The Summa Domestica 3-volume set

Order and Wonder in Family Life

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Most wives possess a deep, existential intuition that they bear primary responsibility for creating the home environment, in cooperation with their husbands, who protect and provide for it. When Leila Lawler started out as a young wife and then became a mother, she had no idea how to keep a house, manage laundry, or plan and prepare meals, let alone entertain and inspire toddlers and select a curriculum to pass on the Faith.

She spent decades excavating deeply rooted cultural memories that had been buried under an avalanche of feminist ideology. Lawler developed and meticulously presented these on her popular website, Like Mother, Like Daughter, and has now collected them in this comprehensive, three-volume set to help women who desire a proficient and systematic approach to home life.

The Summa Domestica comprises three volumes: Home Culture, which delves into establishing a home and a vision for raising children; Education, which offers a philosophy for the primary vocation of parents to form their children and give them the means to learn on their own; and Housekeeping, which offers practical details for meals, laundry, and a reasonably clean and organized busy and thriving household.

All at once lively, funny, calming, and complete, The Summa Domestica an indispensable how-to book on making and keeping a home that will serve your family best.

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Finally, making sense of life at home!

A long time ago there used to be books similar to this, teaching the arts involved in homemaking. Then feminism won the day and we all know what happened. To my mind, "Home Comforts" is the book that made it ok to talk about housekeeping again. But The Summa Domestica is such a delightful work because it is so much more than Home Comforts! It is not just housekeeping, the subject of only one of the volumes, but an exercise in what the author would call "kitchen sink philosophy", a heart-warming and enlightening collection of reflections on the whys of the feminine vocation to run a household. We've forgotten the meaning and the value of the woman as queen of her house, as wife, mother, and manager of a complex institution - her family. Modern women need to be reminded what this is all about, where it comes from, and where it will take them and their families. Often enough it seems to lead them to homeschooling, and Mrs. Lawler has plenty to say on that, too, so that there is a dedicated volume. To me this is the perfect gift for so many women in different stages of life, from the engaged young woman who wants to start married life with the right foot, to the new mother who'd like to understand the ins and out of her new life, to the seasoned mom who's feeling burned out or needs advice on all sorts of subjects, from discipline, to menu planning, to life with teens. The added bonus is that, since the chapters were born as blog posts, these books can be read in bite-size moments, each reflection more than enough to provide lots of food for thought. And the author's blog Like Mother Like Daughter is still alive, so head over there and start chatting with Auntie Leila!

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Wonderful resource

I wish I had these books a long time ago! This is a wonderful resource for family life. I have already benefitted from the down to earth, practical advice in these pages.

A must read for all women

This book is absolutely amazing! It is full of so much helpful and thoughtful advice. Leila Lawler is a wonderful writer and she is also extremely funny with a great sense of humor. As I read it, I have been struck by her humility and wisdom. She never talks down to people or insults anyone who does/might disagree with her. This book covers the gamut of necessary information from how to dress your children in cold weather, how to menu plan, do laundry, or even, how to heal a UTI. This book is a "must have" for not just all mothers or homemakers, but all women.