Introduction: Kris (HickChick) of A Small Life

We all wear so many hats and I am no different:  Mother, wife, small business owner, and veterinarian.  I (we) were busy and tired, but isn’t that the norm?  There was never enough time for the things which I hold most dear.  Maybe because I am nearing 40 or the additional stress of becoming a business owner instead of just an employee, perhaps for both these reasons and more, our family life had begun to suffer.  DH and I were CTD (circling the drain), unable to find the fun in everyday life, unable to enjoy coming home to a nice house and two great girls.  My husband offered to quit his job, but that meant I HAD to continue working 40+, and weekends, and on call.  That was an eye-opener for me; I did NOT want to lose this time with the girls, that a big part of me really yearns to be home.  This summer I started a part-time work schedule, and I am just starting to unwind a little.  Our family is trying to slow down, trying to get off the fast track.  More time and less things; it is hard-but anything worth-while will be.

I am not an accomplished homemaker-in fact I feel like a fraud writing for you all.  My working ‘muscles’ are pretty buff, but everything else is very flabby from disuse.  I may get kicked off the blog for admitting this-but until recently I didn’t even clean my own house!  I hired a very wonderful lady to do floors, bathroom, etc for me every other week.  Whew!  I am relieved to make full disclosure on that one.  I am learning how to cook again-getting our family off processed and fast food.  I really don’t know how to sew (unless lacerations count!) but I would like to improve those skills as well.

My ‘chicks’ and I raise meat bunnies in our back yard. (Sorry Bunny Chick!)  This is our second year and the girls are extremely responsible, doing bunny chores twice a day.  We are also part-time caretakers of a flock of laying hens at my father’s farmette.  We spend frequent long weekends at our camper on his land, working in my (first) garden, moving the chicken tractor, collecting eggs and generally playing and relaxing.  That farm has become our refuge and we are dreaming of the day when we can move out of the suburbs.  My dad had to wait until he retired to buy his dream in the country; I do not plan on waiting that long.

I started blogging last fall as a way to connect with like-minded others and chronicle some of the ideas going through my head.  For me, putting thoughts into words, whether paper or cyberspace, crystallizes those nebulous floaters into something which can be turned this way and that; held up for closer examination.  When I was asked to write for Homemakers Who Work I was certainly flattered and excited about the opportunity.  I was also worried.  My blog was been something of a diary, anonymously public; a place where I could vent or celebrate or whine-hidden in plain sight.  Homemakers Who Work is not such an anonymous place, agreeing to write here is a call for me to mesh my homesteading/blogging persona with the public/working facet of my life.  I am thankful for the push I needed to bring these two disparate parts together, to mend them together into fully functioning whole.  I have felt divided for too long.   I look forward to sharing and learning from everyone here.

Kris

The Surprise Homemaker

Hello, I’m Bunny of Carrot Wishes and Cilantro Dreams. Like several of the other fabulous ladies who post at this blog, I was surprised (but very pleased) to be asked to contribute to the Homemakers Who Work. When I shared my good news with several friends, I got a reaction that didn’t surprise me at all. The “What? You?” was followed by incredulous laughter. Thanks so much, friends of mine. But after I explained the concept, that this was a blog for women and men who felt the home was a priority and also worked, they agreed that it fit me rather well.

The process of becoming a homemaker who works has been a gradual one for me. Yes, I’ve been living in my teeny tiny condo (I can sit on my couch and see every room!) for four and a half years, or so. However, I wouldn’t have termed myself a homemaker – at least not before this past year. That’s when I actually began to enjoy the homemaking aspect of having my own place. I started to cook for myself (a process that began when I got lots of fun cooking gear) and found that hey, I’m not awful at this. That led to renewed interest in living green (greener, really, as that too is a process), then sewing, knitting, and now growing my own veggies in containers on my tiny porch. If I have enough to try to can, that’ll be another step in the gradual evolution of my homemaking abilities. I’ve already been gifted with a food dehydrator that I love for drying some of the bounty I’ll harvest from my little porch with its multitude of containers. (As a side note – who knew that dried apples were that tasty? I made them for my rabbits as treats and had to make more once I ate them all!) I’ve purchased a book (Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day) that has opened an entirely new (to me, anyway) world of bread making. I enjoy that so much that I honestly don’t think I’ll ever buy bread at the supermarket again. This is doubly true of hamburger and hot dog rolls (Easy Perfect Hamburger and Hot Dog Rolls – this is the best recipe! Light, fluffy, a tiny bit sweet, and so soft – not at all dry like the buns that come from the grocery store).

