The Ways of Her Home

Embracing the homeward call

Applesauce Granita with Maple Yogurt

Hello, friends! It's September and that means APPLES!! I adore apples. Their sweetness, their colors, and their announcement of autumn's arrival all delight my soul! On my old blog, I used to host an Apple Week each September when I would post a new apple recipe each day for 5 days. So today I'm bringing back Apple Week, starting with the easiest (and probably the healthiest) apple recipe I've ever made! Last week I was looking for a dessert that needed to meet three requirements: 1) fall flavors 2) healthy 3) refreshing (because it's still so hot outside!). I looked through my recipes and found this granita that covered the criteria. The crazy thing is that I've had this recipe in my ... Read more

Swiss Family Robinson Feast

For a summer read aloud with my son, I chose the unabridged Swiss Family Robinson. I LOVE this book. The unabridged version includes so many amazing details that abridged versions omit. It is packed full of inspiring adventure and countless character-building lessons. I’d need a week of posts to cover them all! We read this with my girls one summer when they were younger and concluded the reading with an island party that included a seafood feast, oceans crafts, silly lobster hats, and watching the Disney Swiss Family Robinson movie. We’ve held such fond memories of that summer read aloud with our girls, that I knew I wanted to read it again with my son. Of course, we repeated the ... Read more

Summer Farewell Tea

It seems so hard to believe that summer break is drawing to a close. My kids and I have been trying to get in all the last bits of summer fun with individual groups of our friends and family before school schedules start. We make a point to get together with my niece and sister-in-law, and another mother/daughter duo a few times a year to enjoy artsy teas, outings, and lessons for the purpose of indulging our inner hopeless romantics, haha. Realizing we'd not yet managed to work in a summer activity with them, we quickly pulled together a back-to-school tea. We all homeschool (except for my oldest daughter who is in college), and both my niece and our friend are beginning their senior ... Read more

Bath and Body Summer Refresh

We're definitely in the peak season for heat and humidity in Alabama! These days, we don't even have to be working outside to feel it. Just cooking and cleaning inside can have us feeling like we're melting. Oddly enough, I really don't mind the heat and don't even mind working in it as long as I can freshen up afterwards. So when the work of her hands brings on the sweat of her brow, here are my summer faves for staying fresh! They are all $5 or less each! Body Wash: For the second summer in a row, Softsoap Pink Peony and Sea Salt is once again my favorite body wash. I like its mild floral scent and salty texture. A shower with this after early morning exercise gets me off to a ... Read more

Entertaining Guests During a Pandemic

Without a doubt, Covid-19 has changed much of our social life as we've known it. For the first couple of months we were in almost total isolation. After taking measures those first couple of months to safeguard our family's physical health by staying away from people, my husband and I began seeing the need to balance that with safeguarding our family's emotional health in being around people. So as it's become more apparent that the virus isn't going to pass on by too quickly and that we're in this for longer than originally anticipated, I'm exploring ways of having friends and family to our home in safe and responsible ways. I thought I'd share a few ideas I've come up with for ... Read more

Summer Shrimp and Peach Salad

I'm a salad girl. Any time, any season, any meal. My kids have joked that I will even make breakfast into a salad, ha! Summer is the most salad-friendly season of all. Fresh greens, fresh veggies, and fresh fruits, all waiting to be chopped, tossed, and going in my mouth! And then there are peaches. Sweet summer peaches. They're one of life greatest pleasures from June through August. Truly! So I've been seeing these salads that pair shrimp and peaches, and I knew I had to try it. I looked through several recipes, taking inspiration from each to come up with my own that would suit my family’s taste. We tried it last night and really enjoyed it! I'll definitely be making this again ... Read more

Fluff the Nest Friday: Staining the Picnic Table

Happy Friday, everyone! Today I’ve got a lot of cleaning to do on the inside of my house, but first I'm going to take you outside to share a little project I finished last week as part of my patio fluff. I stained the picnic table that my family gave me for Mother's Day! I used Valspar One-Coat Exterior Stain and Sealer in the color November Grey. It's an opaque stain. It is so true what they say about preparation being 90% of the job! I've learned from my many mistakes that it's better to go ahead and put the time into prepping a project to make it go more smoothly and end up with pleasing results. So the first thing I did was sand every square inch of the wood surface, smoothing ... Read more

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