Don’t make the mistake I did and think that the goal is to be bored. We desire to be productive, useful, and helpful. But being a homemaker, in our heart of hearts, is to love the “boring things” because they are so far from boring as to be almost indescribable.

Every success we experience is not guaranteed to stay a success. Every win fades. Holding on to our successes typically squeezes the life out of them and either brings stress into our homes or keeps us living unhappily in the past, stunted and dull.

When we invest in our gifts and use them to produce goods, we get a return. Money in an IRA is going to get you more of a return than money hidden in your mattress. Gifts used will yield a higher return than our gifts unacknowledged, untrained, and set aside. What does a return look like? Calmer homes, happy husbands, trained children, healthy churches, and stable communities.

The idea of being the Menders has become a drumbeat in my mind as I’ve grown as a homemaker and slowly adjusted to the weight of my responsibilities.

Every time a limitation arises, an opportunity for growth opens.

I adore anything and everything that romanticizes and elevates the ordinary. Anything that draws back the veil on the mundane and routine so that we can catch a fleeting glimpse of the magic working behind the scenes. For just a moment, we catch sight of the intangible

One of the tools we can apply to do our work is to sit down and decide what we would like the vibe, the fragrance, of our home to be. What is the ultimate production we wish to set our hearts and hands and minds to producing? What is the ultimate fruit we are seeking to produce? What is our endgame? What are we pointing and working towards

New Matrons are going to be tempted by discouragement because everything feels so unfamiliar and overwhelming while Mature Matrons will be tempted to boredom and stagnation because everything has become too routine and comfortable. We can help each other out of these troubles if we work together and engage each other in the grand work of homemaking. This

Productivity is better measured by the love of our traditions not the number of them. It is measured by the delight and wonder of our people not the number of parties we rush to. It’s measured by the joy and enjoyment of food, not by how much food. It is measured by our hearts not our stuff.

Complaining will rot our souls, ruin our homes, and destroy our relationships with our husbands, our children, and our churches.

When you get to know people, you start to learn about needs. This is where you plug in and become part of the knitting circle yourself.

It will take a lot of thought and prudence to decide whether to accept or reject promotions, to set boundaries, and to communicate with your boss. Keep in mind that your goal is to be home and make room for your husband to provide and for you to produce.

God decorates every space in the world with beauty, from atoms to mountains, from wildflowers to sunsets. Every minute and major element of creation is festooned with beauty. How can we look at what our Father did and then look at our homes and throw up our hands or worse deride those who love decorating? The Father loves decorating, and so should we.

Healing begins in the home and rests in the hands of the homemaker.

Being here, being present, engaged in our homes and our churches is life-giving, life-keeping, hopeful, rebellious, screaming against the night, living by faith not by sight. Being home is true courage.

If we ever need something to elevate what we do, to show us how important what we do is, we should think of ourselves as the gatekeepers.

Routine is loyalty and faithfulness made sight, given firm, given tangible expression, and action.

What I’m driving at is to remind you that your ‘paid’ job is one where you can be replaced, while your home, your ‘unpaid’ job, is the one where you are indispensable. It should always have priority. And for you ladies who are solely homemakers, you are not missing out, you are doing the indispensable work!

We, homemakers, are the hearts of our home, and we do spend a fair amount of our time at the kitchen sink and in the kitchen. Make it a place you like to be

Caring for the elderly has long been the realm of women, just as caring for children is. We have the abilities needed to do this. For a generation, our elderly have been handed off, but I think we may see many needs here open up moving into the next generations.