Welcome to Season 16, Meet Ginny

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 , allison Weeks . I am a wife . I am a mom to four grown kids and a granny to one baby boy . I have been practicing the Art of Home for over 31 years now . Welcome to season 16 plus . I'm calling it season 16 plus because normally our seasons are six weeks long . We have six episodes , but this season we are going to be bringing you eight episodes . Yes , that's right . Eight fantastic episodes featuring listeners just like you , and then our eighth episode will air right before Thanksgiving , and then , right after that , we will go straight into our holiday homemaking for 2023 . I am so excited about all the things that are coming on the Art of Home podcast . You don't want to miss it , so make sure that you are following the show on whatever app that you are listening to the show on .

Allison Weeks

I had a nice little break . It was short , but it was nice to have a break from the podcast for a week , and then I wasn't actually breaking from podcasts altogether because I was at a podcast conference , a Christian podcast conference that I have been to before , and it was so wonderful to be surrounded by other believers who are doing the podcast thing . They speak my language , they understand what I'm talking about when I get all technical about things , and they are all passionate in their niche , whatever it is and let me tell you there was a lot of different ones they are passionate about spreading the love of Jesus with this very unique and interesting medium that we call podcasting . So I learned a lot and I got a lot of inspiration , so I'm really excited to start implementing some of the things that I learned . While I was there Also got to do something really fun this morning that I haven't done in a long time . I , as a hobby , I enjoy painting and drawing and all the creative things , but I particularly enjoy doing watercolor painting and dabbling with pastels and things like that , and a friend of mine who is a neighbor , invited me to come with her to an outdoor painting group that meets every Tuesday in the town next door to us . It's a quaint little old German town and there's lots of neat buildings and things , and so I got to just sit and play in my sketchbook with my watercolor paints , and I haven't done that for quite a long time , so that was lovely .

Allison Weeks

Do you have a hobby ? Do you have something that you get to do just for fun ? Just because , if you don't , I would encourage you to find one . You don't feel pressured to perform or create anything that you have to sell or anything like that . This is just something for you to do . That's just fun and some kind of creative outlet .

Allison Weeks

If you're new to the podcast , you might not know about our secondary resource that complements our podcast episodes . Here it's called Homemaker Happy Mail . That is our free newsletter . It goes out every Friday morning and it is the only place where you can get detailed show notes . So I will put a few show notes down in the description box . But not all podcast players even have a description box , so the best way for me to get resources into your hands that are related to these episodes is to send them out in a weekly newsletter . So you'll get links . You will get recipes that the guests shared or any other resources that they shared . I will often write something that's related to what we talked about on the podcast . I will share what's coming down the road on the podcast . If anything new and exciting is happening , the newsletter audience will hear about it first . So you definitely want to make sure that you are on that mailing list . Just go to theartofhomepodcastcom slash subscribe to sign up today .

Allison Weeks

Well , on the show today we have another listener Homemaker Portrait and in the trenches , homemaker Ginny White . Ginny has her own podcast which we will talk about on the show later on . It's called Figuring Out Homestead Life , which she does with a friend of hers whose name is also Allison . I'll put the links to that down below so you can make sure you can hop over there and go check out Ginny's podcast and follow them over there . She calls herself a mini homesteader and we talk about what that means and what all she's doing on her little mini homestead there . She is a canning enthusiast and she has the blue ribbons to prove it .

Allison Weeks

She is also a fairly new Christian and she so graciously shares with us the story of how she and her husband came to know Jesus and how it changed everything in their lives . Her husband was an addict and alcoholic and he had an encounter with the living God in recovery , as Ginny says . When he came back and was a completely different person and did not struggle with alcoholism and addiction again , she knew that there had to be something to this Jesus that he was talking about , because it was no other explanation for the changed man that she had living with her . That is a wonderful story and I am just so honored that Ginny shared that with us . Besides that , she shares all kinds of fun ideas and tips and resources and we just have a delightful conversation .

Allison Weeks

I know you're going to enjoy this so much . So , whatever you are applying your hand to as you listen today , I know that you will enjoy Ginny's story of home . Okay , welcome to the Art of Home . I'm here with my new friend , ginny White , and Ginny is an in-the-trenches homemaker . We're going to talk about all that goes along with that shortly , from the beginning of her story to now , but before we do that , I want Ginny to just say hello . Introduce yourself , ginny , to the audience . Tell us a little bit about who you are today .

Ginny White

Hi , so my name is Ginny , I am a wife . I am a follower of Jesus . I'm a hobby homesteader , like kind of a little mini homesteader . I do have a full-time job outside of the home , but I am lucky enough to work from home most of the time , which helps with the homesteading and chores and things like that . I live in New England . I do have a very large family , intermixed blended family that we're pretty close with . Living at our home is just my husband and I and our pets . We haven't been blessed with children yet , so we are making up for it with many animals .

Allison Weeks

So okay , how many animals do you have , or what kind of animals do you have ?

Ginny White

So we have dogs , cats I do have a lizard and then we have chickens .

Allison Weeks

Okay , chickens , how many chickens ? Are you a crazy chicken lady ?

Ginny White

Yes , well , right , I'm limited right now with space , so I have 12 laying hens and then right now we have meat birds , but they're not going to be here for much longer .

Allison Weeks

So yeah , I started listening to your podcast about your pantry and I think that was the one you were talking about getting ready to process the birds and you had just gotten a freezer off Craigslist or something . Yes , and have you processed birds before I ?

