Recently, I have been reading through articles of a newsletter I received many years ago called “New Harvest Homestead.” There are many great practical ideas in this, and I wanted to share a few snippets from some of them.

“We don’t want to sound like alarmists, and we are definitely not survivalists who believe everyone ought to run to the hills, but we are realists. We live in very turbulent times and circumstances can literally change in a day in this world.” This is why they set out to be as self-sufficient as possible. “But we urge you, brethren to excel still more and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you: so that you may behave properly toward outsiders and not be in any need.” (1 Thessalonians 4:10-12)

“One of the most useful lessons I have learned over the years is the concept of making money by saving money. ‘The Heart Has Its Own Reasons‘ by Mary Ann Cahill tells the stories of dozen of mothers who made it their ambition to live on one income so they could stay home and raise their children. You may be quite shocked at how much money is frittered away every month. When you factor in the costs for transportation, wardrobe, childcare, take-out meals because mom is too tired to cook, and the extra taxes due to being bumped into a higher tax bracket, that ‘extra income’ amounts to very little after all.

“Do you want to be home and available to your husband and children with all of your heart? If the answer is yes, then you need to be willing to scale back, economize, and do without. If God has made it plain in His Word that this is His desire for us, will He not also make a way for us to achieve that goal once we have set our hearts upon it? I know for a fact that the answer is an unequivocal YES!”

She set up Titus Two Meetings in her home every six weeks where young women would come with their children, have lunch together, and spend hours teaching these women all of the ways of biblical womanhood, including loving their husbands and children, gardening, canning, baking bread, natural remedies, knitting, crocheting, crafting, money management, and everything else it takes to be a wife, mother, and homemaker. This should be happening all over the world in older women’s homes! Think what a blessing this would be for young women today.

In her newsletter is a recipe on making whole wheat bread, and I have been making this for my husband for many years. I have also learned to make sourdough bread. Almost everything I make is from scratch and healthy. All of this takes a full-time wife and mother at home. The more self-sufficient and working with our hands we become, the easier it will be if and when this economy crashes. God set Adam and Eve in the Garden. He may find a way to get us all back to it one day!

The woman who wrote this newsletter is Lisa Vitello, but this was many years ago and their website is no longer up. I love learning from women like her. There needs to be more of them. Jes from Strangers and Pilgrims on Earth is one of them!

 With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.
Matthew 19:26