Homemaking – Carrie Lee Ferguson

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May 26, 2021

She Graduates, Again

She graduates, again. This time there is no ceremony, no little-kid wooden chairs to sit in, no speeches to be heard. It is just these simple moments: sitting at the table with her, completing last tasks, telling her how proud I am. We are here again, at the next ending-beginning: standing in tender recognition of this thing called time and growth, of transitions and of new era’s, of looking back and moving toward the new. My heart breaks open, again. I breathe, I love, I allow. We take a picture. This time, she completes 8th g[...]

Homemaking, Uncategorized

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June 14, 2020

To the Mama Lionesses

When, in his last moments, George Floyd called out for his mama, it was as if he called out to a Great Mother, to a benevolent Love that humans hunger for. The Great Mothering Energy who loves us just as we are: divided, bruised and depraved. When, in his last moments, George Floyd called out for his mama, he motivated many a Mama: black, brown and white. To the fierce Lionesses who take care of the pride. In what ways can we motivate? I tend to judge myself because my part feels “small” in the fight for exposing and ending systemic[...]

Homemaking, Uncategorized

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June 13, 2020

Minerals I am Made Of

I’m afraid. I’m afraid of saying the wrong thing, of being misunderstood. I’m afraid the pearl will never form inside this shell. The minerals I am made of— how will they solidify my pittance of wisdom, bring forth the revolution? But these are the fears of a caucasian the world-is-my-oyster crustacean, of a white female homemaker. I have traveled, I have written, I have swam in ocean’s waters while fires burned. While hands and hearts lay bare on[...]

Family Travel, Homemaking

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April 27, 2020

Family RV’ing: living well while traveling the country

Have you ever had the urge to sell the house and go explore the world? Chances are, you know a family doing just that. We often think of these families as being extraordinarily brave, but my friend Rachel, who spent two years traveling the U.S. in an RV with her family, says, “You can totally do it. It’s not like we’re special . . . we just sold our stuff!” That was how it began for this nature-loving family: they listed their stuff for sale. Rachel is a coach and meditation teacher. She is married to Adam and they have two children, Caelan (eigh[...]

Family Travel, Homemaking

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April 14, 2020

why this family was social distancing before social distancing was a thing

For me, the conversation around family travel inevitably collides with the conversation of home. How do we create the home we want in the world? How does travel inform our home processes and can home influence our travel style?What does it mean to be a home-maker in the 21st century? What has been gained and what has been lost in regards to our most basic element of society: the family, the home? I thought I’d ask around. What follows is the first in a series of articles in which I speak with moms about these connections between home[...]

Homemaking, Uncategorized

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March 30, 2020

To be human

“Our challenge is to create a new language, even a new sense of what it is to be human. It is to transcend not only national limitations, but even our species isolation, to enter into the larger community of living species. This brings about a completely new sense of reality and value.”Thomas Berry During this time of the pandemic, I am feeling some of my deep fears while also experiencing a rousing of my deep impulse to connect. To wake up from all the ways I’ve been asleep, to enliven my connection to the whole of Everything. The origin of th[...]

Homemaking

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February 18, 2020

in the home, in the world

I chose to be a stay-at-home mom. Back in 2006 when I was pregnant, I resigned from my teaching job, lucky that I had the choice. I didn’t know, really, what I was choosing. I didn’t know that my baby wouldn’t sleep anywhere other than in my arms or attached to my side. I knew that I’d be breastfeeding, but I didn’t know that it’d feel like that was all I’d be doing. I had never discerned the extremities of love and loneliness—not like this. Not until I sat, trapped, on my couch, holding the whole world in my arms. I loved[...]

Home Education, Homemaking

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February 4, 2020

What to do when your a tired mom

Last week was a bit bumpy in our household and homeschool. Between sickness and lack of sleep, tempers were lost. I should mention that I was the first to lose it. I get triggered when I don’t feel valued. Wouldn’t it be great if my twelve year old could read my mind, and then go, “Thanks for doing all those dishes, Mom! Now that you’ve created a clean workspace, I’m going to get started on my work right away!” It’s probably more accurate to say that I get triggered when I don’t value my own worth and my own needs. Instead o[...]

Homemaking

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January 27, 2020

Patience: It’s about Milestones

“All the way across! You did it!” I laugh. “Elle, you did it!” She was not quite five. She wore a t-shirt with a picture of kittens on it, a white skirt with gray capri’s underneath; socks, no shoes. We were at the park. It was before the play-equipment was replaced, and so the monkey bars were still there—eight, thick yellow bars from one perch to the other. I watched her little body swing and sway, eyes focused on the next rung, feet hovering high above the sandy bottom. She went from one end to the other, one motion of her arms at a time. [...]

Home Education, Homemaking

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July 31, 2019

She Graduates

She graduates . . . and you want to post a picture, say something about how time flies but you know that this will never encompass what you feel and maybe this is why you find it difficult to post on social media but you try anyway. You sit in tender recognition of this thing called time and growth, of transitions and of new era’s, of looking back and moving toward the new. You recall the different shapes of her, the chubby, the slim, the dimpled, those bitty feet; and the old angles of you both around the house, holding on to coffee tables for balance, bending[...]