I don't like the leftover attitude about stay at home Mothers or housewives and the idea that women should be homemakers who look pretty for their man and do what they are told to do. It's a small minded and ignorant way to treat something which is so much bigger and more important.

The world needs homemakers. Whether the person who looks after the children and the home is a man, woman or a couple, it's a vital role. It's a profession really. I wish it was given more credit and taken far more seriously than it is.

Being a Professional Homemaker

• The Retro Homemaker: The risks of choosing homemaking as a profession
• The Simple Life at Home: WFMW - Be a Professional Homemaker!

Homemaking is Important for the World and our Future

Years ago my Mother told me about a new TV show she had begun watching while she was in Florida. (My Mom is a Canadian snowbird). She said the show was really good, all about how to do the regular kind of things a lot of people have stopped doing, forgotten how to do or just never knew the right way to do them. That TV show was, The Martha Stewart Show. I still think about that when I see the Martha Stewart magazines in the book store and the grocery store aisle. (We don't get the TV show here in Canada any longer.)

There are a lot of little homemaking skills which people don't seem to know any more. How to clean things and how to place things and how to keep things run well.

All these skills used to be the work of women mainly. As my Mother said about my Grandparents, he works outside and she works inside. That was how they did it too. Rarely were there ever any cross-overs. But, later in life there were times my Grandmother wanted to garden and my Grandfather was happy to give her garden space in his garden. But, she wanted to plant potatoes and he didn't. Of course, it was complicated by the fact that she insisted on planting her surprise potatoes in his rose garden. But, that was just an extra wrinkle to the tale.

Small things, the working together of people. So complicated and yet so very important.

Stay at Home Dads

• FIRA- Father Involvement Research Alliance
• Stay-at-home fathers face unique challenges - thestar.com
• Stay-at-home dads aren't a novelty act - The Globe and Mail
• Could you be a stay-at-home dad? - Canadian Living
• Stay-at-Home Dads: No More Angst. These Guys Love What They Do | TIME.com
• Stay-at-home dad - Wikipedia

Stay at Home Moms Too

My Mother was (mostly) a stay at home Mom. At times she would go out to work part time. She worked at a Tim Horton's donut shop, hospital admissions and drove for Honda as a test driver too. Later, when my little sister was in high school my Mom got into real estate - and did well, she liked it too.

Things are changing from the old days and that's a good thing.

Modern Families Take Care of the Family, Together

Why are home making and housekeeping still so strongly associated with women? Yes, it's a traditional thing for the women to stay at home with the children and look after the home. But, that was a role outdated at least twenty years ago. Men can be at home looking after children and the home now. But, more often couples work together. Men and women take on the care of children and the usual skills, crafts and work of making a home and housework.

Are people still so deeply caught up in the past or do we just not give men any due credit? I know men who do a wonderful job with their children. I know couples who work together to get everything done, after their standard 9 to 5 work day.

Palaeo-art is a work of art that brings the prehistoric past to life (as an illustration, this isn't mad science but it may be mad art).

The Online Palaeo Art Community

• Drawn in Time
• The Paleo King
• Art of Emily Willoughby
• Skeletal Drawing
• Secrets of the Horned Dinosaurs
• Paleontología, Ilustración y Biston betularia (Spanish)
• Paleoexhibit
• Superoceras
• DinoArt
• Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs
• Craig Dylke's Prehistoric Art
• Paleo Illustrata
• ART Evolved: Life's Time Capsule
• The Flying Trilobite
• Trilobite Boy

Some books, once read, stick with you for the rest of your life whether you like it or not. I can think of a few which won't leave my mind alone. 'The Most Dangerous Game' (written by Richard Connell) is one of them.

Others include 'We Have Always Lived in the Castle' and 'The Lottery', both by Shirley Jackson and 'The Monkey's Paw' (written by W. W. Jacobs) which was a short story I read from a book I found at my Grandparent's house a very long time ago. I still remember the sick feeling of wondering what was at the door. If you have never read it and want a good short story, give it a try.

'The Most Dangerous Game' is about hunters and being hunted. Which do you think is the most dangerous animal to hunt? Lions, tigers and bears... oh my! Not any of those, according to the book. I don't want to give away the story for anyone who doesn't already know it. But, I can say there has never been an adventure quite like the chase which goes on in this book. The ending leaves you guessing, unless you choose to assume things ended in a better way and leave it at that.

You don't need to be into hunting to enjoy this book. If enjoy is quite the right word. It is not a story for children, though it was a story we were required to read when I was a school kid. The story impacted me - I didn't stay up late to sneak downstairs and watch horror on TV as my brother and one of my sisters did. I liked to avoid the gruesome stuff. I still do. But, there are some stories you need to read, some ideas which should be explored, or at least tempted a little. Not that I'm taking up hunting, not as a sport, not after having read 'The Most Dangerous Game' at least once in my life.

Expat Women - Helping women living overseas.

Would you move to another country, another part of the world with a different culture, maybe a different language from your own even? Some women do. Some women in fiction travel even farther. How would it be to live in the fairy realm, another planet, or some civilization built around our own but hidden from the ordinary human eye? I think women in this situation would have the same kind situations and difficulties as women expatriates.

It is a sad thing that we seldom use our phone books any more. At least, not for their intended purpose. With the Internet as a quick source for local information (like business addresses and phone numbers) the phone book has become a large recyclable object. Sometimes an effective doorstop, child booster seat or an especially thick phone book can be added to the wood burning in the fireplace (if you have one).

It's ironic that once the Internet was booming the phone books started dropping out of the sky. We were getting five different phone books each year at one point. The main one still being from the phone company itself. Then four others from various other sources, all companies who sold their service to local business and then promised great results. Well, who needs that many phone books in one place (one small house in my case). I did recycle all of them - without ever having used them at all.

This brings me to this past week when I was travelling to Sudbury, Ontario with my nephew and his Grandmother (my Mom). We were there for him to tour his university. Zack will be living on site and taking psychology this Fall. Anyway, I've been to Sudbury before. There were a couple of places I wanted to see again, like MIC (a Canadian themed restaurant). We stayed three days so I wanted to find more to do and see. Thus the phone book. I looked up all the standard things I look for (secondhand bookstores and coffee shops). Zack looked at the games stores and my Mom looked at garden centres. We each found a few places to explore. So the phone book was put to it's intended use.

I think it is only in such a case that the phone book is still useful. Yes, we could have found the same information online and we each did have the hardware to do it. I just dislike pulling out the computer when I'm travelling. I like being less digitally inclined and having a small digital sabbatical.

Did you know that businesses can opt out of the Yellow Pages phone directory now? I wonder why they would do that. I can understand not placing a large ad but to at least have the small text ad, to at least be mentioned, still seems like a worthwhile idea. Not everyone is as plugged into the Internet that they rely on it fully and completely. If you have a business which helps people in times of crisis (like a personal trauma or the power going out), you really should have a yellow pages listing.

So goes the legendary phone book. When did you last use it in some way? Whether you found a creative use for it, actually looked up a business or just added it to the recycling - I hope you did not do it without a little thought for the old phone book.