The Ways of Her Home

Embracing the homeward call

Texas Thanksgiving

We had a fun Thanksgiving week with our daughter and her family in Texas! We rented an Airbnb that would be spacious enough for their little family to join us and eat and hang out together. It was perfect! The kitchen was everyone's favorite. It was decorated so nicely and was super clean! The den offered plenty of comfy seating for us to sit around and talk and watch movies and YouTube. We even had our own porch kitties. It's become a joke with our family that the animals always seem to find us wherever we go, hahaha. But this little turkey was even sweeter than the cutest of kitties! Everyone had so much fun playing with him all week. He's grown and changed a ... Read more

Snapshot Saturday: Fourth of July Fun

Our neighborhood puts on the best fireworks display each July 4th! And since so many neighbors around us shoot their own fireworks now, Crazy Joel has retired from his yearly shows, and we just enjoy everyone else's! It works out pretty well for us, haha. This year our friends walked over to eat hotdogs and watch fireworks with us. It was the best night! We let the kids swim while we waited for it to get dark. Joel and I commented to each other the next morning about how sweet it was to hear so many happy little voices in our pool. My son enjoyed grilling with Joel and I think he now has a new hobby. We had a couple of kinds of hotdogs with toppings and our friends brought ... Read more

Father’s Day Weekend Recap

Happy Tuesday! We had a fun Father's Day weekend with a couple of family gatherings. Here are the highlights! Saturday night my side of the family came for a big BBQ supper. My husband, son, and I worked on house and yard throughout the day to get ready. My daughter is still recovering from surgery and wasn't allowed to do much which was a bummer for her because part of the fun of having company is the buzz around the house to get ready. My son worked so hard on the patio, cleaning and pressure washing. The kids/teens were planning to swim that night but this is what the sky looked like an hour before everyone arrived and then it started raining. It did clear up for a little ... Read more

Valentine’s Day Touches at Home

Valentine's Day is such a brief little holiday, it's not really necessary to decorate for it, but it's such a sweet occasion that I do enjoy putting out a few pretty things around the house. Not every year, but when I can. You won't usually see me decorating in pink. I'm not really a pinky person, but I love the pinks and reds of Valentine's Day! We have had a LOT of work done in our backyard (more on that later) plus some repairs done inside our house which made the house a muddy, smelly, cluttered mess for the last month. The dogs had to stay inside a lot which just made it worse. Finally, by last Friday most of the work was done so my girl and I scrubbed the house and got things back ... Read more

New Year’s Day 2025

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Our daughter and son-in-law were in town for New Year's week, so we invited the grandparents to join us for a New Year's Day lunch. This was our New Year's Day table— natural country winter vibes. And this was our New Year's Day group! We made sure our meal included the customary pork, collards, and black-eyed peas, not so much for superstition but for good 'ole tradition. My husband grilled the pork, my daughter cooked the collard greens, and I made cheese grits, peas, and cornbread. I’ve got to share this new-to-me recipe for black-eyed peas because it was so good. I usually make black-eyed peas in ... Read more

And That’s a Wrap!

I love to wrap gifts! I think I get it from my mom because she always made gifts look so pretty with her handmade bows. And my sister, Allison, is the master of finding good deals at TJ Maxx and making them look like a million bucks with her lovely packaging. My sister, Katie, has always added a fun flare to her gifts with handcrafted pom poms and such. So, it just runs in the blood! I have loved wrapping gifts since I was a little girl, and my dream was to work at a store that had a gift-wrapping department. How cute. Well, that childhood dream came true in high school while I was working at Kirkland's. Does anyone remember when Kirkland's offered gift wrapping? It was a little room with ... Read more

The Art of Sourdough

I've been working on loading my vacation photos, but I have a lot, and my phone is slooowww right now, so today, just for fun, I thought I'd just share some sourdough loaf photos that I already had in my blog's media file. I have a lot of fun with sourdough and trying new shapes and designs has been a bit of a new hobby for me the past year. I feel as though I am using my art degree and feeding my family at the same time, ha! The above loaf can either be seen as Christmas trees or leaves--you decide! Below is a regular sourdough loaf with cherries, honey goat cheese, and dark chocolate folded in. This is a delicious breakfast loaf! I've also enjoyed making seasonal ... Read more

Midwinter Table Setting

Happy 2024, everyone! On Christmas Eve Eve when everyone was home, Joel and I prepared a steak dinner for the six of us. On a whim, I set the table with blues, browns, cream, and a bit of orange. The cream dinner plates are Pioneer Woman and are getting old and chipped, but I still love them. The blue floral salad plates are from T.J.Maxx (4-ish years ago), the flatware is from Walmart, and the napkins are from Home Goods (2 years ago). The brown glasses are from Hobby Lobby's fall line which I got for 50% off in November and they have been a nice new addition to our kitchen. Winter wreaths, a frosty tree, oranges, and a gingerbread candle finish off the table for a ... Read more