Homemaker Portrait | Allison Weeks

For over 5 years now, I have sat on the interviewers side of the microphone bringing you over 100 homemaker stories. Many of you have asked to hear my answers to these questions, and today you get your wish. 

Hannah Stewart of the Sugar & Spice Mom Life Podcast approached me a few months ago with the idea to interview me for her show using my Homemaker Portrait questions, and I agreed! 

This is a crossover episode featuring an introduction and some AoH news from me followed by Hannah's interview of me from her podcast. I close the episode with my thoughts, the emoji for the show and a few reminders. 

I pray you will be blessed by my story of home as much as I've been blessed by hearing all of yours. 

SHOW NOTES

Detailed notes, links, and resources (including my signature dish recipe) are available on the blog. Click the link below or go to theartofhomepodcast.com/blog and search "Allison Weeks Homemaker Portrait".

https://www.theartofhomepodcast.com/post/homemaker-portrait-allison-weeks

Submit Your Go-To Hosting Recipe for Homemaker's Journal 

• Must be original
• Include all ingredients and detailed steps
• Deadline to submit, August 1, 2026
• send to: magazine@theartofhomepodcast.com

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Transcript

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Allison 0:02

Hello, homemakers, and welcome to the Art of Home podcast, where we are exploring how homemakers cultivate a place to belong. I'm your host, Allison Weeks. I'm a wife, a mom, a granny, and I've been practicing the art of home since 1992, back in the 20th century, a long time ago. Well, if you're brand new here, welcome to the Art of Home. I'm so glad that you found us. And for all of you regular listeners, thank you for coming back again and again to listen to these wonderful stories of home. I am honored that all of you are going to trust me with some of your very valuable time today. And we are going to hear a brand new interview from a seasoned homemaker. But before we get to that, I have some updates and some listener mail for you. This is the part of the show where I will share some podcast news. I might share updates on what I'm doing and loving in my own homemaking, and often I will share tips and answers to questions sent in from you all. This segment is brought to you by listeners who support the Art of Home through Buy Me a Coffee. Buy Me a Coffee is a virtual tip jar where you can show your appreciation and support for the show by giving a one-time tip or by becoming a Titus 2 Woman monthly supporter and setting up a recurring tip of $5 per month. Titus2 Women supporters receive my undying gratitude and the occasional perk, such as a free digital version of our magazine, Homemaker's Journal, free registration for the holiday recipe exchange, and other fun things. Whichever way you choose to give, I'm so grateful for your support. Production on our second issue of Homemaker's Journal magazine is in full swing. We have lots of great content in the works that will help you not just survive this fall and holiday season, but thrive in it through homemaking and setting up seasonal rhythms. Last issue, we focused our attention on celebrations. This issue we're going to focus on hospitality, both holiday and general hospitality. Expect thoughtful articles, tips and recipes, beautiful artwork, and all things fall and Thanksgiving, Advent, Christmas, and hospitality. Mark your calendars for September 1st. That is when presale begins. And then the launch is October 5th. If you purchase your copy during the presale, you will receive your copy in the mail on or about launch day. And one more little tidbit about the magazine. I want to include some reader submissions in this issue. To start with, I'm asking for your go-to hosting recipe. When company is coming, what is the dish that you always fall back on as a tried and true crowd pleaser? It could be a main dish, an appetizer, or a dessert. Make sure you include all ingredients and all steps in your recipe. Original recipes only, please. By the way, my general rule of thumb for whether or not a recipe has become an original to me is five tweaks or more makes it your own. So for example, if you find a recipe online and over the course of several years you made that recipe and you made at least five changes to the original, then you can safely call it yours at that point. By submitting your recipe, you are allowing us to publish it without requiring royalties on any sales made of the magazine containing your recipe. All magazine sales go directly back into the Art of Home ministry. So by submitting a recipe, you are supporting the ministry. Deadline to submit is August 1st. Please only submit one recipe. There will be one or two other opportunities to contribute to the magazine if recipes are not your thing. So stay tuned for that. Now on to today's episode, which is a little different. I'm chatting with Hannah Stewart of the Sugar and Spice Mom Life Podcast. But this conversation is not about her story of home. It's about mine. For over five years now, I have sat on the interviewer side of the microphone, bringing you dozens and dozens of homemaker stories. Many of you have asked to hear my answers to these questions. And today you get your wish. Hannah approached me a few months ago with the idea to interview me for her show using my homemaker portrait questions, and I agreed. She dropped the episode yesterday on her podcast, and I am going to share it here today on The Art of Home as a crossover episode. Hannah did a fantastic job, not just with my questions, but she asked great follow-up questions as well. It was really fun to be interviewed by Hannah, and it was a reflective and helpful experience for me to be asked these familiar questions. And I hope you are blessed by this conversation. I'll be back at the end with some closing reminders and this episode's emoji. Whatever you are applying your hands to as you listen, I pray you will enjoy my story of home.

SPEAKER_02 5:37

Okay, friends. I have a real treat for you today. I am here with my friend Alison Weeks from the Art of Home podcast. And we are doing an episode actually in the same format that she uses for her homemaker portraits on her podcast. So if you love this episode, you will absolutely love her podcast. So you need to go check that out. I am a fan of hers and have listened to a bunch of her episodes and would highly recommend. I almost feel like she's the mentor kind of that I don't have in many ways. So I would highly recommend checking out her podcast. But without further ado, Alison, would you just mind telling us a little bit about who you are? And in a little bit, we'll go back and trace through your homemaking story, but give us all the good details about your family, your career, hobbies, all of that good stuff.

Allison 6:23

Okay. Well, thank you so much, Hannah, for having me on the Sugar Inspice Mom Life podcast. This is a real treat for me to be on this side of the microphone. And you are the first person to ask me my own questions.

SPEAKER_02 6:36

So wow, what an honor.

Allison 6:39

It's pretty exciting. But yes, I am Alison Weeks, the creator, host, podcaster. I wear a lot of hats over at The Art of Home. And I've been doing that for five years. We just had our five-year anniversary this year. Um I'm wife to Nate since 1992, mom to four adult kids, and granny to two, a little boy and a little girl. And when I'm not podcasting, I am taking care of my own home. Obviously, I am a homemaker. That's first and foremost. Um, and I'm usually reading or I'm listening to audiobooks or podcasts while I'm doing my homemaking. Um, I am doing something creative with my hands, usually, like sewing, quilting, I all the things. Um and I might be doing this in my house or I might be doing this on the road because we got a travel trailer last year, and so we like to pull our trailer down to the beach or over up to we have a couple kids that live in Dallas, and so we like to do that. It's super fun. Um, and wherever I am, I it hasn't been too long since I've been thrifting because that is one of my favorite things to do is to go thrifting for treasures that either I'm gonna keep and use to decorate my home or I'm gonna use them as stocking stuffers because I've been doing that for a few years, and that's really fun. And everybody looks forward to opening their stockings to see what I have found for them out there. So basically, I'm just living my best empty nester life over here in South Texas.

