How I Became a Homemaker

Our dining room table

When people ask me about my life these days, I tell them that I feel like a homemaker. No, I am not married. No, I do not have kids. Nor do I have a white picket fence, a dog named Sparky, or awesome cleaning skills. But I feel like a homemaker non the less. Let explain why.

I work for a Christian organization called University Christian Outreach (UCO). One of our charisms is discipleship, or helping our students grow in their relationship with Jesus Christ. One of the ways that we help our students grow in discipleship is by encouraging them to live together during their college years in living situations referred to as Households.

What is a Household? At it's core its a group of same-sex folks ages 18-24ish committed to living together and supporting each other through their Christian walk. While each Household looks and feels a little different, each member of the house commits to several household patterns each week, mainly morning prayer, dinners together, evening prayer, and Saturday Lord's Days.

Preparing for a Lord's Day 

In order for Households to run well, each member also commits to upholding certain rules. Rules give each house member clear expectations for things like bills, curfews, modesty, and service expectations.  The area of house rules was a challenging one for me to accept at first. Especially the rule about no television in house common areas. But overtime, I have learned to see our house rules as a source of freedom, and a way for me to love and serve my sisters.

The women's household in Pittsburgh is an interesting one. Six women, plus a mischievous bowling ball named Bob, live in it. We're a fun mix of backgrounds, college majors, and personalities. All of us are slightly addicted to Pinterest for inspiration for household meals. Our house doesn't have a name yet, but I think we should call it Cookie Manor seeing as we all love to bake. We even have a tradition known as Cookie Thursday where one of us bakes a new cookie recipe to bring to our UCO prayer meetings.

We live in Shadyside, a neighborhood located within the city of Pittsburgh. Despite it's name, Shadyside is one of Pittsburgh's hidden gems with plenty of places to eat, run, and drink coffee. Ellsworth Avenue, Shadyside's main drag, is home to some of the most beautiful homes I have ever seen. The neighborhood is a nice mix of graduate students from local universities, young families trying to figure out how to walk their dogs and their strollers simultaneously, and senior citizens who can trace their ancestry back to Pittsburgh steel tycoons.

Home Sweet Home

The house itself was built in 1900, before electricity, central plumbing, or refrigerators, so naturally we have two fruit cellars. The house is quite spacious-we each have our own room, and can comfortably fit twenty to thirty people in our living room/dining room for parties. Like most turn of the century homes, something is always falling apart, much to the annoyance of our household leader. If you look out from our front door, you can picture carriages pulling up to drop off ladies for afternoon tea.

Horse and Buggy Shot

Living in Household makes me feel like a homemaker because it gives me the structure to create a home for myself, my friends, and college women in the Pittsburgh area. My 19 year old women's studies major is probably rolling over in her grave right now, but I really like my new role. I am very grateful that the Lord has called us together to be a home, a light to the nations, unified by our love for Christ and each other.