Welcome to Home Making

Part science, part art, all a practice in stewardship.

I almost called this Substack Home Economics because I majored in Econ in college and the objective, math-y nature of the science still has a special place in my heart. Economics, at its core, is about optimization. 

As a mom running a household with the limited resource of money, the finite resource of time, and a plethora of consumption possibilities—how do I go about making the decisions that optimally benefit my family? How do I optimize my resources to maximize utility?

These are the problem-solving type questions I love, but there’s more than math required to cultivate a thriving home life—there’s an art.

I spent my childhood poring over interior design books at the library down the street from our house. A beautiful home was not a priority for my parents, but beauty was what I gravitated towards.

Now that I have a home and a family of my own, what I want is not just a home life with organized finances and a maximized schedule—I want a home that feels joyful, peaceful, and—because art is the color of life—beautiful.

Enter Home Making. My newest side project, social science meets creativity experiment, glorified online journal.

I want this to be an honest space to talk about all that goes into managing a household and creating a flourishing home life because home is a space I have the privilege of cultivating, and I want to do it intentionally.

What I’m envisioning: the opposite of a highlight reel. I want to peel back the curtain and examine the practice of “home making”—

How much time does that Pinterest-worthy project actually take? 

Who does what chore and when? (Is an equitable division of labor even possible?)

What goes into making annual family Christmas cards and photo albums?

How actually is it possible to keep from accumulating piles of unfolded laundry?

Behind the scenes of: after school rhythms, celebrating Sabbath, decorating for the holidays, family dinner, designing a nursery.

I want to talk about the pretty final product, of course, but also the nitty gritty of what goes into it, like if Joanna Gaines and Laura Vanderkam did a collab. Everything that the influencers don’t tell you. What the younger me would want to know. What I want to talk about with my sisters and friends but we never get to because one kid is about to run into oncoming traffic and the other one is pegging his brother in the chest with a soccer ball (just me??). It’s about chore charts and cleaning schedules but also about the house that smells like mulled cider and fresh baked apple pie when you turn out the lights at night.

Home Making is, in essence, about making a life with the people you love—part science, part art, all a practice in stewardship.

I’m so glad you’re here.