SPEAKER_02 8:08

That's amazing. I have never thought of using stocking stuffers from a thrift store, but that is genius because those can those can be just as expensive. They add as a gift. I know. Yeah, whenever I like we just started kind of doing more for our kids. I was like, this is crazy. Uh-huh. Because you don't really think of it as like a budget item. And so that's genius. Have you always thrifted? I feel like now it's very popular. Have you done that like from the get-go?

Allison 8:32

I have always been a thrifter. It's just something it was kind of born out of necessity because we got married at 18 and 19. So we had no money. And we were both in school. Yeah, we were both in school. And we'll talk more about that in a minute. But yes, thrifting was like, I couldn't afford to buy, you know, retail prices for things that I needed for the house or for clothing. And then when I had all these children to clothe, uh, three of them are boys and they go through clothes so fast because they wear holes in their jeans. And anyway, I'm like, I'm not paying, you know, full price for jeans that are going to last you maybe two months. So we did a lot of thrifting, a lot of thrifting. And it's one of my favorite things to do.

SPEAKER_02 9:14

Oh man. Okay, I'm so excited to hear more. Now I have like 20 questions I want to ask about that. But can you share a little bit then about how you first became a homemaker and if you brought any skills to the table in that regard?

Allison 9:27

Yes. Um, so I would say 1992 when we got married. Okay. Um, like I said, we were 18, 19. We moved out of our parents' homes and to get in, you know, moved in together after our marriage. And we had this little place that was a total dump. I've talked about it on the show before. We did not live there very long because it was us and a bunch of rats.

SPEAKER_02 9:46

So yeah, it was did you know that before you probably didn't know that before you signed the lease? We did not. Oh.

Allison 9:55

So yeah, that was our first experience with uh the little uh house that we rented at first. So that was fun. Um, as far as skills, I did have skills, but um, I felt like they just needed to be honed and practiced. So my mom taught me, you know, basic stuff. I could take care of myself, I could do laundry, I could cook, I could clean. I just wasn't super motivated to do things in like an orderly fashion. And I would get really distracted by the shiny fun things of homemaking. That was kind of my downfall, especially in the beginning. And that's still something that I have to really fight against.

SPEAKER_02 10:32

So what do you mean by the shiny fun things? Like the producing things instead of maintaining, or yeah, I think so.

Allison 10:39

That's a really good, that's a really good way to point uh put it. And actually, my husband and I have made that observation before about each of us. Like I'm a I'm a creative producer person, project person, and he's more of a maintainer. That's what he enjoys. So we're a good match. But when it comes to the homemaking stuff, I would much rather like make a fun craft or decorate something for the house, you know, than clean clean the toilets. I mean, why would you but you know, that's a no-brainer choice in my mind.

SPEAKER_02 11:07

So I find that so inspiring because I you've been going through a, I think, well, correct me if I'm wrong. You've at least done several spring cleaning episodes. Yes. And so I had you pegged as the total opposite. Yeah. I was like, because even my husband, he saw that. He was like, oh, that's not because I'm very much a project type as well. We're all like do these, I call them like sprints, you know, but then like the day-to-day, it's like, oh, like the maintenance. So I totally had you peg this like detailed maintenance person. So that's kind of amazing. So that's just how is that development to where you're cleaning your walls? Like, I was like, I just amazed by her.

Allison 11:46

No, I've got to say, okay, let me clear, let me clear that up. That is, and I think I said it in the in the series, like I was presenting in the spring cleaning series, which I did last spring on the Monday episodes, to say, okay, these are like if you wanted to do a top-to-bottom clean in your house, here's here's how to do it. Not you should do this every year, you should do this every month. This is like if you wanted to go top to bottom and touch all the surfaces, yeah, this is what you should do. Um, but how you carry that out, it depends on your personality bent, you know, the way you like to work. It depends on your life season. If you have a bunch of little kids, you're probably not gonna be cleaning your walls unless somebody draws on the wall with marker, you know, that's not gonna be in the regular rotation for you. So that was sort of the purpose of that. And and for me, as someone who is not a lover of maintaining things, I had to come up with systems like that to say, okay, what do I need to do? What can I shelve for later or just just not do? And that's kind of how I developed it in my own mind to work for me.

SPEAKER_02 12:50

Wow, man. Okay, I want to uh hopefully we can dig more into those systems because that's actually really encouraging as a newer homemaker to hear you can just develop systems, even if you don't have like the personality that's really prone to those. To absolutely yeah, that's really encouraging. So then, so it sounds like your mom taught you some of the basic skills. Was there anybody else that influenced your homemaking in a in a positive or memorable way?

Allison 13:14

Yes. Um, I would like to camp here for a minute, if that's okay, because this is really the heart of what I do at at the Art of Art, the Art of Home. Um, you know, there's so many women that I could name. I'm gonna narrow it down to a few. But when I was um a young mom, I came across this book called No Ordinary Home, um, the uncommon art of Christ-centered homemaking. I read it like five times. It's out of print, but you can find there's ones floating around out there, you know, in used bookstores online and stuff. But the author talked about having a committee of women. She was overwhelmed with her homemaking and she talked about she needed a committee to come alongside and help her. And the Lord, and she prayed about it, and the Lord really started showing her, you have this committee. You have this friend and this person and your mom. And so she kind of gathered together these women in her mind, of course, and said, Okay, what can I learn from her? And what can I learn from her? And she went to them and she said, Please teach me this. Can you teach me how to do this? That really opened my eyes to how many women, the my own committee, like how many women God had put in my life and allowed me to learn from from the time I was very young until all through, you know, the over 30 years that I've been doing this job now. Um, so my mom, of course, is you know, the the OG member of my committee. She gave me a love of creativity and beauty. She's super creative. So I got that from her, I think. Um, she took me to church and had me in a Christian school. So I'm so grateful that she gave me that foundation of hearing and knowing the truth. She taught me how to care for my stuff and clean, even though I didn't always want to clean, but she helped me learn that and to be orderly and organized. So I had some foundation for it. Um, and to just get things done. You know, she is a doer and she gets stuff accomplished. My stepmom, who came into my life when I was nine, um, is very different from my mom, but in such a complimentary way. Like the Lord put things in her that are strengths that my mom doesn't necessarily have. And so, as far as what she taught me, um, so that was really cool to see how that worked. And he she taught me how to um how to uh be at table and have the correct table manners. Like that was something really important to her. She just uh her dad was in government work, and so she did a lot of, you know, growing up was in a lot of um like dinner parties and things like that. So she wanted to make sure that I had those skills. So if I was ever in that situation, I wouldn't be embarrassed. So I learned a lot of that from her. Um, and she taught me how to drive, which was a valuable skill for the rest of my life, right? She would take me out when I was like 12 at late at night, and she would uh teach me how to drive in the neighborhood. And then my mother-in-law, my mother-in-law, uh being a full-time homemaker, was what I got to see first in her because um she was that was her main, that was her main job. And so yeah, I was only 17 when I started dating my husband my husband, and so got to see her live that out, and that was very impactful for me. Um, and then my grandmothers have been very influential. Um, my mom's mom taught me how to live and love big and generously. My dad's mom, who we just lost this past year, um, taught me a lifelong pursuit of learning and trying new things, especially related to home and homemaking. She was always trying new recipes, always trying something new in the garden. Even if she failed, she would still try. So I've learned that from her. And then my husband's grandmother's, because again, we got married so young. I had those two women in my life for a long time. I still have one of them. Um his mother's mother is still living. We just saw her last week, and I'm getting to watch her right now. I'm getting to watch her age with grace. I mean, she's over 90, she's uh 92, I think. Um, and I'm getting to see her age with dignity and with grace and live without her husband of 70 years, who we lost a couple years ago. And that has just been such a valuable lesson. Um she taught me how to how to host and be generous and gracious and how I host people. That was my biggest lesson I learned from her. So I I wanted to make sure I mentioned all of them because it is so important for all of us as homemakers. I know there's so many women who who have embraced that role and they may not have a committee like that. They may not have those women in their life. Um, and I just encourage constantly on the podcast that please go and look for them. Just because they weren't naturally born into your life, you know, that might your mom or your grandma for whatever reason, they are out there. You just have to pray and ask the Lord to bring them into your life and be brave and ask, ask for them to um speak into your experience and speak about how what they've learned and and let them teach you. So that's a really long answer, but oh, it's beautiful. It's important to me.

