Homemaking Monday's In May: The Theology of Homemaking:A Four Part Formation Series - Week Two: Formation Through Repetition

There are days when the repetition of homemaking feels almost unbearable.

You wash the dishes, and by evening the sink is full again.

You fold the laundry, and tomorrow there will be another pile waiting.

You sweep the floor, wipe the counters, make the meals, straighten the rooms—and sometimes it can all begin to feel like a cycle that never truly ends.

And if we’re honest, I think part of what frustrates us is that we long for completion.

We want progress we can measure.

We want visible results.

We want something we can point to and say, “There. I finished it.”

But so much of homemaking refuses to stay finished, and maybe that is why it forms us so deeply.

Because Scripture is full of rhythms that required daily dependence.

Daily manna.
Daily bread.
Daily surrender.

When God provided manna in the wilderness, He did not give His people enough for months at a time. He gave them enough for that day.

Enough to teach them trust.
Enough to teach them reliance.
Enough to teach them to return to Him again tomorrow.

I think homemaking carries a similar invitation. Not just to complete tasks, but to become faithful in the returning.

Returning to serve.
Returning to nurture.
Returning to tend what has been entrusted to you—even when it feels repetitive.

And over time, something quiet begins to happen in us.

The repetition exposes our impatience.

It reveals our resistance.

But it also slowly builds endurance, steadiness, and faithfulness in places that comfort never could.

“Let us not grow weary of doing good, 
for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” 

- GALATIANS 6:9

I don’t think spiritual discipline is formed only in prayer closets and Bible studies.Sometimes it is formed while standing at the kitchen sink again.While making another meal. While tending an ordinary life with consistency when no one is applauding you for it.

And maybe the repetition you want to escape is the very place God is building your faithfulness.

If you’d like to explore this topic more deeply, these books pair beautifully with this week’s reflection:

Liturgy of the Ordinary

The Common Rule

Habits of the Household

Domestic Monastery

Each one offers a gentler way of seeing the rhythms, repetitions, and sacred routines of everyday life.

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Homemaking Monday's In May: The Theology of Homemaking:A Four Part Formation SeriesWeek One - Homemaking Is Not Small Work

I used to think homemaking felt small because it was small.

Small tasks.
Small moments.
Small, ordinary days that seemed to blur together.

But I’ve been slowly realizing, it isn’t small, it’s just hidden.

The world has trained us to measure significance by what can be seen, applauded, or scaled. But the Kingdom of God has always worked differently.

Jesus spent thirty years in obscurity before anyone called His name.

Most of what God does in a life happens where no one else is looking.And somehow, that includes this life too.

The folding.
The wiping.
The returning things back to order over and over again.

None of it feels like it’s “moving anything forward.”

But Scripture quietly tells a different story:

“What you do matters—not because it is seen, 
but because it is done unto Him.” 

- COLOSSIONS 3:23–24

There is nothing insignificant about faithfulness.

Nothing wasted about a life poured out in quiet obedience.

Maybe the problem isn’t that homemaking is small…maybe it’s that we’ve only learned how to recognize what is loud. And this life—this home—it speaks in a much quieter way.

But God hears it.

Every single part of it.

And maybe this is where the shift begins.

Not in changing what you’re doing…but in learning to see it differently.

Because if this work isn’t small, if it actually holds weight in the Kingdom—then the question becomes:

What is God doing in you through it?

What is being shaped in the quiet repetition of your days?

I’m starting to realize…

the hiddenness isn’t just about where this work happens.It’s about what it’s producing.

And that changes everything.

(We’ll talk about that next.)

If you’d like to explore this more deeply, these are a few books that have quietly shaped how I see this life:

The Hidden Art of Homemaking
this one reframes creativity and beauty inside the home in a way that feels both freeing and grounding.

Liturgy of the Ordinary
it helped me see how God meets us in the most repetitive, everyday moments.

The Life We’re Looking For
this one gently pulls your attention back to presence, especially in a distracted world.

Adorned
a reminder that the way we live inside our homes carries a kind of quiet, discipling influence.

None of them are loud.

But all of them will gently change how you see what you’re already doing.

❊

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Small Things - First Saturday in May 2026

Oregon grapes. I don't remember when or where I took this picture, 

it just showed up in memories on Facebook today. :)

 "Life is not, for most of us, a pageant of splendor, but is made up of many small things, rather like an old-fashioned piecework quilt. No two people have the same, but we all have our own, whether it be listening to Beethoven's fifth with a beloved friend, or seeing a neighbor at the back door with a basket of white dahlias. Or after a long, hard day, having the family say, "That was a good supper."

- GLADYS TABER

In no particular order, here are six things that inspired me this week.

❊ Grace Filled Homemaking

Focus: from-scratch cooking, natural living, homemaking rhythms
Blends: homesteading + spiritual formation

Emphasis on peaceful, Christ-centered home life

It’s deeply aligned with intentional + seasonal living, encouraging women to “cultivate peace, purpose, and joy” in their homes.

❊ The Hearty Homemaker Podcast

Topics: routines, slow living, biblical motherhood

Focus: simplifying life + creating peaceful homes

Encourages a Proverbs 31 lifestyle without perfectionism

It frames the home as “the soil where your family can grow… in Christ”—which is a powerful discipleship lens.

