Allison Weeks

Hello Homemakers , welcome to the Art of Home podcast , where we are exploring how Homemakers cultivate a place to belong . I am your host , alison Weeks . I am a wife , I am a mom , two for grown kids , granny to one baby boy , and I've been practicing the Art of Home for 31 years now . If you are a new listener , welcome to the podcast . I am so glad that you found us . If you are a regular listener , thanks for coming back Today on the show .

Allison Weeks

I have another listener homemaker portrait for you , and this is season finale , the season finale of season 15 . Yes , we have done . This will be our sixth episode and so we are all done with this season after today , and I will be taking only one week off before I launch season 16 , because that's going to be an extra long season and I like to finish up the fall season right around Thanksgiving so that I can come back immediately the week after Thanksgiving and start bringing you our holiday homemaking episodes . So for season 16 , we will start early and we will actually go a bit longer . Normally our seasons are six episodes long , but next season is going to be eight episodes long because I wanted to be able to get in as many of these listener homemaker portraits , as I could , before the end of the year . So you have that to look forward to .

Allison Weeks

Well , a little bit about what's going on in my life . I have a big birthday tomorrow when I'm recording , but when you hear this it'll be my birthday . So when this airs on September 20th , I will be celebrating the big 5.0 . Yes , half a century , that is just crazy to think of , but I'm grateful . I'm so grateful to God for giving me another great year and just His abundant blessing on my life , and I'm going to go out and do some fun things with my family . We've got a fun night out planned , with dinner and a nice concert , and we're going to dress up and I'm really excited about that . What else do I have going on that I can tell you about ? Oh , I'm going to decorate for fall . So every year around my birthday , because it falls the middle of September , it feels like here in South Texas it is still quite warm , but we have had there's like a break . That happens right around my birthday in the middle of this month , and it's no longer in the triple digits every single day for a week at a time . So it finally feels like fall in South Texas , as fall as we're going to get until about December , and I feel like it's an appropriate time at this point to start bringing the pumpkins out , so that's what I will be doing for the rest of this week . It's something I do every year the week around the week of my birthday to usher in the new season and celebrate my birthday . It's something I really enjoy doing . I love decorating for the seasons in my home , and so that is something that always marks my birthday every year fall decorating .

Allison Weeks

Okay , so let's get on to today's episode . I'm going to be talking today with newbie homemaker Jessica Wood , and Jessica has been married less than two years to her husband , dallas , and she says this has been the best one year and four months of my life . She just has such a sweet spirit and I enjoyed our conversation so much . We talked a lot about expectations and what kind of system she has set in place to keep her priorities in order . She has such really great practical advice and wisdom and ideas , and so I really enjoyed hearing all of her thoughts and ideas and things that she's implementing in her , in her own homemaking .

Allison Weeks

We talk about temptations and challenges and how , even though she doesn't work outside the home . She still struggles with the superwoman temptation . We talk about hospitality and how she shows hospitality to her husband and how she's been able to show it in a unique way and actually grow in the skill which she thought would come naturally to her , but it actually didn't , and so she's been needing to practice that , and she had a unique opportunity to practice that by hosting people that were visiting her church for some church revival services or a church conference , I believe it was . Anyway , and then , to top it all off , she has the most unusual recipe that she shares with us about in her interview , and I just can't wait for you guys to hear that .

Allison Weeks

I would love to know if you guys have heard of this as well . You'll know what I'm talking about when we get there , all right , well , whatever you are applying your hand to as you listen today , I know that you will enjoy Jessica's story of home . Welcome to the art of home . I am here with my new friend , jessica

Beginnings

Allison Weeks

Wood . She's a listener and I'm so excited to hear her newbie homemaking story . So , jessica , before we go back to the beginning of your story , why don't you just say hi , introduce yourself , tell us a little bit about who you are today .

Jessica Wood

Well , it's so good to be here . I'm so excited to talk to you today . Allyn , my name is Jessica Wood . I am 28 years old . I'm married to Dallas Wood . We have been married for a year and four months and it has been the best year and four months of my life . It's been a lot of fun . I am an aunt to several little ones and I'm very recently trying to become a piano player Very recently I just had my second lesson yesterday . So that's been a lot of fun and , above all , that I am a Christian and I'm just trying to serve the Lord faithfully in my church , in my home , and do all that I can for him , to bring glory to him .

Allison Weeks

That is awesome . So piano lessons , okay . Is anybody else in your family musical or do you play any other instruments ?

Jessica Wood

No , no one in my immediate family plays any instruments that I'm aware of . I think my brother might play the drums , but , no , not a lot of musical talent there , so I'm trying to pick that up . I don't play anything else either , so this is a first time thing .

Allison Weeks

Great , that's awesome . What's your goal ? Like you want to be able to just play personally for your own personal enjoyment , or play with others , or maybe play at church or something like that .

Jessica Wood

I do have a piano at home and I love music . So I like either , you know , practicing on the piano or having music going all the time . So very excited to have it there , but I really want to play in church .

Allison Weeks

Oh , awesome , that's great . Okay , well , let's go back to the beginning of your story . So when would you say that you first became a homemaker , and when you did , did you have any skills ?

