Hey friends! For our first post, we wanted to share a little bit about who we are and why we’re so passionate about homemaking and give an idea of all the things we believe go hand in hand with homemaking.
Rachel and I met in high school and once we knew we planned to go to the same college, quickly decided to room together. We became an inseparable duo as we got to know each other better. I was planning to get a degree in psychology and Rachel planned to get hers in interior design.
Once college started, we quickly realized that something wasn’t right. We were always emotionally exhausted and felt like we were drowning no matter how careful we were to make healthy choices. On top of that, we couldn’t seem to keep ourselves physically healthy. Rachel had days where she woke up and was too dizzy to go to class and had to stay home and rest. I ended up losing a ton of weight freshman year and started feeling achy, my menstrual cycle even disappeared for 6 months and my doctor had me visit a hormonal specialist. We were tired all day, every day, and couldn’t seem to shake it.
As we began walking with the Lord deeper and deeper into what was going on with each of us, we separately realized that going into the career world wasn’t what the Lord had for us. I (McKenzie) had been fighting against this for a long time because I had listened to what the world says a woman should be. I felt like I needed to earn as much money as I could and make a name for myself. I was convinced that I wasn’t capable of being a mom, much less a loving wife who respected my husband.
Thankfully, the Lord had a lot more to say about who I was! He reminded me of everything I grew up dreaming and every last dream centered around loving my family and creating a beautiful home. I had grown up helping my grandma in her garden, running through forests, and climbing trees to read in the highest perch I could find. I dreamed of teaching my kids how to grow their own food as well as forage for the blessings scattered around us. I dreamed of owning animals, loving them, and talking to them all the time. I dreamed of creating a home full of life and color and of having physical children as well as adopting. I dreamed of being a homemaker. None of my dreams ever involved being successful in the business world until I learned that I had to earn my place in the world.
Once the Lord showed me the truth that He loved me and created a place for me in the world, He was able to convince me to trust Him with my dreams. As if my trust was all God was waiting on, my world started to change. I started thinking this guy I’d been friends with for years was cute (at the time I thought liking Jayden was a travesty, but I’d say it worked out). The Lord healed my heart and I finally remembered how to be excited about family, especially children. He reminded me just how valuable and precious every child is and my passion for adoption grew. Then He called me out of college… and I refused to drop out.
At this point, Jayden and I were engaged and he encouraged me to fully process the decision in front of me. After weeks of talking to the Lord and people I respected, Jayden and I gathered people that we considered wise counsel and told them what we needed them to pray into for us. We knew leaving college was a huge decision, but we also knew that we were passionate about living out our faith missionally and weren’t sure what God had in store for us. If me leaving college was truly the next step for us, I wanted to trust God with that.
By the end of that meeting, everyone had written what wisdom they felt called to share with us. By the end of that week, we knew I’d be leaving college.
From there, the Lord reminded me of all the creative and productive passions I had hidden away. I remembered just how much I love to cook, garden, and learn about the world around me. He brought me back to my childhood in dreams that let me relive memories with my grandma and reminded me how I’d thought she was so smart for being able to do things that most people relied on the grocery stores for… thus, my passion for homesteading, and sustainability grew into something bigger than I’d expected. The things that had been squashed through my childhood flourished and the Lord brought me to a dream that I’d had my whole life but thought impossible. He was asking me to work towards this dream and trust that even if it looks different than expected, He has a plan.
Someday, I dream of living on land, with people we love, in constant community, providing for our family (and anyone who ends up living next door) from the land we have. My heart longs to create space to host and teach people that feel called to the international mission field. I want to help them learn any practical skills they might need and possibly provide a place to live while they prepare financially. Amazingly, Jayden has been on board with this from day one and is just as passionate about working toward this as I am!
Since we’ve covered a lot in a short little bit, here’s the summary:
- I love Jesus Christ. He is the reason for my existence and I couldn’t be more excited about that fact!! I confess, I’m imperfect and don’t always honor Him very well in my actions, but by His grace, I’m growing every day.
- I’m married to the most wonderful man named Jayden. He is the most patient and kind person I know and is easily one of the biggest blessings in my world. We’ve known each other since… about 7th grade, but we’re not exactly sure.
