Amy at The Finer Things in Life has been hosting a great series called “Mommy, Come Home” all about the joys and challenges of being a stay-at-home-mom (SAHM).  Today I’m featured at her site!  See the previous posts at Mommy, Come Home.

I noticed a “note-to-self” sort of sign on my friend’s refrigerator today.  It said something like:

“FORGET what is unnecessary
FOCUS on that which is important – your children’s souls!
NOT checking off the to-do list
NOT a pristine house
NOT a perfect meal
…just three little souls, bound for Heaven someday.”

That little piece of paper not only spoke to me to remind me what I need to remember to focus on during the day, but it also confirmed my suspicion that many of us SAHMs struggle with the tension between the mothering part of our job and the homemaking part.  It’s difficult to balance the cultivation of the children and the care of the house in which they live, develop, and (hopefully) thrive.

It’s all about balance.

The job of “MOM” is a many-sided prism, and it’s our challenge to accept each facet of our vocation with grace, learn to prioritize, practice holiness in our work at home…and multi-task, of course.

That being said, I want to encourage you to embrace the “kitchen” line item in the job description of mother.

Our kids have many needs, and their bodily health and welfare is certainly one of the important ones. Lesser so than their faith and their emotional development, but still something that “MOM” is more or less in control of.

We (should) want to feed our kiddos good, nutritious food.  When moms leave work to come home with the children, one habit that is often overhauled is the cooking.  Many moms say that having children was their incentive to learn more about good nutrition.  Many families transition from Hamburger Helper and Rice-A-Roni to cooking more from scratch, often in a series of small changes.

For those of us who can afford it (or have made sacrifices so that we can get by), coming home is such a blessing.  We can be there to parent our children through every moment, not just those after 5:00.  We have time to play with them, and also time to do things that make their lives more special.

I believe that one responsibility that comes with the blessing of coming home is to use the time not spent on a payroll to keep your family healthy, preferably by spending as little money as possible.  This takes more time, but that’s the blessing SAHMs are given to work with.  It’s in the job description to:

• Take time to check ad flyers and shop sales (coupons too)
• Plan meals so that dinners are home-cooked, healthy, and hopefully utilizing sale items
• Learn to bake a little and reduce reliance on processed, packaged snacks
• Pack children’s lunches when practical, as nutritiously as possible

Allow yourself to think of MOM as a job sometimes. If time is money, the time spent shopping sales, cooking from scratch, preserving garden bounty, etc., is really bringing money into your household…by preventing it from leaving the pocketbook.

We are given the grace to be able to start our meal preparation at 3:00, or even during breakfast, so that we can include healthy, frugal practices such as:

• Soaking and cooking dry beans
• Using long-grain, brown rice (that takes at least an hour to be ready) instead of white rice
• Making homemade yogurt
• Traditional chicken stock, cooked all day
• Including lots of fresh veggies, freshly cut, in soups, casseroles, or raw dipping platters
• Using nutritious leftovers instead of expensive single serve treats for lunches with the littles who are at home (saves packaging on packing lunches, too)
• Cooked breakfasts, like super-healthy scrambled eggs
• Simply making more things “from scratch” or “homemade”
  • Refried beans
  • Pizza dough and sauce
  • Pasta and rice side dishes (Mexican, Cuban, or Chicken Rice)
  • Meatballs
  • Chicken nuggets
  • French fries
  • Breakfast breads or muffins
  • See my Recipes tab for more, including biscuits, tortillas, cornbread, and lots of healthy soups and main dishes.
  • What are your favorite, economical or healthy dishes to make from scratch?
• Putting the breadmaker to work so “whole grain buns” are affordable
• Shopping the Farmer’s Market (when it’s not super crazy on a Saturday)
• And more!  What are you able to do in the kitchen that you wouldn’t if you worked all day?

A note to alleviate the “I’m overwhelmed” syndrome:  Not all moms who are at home can handle lots of from scratch cooking and baking.  To each is given different gifts, and there are different seasons in an at-home-mom’s life. When you’ve just had a baby, and through that baby’s entire first year (two years?  18 years???), you can’t be expected to spend too much time in the kitchen.  That baby needs you present to them more than your family needs you to be trying new things in the kitchen.  The baby also needs a healthy environment, so you do your best with the time and energy you’ve been given, then you trust in the promise of your meal blessing.

Some might wear their babies in a sling while preparing meals, or spend time in the kitchen after husband is home and playing with the children, or even after the children are in bed.  Some might not be able to juggle all that and still be a sane, healthy individual.  That’s ok.  I do challenge you to take small steps in your kitchen to increase the nutrition offered and/or decrease the money spent.  Your kids are worth it. That’s why you have come home to be with them in the first place, isn’t it?

Be sure to catch my post on Healthy School Lunches and others you might enjoy:

• Soul First, Body Second
• Potato Salad with the Kids
• Real Food, Real Moms:  What if I Work Outside the Home?

Kitchen Stewardship is dedicated to balancing God’s gifts of time, health, earth and money.  If you feel called to such a mission, read more at Mission, Method, and Mary and Martha Moments.

I’d love to see more of you!  Sign up for an email subscription or grab my reader feed.

If you missed the last Monday Mission, click here.

I’m thankful I get to stay at home!  See more Thankful Thursday at Grace Alone. I’m also linked into Frugal Fridays at Life as MOM, Family Friday at Homemaker Barbi, Homemaker Monday at 11th Heaven’s Homemaking Haven, The Make-it-from-Scratch Carnival at It’s Frugal Being Green, and Hooked on Fridays at Hooked on Houses.

Prism photo source
Paycheck photo source