SPEAKER_02 18:16

I think it's really significant that you bring up the idea of a committee because I do think some women are out there looking for the perfect mentor, you know, the one that has like the clean house and the well-behaved children, and is super extroverted and hospitable, and has like this gentle and quiet spirit, you know. And I think it's really significant that you are pinpointing different people and saying it's not just this one mentor that impacted you, it's multiple people, different people having different skills, and they collectively mentor you in the faith. And I think that's really helpful because I the perfect woman doesn't exist. And that's something I have just had to learn. Like, because I keep thinking, oh, there'll just be this one woman that will mentor me in everything. And that's not feasible. What would you say, though, to the mom who's listening and doesn't feel like she has that person? I know you said go find them. What did that look like for you, maybe in different seasons, or what would you recommend if someone just didn't grow up with all these wonderful grandmothers and mother figures in their lives who can mentor them?

Allison 19:25

Yes, absolutely. That's a great question. And we've talked about that on the show before because I've I've received that question quite a lot. Um and I would just say um, I was in that position. Uh, we always moved, we moved a lot, and we moved away, very far away from my family. So I had to find those women in other in other arenas. And the first place I would look would be church. Um just seeking them out. And I often would meet them at Bible study. So I would go to Bible study and I we would get in the word together. I would listen to what those women in that circle were saying. I would, you know, ask for discernment from the Lord. But then if I I found someone or a couple of people who I kind of connected with and I felt like, okay, I'm hearing a lot of wisdom from this person. I think this would be somebody that I could learn from. And um, and then you have to be brave and you have to go to them and ask. But I've talked about this uh a lot. It's so important that you be number one, very specific with about what you're asking. Um and number two, be be be realistic. Like you said, like the you're not gonna find everything in the one woman, and don't expect her to be able to give you all of her time. So tell them what you're looking for. Hey, could you come over and you know teach me how to make your famous pie crust next Tuesday? Like be as specific as you can so she knows what she's saying yes to, right? And then the final thing is be willing to be, be willing to to be turned down. And almost always, it's not because they don't like you, it's not because they don't want to mentor you, it's because maybe it's just not the right season for them. They may have a lot going on. So you have to be willing to be rejected and and be okay with that because you will find the person.

SPEAKER_02 21:13

That's smart. Well, it's smart to be specific. So then, because I think sometimes the rejection can be like fear of like what am I signing up? Did I just commit to 10 years of like what did I? So I'll just say no just to be safe. So that's very I that's very very wise. It's like you've done this before or something, Alison. That's great. Uh, can you share a little bit about what you would feel like your greatest homemaking strength and weakness would be? We could maybe start with strength and then move to weakness, but absolutely.

Allison 21:44

Yes, yes. I would say that my strength is that w thing I learned from my grandma, which is I love to learn and I love to try new things. You know, I just will try. I felt like wallpapering my kitchen one time. I mean, I was like, I'm gonna learn how to do this. This was before the internet, so I had to go to the library and check out books on how to wallpaper a wall. Um, but I'm not too I I have fears about other things, but when it comes to that sort of thing, I'm just like, what's the worst that can happen? Right. I I mess it up, I maybe, you know, ruin some wallpaper, but it's not a big deal. So and I love to learn, I love to try new things. That's my strength, but my weakness is kind of the opposite, you know, it's kind of the opposite side of the coin of that. I have way too many interests. And so I can either, you know, have all these projects going at one time, and then I get option paralysis when it's time to start working on something. So then I'm like, okay, then I'm then I become overwhelmed. So um I have to I have to like slow my role when it comes to starting new projects and really practice some discipline about okay, we're gonna finish these four projects that are already going before we start something new.

SPEAKER_02 22:58

Yes. Okay. So you're so you will be strategic and limit the scope of your because I'm very similar. I think a lot of moms, anyway, but yeah, I always just have new ideas. My husband has learned just to like if I say something, it doesn't mean all 10 of the things are going to happen this week, you know. But I'm just always like brainstorming. So for you, will you like if you have 10 projects on your mind, you will just say, I can't work on those other new ideas till I finish something? Is that kind of what I'm hearing your approach is?

Allison 23:31

Okay, definitely. And I wasn't always like that. I was not always like that, you know, in the in the beginning. That well, that's what I was saying. I would have all these projects going and try all these things and and then, you know, just never get to the toilets or whatever really needed to get done.

SPEAKER_02 23:46

So was there like a point of pain where you realized you had to change that?

Allison 23:51

I not so much. I just think it was overtime, just developing a recognition of how uncomfortable it was to be in that place of overwhelm and just like I I don't like that feeling. As much as I like to try new things, I don't like that feeling even more than I enjoy the experimentation. So that's probably what it was overtime.

SPEAKER_02 24:12

That makes sense. Just growing wiser and learning. Yeah, that's great. Well, let's dive a little bit into some of the expectations and challenges you had in your homemaking journey. Can you share a little bit about what surprised you most about homemaking, whether it was good or bad, just something that took you off guard?

Allison 24:30

Yes. Um, okay, the bad first. Okay. The bad would be that um I am the boss of my own time.

SPEAKER_02 24:39

There's a theme here if you have there usually is. Yeah.

