This is a guest post by my dear friend Tyler Blanski about what one of my favorite literary heroes can teach us. - Haley The world needs more Gilberts. The fictional (and admirable!) character Gilbert Blythe of the L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables series seems to capture so many virtues that can help men succeed in their vocation to fatherhood today: he gives a standing ovation for … [Read more...]
My New Year’s Goal: Peace in Our Home
2018, you were quite a year. (Don't believe me? Read the recap--book, baby, and so much more crammed into 12 months). I don't have big plans for 2019, but I'm thrilled it's beginning. I have book ideas simmering but no proposals or contracts in the works for a new book deal. We're not moving, changing jobs (God willing), or doing anything more crazy than homeschooling 4 kids on our little urban … [Read more...]
Is This Why Some Women Regret Motherhood?
I read an interesting but heartbreaking article about the growing number of women speaking out about regretting that they ever had children. The article claimed that feelings of regret surged after the Pill made motherhood a choice rather than just an inevitable season of married life and also highlighted the stories of several women who have experienced regret over having become mothers. It’s … [Read more...]
How We Share the “Mental Load” of Homemaking
I was recently intrigued by this visual depiction of women's workload and this related article that describes the "mental load" that is carried by most women who are homemakers. While I'm not crazy about the underlying tones in these pieces of that infer mothering and maintaining the home are insignificant drudgery or that all men are clueless when it comes to homemaking, I think there are … [Read more...]
13 Reasons Why This Is Awesome
*Oops! Looks like you missed the 2015 Ultimate Homemaking Bundle! To find out about future bundles click here. Well, this is it. Less than 24 hours to go. The Ultimate Homemaking Bundle Sale--a library of homemaking resources, ebooks, and ecourses--ends tonight at midnight (Monday, April 27th)! It’s been awesome hearing from readers about how much you … [Read more...]
The One Thing That Helped This Messy Mom Keep a Clean House
I’ve always felt over my head with homemaking. Keeping things clean AND tidy has been unattainable and once things get messy, it feels like it takes two straight days of cleaning to get everything in order. Or at least...it did. Before I did the stupid easy thing everyone said would fix it: GET RID OF THE STUFF. A few months ago I had an epiphany after clearing out the big kids room of most of … [Read more...]
When You Feel Like You’re Drowning in Survival Mode (And a Library for a Song)
I got married at age 20 the summer before my junior year in college. I accepted a full-time job in publications at the university just before graduation and found out a couple of weeks later that I was pregnant with our first child. Two years later we tacked on a cross country move, a brief stint in grad school, two more babies after increasingly debilitating pregnancies (hyperemesis … [Read more...]
When Your House Is On the Market…And Full of Small Children
Our house has been on the market for about seven weeks. I get asked all the time about the stress of trying to keep it clean and ready to show while homeschooling small children in it each day. And you know what? It IS stressful. I'm typically a "that looks good enough" kind of gal. Not a homemaking perfectionist...at all. But I have to admit that keeping it clean hasn't been as bad as I … [Read more...]
Keep the crock: A ridiculously simple discovery about cooking with a pot
Guest post by Bonnie of A Knotted Life: I married a man who owned a crockpot. Because he already owned one we did not include a crockpot on our wedding registry. Two people noticed that glaring oversight and gifted us slow-cookers. On the first day of our marriage we were the proud owners of three crockpots. That’s a lotta crockpots. For the first six years of our marriage we used our … [Read more...]
