Praise For Homemakers

Homemakers, you really are valuable.  I told my husband on our anniversary that some people say, "My husband makes the money, and I spend it," but I don't like to spend our money, especially on frivolous things.  I want to use it to help our family and to live.  He said he would say to people, "I make the money, and she saves it."  That was a very honoring thing for Ethan to say to me.  I really do value homemaking and the role it has served our family over the years.  I honor my mother for all she did to make a home for us growing up, too.

A few weeks ago, I canned tomato sauce from our garden tomatoes.  That month's work also produced some yummy canned chokecherry jelly and grape jelly.  My Kerr Home Canning Book published in 1948 and sold for 10 cents came in handy! My grandma gave this book to me from her collection of cookbooks.  Ruth Kerr, president of the Kerr Glass Manufacturing Corporation wrote these words in her amazing introduction that I would submit for your contemplation today:

OURS IS A GREAT HERITAGE, YOURS AND MINE… For we stand first in line as our country's greatest single asset---the American Homemaker.  Again we gladly shoulder the responsibilities of our heritage, for this year we are being asked to be not only Homemakers, we are being asked to join the great forces of our Government in its program of world nutrition.  As American Homemakers we have been invited to represent America in this urgent world crisis, but our conference table will be in the kitchens of our homes, where each gleaming jar of canned fruit and vegetables is our contribution to our country's Blueprint for World Security.

I spent several hours today mending clothes that have piled up in a box over the past four months.  I hate throwing away perfectly good clothes when they just need a little needle and thread work to make them useful again.  My grandma and my mom taught me that by example.  A few years ago, a Swedish friend who worked with college students told me that one of the students wanted to throw away an expensive sweater because the button fell off.  She looked at the young lady, handed her a needle and thread, and told her to learn to sew on a button.  I hope that young people in this generation will learn the value of homemaking and of doing things for yourself for the sake of your family and your country.