Allison 24:44

Um, the great thing about homemaking is you you have this big canvas of time before you every day, you know, and and you get to decide how to spend your time each day. Um, and I know children do have a lot to say in that equation as well, you know, their needs, you're meeting your children's needs, obviously. But as far as the way that you go about your task and your job as a homemaker, that's up to you how that looks each and every day. And that's so freeing and lovely. But because you don't have somebody looking over your shoulder, kind of keeping you accountable for how you're spending your time, it can be really easy to sort of fritter away the time and not manage it well. And that was something that surprised me. Like I was surprised at how much time I had, but then how like I had all day. What did I do? You know, I didn't get anything done. And this was before I had kids, just knowing that I had wasted a lot of time. And so that was something I wasn't expecting, and I had to learn to kind of be better about that. Um, the good, uh, two things. Okay. So the first would be the endless creative and intellectual stimulation of homemaking. I do not know how you can be bored with this job if you truly embrace it. If you truly embrace the calling, and and that doesn't mean we're all doing the same things, but there's so much you can do in this role, um, and so much to learn and grow in. And so I I don't know how you could be bored. It's just endless. Um but the second good thing, most surprising thing to me, was how, and this is something I've learned over time, how much it is a metaphor for the gospel. Um and that is why I believe that the enemy has worked so hard. As one writer in this this uh gospel coalition article that I was reading as I prepared for this today, um, she said masking the she called it masking the glory of homemaking. And I feel like that's what the enemy has done because, especially over the past like 150 years or so, when we've moved from a very home-centered industry um sort of culture to where everyone's work moved outside of the home, right? But before that, everybody's work in the home was valued because it was necessary for the whole survival of the family and the community to the women's live movement and the sexual revolution and all of those things. Um why are we at a place now where this particular job of homemaker is so distasteful to our modern sensibilities? I think it's because the enemy, it's a tactic of his to distract and deflect attention of just how glorious that this work that we do in the home can be when it reflects the glory of the gospel. We are it's because the gospel is all about sacrifice so that others might live and thrive. And so what did we lose in the garden? We lost a home. And what did Christ come to do to restore us to our home with God where where all of us are ultimately meant to be at home? And how did he do it? He did it through sacrifice, through pouring himself out and laying himself down for others, and that's what we do every day in homemaking. We pour ourselves out in laundry, in meal prep, in conflict management, in changing dirty diapers, weathering like teen rage from hormones. I mean, all of that we are pouring ourselves out as we walk through that day after day. But our flesh, at least my flesh, fights against that sacrifice so hard. I don't want to die to my agenda, to my desires. I just don't. But it's only in dying and putting laying that aside for somebody else that I'm actually gonna live. It's only in giving up my life that I'm truly gonna find it. If I cling to it and I insist on life on my terms, not God's, then I get death ultimately. And that's what we see all around us is dead homes. We see homes that are, you know, empty most of the time because everybody's gone doing stuff at work or whatever. We see, you know, homes that maybe people are there, but is the is there flourishing happening there? I I you know, I don't know. Um we we've see we just we see that in our culture today, and that's the opposite of what I want. So I've been so surprised at how much I get to preach the gospel to myself through homemaking every day, and then you know, enflesh it and and let my homemaking be a picture of the gospel to the people who are in my home.

SPEAKER_02 29:24

Oh man, there's so many ways I can there's so many things I want to ask further about because that is just really I think that's the crux of homemaking is that and why maybe the two go together. You know, people think it's boring and monotonous because there is that element of sacrifice. And at the same time, the element of sacrifice is actually a way we picture what Christ did for us on the cross and why it's so glorious, you know. So I just I love that. I've never heard it said so articulately. I was curious, I know you said you don't understand how anyone could be bored at home. And I I totally get it. I have three little, little kids. I feel like there's so much to do. But at the same time, I have heard moms say they are bored at home. I'm curious, what would you say to a mom who says, I'm bored in this role as a homemaker?

Allison 30:17

Yeah, I I think I don't know that I could give like a blanket uh piece of advice. I it would to me that's more of an individual question. I would want to know her and understand her experience. And because I want to be careful not to just throw out platitudes and, you know, um, and I guess maybe I kind of did that when I was like, well, I don't see how you can be bored. Um, because I do it's it's you make a good point. There are certain circumstances that can make it extra challenging for people to lay down their life. I think of people I've interviewed several people who are full-time caregivers, either for a child or a spouse or um, you know, whoever, uh a parent. That is a whole nother level of laying down your life right there. Um, and so I I uh I want to acknowledge that. Um, but you know, if we're talking about your average homemaker, um, maybe it's got a couple of kids, and I would just challenge her to really look at her days and and be prayerful. Definitely start with prayer. Like be prayerful about it and ask the Lord you have given me this time as a gift. It's you've entrusted it to me. I think it really helps for us to think of the time that we have as homemakers as a trust. Or if you think about the parable of the talents, it's a talent that you've been given, but what are you gonna do with it? Are you gonna bury in the ground and say, well, I'm just bored and uh and not give a good return. So ask him, what do you want me to do with this that you've entrusted to me and how can I bring a good return for that? And it's gonna be different for every person.

SPEAKER_02 31:59

Yeah, I think that's good because I do think some people like this would be an extreme example, but if someone put their kid in front of the TV for eight hours a day and yeah, made freezer meals and was like, oh, I'm bored, you know, there's nothing to do. It's like, well, that's because you there's work you ought to be doing and are neglecting. But at the same time, you're exactly right. There are those extreme situations where someone is just, you know, changing the diapers of their adult child or, you know, just really challenging situations like that where it is monotonous and it will be. So I I appreciate the wisdom and the nuance there, but I think that's it's significant to think about just what has the Lord given me. I've even thought of that. I just recently heard a podcast talking about this concept of like different capacities. So if you are a higher capacity person, you might be functioning at like a level that other people think is good, but you yourself know you're squandering time, or vice versa. Like you may be genuinely stewarding your time really, really well, but you can't accomplish as much. So I just thought, oh man, that is it is really between you and the Lord and your conscience in a lot of ways, but it's food for thought for sure. Uh, let's see what so this kind of gets us into our next question. We've talked a little bit about challenges people might face in general, but what are special challenges that you yourself has have faced in your homemaking journey? And how did you work through those challenges? I know you got married young. I don't know if that factors in or other things, but I'd love to hear.

unknown 33:33

Yeah.

