The Ways of Her Home

Embracing the homeward call

Healthy Fall Fare

Fall season really ignites my cravings for so many delicious foods! If I'm not careful, I can easily lose control. So, lately I've been experimenting with recipes that offer some much-anticipated flavors of fall, but with the health benefits my family needs going into cold and flu season! I love apples with pork chops and have made them in the oven, but wanted a healthy recipe that would work in the crockpot while we were at church, and then be ready to serve when we got home. I found several on the internet so I combined ideas of each of them. Crockpot Apple Pork Chops Ingredients: ~6 bone-in pork chops, rinsed, patted dry, and lightly salted ~4 large apples of any kind ... Read more

Putting the “Labor” in Labor Day!

Labor Day is a low key holiday for us. My husband always has the day off, so the kids and I take the day off from school, but we don’t plan anything big. It's kind of become a thing for us to work part of the day outside--cleaning up the yard to get it ready for fall--and then chilling for the remainder of the day. Our bodies were made to work and rest! REST just feels so much better after the WORK! So here's what we did! My husband cut the grass, edged, helped our son with his pumpkin patch maintenance, and replaced some rotting wood on a post at our front door. I trimmed bushes, weeded the front flower beds, fluffed the pine straw, and cleaned up the front ... Read more

Teach Them Tuesday: Homeschool Highlights of the First Week

We had a fun first week of school here at our little home academy! As with every year, I prayed all summer about our upcoming school year. And, as always, God resolved every question, concern, and decision I took before Him, and got us off to a great start. I love homeschooling my kids and am so thankful for the journey we've experienced together, and, because of that, I can easily get excited for the start of a new year. Here are a few highlights of our first week: We always have a "Pre-First Day of School" on the Friday before our first whole week. This is just a fun day when we take first day photos, hand out school surprises, set up new notebooks, go over the year's plan, and have ... Read more

Happy Almost Fall!

Lately we have caught the fever--the fall fever! We are still more than a month away from the first day of fall and even then, here in the deep south, it'll be a while before those crisp, cool days make their appearance. So yesterday we had a "Let's-Pretend-It's-Fall" day! Nothing extravagant, just a few autumnal pleasures to tide us over for the rest of summer. We lit a deliciously-scented apple candle and whipped up some pumpkin muffins with butterscotch chips. I found some fall cupcake liners left from last year. I've been on a detox diet this summer so, sadly, no muffins for this mama. BUT, I did stir some pureed pumpkin and maple syrup into my steel cut oats and it was ... Read more

Tropical Fruit Salad with Honey Ginger Syrup

I don't know about you but I just can't get enough fruit in the summer! I buy so much fresh fruit every week and we gobble it up. We eat it all year long but love the summer's seasonal fruits the most. Fruit is delicious enough without having to do anything fancy with it--I usually just wash and eat it on the spot--but occasionally I like to make it into a salad, tossed in a lite and healthy syrup. Today I'm sharing one of my favorite ways to do that! Tropical Fruit Salad with Honey Ginger Syrup (This makes a huge fruit salad for a crowd. If you want to cut the recipe in half, you can still use the whole pineapple.) Ingredients: 1 fresh pineapple, peeled and cut up 4 ... Read more

What to do With Mom Guilt (or any kind of guilt!): Part 2

Today I'm continuing my two-part series on what to do with mom guilt, which can be applied to any kind of guilt really, whether you're a mom, aunt, friend, coworker, wife, etc. Yesterday I addressed dealing with misplaced guilt and you can read about here if you missed it. Today we'll look at dealing with guilt when we've truly done something wrong. When my first baby girl was just a newborn, I was so smitten, I'd cuddle her while looking into her little angel face with much pleasure, thinking, 'I don't see how we'll ever be upset with each other. I could never get mad at her or hurt her feelings. We're going to be the best of friends!' Are you laughing yet? Yep, my girls laughed ... Read more

What to do With Mom Guilt (or any kind of guilt!): Part 1

In the following posts, I use examples of motherhood to examine guilt because, well, I'm a mom. That's where I am in life right now, so that is currently where my life lessons often come from, but these thoughts and tips on handling guilt apply to ALL. Whether it's mom guilt, aunt guilt, friend guilt, wife guilt, daughter guilt, coworker guilt, church member guilt, or ANY kind of guilt burdening your heart, I hope to encourage you through this two-part series with my few humble thoughts on where our guilt might be coming from, and some helpful responses to that guilt. So even if you're not a mom, please keep reading! If the words "mom guilt" resonate with you, I assure you, you're not ... Read more

Italian Cream Cake

One evening last week, the mothers and daughters from our small group got together to celebrate the upcoming arrival of the baby of our friend Rivers. This family has been such a blessing to our group so we ladies wanted to celebrate with Rivers and her two sweet girls. We planned a meal of salads, followed by a few desserts: Italian cream cake, raspberry white chocolate almond bars, brownies, and coffee. This Italian cream cake is my most requested cake by my family or when I'm asked to bring a dessert to a special occasion. It suits any holiday or celebration any time of the year! It's unique from most other Italian cream cakes in that it doesn't call for pecans or coconut, so ... Read more