is one of several periodicals related to homemaking.]] A homemaker handles household responsibilities as his or her main daily activity. While not a paid occupation in the traditional sense, as it is not usually undertaken for monetary remuneration, a homemaker may work full-time to maintain the home environment. The occupation is typically taken by one adult of a household, such as a parent of a child unless all working age individuals in the household work full-time. If the homemaker is part of the family, a female homemaker is usually termed as housewife, and a male homemaker, a househusband. The domestic consumption work

General functions

Housework is not always a lifetime commitment; many, for economic or personal reasons, return to the workplace. In previous decades, there were many mandatory courses for the young to learn the skills of homemaking. In high school, courses included cooking, nutrition, home economics, family and consumer science (a.k.a. F.A.C.S) and food and cooking hygiene. This last one may underlie the tradition that a homemaker is portrayed wearing an apron. More recently, most of these courses have been abolished, and many youths in high school and college would be more likely to study child development and the management of children's behavior.

Household tools

The method and function of housework are different in the industrial world and in other countries, with the balance of convenience, labor-saving devices and easier methods being in the industrial homemaker's favor. The reason for this is that mechanical invention has been applied extensively to different tasks of the home. Inventors have developed mechanical labor-saving devices not only for the shop and office, but also for the home. There are, on the market, thousands of household tools, devices and equipment for every domestic need. It only remains for the homemaker to choose between them.

Another reason for the great supply and demand for household labor savers in the industrial world is that the homemaker has to face the increasingly complex problem of scarce domestic help. With cheap labor, the need for the mechanical replacers of labor, or "mechanical servants," will not be keenly felt, however, the majority of homemakers perform their own household tasks. It is to this class of homemakers who are actively concerned in domestic work that the labor-saver and improved modern tool most appeal. The homemaker's time and effort are worth conserving by every means. Homemakers should therefore, be eager to buy and use all the household tools which will save her strength and time and liberate her from household drudgery.

While some homemakers are "handy" with tools, the fact remains that most homemakers are unfamiliar with the different principles involved in mechanical tools and devices. The homemaker, however, is called to have knowledge of the principles of applied mechanics. Courses in school physics unfortunately leave a student with little practical knowledge that can be applied to domestic equipment. The gaining of knowledge concerning domestic tools may lead the homemaker to purchase good quality equipment, which may assist in saving time and labor.

Cooking

Most modern-day houses contain sanitary facilities and a means of preparing food. A kitchen is a room or part of a room used by the Homemaker for cooking and food preparation. In the West, a modern kitchen is typically equipped with a stove, an oven, a sink with hot and cold running water, a refrigerator and kitchen cabinets. Many homemakers use a microwave oven, a dishwasher and other electric appliances. The main function of a kitchen is cooking or preparing food but it may also be used for dining and entertaining.

Cooking is the process of preparing food by applying heat, selecting, measuring and combining of ingredients in an ordered procedure for producing safe and edible food. The process encompasses a vast range of methods, tools and combinations of ingredients to alter the flavor, appearance, texture, or digestibility of food. Factors affecting the final outcome include the variability of ingredients, ambient conditions, tools, and the skill of the individual doing the actual cooking.

The diversity of cooking worldwide is a reflection of the aesthetic, agricultural, economic, cultural, social and religious diversity throughout the nations, races, creeds and tribes across the globe. Applying heat to a food usually, though not always, chemically transforms it, thus changing its flavor, texture, consistency, appearance, and nutritional properties. Methods of cooking that involve the boiling of liquid in a receptacle have been practised at least since the 10th millennium BC, with the introduction of pottery.

Housekeeping

{|align="right" class="toccolours" style="margin: 0 0 1em 1em;" | style="background:#dddddd; text-align:center;"|Housekeeping tools |- | |- |} Housekeeping by the homemaker is the care and control of property, ensuring its maintenance and proper use and appearance. A home is a place of residence. In a private home a maid or housekeeper might be employed to do the housekeeping. Housework is work done by the act of housekeeping. Some housekeeping is housecleaning and some housekeeping is home chores. Home chores are housework that needs to be done at regular intervals, Housekeeping includes the budget and control of expenditures, preparing meals and buying food, paying the heat bill, and cleaning the house. Outdoor housecleaning chores include removing leaves from rain gutters, washing windows, sweeping doormats, cleaning the pool, putting away lawn furniture, and taking out the trash.