Allison 33:33

Um, I mean, there's been a lot of challenges. Um I mean, one of the things about being married young and and being still both of us in school, having no money, um, we when you're married, when you get married, you're immediately independent from your parents. So that qualified us for all kinds of student loans and all sorts of ways to get in debt, basically. Oh no. Yeah. I mean, I didn't think about that. No, listen, this is so bad. They, and I don't, I hope they still don't do this because this should be illegal. But the credit card companies, they would set up a table outside of the student union on campus and give out like free movie tickets and pizza and stuff if you would just sign up for their credit card. And we're like, yeah, I want free movie tickets and pizza. So we signed up for the credit cards, and then now we have another way to get dead, you know. So that was a challenge, just being so young and so just ignorant of how to manage money well. Um, and we we we paid for those those mistakes. Uh, we were paid we paid for pizza that we ate in 1993 for a long time, you know. It took us a while to get out of that debt because we would just put everything on the credit card. Oh no. Um so we we kind of got to a point you know, after we had our first child and um my husband started working and I mean he graduated and started working a real job. Um, we realized, oh gosh, we were looking down the road at how how long it was gonna take us to pay off the credit card debt. And we just kind of said, okay, we don't we're we don't want to be here again ever. We want to make have a plan to pay this off, and we're not gonna do this again. Um, and so we started learning how to budget properly and started using things like Quicken and stuff like that uh to track our spending really, really carefully. This was before Dave Ramsey. So Okay, yeah, did you do the baby steps?

SPEAKER_02 35:29

No, okay.

Allison 35:29

It was before Dave Ramsey, so we didn't we didn't do that, but fortunately my husband was a business major. He actually went to grad school for finance, so he's a money guy, you know. He he just so much decided he didn't want to ever be in that position again that he studied it in school and learned how to manage money, and um, so that was super helpful. Uh, but just making different decisions and and learning how to be um not look for instant gratification. I think that was probably the biggest lesson that we had to learn was we don't need the thing right now. We can wait, we can save. And the first big purchase we ever made, not in debt, not going into debt, we were able to pay cash for it was it felt so good to be able to do this was our washer and dryer. So we needed a washer and dryer because we had been living at places where we were renting and it usually came with one, or there was like a laundry, you know, facility in the apartment complex or whatever. But this was one of the first places we were renting this little house, and it didn't have one, and we needed one, and so we saved and we my husband got a small bonus that year, and we were able to allocate some of the bonus in our savings, and we pay cash, and it felt so good to pay cash. So that was kind of the beginning of that journey to just making wiser financial decisions.

SPEAKER_02 36:48

And how cool that you've been on that journey together, you know, because sometimes I think about that with my husband, like I wish, you know, whatever. We're in a two-bedroom house, we're saving for other things, and I'm like, oh man, we should like, why do we have to go through this together? But I do think there is something beautiful about having struggled together as a couple and then come through to the other side, and you have that shared pain and then the shared uh like wins of getting them together. Sure, yeah.

Allison 37:15

Yeah, and learning the lesson together because I think sometimes you have a couple that gets together, maybe either with the whether they're younger or maybe a little bit older, and perhaps one has already learned that lesson and maybe the other one hasn't, and that can there can be a lot of conflict there, you know, if if one has if they have different spending habits and different ideas about money. So I am really grateful that we were both so foolish at the same time, yeah, and made those decisions uh that we paid for for a long time and then learned the lesson together. Yeah, you're absolutely right.

SPEAKER_02 37:48

So is one of you more of a spender or saver, or are you just like we're on the same trajectory?

Allison 37:53

I think we're both on the same trajectory. Um yeah, I I think I tend to be way more thrifty and like a little bit tighter with money. Um, but he and but my husband is very, very generous. Like he is just that's a he has that gift of generosity that God has given him. And so I have learned so much from him in that in that area, really just about trusting. I mean, because I was I've learned that a lot of my um tendency to be thrifty and it's not always it's not always bad, you know. Thrift can be a really wonderful thing, but it can be a lack of trust um in the Lord's provision. So that was something that I had to deal with.

SPEAKER_02 38:34

It's good. Yep, my husband's way more generous too. And I have, if I didn't have him, I wouldn't, I wouldn't have realized that I it can be singy sometimes, even you know, I can I can put it in the cloak of frugality and wisdom, you know, like all these words you can, but it's like sometimes it's just not wanting to meet someone else's need because I want security in the future. I don't think that world can be security. So it's good to have spouses that are different from us to help, yeah, balance this out. Okay, so being a fan of your podcast, I have heard a lot of your episodes, and some of like my favorites are your holiday ones, but I've noticed this theme of hospitality in your homemaking, and you'll throw these really cool, elaborate parties. I'm like, wow, that's so cool. But I know you weren't maybe always at that level. So can you share a little bit about your hospitality and maybe what it looked like to include your own kids in hospitality and like how that process has developed over the years?

Allison 39:35

Oh, yeah, for sure. Okay. Um, so I love that was that's something my husband and I have in common. We love having people over. We love hosting, um, always have. We were always, especially because we married so young and we were kind of in our friend group, we were the stable ones. So we always had a nicer place. So all the friends in college would come to our house and hang out. Um, and it's kind of always been like that. So we love to open our home and we love to host, and we uh we just always did that in front of our kids. Um, and inviting them in to, you know, feel like they can have friends over, of course. That's always something we we tried to make sure that they they knew they could do. One of my favorite, favorite uh eras or times as a mom was the teenage years because I loved when my kids would bring their friends home. I just it's the energy of teenagers is so um lovely. Like it's contain it can be it can be not lovely. Yes, we all know that. But just they're so vivacious and alive and you know it what makes them annoying sometimes. But there's just something really cool about having a house full of teenagers. They love whatever food you cook for them, especially the boys. They will eat anything. So, you know, if you need like some boosting on your cooking skills, like what you're you know, learning how to cook or whatever, cook for teenage boys, and you will feel so good about your skills and because they'll love it, they'll eat it up. Um, so I loved having letting my kids, encouraging my kids to bring their friends over, you know, when they were all still living at home and even in college. We have where we live here in the Texas Hill Country is a really cool location, and there's a lot of really cool things within less than an hour's drive from our house. And so we were like a free destination spot for spring break and stuff like that. So, you know, often um our kids would bring a handful of friends and they would stay at our house and they would kind of just do like a spring break on the cheap because they could stay here and we would feed them and then they could go do fun, cool stuff. So that was really fun. Um, but I I think with with the kids, I just wanted to help them see that the home was an extension of our family culture that not everybody had the benefit of in their own homes. And I wanted them to know that they could welcome somebody in who needed that kind of environment. They needed the love that they would experience here in our home, even just for a little while. And we still have some of our kids' friends who, you know, actually just a few weeks ago, one of one of the boys' um buddies, he's he's friends with all our boys, but he came to our house. He stopped by, it's like eight o'clock at night, and we hadn't seen him in a couple of years. He lives up in Austin now, and he was down in San Antonio for for work for something, and he was like, I just knew that if I didn't stop and say hey, I would regret it. And I'm like, oh man, that's awesome. You know, like thank you, Lord, for that. That that's just so encouraging. It was so great to see him, but then also that he felt like he could just stop by our house. He said, Yeah, I was hoping you guys hadn't moved or anything.

