A Common Life
Welcome to A Common Life where Morgan and Taylor offer month-by-month gardening advice to help your garden thrive. We also share our personal journey in seasonal living, aiming to foster a deeper connection with others, nature, and our Creator. Our hope is to encourage and equip others who are on a similar journey and to provide a space for community around these ideals.
A Common Life
Podcast Series Introduction - Home-Making by J.R. Miller
"What happens when a Pinterest quote leads to a profound exploration of family roles from an 1882 classic? Join us as we embark on a captivating journey through J.R. Miller's "Homemaking," alongside our insightful guide, Morgan. This episode marks the beginning of a new series where we dissect each chapter of this timeless book, unraveling its still-relevant themes of collaborative home-building. We start by questioning the skepticism that naturally arises from a homemaking book penned by a man in the 19th century and explore why its messages continue to resonate today.
Morgan shares her personal connection to the book, recounting how initial skepticism transformed into inspiration. We discuss the nuanced roles outlined in chapters like "The Wedded Life" and "The Home Life," and how these roles are essential for cultivating a nurturing home environment. Discover the importance of shared vision and collaboration within families, and why "Homemaking" challenges the outdated notion that creating a harmonious household rests solely on women. Whether revisiting this classic or discovering it for the first time, prepare for lively and thoughtful discussions on family dynamics that promise to inspire your own home and life."
Boom. Jenkins, our AI assistant nailed it!
Find the book Home-Making by J.R. Miller here.
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Music on the podcast was composed by Kevin Dailey. The artist is Garden Friend. The track is the instrumental version of “On a Cloud”
Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of A Common Life Podcast, and in this episode, morgan and I are going to be introducing a new series that we're going to do. It's going to be on an awesome book. It's going to be a book series. We're going to go chapter by chapter through this book and we're going to invite you in on it and we hope you enjoy. So, morgan, why don't you get us started by introducing this book and telling people what the book is called? Okay and how we came across this thing okay.
Speaker 2:So this book is called homemaking by jr miller and it was written in let's see, is it 1882? Is that wrong? No, that's right 1882. 1882. Homemaking, homemaking. So I was just, you know, scrolling Pinterest and found a quote and I was like whoa, I have got to read that book. And then I looked it up and found it on thrift books and then read the reviews and a lot of people were like every person just every person needs to read this book. And so I got it cool and I don't remember.
Speaker 1:I have a couple quotes saved here of his but hold on, hold on, hold on give me the weight yeah, so you just read some reviews and the reviews were really good.
Speaker 2:Reviews were all good.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah. So then I ordered it Were these men that were giving reviews, or mainly, you think, women.
Speaker 2:I think it was mixed, but I don't remember. I didn't really look at the name.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because it's written in 1882 by a man. I just feel like I guess now if a man were to write a book on homemaking Right With the title chapters that are in this book.
Speaker 2:I don't know if I'd go over as well. I don't think it would. No, no, I don't know if I would. Yeah, would you even read it? I don't know if I'd go over as well. I don't think it would. No, no, I don't know if I would. Yeah, would you even read it? I don't think I would. Yeah, you didn't even think it was a guy.
Speaker 1:I didn't no.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I thought of course, this is a girl wrote this, a woman wrote this.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, he was a reverend of a I don't remember. He loved Jesus. Presbyterian church.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:So can I read the titles of the chapters? Sure, so the titles of the chapters the first one is the wedded life, and then the husband's part, the wife's part, the parents' part, the children's part, brothers and sisters, the home life, religion in the home and then home memories. So he basically starts off with marriage and then goes into everyone's role in the home. And I really love that because I think a lot of times now, like you say, we think it's the woman who makes the home, and I think in a lot of ways women do play the biggest role in making the home atmosphere most of the time. But everybody has to play a part, or I have found everyone has to play a part or I go crazy, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And like I think if a mom has ideals for her home but then she's not communicating it to the whole family, or you're like trying to create a home culture but not everybody knows it, then it's not going to go over well. Because if everyone knows that they have a part to play and you have a vision all together of this is what we want our home to be, then it's more of a collaborative effort, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I remember you know you do this a lot. You pick up random books. Books come, they go, Some stick, some don't, and but you're a pretty good book curator. Every book you've recommended to me I usually read them. I know that's the first step.
