Instead of feeling like I’m also trapped in a cage, it’s given me a reason for my slow living. I need to go in and out today so that I can keep a close eye on the hens' location. I need to take this break so that they can run around a bit. I need to make sure I’m not gone all the time because these creatures depend on me. What I thought might be a hindrance has proven to be a liberty.

Decorating is such a wonder! Ponder on how delightful the customizable-ness of homemaking is! The diversity of tastes! You are not wrong in your excitement to decorate your new home. Go for it, dear ladies! Set up that nest, cozy that space, and create beauty. This is who we are and what we do.

This is our kingdom, ladies. We may share the cooking with our hubbies or even our children, but we should know and grasp the power of a treasured kitchen. From her we make tea to soothe anxiety, pour wine to calm and help conversations flow, and coffee to brighten. Here we clean away dirt and stains and grubbiness. Here we make memories and link people together. All this and more overflows from our kitchens. The kitchen is our biggest and brightest tool as domestic artists. It is our biggest help as the helpers. It is our most faithful co-laborer in our service to others.

There is a feminine chain of creating beauty no matter where we are or what our circumstances are. From prairies to communist countries, in poverty and sickness, all women have figured out how to get flowers, or ribbons, something beautiful. This is part of connecting maid, matron, and crone, our past mothers to our future mothers. We women create beauty.

Procrastination is when we put off good but hard or annoying or anxiety-laced things for easier things, often bringing harm to us and our homes. It is a lack of self-control, diligence, and courage.

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.