When I turn onto the county road that my cabin is located, everything that I have been about since I left here last vanishes again. All the high speed city driving now becomes how slow can I creep along to not miss a single new bush in bloom or how the river may have risen and formed a new path. The racing of my heart begins to beat slower, the weight of living by an agenda falls off, my smile gets bigger and then all my being shouts Thank You God for providing me with this beauty and this respite.

So far since my husband and I purchased this place I have spent a good amount of my time doing projects here in preparation to list it as a vacation rental. We got it in January so in the 4 months that I have been coming I always say I am going to take some time to write while I am here and then time gets all used up. This visit though I am all by myself and made it a priority to get some thoughts on paper. Only recently have I discovered that I love to write. I am not skilled at it nor do I have a extensive vocabulary. I am not even cleverly witted like my husband (who writes copy as part of his job) but I do it because it brings me joy.

I don’t have a whole lot of memories from younger days. They were rough and I probably have chosen to not hold on to them. So when I do think about an occurrence and the connection of how it molded who I am I like to journal the event. If you have read any of my other blog posts you know most of my writings have to do with being a wife, my greatest joy. So here is another…

In High School I took a career test that was suppose to give you an idea of what professions fit with your personality. It really didn’t have anything to do with your intelligence level, it was just about what makes you most excited. I took the test at age 15 so that may have been considered a little young to really know but surprisingly the results are still true to this day.

My highest score was in all the areas of an occupation that dealt with land or animals, meaning my career would most likely be a veterinarian or a forest ranger. Well heck yeah, those are both cool jobs and I was excited! Being a person who never wanted to pursue an education past high school meant I wasn’t going to receive those degrees. However, I did go on to volunteering at a veterinarian’s office for awhile and I also was a live in nanny on a 150 acre ranch that had horses and cows and lots of woods. So in a roundabout way I pursued my passion for awhile at least until age 22.

Fast forward almost 35 years and here I am once again surrounded with the dreams of my heart. I have this little getaway place on 13 acres of forest that backs up to a gazillion acres of national forest that I see in every direction I look. I also have a bigger variety of animals around me than I imagined. It is good. It is from God. His rewards are so awesome. And His timing is perfect.

Now it is not like I have been miserable those past 35 years just waiting to get back to the woods. Not at all. You see my second highest score on that career test was for homemaker and that is where God placed me. That career test was totally accurate for me. I know this because when I was a young girl about 9 or 10 I moved to a rural area and that is when I began playing in the woods. And what I would play most of the time was making a house. Me and my little friends we would move sticks and rocks around around to outline the rooms and then we would sweep the ground smooth and voilà we would have made a 3 room home. We would find things to set up a table and chairs and then we always had to have a vase of flowers on the table. “Playing house” just became the best pastime ever, right along with being down in the creek looking for crawdads cause I also had a very tom-boyish side too.  I consider those days the preamble to my homemaker career.

Being a homemaker is such an individualized job. I think every woman has her own unique description for “Homemaker”. For me my homemaker job always included being a mom too, because right from the beginning of married life I was also a mom. I had my son Tyler for two years before I married his dad so getting acclimated being a homemaker was a little different for me.

The tasks of homemaker can become very routine as with any job. Certain ones that are to be achieved everyday, dishes, laundry, meals, beds made can really become mundane. Then there are the unexpected duties that come occasionally such as being a nurse, a counselor and an administrator of discipline which take extra focus. And then those special tasks of hand holding, teacher, and intercessor that fill our hearts with the best memories.

Every homemaker has her own style as to how she handles what comes her way. I wish I could say my technique was awesome but it wasn’t. I was just ok at it for years. Mostly because I wasn’t spiritually healthy and I had more fun drinking then I did doing anything else. It took me a few years to really grasp the whole I am cool with this stay at home job. And also to accept the struggles of being a parent. I didn’t have a role model in this area so for the most part I walked it blind.

In hindsight I see the incredibly fulfilling job it was being both my sons’ mother and my husband’s wife and to take care of our home full time. It was my greatest blessing and also my biggest regret that I didn’t allow God to show me how to be during those rough times. I believe that is why now I feel so passionate about helping young women to feel secure and content when they make that decision to be a homemaker and stay at home mom. It really is a difficult job and should never be undervalued.

In my quest for wanting to always improve my craft of wife and homemaker and share with others what I learned I started this blog “The Helpmeets” taken from Genesis 2:18. As instructed to be my husband’s helper I have found this scripture to be the core basis for my basis. It took me a long time but I learned that for my husband to be what God has called him to be requires that I be his Helpmeet. Am I the epitome of excellence at this? Far from it. Matter of fact at times I stink at it. My saving grace is I recognize it and try to get back on track as quickly as possible. A lesson I often teach in the beginning. MOVE ON! Don’t harbor in bitterness and self protection. Go on to forgiveness and finding solutions together. Most of all respect your husband and be a help to him. He needs you, you need each other!

My sons have been on their own for years now and it has just been my husband and I doing that empty nest thing but still “playing house” as I call it. My homemaker job description has changed quite a bit. Both my sons have lived close by at times and I have even had the pleasure of being in my grandkids lives on a daily basis for 3 years. Believe me that added a few forgotten tasks back into the day. Now after all these years I still continue doing what I love and what that superfluous career placement test predicted! God wink!