The Ways of Her Home

Embracing the homeward call

Tidbits from September

I pray all of you have been safe from the destruction caused by the hurricane over the weekend. It has been so heartbreaking to see the news footage and hear the ongoing reports of more lives lost. It was a sad ending to September. September passed so quickly, I didn't even take many photos of daily life. I'll need to be more intentional in October. But here goes anyway. I did a lot of bread baking in September but still haven't gotten back into sourdough other than just keeping my starter alive. What you see pictured in these photos is yeast bread using my milled grain. It's my family's favorite. On Labor Day we stayed home, did a little work in the morning, and then ate a ... Read more

Snapshot Saturday: Odds and Ends

Hello there! It's Saturday so I have some snapshots from the week, just odds and ends really. Summer evenings will be coming to an end in a few more weeks but the summer garden already came to an end last Saturday when I pulled up everything except my herb bed and tea bed. It was such a mess! Next week I'll post a summer garden recap. While I worked in the garden, the guys worked on a different project. Earlier in the summer, my son and his friends built a raft to ride down the widest and deepest part of the creek which only worked for about an hour, but they were so excited. The experience inspired the idea to build a small boat which the guys have been working on the last few ... Read more

Snapshot Saturday: First Week of School ’24

This week began a new school year for my son in homeschooling and my daughter with her online classes and the preschool where she works. There are always a few things to iron out the first week, but all in all, it was a good first week of school! Smoothies and banana muffins have been the popular breakfast for all so far! We got back to our study routine, sometimes at the kitchen table and sometimes lounging on the couch, but always a candle burning and a cat sleeping close by. I think the pets are happy that we're back to homeschooling. Guitar lessons and tennis lessons will continue this year, and we have great instructors for both! A friend to teach guitar and my nephew to ... Read more

Snapshot Saturday

Happy weekend! Just a few photos from the week! The cats love gazing out all the windows of the house, but the kitchen is their favorite right now. My son and his friend are taking tennis lessons from my nephew, and they are loving it. We go into the city for their weekly lesson, but I took them to a nearby tennis court one morning for some extra practice. It's in a neighborhood next to our neighborhood and there is a shaded sitting area for me to read or work in my planner. The zinnias in front of the gas tank had gotten so tall and were hiding that ugly tank so nicely until a heavy storm came and knocked them over....well, flattened them. I tried to lift them but that ... Read more

Back to Kombucha! (and sourdough)

Any kombucha fans out there?! A few years ago, my oldest daughter started drinking kombucha, and then not long after that, my younger daughter got hooked on it as well. I'll admit that it wasn't my favorite at first, but after learning of its great health benefits (probiotics through fermentation) and trying different flavors, I grew to enjoy a cold glass of "the BOOCH" every now and then. But y'all! It's not cheap! So, it was reserved for treat days. Until.... Our friend, Beth, from church found me one Sunday and asked if I was interested in learning how to make kombucha. Well, yes mam! And knowing that I homeschooled my 2 younger kids, she invited us all over for a lesson. You ... Read more

“The Next Chapter” Graduation Sunset Tea

Hello again! Yesterday I shared some photos from a graduation luncheon my friend Kelli hosted for our daughters with our life group mothers and daughters. It was a lemon theme to mark the girls’ “fresh start” for the college years! You can read about it here. Today I'm back to share the evening tea I hosted for the girls and their soccer friends (plus another friend and a cousin). First let me back up and share about a tea my girls and I attended a couple of years ago that my friend Missy hosted for her daughter's graduation. Y'all, this was the tea party of ALL tea parties, and you need to go read both of her posts as soon as you finish this one! It was a Hobbit themed sunset tea, and ... Read more

“A Lemony Fresh Start” Graduation Luncheon

When my younger daughter was four years old, I taught her Bible class at church. She was a quiet little thing who stayed in her own quiet corner, and I had been praying God would send her a sweet friend for her very own. Then one Sunday morning, another tiny little girl with long brown curls and red glasses wearing a smocked dress entered our classroom and our hearts. Her family was visiting that morning and so I introduced her to the class and sat her beside my own little girl. The rest is history! From that very first meeting these two girls hit it off and have been kindred spirits ever since. They've grown up together in homeschooling, church, life group, soccer, and the love of books and ... Read more

Spring 2023

Good morning! Before I get too far into summer, I need to record our spring season. Today I'm going to quickly run through some spring highlights and then the rest of the week I'll go back and detail some of my daughter's graduation stuff a little more. I'll go ahead and apologize for the length of this post. It's a big one! In early March my daughter and I took a girls' trip out to Texas to visit my married daughter and son-in-law. We had such a fun visit, and they took us to Homestead Heritage, a self-sufficient Christian community which is also open to the public. It was amazing! We enjoyed shopping in their many shops including the quilting barn (below), general store, grocery ... Read more