Becoming a Housewife

Let me begin this post by saying, if I had read this five years ago I probably would have puked.

The first book I've chosen to read on my new Kindle is The American Frugal Housewife by Lydia Maria Francis Child (1828). I know you may not understand this from just hearing the title, author, and original publishing date...but it is hilarious. I read it while working out yesterday evening and was smiling the whole time. It reminds me of my Grandma Milldrum—reusing, saving, mending, watering-down everything possible to pinch some pennies. How different life was for the American woman just a couple generations ago.

Now, I’m not saying that I want to make our clothes, grow our food, etc. But, I would like to be the type of wife, and someday mom, who makes what she can and maybe grows something each year. And, hey, I’m learning already—since we’ve moved in our garden has not only not died but has continued to bloom all spring long! That is a huge improvement. In Seattle, I killed every plant I touched and only Zack could keep things alive.

I enjoy being a wife. And, even more, I like being a military wife. Whether I like it or not, my life—home, career, everything—go where my husband goes. I didn’t go to college thinking that I would never really make a career out of my degree, but now I’m happy to give some things up and follow my husband. Really, we’re both just following God-wherever He takes us.

It’s been about a year now where I haven’t been doing the same thing as my husband and making the significant supporting income (or at least making a substantial contribution). When we met and when we got married we were both in school, both working, and both extremely busy. Now, we’ve kind of taken more traditional marital roles. This isn’t to say that we’re not equals anymore, but he’s more the “bread winner” and I’m more the “housewife.” I work outside of the home and I enjoy it, but I get a better feeling of success at home. Like, remember my flowers that aren’t dead? Ha, just kidding, but I do get a great sense of accomplishment from moving into our house and decorating it by myself while Zack was at training, hosting a successful dinner party, and discovering new recipes and making them to share with Zack’s class, our neighbors, or my coworkers.

I love planning, organizing, and executing things around the house, and I’m okay with filling that role. I used to not really respect stay-at-home mothers, and I think it is because my mom always worked (usually even multiple jobs). I also used to always babysit or nanny for mothers who had impressive careers—one family even had a stay-at-home dad. But now I understand there is a whole lot more responsibility at home, as an officer’s wife, as a parent and I have great respect for those who choose a career at home.

I think about this kind of stuff as I read this book. I think about what is applicable in our lives, and the things I want to make sure I do to be a frugal American housewife in modern times. I don’t want to take Lydia Child’s advice and purchase eggs only once a year and pickle them to last or make my children pick blackberries at 6 cents a quart just because they have as much fun as they would otherwise playing while learning how to earn money for new clothes as they ruin their old clothes with blackberry stains. I do want to take Lydia Child’s advice and not purchase things I could otherwise obtain just out of convenience, though. I want to make sure I always have frozen cookie dough ready to plop in the oven at any moment, just in case. I want at least one extra package of all our household staple goods in storage. I want a casserole in the freezer on any given day. I want to make more of the gifts we give to family and friends. I want to have a hand-stamped card for every occasion ready to go. I want to do these things to be more like Lydia Child, my mom, my mother-in-law, my grandmothers, and the creative women in this crazy blog world. Furthermore, I want to live by these and my other little rules I’ve created and keep good record of everything as I go. I’d like for this blog to someday become a book – if nothing else, for our own children to see how their mom did it, the recipes she used, the books she read, the crafts she completed because I know if Grandma Milldrum had a book of all her tips it’d be just like this one I’m reading and I would love to read it.