Small Things - First Saturday in May 2026

Oregon grapes. I don't remember when or where I took this picture, 

it just showed up in memories on Facebook today. :)

 "Life is not, for most of us, a pageant of splendor, but is made up of many small things, rather like an old-fashioned piecework quilt. No two people have the same, but we all have our own, whether it be listening to Beethoven's fifth with a beloved friend, or seeing a neighbor at the back door with a basket of white dahlias. Or after a long, hard day, having the family say, "That was a good supper."

- GLADYS TABER

In no particular order, here are six things that inspired me this week.

❊ Grace Filled Homemaking

Focus: from-scratch cooking, natural living, homemaking rhythms
Blends: homesteading + spiritual formation

Emphasis on peaceful, Christ-centered home life

It’s deeply aligned with intentional + seasonal living, encouraging women to “cultivate peace, purpose, and joy” in their homes.

❊ The Hearty Homemaker Podcast

Topics: routines, slow living, biblical motherhood

Focus: simplifying life + creating peaceful homes

Encourages a Proverbs 31 lifestyle without perfectionism

It frames the home as “the soil where your family can grow… in Christ”—which is a powerful discipleship lens.

❊ Homemaking With Lea

Focus: cozy homemaking, motherhood, home rhythms, simple living

Content style: soft, aesthetic, day-in-the-life homemaking visuals

Tone: warm, inviting, gentle—not loud or performative

Leans into what many are quietly craving right now: a slower, softer picture of home life. Centers around “motherhood, cozy hobbies, lifestyle, and home.

❊ Sunshine Valley

Focus: slow living, old-fashioned homemaking, faith-rooted rhythms
Tone: peaceful, grounded, deeply nostalgic
Content: from-scratch cooking, DIY, home rhythms, spiritual encouragement

Consistent in its vision,and it carries a similar slow, seasonal heartbeat, but with  clarity and substance.

What stands out is the intentional rejection of modern chaos in favor of:

simplicity
quiet
and a home that feels like refuge

It explicitly speaks to women who feel God calling them to “less, not more”—which is exactly the tension behind true slow living. 

❊ Just Homemaking

Focus: biblical homemaking, intentional living, encouragement in daily work
Structure: multiple contributors (different seasons of life)
Content: devotionals, practical systems, homemaking encouragement

Moves beyond one voice and becomes a shared discipleship space.

It explicitly frames homemaking as:

more than cooking and cleaning—but a ministry that shapes hearts and lives 

It emphasizes homemaking as ministry, not just lifestyle

It offers relational encouragement (feels like a Titus 2 community)

It blends practical help + spiritual depth, which many accounts fail to balance

It feels like women walking alongside each other, not just one woman teaching from a distance.

❊ Just One More Page

Storybook Piano & Orchestral Music For Work / Deep Focus

❊

Wayback Wednesday: A Forgotten Childhood Favorite - Love On A Rooftop

This week, quite to my surprise, I stumbled back onto a series from my childhood memory bank that I had almost completely forgotten—until the moment I saw it again and everything came rushing back.

I’m talking about Love On A Rooftop (1966–1967, ABC).

This short-lived single-season sitcom featured Alias Smith and Jones star Peter Deuel and Laugh-In favorite Judy Carne as a newlywed couple trying to make life work in a tiny top-floor walk-up apartment in San Francisco. Deuel played Dave Willis, an orphaned, working-class architect with a steady, grounded nature. Carne played Julie, an art student from a wealthy, well-connected family who brought a much more impulsive, free-spirited energy into the relationship.

And right there was the heart of it: contrast. Structure versus spontaneity. Practicality versus whimsy. A small apartment, a big city, and two young people trying to figure out how to share a life without driving each other completely mad in the process.

The series was created by Bernard Slade, who denied any intentional connection to Neil Simon’s Barefoot in the Park, the hugely successful 1963 stage play that later became a 1967 film starring Robert Redford and Jane Fonda. But even at the time, comparisons were unavoidable. Industry insiders and audiences alike picked up on the similarities immediately.

And honestly, it’s not hard to see why.

You had the same basic blueprint: newlyweds navigating cramped urban living, a more rigid husband paired with a flightier wife, and the emotional growing pains of early marriage played for comedy. Even the “tiny apartment as battleground and sanctuary” idea feels like it was very much of that creative moment in television.

What’s interesting is that Barefoot in the Park eventually became its own television series in 1970, though it only lasted about six months. In a strange twist, Love On A Rooftop—the earlier and less remembered show—arguably handled the premise with a bit more charm and sincerity. There’s something about its softer edges that feels less theatrical and more lived-in.

