The Ways of Her Home

Embracing the homeward call

All is Fair in Love and Star Wars

For many years our family lived in "little girl world". It's a magical place flowing with tule and dripping in pink! And my husband and I loved every minute! Now we're parents of a boy which is also loads of fun. I've learned a lot about boy stuff including all things Star Wars! I must admit I've never really been a big Star Wars fan before, but I work on learning the characters (I'm still getting them wrong) and I watch the movies with the rest of the family. We have a great agreement: I'll sit and watch a Star Wars movie with them, and they don't mind me working on needlepoint or reading a book while the movie plays. It's fair. And it's love, lol. Because I enjoy seeing my kids get ... Read more

Adventure Awaits!

Back in January (I'm so behind, y'all!) our young man turned eleven. Because the 11th birthday doesn't hold any special milestone, we give our kids a mystery day for that year's birthday, meaning their dad and I plan all the activities of the day without them knowing what's coming. Our oldest daughter's theme for her mystery day was Hawaiian luau, and our younger daughter's theme was an all-day fall picnic. One thing I've learned about raising a boy is his need to feel like a man--to have adventure, to test his strength, and to be respected for it! So, for our son's birthday, we decided on the theme "Adventure Awaits"! With our girls, their mystery days included surprise parties ... Read more

Our Valentine Baby

Not only is today Valentine's Day, but it was 22 years ago this very day that my husband and I brought our baby girl home from the hospital, and we’ve called her our Valentine Baby ever since. And now she's getting married in four months! Four. months. people. Our daughter is not only planning a wedding, but she's finishing her last semester in college and is neck deep with her classes, music ensembles, an internship, senior thesis and defense work, and senior recital prep. When we asked what she'd like to do for her birthday, this tired girl said she just wanted to come home for the weekend and eat gumbo. She couldn't even think of anything past that, so we decided to keep it restful ... Read more

February Feels

Good Monday morning! I'm just jotting down a few simple blessings from my weekend. Just some sweet tidbits.On Friday, what started as "Mom, can you please look over my essay with me?" turned into the picture you see below! My girl and I often make tea when we go over her assignments for her composition course, so we decided to make some tea first, and since it was raspberry truffle tea, we thought chocolate raspberry chocolate chip scones would go perfectly with our tea. One thing led to another and viola! Friday afternoon tea party--delicious! Saturday night, my husband and I went on an early Valentine's date! It's really hard to work in date nights these days, but we've ... Read more

Valentine’s Day Pasta Dinner

Yesterday's post was all about my favorite love language: FOOD! As a follow up, I'm sharing some recipes from a Valentine's lunch we enjoyed last year with my mother-in-law and my daughter's boyfriend (now her fiancé! Talk about love!). This is a menu I've made for different occasions but found it to be perfect for Valentine's Day. I've not made these recipes in a year, and last night when I pulled the cookbook off the shelf to work on this post, I noticed something really special. The title of the cookbook is The Gathering of Friends, which I had remembered. But what I'd never noticed, was the very small subtitle which reads "Let's make food your love language"! This thrilled me since ... Read more

Sunday Lunch

Let’s talk Sundee lunch. No, that's not a typo. It's just how we say it around here, except it's sort of blended together into one word: "Sundeelunch". Say it to yourself and see if that doesn't have a happy sound to it! There's just something special about a meal that follows a time of worship. Feeding our bodies after being fed the Word is like a celebration, and most everyone I know has their own unique way of setting this meal apart from other meals of the week. For some, a homecooked meal with all the fixings is the way to go, while for others, eating out with no kitchen cleanup is the real treat. Occasionally, our family will brave the crowds and eat out (Asian and Mexican restaurants ... Read more

Christmas Memories 2021

Hello, friends! I got behind in my holiday posts due to illness in December, so today I'm going to try and quickly wrap up Christmas and New Year's in one clean swoop of a post. We began decorating the weekend following Thanksgiving, but it took me a few days to really get into it and finish it all. I don't like to get too themey with Christmas--I mean, Christmas is a theme in and of itself, right?--but the last couple of years I've gone with more of a natural, woodsy vibe. I adore the outdoors and the woods behind our house, so it just felt very natural to use evergreen garlands, pinecones, and starry twinkle lights. Last year I used blue for my main accent color; this year I went ... Read more

“Make Sure You Add Some Sprinkles in 2022!”

Happy New Year! It's 2022!! I have a festive little New Year's party to share with you today, compliments of my niece! At the young age of 7, my niece is already the party planning extraordinaire!! Her mama (my sister) has taught her so well! She reminds me so much of my girls when they were growing up, throwing parties for baby dolls and family pets. So precious. One day recently, my sister mentioned that my niece would probably enjoy a day at my house "baking and making". Of course I said yes immediately, and we later decided to throw a cousins' New Year's celebration! It was a small affair due to so many of the cousins already committed to other holiday obligations, but, as ... Read more