Speaker 1:The books you recommend I read and they're typically really good. I really like them. So you, I think you called me and left me a voicemail. I it because you were like I'm gonna leave you a voicemail, an old-fashioned voicemail. So you left me a voicemail and you said something along the lines of you felt really convicted reading this book yeah and inspired.
Speaker 1:I think you might have said something like inspired. And so still, I was thinking homemaking this old book. You know there's some woman that's writing this and you're thinking 1882. You know the women back then homemaking, like you know, I was telling you all the things you should do and how to do this and your task, and you know I had this picture in my head, yeah, and I was like all right, you know. I didn't tell you, but I was like all right kick her into shape, whip her into shape.
Speaker 2:Get this home in order.
Speaker 1:And um, but you know I didn't thing too, but I was glad you were enjoying your book. But then you kept going and I think you you even said something else about the book and then I think you said you wanted me to read it and I was like, hmm, that's interesting, why would you want me to read about a homemaking book? So then I picked it up and I read the husband's part, which is after the wedded life or wedded life. And I read the husband's part and that's when I was like who wrote this? And I feel I still think actually I was reading it from a female's, like the voice was female, and but I read it and I was convicted and encouraged and inspired it. It really affected me in a positive way.
Speaker 1:The author, the way he writes, is unique and the voice that he has in the book is encouraging, inspiring and convicting yeah, very convicting. It's a high standard and it also and convicting, yeah, Very convicting. It's a high standard. Like you could tell, this guy is a leader and he yeah, he's very well spoken in how he communicates. He's a great communicator.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and there's things I think as we go through, I mean, there are some things we don't necessarily agree with.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 2:But I mean most books you don't fully agree with right. So I love his heart behind the book I love.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love his heart behind the book and um, another thing that happened was, you know, I read the reviews and I ordered it and then, while before it had gotten here, I was in an old bookstore with my friend and, um, or it was an antique store and it had a book section and in the book section and I was looking through gardening and this was in the gardening section and I looked at the cover and was like what, and so I gave the copy to my friend and was like okay, I have this coming on the way, so you need to take this copy. Has she read it? She took the copy. I don't know if she'd read it.
Speaker 1:I need to take this copy.
Speaker 2:Has she read it? She took the copy. I don't know if she read it. I need to ask her.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I've read more of the book. I have not finished the book, but the plan is for us to break it down chapter by chapter, us to go through and talk about each chapter and our takeaway is what we agreed with, what we disagreed with and what stood out, and we thought we'd invite you all into the journey with us and make it a little series. And how many chapters are there? Nine, nine chapters, so roughly a month. Two months, two and a half months, and we'll put them out once a week and I'm not sure.
Speaker 1:I think they're gonna drop on monday mornings I think, that's the plan, and so, starting with this one, be looking for the next one, starting next monday, and we'll go chapter by chapter. We hope you enjoy it. Who is the author? What's his name?
Speaker 2:His name is JR Miller.
Speaker 1:JR Miller. We'll put a link to the book on Thrift Books.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I don't know how many copies are on Thrift Books.
Speaker 1:You can get it on.
Speaker 2:Amazon too. Okay, so we can link.
Speaker 1:We'll put the link to it and you can check it out if you want to purchase it. Surely it's not expensive.
Speaker 2:No, I think I got mine for $4.
Speaker 1:On Thrift Books.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm Got it.
Speaker 1:Do you want to read some of the quotes?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I want to read quotes so people can get like a taste of Sure. So I think that this was the one that I first saw, but I'll read it and then I'll read the others. Okay, it says to which men flee from the world's perils and alarms. It is a resting place to which, at close of day, the weary retire to gather new strength for the battle and toils of tomorrow. It is the place where love learns its lessons, where life is schooled into discipline and strength, where character is molded.
Speaker 1:Out of the homes of a community comes the life of the community, as a river, from the thousand springs that gush out on the hillsides so good, really good, yeah, I mean I think this is relevant because we live in a day and age where our families and our homes are being torn apart.
