I suppose it's in my genes...

I come from a long line of home economics majors.  My mother, my grandmothers, and several aunts all studied home economics.  I followed in their footsteps and became a third generation graduate of the College of Human Ecology at K-State... as an athletic trainer.  The only culinary art I learned in college was how to whip up a nice chilled 10 gallon cooler of Gatorade. (I suppose I did have enough hours almost for a minor in nutrition so I do know saturated fat from folic acid.)  I earned the reputation in grad school of being the master of using canned crescent rolls in any dish I took to class gatherings.

Shockingly, over the past few months I have turned into a housewife and homemaker and am really enjoying myself.  What happened?!?  Are the genetics from my home econ roots just now blooming?  I realized I was a goner the other day when I made homemade pancake syrup.  I could have easily picked up a container for a few dollars but instead I found myself stirring a pot of boiling sugar.  I also baked my first whole chicken.  I must say I was pretty impressed with how it turned out- almost a work of art with the orange slices tastefully arranged and the seasoning on the crisp skin.  Then I had to bone said chicken and decided that this was way overrated and I will stick to frozen chicken breasts.

I have always considered myself a woman of math and science and I am beginning to realize how math and science play into being a homemaker.  My mom was once asked by some exchange students what she studied in school so explained that home economics was about cooking, clothing, running a household, family financial planning, etc. They replied, "Oh, so you can teach girls how to be maids."  Not quite.
Being a young couple and new grads we are trying to develop habits of being fiscally responsible.  One way I am trying to do this is through cutting out expenses while grocery shopping.  I will admit that I have taken it as far as to make price comparison sheets of what I buy for three different grocery stores and which store has the best deal on which items.  I use to absolutely hate grocery shopping but now I enjoy the challenge of planning, finding the best deals, and how much I can save per week.  Arthur is also working on a spreadsheet to find out the cost of recipes that we frequently make.  So we might be just a little nerdy-- oh well.

Since we are also working full-time I am also working on ways to have meals on hand if we don't have time to cook after work.  One afternoon I made double recipes of several dishes to stock our freezer.  I have gotten pretty good with making an entire meal in the rice cooker.  My next project will be mastering the crock pot.

One of the reasons I married Arthur was that he liked to cook and said that he would be willing to be the family chef. I figured I couldn't let a deal like that get away from me so I snatched him up.  Okay, so there may have been a few more important reasons why I fell in love and married him but not having to cook was sure appealing.  In pre-marital counseling we discussed family roles and responsibilities.  One role was the home manager role.  Arthur told the pastor that he was going to be the one filling that role.  I probably shot him some type of glare and the pastor thought we needed to discuss it farther.  I tried to explain to Arthur that being the family chef and home manager were two different roles entirely.  One was the person who cooks the other is in charge of everything else.  As it turns out due to work schedules I got both jobs- chef and home manager.  I am embracing being the chef more than I every thought.  This is not saying that I am a good chef yet by any stretch of the imagination but Arthur is very gracious about eating my cooking (more stories on this in a later post.)  Arthur on the other hand is becoming very good at washing dishes and is learning the finer techniques of laundry--another reason I snatched him as my husband.

I can't believe how these "home making instincts" kicked in all of a sudden once we were married.  Now I take pride taking care of my man and the home we have made together.  While I originally thought I would be a reluctant homemaker, I have yet once again found that omnia vincit amor (love conquers all).