Ginny White

have helped , but this is going to be like now it's all on me as the , not the supposed knowledgeable person . So we're actually doing it tomorrow . So wow . Yeah .

Allison Weeks

Okay , go with God , all right . Yeah , that's , that's . You are a brave woman . I don't know that I could do that . I think I think we should probably all do it at some point , so we know where our food comes from . But , wow , all right , good luck . Okay . So I'm sure we'll talk more about your homestead as we go through the conversation , and right now I'd like

Beginnings & Expectations

Allison Weeks

to go back to the beginning . And why don't you tell us when did you first become a homemaker , and when you did , did you have any skills ?

Ginny White

So I feel like I almost have like two different times . I became a homemaker so I moved out of my house right when I was 18 with my boyfriend . At the time I had not very many skills like no skills . I had my mom as a you know big inspiration in a model , but I didn't actually do any of the things , I only saw her doing it . So that's a lot different than actually trying to take it on yourself , than just watching someone as you lounge about . So that was really the first time . But then I did , you know , move home . Maybe four years . After that I lived back at home for several years and then I had my second beginning when I moved out with my now husband . So when I did have , you know , more skills at that time from moving out on my own and just being older and a little more mature in general .

Allison Weeks

So okay , what would you say was the skill that you have that you had the steepest learning curve for , and then what were some of the things that you you know . How did you sort of tackle that and get better ?

Ginny White

I probably want to say cooking . My mom , you know , prepared all of our meals for us . We always had dinner . She made breakfast , like everything you know . I remember when I first moved out , calling her and being like , how long do I boil an egg ? For , like , I don't even know how to boil an egg , which was pretty sad . So but I got really interested in cooking and I used to go like at the checkout aisle and the grocery store and just get the little cooking magazines that I would clip out , ones that I liked , and I made my own cooking book basically out of like a three ring binder which all these clipped magazine articles . So I just kind of added to my repertoire from those .

Allison Weeks

So yeah , that was a . That's what we used to do before . Pinterest folks yes .

Ginny White

Free Pinterest , for sure .

Allison Weeks

Yeah , okay , so that was helpful for you to grow in that area . Then , yeah , how would you say where would you rate your cooking skills where you are now at this point ?

Ginny White

I think I'm a pretty good cook . I mean I do get you know , I don't want to , you know , feel like a braggar or whatever , but I do get many compliments on my cooking . My husband's friends are always happy when they get invited over for dinner and stuff , so , and I do host a lot of our family holidays , so I definitely improved a lot . I do enter like canning competitions and stuff like that now too , so I really enjoy it .

Allison Weeks

That's awesome . So who , or what would you say , has most influenced your homemaking ?

Ginny White

Definitely my mom . My mom was a stay at home mother , so she , you know , was my model . That's always how I envisioned our house being run , was the way that she , you know she operated . Just , you know , always working on something , always picking up , and just at the holidays it was , you know , just beautifully decorated and just warm and welcoming , just a fun place to be . Our house was like the gathering place for all my aunts and my cousins were always over growing up , big parties and that's just always , you know , the home that I wanted to have .

Allison Weeks

So how did that turn out for you ? I mean we . I want to talk about expectations , because a lot of times we have in our mind what it's going to look like and then it ends up looking totally different . What are some things that surprised you about homemaking ? Things , good or bad , just something that you didn't really expect .

Ginny White

The scheduling was unexpected . I'd realized how difficult it was going to be to just manage all the tasks . And you know when am I going to get all this stuff done ? I just started working from home recently , so I had like a you know , 40 hour a week outside of the home job . So like , oh my gosh , like I had these high expectations of what my home growing up looked like and I'm like this is really difficult to maintain not being here . So you know , that was a little little difficult and I used to try to do these like marathon cleaning sessions where I would clean the whole entire house for hours and hours , and hours and then , you know , my husband would live in the house and be like wait , I just cleaned all this , like what are you doing ? So I've definitely learned to kind of stagger myself . So everything kind of looks tidy all the time , you know , because I just do a little bit here and there .

Allison Weeks

So yeah , I love that method Just every day tidying , so that you never have like a huge , like a tornado came through , type of mess that you have to clean up Right , because that would end up taking you know , a whole day or maybe more .

Ginny White

Yes .

Allison Weeks

Yeah , and I don't have that time . Okay , so what's an expectation that you've had to let go of for the well-being of you and your family ? So , you and your marriage , what's something that you like ? Okay , I'm just gonna not die on that hill .

Ginny White

I think , just kind of going back to what I just spoke of , just realizing that like we're living in the house , it's not gonna look like a magazine , that's not realistic and just you know , we're not the house , it's not supposed , we're not supposed to serve the house , the house is supposed to serve us . So I , you know , putting the family first instead of putting the house looking a certain way first . You know , even like I have nephews that come over and sometimes I catch myself and I'm like all right , just calm down . Like why are you ? You want the nephews to be here , why do you care that they're ruffling up the tablecloth Like it doesn't matter , you know . So , yeah , I do have to sadly remind myself of that , but it's like all right , let that go .

Priorities & Getting Things Done

Allison Weeks

So let's talk a little bit about how you are learning to manage your priorities with the demands of your job and trying to accomplish what you want to accomplish in your home and in your marriage and all of those things . So how do you , what are some practical steps that you take to set and keep your priorities ? And I'm particularly interested in hearing your take as a woman who's keeping a home and doing a full-time job . I'd love to hear sort of what do you do to manage all that ? Well , I do have a chore chart .