Jessica Wood

I actually moved out of my parents house in August of 2020 . I moved into a trailer and I wouldn't say that was the beginning of my homemaking . Honestly , all I did was sleep there . I worked full time . I ate at my mom's , at my friends , at my husband's parents house . At the time we weren't dating , but I would eat there . I didn't even have a washer and jar close by , so I didn't do any laundry there or anything . So I pretty much was just a sleeping place . So I feel like it really started when I got married , which was in April of 22 . Okay , and I did have skills . When I still live with my parents , I got to the point where I was doing my own laundry already . You know I probably should have cleaned more than I did my mom would say , but I had the skills to do it . I knew how to cook my . It just goes kind of natural . It wasn't too much of a learning curve there and I knew how to bake really well too . So I had pretty basic skills . I feel like to get started .

Allison Weeks

Okay , cool . So what's an area that you're struggling with right now and what are some solutions that you're implementing to help grow ?

Jessica Wood

in that area .

Jessica Wood

I think right now the biggest thing is time management feeling really overwhelmed with keeping up with the house . One thing that I just recently started doing , probably about two weeks ago , is I would make a list for my day , but the list would be so long that I couldn't finish it , and so by the end of the day I was like , okay , I can't do this , and so what I started doing is just making really small lists for every day of the week and then , as I'm finishing my list throughout the day , if I feel like it's too big , I'll disperse it , kind of you know , some tasks to another day , or if I finish my whole list , I'll add stuff onto it . But that's helped me so much because I get overwhelmed very easy , yeah yeah , that's really , that's a good practice .

Allison Weeks

It's good that you recognize that , that you're you're maybe just biting off more than you could chew , and it's so disheartening when you see this huge list and you maybe get through like two things and then you feel like I didn't accomplish anything today . Right , that's not actually true . It's just you just had really high expectations of what you could reasonably get done in one day . So , yeah , that's great . Okay , well , when it comes to influencing you in your home making , who or what would you say has had the biggest influence on you ?

Jessica Wood

It would have to be my mom and my older sister . My mom has never worked outside of the home , so she's raised she still has three at home , but she's raised all of us being a stay at home mom , and it made such an impact on me personally . I just so distinctly remember , even right up until I moved out , she would have a meal ready for my dad when he got home at 5.30 , dinner would be either done or almost done , and just watching her orchestrate small things like that it made such a big impact on me to where which my husband gets home really early because he starts really early but just trying to have a certain time to make sure dinner's ready . And same thing with my sister . She's an excellent cook . Dinner is very important to her in preparing a meal and they both know how to keep a good house that runs smooth . I feel like that's good .

Allison Weeks

What would you say ? So , Mule ? It sounds like both of them have influenced you in like making dinner or a priority , getting dinner on the table a priority . Is there anything else that you specifically learned , maybe from your sister or from your mom , Any other help making tasks or anything ?

Jessica Wood

I feel like my mom has always been very good about keeping a clean house , For when I was very young I don't ever remember a dirty house . I don't remember anything being dirty , and even when we got older she always just . The only thing I remember was silverware in the sink still because she didn't like doing silverware , but otherwise she just enjoyed having a clean house and that has influenced me as well , has that rubbed off on you ? I'm hoping it has a lot , but I'm still working on it . I don't like silverware either .

Allison Weeks

Yeah

Expectations

Allison Weeks

well , let's talk a little bit about some expectations and what are some things that have surprised you about homemaking . I mean , you had these two examples to look up to , so you kind of knew what to expect . But what's maybe something that surprised you about it ? Either good or bad .

Jessica Wood

I have two examples . I have a good and a bad one . Sure , the good thing that surprised me is I didn't realize how fulfilling homemaking would be . I worked for several years before I got married and my last job right before I got married was very fulfilling to me . It was utilizing my degree and I felt like I was good at my job . So it was a very fulfilling job to me and I very much enjoyed it . So it was hard to imagine that homemaking would give me that same feeling , because not everyone sees it as an actual job . I just had some of these preconceived ideas and so when I started to become a homemaker , I was like , wow , this is very fulfilling . I feel like I'm meeting my needs , but I get to meet someone else's needs , and it just gave me a very good sense of fulfillment and I love it . I love it .

Jessica Wood

And I was not expecting that at all , and I think I guess it would be an expectation . I didn't realize how hard it would be to realize that I'm not only making a home for just one person , I'm making a home for two people . I'm making a home for myself because I need it to be comfortable for me , but I also need it to be comfortable for my husband , and so it's hard to balance that sometimes because naturally I'm selfish in my own self . I want it to be comfortable for me , to be easy on me , but I have to make it the same way for him . I have to kind of let go of some of that selfishness , and I didn't realize it would be hard to balance that . I thought because oh , I love him so much , it's going to be so easy , but I still had to get self out of the way .

Allison Weeks

Oh yeah , man , that is a really hard lesson to learn and I'm 31 years in and I still have to learn that lesson about some things . So what's ? Maybe something that , in order to kind of get over that , maybe an unrealistic expectation you had , or something when you said you know you're making a home for two people and it's not just about you being comfortable , but it's about him being comfortable . So what's something that you had to adjust so that he would feel comfortable in your home as well , whether that's you know the way you decorate your home or the kind of food you buy , or I don't know , what was it for you that made it more home to him , not just you ?

