Hello and welcome to the place of old fashioned homemaking!
My name is Naomi.
I am a homemaker and mother of two.
I grew up in the mountains of the South Pacific island, Papua New Guinea. I am a highland island girl now living in the plains of America.
The areas where my parents worked as missionaries were very remote. We had fresh food every day and almost all our meals were from scratch out of necessity.
We could get some things like pasta, pasta sauce, and bread that we didn’t have to make ourselves, but only at stores four hours away.
Because the stores were so far away, we would only go shopping once a month or every six weeks so if we ran out of anything we were out unless we made it ourselves.
We did have local food markets in our little town where we could get fresh fruits and vegetables.
I did not appreciate the privilege of having good quality food all year round from these little markets until I left.
When I was 17, I moved to the states to go to college and it was only a couple years later that I became gluten intolerant and also developed the skin condition called rosacea.
I love food and especially bread so it was very hard for me to cut gluten out.
Since I had grown up in a place where good food was at my fingertips, I never stopped to think what good food even was.
Now that I am a homemaker too, trying to figure out how to feed my family good food that actually tastes good and that is not expensive has been quite a struggle.
I have been on a mission to find out how to eat healthy. As I have been researching and looking into all things pertaining to healthy living, I have discovered the possibility of reversing my gluten intolerance and even getting rid of my rosacea!
I’m pretty excited about it and I can’t wait for the day when I can share with you exactly how it can be accomplished! Already, I have seen really good results with my rosacea! So stay tuned for more information.
But for now I would love to share with you all that I am learning about good food in this health journey..
Another one of my journeys has been learning how to make a home in a country that I did not grow up in. I was homeschooled in English which has helped tremendously with the transition of moving here, but I still struggle with culture.
Homemaking in the jungle is quite different from here.
I visited the states a couple of times on furlough with my parents so thankfully, America isn’t completely foreign to me.
I am realizing, too, that a lot of the struggles I have are not unique to my situation. Even if you did grow up here, homemaking still has its challenges. There’s so much to do and balance without getting stressed out and overwhelmed especially when you have little children.
One of my biggest questions has been how to do all my responsibilities without simply surviving. Is there a way to be a homemaker without being stuck in survival mode? Sure, we can get the housework done, but is this all that this season of life has to offer us?
I find myself unable to simply let myself survive. I want to thrive, to be healthy and eat all the foods including gluten, to keep house and still have time for hobbies, to minister to my family and not be completely worn out by the end of the day.
I’m coming to realize that I desire is virtue. Some may see virtue as only pertaining to our character, but there is so much more to it than that. Virtue is the perfection of character. It is character at its best and when one is at their best, they are flourishing.
In a sense, to be virtuous is to flourish. To flourish in character, we have to flourish in health, physically and mentally. If we are struggling with our emotions, then it is hard to flourish. If we are struggling with our diet, then it is really hard to flourish.
I believe, whether we struggle to flourish in homemaking, housekeeping, healthy living, etc., we can find wisdom and answers from homemakers in years gone by. This is why I pursue old fashioned homemaking and healthy living.
Perhaps, some pursue old fashioned homemaking for the nostalgia. While I do find this delightful, old fashioned homemakers have much wisdom to offer us and there is very little that I have yet to struggle with as a homemaker that homemakers have not struggled with in the past. I’m finding ways through old books to glean this wisdom and practically apply it to my own home. I’m learning that to live an old fashioned life is to live well.
So I invite you to journey alongside me as I seek to make a virtuous home, a home where my family can flourish through old fashioned homemaking and healthy living. Come and see what this is all about!
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