SPEAKER_02 42:55

So he just he just like knocked on your door just out of the blue. Yes. Wow. Okay, Allison. I just want to I want to ask because I think a lot of listeners maybe have insecurities about hosting, and you guys just sound like you were like the party house. Like you people wanted to come over, they're stopping by unexpectedly, they you they wanted to be there in college. Were there any things you did practically to cultivate that where people wanted to be in your home or like your teenage sons wanted to, you know, and their friends wanted to be there? Because um, yeah, I would just love to learn about that.

Allison 43:31

I mean, yeah, I think if you're intimidated with that, you know, the best rule of thumb is just to keep it simple. Don't don't feel like you have to put on this big show, um, no matter who's coming over. Uh work within your capacity, right? There's that word again. Like, what is your capacity right now? Um, you want to be a host to people, you want people to feel like they can come to your home, but you don't want to go past your own capacity. Because then you're not going to be a very pleasant hostess. So you want to not have stress yourself so that when people walk in, they don't feel like they're imposing on your time. I think that's one of the biggest things. I I never wanted guests, whether it was my my kids' friends or people that I had invited, to feel like they were inconveniencing me by being here. Um, and they would have felt that way if I had stressed myself out with a bazillion details of things that I want to do. And most of the time when we host, it is very low-key. I do some fun parties where it's very themed, and but that's like maybe a couple times a year. Like maybe. Most of the things we do, it's it's simple, it's probably paper plates, it's something that's a big batch of, you know, spaghetti or jambalaya or something easy that will feed a lot of people. And I don't have to stress out over. I'm not doing like, you know, uh rack of lamb or anything like that. That's not how I do hosting. Um, because that would stress me out. And then nobody would want to be around me if I was stressed out. So I don't know if that answers your question. Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_02 45:09

Yeah. Well, I think the tone is kind of what you're getting at. Like if you're frantic and angry or you know, like you're like scrambling and then you're putting on this plastering a happy face on the second guest come in. It's like you can still kind of feel that in the in the home. That's really good. So this is kind of moving to another topic, but how did you set priorities in your home and keep them in order? Because I think with kids and house projects and work and church, it can just all start to get out of hand and suddenly you're gone and you don't really have much of a home culture. So, how did you maintain those priorities?

Allison 45:48

Yeah, absolutely. So I would say, so those are those two things, the setting the priorities and the keeping the priorities are two different components that work towards the same goal, which is living according to your values. And this is something that I I've really just I kind of knew it, you know, sort of, but I did I didn't really understand this concept until fairly recently from my counselor that I've been seeing for the last few years. And she explained to me, you know, we all live according to certain values. And actually, I have a whole, we have a whole episode on this. It's one of the pillars, the foundational pillars. So listen. Yeah. Thanks. Um, and it's all about how you you're going to live according to certain values, whether you realize it or not. Are you living according to the values that matter to you? And um, so doing a values assessment is super helpful when you want to set your priorities. And that's something you can do very formally. You can sit down and fill out the whole thing. I we have one, I can give you the link. Um, but discussing that with someone who knows you really well, like your husband, um, or you know, your sister or your mom, like what do you think my the way I live and the and the things that I spend my time on ref reflect about what my values are, and then have an honest discussion about that. Um, so that's something that I try to do fairly regularly, like once a year now, that I understand this concept of values assessment. And then the second thing that I would have done for many, many years is trying to set yearly goals and quarterly goals that kind of line up with my values or what's important or what I, you know, really want to make sure that we get to, both personally and as a couple or a family. So, for example, um, travel, we I say we always live very far away from our family. And so travel to go see our family was very important to us um for our own benefit and even for like a vacation because our family happens to live in North Florida where some of the world's most beautiful beaches are. So it's not really a burden to go there. It's candy. Um, but we would have to that's a value, that's something that's really important to us as family. And so we would have to sit down at the beginning of the year and say, okay, when are we gonna go visit this year? You know, when and make go ahead and carve that out and make that time. So that's just one example. Um and then that's the setting, and then the keeping of priorities is is that's the moving, constantly moving forward towards the goals, right? But it's also daily thriving according to what your values are. So for me, that looks like monthly planning. Um, every month I have I have a little planner. It's actually a blank bullet journal style notebook. Um, I've tried all of the planners known to man, and I just there's always something I just don't quite like, and I tweak this and I end up not using it. So I just have a blank notebook and I sort of build my own. Um and I have a monthly spread, so I do that at the beginning of every month. I actually do it before the beginning of the month, just sort of getting a big picture of the month and I revisit it regularly to make sure I don't miss anything. Um, and then the weekly planning, that's just every week, either on Saturday or Sunday, I sit down, I make a weekly spread to figure out. I look at my monthly and I say, okay, what's coming up this week? What are my big anchors that I want to go ahead in place for the week to make sure that I get to those things that are very that are part of my values? Um, my non-negotiables, if you will. Uh, and then meal planning. Um, weekly meal plans. I do that on Thursday. I put in my grocery order Thursday night, and groceries I either pick them up or have them delivered on Friday. And uh that's pretty much for the most part, I live and die by that by that schedule because I know that that's going to help me be successful in the week to come with all of the things if I know what we're eating and when I need to take meat out and when I need to prepare something. So those three things, if I do those consistently, monthly, weekly, and meal planning, my days are so much more fruitful and more I can be more flexible with whatever the Lord might bring me unexpectedly on a particular day. And it helps me shift. I can shift or pivot really quickly because I kind of have a good picture of of what I need to do that week and where I have room to move.

SPEAKER_02 50:12

That's so insightful because I do think some people believe if they have a plan or structure, they won't be able to enjoy flexibility. But actually, if you have no idea what like what's for dinner, what your schedule is, it's like, well, I could we could have done that except for we have no food in our house, or you know, it's like that's very true that having a plan can actually allow for that flexibility. And I I think it's so insightful that you plan your goals according to your values, because I do think it is common for I think pretty much everyone out there who has a family would say, My family is a priority. If you're, you know, a Christian, Christ is, you know, the one you're worshiping. He's the first priority, right? Yes. But then you set all these New Year's resolutions that don't even align with either of those, you know? And so you're measuring your success in a totally different category than what your value is. So that's that's really good. I wanted to get into some rapid-fire questions. You do this on your podcast as well. And I just think they're this is some of my favorite parts of your podcast. So can you start by sharing a memorable homemaking fail?

Allison 51:23

Okay. I don't really have a story for you. Um, I just like, okay, there's so many, lots of little fails, lots of bad recipes, lots of just dumb things that I did. Um, but I just I prayed about it and I and this all these answers to these questions, and I kept kept coming back to fear, anxiety, and worry. Um, when I feel like the the biggest areas where I have failed, those have always been at the bot, you know, at the bottom of it. Like this is what this is what caused this. Um letting those things motivate me uh have always led to some kind of fail in homemaking and in life in general. Um and it's no way to live. Like I I have, if I have any regrets, it's usually because of fear or anxiety or worry.

