Welcome to Real Homemaking.
I’m Ashleigh, a mom of three, a wife to Mark, and a lifelong English-Speaking South African. I was born and raised here, as was Mark and our three children.
I started this blog as a place to gather and share my research into Home Economics, Spiritual Growth, Marriage and Family life, but also as a living record of our everyday life. Real Homemaking is both practical and personal: a space where learning, faith, family, and daily rhythms meet.
This blog is for like-minded women who want to learn and grow with me, not be lectured at from above.
Why Home Economics Still Matters
I believe that Home Economics is not an outdated 1950s school subject, but rather a set of essential life skills that have quietly exanded and evolved. These skills are valuable to all people, men and women, because we all still live in homes.
While I personally prefer traditional gender roles, I no longer believe this is a one-size-fits-all position. Some women thrive in careers and would go mad staying at home. Others struggle deeply in an 8-to-5 world and feel far more fulfilled caring for their families and homes. Neither path is morally superior, but self-awareness matters.
Although women with careers may glean helpful insights from some of the topics I cover, career women are not my primary audience, and neither are men. Real Homemaking is written specifically for women who feel called toward the home, whether full-time or in spirit.
The reason Home Economics remains so valuable is simple:
We all still manage households.
We still budget, plan meals, cook, clean, organise schedules, decorate spaces, maintain homes and raise children – unless we are wealthy enough to outsource these tasks entirely. And yet, most children are no longer taught these skills in school.
If we still do these things, then they are still worth learning, discussing, refining, and intentionally passing on to the next generation.
Our Faith and Spiritual Growth
On the spiritual side, Mark and I are born-again Christians.
I grew up in the Baptist Church, and Mark in a Methodist Church. We attended a student rich Dutch-Reformed chuch early in our marriage, a Methodist Church when our first child was born, and we are currently involved in a Presbyterian church – Mark on the worship team, and myself serving in the youngest Sunday School class. Despite this journey, we consider our family non-denominational. We go where God leads us.
Our core beliefs are shared by Christians everywhere:
- Jesus Christ is the Son of God
- He lived and died to save us from our sinful nature
- He will return again
We believe that a personal relationship with God is the most important thing after belief in Jesus Christ. Because of this, many of our secondary beliefs continue to grow and mature as we study Scripture and allow God to shape us into who He intends us to be.
We are far from perfect, but our aim is always the same:
to keep God first in our lives.
Marriage Comes Second
Our second priority is our marriage.
God wrote our love story, and I am endlessly grateful that He brought us together. Mark and I have been married since 2013, and somehow it still feels like we’ve only been married a few weeks. I don’t believe our honeymoon phase ever truly ended.
I’ve always said that if our children tell us to “get a room” when they’re teenagers or adults, then we have a healthy marriage.
That said, a strong marriage does require commitment; real, ongoing commitment from both people. I’m thankful that we are both 100% invested in one another and in protecting what we’ve built together.
Motherhood and Homeschooling
My third priority is our children.
We chose to homeschool all three of them for many reasons, including, but not limited to:
- to let them be children longer
- to reduce unnecessary stress
- to allow them to learn at their own pace
- to explore interests beyond the core curriculum
Our homeschool journey has been adaptive. We began with Cambridge, moved into a blend of unschooling and the Charlotte Mason approach, and now use Acellus for core subjects alongside the Ambleside Online book list.
It hasn’t been a straight line, but so far it has been good.
A Bit About Me
(or: My Respective Weirdness)
My personality naturally leans toward finding beauty where others may not see it – looking for good, meaning, potential and order even in unexpected places. Because of this, I don’t always fit the mould of the stereotypical “good little Christian wife.”
I won’t over-explain that here, but perhaps providing a favourites list will help paint the picture:
| My Favourites List | |
|---|---|
| Movie | The Addams Family Values |
| TV Series | Stargate SG-1 (and spin-offs) |
| Book Series | Expeditionary Force, by Craig Alanson |
| Novel | Wyrd Sisters (Discworld #6), by Terry Pratchett |
| Computer Game | The Sims series |
| Game Genre | Management games |
| Bands | Karula Bowling for Soup The Dollyrots |
| Activities | Browsing Archive.org to read very old books and magazines Reading Gaming Walking and day-hikes |
| Podcast | The Deep End, with Taylor Welch |
| Household Chores | Cooking, baking, budgeting, and household management |
| Pet Preference | Cats |
My life motto:
"make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody."
Closing thoughts...
So, dear reader (or is that a little too Bridgerton?), I hope you find something here at Real Homemaking that meets you where you are; something useful, encouraging, or quietly reassuring. If this blog blesses your life in even a small way, then it has done what I hoped it would do.
May God bless you and your home. And if I don’t meet you in real life, I hope to see you one day in the heavenly kingdom.