Housecleaning by the homemaker is the systematic process of making a home neat and clean. This may be applied more broadly that just an individual home, or as a metaphor for a similar "clean up" process applied elsewhere such as a procedural reform. In the process of housecleaning general cleaning activities are completed, such as disposing of rubbish, storing of belongings in regular places, cleaning dirty surfaces, dusting and vacuuming. The details of this are various and complicated enough that many books have been published on the subject. How-to sites on the internet have many articles on housecleaning. Tools include the vacuum cleaner, broom and mop. Supplies such as cleaning solutions and sponges are sold in grocery stores and elsewhere. Professional cleaners can be hired for less frequent or specialist tasks such as cleaning blinds, rugs, and sofas. Professional services are also offered for the basic tasks. Safety is a consideration because some cleaning products are toxic and some cleaning tasks are physically demanding. Green cleaning refers to cleaning without causing pollution. The history of housecleaning has links to the advancement of technology.

Laundry

{|align="right" class="toccolours" style="margin: 0 0 1em 1em;" | style="background:#dddddd; text-align:center;"|Laundry tools |- | |- |} Laundry refers to the act of washing clothing and linens, the place where that washing is done, and/or that which needs to be, is being, or has been laundered. Various chemicals may be used to increase the solvent power of water, such as the compounds in soaproot or yucca-root used by Native American tribes. Soap, a compound made from lye (from wood-ash) and fat, is an ancient and very common laundry aid. Modern washing machines typically use powdered or liquid laundry detergent in place of more traditional soap. Once clean, the clothes have been wrung out — twisted to remove most of the water. Then they were hung up on poles or clotheslines to air dry, or sometimes just spread out on clean grass.

Washing machines and dryers are now fixtures in homes around the world. In some parts of the world, including the USA, Canada, and Switzerland, apartment buildings and dormitories often have laundry rooms, where residents share washing machines and dryers. Usually the machines are set to run only when money is put in a coin slot. In other parts of the world, apartment buildings with laundry rooms are uncommon, and each apartment may have its own washing machine. Those without a machine at home or the use of a laundry room must either wash their clothes by hand or visit a commercial laundromat.

A clothes dryer is a household appliance that is used to remove moisture from a load of clothing and other textiles, generally shortly after they are cleaned in a washing machine. Most dryers consist of a rotating drum called a tumbler through which heated air is circulated to evaporate the moisture from the load. The tumbler is rotated relatively slowly in order to maintain space between the articles in the load. In most cases, the tumbler is belt-driven by an induction motor. Using these machines may cause clothes to shrink, become less soft (due to loss of short soft fibers/ lint) and fade. For these reasons, as well as environmental concerns, many people use open air methods such as a clothes line and clotheshorse.

Laundry starch is used in the laundering of clothes. Starch was widely used in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries to stiffen the wide collars and ruffs of fine linen which surrounded the necks of the well-to-do. During the 19th century and early 20th century, it was stylish to stiffen the collars and sleeves of men's shirts and the ruffles of girls' petticoats by applying starch to them as the clean clothes were being ironed. Aside from the smooth, crisp edges it gave to clothing, it served practical purposes as well. Dirt and sweat from a person's neck and wrists would stick to the starch rather than to the fibers of the clothing, and would easily wash away along with the starch. After each laundering, the starch would be reapplied. Today the product is sold in aerosol cans for home use.

Maintenance

Homemakers that follow predictive maintenance techniques determine the condition of in-service equipment in order to predict when maintenance should be performed. This approach offers cost savings over routine or time-based maintenance, because tasks are performed only when warranted. Homemakers that follow preventive maintenance methods ensure that household equipment and the house are in satisfactory operating condition by providing for inspection, detection, and correction of incipient failures either before they occur or before they develop into major defects.

