How things have changed.

I have a friend, who, like me, is a little crafty psycho.  We craft a lot, making things from scratch planning and making things for birthday parties. I was thinking about it today and we are really doing something of a generational shift.

My grandmothers, both had a lot, and I do mean A LOT of kids. They made bread, canned, grew gardens, found inexpensive and new ways to decorate their homes.  They raised their kids, helped farm, and sewed their own clothing.  Not because it was "fun" but because it was.  My grandmother took her 5 boys berry picking during the depression and then sold the berries by the side of the road.  They did what they had to do because there weren't any other choices. Every penny had to be counted.

Our mothers, fed us from t.v. dinners, some worked at jobs outside the home, some didn't. They used disposable diapers, disposable cups, paper plates, fed us "fast food" and bought canned vegetables from the store.  We got our clothes from JCPenny and K-Mart, or in my case 3-D lol, my birthday party was at McDonald's. My mother wouldn't have made me a dress if you put a gun to her head.  She bought Little Debbie Cakes, and cupcakes were from the grocery or a cake mix.  Everything was faster and easier and more convenient.

Today, I plant a garden in a pallet.  I sew my daughters dresses.  I research canning and look up recipes.  I make muffins from scratch, cakes, cupcakes, and cookies.  I look at ways to conserve costs and use coupons because every penny counts. And I am not alone.  I Good Will shop to make my home better, and Lord Knows it still needs some work.

I just think we are coming full circle in a lot of ways.  Maybe we've realized that in "improving" things and making it easier and faster, we've lost a part of who we are.  As a society we've been so consumed with how quickly we can get things done, how fast we can be, how busy we can be, that the Heart of our homes have been lost and we've sacrificed skills and knowledge that were used just a short generation ago.

I may not "have" to plant a garden to feed my children.  I don't have to sew my daughter's clothes, I don't have to do a lot of things.  But I am now chosing to.  I choose to try to bring back a part of the "homemaker" identity.  There is a pride in knowing your doing the best for your family by taking care of them, and in a lot of ways contributing to the world in a way that is rapidly being lost.  A wealth of knowledge can be lost from one generation to the next, and that is more than a little sad.