simply homemaker

As someone who identifies as a ‘home enthusiast,’ I used to struggle staying home.

I am just now realizing this, after embarking on a new adventure: to get off the shopping train for the rest of this year. And in Orlando during the summer, where there isn’t much to do other than to get a coffee or go shopping or go to a themed park and spend money there, the only way to not spend any money is to stay home.

So, I’ve been trying to stay home more.

And it’s been hard.

I would read a chapter of a book in my bed and then I would feel like I need to put on “real clothes” and get up to do some “real things.” I would work for an hour in my bed and then want to move downstairs to the kitchen counter because I get bored. Being home by yourself as a single woman does not promise many events during the day. So, I actually have not wanted to be home much.

However, after turning 26, I feel a stronger and more fundamental desire to be home. I will always love seeing the world and God’s creation, but airports don’t appeal to me like they used to. I will always love meeting new friends and starting new relationships, but I now equally value a night where I just cook a meal at home and eat some mint chocolate chip icecream from my own fridge.

I’ve changed. And I’ve wondered what this means for my homemaking.

Homemaking is all things good – delicious and nutritious food, beautiful sceneries that are harmonious and orderly (or at least as much as the day allows), and people in the home feeling loved. But the core principle of homemaking is that you have to be home a lot.

I used to spend all day out on Sunday. Now, even with just an hour of a break between social events, I want to go home, to either tidy up my closet or to take a nap. Home has become less of a social place where I host and entertain; it has become more of a sanctuary that I want to protect and cultivate.

I started picking up dogsitting and babysitting jobs on the weekends to help pay for my “dress fund” and to justify taking a random weekend trip to the Pacific Northwest. At the beginning, I thought I would enjoy living in a house not my own and getting to have some sort of a “staycation.” Yet I quickly realized on day one that it’s no longer the same. I want my own bed, my beautiful white throw blanket wrapped around me, and the comfort of the familiar.

I would rather raid my fridge for a meal than go out and pay $40 for something that I didn’t learn how to make.

I would rather read a book at home than go to a coffee shop and spend $7 on a coffee that I can make myself (no hate on coffee shops, still a big fan, but I feel like after 3 months in Europe, nothing here longer suffices).

I would rather shop my own closet than open up a tab and scroll through the sales section (this, is a very new mindset shift).

So I’m writing this because I don’t know what the rest of this year holds. Am I just becoming a boring person? Or am I becoming more of a homemaker?

Would I still love homemaking if it doesn’t involve fun trips to the thrift stores or cooking novel recipes? Would I still love homemaking if it means faithfully stewarding what I already have and caring for things that are already entrusted to me?

I wanted to include this in the homemaking book, which I will one day, but right now, it’s just some food for thought on a Wednesday afternoon and a chance to connect with you.

Love,

Tram