Home maintenance

Home maintenance involves the diagnosis and resolution of problems in a home, and is related to home maintenance to avoid such problems. Many types of maintenance are "Do it yourself" (DIY) projects. Maintenance is not necessarily the same as home improvement, although many improvements can result from repairs or maintenance. Often the costs of larger repairs will justify the alternative of investment in full-scale improvements. It may make just as much sense to upgrade a home system (with an improved one) as to repair it or incur ever-more-frequent and expensive maintenance for an inefficient, obsolete or dying system. For a DIY project, also useful is the established limits on time and money investments before a repair (or list of repairs) become overwhelming and discouraging, and less likely to ever be completed.

Lawn maintenance

Homemakers that have a lawn responsibility adhere to seasonal lawn care practices, which vary to some extent depending on the climate zone and type of grass that is grown (whether cool season or warm season varieties). Various recognized method used by homemakers in lawn care are observed in any area. At spring or early summer, homemakers seed, sod, or sprig a yard when the ground is warmer. Summer lawn care by homemakers have lawn mower at high cutting for cool season grass, and lower cutting for warm season lawns. At the autumn time, lawns are mowed by homemakers at a lower height and thatch buildup that occurs in warm season grasses are removed. Homemakers do add sandy loam and apply fertilizer, containing some type of wetting agent. Cool season lawns are planted in the autumn with adequate rainfall. Lawn care in the winter is minimal, requiring only light feedings of organic material, such as green-waste compost, and minerals to encourage earthworms and beneficial microbes.

Management

Household management by the homemaker is the act of overseeing the organizational, financial, and day-to-day operations of a house or estate. It differs from housekeeping, which consists of the physical maintenance and cleaning of a house.

Household purchasing

Household purchasing refers to homemaker's attempt to acquire goods or services to accomplish the goals of the household. Though there are several households that attempt to set standards in the purchasing process, processes can vary greatly between households. Typically the word “purchasing” is not used interchangeably with the word “procurement”, since procurement typically includes other concepts. Home makers decide the market goods that the household will buy, such as the groceries which have been bough at a grocer's.

Another important purchase handled by homemakers is the power source used for appliances. Home or other building heating may include boilers, furnaces, and water heaters. Compressed natural gas is used in rural homes without connections to piped-in public utility services, or with portable grills. However, due to being less economical than LPG, LPG (Propane) is the dominant source of rural gas for natural gas-powered ranges and/or ovens, natural gas-heated clothes dryers, heating/cooling and central heating. The amount of usages is determined by factors such as natural gas prices.

Servants

Homemakers manage household workers or "domestic servants". The "servant problem" is due to the fact that people formerly engaged in household service have entered industries and prefer these conditions with high pay and freer hours to the more confining conditions which govern housework at present. Even with normal industrial conditions, there is every indication that service for the home will be increasingly more difficult to obtain — and also to keep. It is therefore worth while for any employer of household labor to study the "servant problem," understand its causes, and particularly give attention to the relation and attitude between the homemaker and any employee an individual may engage. It is a plan for the relative deployment of household members' time between the three domains of employment: # in the market economy, including home-based self-employment second jobs, in order to obtain money to buy goods and services in the market; # domestic production work, such as cultivating a vegetable patch or raising chickens, purely to supply food to the household; and # domestic consumption work to provide goods and services directly within the household, such as cooking meals, child–care, household repairs, or the manufacture of clothes and gifts. Household work strategies may vary over the life-cycle, as household members age, or with the economic environment; they may be imposed by one person or be decided collectively.

See also

Handyman

Home economics

Scientific management

Footnotes

References

Lopata, H. Z. (1994). Circles and settings: Role changes of American women. SUNY series in gender and society. Albany: State University of New York Press. "Homemaker" Page 137+.

