Bed

In bed we laugh, in bed we cry;
And born in bed, in bed we die;
The near approach a bed may show
Of human bliss to human woe.
Isaac de Benserade

A poem by William Morris

For the Bed at Kelmscott
by William Morris

The wind's on the wold
And the night is a-cold,
And Thames runs chill
Twixt mead and hill,
But kind and dear
Is the old house here,
And my heart is warm
Midst winter's harm.
Rest then and rest,
And think of the best
Twixt summer and spring
When all birds sing
In the town of the tree,
As ye lie in me
And scarce dare move
Lest earth and its love
Should fade away
Ere the full of the day.

I am old and have seen
Many things that have been,
Both grief and peace,
And wane and increase.
No tale I tell
Of ill or well,
But this I say,
Night treadeth on day,
And for worst and best
Right good is rest.

Evening at Home

"Evening at Home" by Sir Edward John Poynter (1836-1919)

The Duties of Marriage and Family.

The Duties of Marriage and Family.

The Duties of Husband and Wife

So much for their duties that be further off from equality in the family, as parents and children, masters and servants. Now those that are more equal are husband and wife, whose duties are either common to both, or more particular to either of them. The common duties. First, they must love one another with a pure heart, fervently. This duty both husband and wife must perform mutually one to another, which that they may the better strive for, let us consider of some excellent commodities that will proceed from this love. First, this benefit will certainly ensue: if there be fervent, and dear, and matrimonial love betwixt themselves, it will preserve and guard them from all unchaste actions and strange lusts, as appeareth, Prov. 5:19-20.

A godly form of household government for the ordering of private families, according to the direction of Gods word

Therefore at the beginning of their marriage, the wise and discret husband ought to use all good meanes to winne the good liking of his wife towards him: for if then their love be fixed, and truely setled one towards the other, although afterwards they come to some houshold words and grudgings, yet it proceedeth but of some new unkindnesse, and not of old rooted hatred; and therefore the sooner remedied. For love and hatred be mortall enemies, and the first of them that taketh place in the heart, there it remaineth a dweller, for the most part, all the dayes of life: in such wise, that the first love may depart from the person, but yet it will never be forgotten at the heart. But if the wife from the beginning of marriage, do take the heart to loath and abhorre her husband, then a miserable life wil follow to them both.-John Dod & Robert Cleaver

What is the Biblical Trustee Family?

The trustee family has the most power and scope. It is called the trustee family because its living members see themselves as trustees of the family blood, rights, property, name, and position for their lifetime. They have an inheritance from the past to be preserved and developed for the future. The trustee family is the basic social power … The head of the family is not the head in any personal sense but as family head and as a trustee of powers.-R. J. Rushdoony

For Better or Worse

Young people are assaulted by a ridicule of matrimony; they are barraged by appeals for a revolt against marriage; they hear catch-phrases promising a new freedom for a new age. The press, the radio, the stage, the screen, — this quadruple alliance which often helps mold their thoughts, — are often confederated in attacking home ideals. And youth cannot altogether escape the impact of newspaper headlines nor the panderings of erotic novels, which, banned by a wiser generation, are now offered in unexpurgated editions at a few pennies for daily rentals... Marriage is a divine institution, established by God Himself. It is not a social evolution or a heritage from any alleged brute ancestry. As the gift of God, sex, marriage, and family life are holy; and even though disfigured by sin, they should be honored by all men as divine bestowals... In the choice of a companion for life the decisive factor should not be wealth, physical attraction, higher education, and social position, but common devotion to the one Lord and Savior, the harmony of religious oneness... A general compatibility of age, culture, and race is normally essential for sustained happiness... Christian marriage must be marked by an intensity of self-sacrificing love. Wedded life characterized by frigid aloofness is not only greatly displeasing to God, but also soon becomes a caricature of the true conjugal devotion-Walter A. Maier

Honor To Woman

Honor To Woman
A poem by Frederich Schiller

Honor to woman! To her it is given
To garden the earth with the roses of heaven!
All blessed, she linketh the loves in their choir
In the veil of the graces her beauty concealing,
She tends on each altar that's hallowed to feeling,
And keeps ever-living the fire!

From the bounds of truth careering,
Man's strong spirit wildly sweeps,
With each hasty impulse veering
Down to passion's troubled deeps.
And his heart, contented never,
Greeds to grapple with the far,
Chasing his own dream forever,
On through many a distant star!
But woman with looks that can charm and enchain,
Lureth back at her beck the wild truant again,
By the spell of her presence beguiled--
In the home of the mother her modest abode,
And modest the manners by Nature bestowed
On Nature's most exquisite child!

Bruised and worn, but fiercely breasting,
Foe to foe, the angry strife;
Man, the wild one, never resting,
Roams along the troubled life;
What he planneth, still pursuing;
Vainly as the Hydra bleeds,
Crest the severed crest renewing--
Wish to withered wish succeeds.