Ginny White

So I made myself a chore chart and I tried to think about it as I was doing it . As you know , how long are these tasks going to take , you know , and splitting it up kind of accordingly and knowing at work what are my busier days and things like that . So I really I'm a very big list person . I really enjoy lists and checking things off of a list . I really like a schedule to . So staying with the same routine every day or every week , so definitely implementing the chore chart and just giving myself like an hour , an hour and a half of stuff , you know , cleaning things or whatever , laundry , all that food , shopping , you know , anything like maintaining the home to do a day which isn't overwhelming , that's , you know , not too much . Especially on the days I'm working from home I can do something quick for like 20 minutes and then you know , on my lunch break or whatever you know , and just kind of chip away at it .

Allison Weeks

Yeah , no , that's really smart . How , what are you doing to keep your ? You said at the beginning that you're a follower of Christ , so what do you do to nurture your spiritual life ? How do you keep the priority of keeping God first in the midst of all that busy schedule that you have ?

Ginny White

Yeah , for me I have to do like my prayer time and you know , if I'm working through like a Bible study book or whatever , I need to do that first thing in the morning or the day can tend to get away from me and then I'll end up not doing it , which you know isn't good . So I really I know , I know some people can do it in the afternoon , they can do it , but I really need to do it in the morning . Same thing like with exercise . Like you know , I have to do that like first thing in the morning , or you know , odds are it may get skipped . So , and we do have a like a weekly Bible study we do with my husband's grandfather , we do one zoom with him , so that's , that's nice so yeah , I love that .

Ginny White

Yeah , so he's in his 80s and my husband really wants to , you know , keep his relationship tight with him and so , yeah , we get to meet with him on zoom on Mondays because he lives out of state , so that's nice to do that with him .

Allison Weeks

That is so cool . I would love to know more about that . Whose idea was that and how did you get that started ? Did you approach him or did he approach you guys ?

Ginny White

I think Luke may have wanted to do it with them . I think he was just looking for a way to kind of just spend more time with his grandfather . And you know , we're newer Christians and his grandfather is , like I said , he's in his 80s , so he's a very mature , mature in his faith . He's like an example of a godly man that you would want to just learn from and listen to him , help you understand the scriptures and stuff . So we approached , approached him and we've just been finding like I think we're doing one by . Oh , it's right here , it's 30 life principles by Charles Stanley . So that's the book we're working through together right now .

Allison Weeks

So oh , I love that . That is such a great idea . I hope that inspires somebody to try that as well . Okay , those are really great practical examples . Thank you for sharing those . Let's talk a little bit about media . So how do you maintain a healthy relationship with social media and just media in general ?

Ginny White

That is definitely something that I have struggled with and continue to struggle with . I had to get rid of Facebook altogether . I just it became to . Every time I went on it I just was not feeling good , I was feeling upset , and it just I'm like why am I continuing to go on here if it's making me to feel this way ? So I deleted that whole thing altogether . I haven't been on there , I think , since , like the last election I'm there and COVID , I thought , was I was like I got to get off of here . So I do have Instagram , which I do try to just follow . You know a lot of homemakers , a lot of homesteaders , so I try to keep that a little more wholesome and just tailored to you know specific interests of mine that are healthier .

Allison Weeks

So yeah , yeah , for sure , I think definitely Facebook goes way more negative , polarizing , political , especially in an election cycle . So , yeah , I might be logging off of mine for a while here coming up , because it's already starting to get bad , I think . So , okay ,

Temptations & Challenges

Allison Weeks

cool . Well , let's talk about some temptations and challenges . Which of these temptations have you struggled with the most , and what is God teaching you through it ? So a comparison to other women b I'm just a homemaker , I'm not getting paid . This is not a real job . Or c superwoman trying to do all the things .

Ginny White

I would say well , sometimes the comparison , but mostly the superwoman . I don't like to ask for help , I like to try to do everything myself . Then sometimes I can end up getting a little burnt out and then I feel resentful , even though I'm creating all of the work on me that I'm doing and I'm not asking anyone to help me . That can be a bad cycle that I can fall into . I've noticed that even during holidays . That's something that I struggle with . When I'm hosting , I can sometimes get so wrapped up and busy trying to do all these things clean cook won't let anyone help me and then I'm not spending time with my family , which is the whole purpose of hosting the event . That's something that I'm trying to work on and get better at . If you want to help me with the dishes , cool , or let's just leave them and I'll do it later . We don't even need to do them at all right now .

Allison Weeks

Yeah , I think we all struggle with that . Somebody else just answered this question very similarly to you that I was interviewing this week and they said I don't know why I don't think to ask for help . It's not necessarily that I don't like having the help or I want to do it all by myself . I just don't think to ask for help because I get in that mode of do do , get this done , I have to get this done , I don't know . For me , I feel like a lot of times my to-do list especially when it's holiday time and I'm hosting a lot of people I put things on my to-do list that just nobody else cares about . Really Right , I could probably eliminate about at least 10 to 15 percent of my list if I took all of that off , because it's just not that important .

Ginny White

Yeah , my husband tries to remind me of that too . He'll see me going crazy the days leading up . He's like what do you think people are going to do when they come in ?

Allison Weeks

here they're not going to have a white glove and start wiping all your top shelves .

Ginny White

What are you doing ? I ?

Allison Weeks

know . Why do we do that ? I don't know . Okay , well , let's talk about any special challenges that you have had in your home-making journey . How have you worked through that challenge to adapt and grow ?

