Balancing Your Life: Healthy, Happy Homemaker
I wanted to wrap up the “Balancing Your Life Series” with some inspiration and resources to inspire you.
I don’t think there can be balance in your life without talking about balancing your responsibilities as a homemaker with physical and emotional health.
I can have all my homemaking ducks in a row (which never happens, by the way!) but if I’m physically under par or emotionally drained, things aren’t going well.
I recently wrote “Easy Health for Busy Moms” because I wanted to show women how easy (and painless) it can be to ease into a healthier lifestyle. Small changes can make a big difference in the way we feel and feeling well significantly affects our performance as wives, mothers and home-managers.
I’ve touched on keeping our spiritual lives vibrant (though much more could be said), but emotional health is closely tied to our physical health and can make such a difference in the way we function! Besides a healthy diet and exercise (I mention an excellent 5-minute exercise in the book!), I am of the opinion that women who are productive are emotionally healthier.
That will look very different for different women, but part of our nature that reflects our Creator is…creating! I think we have to be careful to make room amid all the chores and work that must be done to create, produce, and enjoy being a homemaker.
For some, it may be a ministry of hospitality, making cards to send to someone who needs a kind word, sending a meal, or some other venue of service. Some enjoy turning a simple meal into a culinary work of art. Some sew, some paint, some garden, some are simply encouragers and exhorters of others. Some enjoy entrepreneurial endeavors and act as their husband’s helper exercising those gifts.
What do you enjoy? Consider it an important part of your homemaking duties. This is the secret–homemaking is NOT just about the nuts and bolts of keeping a house. It’s about the freedom to create a home that is bustling with productivity, using our gifts to bless our family and those around us.
As you seek to become more organized, remember the goal: making a home that radiates joy, freedom and the love of Christ.
Some resources you may find helpful:
Simple Cooking to Save You Money
A Practical Approach to Relaxed Homeschooling
The Fly Lady: Getting Organized
17 comments
Thanks for those words…they really hit me. My husband has been encouraging me to get on the book I have in infancy stages. You had to go and confirm that I needed to get on it too. Thanks a lot!!! 😉
Really, thanks to God, giving words in gentle nudges!
Wow, Kelly, another excellent post! I so agree with you that being creative reflects our Creator, and that we should be making room in our lives to create, produce, and actually ENJOY being homemakers!
I have to say I’m in awe of everything you’ve written in this entire series. You’ve taken so many thoughts and desires of my heart and put them into words that have been so uplifting and encouraging to me!
Thank you for taking the time to compose your thoughts on the subject. It’s blessed me more than I could ever say!
What an encouraging word!
I’ve been enjoying your series! Thanks for the great links too! Just FYI…I’m giving away a copy of Thoughts for Young Men by R.C. Ryle this week in my Tuesday’s Treasure for the Taking. My readers are not as responsive…so it’s pretty easy to win! If any of your readers are interested…it is one of my favorite books for boys. It’s really a treasure! : ) The link to the giveaway is: http://www.visionarywomanhood.com/todays-treasure-for-the-taking-thoughts-for-young-men/
I hope you are having fun with Jax! I bet your kids are just eating him up…
Blessings!
Natalie
Oh yes they are…we actually have to “time the baby turns” to prevent strife 😉
Kelly, I have enjoyed this series SO much; I feel encouraged and challenged reading these posts and the comments. I have never found the time to make a homemaking notebook, but now that I am forced to sit alot more, waiting on this overdue baby to arrive (Kelly, how did you do it?? Some days I think I am going to lose it emotionally!) I think I will begin to work on one.
Thank you again for these wonderful posts. They have been a blessing!
Oh, Charity..hang in there. I DID lose it emotionally…almost every morning for about two weeks. It would go something like, “I’m still pregnant–*sobs for 30 minutes*–OK…let’s gear up for one more day”. And then the days turned to weeks. I was really spent.
But I’ll tell you like so many great friends encouraged me….”God has His perfect timing for this little one and we can rest in knowing that”. It’s so hard when you are there though. I will pray especially for your peace of mind and patience. It was, for me, one of the most challenging times (spiritually and emotionally) I’ve been through in a while. Take it a day at a time and know that YOU WILL go into labor.
How many days past your “due date” are you?
