Homemaker Portrait | Emily Steiger

Today, I’m joined by Emily Steiger—New Hampshire native, writer, and busy homemaker who’s two years into marriage with Sam, raising a one-year-old, and expecting baby number two later this fall.

In This Episode:

• Prepare with Purpose, Building homemaker skills before you think you them
• Realities of Toddler Season
• Improving Time Management: Simplify your home, let go of "doing it all"
• Social Media boundaries
• Hospitality rhythms
• When your birth story & postpartum don't go to plan

SHOW NOTES

All episode notes, links and resources, including Emily's Signature Dish will be on the blog. Click the link below or go to theartofhomepodcast.com/blog and search "Emily Steiger".

https://www.theartofhomepodcast.com/post/how-to-start-homemaking-before-you-have-a-home-emily-steiger-s-homemaker-portrait

HOMEMAKER'S JOURNAL READER SUBMISSIONS--Win a Print Copy of the Next Issue! Submissions Due by Friday, August 14th.

Go-To Hosting Recipe: https://form.jotform.com/262145786608062

Favorite Christmas Courtesy Gift: https://form.jotform.com/262157707007152

CONNECT WITH EMILY

Substack (for new posts) | @musingsofahomemaker

Website | Musings of a Homemaker (for old posts)

Transcript

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Allison 0:01

Hello, homemakers, and welcome to the Art of Home podcast, where we are exploring how homemakers cultivate a place to belong. I'm your host, Alison Weeks. I'm a wife, a mom, a granny, and I've been practicing the Art of Home since 1992. Welcome everybody, whether you are brand new here or you've been around for a while, I'm so glad that you're going to join me for a new homemaker portrait today, and I'm honored that you're going to trust me with some of your valuable time. I'm going to keep it really short today, here at the beginning. I have a lot going on in my home, and I have some big news that I hope I can share with you next week. For now, just a couple of reminders. I'm still taking reader submissions through this Friday, August the 14th for your go-to hosting recipe and your favorite Christmas gift to give teachers, neighbors, service providers, people like that. The links in the show notes will take you directly to the forms for each, and you can easily fill them out on your phone or your computer or whatever device, and it just takes a few minutes. Also, to give you some incentive to submit some things, I will be giving away a print copy of the new issue to one of you who submit your ideas. You will be entered to win twice if you submit both things, both a recipe and a gift idea. So don't wait. Submit those ideas today. One more item before we introduce our guest, the giveaway winner for Christy Purifoy's book, A House to Call Home. Thank you to everyone who entered. Our winner is Megan Boschman. Congratulations, Megan. Check your email for information on claiming your book. Now on to today's guest. I am joined by Emily Steiker, New Hampshire native writer and busy homemaker who is two years into her marriage with Sam. And they're raising a one-year-old and expecting baby number two later on this fall. In this episode, Emily is going to share what it looked like to start building her homemaking skills before she even had a home of her own. She learned how to clean, how to budget, how to prepare with purpose. And as she puts it, I don't think you can be too prepared. And I think often homemakers are not prepared enough. We talk honestly about the realities of toddler season, time management, simplifying your home, and letting go of the pressure to do it all, especially when life is full. We also dive into navigating comparison, social media boundaries, hospitality rhythms, and what it looks like when your birth story doesn't work out the way you expected. We have a lot of ground to cover, so let's jump right in. I'm going to be back at the end with a few reminders in this episode's emoji. Whatever you are applying your hands to as you listen, I know you will enjoy Emily's story of home. Welcome to the Art of Home. I'm here with Emily Steiger. She's a newbie homemaker, and she's going to tell us all about her experience of keeping a home. But before we get into all that, Emily, why don't you say hi to everybody and tell us a little bit about who you are today?

SPEAKER_00 3:21

Hi, I'm Emily Steiger. I've been married for two years to my husband Sam. We have a one-year-old son, he just turned one, um, Edmund, and a baby due at the end of October. Uh, we live in New Hampshire and we both grown up here and love it. I'm a stay-at-home mama. If I get the free time, I love to write, read, embroider projects and gifts, and um definitely plan in playdates and get-togethers with some fellow mamas and kiddos, especially with having an active toddler who needs to be busy now. Yeah, exactly.

Allison 3:55

Yes. Okay, so what is your go-to reading genre?

SPEAKER_00 4:03

I I I loved historical fiction for years. Um, but definitely, I don't know, historical fiction, novel, and definitely a lot of um, I don't know what they would be called, but just a lot of um like devotional, but also like life application books. I sure homemaking books, um, stuff along those lines.

Allison 4:28

So yeah, yeah, not to put you on the spot or anything, but like can well can you think of anything lately that you've read that was kind of really standout for you? Uh I just finished You Bet Your Stretch Marks by Abby Halberstone.

SPEAKER_00 4:40

Oh, was it good? I haven't read it yet. It was good. I enjoyed it for sure. It was it was a good, it was a good read. Okay.

Allison 4:48

Is she talking kind of about like aging and body? What's kind of the premise on that one?

SPEAKER_00 4:53

She's talking about labor and children, not not labor specifically, but like you know, is it worth having children? You bet your stretch marks. Like they're gonna leave physical marks on you, and obviously more than just physical marks. Um so it's kind of talking about all these battle scars we kind of carry for our children.

Allison 5:14

Oh, that sounds fantastic. Okay, bet your stretch marks. All right, I'm definitely gonna put that on my my TBR. Um, okay, well, let's jump in and let's go back to the beginning of your story. When did you first become a homemaker and did you have any skills?

SPEAKER_00 5:31

Okay. Um, officially, when I got married in 2024. Okay. But I also feel like I kind of entered that area when I was graduating high school in 2019. I didn't have my own home, but I did begin taking over certain roles in my parents' homes. So meal planning, grocery shopping, different cleaning chores of the house, um, driving my siblings everywhere. And at the same time, I was also a nanny for a seven-kid family for three years, um, up till when I started dating my husband and doing all those mentioned roles as well. So um I that was around the time I actually started listening to this podcast as well. And I remember just feeling very strongly like for advocating for you can start homemaking and you can start working on all the domestic areas you want to work on without actually having your own home. Because I definitely had a lot of people think that was crazy. Yeah. They were like, you should be pursuing, you know, a degree or you should be pursuing whatever else, something that's within your reach. And I was, I just don't think you can be too prepared. And I think we're often not prepared enough. Oh, yeah. But back to the officially, back when I officially got my own home was in 2024.