Ginny White

Yeah , we've had several pretty big challenges . The biggest one is my husband is a recovered addict and alcoholic . When I first moved out with him , he was an active addict and alcoholic , which I didn't really realize at the time , until we moved in because we were in a long-distance relationship prior to that I didn't really realize that there was an issue . Then we got married and he was still active in his addiction . It got pretty bad to the point where he ended up having to leave the home and he went to treatment . While he was there , he had an encounter with God .

Ginny White

We were not believers prior to this . He had an encounter at the treatment facility that he was at that he was lucky enough to get into up here in New Hampshire . He encountered God and he said he just immediately felt relief and he's never craved drugs or alcohol since . That in turn brought me to Christ . Because I just couldn't believe this immediate transformation that occurred , I was like , oh my gosh , there's no other explanation like this is real . Someone flipped a switch and everything was completely different from that day forward . That was a struggle while we were going through it , a lot of hard times , but now everything's just completely different and he is actually entering seminary and it's completely changed our whole life , now for the better .

Allison Weeks

What an amazing testimony . Oh my gosh , wow . Okay , I have a couple of questions . You were together and living together and he was active in his addiction . What was the point ? I'm just thinking about maybe somebody who's listening heaven forbid this is their situation , but maybe it is or they know someone who this is their situation . Because you've walked this road . I just always want to ask maybe some helpful questions that could plant a seed in somebody else . So what was the point where it was time for him to go get help ? Did you both decide ? Did you have to ask him to leave ? How did that work ?

Ginny White

Yeah , things had escalated to the point where I no longer , unfortunately , felt safe there . So I did leave . I left and went to stay with my mom and I did get a restraining order on him , so he had to leave the home and he didn't really have anywhere else to go . So , from what I understand , he was like well , I have to go to treatment , like there's , I have no other option and I have no excuse not to go , because he would say you know , well , I can't go get help because I have to work and we have bills and you know , just making excuses .

Ginny White

But now he those things didn't really matter anymore because he wasn't allowed to be back at the house . So luckily , you know , by the grace of God , he just started randomly calling , trying to get into a place which can be difficult , unfortunately , especially when it's last minute like that and he I believe it was like late at night , he was trying to like beat the clock to get to this facility that he ended up going to , to get there before they closed , and he just made it there in time and it was definitely all in God's plan and where he was supposed to be , and yeah , so that's amazing .

Allison Weeks

So how would you what ? How would you encourage someone who either is in the situation or knows someone who is it's more likely it's somebody maybe they're observing from the sidelines where you have a recovered or recovering this kind of situation ? So , like post , when you got back together , when he moved back in , he found Christ . You found Christ . And now you said you know there was still bumps in the road and challenges , it wasn't always easy Like what are some of the things ? I don't know ? How can you , how can people come along inside and help , or what advice would you give to someone who's at that stage ?

Ginny White

Well , for us , we really needed to get plugged into community and have a support system of people that kind of understood , like , what was going on . So we did so , like I said , we weren't believers so we didn't have a church or anything . So he started going to a Bible a 12 step Bible study group at a local church , and the pastor of that church was a member of the group . So of course he said you should start coming to church . So we linked up with him and he really kind of took us under his wing and started to try to teach us , you know , how to be in a Christian household .

Ginny White

I didn't even at that time , understand anything of Christianity . I didn't have a good grasp of , like who is God , who is Jesus , like I always was confused by the whole concept of it . So he really went from ground level , just you know , was there for us and taught us how to live and , you know , told us what Bible to purchase . It was like very like basic level , like all right , this is like what we're going to do now . So I think that was important . And then Luke having , you know , his own support system to help make sure he was staying on track . There is like different groups for family members , like Al-Anon , that people can go to , and you know there's other people there that have dealt with similar situations , so but I think also , just keeping everything out in the light and not Trying to brush things under the rug and just , you know , being really open and honest about everything that's going on is important .

Allison Weeks

Mm . Hmm , OK , so you said that your husband you were telling me in your application that he has a recovery group ministry like he started . Can you tell us about that ?

Ginny White

Yeah , so now that we move , since this all occurred , so that was in Massachusetts and now we live in New Hampshire and we go to a local church in Manchester which does have a unfortunately very high homeless and addiction problem . So he wanted to start a similar group to what he had gone to in Plymouth . So he started a Christ centered 12 step recovery group . So they kind of take the 12 steps is from Alcoholics Anonymous , which is , you know , the AA group , and then it integrates Christ within that . So it kind of relates scripture to the 12 steps and how it's all really interconnected .

Ginny White

So , yeah , so that's . I think he's been running that for about a year . I want to say so , you know , the group's doing really well . They're actually doing a big , they're a part of like a big function coming up in the next couple of weeks in Manchester and they have a booth there and Luke will be giving his testimony , I believe , and other people will as well , and so , yeah , it's been really good for him to . He wants to help people because now he wants to , you know , keep , keep , keep people from going through what he went through and all that .

Allison Weeks

So yeah , oh , that sounds amazing . So you're in the Manchester area , is that what you said ? Yes , so if anybody's in the Manchester area and needs this resource , is it like an open group ? Anybody can contact you guys .

Ginny White

Yeah , so it's through Shiloh Community Church in Manchester . And what is the name of the group ? Rika ? I think it's . That's silly . I should have written it down . But if you go to Shiloh Community Church , if you look on the Ministry tab , it'll be there . So it's the recovery . Yeah , yeah .

