I moved this out of the books and back into the forums, and I moved it from Clean and Organized to Making Connections. MC is where we talk about support issues like this. No worries.

To me, being a homemaker means making home, whatever that means for your family: Doing the things no one else can do to make things happy and comfortable. For some families that means doing all the ironing and so on. For others, that means special cooking, or growing the family's food, or homeschooling the children. You need to find out whatever that is for your family.

EVERYONE needs taken care of, including YOU. The art of homemaking is finding out what your family and you yourself need to be cared for.

These are good things to think about. I think about them all the time, especially right now. I haven't had a good spring health-wise--it's been one thing after another but no heart stuff! and I've been really in demand work-wise so it's been easy to bury my nose in my laptop and get nothing else done.

I'm in the midst of returning to my homemaking roots; these things go in cycles for me. The first step I always take is getting my apron on. When my apron's on, I get more done because it reminds me what my primary task is around here--keeping things running. I have something protecting my clothes, and something to wipe my hands on. I have pockets to put random stuff in. I'm just not in homemaker headspace without it.

And with that, I really need to fold some laundry!

Lynn Siprelle, Editor