This chapter is very short; just four pages long.  It is about the mandate to be "keepers at home" or as my favorite version, the NASB puts it, being "workers at home."   I just wonder, when no one would debate the fact that "young" women are still to be sensible, pure, discreet, chaste, etc, why suddenly the issue of being a keeper/worker at home becomes culturally bound and therefore irrelevant to women in the 21st century?
The definition of keeper in this phrase is not just about staying at home, but of being a guardian, caretaker, someone who watches over the home.  There is so much to do at home, besides the basics of cooking and cleaning.

There is the watching of children, of caring for them - this is more than just keeping them from physical danger, but of guiding them into right activities and fostering growth in spirit and mind as well as body. 

Mrs. Pearl spends some time on the issue of women who would like to stay at home, but whose husbands want them to work.  The key is to have the right attitude, of wanting to both obey God in the issue of staying at home but also of being submitted to one's husband and trusting God to work out any conflict.  She suggests ways of making an appeal and then if it is granted, of learning to live frugally.

She gives several excellent suggestions, but I know that it is sometimes the man who wants the fancier and more expensive items and lifestyle, and I wish Mrs. Pearl would have spent a little more time on this situation.  I know the answer would be to submit and commit it to the Lord, but I still wish she would have given some encouragement to wives in this position. 

I have found Amy Dacyzyn's (sp?) books to be very helpful in learning to think of ways to be frugal.  She wrote a newsletter called the Tightwad Gazette and later put the various issues into books, still called the Tightwad Gazette (there's a II and a III I think).  Another thing I find helpful in learning to budget is to learn thankfulness and contentment.

I am not perfect in the budget arena but I am grateful to be able to do what I feel God has called me to do, to be a home-worker and a full-time mother to my children.  Some days I need to put my heart into it a little more, but that is part of the sanctification I hope that God is working in my life.

Mrs. Pearl discusses the modern phenomena of women leaving home via their phones and computers although they may still physically be in the home itself.  The issues are idleness and gossip.

She finishes by painting a picture of a woman busy at home, doing good to both her children and husband and keeping the home "so that when Daddy comes home, it is to a sanctuary of peace, love, and order." (p.212)

Tall order, but what a blessing when we acheive it!