The Ways of Her Home

Embracing the homeward call

Snapshot Saturday: Holidays, Gatherings, and Chilly Weather

What a fun week! A busy, but fun week! Sister Saturday Last Saturday our church hosted a Sister Saturday which comes around quarterly with a different theme. The theme this time was "Homemade Holiday". I took my mom and my mother-in-law, and we enjoyed four classes including homemade gifts, holiday games, holiday food, and table setting/flower arranging. I didn't think to take pictures until we got to the table setting/flower arranging class. If you enjoy flowers and beautiful tablescapes, you'd love this class! The lady you see in the photo above decorated all the tables you see here and gave a lesson on flower arranging along with handy tips for your tablescapes. She's so ... Read more

The Bye-Bye Sisters

I was blessed to have grown up with sisters--an older sister and a younger sister! And let me tell you, it was FUN. And as adults it's still fun! Annnd I now also have the added blessing of sisters-in-law. I know some of you don't have sisters and always wanted one, so let me tell you a story in hopes of encouraging you in that longing. Our family has been part of a group of families we call our life group--a Bible study group that we "do life" with. God put our group together almost twelve years ago, and even as our number has fluctuated with some families moving on and new families joining, our bond has remained strong. Our children have literally grown up together, several now young ... Read more

Snapshot Saturday: Soaking Up Autumn

Good morning and happy weekend! Boy, these weeks sure pass quickly, don't they? I'm soaking up as much of autumn as I can because it'll be gone before we know it. This week we've been doing a lot of work inside and outside in preparation for some upcoming gatherings and just the holidays in general. It's exciting how close we are to the holidays! We have our daughter's soccer team coming this weekend and our life group coming next week. It's so much fun entertaining outside during the fall evenings so we're trying to finish some areas for sitting and doing activities. While working last weekend I noticed this fungus on a tree. Isn't it interesting! My friend told me it's called ... Read more

Thanksgiving Scripture Journal

Happy Sunday! I don't normally post on Sundays, but I want to hop on quickly to share something I'm loving in this season of thankfulness. My friend Missy has been "stamping" for several years which means I've been blessed with many of her lovely handmade stationaries. We managed to meet for coffee last week and she brought me something new she'd made. Along with a sweet card and thoughtful note, she gave me a Thanksgiving scripture journal for the month of November! I'm already enjoying daily blessings from my time with this journal in the mornings. There is beauty on every page both in its fall artwork and in the meaningful scripture study. Each day offers a scripture for ... Read more

Snapshot Saturday: Some of Everything

Good Saturday morning! I'm a little late with this post but I want to save these snapshots from the week so I'm going to go through them speedily! We trick-or-treated with our neighbor friends on Halloween night and the kids had a blast! Halloween isn't our favorite, so we don't do a lot with it, but we love costumes and of course we love time with friends so it's fun to get together for an evening of dressing up and eating tons of candy. Some of my photos are little blurry here---sorry--but I want to show you how pretty some of the front porches were with their fall decorations. Afterwards our friends invited us back to their house for a delicious chili supper and ... Read more

Cook by the Book: Chuckwagon Beans

My daughter's 18th birthday was this week and for her birthday meal she requested BBQ pulled pork with baked beans and hashbrown casserole. This girl loves baked beans and has eaten them since she was a baby! I don't always use a recipe, but usually just throw together all the typical ingredients without measuring to make a sweet, sticky dish of beans. However, this week I wanted to try a less sweet but beefier recipe and decided to make Chuckwagon Beans from Dining with the Pioneers, Vol.1, a cookbook given to me for a wedding gift over 26 years ago! I was working at the sweetest baby and children's boutique through college and when I got married called The Name Dropper. There were ... Read more

Girls’ Club Autumn Teatime and Book Discussion

Cultivating female friendships is rewarding yet sometimes tricky. My friend, Kelli, and I have seen the difficulties that our teen girls can go through with making and keeping friends. We wanted to encourage and mentor our daughters in this area as they go about their high school activities with co-ops, sports, etc., and have been getting together every other Sunday for tea and sweets while discussing a book which covers the topic of friendship with meaningful and practical advice. Girls' Club: Cultivating Lasting Friendship in a Lonely World is authored by mother and daughters, Sally, Sarah, and Joy Clarkson and is certainly not written to one age group but to all girls and women who desire ... Read more

Snapshot Saturday: A Colorful Week

Saturday means another week of snapshots in the books and today I have a lot! To our surprise we witnessed a burst of autumn color all around us this week! Nothing as vivid as what those of you up north get, but enough to delight our eyes! The temperatures were higher than the chilly week before, so it was nice to have the changing leaves to still make it feel like fall. We're near the end of fall soccer and Liberty has enjoyed getting to go to the games for two reasons: pretzels from the concession stand and lots of attention! She gets petting and cuddles throughout the entire game. Saturday was very busy. We had our neighborhood yard sale, my son's soccer game, and a big ... Read more