I'm no stranger to hard work, and I have a lot of skills I think will be useful here. Where magic can fill in for some tasks, that frees up time and effort for other things. If magic is tiring, I assume it's either faster or easier than doing something by hand, or what's the point?
Being able to heat water is huge--short of collecting driftwood (if there is any) or cannibalizing the buildings, we're going to be very short on fuel for cooking or heating water for bathing.
No, I haven't talked to Alyssa yet. She can work magic on plants? That'll be handy. I'll have to make a point of talking to her.