Jessica Wood

He's a very scheduled person and I'm not , and so even just sometimes , when he would get home from work , he wants to know so what's on the schedule now , like what are you doing ? And then I'll tell you what I'm doing . And that's just not how I work . I'm not used to . I just kind of go with the flow . I do what I , you know , think needs to be done . But for him it was very much . He needs to kind of just have a schedule for the evening . And so I got to the point where I kind of understood that about him and I would try to somewhat have our evenings kind of planned , you know , or I'll just let him know this is what I'm doing , and then he'd let me know okay , this is what I'm doing , and then we could see where we need to mix things or not .

Allison Weeks

Yeah , yeah , that's good . I like that a lot .

Priorities

Allison Weeks

Let's talk about priorities . What are some practical steps that you take to help you set and keep your priorities and , like , keep them in order ? You know , making time for God , making time for your marriage and then getting all the home the home making stuff done as well .

Jessica Wood

One practical thing I try to do sometimes Dallas gets up about anywhere between 5 to 5.15 every morning and I get up with him and some days I go back to sleep when he leaves . But there's some days if I have a lot to do , just to keep everything in order , how it should be , just so I could keep things running in the house , I'll just stay up , even if I have to take a nap later on in the day . I'll just stay up and I'll get things done . So that's really helped me to keep some priorities straight , for God . I'm trying to read my Bible . I like to read my Bible through any year and so I just make sure . You know there's a certain amount of chapters I read every day . Try to make sure that I get those read . And then I have a set amount of time that I like to pray every day . And what's really helped me keep that a priority is Dallas also has a set time and we both really like to pray in the evenings and so we try to keep our prayer time at the same time , and it really helps because if I don't necessarily feel up to it , he'll tell me okay , I'm going to go pray for a while and I'll be like okay , I'll go pray too , and it kind of keeps us both accountable and it keeps it all where it needs to be . So having our prayer time in the evening together is super helpful .

Jessica Wood

And then for our marriage , one thing that we really try to do , especially right now , while we kind of have the you know the liberty and the money to do it , we try to date at least once a week . Go on a date , even if we feel like , you know , we're a little tight and we can't go out . I'll do a date night at home where I'll cook something special that we both like , make sure there's a dessert , and then just tell him okay , no chores after we eat . You know , don't go mow the lawn , I'm not going to do that , I'll do the dishes , but that's it . We're not going to do anything else . We'll play games and just hang out and that's that's been fun . We really like that . And then I also try to make our monthly anniversaries something special . So every time , you know , we hit that month , a year and three months , I would make a meal that I know he really likes or something like that . So just trying to make those little times fun .

Allison Weeks

Oh , I love that You're still so new . It's like the monthly anniversaries . That's so sweet .

Jessica Wood

I love it I love it .

Allison Weeks

I love all of these ideas . These are really great ideas getting up with him Even though you know you're tired , and but one of the things I talk about a lot is we as homemakers . If that's your full-time occupation , primarily , you have a lot more say over your time , you know . And , like you said , you can get up with him at five and if you're still exhausted at seven , you can take a quick nap at seven , you know , or whatever . Go back to bed from seven to eight or take a nap in the afternoon . As long as you're managing your time well , you can . We have more pockets of time than others do , than our husbands do , certainly to do that , and I think that's really awesome . It feels like , yeah , I can sacrifice getting up early because I know I can . God will give me that time later , that rest time later . I just have to be disciplined to take the time Right .

Jessica Wood

Yes , right , I have to be disciplined to not crawl back into bed when the bed is still really warm .

Allison Weeks

Yeah , yeah , that is hard , and then I love this evening prayer time together idea . That's such a good idea to just hold each other accountable and it helps , I'm sure , with the discipline . Like you said , when you read through the Bible , do you follow a particular plan ? Or I'm always curious to know how people , because I do that every year too and I'm just curious how other people do it .

Jessica Wood

I have actually this time I've just been doing it all to New Testament just straight through . Okay , Cool , I don't know , I just really enjoy it that way .

Allison Weeks

Yeah , Did you just divide it up , figure out how many chapters per day or whatever , and that's just how you're doing it .

Jessica Wood

Yeah yeah , I had Dallas get it all figured out . So for several days I read three chapters , and then there's two days where I read four chapters , and that should finish me in a year , or just a little bit less .

Allison Weeks

Cool , that's awesome . Okay , well , how do you maintain a healthy relationship with media , whether you do social media or not , or just media in general ? What's your take on that and how do you kind of keep that in the right box in your life ?

Jessica Wood

So I don't have any social media . I figured out very early on when I was younger . It just was not good for me and so it was just never a temptation again , because I just knew this does not work for how I am . Yeah , so no social media . And then , as far as just consuming media , I just tried to make sure that if I'm getting too caught up in it especially the news I want to be aware of what's going on , but sometimes I get so caught up in it that it stresses me out or I start to worry or something like that , so I'll back off . Sometimes I just take a break from listening to podcasts because it's just information , information , and I'll just just listen to music or something , you know , something , where I'm not necessarily having to sit here and consume it and really think about it . So I just try to know where my limits are .

Allison Weeks

Yeah , that's a good practice . I think we tend to forget . I tend to forget because I love to have some . I'm multitasking , I'm not really , but when I'm doing all my chores around the house , I like to have something in my ears , you know , a book or a podcast or something like that . But you're right , sometimes I just need silence , like I just need to do my work in silence and , you know , maybe pray a little bit and listen to what God has to say to me about what's going on in my life that day or that week . But there are definitely places to put to have some silence in our daily rhythms . When it comes to media coming in , it just seems like it's so good , like I'm learning so much from these books or these podcasts , so it's all good . But sometimes we have to choose something better over that good and give ourselves a little bit of break . So that's good . It's good to know your limits .

