The whole reason I started this blog, this group, read homemaking books all the time, and look for tenders in stories, is to train myself to value homemaking.

Lofty goals and expectations are good for us. It’s important to be diligent and to stretch ourselves. But it’s also important to correctly judge the type of work we’re called to. Our domestic arts are very cyclical and continuous. They don’t stop because we’re in the business of tending souls through ordinary things like cooking, cleaning, and laundry.

The other amazing thing about these three responsibilities is that they’re shallow enough for a toddler to wade at the edge of and deep enough to inspire artists, architects, engineers, scientists, and billion-dollar companies. What? You don’t see that? What are fashion, home design, restaurants, and the research of chemicals but the outward expressions of cooking, cleaning, and laundry?

Systems are one of the greatest tools in our tool chest of tending. They’re how we keep this thing called home grinding along. They’re how we keep things from getting missed or lost or forgotten. Everyone, even the more fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants homemakers have systems. The goal is to see them, test their legitimacy, tweak slowly, and be better keepers and tenders because of labor. Let’s roll up our sleeves, tie back our hair, and get to work!