Welcome Friends!

Ahhhh, it’s so good to be blogging again! For those of you who followed Fun Home Things for years, thank you! It is because of you that I am able to launch my new website, Modern Home Ec!

Fun Home Things was all about crafts, recipes and decor which was awesome and truly fun! When I started Fun Home Things, I had one child, Sophie, who was already in preschool at the time. By 2016, we had added 3 more little ones to our crew and our home life changed dramatically. There was very little time for crafting and decorating, let alone writing.

Then last year, both boys, Jack and Luke, were diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder which required a lot of time, attention and energy. I all but dropped blogging completely to focus on my family, which is exactly what I should have done. Both boys are doing incredibly well and responding to the interventions and therapy we were able to get them, but it changed us as a family. It changed me as a person. So, clearly anything I was writing about needed to change too.

But my passion for home and family never faded. My love of crafts, decor and clever tips and tricks never went away. It just morphed into something that included the WHOLE picture, not just the pretty bits and pieces that I shared.

Enter Modern Home Ec.

For a few years, I had been talking about the growing need to reinstate home economics in school. Countless young adults that I encountered kept telling me the same things–‘I got an A in business calculus but I have no idea how to change a tire. How to run my laundry. How to cook.’

 

There is a huge population of 20, 30 and even 40-somethings who depend on Pinterest, blogs, Google searches and YouTube videos to learn basic life skills. Which is awesome! Thank goodness for the Internet, amiright?

I fall into this category. I learned a lot on my own in my 20s. I was your average Xennial kiddo (people born between 1977-1985). Both of my parents worked outside of the home, my dad was working his way up the career ladder, my mom was a public school teacher working on her Master’s degree at night and during the summers. As a result, there was a lot of heat-and-eat going on in our house. We didn’t care. In fact, we didn’t even notice for the most part. Most of our friends were doing the same thing.

By the time I was in high school, home economics was a thing of the past. Academics and career planning was being pushed. With all of the modern conveniences we had by that point, home economics was considered antiquated and unnecessary. Women were joining the workforce, clothing was becoming cheaper, microwaves came on the scene. So, yeah, the way home ec was being taught really was antiquated. The solution, however, was not to remove the class, but to adjust it to fit with the times. Some school systems did manage to adapt. The rest let it go. Only recently are we starting to see a resurgence of this much needed course.

Missouri State Archives/Flickr

No home ec meant that many of us became grown ups who were poorly equipped to handle the ins and outs of adulting. Sure we had the Internet, but what sites and info are legit? Money is tight, does this recipe really work? If not, I’ve blown my entire grocery budget.  It’s Christmas Day and I’m stuck in 6 inches of snow with a flat tire and no cell phone signal. How do I change a tire? Some dude at a table in the student center is offering a t-shirt and free pizza if I sign up for this credit card. I need to build my credit history anyway, right?

I was 25 when I learned how to use a Crock Pot and brown hamburger. My college roommate and best friend to this day, ran her first load of laundry in our dorm as a freshman. We laugh about it now but both of us were pretty embarrassed in hindsight. It was those experiences and many more that inspired me to learn everything I could about home management and life skills and to share that information with others, starting with my own children.

 

There are no gender-specific jobs in our house. Jack and Luke eat food, so they will need to learn to cook along with the girls. Sophie and Emmie will be driving one day, so they need to know how to change a tire, along with the boys. All of my kids wear clothes (well, most of the time) so all of them will learn how to do laundry.

So once again, welcome to Modern Home Ec! I’m a woman, wife, mother of 4 and SAHM, but that doesn’t mean you have to be! Modern Home Ec is all about reinventing and tailoring home economics to meet the needs of modern day women AND men. Married, partnered, unmarried, kids, no kids, 20s or 60s…it doesn’t matter. If home matters to you, you’ve come to the right place. Because when your home runs well, life runs better!

4 thoughts on “Welcome Friends!

  • Thank you so much Jessica! I’m bringing back a lot of the fan favorites and it will have the same general feel. Just more content. More about family, more about home management and Sophie is going to be running the Kid’s corner. She’s still got a shout out ready for you:-)

     
  • I loved your old blog and can’t wait to see what you do with this new one! It’s a great idea!

     
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