week of favorite blogs: Pleasantview Schoolhouse

My absolute favorite blog is, without doubt, Pleasantview Schoolhouse. It is (was, really) chronicled by Anna, a part-time lawyer, wife, and homeschooling mother. She has been attracted, since a very young person, to the whole idea of domestic contentment and how to achieve it.  And this is what motivates her. Well, this blog is the evidence of her success.

She blogged for a little more than four and a half years, then rather abruptly announced that she was going to discontinue it; she felt God was drawing her to other things. (and she was glad to go along with Him, by the way) A couple of hundred women were quite desolate about it, including myself. One commenter said  I feel like a fledgling being pushed out of the nest    -   I felt the same way. 

I think I followed Pleasantview Schoolhouse for about three years, and it was the first blog I ever bothered with.  She and I both belonged to a sewing forum run by Jennie Chancey, and one day Anna posted a photo of a dress she'd made. Jennie commented that she always drooled all over the keyboard at Anna's creations, and that's what got me.  I thought,  If Jennie Chancey is drooling over this woman's dresses, I have to see what this is about!   I went to her blog, and that was the end of my days of avoiding blogs. 

I really didn't want to fall into the trap of spending so much time in front of the computer, reading other people's postings. But this one was fascinating to me! Here was a woman who enjoyed doing her housework, ironing, making nutritious meals for her husband and five children, going on family trips, - well, a lot of women do this.  So, what is her secret?  

The whole thing with Anna, the whole domestic thing - everything she does for her family, taken as a whole - is like a religious experience with her.  No - that's not quite what I want to say.  But she knows that God gave her that job and she is going to study it, figure it out, hone it, refine it, and never give up on improving on her way of doing it, because that job is her duty before God, and she wants to find out what works, and what doesn't.  She's also not the type to  *get comfortable*, and coast along - she's constantly challenging herself.

But the blog isn't just a chronicle of the above-mentioned - most importantly, whatever she did - it worked! 
And that's the fascination of it.  Which is why, when she makes something to sell in her etsy shop - handmade stuff, which is nice, but she's not a professional seamstress -  women are buying (or wanting) a piece of Anna; her success; her energy.  Or so it seems to me. 

You have to read her blog for yourself if this subject is what occupies your mind, too - and this is where she began.