SPEAKER_02 6:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:48

Um and the skills I was just talking to Sam about this, I guess budgeting skills, so like grocery shopping, like budget, um, and then just like different deep cleans in the house. My mom was very good at teaching us thorough cleaning, I think. So if I get to it, it's usually supposed to be a thorough job. Yeah, yeah.

Allison 7:10

So those are really good skills to have to start off with. That's fantastic. Um, and I love that just what you said, I want to say that one more time that you can never be too prepared for homemaking. So even, you know, if a lot of gals, if you have a single season, um, when you're a a young adult, use that time to like start gain, you know, start gaining those skills now. But even young women who are still living at home with their parents, just do what you can to start working on those skill sets. That's I completely agree. Um, so let's talk about what you're not so strong in. What area are you in in homemaking are you struggling with right now? And what are some solutions that you're implementing to help you?

SPEAKER_00 7:54

So there's one of them was supposed to be my homemaking fail later on. So we'll see. But I would say right now, time management for sure, just especially with the toddler, things switch up and down. And with pregnancy, the different trimesters, what you're going through, that also changes. But even pre-kids, um, I tend to underestimate time spent in different areas or take my mornings too slow, and then I'm rushing all afternoon. Um, and then I think I've gotten better at managing it now, especially with having a toddler and having to figure out better management. But like there were things that never came back into play after having admins. Like I never put cleaning the bathrooms back into the schedule, like because I made a schedule of different a chore per day, basically, um, instead of doing like all of them on a day or whatever.

Allison 8:51

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 8:52

But some things definitely got screwed up postpartum. Um, but time management has always kind of been my issue, I think, is always managing it super well.

Allison 9:04

Have you found any um have you found anything? I mean, making a schedule, like splitting, I like that that idea of splitting it up because for some people that never worked for me either. For like, let's just do it all and one day, you know, that's just so overwhelming. Um, some people do zones. I mean, have you found something like that that works for you?

SPEAKER_00 9:25

So I do have an easy, I did I did make it that we are pretty minimal in our living room, what we have. So even as messy as it gets, it takes five to ten minutes to clean it up because everything goes in boxes. Um, and same is true for Edmund's bedroom. Um, just pretty easy cleanup. But also, yeah, like like we were talking about different days for different chores. Um, and that only works for so long, I think, regarding laundry. Like there's not a crazy amount I'm doing right now, but it definitely could be. Yeah. But when we first got married, I was doing laundry every day. And there was definitely laundry to be done if you're doing it every day. But I felt like we used less laundry when we were doing it just once a week, at least for me and my husband. Obviously, I don't anticipate that will always be the case, but um, so I guess just um minimalizing different areas so it's less clutter, more this is where things go, but also um just different days for different things, you know. During Edmund's naps, I usually try to do the work downstairs and kitchen-wise and laundry on laundry days.

Allison 10:36

Okay. Yeah, those are great. Those are great solutions. Um who would you say has had a big influence on your homemaking?

SPEAKER_00 10:46

Well, definitely my mom. She was always a homemaker and homeschooled us um as well. And so was my grandma and my aunt as well, kind of just like the whole family right there, homemakers. Um, it was interesting to see everyone's different styles, different priorities as well. Um, obviously with different life situations and kids and all that. Um, I also think we grew up with a lot of just classics and books that kind of showed these roles as well, and like movies. Um, we watched a lot of classics growing up. Um and then I just remember reading different things in like homeschool magazines that we'd sometimes get. And I remember just reading a few by Teen Girls, kind of doing the same thing I did, where like they did a lot of helping in the home and a lot of homemaker prep. Um so, anyways, just all these different areas, but definitely my mom and grandma.

Allison 11:46

Yeah, I love that. Um, that's interesting that that you bring up being influenced by because the question actually is the full question is who or what has most influenced you. And um, everybody usually gives some relatives, but I love books and classic movies because what you read does help, especially as a child, what you read shapes a lot of who you become. Um and what you know, what we put in front of our eyes media-wise does have an impact on us. So that is such a good um, that is such a good point that you're making about how we can look for homemaker um examples in things like classic books. Um, classic movies, I'm kind of wondering, like, can you uh again, I'm putting you on the spot, like, but can you think of any in particular that stand out to you?

SPEAKER_00 12:36

Um I don't know if all of I don't know if a lot of them showed homemakers as much as they just showed more um feminine. Feminine Okay, femininity.

Allison 12:48

It's not hard to say.

SPEAKER_00 12:51

I mean, because we would watch the BBC Pride and Prejudice, but even little things they did, like they have like an herb house or something that somewhere where they're hanging up herbs, and there's a scene of it, and I just remember I always recreated that scene. My sister and I would get dressed up in our fancy dresses, we go pick weeds, probably, and play that, but I even carried it to my own home with like I just I have a lot of dried flowers hanging in my kitchen and stuff like that.

Allison 13:20

So it kind of I don't know, definitely love to marvel that. I love that so much. That is really it's something that visually made an impact on you and has carried over into how you are creating a home yourself, and that is just really lovely. That's really great. Um, okay, let's talk about expectations. So, what are some things that have surprised you about homemaking, good or bad?

SPEAKER_00 13:47

Sorry. Um, I think I don't know if this really surprised me, I guess, but I was surprised how, especially with being newly married, I always had so much work to do at home. Like people would be like, What do you do on your days off? And I'm like, I'm I'm just keeping house, but there's so much to do.

unknown 14:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:05

And I realize a lot of my other friends um who are newly married for them, they're living in a much smaller space. Um, we have the blessing of being able to live in a condo that um is is owned by family. So it's not, yeah. So we're able to have a little bit more space, like a lot, a good amount of space. And so with that, there definitely comes a lot more work. Um, but yeah, I was just surprised how how much there was to just do all the time. There's always plenty, but especially as kids come, you know, there's even more. There's even more. Obviously, but you also realize what's actually essential too, because I think also as a newly married person, if you're at home or whatever, you are just doing a like you things can stay very pristine. Um, and that definitely obviously has not been the case since having a baby. Um and then this one is just something that I still struggle with, is no matter how well I feel like I'm planning the menu, food still goes bad in the meal plan. Yeah, still stacking up bad leftovers to dump out at some point, but I'm pregnant, so I can't always, and yeah. Um and the meal plan always changes during the week, no matter what. I've tried to make weeklong plans or month-long plans, and no matter what I do, it still changes. So all that good stuff. Um, but I guess what surprised me in a good way is how much I I actually love folding my husband and son's clothes. I don't enjoy the thought of doing laundry, but once I start doing it, I don't know. I've just always felt like, wow, this is such an act of love I get to do for them, and like such an honor that I get to like have these people to do their clothes and fold for them. So yeah, something I was not expecting to feel concerning laundry. Yes.

