I was thinking today, because of the books I’ve been reading lately, that I wish in some ways that I lived back in the homesteading, old west days. I realize that they had their own challenges back then and we have so many conveniences now, but sometimes I think that these conveniences make it harder in other areas.

As wife and mom, and lover of the country life and animals and farming, I long for a day when we can buy some property and have our own garden with enough to put away for the winter. To go out and gather eggs from the chickens, to spend the spring through summer taking care of the house, the kids, the garden, the cooking and cleaning.

I wish we lived when there was not so much clutter. You only had as many clothes as you needed, and there were not zillions of toys to be strewn about the house. You didn’t get junk mail every day, or paper mail from the many many bills we have today. In fact, you most likely didn’t have many bills at that time and your main focus was providing food and stocking up food for the winter and keeping your family clothed and sheltered. You didn’t have so many activities to attend to away from home, and running here and there in the car.

The thing is, I was thinking today that there are a few things I can help to get back to that time and frame of mind.

Clothes. What if I were to go through all my clothes and only keep enough outfits for a week’s worth. And then, only get new ones when the old ones started wearing out a bit. Or if I got new ones before that, make sure it is an outfit that I love more than one I already have and give away one of my old ones instead.  The same goes for my husband, and kids. Ekid has so many 5 year old clothes it’s amazing. Mostly shirts, and some of them he doesn’t even like. So let’s just get rid of them, or at least put some of them away until the others start to wear out.

Toys. Same idea. I just need to go through all their toys and get rid of all the ones they don’t play with much, or that are broken, and then we don’t need to buy them more than one or two items for their birthdays or Christmas.

Paper clutter. This one is tough. Now the junk mail can be thrown in the trash as soon as I see it, but then you’ve got all the pictures the boys like to draw, and their school work papers and my papers, and my husbands papers….. the list goes on. So that one is just going to have to take some work to control because there just isn’t much to be done about eliminating it.

Activities. Not much to be done about that either. In this day and age, with cars and being able to get to farther away places at a fraction of the time it took 100 years ago, you just have more to do with family, friends, sports and whatever else. Not that I don’t want to see my family! Being an hour away by car, I definitely wouldn’t get to just go on up and see my parents much if we had to use horse and buggy.

But you know, we could live more like they did back then even in this day and age. It just takes a bit more will power, since we have all this stuff and clutter and distractions to contend with.

I for one, would like to try.

I just so much want to be like that virtuous woman in Proverbs 31. Everything she did was for the glory of God and to provide and take care of her family. We just have so many distractions now days, that it’s hard to keep focus on what’s really important, but it can be done. It must be done. God gave women and men certain roles and neither will be satisfied or fulfilled if we aren’t acting in those roles.  The husband is to be the main provider for the family, and I shouldn’t be sitting here worrying about how I’m going to help make some extra money for us. Now there’s nothing wrong with me making extra money, but If I’m worrying so much about that and not doing my job of taking care of the kids, the home and my husband to the best of my ability, then I’m not trusting God to help my husband provide for us like God intended.

So do you feel like we have too many conveniences today?  What ways do you think life was better back in the “old” days?