- I’m pregnant with our first baby!!! We’ve dreamed of growing our family for years and are thrilled that the moment is finally here.
- I love being a homemaker and I desire to do that in the most God-honoring way I can. To me, that means being hospitable, healthy, loving, and peaceful in the way I create and keep my home. I believe that God gave humans dominion over the earth and that my job as a Christian homemaker is to work alongside God to create a little “Eden” where my home is. The difference between my home and the rest of the world is what will impact my family, friends, and strangers who come through my door.
- I dream of having land and animals and a huge garden that my entire community can benefit from. In the meantime, I’ll be content with learning what I can and getting started with whatever projects will fit in our tiny backyard. Along with that, we’ll be adjusting to parenthood, so wish us luck with all the projects!
I also love lists, so get used to them!!
Now that you’ve read a little about McKenzie’s side of the story, let me tell you a little about mine (Rachel).
Like McKenzie said earlier, we were both struggling in college. Not academically. We both had pretty decent grades. But something just felt off about the whole thing. I knew I wasn’t fitting in and wasn’t excited about my future career like everyone else around me was. I was hearing so many stories from people older than me talking about how college had been the best years of their lives. I couldn’t relate. I had chosen interior design as my major because I had always enjoyed decorating and creating. I use to spend hours as a little girl looking through my grandma’s Home and Garden magazines. I’d draw floor plans and blueprints for imaginary houses. Interior design had felt so right, but once I was in the classes and learning more about the profession, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. I spent a lot of time in prayer, seeking the Lord in all of this. Why did I feel this way? It made no sense. Even when I was loving my classes or the projects I was doing, it just felt so wrong.
Through all of this God started bringing me back to the things I dreamed of as a little girl. He reminded me of how much I loved playing house, watching my mom be a stay-at-home mom, my love for the Little House book series, and my love for kids. I soon realized all I wanted to do was be a homemaker and a stay-at-home mom. A dream that seemed so far away and impossible. For one, I wasn’t married or even dating. On top of that, I was scoffed at by a lot of people in college when I mentioned this desire. The question you hear a lot in college is what do you want to do with your life? Just imagine me answering this question with “I honestly just want to stay home with my kids one day.” Most of the time my answer was followed by a disapproving frown followed by the remark “Ok, but what do you want to actually do?” It was always a blow to my heart and made me feel like I was being foolish for wanting that to be my ministry. But God taught me a lot about what it looked like for me to care more about his calling for my life rather than the expectations of those around me. About a year after McKenzie left college, he called me to do the same.
I still wasn’t married so I started nannying and began looking for ways to become financially stable and save money. My hope is that this will enable me to stay at home with kids when that day comes. Learning how to be a homemaker as a young single girl is definitely challenging and looks different than every other homemaker I know. I don’t have a husband or kids to make a home for and have no idea how long it will be until those come about. But I’m learning a lot about how preparing for the future can benefit me and those I love, both here and now and in the future.
So to sum things up, here’s a few things about me…
- Jesus and my relationship with him is the most important thing in my life, and every decision I make, and the way I view homemaking is based on that.
- I am single. It’s not always easy to be so passionate about homemaking when this is my reality, but I am trusting in God’s provision and know that He gave me this passion for a reason. He’s teaching me that I don’t have to wait until I’m married and have seven kids to use it.
- I love kids! I want to someday have a big family and homeschool, but for now, I am full-time nannying for two sweet girls that are nine and eleven.
- I believe in living simply. The simple things in life are the things that bring the most joy and light into my life and I want that to be reflected in my homemaking and the way I live my life.
- I am the “crunchy mom” in my friend group and I won’t even try to deny it. I do my best to use all-natural products and ingredients, and I have an array of essential oils and get more excited for my Revive orders than Amazon packages.
- I dream of one day owning my own farm with lots of animals. Like.. lots of them! For now, though I have to be content with learning to make a garden in the yard of my rental house and patiently wait for the day I have a landlord who will allow pets.
Thanks for taking the time to get to know us! We hope you’ll stick around for our crazy adventures as we learn to follow God’s calling for our lives as homemakers striving to live simply in a not-so-simple world.