But woman at peace with all being, reposes,
And seeks from the moment to gather the roses--
Whose sweets to her culture belong.
Ah! richer than he, though his soul reigneth o'er
The mighty dominion of genius and lore,
And the infinite circle of song.

Strong, and proud, and self-depending,
Man's cold bosom beats alone;
Heart with heart divinely blending,
In the love that gods have known,
Soul's sweet interchange of feeling,
Melting tears--he never knows,
Each hard sense the hard one steeling,
Arms against a world of foes.

Alive, as the wind-harp, how lightly soever
If wooed by the zephyr, to music will quiver,
Is woman to hope and to fear;
All, tender one! still at the shadow of grieving,
How quiver the chords--how thy bosom is heaving--
How trembles thy glance through the tear!

Man's dominion, war and labor;
Might to right the statue gave;
Laws are in the Scythian's sabre;
Where the Mede reigned--see the slave!
Peace and meekness grimly routing,
Prowls the war-lust, rude and wild;
Eris rages, hoarsely shouting,
Where the vanished graces smiled.

But woman, the soft one, persuasively prayeth--
Of the life that she charmeth, the sceptre she swayeth;
She lulls, as she looks from above,
The discord whose bell for its victims is gaping,
And blending awhile the forever escaping,
Whispers hate to the image of love!

Modern Architecture: "The Principle of Non-Decoration"

Some interesting posts on the Thinking Housewife blog:

"The Principle of Non-Decoration"

Modern design and fashion are characterized by a love of uniformity, monotone colors, and visual barrenness.

And...

The Principle of Non-Decoration at Work

On the ugliness of churches...

‘Terrible is This Place’

The state of ecclesiastical architecture is abysmal and is not likely to become non-abysmal anytime soon. The most beautiful churches in America and Europe were created in places and times where entire communities were united behind a single building project, a collective monument to the sacred...

And Schools...

“Why Are Schools So Ugly?”

Most people probably would say that America’s school buildings resemble prisons with windows – and without the barbed wire - because it would be too expensive to make them otherwise. But, that doesn’t make sense. Some of this ugliness is enormously costly…

Modern houses are soul-crushing to those who live in them...

Modern Architecture and its Crusade Against Intimacy

It is essential traditional architecture be revived both in our sacred structures as well as our homes. Note how the homes the wealthy and powerful today inhabit are barren and cold, empty of life and progeny...

And update 4/8/2011 from Home Living: "The Effect of Architecture on Home Living"

Windmills

Windmills are a very useful bit of technology for farm and home; they can pump water, grind grain, and even make electricity.

Windmill World

From the primitive windmill to the well-known American-style windmill

Plans for a homemade "All-Wooden Wind Generator"

Wind Power Projects

December 2, 2009

Some posts on other blogs worth reading.

Learning From the Past

And

Proverbs 31 Illustrated

Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil. She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life... Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her...

"The Victorian House"

"The Victorian House"



The Victorian House Museum, located in Holmes County Ohio, is located at 484 Wooster Road, Millersburg, Ohio.

Video: "Life in a Victorian Home"

"Life in a Victorian Home"

A good video, it does not have the silliness and Victorian bashing one often finds. But by the 1890 electric lights, electric fans, modern bathrooms, and central heat were available so in the late Victorian period people would more often have had running water, water closets, central heat, closets, and other modern house fittings, but many people lived without many of these thing far more recently than many people realize. I would not quite agree with all of the material in this film but a very good film overall. I like that it points out nothing was wasted and that crafts and work were a normal part of everyday life.

"Home Living" a great blog

A great blog:

Home Living by LadyLydiaSpeaks

Her most recent post is a list of some her best articles: Most Requested Posts

"The private world of Tasha Tudor"

An interesting book about the well known children's book illustrator Tasha Tudor and her home, garden, and way of life.

"The private world of Tasha Tudor"

Tasha Tudor has written and illustrated more than seventy-five beloved children's books since her first, Pumpkin Moonshine, in 1938. Now seventy-seven years old, she lives on a farm in southern Vermont, where she has recreated an early Victorian world. To capture this intimate portrait of Tasha Tudor, photographer Richard Brown followed her throughout a year on her farm. By interweaving Tudor's own words and more than 100 color photographs... She says, "Everything comes so easily to me from that period, of that time: threading a loom, growing flax, spinning, milking a cow". Dressed in antique clothing, spinning and weaving her own linen, cooking on a woodstove with nineteenth-century utensils, Tudor inhabits a world that in these evocative photographs speaks to all who long for a simpler existence in harmony with the seasonal rhythms of nature.

More Links:
Cellar Door Books
Tasha Tudor And Family
Tasha Tudor Museum