But even with all this, until I was asked to join this blog, I didn’t really consider myself a homemaker. Oh yes, I realize that I adore the summers I have off because I have more time to keep the house clean, cook, and sew, but does that make me a homemaker? I was surprised to realize that yes! I am a homemaker, even if I’m only making a home for myself and my rabbits. The process was so gradual that it sneaked up on me.

Of course, there have been a few spectacular failures in my homemaking abilities. We won’t get into (at least not right now) my apparent mental block on successfully making homemade not-from-a-box macaroni and cheese. I also order out far too much for both my wallet and my waistline (when the Chinese delivery guy recognizes you and knows your order by heart, there’s a problem!) There is also the small issue of the fact that I still have to cajole myself into cleaning when I’d much rather be reading or playing online.

But all this is okay. I can be an utter failure at things (mac ‘n cheese, apparently) and still be a homemaker. Homemaking, to me, is not being perfect at everything I set out to do, but rather, it’s the pride I get from finishing that knitted dishcloth (so much nicer than sponges and cheaper, too!) or from having someone think my bread looks, smells, and tastes really good. It’s the pleasure I get from having a neat(ish) house, from having a closet I can find things in (usually), and from having a couple days of leftovers from a really good meal.

So, what is homemaking to you?

Homemaker or Homewrecker?

Hello all! I wanted to take a moment to give a brief introduction. My name is Heather aka nfmgirl in Blogworld. I’ve spent much of my life in south Florida, down near the everglades, although I did move away for about ten years to be a military wife and live in places like Charleston, SC and Washington State.

I was divorced in 2000, and have been a single woman ever since. I have no children, but I have five cats, a lovebird and a turtle. I recently bought my first house back in October 2008. This is my oldest cat Fancy.

Miss Fatty

It seems funny to find myself contributing to a homemaker’s blog (and my mother would be the first ask, “What?! You’re writing for WHAT kind of blog? You?!”) I generally tend to think of myself as more of a “homewrecker” than a “homemaker”! But I keep trying! I used to say in my younger years that I aspired to be a cross between Martha Stewart and Jane Goodall. I never even got close to either one. Just think of me as the antithesis of June Cleaver.

I’m almost embarrassed to admit that part of me still aspires to be that weird Martha Stewart-Jane Goodall hybrid child from the underworld. I want the perfectly organized closets, neatly folded underwear and socks, ironed sheets, not a speck of dust and floors a baby could eat off of, and to be equally comfortable whether throwing together a dinner party for twenty or heading out for a weekend of cooking over a fire in the woods.

Instead I am living in a horribly cluttered house, surrounded by boxes still seven months after moving in, my TV screen covered in a layer of dust and cat hair puffs float around on the tile floor. But I haven’t given up. I’m still trying. I still have hopes that I’ll figure it all out, and find that delicate balance that we all strive for. And I can cook a mean meal over a fire in the woods! Last time we went camping I made this DELICIOUS dessert of apples and walnuts in caramel sauce.

Apple-Caramel Dessert

Homemaking does not come naturally to me at all. I was always the kid who would hide everything under her bed instead of cleaning, and who took five times as long to sweep than anyone else, and would still need someone to sweep up behind me when I was done. And I haven’t changed all that much. It is a real struggle for me. I am easily overwhelmed by all there is to do. Dishes, laundry, sweeping, mowing the lawn, gardening, feeding the animals, cleaning cages, and the list goes on and on.