Arnold, E. (1993). Voices of American homemakers. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Harvey, L. S. (1920). Food facts for the home-maker. Boston: Houghton Mifflin company.

Frederick, C. (1919). Household engineering; Scientific management in the home. Chicago: American school of home economics.

Snedden, D. (1919). Vocational homemaking education: Some problems and proposals. New York City: Teachers College, Columbia University.

Kinne, H., & Cooley, A. M. (1914). Shelter and clothing: A textbook of the household arts. New York: Macmillan.

Further reading

Friendly Visiting Among the Poor By Mary Ellen Richmond. "The Homemaker", Page 64+.

How to Perform the 4 Key Responsibilities of a Career Professional Homemaker, eHow.

The new face of homemakers; American Demographics, BNET.

Category:Home economics Category:Personal care and service occupations Category:Family Category:Marriage

Name	Paul Overstreet
Background	solo_singer
Born	March 17, 1955
Origin	Newton, Mississippi, USA
Instrument	Vocals, guitar
Genre	Country
Occupation	Singer, songwriter
Years active	1982-present
Label	RCA Scarlet Moon
Associated acts	S-K-O Tanya Tucker Paul Davis Randy Travis
Url	http://www.pauloverstreet.com

Paul Overstreet (born March 17, 1955, in Newton, Mississippi) is a country music singer and songwriter. He recorded 10 studio albums between 1982 and 2005, and charted 16 singles on the Billboard country charts, including two #1 hits. He has also written singles for several other country acts, including #1 hits for Randy Travis, Blake Shelton, and Keith Whitley, as well as hits for The Judds and Kenny Chesney. Prior to his solo success, he was one third of the trio S-K-O, in which he recorded one studio album before departing and being replaced with Craig Bickhardt. Paul's sons Nash and Chord are involved in the entertainment business. Nash is the lead guitarist for the pop band Hot Chelle Rae, while Chord is best known for his role of Sam Evans on the TV show Glee.

Songwriter

During his illustrious songwriting career, primarily in the Country genre, Overstreet has written or co-written 27 Top Ten songs. During this time, he has won two Grammy Awards and also won ACM and CMA Song of the Year Awards (1987 and 1988). Overstreet was named the BMI Songwriter of the Year five straight years, from 1987-1991, an achievement on music row that has not been achieved before or since.

He is well-known for co-writing the songs, "Love Can Build a Bridge" by the Judds (1990), and "Forever and Ever, Amen" by Randy Travis. Other well-known hits of recent years he is known for are "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy" by Kenny Chesney and "Some Beach" by Blake Shelton, which was a Number One hit in 2004.

Paul Overstreet is best known for writing country songs such as "Forever and Ever, Amen" and "On the Other Hand", both of which were Number Ones for Randy Travis. He also co-wrote "When You Say Nothing at All" which was a Number One hit at the end of 1988 for Keith Whitley, and later a Top Five hit in 1995 for Alison Krauss.

Singer

Overstreet was first signed as a singer in 1982. His debut single, "Beautiful Baby", peaked at #76 on the country charts that year, and was the first single from his self-titled debut album. After co-writing Tanya Tucker's 1987 single "I Won't Take Less Than Your Love" with Don Schlitz, Overstreet and fellow singer-songwriter Paul Davis became guest vocalists on the song, which became a Number One hit that year.

Also in 1987, Overstreet founded the trio S-K-O (also known as Schuyler, Knobloch & Overstreet) with Thom Schuyler and Fred Knobloch, both former solo singers. S-K-O charted three singles with Overstreet as a member, including the Number One "Baby's Got a New Baby". After one album the trio was renamed S-K-B when Overstreet left and was replaced by Craig Bickhardt.

