Ladies,
We go to college or university for upward of six years sometimes, earning degrees and learning skills for the workforce. But how many of us ever spent this amount of concentration and time on the topics of the home? If you ever felt like you are just not good at domestic things, take heart, that anyone who keeps a clean, organized, beautiful home and cooks delicious meals, bakes bread, and clothes her family well, has spent a lifetime studying the skill and art of homemaking. This work at home takes intention and time to learn just like anything else. But we are hardly afforded the time and attention spent on homemaking that it actually requires do it it well. Give yourself this time and attention so that you can become a homemaker, and not just a homemaker, but one that homemakes with excellence, which includes your own joy of homemaking.
Yes we are Meant to Enjoy Homemaking
Christian women were given a very unique privilege of “working at home”.
Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.
Titus 2:3-5
But how do you learn this job of “working at home”? Here are 5 ways to become an excellent homemaker by studying for this job! This is the college curriculum you never had.
Homemaker Examples
There is most likely at least one homemaker in your real life who you have known enough to have seen their good homemaking results. Maybe you only went to their house one time. Maybe you only knew them briefly. Maybe it was a friend’s mother, an Aunt, a Grandmother, a neighbor, a woman at church. Can you think of one woman who was exceptional with homemaking who you knew in real life? If not, look to someone in media, maybe it is a blogger, or Martha Stewart, or a famous person who has a strong domestic inclination. Find someone to recognize as an example of excellence. Then think on what it was that she did that made a strong impression on you. Write it down. Chew on what it is that struck you and that you admire. Was it the way she served tea when you visited? Was it how she kept her house clean? Was it how she decorated? Was it how she made you feel as a guest? I have experienced so many women in my life who were excellent homemakers in one way or another and I have basically logged the way they did things in my mind as a library on what to do. Examples of homemaking excellence is so important to becoming a homemaker because you need to have seen and experienced the difference in excellent homemaking to know how to do it. If you have no real-life experience, you have been given the example of the wife in the book of Proverbs, chapter 31 in the Holy Bible. She is the ultimate homemaker example for every single one of us to look to, to emulate, and to use as a guide for homemaking with excellence.
If it were not for the homemakers in my own life, including the Proverbs 31 wife, I would have no reference for this work and no understanding of the difference it makes in people’s lives. These women have literally been the building blocks of why I did things, how I did them, and the way I valued doing it because I have personally felt the difference of their caring. Study the homemakers in your life including Proverbs chapter 31. Analyze them like you would a great discovery. Write down what they did, write down how they did it, write down how it made the difference in your life or other people’s lives. Be a student of the masters in your field.
Homemaker Textbooks
Remember how I said homemaking is meant to be enjoyed? This is just the beginning of the fun. Homemaking “textbooks” are anything but dry bullet point material. Although we need that kind of information too, realize the importance of teaching yourself the skill of “making a home” and that this includes the heart of the homemaker, you! Your “heart” means more than just giving the necessary means of survival for the family, but giving a world, an environment, a haven. Your textbooks for this are the home decorating magazines, the garden magazines, the cooking magazines, and all of the beautiful books written on these things as well! There are many people throughout the decades who have written beautiful books that tell more than just how to do something, but with what beauty we can give interwoven in the necessities for our family and the home that nurtures our senses as well.
Homemaker Making
Something that is true for every single homemaker is that she has her own homemaking fingerprints! Some wives are cooks, some are decorators, some love to clean and organize, some are seamstresses, but beyond our necessary duties, make something. Make something at home that you love to make. Plant, build, paint, cook, bake, sew, write. Make something you love because when you learn to become a maker, you impart that essence of joy in your areas of interest to your home. Your home is shaped by the maker who makes it. So your home might have an extensive home library because you are a reader. Your home can become full of music if you play an instrument. Your home might have a home studio to make ceramics, paint, make soap, or a sewing room. You might become a master at bread baking, or your yard becomes a garden retreat full of your gardening pursuits. Shape your home with what you love to do and bless your family with your strengths. Your children will enjoy seeing you thrive, and they will learn about what you make. They will enjoy wearing the clothes you sew, the food you make, the picture you painted, the garden they get to play in. They will learn to become doers and makers too. To make a home, fill it with beautiful pursuits. So, you must become a woman who is adventurous and inquisitive and see how many things we can do at home and for the home.
She seeks wool and flax,
Proverbs 31:13-14
and works with willing hands.
She is like the ships of the merchant;
she brings her food from afar.
Homemaking Shopping
Hate to shop or love to shop, homemakers have to shop. The Proverbs 31 wife sought out her wool and flax and she was said to be like the ships of the merchant bringing her food home. We are in constant assessment of what we need to buy. From groceries, to appliances, to clothing. Our job is to spend a significant amount of time researching items, reading reviews, and comparing prices and quality and then physically getting the items. We must become “procurement specialists” as many jobs in the workforce would call it. This means we become experts on buying things for our home. This means buying the right things, buying the right amount, and knowing how to budget for it. You must become acquainted with your finances and acquainted with how stores hold sales, offer coupons, etc. You must become an expert on when to buy the cheaper option and when to spend more money for a better product. How do you do this? You can start by reading financial books, researching how to grocery shop, how to cook cheap meals, etc. Every time you need a product, you learn by deep diving into that product and reading reviews and comparing products. I recently made the switch from cheap body wash to French milled bar soap. I did a deep dive on the topic of soap, how it is made, and what difference it makes in our health and our hygiene. You can take any topic in the home and turn it into a research project to know what the best thing is to buy.
Homemaker Wardrobe
As my final point to women looking to become homemakers, you must understand the importance of how you dress. No woman shows up to a job dressed like a slob or in pajamas. The way we dress is the beginning of our day, the tone we set for our interactions and respecting the work of the home. Start your homemaking day clean, with styled hair, a bit of makeup, maybe a piece of jewelry, and an outfit that looks semi-professional. Jeans and a blouse, slacks and a top, skirt with a top, or a dress. This is actually a skill to learn like making your bed each day, or doing your laundry regularly, or washing the dishes after dinner. This takes practice and the fortitude to get ready for the day every single day will get easier and more enjoyable as you work at it. Yes, our wardrobes and our appearance take work. Buy yourself enough good clothes to actually dress well for the day. Or declutter your closet so that the bad clothes are not even an option.
Work on your wardrobe, your hair, your hygiene. Buy a nice perfume. Buy nice soap. Brush your teeth. Make your closet and your bathroom essentials pretty and well-arranged so that it is more enjoyable to get ready for the day. Make the very process of getting ready for the day a wonderful experience. Make your bathroom countertop decorative and pretty. Put out your nicest things. Normalize beautiful items and that they are meant for everyday use and enjoyment. The joy of homemaking is in these “little” things. The things that most people are rushing by, or the things they reserve only for the outside workforce. You, your family, and your home can live in a state of loveliness every day by just making lovely choices.
WHATEVERLOVELY.COM
CHRISTIAN LIVING – FASHION – HOME
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