So why am I here? <hee hee> I’m not quite sure. I think of myself as your inspiration. Just think of me and my failings and feel oh so much better about your own home and shortcomings! We are all trying to figure out how to do it all. Some of us have to work, and some of us choose to work, but all of us have to maintain a home, with or without any other assistance. And we are all here to learn from one another. I hope to bring honesty and sincerity to my posts, laying it all on the table. One thing I can do is cook, and I’m getting into gardening, so I hope to share recipes and gardening tips that I learn. And I hope to learn and grow along with you.

I wasn’t going to include a recipe in this post, but I threw together a soup tonight that turned out delicious! So I thought that I would put it in here. There wasn’t really a recipe, but it went something like this:

Sausage and Potato Soup

Saute some sausage of your choice in a soup pot. I used smoked sausage, but you could also use Italian sausage. After a couple of minutes, add in a chopped onion.

After about 3-4 minutes, pour in some vegetable broth (I made my own from vegetable scraps I’ve been storing in my freezer) and chicken broth (I used 1 can).  Note: I probably used about 4 cups of vegetable broth to the 2 cups of chicken broth.

Toss in some tomatoes (I used a couple handfuls of cherry tomatoes my Mom grew) and about 1/2 bag of diced potatoes (I used frozen, ready-to-use potatoes).

Then a generous sprinkling of  my House Seasoning (well, okay. I got it from Paula Deen. It’s a mixture of salt, pepper and garlic powder that I keep on the back of the stove), and a little oregano, rosemary and basil.

UPDATE:  I forgot until just now when I took another bite of this soup and felt that heat that I also tossed in a pinch of red pepper flakes.

I brought it to a boil, and then lowered the temp and simmered it for about 10 mins. Then I added a handful of chopped cauliflower leaves (in place of kale, since I have some cauliflower plants in the garden that need to go). Simmered that another 10 minutes. And I was left with this:

Potato-Sausage Soup

Oh so good! I AMAZE me!

So now I leave you with this. I don’t know where this originated (I see that Mary Kay uses a list of 6 important things, so perhaps it came from someone in their outfit), but most recently I found it used by Libby of Neas Nuttiness (mother of 10 and grandmother of 14). So here are my words of wisdom to you. They are not my words, but they are wise:

Six Important Things
Each day start off with a list of the 6 most important things that you need to do. Start with the most important, and list it first. Then put the next most important thing as #2. Do this until you have listed 6 things. Work down your list as the day goes along. If you didn’t get everything done…that’s okay. Those things just get placed on tomorrow’s list.

Dishes will wait to get washed, as will windows, and floors. Weeds provide oxygen – so let them stay a little longer. Cobwebs are homes for spiders, and spiders eat other bugs. Laundry sitting in the hamper, keeps the hamper company. Do you get what I’m saying?

The idea that we must be superwomen is BUNK. BUNK, I say – and say loudly. We only need to be the best that we can be, in each situation that confronts us. Each day is different. Some days use up more of our energy (both physical and emotional), and other days, we can do less, and thus, recharge our batteries.

God Bless, and wishes to you for much love and sanity! Now go recharge those batteries, and prepare for another day!

Suzy Homemaker? Not me!

When I was approached about contributing to this site, I was flattered, but surprised. I hadn’t considered myself a homemaker! But when I sat down for a moment to consider the idea, I realized that while that may not be the term I use, my home is my priority. While I may live in very different circumstances from most of the other contributors here, that different perspective can also be valuable. That’s why I enjoy reading their various blogs: to learn about people  with unique lives completely unlike mine.

My name is Stacy and I live with my husband of almost three years (and our two cats) in a high-rise apartment in Minneapolis. Ironically, considering this site’s name, I became more focused on home during a period when I was not working; I needed to find “projects” to keep me occupied. Because I had the time available, I explored new baking techniques and recipes and got back into sewing and crafting. For someone who always assumed she would be career-driven, the satisfaction I got from these activities was surprising. And as a huge perfectionist (thanks, Mom), it definitely occupied my time!

