The Ways of Her Home

Embracing the homeward call

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

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

Let the Festivities Begin!

Hello, Christmas friends! I’m up and at ‘em this morning getting ready for something fun and oh soooo Christmasy today! Can’t wait to share but right now I need to go whip up some scone dough and fluff the nest. Company’s coming! (Ahhh, I love that phrase!) Here’s a sneak preview….. Just wanted to give you all a quick hello and a Merry Christmas!! Have a wonderful weekend! ... Read more

Thanksgiving Week Recap

Hello, friends! Hope you all had a blessed Thanksgiving holiday! I did NOT do too great of a job remembering to take photos all week so what I have is so random. But here goes! The Saturday before Thanksgiving week, my daughter had her senior photos taken by a friend's daughter. My daughter wanted to have them taken in our woods and some at the barn down the road from our house. We were even able to borrow Midnight, the horse she used to lease, which made for some fun photos! They are still best buddies. Matty, the photographer, was so sweet and had such great ideas. Also that afternoon, our daughter and son-in-law came in from Texas! My son and I got his bedroom and bath ready ... Read more

Snapshot Saturday: Holidays, Gatherings, and Chilly Weather

What a fun week! A busy, but fun week! Sister Saturday Last Saturday our church hosted a Sister Saturday which comes around quarterly with a different theme. The theme this time was "Homemade Holiday". I took my mom and my mother-in-law, and we enjoyed four classes including homemade gifts, holiday games, holiday food, and table setting/flower arranging. I didn't think to take pictures until we got to the table setting/flower arranging class. If you enjoy flowers and beautiful tablescapes, you'd love this class! The lady you see in the photo above decorated all the tables you see here and gave a lesson on flower arranging along with handy tips for your tablescapes. She's so ... Read more

Snapshot Saturday: Some of Everything

Good Saturday morning! I'm a little late with this post but I want to save these snapshots from the week so I'm going to go through them speedily! We trick-or-treated with our neighbor friends on Halloween night and the kids had a blast! Halloween isn't our favorite, so we don't do a lot with it, but we love costumes and of course we love time with friends so it's fun to get together for an evening of dressing up and eating tons of candy. Some of my photos are little blurry here---sorry--but I want to show you how pretty some of the front porches were with their fall decorations. Afterwards our friends invited us back to their house for a delicious chili supper and ... Read more

Girls’ Club Autumn Teatime and Book Discussion

Cultivating female friendships is rewarding yet sometimes tricky. My friend, Kelli, and I have seen the difficulties that our teen girls can go through with making and keeping friends. We wanted to encourage and mentor our daughters in this area as they go about their high school activities with co-ops, sports, etc., and have been getting together every other Sunday for tea and sweets while discussing a book which covers the topic of friendship with meaningful and practical advice. Girls' Club: Cultivating Lasting Friendship in a Lonely World is authored by mother and daughters, Sally, Sarah, and Joy Clarkson and is certainly not written to one age group but to all girls and women who desire ... Read more