In 1988, Overstreet signed to RCA Records as a solo artist. His second solo album, Sowin' Love, accounted for five straight Top 10 hits on the country charts: "Love Helps Those", the title track, "All the Fun", "Seein' My Father in Me" and "Richest Man on Earth." His second album, 1990's Heroes, produced his only solo Number One in its lead-off single "Daddy's Come Around", which was followed by the Top Tens "Heroes" and "Ball and Chain". However, his chart success soon waned, with "If I Could Bottle This Up" peaking at #30 and "Billy Can't Read" falling short of Top 40. A third RCA album, Love Is Strong, produced the #22 "Me and My Baby" and two more singles which missed the charts. Also, the song "There But for the Grace of God Go I" won a Dove Award for Country Recorded Song of the Year at the 24th GMA Dove Awards in 1993. Overstreet did not chart again after "We've Got to Keep on Meeting Like This" in 1996.

Solo discography

Albums

{|class="wikitable" !rowspan="2"|Year !rowspan="2"|Album !colspan="3"|Chart Positions !rowspan="2"|Label |- !width="60"|US Country !width="60"|US Christian !width="60"|US |- | 1982 | Paul Overstreet | | | | rowspan="5"| RCA |- | 1989 | Sowin' Love | align="center"| 13 | align="center"| 31 | |- | 1991 | Heroes | align="center"| 17 | align="center"| 21 | align="center"| 163 |- | 1992 | Love Is Strong | align="center"| 60 | align="center"| 28 | |- | 1994 | The Best of Paul Overstreet | | align="center"| 16 | |- | 1995 | Time | | align="center"| 37 | | rowspan="8"| Scarlet Moon |- | 1999 | A Songwriter's Project Vol. 1 | | | |- | rowspan="2"| 2001 | Living by the Book | | | |- | Christmas: My Favorite Time of the Year | | | |- | 2005 | Forever and Ever Amen | | | |- | 2008 | Something For the Road | | | |- | 2010 | My Favorite Demos I | | | |- | 2010 | My Favorite Demos II | | | |}

Singles

{| class="wikitable" ! rowspan="2"| Year ! rowspan="2"| Single ! colspan="2"| Chart Positions ! rowspan="2"| Album |- ! width="50"| US Country ! width="50"| CAN Country |- | 1982 | "Beautiful Baby" | align="center"| 76 | align="center"| — | Paul Overstreet |- | 1988 | "Love Helps Those" | align="center"| 3 | align="center"| — | rowspan="5"| Sowin' Love |- | rowspan="2"| 1989 | "Sowin' Love" | align="center"| 9 | align="center"| 41 |- | "All the Fun" | align="center"| 5 | align="center"| 10 |- | rowspan="3"| 1990 | "Seein' My Father in Me" | align="center"| 2 | align="center"| 2 |- | "Richest Man on Earth" | align="center"| 3 | align="center"| 4 |- | "Daddy's Come Around" | align="center"| 1 | align="center"| 2 | rowspan="5"| Heroes |- | rowspan="3"| 1991 | "Heroes" | align="center"| 4 | align="center"| 6 |- | "Ball and Chain" | align="center"| 5 | align="center"| 5 |- | "If I Could Bottle This Up" | align="center"| 30 | align="center"| 33 |- | rowspan="3"| 1992 | "Billy Can't Read" | align="center"| 57 | align="center"| 51 |- | "Me and My Baby" | align="center"| 22 | align="center"| 27 | rowspan="3"| Love Is Strong |- | "Still Out There Swinging" | align="center"| 57 | align="center"| 84 |- | 1993 | "Take Another Run" | align="center"| 60 | align="center"| — |- | rowspan="2"| 1996 | "We've Got to Keep On Meeting Like This" | align="center"| 73 | align="center"| — | rowspan="2"| Time |- | "Even When I Don't Feel Like It" | align="center"| — | align="center"| — |- | 2000 | "When Mamma Ain't Happy" | align="center"| — | align="center"| — | A Songwriter's Project Vol. 1 |- | 2008 | "I Think She Only Loves Me For My Willie" | align="center"| — | align="center"| — | Something For the Road |}

Guest singles

{| class="wikitable" ! rowspan="2"| Year ! rowspan="2"| Single ! rowspan="2"| Artist ! colspan="2"| Chart Positions ! rowspan="2"| Album |- ! width="50"| US Country ! width="50"| CAN Country |- | 1987 | "I Won't Take Less Than Your Love" |Tanya Tucker (with Paul Davis) | align="center"| 1 | align="center"| 10 | Love Me Like You Used To |}

