Hi, friends! I've been blogging over at my other blog home, Her Lovely Common Life, on Tuesdays and Thursdays but today I wanted to hop back here and give you a quick overview of what I've been sharing over there. February was a fun month of posting! In my "Tea and Books" post, my tea cabinet got a fun makeover and is now a cute little tea and book cabinet! With Valentine's Day on my mind in early February, I reposted an old favorite of mine: "The Love Language of Food". I shared our family's favorite way to eat "Roasted Sweet Potatoes". And talked about my "Ten Minute Tuesday" as a way of getting ready for my trash day and Goodwill drop-off day. Since I'd given ... Read more

Hi, friends! I'd like to invite you all to join me over at my new blog Her Lovely Common Life! But first, before you head over there, you might be wondering why I'm starting a new blog site, so let me explain. This year marked my tenth year of blogging! I began in 2015 at Happy is the House. I closed that blog three years later to start The Work of Her Hands which eventually morphed into The Ways of Her Home. I've always enjoyed blogging until this year when the technical side and the yearly fees became a little too much. Since my start, I've used WordPress and worked hard to keep up with the changing technology by researching, googling techy terms, figuring things out, and asking for ... Read more

Hi, friends! Just want to let you know that I've made a couple of (hopefully) temporary changes to my blog while I work on some behind-the-scenes issues. Spammy comments are at an all-time high and even though mine all go to moderation where I can trash them before they even post, the amount I have to go through each week is crazy. At the start of summer, I was dealing with 30 a day. Now it's well over 100 in a day. I'm also getting emails from the same weird bots. So, for now, I'm turning off all comments (so I won't miss one of yours in the midst of the hundreds of spammos each week) and I've taken down my contact page. Since my blog is a hobby and not a job, I'm not in a rush to fix ... Read more

Good Monday Morning! Friends, after several winter and spring months of not blogging much, I was sure that the summer months would be my time to catch up here. While I have blogged more these last couple of months, I haven't really gotten on a good routine. Do you just ever feel stuck? As I turned 50 back in March, I mentioned to my husband (boy, I love that guy!) that I might not blog anymore. Maybe that was just for my 40s and I should move on to something new for my 50s, I wondered. Funny how turning a new decade makes you ponder so much! I prayed about it for a while and God not only helped me make a decision to keep blogging but also stirred up my enthusiasm for it again. Maybe I just ... Read more

Happy first day of March! We've had some gorgeous spring-like weather lately. Below is a photo from the pond in our neighborhood that we enjoy on mild sunny days. We took the dogs the other day and they always love splashing around in the water. Barney loves for us to throw sticks out for him to swim to and retrieve. The sunrise has been making its appearance earlier and earlier. This was a photo I took as I got back from my walk one morning with the sun coming up over the ridge. I just love it! The time will change in a couple of more weeks and my kiddos are pretty excited about extra daylight in the evenings. Today will be rainy and in the fifties. Can't complain after so many ... Read more

Wishing you all a very “Merry Christmas” from my home to yours! For those of you experiencing heartache this year, please know I prayed for you this morning. May the peace of Jesus be with you today. ... Read more

Hello, friends! We had a great weekend so I thought I would make a little post about it today. I'm actually going to start with Thursday because I reached a fun milestone with my sourdough baking! Back in the summer when I started sourdough, I was in hopes of getting my starter and bread recipe developed enough by fall to be able to make the pretty pumpkin-shaped loaves I'd seen on Instagram. And I was even more motivated as several of you sent me some of those photos as well, encouraging me to try it. Thursday morning, I had some dough that was proofed and ready to bake (overnight in the fridge) so I decided to go for it and give it a try, and it worked! I wish I'd taken photos ... Read more

It's Saturday morning in October which means a soccer game! I love these early fall mornings at the field with happy kids, the best families, and the aroma of soft pretzels wafting from the concession stand. We have been blessed with the best church soccer program in our little community which runs from preschool to 8th grade. The pastor of the church heads up the whole program with volunteers from the congregation. It's fantastic! Our children participate in this church program until they age out and then play on our homeschool academy team for their high school years. The moms take turns providing game snacks and today is my day! I've packed my son's favorite that he requests every ... Read more