Right after I got married, I worked as a retail manager for about a year and a half. It was not what I wanted to do, exhausting, and (other than financially) not very rewarding. In February of last year, I quit. Now I am freelancing as a stage manager for theater (a job many people don’t even know exist). It’s contract work, it doesn’t always pay well, but I am so much happier. My work schedule is erratic and strange, and I often have breaks between productions. During those breaks, however, I have discovered a renewed love of cooking and baking, learned to embroider and quilt, and have started composting and gardening on my small patio. What I enjoy about stage management is the challenge, and my home can fulfill that, too. Mastering a finicky bread recipe or harvesting the tomatoes I grew myself give a sense of accomplishment that I enjoy. And they taste better, too!

My husband usually thinks I’m crazy, but he is gradually getting on board. It used to be that he would rather have a blue box of mac ‘n’ cheese for dinner. Now he likes goat cheese. He has been helping me with our garden, and he even took it upon himself to look for composting worms! Making bread at home is welcome; making crackers at home is, he thinks, rather strange. He doesn’t mind the rhubarb and apple crisp.

As we go forward, I looking forward to helping develop this community and sharing with all of you as I succeed and fail in my adventures of home, and hope to learn a lot along the way. For the minutiae of my life (but mostly my kitchen), stop by Little Blue Hen and see what’s cookin’!

Someone thinks I have it together?!

When I told my husband that I had been asked to join this little project he initially said,  ’Wow, Honey, that’s great!’ Then he walked out of the room, giggling and muttering something about the blind leading the blind.  Ok, so maybe I’ve got a way to go on this balancing home and work thing.

My name is Judy.  I’ve been married to my wonderful guy for 23 years.  We have three energetic children who will be attending 3 different schools next fall (high school, junior high and elementary) and one very large dog.  In late April 2009 we purchased an acreage just out of town with a barn, pole building and a run-down house.  We are still discovering how much of a ‘fixer-upper’ we have gotten ourselves into. We are trying to get the house to the point where we can comfortably and safely live in it.  At the same time, we are trying to pack and move out there bits at a time and get our current home ready to put on the market.  I keep house, garden, do lots of cooking from scratch and preserve our excess produce.  I love to sew, quilt and have been vainly trying to find time to learn to knit. 

I also work full time as an Occupational Therapist at a major hospital.  I work 7:30 to 4:00 M-F and one Saturday a month.

Before you think I’m another Wonder Woman, able to do it all, let me tell you:  I’m not.  There have been mistakes, arguments about priorities and tears of frustration along the way.  It’s really hard to balance working full time outside the house and working ‘full time’ in the home.  I sometimes get resentful that I have so many demands placed on me, but then I look at my family and remember why I do all of this.  Because, as frustrating and chaotic as it can be, I really do love it.  I love being able to provide my family and friends with a place where they can feel comfortable and loved.

Things have been a bit more interesting since my husband was laid off his job with a publishing firm at the end of December, but he has been doing some freelance work from home and has had the time to work on our new house.  We have always had a very flexible approach to roles in the home.  When the children were small, I worked and he stayed at home with them.  We decided that he could work and it would almost cover the cost of child care or he could stay at home.  We haven’t regretted that decision even though it has meant that for most of our married life, I have been the primary breadwinner.  For us, homemaking is a shared experience, although I still pride myself on being ‘in charge’ of the house.

Things have been a bit wild lately but I’ve definitely learned a lot in my life that has helped me preserve my sanity through all of this.  I’m honored to have been asked to share what I have learned and I’m really excited to learn what others have to offer here. I could definitely use some pointers!

If you want to follow more of our ‘homesteading’ adventure, you can find me at My Freezer is Full.  Although I’m in the process of trying to get our freezer NOT so full so we have less to move. It’s amazing how much food is in one of those things….