Allison 16:02

So those are great, those are really great. I do, I okay, I've been doing this since 1992, and I do still mess up my plan on the groceries occasionally and something gets thrown out. Um, and I hate it, but it happens. It just that's just kind of something that you just have to deal with, and it does get better. Like I'm throwing out way less food than I used to. Um, but as far as switching up the meals, because I do plan weekly, but I always sort of hold the plan loosely. Like I try to just be like, okay, the plan is to have this on this night, but we can switch things around if we need to. So yeah, I don't know, you know, one of the things that helps me be flexible that way is having all of the meat out and thawed like on Monday for the week, so that if I need to make a quick change, I can because it's not like, oh, I can't switch over and have meatloaf tonight because it's the ground beef is frozen. And so, you know, how am I gonna get that? You know, yeah. So that's one tip that helps. Um, but yeah, it's just kind of it's a it's a skill, like it's a skill that you have to grow in.

SPEAKER_00 17:16

Um my Sam actually thought I made like more unique meals or more diverse when I just kind of went off of what we had in the house instead of like just making a plan. Yeah, so I have just been buying recently, just because I've not been using my brain much. I've been buying uh just the meats, the basics of what we have, and then kind of planning on the daily. And that's not usually how I function, but recently I've just kind of been like, what do we have? What do we want? Yeah. That's working for you right now, huh?

Allison 17:46

Does he does he prefer that because it brings greater variety, or he's just like, just feed me and I'm I'm good.

SPEAKER_00 17:52

He doesn't have an opinion on it. He just thought it was cool. I was pulling out like new or older recipes I grew up with that I forgot about just because I was like, Well, we have this in the pantry. Um, and so but I don't think he has a preference. He's just whatever's easier for me.

Allison 18:08

I think both of those skills are good to have, both the meal planning skills and the ability to kind of just go on the fly like that, because there's the there's always gonna be those times where the meal, the plan is not going to work, no matter how hard you try. And you need to be able to quickly do something like that, or you're gonna be getting takeout pizza. Um, that is a great skill to hone. And some people function like that all the time because that just works better for the for their brain and how they like to um function, like maybe combine it with shopping what's on sale that week, or you know, I don't know. Um, I I just think whatever whatever systems you can set in place that work best for your family for the season that you're in, that is what that's what you should be doing. So yeah, that's that's really good. Um okay, what is an unrealistic expectation that you have had to let go of for the well-being of your family and yourself?

SPEAKER_00 19:04

I feel like I use the phrase doing it all. Just like trying to do so many things. I've had so many friends be like, something's gotta go. You can't be doing every single thing on the checklist and homemaking and motherhood, and then eventually in the future, hopefully homeschooling, like there's just you can't be doing it all. Um, and this even just goes, especially with all the things on social media and influencers, along the lines of being able to plan perfectly healthy meals, having the homemade snacks, prioritize cleaning schedule, being on top of all the stuff while still being able to do hobbies.

unknown 19:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:48

Because I've just had to let go of my hobbies um with doing that. And so, anyways, just learning to do the essentials, learning to say no to myself over extras, unless I happen to have the ability to do it right then. Um, and then like especially extra hobbies, commitments, because I can definitely get a little into a project, and I don't like that to become my focus over family stuff, obviously.

Allison 20:17

So yeah. Are you a multi-interest kind of person? Like, do you like to do lots of different things?

SPEAKER_00 20:25

Yeah, I it's not too crazy, it's not gotten too out of hand. I I kind of just stay between a few. It's kind of like my reading style. I'll have three different books, three different times of types of genre, but it's like really for what mood I'm in.

Allison 20:43

Yes. Oh, I do that too. Yeah. Because sometimes I'm just not in the mood to read a classic. Um, especially if it's a really tough one that we're working through that month.

SPEAKER_00 20:52

I will just be like, nope, I'm gonna read something fluffy. I used to do the classics for audio. It was easier to listen.

Allison 21:01

I do that, I do most of them audio, yeah, for sure. Yeah, it it's something and yeah, it is just easier when some, especially if the language is very difficult to get into. Like I actually prefer Jane Austen audio because of the language. It's the way she the way they spoke, and it's you have to really get into the rhythm of how they speak. And I find that a narrator reading it to me really helps me to focus and concentrate on them. So yeah. Okay, parenting. Let's talk about parenting. You're you're you're newbie newbie with the parenting. You have a one-year-old and you're about to have another one. Um, but how did how did bringing your little boy into the home challenge and enrich your homemaking?

SPEAKER_00 21:45

Um, it made me very aware of my limits, limitations. And I mean, even just to today, just feeling like I'm often feeling like I'm trying to rush to get to that specific chore I need to do. Or go grab that shower. But instead of like really just kind of trying to enjoy the little moments with him for sure. Um, I think it's easy to, I don't know, have your list that you want to get to. Um, and I've been trying to learn how to kind of put that on pause, aside from obvious necessaries. You know, I'm not gonna just like all day ignore everything just so I can play with him. Obviously, he has to learn that I have to do things too. Um, yeah. But it also showed me like how homemaking has so much more meaning now when I'm doing it for others and obviously God first, but being able to take care of others, and um I think it also, like I said, taught me to do things in a lot more um minimal ways. And especially after going through postpartum, I don't think I ever really got back to my normal speed, and now I'm pregnant again, so there's that, but um but like you learn different hacks for that season too, so easier meals um or shorter ones to prep, and then just yeah, and what I can do with Edmund versus what definitely has to wait for when he's not with me, um, because he can be very clingy for sure.

Allison 23:21

Yeah, those are good. So he's very little.

SPEAKER_00 23:29

I know, I'm not quite at the stage of needing him help you. Well, that being said, this week, of course, he has started wanting to do a lot of my chores with me. Oh, which obviously is not gonna go very far, but um, like he was trying to help me make the bed the other day. And I his doing that was like pushing the blankets up off the bed versus, but he was trying.

Allison 23:55

Oh, that's sweet.

SPEAKER_00 23:56

But I mean, I'll do little things like giving him his own little bowl of water and sponge when I'm doing the dishes or stirring something with me. Um and what was there was something else he did this week. Oh, he was handing me the silverware from the dishwasher. Oh, so it's a good job for a one-year-old. Yeah, because when I was actually when I was nanning, they would have their kids start really early with certain chores. So actually, I I would have to walk through with the I think two and four-year-old, and they would entirely do the dishwasher themselves.