Allison Weeks

And we'll link it in the show notes and in the newsletter and all that stuff so people will be able to find it . Oh , wow , ok , that is quite a challenge . And I'm interested when you were talking about your basically , how would you start from ground zero with your Bible knowledge and your understanding of Christianity ? So you had no frame of reference .

Ginny White

Not really . Wow , which is odd because I , so my family , is Catholic but they're not practicing Catholic , like we would go to church when someone died or there was a wedding so , and I did go to CCD , but I guess I didn't pay much attention because I didn't really . I didn't understand anything , like I remember when we first started to go into the church in Plymouth , I couldn't understand the Trinity . It was so confusing to me , I didn't get it and someone had to explain to me . Well , it's like an egg there's the shell , there's the yolk and there's the egg white , so it's three different parts , but it's all an egg . And I was like , ok , and like that , like that's probably the thing they teach children . But I was like , oh , all right , I think I get this now .

Allison Weeks

So , yeah , I mean the Trinity , that's theologian study , that their whole lives and never really fully understand it , right ? So I think , I think you're doing good , yeah , good job .

Ginny White

Yeah , I think it's been about five years now , so I'm trying .

Allison Weeks

That's good , that's awesome . Well , I'm so glad that the Lord saved you and thank you for sharing y'all's testimony . That was a really great story to hear .

Hospitality

Allison Weeks

Let's talk about hospitality . Ok , what is a practical way that you show hospitality in your home making to your husband and then to other people ?

Ginny White

I think definitely with my cooking . I really like to cook and bake so I'm always trying to hand off baked goods to people or given out some jelly or whatever I do really like hosting . So I do enjoy having people over for dinner , excuse me , so I would say mostly with my cooking is how I spread my hospitality .

Allison Weeks

Great . So how do you think that home making helps to build community ?

Ginny White

I think just like that , like we can all get together and just have tea or have a cup of coffee there's always something to chat about . I don't have kids , so I feel like if I did , that would be an even better way to help watch someone's child or what's . Get together and have the kids play , things like that . But yeah , I mean I think just even getting together , having a Bible study , all sorts of ways to invite people in and just have more community .

Allison Weeks

I think it's important to make that point , because just because you don't have children whether you stay at home or full time or you do home making and you have a full time job like you do just because you don't have kids in the equation doesn't mean you're not a homemaker .

Allison Weeks

You're still making a home , you still live there , your husband lives there , you're bringing people in , and extending that little home culture out to other people is part of building up community around you , Not just for your benefit you sort of benefit by default but also all the people that you invite in , the people whose lives you touch . That helps to build community . It helps to fight isolation . So if I think about what's the opposite of community , it's isolation , and we have a big problem with isolation in our culture , and so I think by making really concerted efforts with things like cooking and hosting and these sort of traditional things that fall under the home making umbrella , we can help fight isolation and build up communities . So that's kind of how I think about that question , and that's not exclusive to women with children . That was my point , yeah .

Ginny White

Yeah , because sometimes people ask us . Sometimes people ask us like , oh , do you have a family ? And I'm like , well , we don't have children , but we are a family .

Allison Weeks

Yeah , yes , absolutely , absolutely . We're going to go into

Q&A: Fails, Wins, Homesteading, Tips & More

Allison Weeks

our rapid fire question section , so you can tell me a story if you want , or you can just give me a short answer . It's totally up to you . I'll probably ask you more questions , though . So what's your biggest home making fail ? Biggest fail so far ?

Ginny White

So I was trying to think about this and I think it was . It turned out OK . It ended up being OK , but it was really very frightening when it happened . So my first year living in our current home , which is our first home I was hosting Thanksgiving . It was the biggest Thanksgiving I've ever hosted . I want to say it was like 12 to 15 people here , which is a good amount of people .

Ginny White

I've only cooked a whole turkey not many times and I had like a 20-something pound turkey . It barely fit in my oven . I thought I cooked it for long enough . It seemed like it cooked for a very long time so I had to . Yes , so I pulled it out . It was resting . I'm like all the people are around . I'm like getting all excited , going to carve the turkey . I started to cut into it and I'm like this is not correct . Thankfully my mom was there and I kind of pulled her aside so people didn't know what was going on . I'm like mom , I don't know what to do . I don't think the turkey's done and she was like , all right , it's going to be OK . She's like let's just cut it up and we'll put it back in the oven and it might dry out , but we have gravy . It's going to be OK , so yeah .

Allison Weeks

We'll take dry turkey over salmonella any day .

Ginny White

So awful , but no one knew , so it couldn't have been that bad . No one said anything .

Allison Weeks

That's good . I'm glad your mom was there to save the day . That's why I put my husband in charge of the meat at Thanksgiving .

Ginny White

Yeah , it's a lot of pressure , it is , that's just too much yeah , and that's all he's responsible for .

Allison Weeks

It's like you handle the meat , I don't care what you do , that's on you , and I'll do all the other stuff , or at least I will orchestrate it , like I have helpers right , but that's my job and he's in charge of the meat and if it , if he messes it up , that's on him . Well , how about a recent homemaking win that you're particularly proud of ?

Ginny White

I would say probably so . Last year my husband turned 40 and he's not a big birthday person . He doesn't really enjoy having birthday parties for himself . So I'm like , no , we're doing something for this birthday . So I threw a big surprise 40th birthday party for him and somehow was able to orchestrate like his aunt and his grandma , like flying in from out of state his cousin that he hadn't seen in forever all without him having any kind of clue as to what was going on . And it turned out to be a really , really , really great day and he was so excited when he walked in and saw his grandma and his cousin and it was really awesome .

