As this is the first post of my blog, I figured I’d better give y’all a little idea of what I plan on writing about and where the name came from. I hope to keep this interesting for you (and me); you’re welcome to comment, but keep it nice or at least polite! You’re free to go elsewhere if you don’t like my opinions… but I hope you enjoy being here.
Like many other blogging moms out there, I’m looking for a creative outlet and some adult conversation. I used to be a naval officer, but now I, too, am “just a housewife” and mom to three children (all adopted, six and under). I homeschool, garden, cook, paint, and occasionally clean (but almost never dust… as Great Aunt Lucy said, “If you don’t disturb the dust, they probably won’t notice the difference.”). So, don’t expect much cleaning advice, but I can promise plenty of crafts, cooking, gardening, sewing, and kid stories. My other main interest in blogging is to comment on politics, religion (mostly Catholic), pro-life issues, adoption, etc.
The name was inspired by two books. The first book is Abigail and John, a collection of letters between John Adams and his wife that spans their courtship, early marriage while John was a lawyer on the circuit court, and the Revolutionary War. Whenever John was away, he and Abigail would correspond frequently, whether he was just out on the circuit with the court in Massachusetts or in France as an ambassador. I found the collection interesting for the insight it gave into this household at the founding of our country.
Abigail Adams did not have the advantage of an advanced education, something she was acutely aware of and occasionally apologizes for in her letters. Still, she kept abreast of politics and happenings, capably managed a large household and farm while John was absent during the war, and generally exhibited a lively curiosity and observation of everything around her. John Adams could not have done what he did without this incredible woman behind him. Yet, today, Abigail Adams would be dismissed as “only a housewife.”
The second book that inspired the name is “Just a Housewife”: the Rise and Fall of Domesticity in America by Glenna Matthews. Matthews makes some very thought-provoking observations about what housewives were expected to do and know by looking at cookbooks and women’s magazines over the last two hundred years. If you quit reading before she goes into mental backflips trying to fit The Feminine Mystique into the pattern as a positive good, it’s an interesting read.
Matthews’ basic premise is that the duties of a housewife have gone from being necessary but somewhat ignored, later to be extolled vigorously as the foundation of proper republican education (small “r”; including love of God, self-reliance, a love of learning, involvement in civic life, etc. first instilled in a child by his mother), and finally derided by the new science of Home Economics which, to improve its own respectability, had to demean the housewife’s skills and talents as old-fashioned and unprofessional. In short, the feminist revolution has managed to make housewives less respected, not more. (No, I am not a fan of modern gender-wars, pro-abortion feminism as pushed by NOW.)
I think politics should at least make a regular appearance in mommy blogs. After you’ve gotten through the frustrations of children and family, you have to look outside your own little yard and think about everything else. Ignoring the problems outside the fence does not work for countries or for families. Besides, it might add a bit of perspective to the normal strains of family life.
If my blog gets you to try out a bolder paint scheme, appreciate some home-grown vegetables, AND write your local paper or your congressman, then it will be perfectly successful as far as I’m concerned.