Music videos

{| class="wikitable" ! Year ! Video |- | 1989 | "All the Fun" |- | 1990 | "Seein' My Father in Me" |- | 1991 | "Heroes" |- | 1992 | "Billy Can't Read" |- | 1993 | "Take Another Run" |- | rowspan="2"| 1996 | "We've Got to Keep On Meeting Like This" |- | "Even When I Don't Feel Like It" |- | 2000 | "When Mamma Ain't Happy" |}

References

External links

Official website

CMT: Paul Overstreet

Category:American country singers Category:American country singer-songwriters Category:Living people Category:people from Newton County, Mississippi Category:Grammy Award winners Category:1955 births Category:S-K-O members Category:RCA Records artists

Name	Melanie Doane
Background	solo_singer
Born	December 19, 1967
Origin	Canadian
Genre	Pop, Pop rock
Label	Warner Music, MapleMusic Recordings, Sony Music Canada, Columbia Records
Url	http://www.melaniedoane.com/

Melanie Doane (born on December 19, 1967 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada) is a Juno Award winning Canadian pop singer-songwriter who has had four Top 40 singles.

Raised in a musical home – her father is Chalmers Doane, an Order of Canada-winning music educator – Doane mastered many instruments, including the piano, bass, mandolin and violin, at a young age. In 1993, she recorded an EP titled Harvest Train and released it independently. The songs made their way to executives at Sony Music in Canada and soon after, she found herself under contract to Sony and working on a debut album, Shakespearean Fish.

Adam's Rib, her second album with Sony, was released in Canada in 1998. The self-titled first single, a rocking anthem about a rib wanting to have its own independence from a man, displayed Doane's vocal and violin talents. The song was a radio success, and Doane earned a spot on the Lilith Fair concert tour. The following year, she walked away with the 1999 Juno Award for Best New Solo Artist, and Adam's Rib was released in the United States under the Columbia Records label.

Following promotion and touring for Adam's Rib, Doane took a break from recording to have a baby and work on other projects, including writing for other artists and acting in the independent film Black Swan. She also released a live album, Melvin Live, featuring Ed Robertson of Barenaked Ladies in 2001.

In 2000, Doane parted ways with Sony and signed with ActorBoy Records, an independent label created by her husband, theatre director and actor, Ted Dykstra, and actor, Gary Sinise. Her subsequent album, You Are What You Love, was released that year by Warner Music Canada. The music video for her single "Still Desire You" featured clips from her role in Black Swan.

She has two children.

Her brother Creighton Doane, is also a musician, best known for being the drummer for the Canadian melodic rock band Harem Scarem from 2000 until their breakup in 2008.

She was on tour, opening for Rex Goudie during March 2007.

Discography

Albums

1993: Harvest Train (EP)

1996: Shakespearean Fish

1998: Adam's Rib

2001: Melvin Live

2003: You Are What You Love

2008: A Thousand Nights

Trivia

Her song "I Can't Take My Eyes Off You" from her album Adam's Rib was used in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer in episode 5.6 entitled "Family." Willow Rosenberg and her girlfriend Tara Maclay dance to the song, whilst floating in the air at the end of the episode. It was later included in the British version of that show's soundtrack titled Radio Sunnydale.

* Parts of the song "Every Little Thing" from her latest album, A Thousand Nights is often used in the Canadian TV show "Being Erica."

* The Song "Chopin Ballad" ended episode 12 ('Last Dance') of CTV series Flashpoint.

External links

Official site

Melanie's MySpace page

Category:1967 births Category:Living people Category:Canadian female guitarists Category:Canadian female singers Category:Canadian pop singers Category:Canadian singer-songwriters Category:Canadian people of British Isles descent Category:Musicians from Nova Scotia Category:People from Halifax, Nova Scotia