Allison Weeks

So so that's a really good job . I mean , that's a lot to get like people coming from out of town and he didn't know . Yeah , and he didn't freak out about it . He was like , please , that's my husband's very similar . He does not . He's like don't be giving me any surprises . I don't like surprises and he doesn't want to . You know , he's just not a party person for himself . Like he enjoys hosting , but don't make him the center of attention . So that could have really backfired on you . So I'm glad it didn't .

Ginny White

I knew when he saw his grandma he wouldn't be mad . Like as soon as he sees his grandma he's going to be really excited .

Allison Weeks

That's great . Good win , good win . Okay , how about a homemaking product or resource that you are loving right now ?

Ginny White

I would say right now my canning stuff , because I am in the midst of canning season , so definitely all my canning resources I got my ball canning book out and all that jazz , so definitely my canning stuff right now is saving me .

Allison Weeks

Awesome . So we just did this summer we did a two part episode on canning and talks about all the things , and I'm interested to know what's your . So are you water bath or pressure , or both or what ?

Ginny White

I do both . So you know , you know , depending on what it is , so I do , do I try to do like a year worth of green beans , a year worth of corn and stuff like that which is , you know , all pressure canning , and then I do I do is worth of tomato products and stuff . So kind of depend on a lot of jams , jellies also . I just started getting into fermentation too , so I've been doing a lot of fermenting of products which has been kind of interesting to kind of delve into .

Allison Weeks

So yeah , that's like a whole other world . What's your ? What kind of pressure can or do you have ?

Ginny White

I think it's a presto . It's like a very cheap one . It's not it's . I think it was like the cheapest one I could find . It was like $80, . I think so awesome .

Allison Weeks

And you like it . It works well , yeah , I mean it's .

Ginny White

It seems to I don't . I mean it's like . It's like it's like . It's like , it's like like a price line . I mean as long as it's getting up to the pressure . I don't think you're , because I know everyone likes those . Is it like the All-American or something ? Big money , yeah , and it seems kind of intimidating to look at .

Allison Weeks

Well , it looks heavy to me , like it looks like the empty canner probably weighs 50 pounds , I mean that's huge . Yeah , and it's like thick steel .

Ginny White

So I don't know . Yeah , I like mine , it seems to do it . I mean , it probably doesn't fit as much as , like you know , that other type of canner does , because I think that you can even double stack , which you can't do it in this one . But it's fine , for we only have two people here , so it's not like you know . Yeah .

Allison Weeks

Yeah , yeah , okay , that is really fun . So green beans and jams and jellies and all kinds of fun stuff , and what is your like ? You cannot live without tool when it comes to canning , other than the canners . Obviously you have to have that , but like the little extra things , what's one thing that you just love , cause we talked all about that in that episode .

Ginny White

Well , so I could technically live without it . But I do have a really nice copper jam pan that I was yeah , it's beautiful Like it's just so beautiful anyways and it cooks the jam . It's really wide and shallow , so it cooks it really quickly and evenly and yeah , so I love that . It's just beautiful to see the jam cooking and it too , so it's just nice . That's really nice to have .

Allison Weeks

Oh , I'm sure , and I would just well , but I mean , it's a decorative piece too , like I would just leave it out and just look at it because they're so pretty .

Ginny White

It is .

Allison Weeks

I love copper . That's great . Okay , well , tell me about , because we're talking about canning and food . Let's take a break . I know we're in the rapid fire question , but I wanna take a break and ask you about your homestead and can . Like what are you ? You said you have a mini , a mini homestead . What does that mean ? Like what are you ? Are you growing things ? You've got chickens , we know this , but what does that mean ?

Ginny White

Yeah , so I have the layers You're around the laying hens and then we are raising the meat birds . This summer for the first time , I do have like maybe 16 or so blueberry bushes , so we have blueberries . We do have a small raspberry patch . We have some vegetable gardens . Our property is not big and it's like a very steep hill . So that's why it's mini , because it's very difficult to work on the property that we're at now . It also has like a poison ivy issue and other things . So that's why it's mini . It's just because it's real difficult to get equipment or material moving around . But yeah , we do a lot of vegetables and we have the blueberries , like I said . So hopefully we do have dreams of moving soon and we wanna get into like pigs and possibly sheep and stuff like that .

Allison Weeks

So we'll see . Oh , wow , that's yeah , that's serious , okay . So I'm glad you said , though , that you have a small area to work with , because your land isn't ideal with the slope and everything . But a lot of people are in that situation , and that's just their situation , but they wanna practice some homesteading . They kinda wanna have that lifestyle and do what they can with what they have . So I mean , how would you encourage somebody who's maybe living with a tiny little footprint of land in like a suburban area ? What are some of the things that you think that you can kind of do homesteading , no matter where you are ?

Ginny White

Well , you can definitely grow vegetables or herbs anywhere . I mean , even if you're in an apartment , if you have like a windowsill , you can grow some herbs . If you have like a little balcony or something , you can have tomatoes and some pots or cucumbers , whatever I think you can do . I mean it doesn't have to be , you know , a quarter acre garden . You can be doing something , you know , really at any , anywhere you are . And succession planting can help if you have a small space . So you know , like in the spring you put in your radishes and then those are done , then you can put something else in that same space . So I think you know really anywhere you can do something . And if you can't , then I would just try to find like a local farm or a local , you know , local person and you can help support them . Or sometimes there's like community gardens so you could always , you know , looking to do in something like that or start one somewhere .