Jessica Wood

Yeah , it's hard . It is hard . It's hard because I really enjoy listening . Oh , I just love podcasts . And so just this past week actually , we were having revival services at our church .

Jessica Wood

So we were having a church service every night with a you know a special evangelist , and I told my husband , I said , you know , while we're in revival during the days , I'm not going to listen to anything but music or preaching or something , and it really helped me to focus more on our services and so I was able to just kind of catch that really , really on , like I think I need to , not just during this season of a week and a half , and then I'll get back up afterwards .

Allison Weeks

Yeah , I like that

Temptations & Challenges

Allison Weeks

. Let's talk about temptations and challenges . So which of these temptations have you struggled with the most , and what's God teaching you through it ? So A comparison to other women B I'm just a homemaker . I don't get paid . This is not a real job . Or C superwoman trying to do all the things .

Jessica Wood

I would have to be C , trying to do all the things . I have limits . I have limits on how much I can do , whether it's mental or physical or you know anything like that . But I think I can , so I try .

Allison Weeks

Yeah Well , how about any special challenges ? Have you faced any particular challenge in your homemaking journey and what have you done to work through that and what have you learned ?

Jessica Wood

One thing that we have struggled with is infertility . We've wanted a family . For almost a year now We've been trying to have a family and it hasn't happened . And it was hard for me at first to really accept it , because in my immediate family my sister and my mom never struggled with it at all . So in my mind , for some reason even though I know every woman's different it made me think that I wouldn't struggle , and so when I wasn't able to get pregnant , it just it was really hard to kind of accept that okay , it might not happen . In my time frame I just recently have been dealing with some health issues that we're still currently trying to get things figured out , and that's helped me to know when I need to rest . I've been reaching limits physically where I , if I keep going , I'll hurt myself . It'll affect me later on in the day really badly .

Jessica Wood

I'll have a really bad evening if I go too much during the day . So it's kind of helped me to know it's okay to rest sometimes , even if I don't get everything done . But one thing I'm really thankful for especially with not being able to get pregnant it really helped me realize that my trust wasn't quite where it needed to be with the Lord . I thought my trust was fine and then I faced something where I have to trust him because it's completely out of my hands right now and he's really . I've just felt him working on me . Seems like every month is getting a little bit easier . You know , when I find out that I'm not , it's getting . You know , I still have some days where it's not , but in general I feel like the Lord has helped me just to put my trust in him . So there's some good that's come out of it .

Allison Weeks

Yeah , that's hard road to walk through , but I'm so sorry that you're struggling with that . But it's good what God is teaching you to lean more into him and to trust him more , because it is completely out of your hands , you're right

Hospitality

Allison Weeks

. So hospitality when I ask the question about hospitality , I always ask what's a practical way that you show hospitality to the people in your household and to the people outside of your household ? And I know a big part of , especially when you're first married and you have these visions of most people , have these visions of filling the home with little children and you're gonna that's your first neighbor is your children and your husband , and so you immediately think , oh , I'll have tons of opportunities to show hospitality to them and to their friends and all of that kind of stuff , but that's not your reality right now . So what are you doing to show hospitality towards your husband and then to , maybe , people outside of your home ?

Jessica Wood

One way I try to show hospitality to Dallas is getting up with him every morning and making him breakfast . Except on Saturdays and Sundays he's on his own , but during the week I get up with him , I make his breakfast and I pack his lunch . He is very much a . He needs a lot of food for his lunch . He's not a sandwich guy , he can't just take a sandwich , he needs . He really likes leftovers . So I always try to make sure to have him a good lunch packed and that's just one little way that I try to show him that hospitality .

Jessica Wood

And one way it didn't come naturally to me . So there's anyone struggling with hospitality . It's not natural to everybody . I've had to learn it and I didn't think I would . I thought it would come natural . So having to learn it has been different . But one way I've got to show hospitality that was so much fun is every year in February we have a big church convention and we have , you know , several people in state traveling several hours and then out of state and instead of having them rent hotels or Airbnb's or anything , our church women tries to host them all in their houses , as much as we can fill them up . And so this year , since this past year is my first year being married and having a house . I got to host some people one really big family and then a couple and it was so much fun .

Jessica Wood

It was just it put me to work . It made me realize , you know , hospitality is not always easy . I only have , you know , which is me and Dallas a certain amount of towels , but when there's all of us showering I have to constantly have a load of towels going , and so just little things like that , you know , kind of made me work on it and making sure they had , you know , a mail and stuff like that . But it was so much fun to be able to take care of people where they didn't even have to spend any money .

Allison Weeks

Yeah , that's a great opportunity . How long were they with you ?

Jessica Wood

They were with me . The couple was with us from Wednesday to Sunday night . And then the family was with us from Thursday night to Saturday morning .

Allison Weeks

Okay , so that's a good amount of time to have house guests . Yeah , yeah , that's awesome .

Historical Homemaking Hints

Allison Weeks

We'll get back to Jessica's story in just a minute . Right now it's time for historical homemaking hints . This is the part of the podcast where we highlight some of the helpful and not so helpful hints doled out to homemakers throughout history . Today's hints come from 1003 household hints and worksavers distributed by WL Moody Co Bankers of Galveston , texas , in 1948 . This handy little guide has quite a few tips on saving money with household appliances and surfaces , and it has some interesting things to say about saving money on your telephone bill .