Juggling Plates

I’m Paulette, and I live on a farm.  OK, not really a farm, but almost 6 acres of nothing but trees with a giant wooden house plopped in the middle (it’s not really ‘giant’, just really, really tall).  We’ll call it a farm, because I always wanted to live on a farm.

My favorite childhood memories are spending the weekend on my father’s parents’ cotton farm…hanging out in my grandmother’s kitchen with a little dish towel apron on, helping make scratch biscuits or baking chocolate pies.  Or visiting my mother’s parents and feeding the chickens, then watching with fascination on occasion as my grandmother would wring a hen’s neck and cook her for dinner (that’s lunch in the South ya’ll).  I always knew I wanted to grow up and live on a farm, never a doubt.  My husband, who grew up in the country, shared this dream.

So, we decided to embark on a huge adventure last year and build a farmhouse.  It was truly a labor of love.  We did a lot of the work ourselves; making this little house into the home we’d both been dreaming of for years.  Two months ago we finished the house and finally moved to the country with our two dogs Ozzie and Guga.  We’re beginning to settle in, looking so forward to building a beautiful, simple, self-sufficient life with our own hands (and a few farm implements).  This, while counting down the years to retirement from very challenging careers that we also love.   

I love to cook fresh, wholesome, natural food, and bake from scratch.  I want to have a huge vegetable garden, and preserve our food.  I want to grow and dry my herbs.  I want to learn to knit and quilt. I want for us to be self-sufficient in these uncertain times, which takes a lot of planning and hard work. I want for us to build a home that will always be a sanctuary for us in this crazy world.

Although I don’t like leaving the ‘giant wooden house’ on Monday mornings and driving into our little city to work, I do love my job.  I’m a technical lead for a team of software programmers supporting NASA.  It’s very exciting work, very exciting times.   How does it all work together?  How will I juggle all the plates?  How will I balance taking care of my family, gardening, canning, knitting, making soap, raising a few farm animals, maybe…eventually, and lead a team to develop software to support man going back to the moon?  Ah…therein lies the challenge all homemakers who have other jobs face – how to find balance and do all the things you want to, or have to, do.      

I still have a lot to learn about how to be successful in this.  Although I have found a few things along the way that make the balancing act a little easier, I many times find myself getting off track and struggling to make it work.  I’m really excited about this new blog adventure; sharing my successes and learning how other homemakers who work handle these challenges.   I hope you will stop by often and share your stories.

A Work in Progress

Hi, I’m Teresa, also known in the blogosphere as Safirasilv. I’m a writer and a homemaker in training– a constant work in progress.

If someone had told me fifteen years ago I’d identify as a homemaker, I’d have had a good laugh. When I moved in with the Cat-Herder (otherwise known as my husband), my ex warned that I didn’t do dishes. I took this as a compliment. Like many women who came of age in the early 80s, I saw the home as a trap and a career as my salvation. And never mind that the career in question wasn’t writing, which was the only vocation I’d dreamed of.  I needed to be out in the world! Right? Except I was literally making myself ill because I was so miserable.

Even four or five years ago, after I’d admitted that the happiest times of my life had been ones when I was “unemployed” and busy writing and taking care of the home and garden, I wasn’t ready to claim my inner domestic goddess. When I voluntarily left the outside workforce to focus on writing and found myself becoming more and more domestic, I didn’t admit my domesticity right away. Sure, since I was home, and since the Cat-Herder was generous enough to support my crazy fiction-writing adventure, I’d make sure home was a comfortable place. Our income had taken a cut and we both love good food, so I’d better start making yummy, frugal dinners. And baking? Baking’s fun.

But a homemaker? No way!

I don’t think I admitted my domestic goddess status until circumstances forced me to take a part-time job again and I realized how much I missed not just the writing time, but the domestic aspects of working from home.

Now I wear the title proudly. I’m a homemaking fiction writer, or a fiction-writing homemaker. OK, I guess at the moment I’m a writer-homemaker-payroll clerk (not that I really identify as a payroll clerk, but it takes up 30 hours a week of my precious time, so I need to acknowledge it’s part of my life.)

