Ana Decorates a Cake

How Much Is A Homemaker Worth?

(I read this today and loved it!)

The life of a homemaker is one that includes an endless amount of demands and to-dos. Depending on the size of the home and family, the position of homemaker can go well beyond the usual nine to five. We examined some of the tasks that a homemaker might do to find out how much his or her services would net as individual professional careers. We only take into consideration tasks which have monetary values and use the lowest value for each calculation.

Private ChefMeal preparation is one of the major tasks of most homemakers. From breakfast to dinner, there is plenty of meal planning and cooking to be done. The American Personal Chef Association reports that its personal chefs make $200 to $500 a day. Grocery shopping is another chore that needs to be factored in. A homemaker must drive to the supermarket, purchase the food and deliver it to the home. Grocery delivery services charge a delivery fee of $5 to $10.

Total cost for services: $1,005 per five day work week x 52 weeks = $52,260 per year.

House CleanerA clean and tidy home is the foundation of an efficient household. Typical cleaning duties include vacuuming, dusting, sweeping, scrubbing sinks as well as loading the dishwasher and making beds. Professional maids or house cleaning service providers will charge by the hour, number of rooms or square footage of the home. For example, bi-weekly cleaning of a 900-square-foot, two-bedroom apartment with five rooms, costs $59-$124 . A 1,300 square-foot, single-story home with seven rooms runs $79-$150 . A 2,200 two-story, three-bedroom home with nine rooms averages $104-$180 . Additional tasks such as oven or refrigerator cleaning and dusting mini blinds can run an extra $20-$25.

Total cost for services: $118 per week X 52 Weeks = $6,136 per year.

Child CareHomemakers provide full-time, live-in child care. This type of service from a professional provider would usually come with a host of perks including health insurance, paid vacation and sick days, federal holidays off, dental and vision coverage, and bonuses. The International Nanny Association's 2011 survey found that nannies make $600 to $950 per week in gross wages, on average.

Total cost for services: $600 a week plus perks/benefits x 52 Weeks = $31,200 per year.

DriverA private car service might seem like a high-end luxury to most, but the beneficiaries of a homemaker get this service on a daily basis. Companies like Red Cap, which provides personal drivers that use the client's own car as the means of transportation, offer a glimpse into the cost of this homemaker task. An elite membership which includes 365 days of unlimited, round-trip service is $1,000 a year plus 33 cents - $2.03 per minute.

Total cost for services: $1,000 per year + [(estimated miles driven 8000 miles / 50 MPH) x 60 min/hr x $0.33 per minute] = $4,168 total per year.

Laundry ServiceClean clothes come at a cost when you have to pay for the service that most homemakers do for free. Professional laundry services charge by the pound. For instance, Susie's Suds Home Laundry Service, Inc. in Texas charges 90 cents to $1.00 a pound to wash, dry, fold, hang and steam your clothes. Items that take longer to dry such as comforters, blankets, rugs and winter clothes are assessed at a price of $12-$15 each.

Total cost for services: $0.90 per pound x 4 pounds of clothes per day x 5 days per weeks x 52 weeks = $936 total per year.

Lawn MaintenanceBasic maintenance of the exterior property is a less common, but possible duty of a homemaker.This could include things such as mowing, debris removal, edging and trimming the lawn. These services cost about $30 a week on average.

Total cost for services: $30 per week x 52 weeks = $1,560 total per year.

The Bottom LineTotal for a year of all services is: $52,260 + $6,137 + $31,200 + $4,168 + $936 + $1,560 = $96,261 per year.

The daily work of a homemaker can sometimes be taken for granted by his or her family members. However, these services could earn a homemaker a considerable wage if he or she took those skills to the marketplace. Homemakers in general contribute a lot more to the home in addition to these tasks, and no amount of money can fill those needs. 

Source for article.

Home Decorating - English Style

This past year I've been reading about English country decorating and have come to love this cozy welcoming style. 

The above book by Cheryl MacLachlan is one of my favorites and was a gift from my sister Ana last Christmas!  Another fun source of inspiration is a magazine called The English Home which is from England.

 

{From interiOr-designs}

English country home decorating, with origins tying back to rural cottages and farming communities from hundreds of years ago, is a style characterized by its attention to comfort and serene hominess.  Furniture and accessories display a variety of simple and brightly colored patterns depicting stripes and chintzes.  