Allison Weeks

Don't trust to memory . Consult the directory for telephone numbers . In most cases , wrong guesses cost a nickel a piece or more . You pay for every moment of overtime . When making long distance calls , you will be surprised to discover how much you can shorten the minutes needed simply by first writing down a list of the subjects you want to discuss . This conversation guide eliminates hemming and hawing and forgetting and saves you time when time is really money , when making long distance telephone calls . Place an hourglass egg timer near your phone . It operates on a three minute schedule and will warn you exactly when your three minutes are up .

Allison Weeks

When shopping by telephone . Make out a want list first , so that you save time in giving orders as well as callbacks for suddenly remembered something else's . Wow , that's some really interesting tips from a long time ago , when telephone and telephone services were very different than they are today . There may be some of you who remember those days . There may be some of you who remember when we had to pay for text messaging and you would get in trouble from your parents if you went over your text message allowance for the month . But there is one thing we still do with our phone a little differently than this tip . We still shop with our phone and this tip that they talked about having a needed list or a want list before you make that phone call to shop over the phone it applies in our modern day phone shopping as well .

Allison Weeks

I always have a list with me before I sit down with either my phone or my computer to put in my online grocery order , because it helps me to make sure that I don't miss anything and make sure that I don't have to run into the store before I go to the curbside to pick up my groceries . Because I don't know about your grocery pickup service , but for ours we have a very limited window . Once I press submit for that grocery order , I have a very limited amount of time to go back in and add something that I have forgotten . So I like to make sure that I have all the items needed written down on a list as I go through and I enter them into the online shopping cart , and then I double check that list before I press submit . Well , that's all for today's historical homemaking hints . As always , please remember that these hints are intended for entertainment purposes only , and we leave it up to you , the listener , to determine the safety and soundness of this advice .

Allison Weeks

And now back to Jessica's story .

Q&A Fails, Wins & Favorites

Allison Weeks

Okay , and when you were talking about packing your husband's lunch , I miss what you said . What does he typically like for a lunch ? Because you said he's not sandwich , isn't gonna do it . So what do you typically pack for him ?

Jessica Wood

I try to do leftovers .

Allison Weeks

Oh , leftovers , okay . Okay , that's good , because not every husband likes leftovers . And then you gotta get really creative he does .

Jessica Wood

It makes it . He makes it so easy on me . He's a leftover guy , so I'm like take him .

Allison Weeks

I don't care . Oh good , that's so good . What's your ? You're usually making breakfast too , so what's y'all's typical breakfast ? Look like .

Jessica Wood

He usually could go one whole week eating the same breakfast , so like on Sunday night I'll ask him so what do you want this week ? And kind of like our regular rotation is waffles will be one week , and then he really , really likes biscuits and chocolate gravy .

Allison Weeks

What , what , what is this Chocolate gravy ? I've never heard of this , really .

Jessica Wood

Really , what is it ? No-transcript . It's like dessert for breakfast . Practically it is a gravy consistency , so it's not too thick , not too thin . You could use cocoa powder , or you could use chocolate nesquik like just the chocolate powder . That's what I use . And then you just use flour and sugar and a little bit of salt , vanilla . You could use milk as a liquid or water I just use water and then at the end you put some butter and it's like a gravy consistency , but it's chocolate flavored .

Allison Weeks

Oh , my God , it's a southern thing , I've never heard of this . And you serve it over buttermilk like buttermilk biscuits .

Jessica Wood

Yeah .

Allison Weeks

Okay , wow , I learned something every day .

Jessica Wood

Okay , yeah , that's one of his favorites . I personally am not a fan of it . Not that it doesn't taste good , but it's just too sweet for the morning .

Allison Weeks

I was going to say that sounds really really sweet . Hey , but whatever , that's really funny Chocolate gravy . Okay , I'm going to ask you some more questions related to some home-making tasks and things , and you can give me a short answer or you can tell me a story . So what's your biggest home-making fail so far ?

Jessica Wood

So I grew up eating rice with almost every single meal . Rice was our starch , no matter what . Dallas grew up eating potatoes as a starch for every meal and I love rice . So when we got married I was like you know what One night . I was just like I'm going to just make rice and I just know he's going to like it , even though I knew I knew he wasn't going to deep down . He's not a rice person , he doesn't like any type of rice at all . Nothing , no rice is nothing . So I made some type of chicken dish with the vegetable and white rice and I served it to him and he wanted nothing to do with it and I was so offended at him oh , even though I knew , I knew he wasn't going to like I set myself up for failure . But he ended up eating chili dogs that night .

Allison Weeks

So oh , my goodness , oh , no rice . I don't know , that would be really hard for me . Okay , how about a recent home making win ?

Jessica Wood

Making all my own homemade bread products .

Allison Weeks

Oh , good for you , okay . So what does that entail ?

Jessica Wood

Regular- bread buns ? What Regular sandwich bread ? Any type of dinner rolls , tortillas , pizza dough , biscuits anything that I would normally buy . If I haven't made it , I'll try to make it Awesome .

Allison Weeks

Good job . So what's a home making product or resource that you are loving right now ?