Allison 24:28

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_00 24:29

Which was exciting. Um because you kind of had to be on the constant, all right, what's the two-year-old doing? Is he gonna like, oh wait, what's the four-year-old doing? They're very confident in their amount of bowls they're carrying. Yeah. So they learned very young, but like they knew how to do it. And you just had to, it would take more time, it would take more effort, but I do think it is important. Like, so it might not be saving you time, but like, is it about saving time? You know, like it's supposed to be about teaching them life skills, and also just it's honestly they just think it's so fun most of the time.

Allison 25:05

And you want them to continue to think that it's right, right? Teenagers and just make it enjoyable. Um, that's so cool that you had that nanny experience, and you said it was seven kids, right?

SPEAKER_00 25:20

Yes, but um, I primarily watched the younger four. The older three were a little bit older. I did like drive them to their things, sure, but still four kids for a teenager to watch after.

Allison 25:30

That's that is something in my twenties, but yes.

SPEAKER_00 25:34

Oh, okay.

Allison 25:34

So you were 20s, just early, early 20s, right? So okay, so you got to watch these four younger kids. Are there things like from besides the teaching the chores, are there other anything else that you like really thought, oh, I want to do that? Like you thought that they were doing really well as parents and you want to you want to implement that.

SPEAKER_00 25:54

Yeah, I I mean she they were very, very organized. So I come from a family of six kids, and I'm the old second oldest. So I was pretty used to being with taking care of younger kids for sure. But um, and like when I was growing up, we were also kind of organized, but like it definitely changed with younger, the younger ones. But she would make lists of activity, like a checklist for the younger for the kids during the summer. So, you know, instead of going around being like, I don't know what to do, be like, well, go check your checklist. What have you done today? Some and a lot of it was like some profitable work, you know, like go tight, clean this part of the front yard, or go do 30 minutes of reading, or um I mean it would give some game options too, but it was just a lot of useful things. And then it was kind of like, all right, now you can, now that you've done all of that, go do it. Wasn't like they had to start and do that right away. It was just if they were looking for something, that was what they could get done. And I think that's a really cool idea for sure. Um I don't remember if I answered your whole question. Yeah, no, you did, totally. But I think yeah, I really that it was definitely a very profitable time for sure, and um, even just helped me with basic, like um just managing doing like work, like dishes and cooking for them as well. Um while managing the things with the kids and different learning different recipes too.

Allison 27:21

Yeah, such a great almost like an internship to prepare you for for your own journey of homemaking and motherhood. That's fantastic. Um, okay, so let's talk about priorities. What are some practical steps do you take uh you take to set and keep your priorities in order?

SPEAKER_00 27:41

Um, so I am definitely like a make a list person and try to keep it, but I'm not great at it. Um, so I will ask people to kind of be someone to keep me accountable. So I'll ask my husband or a close friend to keep me accountable on something, especially if I feel like I really want to work on it. Um, you know, devotions or working on just health or even just remembering to take prenatals or or vitamins. You know, I was so on and not so on top of it now, but um, you know, I had a friend with Edmund's pregnancy who had just had a baby herself, and she was like, we are gonna get together and we're gonna start walking. And we made it like basically a weekly thing, but it was like near the end of my second trimester or more so. And um, we haven't stopped getting together since, but like after giving birth, we didn't really do regular walks, and now we're both due in October, and so I'm like, oh boy, we gotta do this, like, gotta get the walking back in. Yeah, but like even just doing that, like having somebody help check in, um, and then I'll check in with my husband to kind of be like, oh, like how or I don't know, is there something that I need to be minimizing or like doing less of? Because it can be so easy to get caught up in stuff, and so he tends to have a little a little wisdom on what can be over too much. Um and uh I don't know, just like doing little steps of things. Like if I'm having trouble getting devotions in, I do little devotions with Edmund at breakfast time. Okay. Um, so just reading aloud whatever scripture I'm in, um, giving him his an old his own little Bible so he's not constantly grabbing mine. Like if we're sitting on the couch together, it feels very special.

SPEAKER_02 29:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:32

But yeah, I think, yeah, for sure. But what I would love to get better at is being able to get some better prayer time in because that's that's difficult, but it's stuff I used to really work on in high school and college. Um, and so I would actually set aside an hour every week in high school.

SPEAKER_02 29:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:49

And then, and then later on, when I was busier, I would literally I would just put prayers on my driving wheel so that because I did so much driving, I would just have prayer points on the driver's wheel. Yeah. Um, and it was so funny because I was in a coffee line once in a drive-thru, and the guy starts laughing, and he's like, What is on your tie on your wheel? And I was like, Oh, those are prayer requests, and he just got so awkward. And afterwards, I was like, Man, I should have thrown in. How can I pray for you? But I didn't. The big comes after, but I'm like, man, that was so funny.

Allison 30:25

But yeah, I'm sure it still made a lasting impression on him.

SPEAKER_00 30:29

So yeah, but anyway, but yeah, in general, that's just you can do prayer anywhere, and you can do it, you can put it wherever you're gonna be. And so yeah. Um, and I don't know if this even applies. For some reason, I put it down. Um, we make sure to get an after dinner family walk-in every evening, which is just a nice time to my husband and I are able to talk and get caught up on everything, and Edmund just exists and enjoys it.

Allison 30:59

Yeah, that's a fantastic practice, and it absolutely applies here because it it checks all sorts of boxes, you know, time together as a couple, as a family, exercise. It's great for your digestion to walk after dinner. Yeah, especially being pregnant, you don't want to eat a big meal and then go way down.

SPEAKER_00 31:17

We we did start that when I was pregnant with Edmund because of my birth class saying you should do this. And yeah, it's been amazing.

Allison 31:24

That's good. And I love the idea of putting the prayer um request on your on your steering wheel. So I might have to try that. And if anybody else listening, if anybody else listening has any unique ideas like that, please send me a text and let me know and I will share with everybody. Um, because we all we all need help getting more prayer in for sure, especially as busy mamas. Um okay, so let's talk about media for just a minute. Uh how do you feel about media? Are you a social media person at all? Or and and actually when I ask this question, I'm talking not just about socials, but just kind of like phone use, media in general. How are you how do you approach that? And then how are you thinking you're gonna want to approach that with your kids?

