The Equation That Changed My View of Homemaking

Homemaker Notes | Winter 2026, No. 3

Years ago, as I sat in a high school Algebra class next to my future husband, I didn’t realize I was about to learn a lesson that would stay with me far longer than any equation.

“Some old horse came a’hoppin’ through our attic,” my teacher would say, reminding us how to solve for the unknown side of a triangle.

And then, after walking us through a set of problems on the board, he would add:

“If it seems too hard, you’re probably doing something wrong.”

At the time, it was just a classroom phrase.

Now, decades later, I hear it in my mind more often than I ever expected.

Lately, life had begun to feel… complicated. Heavier than it should. Less joyful than it once was.

And I started to wonder if perhaps the problem wasn’t the circumstances.

Perhaps I was simply doing something wrong.