Welcome, yall!

Hey yall! I've been meaning to start this for a long time now. I have a lot of things to say about being a young stay at home wife, so I figured I might as well broadcast them out to the whole wide world! :)

I guess I should start with a little about myself. I am a 20 something stay at home wife. I have a college degree in Early Childhood Education which I used to teach 5th grade. Upon realizing that because I was working, my house was crumbling around me, my husband and I spent no quality time together, and my poor baby dog was crated for 8+ hours each day, I decided to follow the Lord's natural design for women. And that was to be a homemaker. A keeper of the home. A help meet for my wonderful husband.

After talking with my husband, we both decided it would be best to try it out and see what happened. Yes, we'd lose a chunk of the money I would bring in, but would it make our lives less chaotic and more whole? Absolutely it did! However, I couldn't get a lot of people to see it our way. My decision was met with much resistance. My parents were the most vocal. Why was I wasting my degree? What did I have to do all day? I didn't have a child, so why stay home?

I wanted to answer those questions, but I couldn't say it was just a feeling I had in me. How do you explain to someone that you just know that He wants you to be right here? How do I tell my mother, who worked her whole life, that God wants all women to be at home? It was hard to do. Occasionally I still get some remarks, but I don't let them get to me. I know that what I'm doing is His work. I know that when my future baby thinks back to their childhood, they'll remember me being at home, making it a wonderfully cozy, love filled place to live.

After knowing this is where I needed to be, I began to devour books and blogs on homemaking and being a wife. I wholeheartedly recommend The Excellent Wife, by Martha Peace as well as A Wife After God's Own Heart, by Elizabeth George. Reading and studying those have put my heart in the right place within my marriage. I'm not a perfect wife by any means, but I'm trying. After growing up with feministic ideals etched into my brain, I'm slowly learning the security and freedom of being a submissive wife. Since my momma was a working woman who never knew how to cook, sew, bake, etc, I'm teaching myself these crafts. With fast food chains fast replacing mom's home cooked meals, I'm doing what I can to combat that. And with children being raised by teachers and day care workers, I'm trying to teach that it doesn't have to be this way.

It's not all perfect. Praise God my husband has a wonderful job that provides us with plenty, but I still sacrifice in order to stay home. When I was working, we weren't thrifty at all. My job afforded me weekly manicures, 3 vacations a year, jaunts to high end stores 'just because' I felt like buying things, the ability to throw lavish parties, more shoes than I know what to do with, etc. And they were all wonderful. But when the new wore off, it was over. Even though we've had to cut back and start thinking and spending like adults, we're happier than ever. Getting my home in order and making my home a haven for my husband is worth more than 5,000 pairs of Jimmy Choos. :) I don't know why those bra burning ladies wanted to go out in the workplace so badly. Staying home and taking care of our house and my husband is the MOST rewarding job. Now my paychecks come in the form of notes from my husband, thanking me for what I do for us, and the compliments I get on the way my house always smells so nice. And those things make me feel happier so much longer than any pedicure ever would.

I do hope that this blog will allow me to meet other like minded women out there as well as dispel some stereotypes that housewives are frumpy, lazy women who sit on the couch and watch Oprah all day. Honey, I wish we could! ;) And I've been following so many of yall, I figured I might as well jump in, too! :) Can't wait to get my little adventure started! :)
xoxo, The Southern Housewife