And that makes me really busy. I’m editing a novel and putting in a huge garden while we’re doing a major software conversion at work. I’ll be doing promo for said novel’s release (more on that at my main blog if you’re interested; it’s a naughty romance!) about the time the summer’s beans and tomatoes want to be processed, which is the same time our private-school clients do their seasonal hiring. And somewhere in there I need to write the next book in the series. And sew and knit. And occasionally relax with the Cat-Herder and the cats and my friends. And I won’t always keep up with housework, or write as much as I’d like, and the garden will be weedy, and some days I’ll have so many balls in the air that I’ll drop them all and want to cry from frustration.
But it’s my life and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Collisions of dreams and reality

My name is Stephanie, I’m 31 years old and I have a dream….. I want to be a homemaker and homesteader.   If you would have asked me that about 6 or 7 years ago I would have laughed my butt off.  I was adamantly against it.  I had actually fought against moving out to the country where I was absolutely positive I would wither away and die if I lived away from ”civilization”.  At that time I was married to a guy who came from the country, in fact his grandfather had a dairy and his father raised beef cattle.  The women in the family had gardens, kept the house, made stuff from scratch,  and did canning still from time to time.  But that wasn’t the life for me.  I wanted to be a city girl, career girl, etc . Housewives and homemakers weren’t real jobs to me.  I was a major consumer.  I was happy with things like frozen dinners, canned ravioli, hamburger helper and take out…lots of take out.  So was he.  We were caught up with the game of “We need more stuff, better stuff, etc” We worked tons of overtime to have money to do more stuff, get more stuff.  The only thing that slightly resembled homemaking and homesteading was  a small garden which was mainly a strawberry patch (no need to weed that), pretty landscaping flowers and a green lawn that were sprayed constantly with chemicals…….

Flash forward to 2007.   I started making my dream come true. My life had changed quite a bit inbetween. I had divorced and eventually found a life with someone else, I had moved south to Carbondale, IL.  I had re-evaluated my life and got back to my basic self.  Growing up I loved nature, I liked growing things, I liked baking  and I even occasionally made crafts so why had I quit doing those things? I had figured that somewhere along the way I had ceased to place any value on those things. I decided that was going to change.   I started with a garden where we were living at the time. I started learning how to cook from scratch from the man who is now my husband, who is a phenomenal cook.  I started taking pride in what I did.  I had always been one for the environment but was ignorant about eco friendly lifestyles so I read a lot of articles and books and started implementing different practices into my life. I caught the “green” and “frugal” bugs and lit my world on fire.

In May of 2008 we bought a house and got married the following June. Now we live in a little town village called De Soto which is a few miles north of Carbondalefor those that know the area. There is no Walmart here, no fastfood and two small gas stations one that seems to be on the verge of closing.  I live here with my husband, a roommate/renter, three cats, one dog with frequent visits from my step kids. We are what people call “urban homesteaders”.   I live in the middle of town and our lot is about a third of an acre. I have a huge garden and use it to supplement as much of our food supply as I can.  I preserve what I can, learning how to dehydrate, freeze and can in the process.  I’m learning to crochet and taking up sewing again.  I take time to enjoy people, not things.  I try to make our home a wonderful place to come to. 

Before you think I’m superwoman or a piece of pure fiction let me just say I am not perfect. I am horrible on things like time management.  I get lazy and I get frustrated.  My house gets messy and I still love take out.  But I want to do better and that’s what it’s all about…well that and the hokey pokey.

 I still work outside the home and unless I win the lottery I think I always will. I am a product information specialist for a vitamin company and I work a minimum of 40 hours a week.  Actually right now I’m the only one working outside the home, my husband was laid off from his job in December.  It has been stressful and at times awkward. I have been toying around with the idea of setting up a stand this summer at the local farmers market to sell excess produce and herbs that I grow along with small homemade crafts that I like to make like bath salts, salt scrubs and candles.  I believe my role as a homemaker is even more crucial now than it has ever been. My skills are what help us make the best out of our current situation.  I feel that if your home base is well covered you can handle anything else your life throws at you.