And really, this format wasn’t an isolated experiment. Once Barefoot in the Park proved successful, television leaned heavily into this “young couple in the city” formula throughout the late 1960s and into the 1970s. Shows like The Occasional Wife and Bridget Loves Bernie continued exploring variations of the same idea: romance under pressure, identity clashes, and domestic comedy framed through modern relationships.

Despite its charm and a strong cast, Love On A Rooftop never made it past its first season. The reasons were pretty typical for the era—declining ratings, an unfortunate time slot, and the general volatility of network decision-making in the 1960s. ABC, in particular, was struggling throughout much of the decade, often ranking last among the major networks and frequently pulling the plug on shows before they had a chance to find their footing.

Behind the scenes, there were also rumors of tension between Judy Carne and Peter Deuel. Accounts suggested a difficult “love-hate” dynamic at times, with friction reportedly tied to professionalism and punctuality issues. Whether exaggerated by hindsight or not, it added another layer of strain to a show already fighting uphill for survival.

And yet, watching it today—or even just remembering it—it doesn’t feel like a failure. It feels like a time capsule.

There’s a softness to Love On A Rooftop that stands out now, especially in contrast to how fast and fragmented television has become. It captures a very specific kind of optimism about marriage, independence, and city life. Not perfect, not polished—just two people trying to build something together in a space barely big enough for the idea.

Looking back, I think that’s what makes rediscovering shows like this so meaningful. They weren’t just entertainment. They were reflections of what people hoped early adulthood might feel like—messy, funny, slightly chaotic, but still worth building.

And sometimes, that’s exactly what a forgotten sitcom gives you back: not just nostalgia, but a reminder of how many different ways life has been imagined before our own version of it ever began.

Here's the pilot episode, if you're interested.  The quality is not that great, but then . . . that's kind of part of the fun! Ironically the narrator for this episode is  Don Porter, who worked with Deuel prior to this series on Gidget! 

and, if you've never seen the movie, Barefoot In The Park, 

here's the opening credits

if you want to watch the full movie, it's available to rent or buy on Prime. 

The World We Make

Good Monday morning, my dear friends! I had not anticipated that two weeks ago when I posted to wish you a Happy Easter  that I would be away as long as I have, but to be honest, I desperately needed it!  I won't go into a lot of detail, only to say that shortly before Easter I received some difficult news and it's taken me a bit to process my emotions surrounding it. That, and I also ended up making an unplanned trip to spend a few days with my daughter and her husband that turned into a 10 day trip, and well, there you have it!  All that to say, I feel the fog is finally beginning to lift and I'm ready to rejoin you in this space!

One thing I did want to say is that I think I have finally come to the place where I am able to admit that setting up any sort of reading challenge or reading schedule here at my blog NEVER works out! There, I've said it! It always sounds so good on paper, but then . . . . life, and before I realize it I've fallen behind and I find myself struggling to keep up with the weekly posts and recaps, so unless I can ever truly get my act together, you'll never see me hosting another read-along in this space again, at least not one with any regularity!  That's not to say I won't be reading or sharing about what I read with you here, but inviting you to join me and thinking for a moment that I can actually keep some sort of schedule, it just never works!  I also did not sense much enthusiasm for my suggested summer read along of the Beatrix Potter Mystery series, Cottage Tales and watching Marple, so I've decided against it.  If you were one of the two enthusiastic souls that were looking forward to, I encourage you to spend your summer thus engaged, and perhaps, so will I, I may even write about it here and there, just don't hold me to it! :) However, I do plan to continue with my weekly series Homemaking Mondays, which will begin on Monday, May 4! 

Which brings us to today, and today I thought I would leave you with this lovely poem I recently came across.  I hope you will enjoy it! :)

❊ The World We Make

We make the world in which we live

By what we gather and what we give,

By our daily deeds and the things we say,

By what we keep or we cast away.

We make our world by the beauty we see

In a skylark’s song or a lilac tree,

In a butterfly’s wing, in the pale moon’s rise,

And the wonder that lingers in midnight skies.

We make our world by the life we lead,

By the friends we have, by the books we read,

By the pity we show in the hour of care,

By the loads we lift and the love we share.

We make our world by the goals we pursue,

By the heights we seek and the higher view,

By hopes and dreams that reach the sun

And a will to fight till the heights are won.

What is the place in which we dwell,

A hut or a palace, a heaven or hell

We gather and scatter, we take and we give,

We make our world — and there we live.

- ALFRED GRANT WALTON

❊

Happy Easter!

 Good morning, friends! I've been taking some time this week to reflect on Holy Week, which is why things have been a little quieter the past few days. I'm going to extend this through the weekend to spend time with my family and celebrate the glorious resurrection of our Lord and Savior! I'll be back next week and look forward to visiting with you again then!

❊