A Woman's work is never done!

A Modern Day version of the fire...

When I read these quotes about a Home maker from days gone by, they make me smile at the thought and care that went into writing them and also all the work a woman use to do in making food for everyone.

The Fire Tenders

Women through the years have stood
Watch above a flame,
Keeping it a glowing thing
For the ones who came
Hungry, tired, when the night
Marks a kitchen's warm, red light.

Nothing lovelier, I think,
Then a woman's face,
Calmly bent above a fire.
As with quiet grace
She moves clean, deft hands to make
Food more wholesome for love's sake.

Something great and beautiful
In her simple art -
Something to delight the eye
And make glad the heart:
Women - tending fires that man
May be strong to work again.

(Crowell., G. N., (1930). Flame in the wind. Haper & Row Publisher Inc.)

It's really amazing that some of the student's I teach believe this to be totally true.  That this is the most important role of a woman.  Then I think maybe the want it this way because they never had it.  At the same time though, these women in the past were very industrious in their care of the home. Bottling fruit and vegetables, sewing clothes and some even made the cloth in the first place.  Plus then I think of those who also killed snakes, cleared out red backs, tilled the soil to make a garden and a home in the Australian Outback.  Those women were amazing...