Jessica Wood

The resource that I've been really enjoying has been a podcast . It is the Elizabeth Elliott podcast . I know she's been mentioned on the art of home several times , but I feel like every time I listen to on Spotify , they have the Elizabeth Elliott podcast where they upload her . She did a radio broadcast . They upload those episodes onto a podcast form and I feel like every time I listen to it I just glean something . Even if it's really small , she just I don't know I really enjoy it a lot , so that's been something that I've really liked . Awesome and I think she really uplifts me .

Allison Weeks

Oh , yeah , for sure . All of her writing and , yeah , everything I read from her is just so encouraging . It's challenging , though A lot of times she's very like kind of in your face with her challenge , but she's . You can tell that she's passionate about what she's talking about and , yeah , she's been such a great resource to all of us homemakers . So I'm really , I'm really thankful for the legacy that she left . Okay , well , that's really a great resource . What's your favorite appliance that you just couldn't live without ?

Allison Weeks

My KitchenAid , oh well , yeah because you're making all that bread .

Jessica Wood

Oh , I have put it to good use .

Allison Weeks

Yeah , yeah , it's so wonderful to put the kneading hook on and let it knead the dough . I don't know if you do that or if you like to do it by hand , but there was a time where I was making a lot of of our bread and rolls , dinner rolls and stuff like that , and with four kids and it's like I don't have time to sit here . I love the process of kneading the bread because it's so therapeutic , but I don't have time to do that , so I can let that machine do its thing and that's great . Do you have any of the like attachments for yours or anything yet ?

Jessica Wood

No , I just have the basic paddle , whisk and dough hook right now .

Allison Weeks

Okay , I was just curious if you had used like because they have all the different things that attach to the front that little knob on the front .

Jessica Wood

Yeah , I want some of those , but those are definitely like Christmas birthday things because they're pretty pricey they are pricey .

Allison Weeks

I got a . I got the pasta maker one last Christmas and I haven't used it yet . I'm so ashamed to say that , but it's on my list to learn how to do gluten-free pasta at home . So yeah , I'll . I'll report back on the show when I finally do get the gumption to do to try that out and I'll let y'all know how it goes . Um okay , so what's your favorite favorite home-making hack or tip ?

Jessica Wood

So Dallas is a machinist so when he comes home he is very dirty , very , very dirty . So my shower and tub sometimes it just builds hopeless keeping it clean because he's always so dirty , so like that grime , that kind of builds up . I have discovered that Dawn Powerwash will get that off with like hardly any elbow grease whatsoever .

Allison Weeks

Dawn Powerwash ? I haven't heard of this . Is it ? Is it like a spray , or is it a soap , or yes , oh , I'm obsessed with Dawn Powerwash right now .

Jessica Wood

It's a . It's a dishwashing spray , so you put the , the nozzle on and it and it comes out as a foam spray and you spray it on your dishes . It's really good on like um things that are really stuck , like . Sometimes , if I bake something in a casserole dish , instead of having to let it soak I could just spray Powerwash on it and it gets it off really easy . And then I just found out that it works really well in the tub and shower .

Allison Weeks

That is so smart . I didn't even know that was a thing . But I mean , I know a lot of people use Dawn you know regular old Dawn if they're making , like their own home , cleaning products and stuff that put a few drops of Dawn , because apparently it works wonders on everything . So Dawn Powerwash .

Jessica Wood

Yeah , I make um , yeah , which is the Dawn dish soap I do make . I make my own laundry soap , laundry detergent , and I do use the Dawn dish to liquid .

Allison Weeks

Oh , okay . So I've never heard of that , of putting the Dawn in your laundry . Soap , what's like , what's your basic ? I mean , you don't have to tell me exact measurements , but what else goes in there ?

Jessica Wood

Yeah , mine is super basic . I do a liquid . I want to eventually try a powder , but the liquid is just easier . It's just Dawn dish soap , the blue one , the borax , and then the washing soda , the Arman hammer washing soda , and then hot water just to mix it all up . But it's just those three ingredients . It's really basic , but I've actually really liked it .

Allison Weeks

Cool , so maybe I can get the amounts from you and we can share it in the newsletter . Okay , yeah , um , okay . Well , I know you've just been married for over just over a year , but do you have a signature dish yet or something that you're working on , working towards perfecting ?

Jessica Wood

I don't feel like I have a signature dish quite yet . My husband would argue he would say enchiladas . I don't think so . But one thing I'm trying to perfect and I've done at least three recipes and I just cannot get it quite how I want it is Hawaiian rolls . Oh yeah , cause I don't want to buy them , but I love , we love sliders , and so I'm trying to perfect it . I've tried so many recipes and I just can't get the texture quite how I want it . So I'm still working on that one .

Allison Weeks

You're still working on that one . I wouldn't even yeah , I wouldn't even think to make your own Hawaiian rolls . So is it like a basic yeast dough recipe , but then you're adding extra sugar or something to make it sweet .

Jessica Wood

Uh yeah , so it's a basic yeast dough recipe , um , to add kind of like that tanginess almost that's in Hawaiian rolls it's pineapple juice is the liquid .

Allison Weeks

Really ? Oh , that makes sense .

Jessica Wood

Yeah , yeah . And then I I think I've used a recipe that does sugar and one that does honey , but it is a pretty . It's a more amount Than what you would normally use for that sweetness ? Oh , okay , cool , but I just can't get the texture quite right .

Allison Weeks

Oh , okay , and so it's more of it . It's not . You feel like you've got the taste , you just don't have the texture . Quite right . Okay .