This style gives the homeowner free reign to display a wide-ranging blend of antiques, photographs, artwork, and other pieces collected over time.  As with Victorian, English country decor encourages a somewhat cluttered but tidy appearance, generously displaying pieces and memorabilia collected over the years.

Nowadays, English country decor can be either casual and rustic, or conversely, lean more towards the elegantly informal.  Depending on which end of scale your tastes lay, the look is always inviting and easygoing. 

(Participating in Mrs. Line's Encouraging One Another Link-up)

A Woman at Home

"Those think that a woman detained at home by her little family is doing nothing, think the reverse of what is true. Scarcely can the godly mother quit her home for a place of worship; but dream not that she is lost to the work of the church; far from it, she is doing the best possible service for her Lord. Mothers, the godly training of your offspring is your first and most pressing duty." 

~ C. H. Spurgeon

Serve and Bless

"Every season of our lives has been granted us as an opportunity to serve the Lord.  Our goal should be to bless others in whatever sphere of influence the Lord has placed us - in whatever context He has called us to live out the biblical womanhood that He has called us to." 

~ Jasmine Baucham in the book Joyfully at Home

Vintage Advice: The kitchen

"The kitchen is your natural setting as a woman and you should look beautiful, not bedraggled, in it.  Take advantage of the opportunity the kitchen offers for expressing your wifely qualities in what you wear.  

Whatever the prevailing fashions outside you home, kitchen wear is timeless.  Pinafores, organdies, and aprons look wonderful, as to cheery cotton wrap-arounds that slip on over your dress while you make breakfast...  

Too much attention is paid to kitchen equipment and decor; too little to what is worn in this setting.  Why look like Cinderella's crotchety stepmother when you can be a lyrical embodiment of all that a home and hearth means!"   

From the book: Wife Dressing By Anne Fogarty 1959

Fresh Butter!

 

Saturday, I skimmed the cream off the milk for Mom, who was going to make mozzarella cheese.  What does one do with an abundance of cream?   Why, make butter of course! 

So I did, and ended up with1 pound.  =)

Delicious!

Of a quilt with spliced batting....

Last summer, when we were at one of the quilt stores in town, I saw these two new fabric lines and immediately loved them!  They reminded me of the English countryside and home decor, which I really like. I bought two 'charm packs' and Mom got me another two!  (Charm packs are sets of 5 1/2" squares of each of the fabrics in a collection or line.)  I sewed them up into a lap quilt in the 'Trip Around the World' pattern.

 

 Last week I finally got it basted with the backing I got at JoAnns when they were closing, and my spliced batting (see below)!  The backing is a cream color with small soft green polka dots.  :)

About the batting....

I had some batting left over from other quilts, but nothing big enough to use for this quilt.  I remembeed that in one of my quilting books (The Art of Classic Quiltmaking) I had seen instructions for splicing batting.  I had 3 pieces of batting that were the same weight and fiber content so I tried it.  I should have taken a picture before I basted the quilt to show how I did it, but here is an explanation: I overlapped the batting 6-8" and cut a serpentine line through both layers.  The gradual curves butted together perfectly once I removed the end of each layer.

Then I used the herringbone stitch to gently hand stitch the batting together.  And, to quote my quilting book, "This serpentine-stitched splice will eliminate any unsightly evidence of where you made the splice."  =)  I love using up 'leftovers' like this!!

Now I am quilting it!

I love to have a project to work on in the evenings!

Fixing and Patching

The patch, ready to be sewn on.

Last week a neighbor asked if I would be willing to fix her brother's badly torn Carhartt Coveralls.  I like to mend things so I was happy to try.  They are bulky and heavy, so I felt like I was in wrestling match, but it was a fun challenge. =)

Replacing the top of one of the back pockets.

Finished!!  =)

Working in the Kitchen with Friends

Last week our friend Jodi came up to stay for a couple days and we had such fun working in the kitchen together. We baked and frosted a cake and then made supper; home-made noodles and meat balls.  Yum!!

Ana and Jodi working on the cake.

The beautiful roses!



Rolling out the dough for noodles.



Tossing the noodles in flour.



A lovely sight!



Amy mixing up the meat balls.

There is something about working together in the kitchen with friends that is such fun! 

Thoughts on Homemaking

 

Picture credit here.

"Let's start talking about the happiness that lies waiting when we live this way and let's show, by example, that housework rewards us with homes we want to spend time in. Stop talking about housework as if it's the last thing you'd want to spend your time on, discover the good in what you do and highlight it." 

~ Rhonda Jean