SPEAKER_00 32:13

Um, it is definitely a struggle for me, I would say. Um, it has always been a balance of how do I use this correctly without getting too infested. Um, because when I originally got into social media was like post-graduation in high school. Um, I didn't have any before that, aside from a flip phone, and which I had till college. So I wish I could get it back. Um but yeah, I I'm such a social, I want to connect so much socially. I thought media would be a good way to do that until I realized that a lot of media really honestly is not a deep connection with other people most of the time at this point. Um, I did just get rid of Facebook recently because primarily it was really just sharing a lot of stuff that was not helpful. It was just a lot of reels, but a lot of news posts, and I was it was getting me a lot of anxiety at nighttime. Um, especially as a mom, there's just certain things I cannot handle. And I'm like, I don't need to know this. I wasn't honestly we're not made to know about every single horrible thing that's happening. Exactly. So I definitely got rid of that, and I still have Instagram, but it can it is definitely still a struggle of do I need to set times when I check this? Because like when I was growing up, if I had any sort of email time or writing time, it was a specific time slot of the day. And I wondered if that would be a good way to go. But I think um that's definitely been a struggle more since getting married and having a lot more time by myself because it's harder to go on, all right, I want to take a break for a while, and then yeah, you just kind of it feels a lot more lonely because it's just hard to keep in touch with people sometimes. But I think just wanting to have a healthy relationship with it, of like, oh, it's fun to like I do have a lot of encouraging posts I find that will just show up on my feed about homemaking or Bible verses or other moms sharing something they're going through, and I find those really encouraging. And I like to be able to like share stories and pictures I get as well, but like fairly private. Um, because we we don't show Edmund's face on media, and um I'm just not even sure if I'll like even share when we have more kids because that's just even so much can be so sensitive, but I think it's still a process of learning, you know, if something gets to be too much, I do try to just remove it for a while, or at least come up with some sort of all right, I want to just spend this much at the most on this today. I don't want to yeah, and when to when to check it too. It really does depend what time of day you check something as well. If you get like, I don't know, just like if you do it all in the morning, I feel like you kind of screw up your morning. Sure, productivity-wise, yeah, yeah.

Allison 35:06

Well, and even mentally, if you because if you see something that's disturbing, that can affect your mood for the rest of the day, you know.

SPEAKER_00 35:12

Exactly. So yeah, with our kids, we don't plan on having them be on social media probably till they're closer to adulthood. I I don't know what haven't really fully talked about it and whatever, but yeah, like we I didn't get social media till after 18, and even then I'm like, Yeah, I was too young. Yeah, it's too soon.

Allison 35:32

No, that's interesting.

SPEAKER_00 35:35

No, it just depends on the 18-year-old. Well, that's true. How sharing you are. If you feel like sharing random thoughts, yeah, it wasn't anything crazy, just kind of I was like, Well, you know, you don't you're not really familiar with it. And um sometimes you feel like sharing thoughts on media, and that's not always a great idea. Yeah, yes, still, you know, still, yeah, we don't need to share everything.

Allison 36:03

Um, okay, well, let's shift over to temptations and challenges. Which of these temptations have you struggled with the most? And what is God teaching you? A comparison to other women, other homemakers, B, just a homemaker. I'm not getting paid. So this is not a real job. C, superwoman trying to do all the things.

SPEAKER_00 36:27

Yeah, I think comparison to other women, homemakers. I mean, I obviously mentioned that I also struggled with trying to do all the things.

Allison 36:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:34

But um I think that kind of goes hand in hand, honestly, with the comparison, because it's easy to see what other women are doing or say they're doing. Like obviously, you don't see their lives and um kind of be like, wow, well, I obviously can't do that or line up to doing that. And I should because she can, and she's got more kids or something like that. Um it's definitely been a definitely a big struggle, and I think definitely a big struggle after having a baby and postpartum and all that stuff. I think it was very easy to compare myself to other postpartum moms.

Allison 37:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:13

And obviously, I think this is probably just a struggle that will be with for every season you're gonna have to work on. Um, because it's not like it stops being like, oh, okay, magically there's nothing to compare. But I think learning that obviously we're not put in each other's lives to compare. Like we are here to like be sisters in Christ, we're here as sisters in Christ, so we should be encouraging each other. So if you see something that someone's really good at, instead of just being like, oh, I'm never gonna be able to do that, or I just can't get it right, like instead, I don't know, just kind of being really um encouraging to them in that. You know, sometimes if somebody's has told me, wow, like I'm really impressed at this, or like really, you know, amazed at this, it just like really encourages you and encourages you to keep going. And I'm like, we could just be building as you well, it says so in the Bible, to build up and encourage each other, but you know, easier said than done instead of comparison.

Allison 38:14

Absolutely. But yeah, no, that is an excellent point, how the comparison feeds the superwoman, which feeds the comparison, which feeds the superwoman, which it's like an it's like an endless cycle. Um, because you see what everybody else is doing, and maybe you're not even on social media at all, but there's always somebody that we could be tempted to compare to, you know, the lady sitting across the aisle at church, um, you know, your best friend, your neighbor, your sister, it could be any number of people. Uh, and that temptation to compare and feel like you don't measure up, so then you better catch up and you know, try to do all the things that you think she's doing. Um but yeah, that is a very slippery slope. And I love your your advice to instead of thinking about yourself when you look to that person's strengths and all that they're doing, go ahead and just encourage them because you don't you don't know how they may be struggling and comparing themselves to somebody else and feel like they're failing. Um the other thing I would say is if they're doing something that you are really you are struggling in, like it's a skill that you are really lacking and and you need to grow in that skill, whether it's cooking or laundry or organization, um what a great resource, you know, to ask for help from them. Like, hey, I see this strength in you. Could you just kind of share some of your wisdom with me? Because I'm really struggling in this area. So yeah, great, great wisdom. Um, do you have uh a special challenge that you would like to share with us? Um, it's just something you faced in your in your homemaking journey and um that the Lord taught you something through.