Allison Weeks

Yeah , yeah , why not Absolutely ? That's great . Okay , good suggestions . Thank you All right , so let's go back to the questions , and I would love to hear your favorite homemaking hack or tip .

Ginny White

I don't know if I really have . I guess the chore charts would be my tip . I just think they're really helpful , just so you have . I mean , even if you don't stick with it 100% of the time just you have everything written down , you know what you need to do , so you don't feel as overwhelmed and it's not like all just like floating around in your head having to think about all the time . So I really like the chore charts and just little lists and stuff and I think like if you have a list , when you check it off it's very motivating , like oh , I did the CA , like now I can move on to the next thing .

Allison Weeks

So , yeah , yes , I'm a fan of lists also . Okay , what about your signature dish ? What would you say is the dish that you're most known for ?

Ginny White

Yeah , I could not think of one . And I asked my husband and he was like , listing these obscure things that I've only cooked like once in my whole entire life . I'm like what ? And so then I asked my mom and she's like I don't know . And I'm like , well , what's yours ? And she's like I don't know . So I really couldn't think of anything . Like I make meatballs a lot if it's like a big gathering , but I wouldn't really say that's my signature dish , like I just kind of make . I'm always looking for new things to try . So I wouldn't really say I make the same thing all the time . Yeah , I really couldn't come up with one . I'm like I have known for nothing .

Allison Weeks

Well , okay , so it's fine . You're known for good cooking , you're known for feeding people well , and I think that's what really matters . So you mentioned at the beginning that you or at some point you were talking about entering competitions with , like your jams and jellies Is that what you said ? Yes , yeah , are you like entering the county fair or something , or what are you doing there ?

Ginny White

Yeah , it's just I do the one local fair because they do like use up a like when you they taste it , so they open up a jar . So then that jar is like trash basically , because then they leave it unfroderated for weeks . So I don't like to do too many different ones because I don't want to waste the stuff . But so I do do a local fair and I think the most you can enter is like 10 things . So usually I enter about 10 different things , kind of just depending on what I've made . That you know that's because it has to all be stuff you've made in that year of whatever you know .

Allison Weeks

So Does it have to be an original recipe or can it just be something that you're a follower recipe and you're just entering the end product ?

Ginny White

Yeah , no , it does not have to be an original recipe , which they probably actually don't even really want it to be , because then they don't know if it's necessarily like safe , you know to be water bath canned if the pH isn't right or whatever . So because you do have to give them a copy of the recipe with the submission , I think , for them to ensure that it's safe for them to consume . I'm sure they've gotten sick over the years and learned so that's kind of yeah , there's like some liability there .

Allison Weeks

I would think I don't know that'd be a little . I'd never thought about that . Yeah , being a judge for , like the county fair you're , you're sort of taking your life and you're doing that Right , you're doing that .

Ginny White

What's going on , yeah ?

Allison Weeks

Hmm , okay , that's interesting . Yeah , so I was on this week who also had entered a county fair , and actually it was last week . It was Samantha who just aired on Wednesday and she won for her pie , this pie dish that she created . It's like a peach pie thing . It sounded amazing . I'm and this that's weird that I've met two people now in less than two weeks who have entered county fairs and I've never met anybody who's done this . So this is so cool . It's not a dead art Like this . Still , people still do this , people still enter things at the state and county fairs , and that's so cool .

Ginny White

Yeah , when you go to drop off there is a big line of people with their canning stuff . It's pretty funny and everyone's kind of like scoping out oh what do they have ? Like cause you kind of learn the names . It's like the same names every year , you know . So it's funny .

Allison Weeks

Oh , that's cool . Okay , so have you ever won anything ?

Ginny White

Yeah , I did . Actually , the first year I did it , I won the overall . I was an amateur that year because it was the first time I ever entered there , so I'd won the overall most points . So I won like a really big canner and like all sorts of just canning supplies and big blue ribbon it was . I was really excited .

Allison Weeks

Oh , that's so fun . I'd like have to frame that ribbon and put it on my wall prominently somewhere .

Ginny White

My husband built me a jelly cabinet so I have them all on my side of my jelly cabinet that he built me .

Allison Weeks

Oh , that's amazing . I love that so much . Okay , that's cool . Now we're going to have to . Somebody needs to go out and enter a county fair . That hasn't done that before .

The Art of Home & Titus 2 Advice

Allison Weeks

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

Ginny White

Well , I feel like , just like any other type of art , like playing the piano painting you know you have to practice it to get better , and the more you do it and the more you learn , the more skilled you're going to be . There's always different skills to be improving on and all that just you know . Similar to any other practice , and I think part of the beauty of it is you can be very creative and you can find what is working for you , and no home , two homes are going to look the same , and it's just a really great free space to just be you and just make it . You know , however you envision it to be .

Allison Weeks

So , yes , yeah , what's . What's one thing about homemaking , particularly that you're thankful for .

Ginny White

I'm just thankful to have , you know , a safe space where I can just be myself . I don't have to worry about making it look you know what maybe that's a trendy thing or whatever I can just be me . I'm free to just , yeah , whatever I find beautiful , I can just set up and , just you know , be happy with it . So I really I'm a very aesthetically driven person and I really like thrifting and all that . So I just , you know , I love just having the creative freedom to just you know , make it how . What makes me happy ?

