The Ways of Her Home

Embracing the homeward call

Fourth of July 2020

I hope you all had a great Independence Day! We enjoyed some "safe" entertaining over the weekend which gave me a fun reason to decorate a little. Nothing too fussy--just flags, flowers, and chalkboards! White crepe myrtles and flags tucked in blue and white vases were just enough! I added flags and patriotic ribbon to old wreaths. Pretty simple! This one is in the front hall by my front door. I snatched the blue bow from my lemon wreath. And this one sits on my mantle. The night before the 4th, we had some friends over for hot dogs and fireworks! Most of our time was going to be spent outside so we cleaned up the backyard and put out a few festive ... Read more

Fluff the Nest Friday: Front Porch Patriotism!

I'm feeling extra patriotic with my nest fluffing today! The hubs pressured washed all the concrete yesterday and then I put back the furniture, flowers, and FLAGS! With the disrespect so many have shown our country's flag in recent years, I felt the need to go a little *extra* on the stars and stripes this year! So, we are waving it proudly with a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our America! Now that the front porch is ready, I'm heading to the back porch to splash a little patriotism around back there! But first, I want to acknowledge some other special birthdays today! My sister, Katie, was born the baby of us five on July 3. We kids were SO excited over her arrival! While my ... Read more

Teach Them Tuesday: The 4th of July!

I’m starting a new series today called “Teach Them Tuesday”. As a homeschooling mom and Bible class teacher, I’ve always benefited from the recommendations other moms and teachers have offered on books, curricula, and other resources for teaching our children. This series is nothing more that: endorsements for anything I’ve used and found beneficial. I do not claim to be any kind of expert! These recommendations are just from the humble heart of a mom! With the 4th of July this week, I thought I'd share a couple of books that we've read in the past that have helped frame our minds for this historic occasion. Since July 4th falls during the summer break, children sometimes miss the ... Read more

Spring 2020: Counting Every Blessing

Spring 2020 was a doozy. These days just the mention of 2020 comes with sighs and eye-rolls. Covid-19 has brought hardships, stress, and loss to many. Our family has dealt with the heaviness as well in a number of ways, but the Lord has also showered blessing upon blessing on us. I love the song "Counting Every Blessing" by Rend Collective and have had that song in my head since The Rona hit. So today I'm counting every blessing of Spring 2020! And because there were so many, this is an incredibly long post, but mostly photos. Blessing 1: The Great Outdoors Not a single day passed during all of isolation where the sun did not rise! And with each sunrise came new mercies and ... Read more

Looking Back: Winter 2019/2020

Hello again! Yesterday I posted some highlights of FALL 2019. Today I'm moving on to WINTER 2019/2020! As soon as Thanksgiving was over and the fall decorations were packed away, we went straight into Christmas festivities. My tea ladies and I kicked off the season the last weekend in November with a tea lunch at a beautiful tea room, all decorated for the holidays! This leisurely tea time was our calm before the holiday storm. The first weekend in December, our family went to cut down our Christmas tree at a tree farm we've been going to since our oldest was a baby. I took a lot of family photos, and won't post those here, but it was a lovely, sunny day on the tree farm! It's ... Read more

Looking Back: Fall 2019

Hello, friends! This week I'm going to play a little catch up here on the blog. I'd like to begin with some highlights of our past school year, but even just the highlights would be too much for one post, so I'm going to do this in three posts: fall, winter, and spring. Today I'll share FALL 2019! We started our twelfth year of homeschooling in late August 2019. The chalkboard below was our photo prop for first-day-of-school pictures. One of our favorite ways to end the summer season and start a new school year is with an outdoor performance by our city’s symphony! My oldest daughter and her friend invited some of their college friends who were new to the area as a way of ... Read more

Easter Eats 2020

Hello again! I'm back today with the Easter menu I prepared this year. So, from breakfast to dessert, here goes! I'd been saving this recipe for Strawberry Bread since last spring and decided to make it for breakfast. Definitely making this again! It was so good and moist, and more like a poundcake than a bread. I put out a bowl of chocolate eggs to go with it. After breakfast we had a meaningful time of worship and then finished up lunch preparations.***** Easter Menu Brown Sugar Glazed Ham (recipe below) Cheesiest Mac and Cheese Bacon and Pea Summer Salad (With one change: I cooked and crumbled the bacon because I didn’t have packaged bacon ... Read more