Have we lost the art in Domestic Arts?

There are times in our lives where things -thoughts, ideas- just seem to pop out at you. Sometimes they are even shouting. Yesterday and today seem to be one of those times.

I love the Arts. Plays, Music, Paintings and all sorts of mediums that allow one to show expression of our lives. Yesterday I was listening to the July 2007 Ensign and I heard these two quotes from the article "Three Tools to Build a Sacred Home" by Shirley R. Klein pg. 44

"While modern conveniences have delivered us from some of the work of caring for a home, they have led to a decline in home life. We are tempted to disregard the value of everyday home activities like having family meals, and in the process we lose important opportunities for individual and family growth. Author Cheryl Mendelson explains: “As people turn more and more to outside institutions to have their [everyday] needs met . . . , [our] skills and expectations . . . diminish, in turn decreasing the chance that people’s homes can satisfy their needs.”Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House (1999), 7–8."

"In general conference, President Spencer W. Kimball (1895–1985) warned: “Many of the social restraints which in the past have helped to reinforce and to shore up the family are dissolving and disappearing. The time will come when only those who believe deeply and actively in the family will be able to preserve their families in the midst of the gathering evil around us.” “Families Can Be Eternal,” Ensign, Nov. 1980, 4."

Today my Sister and I was talking of a dear friend of hers. This friend has her 4 children going of to school this year. She has wrestled with the idea of if she is supposed to go to work now that she has no children at home or should she stay within the home. The above quotes were brought back to my mind as we talked. Added to the quote which I found at my new best website.

Domestic Cookery By Elizabeth Ellicott Lea
Baltimore: Cushings and Bailey, 1869. Interest: Pennsylvania Dutch, Quaker
" Introduction Domestic Cookery, Useful Receipts, and Hints to Young Housekeepers. In 1845, Elizabeth Ellicott Lea published this volume in Baltimore, at her own expense. It is subtitled "Hints to Young Housekeepers" and was meant to serve as a handbook for the inexperienced bride, who knew little or nothing about domestic arts. The book met with great success; it was in print for twenty-five years, with at least 19 editions."

This book was first published in 1845 for those girls who were not trained in the joys of domestic arts.

Have we lost the art in “Domestic Arts”? Do we seem embarrassed to state we are mothers first and for most when asked what we do. Is it easier to give a trade for fear of being put down or thought less of. In our culture so many women have to work outside the home. Are we finding it easier to lose sight of this import art just as the school districts find it easy to cut spending on music or art classes.

Surly in todays world domestic arts is just as needed as it was in 1845. Yet what does it consist of? Gone our the days where instructions for making cheese, rendering lard and tallow for soap and candles, washing, mending, dyeing, making mattresses - and many other things a 19th century housewife was responsible for doing. Do we have our own set of mediums to use. Do we truly create master pieces out of hoping in our cars and going to the local big box store? Have we even thought of doing so?

These are questions that have been shouting in my head today these are scuttles thoughts. I hope as I come to terms with my life and the daily chores that I realized the arts work I am weaving in my life. The music I am creating around my home as I strive to be a Mother and Wife in these latter-days.