Speaker 2:And I think it's really evident in our communities For sure.
Speaker 1:You know yeah.
Speaker 2:And that's so like just to a homemaker and to someone who stays home with children all day, and you can feel like you're not doing anything important, you know, or that it's the same thing over and over. And are you really making a difference where, if you know, you're out and you have a job, and you have a task, and it's boom, boom, boom, you complete the assignment. It's, I think the fulfillment is different. So, and it's long game, it's long game and so it's just encouraged, like this book in many ways, and like that quote even encourages me, like yeah, I am changing my home, which therefore changes the community.
Speaker 1:Can I read a quote? Yeah, yeah, okay. So this is a quote that stood out to me. It's at the very beginning of the book. Homes are the springs among the hills whose many streamlets, uniting, form like great rivers society, the community, the nation, the church. If the springs run low, the rivers waste. If they pour out bounteous currents, the rivers are full. If the springs are pure, the rivers are clear like crystal. If they are foul, the rivers are defiled. A curse upon homes sends a poisoning blight everywhere. A blessing sends healing and new life into every channel. And again, I just feel like that's relevant. It's been relevant throughout time, but this is a time we live in and it feels like our home life and our homes and our families. It's a real.
Speaker 1:You have to be really intentional yeah and I like the way this author, jr miller, communicates it, and he really talks a lot about the posture in your role, like the husband's part when we get there. He talks about the heart posture of your role in the home, and that, to me, is a different. It's coming from a different angle than you know. Being efficient and productive and, you know, organized, those things are good, but if your heart posture isn't right, then those things are not going to matter. None of that will matter. Whereas you might not have the most orderly home, but if you have the right heart posture, then your home will be warm, and so that's what I took away from it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's good.
Speaker 1:You want to read some more of yours.
Speaker 2:Okay, I'll say too, just when you were reading, I was reminded that, like you said, it's relevant right now, I think, because our culture is like screaming self fulfill yourself. You do you thing that In order for home to function well, there's an even marriage? I mean just marriage. Where it starts and I love that he starts with that is it's a laying down of your life. You know, in order for a home to function well, we all do have to sacrifice some for other people, on behalf of other people, and then that does go out into the community, like if our kids are learning here to put other people before themselves, then they're going to go out into the world and put other people before themselves Instead of here learning the world revolves around you and then going out into the world and seeing the world doesn't revolve around you or trying to fulfill yourself and never. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm. Yeah, the culture of the home affects the culture at large.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm. Okay, so this is one quote. Everyone carries an atmosphere about him. It may be helpful and invigorating, or it may be unwholesome and depressing. It may make a little spot of the world a sweeter, better, safer place to live in, or it may make it harder for those to live worthily and beautifully who dwell within its circle.
Speaker 1:Right, that's so good, so good. Right, that's so good, so good. I mean, I'm that can. That's convicting for me because you know he uses the word like describing the husband. He describes like you can. You can either bring warmth or you can be like a cold, jarring wind. I'm like man, I know I can be a cold, jarring wind, sometimes like to the warmth of the home, and that's not the kind of dad I want to be. So it was convicting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there was a lot in the wife's part that was really convicting to me, so we'll get there.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Okay, I love this one too. It's short. She must look upon her home as the one spot on earth for which she is alone responsible and which she must cultivate well for God. Read that again. Yeah, I like that. Cultivate yeah. I like that cultivate yeah, like using words, like you carry an atmosphere about you. You're cultivating something and it's not just to have a clean house or whatever it's to do. Unto the Lord, you know.
Speaker 1:Cool. Well, I'm pretty excited about welcoming people into this and having a chance to do this with you and learn more about what you think.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's fun. I'm excited for the husband's part and the wife's part to just hear from each other, you know, because there were some things in the wife's part where I'm like man, I wonder if that actually is a big deal to Taylor, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's going to be good.
Speaker 1:I think so. So tune in. Next Monday we're going to be starting with the first chapter, the Wedded Life.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:And there are some things that we really love in that chapter and also some things that we disagree with, and I'm excited to hash them out and talk about it. For chapter one, the wedded life it's gonna be good, it's gonna be good, so until next time happy gardening, thank you.