The Ways of Her Home

Embracing the homeward call

Teach Them Tuesday: First Favorites

I believe one of the most rewarding works my hands have been blessed to do as a mom has been holding a book open to read to my children. In my very unprofessional opinion, reading to a child in our laps or sitting beside us gives opportunity for physical closeness and quality time together, making it a wonderful way to bond with that child. I have always loved reading with my kids, and, like many of you mamas, would have done so regardless of homeschooling. Today I'd like to share my favorite early literature guide for children. First Favorites by Veritas Press has a very special place in this mama's heart. It was the tool that helped expand the subject of reading into a love for ... Read more

Teach Them Tuesday: My Bible Coloring Book

Good Tuesday morning! Today I want to share a coloring book that I used with my kids for many years. It's Shirley Dobson's My Bible Coloring Book. This recommendation is not just for moms, but would also be great to have on hand if you're a grandmother, aunt, babysitter, or Bible class teacher! It covers 119 Bible stories with a coloring page and scripture reference for each Bible story. It's a fun way to go through the entire Bible with children. For my pre-readers or new readers, I would either tell them the story or read it from a beginner's Bible and then let them color the picture. Later, when they were independent readers, I would cycle the coloring book again, having them read ... 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

A Very Random Tuesday Hello

I’ve not posted much in the last few months so I just want to pop in and say HELLO! We’ve been busy finishing the school year and that has needed to come first. I love homeschooling and I don’t want to let my kids down by putting other things ahead of their education. This is our first full week of summer break, yippee! Now, we do keep up some very light schooling throughout the summer months just to keep our minds sharp, but it’s at a very, verrrry leisurely pace. And we give ourselves at least one or two full weeks off just to unwind and decompress first! The photo above is from a walk my younger two kids and I took this morning at our neighborhood pond. After walking a while, we ... Read more

Galentine’s Bash 2020: Donut and Hot Chocolate Bar

I adore Valentine’s Day! It is such a sweet occasion. The pinks and reds, the sprinkled goodies, and the LOVE! Not just romantic love, but the love one another kind of love. The love of Christ! My girls have been lavishly blessed by precious friendships in our small group, and Valentine's Day seems the perfect opportunity to celebrate that Christian sisterhood with a Galentine's Bash! After last year's cookie and hot chocolate bar was a success, Country Girl and I decided to do something along those lines again this year, but with a new twist. With a little thought, we decided on a DONUT and HOT CHOCOLATE BAR! It was so much fun, and we will definitely be doing it again! The ... Read more