SPEAKER_00 40:01

Yeah, so this one feels like a fairly common one, I would guess, but we all experience it as moms. Um, labor and postpartum. It really felt like it changed me. I mean, I don't know how you walk through that not changed, but um, I don't know if I was anticipating like how much it was gonna change me. Um, I guess it's still something that I'm kind of adapting to with, especially with the story for Edmund's birth. Um his birth was difficult, it was 61 hours, and um afterwards I just felt like there were parts of it that almost felt traumatizing, which felt really weird to say because at the end of the day I have a healthy baby boy, everything ended up fine at the end of everything. But um I just think my pain picked up extremely fast in labor. For such a long labor, it didn't have a gradual, it really didn't have a gradual beginning. And I just eventually was just so convinced that my body was not doing something right, and I'm I'm convinced he was banging into um a bone for two days, but just um yeah, it's just it's just a lot of um we had wanted to go just totally natural birth and medicine free. We had this whole birth plan, and when you're taking birth class, they tell you, you know, things aren't gonna go the way you expect. Um, but I don't think we expected to entirely throw out the birth plan. Um we had like a very supportive, kind staff who, you know, knew our birth plan. They pushed me to keep going, like being like, you don't want to see section at the end of the day. Um, and this was at the point I'd been in 61 hours and pushing for four and a half hours. And Edmund ended up having a lot of assistance getting out. Um, so it's just like I'm like, I can't go into too many details, obviously. Yeah. But um, but I think, you know, I'm very grateful I didn't end up getting a c-section, and I'm grateful for the healing process with that, obviously. That just would have been rough. Um, so now I feel like I'm a much more impressed with people who do get c-sections because I just think it's talked about like you took the easy way out if you get a c-section. And um yeah, that's true. That makes me sad now. I'm like, that makes me really sad to hear when people say that, but especially for emergency ones. Um, but yeah, but I know that that first month was really hard grappling with everything that happened. It just felt really like the reality was just hard to grasp. And then, you know, baby blues, postpartum, healing. It's just a lot that first month. And I just don't think I don't know, I just didn't know about a lot of that. I didn't know a lot of that happened, like just how hard it would be mentally. Um, and I think I was just really struggling, like I really had to stay off social media, I really had to stay away from birth stories, um, and just know, okay, this is gonna make me angry, like just almost angry, and just had to stay away with from it till I could just really work through that because I just, you know, especially after going through a birth class and just all the stuff that's there, we're told this is natural, our bodies are made for it, it's beautiful, which is all true, but you know, we also live in a sinfallen world and those effects still take place, and a lot of things don't go according to the way we plan, obviously. Um, and I mean you go in knowing that, but I think you just don't obviously know how things are gonna go. And my mom had four C sections out of her six births, so I didn't really anticipate just whipping a baby out, but I don't think I anticipated. The 61 hours of pain that really picked up. And so I just remember feeling like, you know, you're told your body can do this or your body's made for it. And I just remember feeling like my body failed. Like my body didn't do what it was supposed to do. It just wasn't working. And I couldn't talk about it. Couldn't, I mean, I could, I could talk about it, but like I just couldn't handle certain stories about it, just all the stuff. And I'm like, I think it's great to like there were stories, sorry, there were stories of like this is what I did to help my labor go as smoothly as it did. And I was like, I did all those things.

Allison 44:38

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_00 44:39

You know, and so I think it's great to do all the things. I think it gives you first off something to do. Yeah. And it doesn't hurt to be, you know, super working on the health and working on all the stuff. But and that's awesome if it works. But um, I think it's also good to make it clear that there's nothing wrong or malfunctioning with your body if nothing actually happens according to all the things you do. Cause I think we just talk about all the things you should be doing correctly for your labor. That's obviously going to help it go so much better. And I just think um it's just different for everyone. Like, you know, maybe that worked for somebody and it didn't work for someone else, and it really can depend on genetics or like I said, like banging into bones or situations like that. So, anyways, it just led to just difficulty recovering from that. Because I think there was just a lot, you know, like especially first pregnancy. I think you think a lot about your labor in advance. Oh, yeah. And I think that after that, I just felt like wow, like that was not the climax I expected. Um, but I have a baby, so I should be rejoicing. Like, I shouldn't be dealing with yeah, this struggle and this pain and whatever. And um, it's just interesting how it can be such a big subject too. Like it's it's a very common to love to talk about birth. I love to talk about yeah. Um, I mean, I like to talk about my story. I have to work on it, so I'm not just like, well, mine was so hard, you know. Like, not just like it just becomes this weird, like, I don't know, it only becomes it becomes like a very almost identity thing. Like a lot of times it becomes like you controlled your birth story, like people who are like, I did it mine epidural free, you know, or so that those who get an epidural, like I ended up doing after 48 hours, I felt so ashamed for getting an epidural because there's such a it feels like there's such a thing that it's wrong or whatever, but and there's all sorts of things, and I'm sure there it yeah, but it just feels like an identity thing. Um and so I've had to just kind of work through that like we can't control our birth stories most of the you know, most of the time, but we use it like it's our identity instead of redeemed in Christ, yeah. So it's like I think my brain keeps thinking, well, maybe I'll have a quote unquote redeeming birth story, but you know, that's not where like our identity lies, it lies in Christ um and what he's done. So, you know, what really matters at the end of the day is you have prioritized your baby's safety in yours, but also, you know, really look to Christ as being the author of it all and having his hand in it all.

Allison 47:26

And um and he is in charge, he's in charge of the outcomes, and so I think that's what I'm hearing, and I'm thinking this, this, what you're this story you're telling, can apply to anything, it can apply to our whole journey as homemakers, as moms, you know. When we think I've done all of these steps that worked for this friend and this friend or this person, this influencer, and yet my outcomes were different. So what did I do wrong? What happened?

SPEAKER_00 47:57

Right.

Allison 47:57

Are we is there something wrong with us? Is there something wrong with my kid, my body, my baby? You know, whatever. You have I did all the steps to raise the Christian child and they walk away from the faith. You know, we are not in charge of the outcomes. God is not asking us to be concerned with the results, he's asking us to be faithful in the moment and be obedient to what he's called us to do right now. So that's a great lesson to take away from what I'm sure was a very traumatic experience. So thank you for sharing that with us. I really appreciate that. Um okay, let's move on and talk about hospitality for just a minute. What is a practical way that you like to show hospitality through your homemaking?

SPEAKER_00 48:41

So we uh host a weekly Bible study at our house, which um the Bible study started before Sam and I were dating. Sam and his um friend started it. So it's been something he's been running for a number of years, but um after a bunch of different live situations, we ended up just weekly hosting it at our house. Um, so I'm kind of just in the mindset that our house is prepped and ready. And um and we have tried to get in the habit of hosting people for Sunday lunches after church, but it also just depends what season we're in and how available people are, because there can be obviously travel seasons. Um we are blessed to have the space to have a guest room right now. It's currently in our loft, so it's got it's also our storage room, but it works. Um, so it's always ready for people to stay. And I love having that option because you know, if weather or a life situation comes up, or we have friends who live a little bit aways and they would have to stay somewhere, like that option's open. You know, we've had times that we're just like the guest room's open. And so we just have always wanted to just always have it open to have people stay in um last minute or planned. Um but we also really want to get back into just hosting people for for meals or dinners. Um my family my husband's family is um actually from Czech Republic. And so I don't know if this is a European thing, but specifically his family. It's just his mom and him and siblings and himself too. I don't know why I just singled out them. But like they're all good at hosting. It's just like a natural, a natural thing they have. It's seriously like they, you know, it looks like they could cater and they do cater to things. And so it's just something that comes naturally for them. So when we got married, Sam was better at some hosting skills than I was. Like somebody would come inside and he'd immediately be offering them water or something. And I was really bad at offering people water, apparently. I would just forget to do that. So now it's like in my brain, like they're in the house. Do you need water? Do you need anything? Um, so it's just fun hosting together because I feel like he grew up with that, and then I grew up with my family, just um, we did a lot of missionary hosting and cool friends hosting. So um, we're used to the over the longer hosting weekend, but probably less fancy.

