When I was about 10 years old, I used to tell people I wanted to take over Martha Stewart’s empire someday. What kind of kid says that? I was enamored by all things domestic. I also used to tell people I wanted to be an inventor. Not sure how those go together? Me neither!
But 8 years later, I headed off to college to study Engineering, and then Ministry as well. I married a fellow engineer and moved across the country to be with him, and began to develop my career as an engineer and then a technical writer.
In mid-2014 I left a very satisfying, rewarding job in the 8-5 corporate world to take on a new role. Now, nobody ever said being a stay-at-home mom and housewife was easy, but I figured that I had done okay so far in life so I’d probably get the hang of my new job pretty quickly. Most of homemaking is intuitive, anyway, right? Plus I had the whole Martha Stewart thing going for me, so there’s that…
Now I am going to open up and tell you one big secret.
I dropped the ball.
This hard-working former professional now found herself falling short. Wayyyy short. I was in my PJs until noon many days, and some days I didn’t go any further than the mailbox. My dear husband would call to say he was coming home from work, and only then would I begin to wonder what I could pull together for dinner. No planning, whatsoever. I would frequently forget to pay bills, and there were stacks of papers and piles of clutter everywhere.
I dropped the ball.
This is the part in the story where I picked it up again. You see, I am working through this as we speak and I don’t have it all together yet. But I have learned a few things, through trial and error (mostly error), and blood, sweat, and tears.
I am a capable person, and so are you. Yet somehow, that great work ethic, organization, and positive go-getter attitude didn’t follow me home from the office. In my first year of homemaking I cast off restraint and just “went with the flow”, expecting that I would naturally begin to fill my new roles. The result was that my life, my home, my time, and my relationships looked nothing like I had expected them to. Feeling like I’d dug myself into a pit, I started devouring resources that could help me get back onto even ground. As I did so, I had a sort of epiphany.
This is important. Serving my family’s needs and creating a home environment that supports and encourages them to be their best- this is important business.
I left a job with a paycheck so that I could devote myself to taking care of my family and our home. This is my new employment. This is what I do, and it is important to our family. If it wasn’t, why would I give up a career to do it?
What would my days at look like if I managed my home with the same sense of responsibility, duty, organization, leadership, and pride I displayed in my professional career?
This blog is a place to share ideas and strategies for managing our homes, with the goal of equipping us to love and serve our families better. It’s a paradigm shift from homemaking as something that we casually step into, to active, intentional, dare I say “professional” home management. I will hereafter refer to this career as “Home Management”, because I want each of us to feel the weight of what we do. We are professionals working long hours (sometimes both in AND outside the home!) to meet tight deadlines, juggle many tasks, serve demanding clients, and support a valuable, rewarding mission on the home front. What we do will have an eternal impact on the lives we touch. And so, as I walk out my most important job yet, won’t you join me?
10Who can find a virtuous and capable wife?
She is more precious than rubies.(Proverbs 31:10, New Living Translation).