Allison Weeks

So , yeah , that is really a blessing . I love that part of our job . Well , let's talk to the other women . Let's talk to the younger women and the older women , because you're right in the middle here . So first let's talk to the older women . How can older women help your generation of homemakers thrive in their practice of the art of home ? What do you , what do you need help with ? What do you want them to know about your experience ? How can they enter in and be helpful to you ?

Ginny White

Well , I feel like there's kind of a loss of basic skills .

Ginny White

Like I feel like a lot of people on my generation don't have just these , like basic skills that everyone used to have , and I just feel like there's a big gap there and I wish that there was like an area or , if older women approached younger , you know , married women more and , just you know , ask them like what do you need help with ? Like what do you , what do you know , what do you want to know ? You know what ? Just I don't even really know how that would come about , I guess , but I just wish that there were , there were older women willing to teach younger women all these different skills . Like I still don't really even know how to like iron very well , you know , and I could look on YouTube and stuff like that . But I just wish there was , there was older women , like even in the church , that just would take younger folks under their wing and maybe they just assume they they already know or they have someone else that's going to teach them . But that might not always be the case .

Allison Weeks

So , yeah , no , I totally agree . One of our first guests that we had well , it's in the first year . I think she was the first season of the second season , alma , alma Wakefield . She's in her seventies and when she was first married there was like like an army of women . They had .

Allison Weeks

It was a ministry at her church and they would come alongside the newlywed young women and they would sort of have them sign up for different things , like if you needed some help decorating your house , you could sign up . And then this , this woman or a couple of women would come to your house and they would like do hands on work with you . And they had that for all kinds of things , for for cooking and baking and I don't know what , all laundry and all kinds of stuff . And I was like man , so that would have been , I think , in the seventies . I think they got married in the early seventies and I've never heard anybody else talk about having an experience like that and I thought what an amazing it's . It's women's ministry , but it's so practical and so hands on .

Ginny White

Yeah , that would be like awesome . Like I know , like my sister , I know people wouldn't be all over that . Yeah , and I don't feel like I'm not experienced enough to like start it myself because I need help .

Allison Weeks

So yeah , so all you , all you older ladies listening out there , that's just some food for thought . Maybe , maybe there's an empty nester who is just looking for some way to fill her time , and that would be a very worthy way to fill your time , I think . So okay , let's talk to the younger women . So what is a word of advice or encouragement that you would give to the younger women coming behind you ?

Ginny White

I guess , just don't be afraid to ask questions to you know , maybe approach the older women yourself at church or , you know , wherever you're at your grandparents . They definitely have a lot of wisdom . That's one of my , you know , regrets is that I didn't spend enough time with my grandparents while they were around , and I wish that I had . You know now it's , you know , sad for me now that they're not here , that I didn't get to know them . I didn't get to learn , you know , those types of skills from them . So definitely don't wait , because they're not going to be around forever . Even though you think they will , they won't . But yeah , I think , just don't be afraid to ask questions , always try to be learning . Yeah .

Allison Weeks

Yeah , that's great . That's great advice . Well before we go , I would like to give you an opportunity to share . We talked about your personal kind of mini homestead situation that you got going on there , but you have a podcast about homesteading , right . That's primarily what you guys talk about .

Ginny White

Yeah , so it's okay .

Allison Weeks

So tell us about that , tell us the name .

Ginny White

Yeah , it's called figuring out homestead life because we are definitely still figuring it out and it is with my friend Allison , who she lives in upstate New York . She has like a hundred and something acres , so she has a lot , a lot of property and she's well ahead of me on the whole journey . She has cows , goats , pigs , chickens , she has everything like every animal . So but yeah , it's us both and we just kind of talk about like where she's at , where I'm at , and our different experiences , and then we just go over you know just what our favorite kitchen stuff is like , what you know just various kind of homesteading topics .

Allison Weeks

So yeah , so who's your ? Who's your target audience ? Like , who is this show for ?

Ginny White

I think it's for anyone that is interested in homesteading , whether you're already trying to do it or you're just thinking about it , or you're just interested in learning more , you know .

Allison Weeks

Great , awesome . So where can people find you and connect with you online ?

Ginny White

The podcast is any like anywhere you listen to podcasts . And then there's also an Instagram page figuring out homestead life on Instagram too .

Allison Weeks

So Okay , and you have a personal ? Is your personal page public on Instagram , okay , so people can connect with you there and I'll make sure that all those links are in the show notes for everybody so they can get in touch with you . Jenny , thank you so much for being on the art of home and sharing your story . I really enjoyed getting to know you and hearing hearing about your homemaking .

Ginny White

Yeah , thank you so much for having me .

Allison Weeks

You're welcome . Thank you so much for listening to this homemaker portrait of Jenny White . I hope that you found some inspiration , some encouragement , some fun ideas to help you continue to do this very good work that you are doing in your home . Don't forget to sign up for the newsletter because that's where you're going to get any of the resources that we shared on today's podcast . Let's go over and follow Jenny um Jenny show figuring out homestead life over there . There's a link down in the description box , or just look that up on your podcast player and it should come right up .

Allison Weeks

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Allison Weeks

Links to all the ways that you can support the show are down in the description box . If you would like to give us a tip , just go to buy me a coffeecom . Slash the art of home . All of that goes to help offset the cost of producing this podcast . So I thank you very much and I thank you for any of the support that you can offer us . It really means a lot . Well , that's it for this episode . I will be back next week for this extra long season with a brand new homemaker portrait of a listener just like you . Until then , keep practicing your art of making a home .