Allison 51:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 51:12

So it's just kind of cool to see that with the both of us together. That's been fun.

Allison 51:17

I love that. That's really cool. I was a bad, I was really bad too about I would never remember to offer the person something to drink. And and my husband was the same way. He was like, that was the first thing he would do. Um, so yeah, that's that's good. Okay, let's do some rapid fire questions. Um, you can do a short answer or tell me a story, whatever you would like. So your biggest homemaking fail so far, so far, because you will have many more.

SPEAKER_00 51:45

Yes. Well, I couldn't think of a specific story yet. So I'm like, oh, well, I'm terrible at planning weekend meals and lunches. Um, specifically lunches in general. I don't do great at. We kind of just do leftovers or peanut butter and jellies. But I know Saturdays oftentimes we're like, wait, we have no lunch plan. And then Sundays we have almost no plan for lunch or dinner. Because my brain just is like it's Sunday. We don't need to play. We don't need to eat today. It's fine. We'll just fast. Well, my church does, yeah, that's a whole our church does refreshments basically a luncheon every week. So the issue is more Sunday, Sunday dinner is really the problem. We do a lot of frozen pull-outs. Um, there you go. So I have to get better at planning supplies for food on the weekends because unless we're hosting or doing something special, my brain does not.

Allison 52:39

Sundays, Sunday nights are hard for me. Like, that's the last thing I want to do is cook something on Sunday nights. So for us, Sundays are very often breakfast, like and not a complicated breakfast, like some scrambled eggs. Yeah, um, and true for my family. Maybe some grits or something. Um, yeah, or soup. Soup is is a good one, a good go-to for Sunday nights because I almost always have some broth in the freezer. I can just get some broth, thaw it out, throw in some canned chicken. Maybe if I have some rice in the fridge that's that was cooked that week, I might throw that in there. Yeah. We keep it pretty simple because I just don't feel like doing anything Sunday night.

SPEAKER_00 53:17

My family is what all my family would always just massive leftover night. Just get home from church and eat for an hour the leftovers. Yeah. In our house, they're either bad leftovers or they're not bad.

Allison 53:31

You'll get there. We will get there. Um, okay. Tell me about a recent homemaking win.

SPEAKER_00 53:38

Yeah, I guess I already mentioned this. Um, managing to have most of our house in a fairly easy pickup mode.

Allison 53:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 53:45

Um, I got a little desperate for that after having Edmund. Um, so even just recently, minimizing a lot of toys that are not even used. Um just having minimizing extra clutter, we can both be Sam and I are both tend to be clutter people, but organized clutter. Um but thankfully it's at a point where if I just after Edmund's in bed, I can just come downstairs no matter how tired I am and just tidy up real fast.

Allison 54:15

That is a good win. Absolutely. Tell me about a homemaking product or resource that you are loving right now.

SPEAKER_00 54:22

So these were already here when I married Sam, so I don't actually know like how easy these are to get, but my air fryer and my instant pot are my lifesavers. They're just I actually can pull up frozen food and throw it in the instant pot, and um, it can be really nice, especially on days when you might end up out all day and you just don't expect that.

Allison 54:43

Yeah, no, those are great, those are really great tools. Um, okay, tell me a favorite homemaking hack or tip does not have to be original to you.

SPEAKER_00 54:54

So Sam laughed when he read these because they're kind of goofy. But um I put down use duvet covers for your blankets instead of a top sheet and blanket, so that when you when you teach your kids, it'll be easier. But also, I've made my bed while holding a newborn before because I just have the duvet to pull it up. Yeah, exactly. And I have a good tip, yeah. Yeah. And then I have baskets for Edmund's clothes, and I just I don't even fold them anymore. No folding, you just throw them in the baskets. Throw them in different he does it actually himself now. Well, there you go.

Allison 55:30

And you're on your way, you are well on your way to him just taking and doing all the laundry. You know, that's become a really popular answer. Actually, a lot of people do that now, and I think that's brilliant. I mean, they're just gonna if you can fold them and put them in the drawer, and they're just gonna go in there and just do this anyway.

SPEAKER_00 55:48

That's what I was doing. That's what was happening. I was like, this is crazy.

unknown 55:51

Yeah.

Allison 55:51

So just save yourself the the work and just stick them in a basket. Um, okay. Do you have a signature dish yet, or are you working on one?

SPEAKER_00 56:02

I feel like I go through a signature dish every few months. So it depends on the season. Um so I asked Sam because I was like, I just don't know. He says quiche. Oh, okay. I make a lot of quiche and I have my specific quiche I do, and it's I've memorized it. Um, but I threw in bell peppers to kind of give it a little bit more taste because Sam like Sam likes a little more spice and it's yummy. So I don't know, quiche, it's pretty easy to throw together. It just you have to be aware it's gonna bake for almost an hour sometimes.

Allison 56:34

Yeah, that's true. It does take a while to bake. So yeah. Is it a um your recipe? Is it just like kind of a a standard quiche with just like eggs and milk and cheese, or do you yeah, does it have any meat in it?

SPEAKER_00 56:47

It has bacon.

Allison 56:48

Bacon.

SPEAKER_00 56:48

It depends what we have in the house, but usually just bacon. Um, I haven't really thought about getting too crazy and trying anything else, but I could.

Allison 56:56

Sausage, sausage is always sausage, yeah. Yeah, but I like the bacon because I do my bacon in the oven, so that's a little more hands-off than the sausage because the sausage I have to get the skillet out and I have to, you know.

SPEAKER_00 57:08

Yeah, I like the oven. Yeah, yeah. I'm also I I react funny to sausage for whatever reason, but oh really, okay, yeah, it's yummy.

Allison 57:17

Do you do a um homemade crust or store bot crust? No shame at all for store bottles.

SPEAKER_00 57:22

I do homemade, it's a very simple recipe.

Allison 57:25

Nice. Okay, so can you share your quiche, your favorite quiche recipe with us?

SPEAKER_00 57:31

Yeah.

Allison 57:31

Um, you can you can tell me later.

SPEAKER_00 57:36

No, I'm fine either way. Um, I just don't know what you're wanting.

