Mrs. Dunwoody's Excellent Instructions – Review

Timeless Homekeeping Wisdom

May 3, 2009 Leigh Vozzella

Timeless advice, recipes and tips for creating and keeping a home the "old-fashioned" way.

The words on the cover of Mrs. Dunwoody's Excellent Instructions for Homekeeping by Miriam Lukken (Warner Books, 2003, ISBN 978-0446530132) are such an excellent description of what is in store for the reader ~ Timeless Wisdom and Practical Advice. The voice of the fictional Mrs. Dunwoody was based upon writings left by nineteenth-century Southern women as advice for their daughters when they established their own homes. Here's part of the preface :

" Our grandparents knew something we have forgotten--Good things take time. Love is slow and lasts, tenderness takes patience, wisdom comes with age, and the tall majestic oak tree outside of my window took eighty years to reach its glorious height. In the length of days comes understanding. Someone once said when an old person dies, a library is lost. How true! And yet we are too busy zooming into tomorrow to take time to look and listen to the past. Unlike our grandparents, we seem to be too distracted by life to take the time to teach and pass on our wisdom from one generation to the next."

Mrs. Dunwoody's book is filled with old fashioned wisdom and tradition. It's fashioned after the traditional notes 19th century women penned as a record of all they knew and thought meaningful. The author based Mrs. Dunwoody's "character" on her own great-grandmother who was born in Georgia in 1841 and was "keeping house" during the Civil War. Mrs. Dunwoody's words are not simply about housekeeping, they are also about larger life issues: nurturing a family and home, living respectfully, passing on the legacy of love, hope, joy and compassion to those around us.

Some of the chapter titles include:

• Miss Sallie Anne's Splendid Directions for Laundry
• Notes and Recipes from the Kitchen
• Matters of Formality
• Health and Beauty
• Marriage and Family
• The Garden
• Fill-in Pages-A Treasury of Memories

In a time where it seems we are all racing through life, readers may find "Mrs. Dunwoody's" book to be refreshing and grounding. The author draws the reader in to the book with fictional first-person account of what homemaking in the late 1800's and early half of the 1900's was like. While they didn't have the modern conveniences we have today and the typical family had 4+ children ( usually 8 or more!), somehow there was a simplicity to their lives that all of the modern conveniences in the world just can't give us. This simpler way of doing and living is a gift we have to give ourselves and this book offers the reader a terrific stepping stone.

The copyright of the article Mrs. Dunwoody's Excellent Instructions – Review in Home Decor/Cookbooks is owned by Leigh Vozzella. Permission to republish Mrs. Dunwoody's Excellent Instructions – Review in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Mrs. Dunwoody's Excellent Instructions