Allison Weeks

Yeah , all right . Well , maybe , since you haven't perfected that yet , I can get your biscuits and chocolate gravy recipe and share with everybody in the newsletter , if you wouldn't mind ? Yeah ? That'd be , yeah , that'd be awesome Cause I'm sure that I'm not the only one who's like I got to try this chocolate gravy business

The Art of Home & Titus 2

Allison Weeks

. Okay , let's talk about the art of home a little bit . So how do you see homemaking as an art , and where do you find beauty in the art of homemaking ?

Jessica Wood

So when I was thinking about this question , I was thinking , like with any art , so if anyone is an artist and they're creating something , some people have a natural knack for creating things . You have a natural , you know , ability to do that and for some people there's a learning curve . Yeah , and I feel like for me it was definitely a learning curve , but I think the way that you approach it as an art is , any artist is going to try to perfect or get just right what they're creating .

Jessica Wood

And I feel like , especially if you are a woman of God and you're trying to serve the Lord and you feel called to home , making you should be trying to perfect that art Not that it's going to be perfect , but you should strive for that Because it's something you're trying to create . You're trying to create a home , just like an artist is trying to create a piece of artwork , and you're going to try to make it as pretty and as enjoyable as possible .

Allison Weeks

Yeah , yeah , I love that answer . I think maybe I know exactly what you mean . But when we say that word perfecting it we think we have a lot of negative connotation because we don't want to be perfectionists . But maybe excellence is a better word . You know , we , as an artist , would strive for excellence in their artwork . They would strive to make their painting or their sculpture excellent to the best of their ability . And I think we can look at home making the same way .

Jessica Wood

Right .

Allison Weeks

Yeah . So where are you finding the beauty ? Because there's a whole lot of stuff about home making . That's not really beautiful .

Jessica Wood

It's so wonderful when you have people living in your home and they like living in your home . Yeah , Because I mean I might not like doing the dishes after dinner every night , but when I do the dishes and the kitchen's clean and the house is picked up , I'm making it comfortable . This person enjoys living here . I enjoy living here . That's where it's a beautiful place to be , but the actual work of it is not always beautiful .

Allison Weeks

I like that way of looking at it . I love the way you said that we're aiming for people to enjoy living in our home , whether that's us or our husband or our kids . That's a good way to think about it ? What about thankfulness ? So what's something about home making that you're thankful for , and how has gratitude improved your experience of keeping a home ?

Jessica Wood

Earlier I mentioned something about getting myself out of the way , and one thing I'm so thankful for is not only keeping a home , but living with another person . When you've lived alone for a while . It's not fun to see , but it does bring some of your faults to light . I have realized me and Dallas have had several conversations just talking about , before we were married , how selfish we were . You have to get that out of the way in order to make it a good place to live . Homemaking has forced me to not be a selfish . It can't be about me anymore . All the time . There's someone else that has to be cared for , and it shaped me to be better , to not just think about myself all the time . I'm so thankful for that .

Allison Weeks

That's a wonderful thing to recognize you both . Recognize it too is good , because when you're living by yourself , you don't recognize it because it's just you . It's not until you get that close contact with another person and the friction there is what brings out the things , and God uses that to refine us , and so it can be painful at times , but the outcome is good if we yield to it and we listen to what he has to say and to teach us through that , that's really great . Well , let's wrap up our time today and we're going to talk to some of the other women . So we're going to talk to the older women and the younger women . How would you say , how can older women help your generation of homemakers thrive in their practice of the art of home ? What do you need help with ? What do you wish they understood about your experience , and how can they enter in and minister to you and help you ?

Jessica Wood

For me personally , I do gravitate . I feel like to like older women . I enjoy listening to stories and experiences . So for me , what would help me is to have those older women in those generations before me make themselves available to listen and to share their experiences . There's so much wisdom . There's so much wisdom . I love to hear that kind of stuff . But they don't always want to hang out with the young generation because they think we're just all clueless and careless . We all kind of get lumped into this generation where I feel like the older generation thinks that we're just a little flighty . What generation are ?

Allison Weeks

you , are you millennial .

Jessica Wood

I'm a millennial .

Allison Weeks

I know All the generations . We all have a bad rap in one way or another , like the boomers and I'm not a boomer , I'm an exter and we're all just cynical and we don't trust anybody , which is kind of true . But it's not your right . We can't just lump people into these categories , because that's not really seeing the person . So , yeah , I like that . So be available , make yourself available . What about to the younger women ? What would you say to a younger woman coming behind you , maybe to just encourage her ?

Jessica Wood

One thing I would say , because I really struggled with this , was to manage your expectations . Not because homemaking and marriage aren't wonderful they are , it is wonderful but if you set your expectations so high and you don't meet them , you're going to feel like a failure , because that's just how we're wired we . We want to get things accomplished and we have these Expectations of this is how I'm gonna be as a wife and this is how I'm gonna be as a homemaker . And then when you get married , you don't live up to the idea that you had , that you were gonna be , and , and so then you see yourself like not good enough . So I would just say Re-evaluate and adjust as needed .

Jessica Wood

Try to keep your expectations manageable . I mean , it's wonderful being married , keeping houses great , but you have to adjust for those things that you're not prepared for . And I feel like if you reevaluate Even before you enter into it , reevaluate your expectations , adjust what needs to be adjusted . That way you don't have to do it later on . I felt like I had to do it when we were already married and it was way harder because there were so many times I felt like I wasn't a good wife and I wasn't keeping a good home , but that's because I was expecting myself to be something that I just couldn't live up to at that time .

