Used with permission, Lydia Sherman

Some women never lose their first ardor for home. They are perennial brides, their wedding day having been the entry point into a universe that is ever-new and stimulating. Affection this strong cannot help but inspire others. Lydia Sherman grew up on an Alaska homestead and then became a housewife in the West. She has been blogging since 2005 and has a large and loyal following, for her simple crafts and sewing, her reflections on home in a world that disdains domesticity, and her memories of a rugged Northern childhood. Her blog, Living at Home, captures the soul of the American home. This is our tradition. This is our heritage, so often hidden from view. Here are selections from Lydia at her best: 

From The Woman in the Window, Sewing:

Because the neighborhood was so dark and lonely, I always felt a warm reassurance upon seeing the woman in the window, sewing. I cannot explain all the thoughts I had but here are some: somehow, I thought that she was very brave. She was not ashamed of her homemaking and was not self-conscious about being seen in the window, sewing. It brought back memories of my mother singing while she swept the front porch. The other feeling was that it somehow made the world better. It showed that no matter what the current news media hype or world threat was, the woman in the window was still going about her daily work and taking her duties seriously. And still another feeling it gave me is one of wanting to go home and be very creative and industrious. The sight of her in that window was like a light in the darkness.

From An Enduring Marriage :

One of the most common misunderstandings about the home is that it should not have too many trials. Certain things should just “never happen,” and if they do, then the marriage must be “ending,” or “over,” or, the home life and the parents authority are no longer “valid.”

There was a commonly held belief that was spread around a few decades ago, that marriages that were not happy were not valid marriages, and that a home life that was uncomfortable or unpleasant in any way, was worthless. This belief was accompanied by the notion that if you were not “happy,” you should leave the husband or the home.

From The Effect of Architecture on Home Living

In comparison, my experience in modern housing was quite the opposite. At first I was excited, after so far away for so long. I thought I would be around people and that there would be more interaction, but I did not see people. Instead, I saw the back of their cars as they left their houses. If I did have company, I had to be careful that visitors did not park in neighbor areas and that we did not disturb the neighborhood in any way. Neighbors were not neighborly and everything was impersonal. I woke up to bleakness I’d never known before, and many other homemakers said the same thing. Part of this was due to the modern architectural planning of houses and neighborhoods. The homemakers eventually went to work, as the isolation of these neighborhoods was just too much for them. The neighborhoods and houses seemed to be designed to make people want to leave home.

From How to Stop Fretting about Politics and Live Abundantly:

The most far-reaching political control you can wield is to stay home with your children from birth. This will do the children and society more good than all the government programs, all the government education, and all the opportunities society might offer them. Staying home with your baby changes things more than any political convention. It is better than welfare, better than WIC, better than daycare, better than public schools. Of all the things that adults today speak most longingly for is a happy childhood, and that cannot be provided by the state. The hand that rocks the cradle still rules the world. This is one reason that government creates schemes to get children into daycares and schools earlier and earlier. They know that the only thing that stands in their way of getting these seven things are the mothers at home with their children and the parents being the biggest influence on their children.

From Why Don’t Boys Whistle at Girls Anymore:

Who or what took away some of the things in our lives, the little things, that made us feel like we had our own culture? What happened to our sayings and our gestures, that did no harm? They were not replaced by anything better. We got rid of the whistlers by intimidating them with threats of lawsuits. I just don’t understand it. I want my country back.

From a forthcoming sequel to Just Breathing the Air:

Mother carried a rifle, and she was only 27 years old. It was so natural to her that it was as though it was a handbag. We didn’t even notice it. If someone said, “Does your mother carry a rifle?” I would have had to think hard, because it was such a part of her I never really noticed.

She told me that she was pregnant with their 6th child, and Daddy had to be away all week working on the highway somewhere in another part of Alaska.  The dog would not stop barking so she got up from bed and went downstairs. A bear was coming down the home road. She took her rifle and aimed it at the bear and clicked it. The dog stayed by her side because she told him to.  He wanted to chase it but he always obeyed Mama (like the rest of us!).  She clicked the rifle and looked down the site. The bear stopped still and looked at her and the dog was growling, and after a minute it turned around and lolloped back down the road where it came from. She did not want to shoot it in case she missed. If she had wounded the bear, it would have been a much greater problem. She was awfully glad she did not have to shoot the  bear. The rest of us were upstairs in our beds quivering and praying.  It was nice to have a mother we could have confidence in, but those women up there weren’t trigger-happy.

Lydia Sherman writes:

Thank you so much. I think a lot of women in the fifties were taught how to feel new and special each day in their marriage. We were told to always remember we were a bride!  Thanks so much for including the story of the bear!

Laura writes:

Yes, being a bride was once a way of life and now the wedding is just for a day. Women will always live for romance. That’s the way we are and we shouldn’t change. Unfortunately, today power is romantic. Things beyond the home and the people we love are swathed in the ideal. It’s not a question whether we will live for a good that is never fully attainable or not. It’s a question of which beautiful quest we will embark upon.

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