I am up and about, getting ready for the day with Baby Rose. Yesterday we were to have her but David didn't have to work, so I didn't have her, after all.
Jim and I went to the garden shop and I found some feverfew. That is an herb and, if you have a headache, it is supposed to help you. You are supposed to chew the leaves. When I had it before, I chewed the leaves in with some spearmint gum. It is a perennial and looks like daises. I hope to get a good patch of it goin' in my herb garden.
I also got some more lavender. It was almost 90 here in Iowa yesterday. I didn't get anything done in the garden -- it was just toooo hot. But it has to get real hot for tomatoes to grow. So the tomatoes were happy, but no one else was.
All yesterday morning, I was thinkin' about the writing Kelly sent in about the old time mothers. Man, I forgot what it all said now. But I was thinking about the old time housewives. And yesterday, in the afternoon, I was doing some reading. I have this old pioneer book. It has poems and stories. One was written by a pioneer woman. And it was about how she needed so many things to run her homestead. But what she prayed for the most each day was courage.
Oh, God Bless America! Don't we need courage as Mothers for this day and age? This society is so corrupt. It just makes ya wanna roll over and play dead, huh? But I think this is how it has been in many troubled times in the past, too. Of course, the Depression era was filled with hard times ... I think like now somewhat. But, ya know, if we have homes and a roof over our heads, and kitchens to cook in, and beds for our children, then we should praise the Lord.
Ya know, in the old days the farm mothers got up around 4:00 in the morning to start their work. And, ya know, they didn’t even have fans for this hot weather. But they cooked and baked bread, cakes and pies nearly every day. They did their cooking in the cool of the day. Often, they had a makeshift shed out back that they made into a summer kitchen. This way, the wood stove didn't heat up the main house. They had a big noon meal, usually, and got their cooking out of the way as the day got hotter. Then, for supper, they had the leftovers from the noon meal. Many of the men were farmers and home for lunch. But the old time mother did most of their summer work in the mornings.
Then, in the afternoon, they rested and the children napped. When I would go to my aunt's farm to stay a few weeks in the summer, this is how the farm women did it. My Gram lived in a little house in the back yard of my aunt's house. And Gram would help with the garden or the cooking, whatever. But the hot summer afternoons were quiet, as the Mothers rested.
I think it is important to work hard but to rest, too ... we need time as mothers to be refreshed. To talk to God and to regroup as the children nap. Then, after naps, it is time to prepare the house for the evening meal. The rest of the day is sorta to prepare to wind down for the evening. It's a time for work but a time to get ready for the evening. So you fix supper and then later, it's time to make sure the children have their baths and get their rooms ready for them to go to bed. Get the dishes done and the supper food put in the icebox. It's time to read a story to the children and a time for prayers.
After the children are in bed, you, Mother, may want to have another time to read the word and pray. But Mother goes to bed pretty early herself, as she has another big day to tend to the next morning.
I remember when I was raised in the 50s. My brother and I thought my mother never slept. If we were to go in her bedroom at night, she would be laying there with eyes shut. And she would hear us and say, "Don't step on my glasses." Mom always kept her glasses right on the floor next to her bed, so she could find them in an instant if us kids needed something in the night.
When my mom and dad and we children would go to my uncle's farm in the summer, we thought my aunt Jean never slept. All of the cousins at night slept on the living room floor on quilts. Late in the night, I would wake up and see a light in aunt Jean's kitchen. I would hear my aunt Jean making cold sandwiches for the next day.
The old time Mothers never seemed to sleep. They were up in the night and always up early the next morning. Of course, they rested in the afternoon and this was their salvation. These Mothers were like firemen -- they were always ready to care for the children, even in the middle of the night.
I never wore "see through" stuff to bed, as I had to be up in a flash many nights. Of course, June Cleaver on "Leave it to Beaver" would put her robe on quickly in the night if she had to get up. But I was never that organized. I am still that way -- going out to give my flowers a drink in the mornings with whatever on I wore to bed last night. I throw left over tea or coffee on my flowers out front and I have to be free to do that at anytime. So I have to have something on that isn't see through. Dan calls 'em muumuus. But, heck, my dog used to get loose in the night and I had to chase her all over. Can't ya just see me, runnin' under the street light in a sexy negligee?
COURAGE
But, Oh Lord God, please give me courage ... as the old time mothers prayed for many things, what they prayed for most was courage.
Yesterday I had some how sprained my ankle. I told the Lord, "Lord, I feel like an old barn. If I don't move around too much, I will probably last another 20 years. But if too many big winds come up, I probably will fall apart a little bit at a time." Well, I am there now. I feel like I am fallin' apart a day at a time. My tooth was healed and I am ok with that. But now it is my foot. Gosh, if I could only walk!!! Well, it isn't that bad and I am believin' the Lord.
But yesterday, as I laid on my bed in the quiet afternoon, I prayed for courage to go on. Most of my prayer was, "Yes, Lord, I will do Your will ... whatever it takes, I will do it, Lord. Yes, Lord, I will go on. Yes, Lord, I hear Your voice ... I will not give up. I will go on, Lord, I will not quit." I prayed for at least an hour. And most of my prayer was "Yes, Lord, yes, I hear You. I will go on. I am not giving up. I will not disappoint You. I will go on."
I feel in my body that I somehow began to shut down with grief when my last Baby married and left home. And now it is as though I have been awakened from a long sleep. And now the Lord is speaking to my dry bones, "Awaken, it's time to get up. There is work to do. Your night is over ... it is time to work."
And I am sayin' to the Lord, "Lord, do you know how old I am?" And, of course, the Lord never calls the woman by her age. He calls her by her willingness to do His will. And, boy, yesterday I thought about Sarah in the Bible. Wow! Now there was a woman!!! Ya know, I think of Jim's seeds and how they are still strong. I think of how most men never lose their ability to father children ... it is the woman's strength that leaves her body and she is not strong enough to conceive a seed. But I thought of the scriptures yesterday, about Sarah, who by faith received strength to conceive a seed, even in her old age. Wow, and this woman had been barren all of her life. But she was still beautiful and gave her husband pleasure, even in her old age. Man alive, what a woman of courage. And I want to be like her ... even if I feel like an old barn.
I am depending on the balm of Gilead to salve my sore body and make a Sarah out of me. By golly, I want to be a rose in the desert to bloom in dry land. And with God, all things are possible and I plan on provin' this, one way or the other. And if I die tryin' ... what a way to go. To die believin' the Lord is the best way to go to heaven.
Oh, that spirit of virtue is what we women need to be mothers of courage. Virtue is a power and a strength that comes as we flex our spiritual muscles. We cannot be strong in ourselves.
And what keeps us from goin' on in God? It is fear. We have to cast down the fear and pick up the faith and let God be God and every man a liar. He has called me to be a Sarah and I am goin' to be a Sarah if it kills me. I am not afraid.
We as Mothers must take on COURAGE. We must have spines of steel and fire in our bones. Oh, a Holy supernatural fire that burns HOT. We must be brave and strong. And our strength must come from the HOLY SPIRIT. And we must cry out to God, "Yes, Lord ... Yes, Lord, whatever You call me to do, I will do it, Lord. I will not fall back into unbelief and weakness."
Ya know, we as mothers fight spiritual battles on every front. Some of you live with men who are seemingly just murdering your spirits. You are called as wives to live out a life that is hard by any standard. But go on in God ... don't give up.
Our country will never turn around without women who will not give up. So many half women who were Jezebels have ruined our country. But we, as the godly women of the day, are called to beat these women out with our obedience to God. We stand for God, the greater power. And through our obedience to Him, we will show the world a way out of their sins.