Allison Weeks

Yeah , that's a good word , and I mean I will say to you , I think , do do that work .

Allison Weeks

Yes , I agree with you to the younger women really take a good look at what your Expectations are and and go into it not with low expectations , but just hold them loosely , I guess right . And then , even after you're married , even after your 10 , 20 , 30 years in , I'm constantly reevaluating my expectations and making sure that they Aren't unrealistic , making sure that they're not selfish or , you know , whatever it is . I'm trying to Manage expectations because that , to me , that's one of the number one areas where where I get into trouble is when I have certain expectations and I feel like they're not being met , and I'll either react in anger or , you know , sorrow or Frustration or any number of negative ways . So managing expectations is huge , I think , for the homemaker , to it's a , it's a good practice to be in all the time . So , yeah , well

Episode Takeaways

Allison Weeks

, jessica , thank you so much for sharing your story of home with us . It's really been a joy to get to spend this time with you and get to know you and hear your story .

Jessica Wood

Thank you for having . I've enjoyed it thoroughly .

Allison Weeks

I'm so glad you're welcome . Thank you so much for listening to this homemaker portrait of Jessica wood . I hope you have been inspired and encouraged in your practice of the art of home through listening to Jessica's Stories and ideas and that you found something that will inspire you as you go about your good work in the home . I was inspired by Jessica and some of her practical suggestions and just her perspective again to be reminded that Homemaking in all its various aspects does not Necessarily come naturally to most of us . Actually , it's not a skill You're just born knowing how to do . You have to practice . That's why I called this podcast the art of home , because , just like any art , it is something that you need to first learn the fundamentals of and then master those fundamentals over a very long period of time by practicing over and over again . That is how you grow . That is how the fundamentals of any art that you're trying to practice come more and more naturally to you .

Allison Weeks

We've talked about this before on some of our past episodes , about how it can seem so overwhelming in the beginning because your baseline on some of these Skills is like at zero . You just have no point of reference , you have no skills , and so any effort towards improving in that area whether it's cooking or cleaning or organizing it's gonna feel monumental because you have not practiced those muscles , you haven't Worked on that skill enough to reach a baseline that is not necessarily mastery level , but at least a basic level of competency . Then you can work on growing and mastery . Where we really have to be careful is when we start to compare what our baseline is with what somebody else's Mastery level is . If I'm at baseline on a skill and I look at my neighbor , the lady down the street or the lady on Instagram and she's at a mastery level and then I try to compare , that's not a fair comparison . I don't know how many hours and hours of practice have gone into her being a master at . You know , laundry or sourdough or Scheduling kids , home school . What I don't know , fill in the blank . Just be careful when you look at other people and compare . Rather than comparing , look at others and don't assume it just comes naturally to them . Assume that they've worked really hard to get to that level of mastery and then approach them and ask them to help you Grow in that area . That's why community among homemakers is so , so important . Yes , there is value in community online . I'm not dissing that and saying that there's no value there . Definitely take advantage of that . But also community in real life .

Allison Weeks

Go find those ladies who have mastery in areas that you are lacking in and pick their brain and sit under their tutelage and learn from them , because it doesn't come naturally to everybody . You're not the odd one out because you're struggling in a particular area of your homemaking , and I think that's what Jessica was talking about . She was starting to realize that it's okay that things don't come naturally to her in her homemaking . That's why it can be such a fulfilling job , which she said was so surprising to her . When she started doing this full time after being in the workforce Forced full time with the job that really fulfilled her , she wasn't expecting homemaking to be so fulfilling , and I personally believe that a lot of that fulfillment comes from tackling those areas where you are lacking and doing the hard work of Practicing the art over and over again until you reach a level of mastery . Not perfection , but excellence . Remember that's what we talked about the difference between those two words . We're not looking to be perfect , because we know that's not possible . We are looking to be excellent in the work that we do in the home , because that's what honors the Lord and it honors this occupation of homemaking that we are called to .

Allison Weeks

If you would like another weekly dose of homemaking inspiration and ideas and thoughts and devotionals occasionally , make sure that you're subscribed to our free weekly newsletter , homemaker happy mail . It goes out every Friday at midnight , the Friday right after this episode airs . We'll have everything extra from Jessica's episode . So , yes , she is going to share her chocolate gravy recipe with us , so that'll be in there . Her recipe for her homemade laundry soap is going to be in there , and any extra links or anything that we discussed , I will make sure those are all in those detailed show notes that go in the newsletter . There'll be some extras there for me as well , so make sure you're signed up .

Allison Weeks

Go to the art of home podcast comm Subscribe . If you have found value in today's episode , you can show us some Appreciation and love in one of the following ways . Number one , share this episode with someone you know who would be inspired and encouraged by Jessica's story . Number two , leave a rating and a review on your favorite listening app . And then , number three , if you're so moved , you can leave us a tip and our virtual tip jar by Mia . Coffee Tips are given in five dollar increments . You can give one , two , three or as many coffees as you would like . Just go to buy me a coffee . Comm Slash the art of home . Well , that is it for today's episode and for season 15 . I'll be thinking about you guys next week and I'm at the podcast conference and but then I'll be back the following week with all new Homemaker portraits of listeners , just like you . Until then , keep practicing your art of making a home .