you can go, have little toddles splash in the sink next to you, reward yourself afterwards and eat some cake or something! Have a little imagination. And lastly, pray that God will help you with that burning anger when you have to go to the sink again. Jesus makes everything feel better! I hope this helps ladies. Thanks for reading.

Much love, Lisa

A Homemakers Heart

A HOMEMAKERS HEART
Being a homemaker is a rare, rare gift. Don’t believe me? Have you ever been able to experience a young child learn something new and watch the revelation of it appear on their small face in a the form of a beautiful smile? Have you ever been able to watch the faces of your loved ones enjoy a food dish that you made out of love for them? Have you ever had a baking party in the kitchen with your sisters or enjoyed a conversation in the kitchen over a cup of coffee with your mom? Have you ever taught a school lesson to a child and listened to the benefits of your hard work when they read their first Dr. Seuss book to you? Have you ever experienced the joy you feel when your brother sneaks up and hugs you for being you? Have you ever teared up at the sight of your parents kissing and exchanging words of love to each other?Have you ever laughed and rolled in the grass while catching fireflys with your siblings? I have. I experience all this and more everyday because I am a homemaker. These little moments at home are what life is made for. Stop just living and really live! If you can’t recognize your calling as a homemaker as a joy then you are missing out on life. You’re missing out on the real reason of why you were gifted with the family that you have. Sure we all have our tough days at home. But that is not what’s important. What is important is that we grasp the gravity of our calling as homemakers. Only then will we know the true joy that Jesus wanted us to experience when he put us in our homes. 

~Lisa

“This Job Has Been Given To Me”

“This job has been given to ME to do. Therefore it is a gift. Therefore it is a privilege. Therefore it is an offering I make to God. Therefore it is to be done GLADLY if it is to be done for Him. Here, not somewhere else, I may learn God’s way. In this job, not in some other, God looks for faithfulness.”

– Elisabeth Elliot

Things Your Mother Should Have Told You

25 THINGS YOUR MOTHER SHOULD HAVE TOLD YOU

1. Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store. If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster.

2. Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil. It will stay fresh much longer and not mold!

3. Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating. Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking.

4. Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef. It will help pull the grease away from the meat while cooking.

5. To really make scrambled eggs or omelets rich add a couple of spoonfuls of sour cream, cream cheese, or heavy cream in and then beat them up.

6. For a cool brownie treat, make brownies as directed. Melt Andes mints in double broiler and pour over warm brownies. Let set for a wonderful minty frosting.

7. Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste of garlic and at the end of the recipe if your want a stronger taste of garlic.

8. Leftover snickers bars from Halloween make a delicious dessert. Simply chop them up with the food chopper. Peel, core and slice a few apples. Place them in a baking dish and sprinkle the chopped candy bars over the apples. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes!!! Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream. Yummm!

9. Reheat Pizza
Heat up leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove, set heat to med-low and heat till warm. This keeps the crust crispy. No soggy micro pizza. I saw this on the cooking channel and it really works.

10. Easy Deviled Eggs
Put cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag. Seal, mash till they are all broken up. Add remainder of ingredients, reseal, keep mashing it up mixing thoroughly, cut the tip of the baggy, squeeze mixture into egg. Just throw bag away when done easy clean up.

11. Expanding Frosting
When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size. You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You also eat less sugar and calories per serving.

12. Reheating refrigerated bread
To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in a microwave with a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food moist and help it reheat faster.

13. Newspaper weeds away
Start putting in your plants, work the nutrients in your soil. Wet newspapers, put layers around the plants overlapping as you go. Cover with mulch and forget about weeds. Weeds will get through some gardening plastic they will not get through wet newspapers.

14. Broken Glass
Use a wet cotton ball or Q-tip to pick up the small shards of glass you can’t see easily.

15. No More Mosquitoes
Place a dryer sheet in your pocket. It will keep the mosquitoes away.

16. Squirrel Away!
To keep squirrels from eating your plants, sprinkle your plants with cayenne pepper. The cayenne pepper doesn’t hurt the plant and the squirrels won’t come near it.

17. Flexible vacuum
To get something out of a heat register or under the fridge add an empty paper towel roll or empty gift wrap roll to your vacuum. It can be bent or flattened to get in narrow openings.

18. Reducing Static Cling
Pin a small safety pin to the seam of your slip and you will not have a clingy skirt or dress. Same thing works with slacks that cling when wearing panty hose. Place pin in seam of slacks and … guess what! … static is gone.

19. Measuring Cups
Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill with hot water. Dump out the hot water, but don’t dry cup. Next, add your ingredient, such as peanut butter, and watch how easily it comes right out. (Or spray the measuring cup or spoon with Pam before using)

20. Foggy Windshield?
Hate foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your car When the windows fog, rub with the eraser! Works better than a cloth!

21. Re-opening envelopes
If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include something inside, just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour or two. Viola! It unseals easily.

22. Conditioner
Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It’s cheaper than shaving cream and leaves your legs really smooth. It’s also a great way to use up the conditioner you bought but didn’t like when you tried it in your hair.

23. Goodbye Fruit Flies
To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass, fill it 1/2′ with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dish washing liquid; mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever!

24. Get Rid of Ants
Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it ‘home,’ can’t digest it so it kills them. It may take a week or so, especially if it rains, but it works and you don’t have the worry about pets or small children being harmed!

25. Dryer Filter
Even if you are very diligent about cleaning the lint filter in your dryer it still may be causing you a problem. If you use dryer sheets a waxy build up could be accumulating on the filter causing your dryer to over heat. The solution to this is to clean your filter with with a toothbrush and hot soapy water every 6 months.

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