SPEAKER_02 52:12

Wow, that's good. I love that. I was thinking, yeah, oh, some cooking failure, but that is so accurate that most of the most like distressing things in our home can come out of that place of fear when we're not trusting the Lord and trying to control the situation. So that's really good. What about a memorable homemaking achievement?

Allison 52:33

Um, okay, so I I always feel like I am achieving or have achieved my main goal of homemaking when any of these three things happen. My kids want to come back and visit. That's so great. Um, when guests linger long, that I just love that. When they don't feel rushed to leave or, you know, like like I said before, like they're inconveniencing us, that to me is a that's a huge win. Um, and if people tell me that my home is cozy, that's that's such a win for me, especially as a thrifter, because that's you know, 90% of what's in my house has been thrifted. And so um, you know, that's not everybody's jam, but it it is my jam and I love it. And so when somebody walks into my home and says, Oh, your house is so cozy, it's like a it's like a hug. I'm like, thank you. That's such a that's a big win. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 53:32

Yeah. Oh, I love that. Okay, favorite homemaking hack or tip. I've been so curious because this is like you do homemaking as a big part of your hack?

Allison 53:42

It's not, it's not earth-shattering, but this is one that it was so life-altering for me when I learned this many years ago that I always have to share it with people. If you are measuring out, and you probably already know this, but somebody out there doesn't know and it's gonna change your life. If you're measuring out something sticky, if you're baking and you're measuring out molasses or honey or something really sticky like that, you know how when you go to pour it out, it doesn't all come out. So spray your measuring whatever it is with like, you know, nonstick spray. If it's a tablespoon or even like if it's a cut, like a glass measuring cup, spray it with nonstick spray. If you don't use nonstick spray, you can just put a little oil in there and just swirl it around and then put the sticky substance in. And then when you go to pour it out, it'll just slide right out.

SPEAKER_02 54:31

What? That's amazing. I love that. I love the idea of nonstick spray. I've sometimes done the like cheap version where you're making muffins and it calls for honey and oil, and I like use the same measuring cup, but I have never even heard of the nonstick spray. Because that's a real, you know, it's those little things, but like you end up irritated. The little things make the biggest difference sometimes. Yes, that is very fun. Okay, homemaking tool or product you can't live without.

Allison 55:00

Okay, I have two. Okay, I have a run, I have a runner-up and then I have the winner. So the runner up is my countertop toaster oven. Um, and it's not like a college toaster oven, it's a brevel, um, like a five in one or something. I don't know. It does a whole bunch of stuff that I don't necessarily use, but mainly we use it as an oven and we use it as an air fryer. Those are the top two things that we do with it. Um, I'm on my second one, actually. We had one that we had for like six years and it finally died. The fan died. It still worked, but the fan quit working, so it wasn't doing the convection thing. But um anyway, especially as empty nessers, I I hardly I maybe use my bake oven once, um, once a week. I use my countertop oven probably twice a day minimum. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 55:48

Does it heat up the kitchen or it doesn't?

Allison 55:50

No. And that's one of the reasons I love it is because it doesn't heat the kitchen up and it heats, it preheats really fast. So the cook time is quicker because I can get I can get the thing in there and get it cooked and and I'm done. So that's the runner-up. Okay. But the winner, and everybody's probably if my listeners are listening, they're like, oh, she's gonna say super cubes. I'm not gonna say super cubes, although I do love my super cubes. But the winner is mason jars. I use mason jars for everything. I store things in them in the freezer, in the refrigerator. I use them for leftovers, I decant and put stuff in the pantry. And I have mason jars of every size, little ones, big, giant ones. Um, I can with them, like I make preserves and stuff, uh, not as much as I used to. But I love them. They're so versatile. You can use them in every room of the house. You can put pins in them, you can put cotton balls in them in the bathroom. They're wonderful. So true. I love them.

SPEAKER_02 56:45

Wow, that's really good. It's true. Because yeah, I love that. We we use mason jars. We just started like a little pom-pom reward system and we use them for pom-pom. So I mean anything, yeah, anything you would like, you could use them for. I love that. Okay, and then your signature dish.

Allison 57:01

All right, I pulled my family for this.

SPEAKER_02 57:05

So smart.

Allison 57:06

Yes. Well, that's what my guests often do, so I learned from them. Um, hands down, it was roast, rice, and corn. So it I can't I was born in Louisiana. I grew up mostly in Florida, but born in Louisiana, and in Louisiana we would call it rice and gravy. So it's a piece of meat, kind of like a roasted piece of meat that it can be beef, it can be pork, something that will make like a really savory, like like um, it's fond. It's the drippings, you know, that stick to the bottom of the pan. So then you can pour broth in it and you can make like a really nice, um, delicious gravy out of that. And then you serve it with rice, and it's so wonderful. And I grew up eating that in the summers. I would go and stay with my grandmother, um, and she would make that often. And I had just such a lovely memory of sitting around her dining room table and eating roast and rice, and she would always serve it with corn um and usually melon on the side because it was in the summer. But yeah, so I started cooking that a long, long time ago for my family, and it is like the go-to meal. I do it different, I do it in the oven. I don't do it sort of the traditional Cajun way, but um it's basically the same thing. And that's my kids are like, yes, that's that's the meal because that's the one they most request for special like birthdays and stuff.

SPEAKER_02 58:26

Wow. So is it like kind of like roast and potatoes, but you use rice instead? Like is it like or just totally different? Totally different, totally different.

Allison 58:34

The rice is cooked separately. Okay, and it's it's like a rich gravy. The way that I make it, it you you kind of you're brazing, you're braising the meat in its in a little bit of beef broth and some butter and its own juice, and then you can thicken up the gravy and you break the meat apart into chunks, and it's so good.

SPEAKER_02 58:53

Okay, wow. Well, would it would it be too much trouble to include that recipe for our listeners?

Allison 58:58

I can totally send you that book.

SPEAKER_02 58:59

Okay, because see, I now I want to I want to try. It sounds so good.

Allison 59:02

Yeah, it's good.

SPEAKER_02 59:03

Okay, so you ask this question every time, and I would love to ask it because your whole podcast is called The Art of Home. And so, how do you personally see homemaking as an art? I don't think I've ever heard you answer this.

Allison 59:18

Okay, well, I have asked over a hundred women this question, and I've gotten back over a hundred different answers. Uh, a lot of them are similar, but they're all unique, um, which is part of my answer. So a little bit of history, why I called it the art of home. So before I started this five years ago, I was about to have a fully empty nest. I was taking art classes. I had been taking some art classes for a couple of years and trying to decide what I was going to do with my empty nest. Right. Um, I started listening to some different homemaking podcasts. I kind of discovered podcasts around that time too, and was instantly hooked. Yes. And I found some great ones, but I realized that there was a hole there, um, a bit of a void. Like a lot of what I was hearing were, you know, great conversations between like maybe two hosts or whatever. But I wanted, they were all influencers or authors, or and I was like, where are the stories of the just the normal women, like the regular women? Um, that was what was missing. And so that was kind of how the podcast, uh, the idea for the podcast was born. And I started thinking now, okay, I'm gonna do this show, what am I gonna call it? I had started to see some really interesting parallels between both art making and homemaking. Um, and that was why I ended up calling it the art of home, because it's unique to the artist, right? Just like a piece of artwork is unique to the artist who made it. I can be I love impressionist art. So I don't know a lot about other art, but impressionist art, like I can tell you you put three paintings in front of me. That's a Monet, that's a Renoir, and that's a cassat.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:58

Wow.

