The Ways of Her Home

Embracing the homeward call

Our Ornament Tradition

Having taken a little overnight getaway last week, I've been behind this year in getting my Christmas decorations packed up this year. But I'm almost done--woohoo! As always, I take a little walk down memory lane as I wrap and tuck away each item. This year I'd like to share our ornament tradition. Each year of our children's growing up years, starting with their birthyear, they get a new Christmas ornament for the tree-- something that represents their age, a special interest, or a trip we may have taken that year. After 22 years with our oldest, 18 years with our middle, and 11 years with our youngest, we have a very FULL tree! Plus, my husband and I will get a new ornament some ... Read more

Winter Overnight Getaway

We took a quick overnight getaway to Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain, Georgia for my husband's birthday. His New Year's Eve birthday has always been a fun family time for us spent at home, but since our married daughter would be gone this year, we decided to do something a little different for everyone to look forward to. We were gone for just about 24 hours, but it was just perfect! Callaway is only an hour and a half away from us, so we usually just make it a day trip, however, last year we stayed in one of their cabins for a weekend and this year we decided to try their Lodge. We loved it! My daughter said this place had serious Hallmark vibes! Wouldn't you agree? It was nice ... Read more

Christmas Memories 2022

Happy New Year!! I can't believe it's 2023! We had a wonderful December, and everyone in our house stayed well this year! Last year we had Covid, so we were home for most of December, which was pretty cozy and a different kind of blessing, but this year we were able to get out, keep all our plans, and enjoy fun activities. I have an embarrassing number of photos, so I'll try and keep my comments brief. We kicked off the beginning of December with our favorite peppermint milkshakes from Chick-Fil-A. Our first Christmas party of the season was with our field trip co-op, and you can read about that here. The next day we moms had a special field trip planned just for our teens ... Read more

Winter Wonderland Tea

I hope you're all having a lovely holiday! I'm working on a Christmas recap post but for today I'm just going to share some pics from a little tea lunch my daughter and I hosted. We have a yearly tradition of sharing a holiday teatime with my sister-in-law and niece and another friend and her daughter. The girls don't get to see each other much during the school year so it's a sweet time to catch up with everyone while munching and sipping on delicious holiday yummies! We actually had this Winter Wonderland-themed tea planned with this group for last January 2022 but illness among half our group cancelled those plans. Since my girl and I already had most of the supplies gathered, we ... Read more

Wooden Clothespin Nativity

Hey there! I want to quickly show y'all this sweet clothespin nativity we made last week. Last Friday our dear little neighbor friends and their mama came for "Cookies, Cocoa, and a Craft"! I'd been seeing different versions of these clothespin Nativity crafts all over the internet and came up with my own version. I really wanted to do them with our co-op kids, but it just wasn't going to be doable with the number of kids we had and the short time frame to work. If we'd used wood glue, it wouldn't dry in time to take them home, leaving me only with the option of hot glue which I NEVER use with a crowd of kids. Those things are hot! I remember in one of my elementary art ed classes in ... Read more

Oh, Thrifty Christmas Tree!

Since I FINALLY finished my Christmas decor this week (only 2 weeks late of my goal for December 1st) I thought I'd share some snapshots of my "new-to-me" Christmas trees. This year we purchased our first-ever artificial tree! For the 26 years that Joel and I have been married, we've always had a real tree with the exception of one year when we were going to be out of town for a whole week in December and didn't want to leave a real tree alone to be a fire hazard. We borrowed an artificial tree of my mom's that she wasn't using so we could go ahead and put the tree up before our travel. Other than that one year, we've always gone to cut one down at a tree farm or pick one from Lowe's. ... Read more

Studio Christmas Dinner

This past weekend Joel and I hosted his office Christmas dinner. I love planning and putting these together! Some years we've booked a room at a restaurant and other years I've cooked the meal and had everyone come to our home. The last two years, however, the office Christmas party has been cancelled due to Covid, so Joel and I wanted this year's gathering to be a little extra special for his team and their spouses. He works with the most wonderful people, and we are so thankful! My dad and both of my brothers are all architects. One brother manages the Tennessee studio and my other brother and my dad are both here in Alabama at a fabulous studio which they converted from an old ... Read more

Dickens Christmas Tea

For several years now there have been three themes for Christmas teas that I've wanted to put together: Charles Dickens, Winter Wonderland, and The Nutcracker. This year I'm finally marking two of these off my list, one of which is a Dickens Christmas! One Sunday we were meeting with our mother/teen Girls' Club and the girls got to talking about a teacher that a couple of them have for a literature class at their co-op. "Fluffy", as she allows the kids to call her, requires all her students read The Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Somehow the book came into our discussion that day so I said, "Hey, we should have a Dickens Christmas tea this year!" And since she has been such a fun ... Read more