Allison 57:39

Um yeah, no. Well, I'll get I'll get up with you later and we'll get the recipe because I like to put the recipe in the show notes because people people enjoy that. Um, okay, let's talk about the art of home. So, how do you see homemaking as an art and where do you find beauty in it?

SPEAKER_00 57:55

So I think it's just so interesting to see how everyone is so different in their skills. So I find that especially fun to go to other people's houses and see how that shows in their decoration or um cooking styles or what they've prioritized, I guess, in their home. Um I definitely have I'm definitely creative, but um everyone's also very different in types of creativity. So I think it's cool to see um how that just comes out in the decoration.

Allison 58:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 58:32

Um, and I I think it's it's beautiful to see the different ways that we aspire to copy our creator and how we create and cultivate the things we've been given.

Allison 58:43

Mm-hmm. Yeah, absolutely. What's something about homemaking that you are thankful for?

SPEAKER_00 58:50

I am thankful how much of an impact it makes on your family, whether they know it or not. You know, whether they even think about it. You know, looking back, I just have so much in my family's home I grew up with that um you know, I probably just took for granted or just didn't think about. Um there's just a lot of good memories. And um my mom was always there, you know, like that's what I love too, is that she was always there and um would teach us teach us homemaking stuff. And anyways, I I just have I think it's so amazing that we've been given the opportunity to make our homes safe places for our family members and yeah, somewhere where rest and encouragement is and where his truth is upheld, and um just somewhere that you can really just kind of take your burden off and just rest.

Allison 59:46

Absolutely. Let's talk to the other women for for a bit. Um you there's always someone ahead of you, and there's always somebody behind you. So I like to let you, as a newbie homemaker, speak to those younger women and those older women. Let's talk to the older women first. What is something that your generation needs from the older generations when it comes to helping you in your practice of the art of home?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:24

Um, I it's hard because I had an answer planned and then I realized that obviously what might help me isn't gonna help another one. So it's a little hard to know how to give the full answer to this, but I think a lot of prayer and sending notes can be very helpful for someone who's struggling. Um you know, I know numerous ladies, older ladies who send encouraging cards here and there, especially when they know someone's been going through something. Um and they just do it and it's it's it means so much more than you even think when you write that note and send it. And um I think also giving little life hacks, you know, if a mom is struggling, I think sometimes, and this isn't obviously everybody, but you know, if something's being if something's hard, I think there can be a lot of jokes made like oh just wait, or you just have to write through the season. Like there's a lot of oh just waits comments, but that's made by everybody. I think we all tend to make those comments. Um but I think especially if you feel like you're really struggling as a mom and just feeling like how on earth am I gonna get through this? It's a lot more comforting to have somebody be like, here's a few little like things I found that helped make the days more manageable. Sure. Not like sitting down and being like, here's how you're failing, but like, yeah, here's some encouraged, here's some things. But also I think not just that, but also sharing like ways they could, if they're able to, to come alongside and help.

Allison 1:02:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:00

So, you know, I know people who will either help with grocery or help take the kids out for a little bit so you can get something done, or um, or even just come and like do your dishes. I think I saw that a lot with grandmas and stuff like that, coming alongside by taking us kids so my mom could go finish some shopping or um doing dishes, helping with some homeschooling, stuff like that. Um, and obviously it really depends on everybody's time, but I think that can be helpful. And like I said, like even just offering to prayer to pray for someone or to be praying for someone and checking in on them can help a lot too.

Allison 1:02:39

Yes, absolutely. That's a great suggestion. What about for the younger women? Maybe the single gal or the young woman who's in college or or high school. We've already given them one piece of advice, like you can never be prepared. Is that your word of wisdom again?

SPEAKER_00 1:02:55

I I think that was most of my advice was it's never too soon. And don't make the change in your schedule when you get like make changes now where you can, so that when you do get married, it's not going to be a complete culture shock to you. Have some, you know, especially if you're struggling in a certain area in your own managing something, you know, you could start trying to come up with hacks now. But um, I also put down reading books by Christian authors on being a wife, mama, taking care of the home. And of course, I don't have any like super specific examples right now, but you know, there's definitely a good number that I've read since getting married. I just didn't write any of them down to share, but um, you know, you can definitely get I can follow up with you on that.

Allison 1:03:43

Maybe I'll give you a few days to think about it.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:45

Yeah, I'll get some books in and we'll put them in the show notes. Yeah, but then yeah, like I said, you can't never prepare too early. And so just already working on ways you can work on specific chores or you know, um collecting meal recipes from what you already know or from others. Um, and also, I don't know, I feel like this last piece of advice isn't actually helpful yet because you're not married, like if you're not married yet, yeah. Um, it's not very helpful to just know and not really be able to practice. But I think just like being aware of flexibility in your schedule, like needing to be flexible in your schedule, but also, you know, once you get married, you can't just be like, oh, I'm gonna up and go do this. Like you have to kind of check with I mean, some fam some marriages do do that, but yeah. I don't we don't write we don't recommend that here.

Allison 1:04:36

I would definitely no, it's part of it's part of considering others' needs above your own thing, you know, it's part of that whole love your neighbor as yourself command. Um so I love that. That's really great advice. So, Emily, this has really been delightful. I have enjoyed this conversation so much, and you have so much wisdom to share. Thank you for taking the time and sharing all about your experience in homemaking. Thank you. Thanks for listening to this homemaker portrait of Emily Steiger. I loved Emily's encouragement to start building homemaking skills before you think you need them. Do not underestimate how much preparation matters. And don't forget that skills grow over time. Progress often looks like simplifying, creating small routines that you can actually keep up with, and giving yourself grace when things take longer than you expected. What homemaking skill are you working on right now? Time management. Maybe you're working on budgeting or meal planning, laundry rhythms, prayer habits, or something else. Drop a tool. Let's see, how do I explain this emoji? It's a hammer and a wrench that are like crossed with one another. So, whatever that one is called, drop that in a text or a comment or an email and tell me what you are practicing this week in your homemaking. I want to thank Emily for sharing her story of home with us. She is a talented poet and writer. Her poem, Birthday Nostalgia That Whispers of More to Come, was featured in our first issue of Homemaker's Journal. You can connect with her over on Substack, where she writes as Musings of a Homemaker. I will put all of her links in the show notes. Don't forget to submit your go-to hosting recipe and your favorite courtesy gift by Friday for a chance to be featured in the next magazine and to win a print copy. Links in the show notes. That is all for this episode. I will be back next week with the final Monday motivation and the final homemaker portrait of the summer season. Until then, keep practicing your art of making the home.