A Homemaking Renewal

I think I’m finally getting used to being a homemaker. For me, it's a very different thing to keep house for only yourself than it is to keep house for two. Lately I have been attempting to dust off and perfect my homemaking skills. Not that I haven't been doing things before, but I am becoming more thorough, "making it my own" again. I felt so handy when I fixed (unclogged) the vacuum cleaner last week and had a good vacuum of the house, hooray the vacuum isn't broken after all! I finally found the right picture to display of Superman and I newly married in front of the Mesa Temple (thus displaying a picture of our wedding, and a picture of the Temple, killing two birds with one frame. ;) I've discovered, when you don't have much space, it's very important to add just the right touches and not too much or too little.

Another revisited skill I’ve been working on is laundry. I had a list of “helpful hints” I was given while in Young Women's and I found it a couple weeks ago, retyped it, put it in a protective sleeve and hung it from a laundry room cabinet for convenient reference. I’m very proud of that handy display I’ve rendered in the laundry room and take more pleasure in doing the laundry. I'm so silly, I know, but now that I've made it my own it is much more rewarding for me to maintain.
I now fold the laundry as I take it out of the dryer before I put it in the laundry basket and this saves me from a wade of clean wrinkled laundry to put away later, and it’s so much easier for me to feel up to the task of putting the laundry away when it’s already folded neatly. Plus, this way when I don’t have enough room to hang up the clothes, they sit quite neatly till I’m able to put them away. I knew all this a long time ago, but I had forgotten.
I really want to can some fruit and jams this summer, but I don't know if I'll get the opportunity. That's another skill I want to renew because it has just been so long that I'm not sure I know how to can anymore. It's sad because I really like to can and it seems like it's one of those old fashioned skills that is getting left on the shelf to gather dust now days.
I was reading someone's blog last week and found that she had a tole painted "Country Kitchen" decoration that I was going to make when I first learned to tole paint. It reminded me how I wanted to make it and how much fun I had in the class I took, and I think I will try to get back into tole painting again. I tried Google-ing the pattern for the decoration I wanted to make, but I couldn't find it so I think I will have to make my own pattern and find someone with a scroll saw. :) Maybe my instincts are just kicking in for Spring Cleaning!