Domesticated

I remember as a child being taught (mostly through TV) that being a homemaker was not a glamorous profession and definitely not something to strive for.  Other kids would make fun of those kids who chose to take home economics (I didn’t, but I didn’t have the guts to take it even though I thought it sounded interesting) and teachers would tell the girls to strive for more than ‘just being a mom’.  So, I always worked toward being something else…

For a while it was a Marine Biologist, then it was a Nurse, but nothing really satisfied me.  When my first daughter was born, I cried my heart out when I had to go back to work.  I just wanted to be with her at home and take care of my new family.  Luckily, after a few months of working, that’s just what I decided to do.  I loved being with her, but I have to tell you, I was bored out of my mind!!  I knew I had to add something to my life to stimulate my brain.  If being a home maker was just about keeping the house clean, making meals, and wiping dirty bums then I was going to die an early death    So, back to work I went, but this time as a professional Nurse Herbalist.  (I only work very part time and an blessed to have the option to do this.  When I feel the need to write or teach or see clients, I can.)  This filled the need in me to bring in a little money and help others with the knowledge that I have of herbs and health.  But the homemaking thing was still really boring me.   Quickly, I realized that I needed to get creative with it!  I wouldn’t just clean the house, I’d make a game of it, or do it with my own home made cleansers…. I wouldn’t just make meals, I’d make weird meals, or have breakfast for dinner….  I’d have to get organized, and I had to make it fun.

Now, I love being a homemaker!  I’m proud of what I do and I really enjoy it!  It can be an insanely hard and thankless job.  But, creating a cozy, well loved, happy home for my family is what is most important to me.

So… My name is Maria.  I live in the mountains of NC on 25 acres in a crazy awesome house my family built.  I’m a mother of two (almost 6 year old girl and a 3 month old boy), 3 cats, one dog, 14 chickens (and eggs), beekeeper, gardener, lover of nature, knitter, author, teacher, clinician, and whatever else I want to be!  I hope that I can share some home making creativity and organization tips with you.

Me? A homemaker?

Before I was approached about this blog project, I never would have called myself a ‘homemaker’.

I mean, I do spend all my free time doing homemaker-y things- cooking new and interesting dishes, tending the garden and the yard, playing with my dog, adventuring with my husband, hanging laundry in the sun, knitting, reading, writing, taking pictures, canning produce in season, sweeping, washing dishes, planning for our family- but I spend 40 hours a week outside the home, working at a desk, in front of a computer. The ‘homemakers’ I know (well, pretty much every female I know, in fact) are home all day, doing the above listed things full-time. Does that make me just a part-time homemaker? Depends how you look at it. The difference is the amount of time we have to be homemakers- for my friends, they have all day, from when they wake up until when they go to bed. For me, I have the time outside of the hours of 7-4 on weekdays, and weekends. So, does that make me a software engineer who cooks and gardens as a hobby, or a homemaker who happens to work?

My first love and first priority is my husband, my family, and my home. I’ve been married three years (well, three years minus two days), and love the adventure and teamwork that marriage brings. I’ve also been working three years (three years minus 18 days, to be exact) at my current job, and, while I love what I do and where I work, it takes second place in my life to the “real” work of relationships and home. I’m only 25, so I have my whole life ahead of me to figure out what the balance between these two ‘workplaces’ should look like. What I know now: I love the beauty and peace that come with a welcoming home and happy family. Nothing beats that. Nothing.

A note on the picture above: I love sunflowers. I have a food blog called Sunflowers in my Kitchen, because, seriously, everything in my kitchen has sunflowers on it. My primary blog is Keeping Feet and I can be found on Twitter at @keepingfeet - come over & say Hi! – Joanna