Allison 1:00:58

The way that I can tell this is Susan's home, this is Dana's home, and this is my mom's home. Like each of them bears the the unique mark of the woman that is practicing the art of home there, just like a piece of art would. And the the second thing that I noticed was that no one is born good at it. So just like an art, an artist, no artist came out of the womb with a paintbrush in their hand, able to just make a masterpiece. They had to learn, they had to study, they had to start with the basics and progress into mastery with lots of different skills. Um, and it's the same way. It's the same thing with homemaking. You're not born good at it. You have to learn and grow. Um, and you have to be okay with failure because that's what leads to your growth and eventually to mastery. We only get to see the very best works, you know, whether it's in the art gallery or on Instagram, if we're looking at other homemakers, we don't get to see all the fails and all the, you know, hundreds of messy or ugly paintings that somebody made. And it's the same thing with homemaking. There's way more of that than than those masterpieces, right? Um, so we have to be okay with failure as as artists and as homemakers practicing the art of home. Going into either one, expecting a masterpiece right away, you're either never gonna start or you'll never take the the risks that you need in order to get the experience you need to get better. You're gonna miss that freedom of trying new things. And and as Bob Ross, the great, great Bob Ross, the painter would say, a happy accident, right? I don't know if you ever watched him, but he would he would mess up on his canvas. Oh, that's just a happy accident. We'll just turn it into a happy little bird, you know. Yeah. But you miss out on that if you're paralyzed by like perfectionism and oh, this ha this has to be a masterpiece. If if you're whether we're talking about painting or homemaking, it's the same thing. You have to be willing to take risks and and fail because that's how you learn and that's how you grow. So that's how I see it as an art.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:02

Oh, that's so good. I see now I understand like the whole concept behind your podcast. It's so good. You guys, you yeah, all those listeners should go check it out right now. And what you're saying, it reminds me there's this book I was reading called Hidden Potential. And it talks about like the main, there's sometimes people think they have like this mental block. They think they can't conquer a skill, whether it's learning a language or something like that. And it's because they are unwilling to try the one thing that will make it better. So, like for a lot of people with language, they're unwilling to just go speak it with someone because they don't feel like they're good enough yet. But that's actually the one way they will develop the skill. And I love that you point that out with art and with homemaking. You have to, you have to start somewhere. And if you wait until you feel competent, you won't start. And so exactly. And that is so that's just oh, that's so that's very accurate and true in other spheres of life. But I think sometimes homemakers maybe can make it more of an identity thing and just say, I'm just not a good homemaker. I'm just not a natural homemaker. But when you view it as like this is a skill that you hone and you have failures, that's just that's really excellent. Yeah. Okay. So then a lot of this show is directed towards younger moms. So I wanted to ask a question that you asked on your podcast as well. What word of advice or encouragement would you give to younger homemakers? Because I'm sure you see the gamut, you're kind of in this world.

Allison 1:04:36

Yeah. Um I probably the biggest thing that comes up the most with most of my guests, because I do talk to women of all ages. We started the show. I started the show just talking to older women the first couple of years, or well, the first year is just older, more experienced, seasoned homemakers, we call them. But then I branched out and I talked to newly, newly married homemakers. I talked, I've talked to a couple single gals. And but across the gamut, the one thing that is consistently comes up with almost every guest is something about perfectionism. And so I I would just say let go of perfectionism and be okay with failing. I know we just kind of talked about that, but it's so important because if you don't, you're going to stagnate in your growth as a homemaker. You have to entrust your practice of the art of home to the Lord and just jump in and just do the thing. Like, you know, learning another language. If you really want to get good at it, you're gonna have to go speak it to and sound dumb. You have to be willing to sound dumb, like, you know, and mess up and trip over your words. It's the same thing. You have to be willing to fail. Don't be so paralyzed by your fear and your perfectionism that you miss all these opportunities that God is sending you every single day to grow because it's all meant for his glory. It's really just our pride that gets in the way. If we view what we do every day as working unto the Lord, as for his glory, and we do it with all of our might, our soul, mind, and strength and and and love him as we do it, he's gonna bring growth and good out of it no matter how much we mess up. Um he wants to grow you spiritually through your practice of the art of home. And that means you're gonna have to be willing to fail if you're gonna grow. So will you trust him to use all of it, even your failures, for for your good and the good of those around you? You can. You can trust him. Just keep showing up and keep practicing your art. Let him determine the results.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:35

Ah, Alison, that's like the battle cry right there. I'm gonna leave it there. That is beautiful. Well, Allison, it's been such an honor. Thank you so much again for joining me today.

Allison 1:06:44

Oh, Hannah, I have enjoyed this immensely. It's been so unique to be on this side. It's been a really different experience to be on this side of the microphone with my own questions, and you did a wonderful job asking them. So thank you so much for having me.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:58

Oh, thank you, Allison. Okay, take care.

Allison 1:07:02

Thank you for listening to this homemaker portrait of me, Alison Weeks. I pray that you have been encouraged, challenged, and inspired in some small way that enriches your own homemaking. Sitting with these questions myself was very instructive, and I walked away from the experience more grateful for my home, my husband, my family, and my homemaking journey with all its ups and downs. And I realized how much I'm still learning and growing. I highly encourage you, listener, to sit with these questions yourself. Pray over and ponder them. Write down your answers and ask a friend to interview you. You don't have to record it, but I recommend that you do and save the file somewhere for your daughter or granddaughter to listen to one day. Let's make the emoji for this episode a mirror to encourage you to reflect on and record your own homemaking journey. Drop a mirror in a text, comment, or email, and tell me your big takeaway from this episode. I will put all of the homemaker portrait questions in the show notes on the blog. Go download them and let a friend interview you. I want to thank Hannah again for hosting me on her podcast and letting me sit for a homemaker portrait. Be sure to follow her and listen to the Sugar and Spice Mom Life podcast. I will put all of her contact info in the show notes. If you have found value in today's episode, please share with another homemaker. Leave a rating and a review on your listening app, and support us financially over at buymeacoffee.com slash theartofome. That's all for this episode. Don't forget to send me your go-to hosting recipe for the magazine and drop me a mirror emoji. I will be back next week with all new content on Monday and Wednesday. Until then, keep practicing your art of making a home.