❊ Homemaking With Lea

Focus: cozy homemaking, motherhood, home rhythms, simple living

Content style: soft, aesthetic, day-in-the-life homemaking visuals

Tone: warm, inviting, gentle—not loud or performative

Leans into what many are quietly craving right now: a slower, softer picture of home life. Centers around “motherhood, cozy hobbies, lifestyle, and home.

❊ Sunshine Valley

Focus: slow living, old-fashioned homemaking, faith-rooted rhythms
Tone: peaceful, grounded, deeply nostalgic
Content: from-scratch cooking, DIY, home rhythms, spiritual encouragement

Consistent in its vision,and it carries a similar slow, seasonal heartbeat, but with  clarity and substance.

What stands out is the intentional rejection of modern chaos in favor of:

simplicity
quiet
and a home that feels like refuge

It explicitly speaks to women who feel God calling them to “less, not more”—which is exactly the tension behind true slow living. 

❊ Just Homemaking

Focus: biblical homemaking, intentional living, encouragement in daily work
Structure: multiple contributors (different seasons of life)
Content: devotionals, practical systems, homemaking encouragement

Moves beyond one voice and becomes a shared discipleship space.

It explicitly frames homemaking as:

more than cooking and cleaning—but a ministry that shapes hearts and lives 

It emphasizes homemaking as ministry, not just lifestyle

It offers relational encouragement (feels like a Titus 2 community)

It blends practical help + spiritual depth, which many accounts fail to balance

It feels like women walking alongside each other, not just one woman teaching from a distance.

❊ Just One More Page

Storybook Piano & Orchestral Music For Work / Deep Focus

❊

Wayback Wednesday: A Forgotten Childhood Favorite - Love On A Rooftop

This week, quite to my surprise, I stumbled back onto a series from my childhood memory bank that I had almost completely forgotten—until the moment I saw it again and everything came rushing back.

I’m talking about Love On A Rooftop (1966–1967, ABC).

This short-lived single-season sitcom featured Alias Smith and Jones star Peter Deuel and Laugh-In favorite Judy Carne as a newlywed couple trying to make life work in a tiny top-floor walk-up apartment in San Francisco. Deuel played Dave Willis, an orphaned, working-class architect with a steady, grounded nature. Carne played Julie, an art student from a wealthy, well-connected family who brought a much more impulsive, free-spirited energy into the relationship.

And right there was the heart of it: contrast. Structure versus spontaneity. Practicality versus whimsy. A small apartment, a big city, and two young people trying to figure out how to share a life without driving each other completely mad in the process.

The series was created by Bernard Slade, who denied any intentional connection to Neil Simon’s Barefoot in the Park, the hugely successful 1963 stage play that later became a 1967 film starring Robert Redford and Jane Fonda. But even at the time, comparisons were unavoidable. Industry insiders and audiences alike picked up on the similarities immediately.

And honestly, it’s not hard to see why.

You had the same basic blueprint: newlyweds navigating cramped urban living, a more rigid husband paired with a flightier wife, and the emotional growing pains of early marriage played for comedy. Even the “tiny apartment as battleground and sanctuary” idea feels like it was very much of that creative moment in television.

What’s interesting is that Barefoot in the Park eventually became its own television series in 1970, though it only lasted about six months. In a strange twist, Love On A Rooftop—the earlier and less remembered show—arguably handled the premise with a bit more charm and sincerity. There’s something about its softer edges that feels less theatrical and more lived-in.

And really, this format wasn’t an isolated experiment. Once Barefoot in the Park proved successful, television leaned heavily into this “young couple in the city” formula throughout the late 1960s and into the 1970s. Shows like The Occasional Wife and Bridget Loves Bernie continued exploring variations of the same idea: romance under pressure, identity clashes, and domestic comedy framed through modern relationships.

Despite its charm and a strong cast, Love On A Rooftop never made it past its first season. The reasons were pretty typical for the era—declining ratings, an unfortunate time slot, and the general volatility of network decision-making in the 1960s. ABC, in particular, was struggling throughout much of the decade, often ranking last among the major networks and frequently pulling the plug on shows before they had a chance to find their footing.

Behind the scenes, there were also rumors of tension between Judy Carne and Peter Deuel. Accounts suggested a difficult “love-hate” dynamic at times, with friction reportedly tied to professionalism and punctuality issues. Whether exaggerated by hindsight or not, it added another layer of strain to a show already fighting uphill for survival.

And yet, watching it today—or even just remembering it—it doesn’t feel like a failure. It feels like a time capsule.

There’s a softness to Love On A Rooftop that stands out now, especially in contrast to how fast and fragmented television has become. It captures a very specific kind of optimism about marriage, independence, and city life. Not perfect, not polished—just two people trying to build something together in a space barely big enough for the idea.

Looking back, I think that’s what makes rediscovering shows like this so meaningful. They weren’t just entertainment. They were reflections of what people hoped early adulthood might feel like—messy, funny, slightly chaotic, but still worth building.

And sometimes, that’s exactly what a forgotten sitcom gives you back: not just nostalgia, but a reminder of how many different ways life has been imagined before our own version of it ever began.

Here's the pilot episode, if you're interested.  The quality is not that great, but then . . . that's kind of part of the fun! Ironically the narrator for this episode is  Don Porter, who worked with Deuel prior to this series on Gidget! 

and, if you've never seen the movie, Barefoot In The Park, 

here's the opening credits

if you want to watch the full movie, it's available to rent or buy on Prime.