I was given two “due dates”, the first being March 30th, and the second, April 6th. So I’m between 13-20 days “overdue”. I know you understand the iffyness of a due date when you concieve while nursing, and I have measured ahead the entire pregnancy which has caused confusion as well, but I’ve also been told that this baby will be “large”. It can all be so frusterating, can’t it? And I think being told a “due date”, of course makes you expect, or at least think, that the baby will arrive within a few days around that time. My husband keeps saying (sweetly), that there is no such thing as an “overdue baby”, but sometimes that is a little hard to hear. 😉 Although we have no supportive family, or church family/friends, my darling husband has been such an enouragement and just willing to do anything for me.
Thank you SO much for your prayers; they mean so much! We are praying hard that we can avoid an un-needed induction. My first two babies came the week they were “due”, but with my third I saw the dr on my due date and he told me the baby wouldn’t fit through my pelvis if I didn’t have him that week (which scared me greatly!), so we opted for an induction. And although the labor was only 3hrs, it was a horrible, horrible experience! Those contractions are just so un-natural, and having never had an epidural or pain meds during labor…wow, that was awful! (And by the way, our son as born in one push, weighing 8lbs 13oz, and I had no need for stitches or anything of the sort!)
Charity,
Do you know if your natural remedies for your group b strep worked? Maybe that is one of the reasons God had this “delay” for you, so that that could be taken care of. I would cry with you if I was there. 🙂 I was in an emotional mess with our first baby after my ob had been telling me for about 6 weeks before my due date that it looked like I was going to have him 2 weeks before the dd. I did not go into labor on her projected date and I had an appointment the next day and she told me it looked like he would be on time (on the dd) after all. I spent the whole day crying and I actually went into labor the next morning. I had no idea then that the doctors don’t know everything, lol.
Anyway, you will go soon, it’s true what Kelly said, you won’t be pregnant forever, even though it feels like forever. It is great that your hubby is so wonderful to you during this time. Blessings to you and your forthcoming sweet baby!
Yes! It worked! 🙂
Thank you for your sweet encouragenment, Heather. It means so much! I keep singing “Trust,trust in the lord. Lean not on thy own understanding. In all, all of thy ways acknowledge Him, He’ll make your paths plain…”. I am very uncomfortable physically, and morning sickness returned about a week and a half ago, so all the throwing up makes me achy and sore all over, as you can imagine. 🙁 This is definitely a refining time for me, and so many weaknesses have been revealed in me.
Kelly and Heather, Just wanted to let you both know that the Lord answered our prayers and brought on labor late Wednesday night, lasting 3 1/2 hours, and blessing us with a 10lb 6oz 21 3/4inches long son at 12:51am Thursday morning (all four of our babies have been born on a Thursday 😉
Thank you again for your prayers!
CHARITY–PRAISE THE LORD!!!! You’re unpregnant AND you have your precious bundle! Wow, big healthy baby. I trust all is well and I’m so happy for you. Thanks for the update and be sure to rest, rest, rest, and get plenty of fresh, new kisses!
Thanks for posting this series. It has been so helpful! I’ve been following your blog for a few months now and I really enjoy it. 🙂
Health, big topic in our home. My sons both have multiple special needs with sick little bodies. I have discovered how even a healthy looking person can have so much out of whack going on behind the scenes. Healthy diets are a huge step towards a healthy lifestyle. And, by healthy, I don’t mean heat up foods in the microwave. I mean use God-made ingredients to cook from scratch so you minimize the toxins. We also use a lot of natural remedies and helps. Our pediatrician is big on this, and she’s a traditional pediatrician. If a homeopathic or natural supplement will fix it, that’s what she recommends. This has seriously decreased our children’s intake of medications. In fact, my youngest son is on his first prescription medication he’s ever been on since coming to her 2 years ago. This one wasn’t something that could be handled without a traditional medication.
We get out a LOT. I think this is a very missed component to a healthy lifestyle, just getting outside and moving a lot. Our kids play outside daily, even in the rain (as long as it’s not these horrible storms we’ve had lately). Vitamin D is best absorbed through the skin, and the sun is the best way to get it.
We, as humans, are designed to move, not to sit in a sedentary lifestyle that most of us have.
We have many things we do, as a family, to be more healthy and have seen such great results.
We get out a LOT. I think this is a very missed component to a healthy lifestyle, just getting outside and moving a lot….Vitamin D is best absorbed through the skin, and the sun is the best way to get it.
AMEN! So true.
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