Now Available - The Ordinary Days of Small Things Summer Day Keeper

Many years ago, I began creating seasonal planners as a way to be more intentional about making lasting memories with my family. Over time, these planners evolved into what I now call Day Keepers. Each Day Keeper follows the natural rhythm of the four seasons — beginning in Spring with (March, April, May) continuing through Summer (June, July, August), Autumn (September, October, November), and Winter (December, January, February).

Rather than following the calendar year, I chose to begin each Day Keeper in the Spring, a season of fresh starts, new beginnings, and the planting of seeds — both literal and metaphorical. The year then flows naturally through each season, ending in Winter — a time for rest, reflection, and restorative peace. This cycle mirrors the rhythm of life itself, giving space for growth, change, and renewal.

Over time, I began offering the Day Keepers here on my blog, and they quickly became a popular resource for those looking to live more intentionally and savor life’s everyday moments. It has been a few years since I last shared them, but this year felt right to give them a fresh update and bring them back for you.

I have always made these planners available free of charge, and I will continue to do so this year. However, as much of the content is now being reframed and expanded for my upcoming book, What We Keep: Making Time For What Truly Matters, this will be the last year the Day Keepers are available free of charge. In the future, they will likely be offered as a companion piece to the book. So for now, this is your last opportunity to download them without cost.

If you’ve been longing for a way to live more intentionally, make lasting memories, and follow the natural rhythm of the seasons, I invite you to download your Day Keeper today and begin your year with intention.

Download the The Summer Day Keeper Here

Download the Summer Quarter 2026 Calendars Here

Download the Summer Phenology Wheels Here

Print one phenology wheel for each month and record daily moon phase, weather, sunrise and sunset, high and low temperature, sketch flora and fauna and anything native to your location. The possibilities are endless!

May this planner guide you in noticing what matters, celebrating the small moments, and carrying intention into every day of your year.

Homemaking Mondays In May: The Theology of Homemaking A Four Part Formation Series — Week Four: Who You Are Becoming Matters More Than What You Do

I think I used to approach homemaking mostly as something I needed to do well.

Keep things in order.

Stay on top of everything.

Create a home that felt peaceful and looked cared for.

And while those things matter, they are not the deepest thing happening here.

Because beneath the routines and responsibilities, something quieter is taking place.

You are becoming someone.

Not all at once.
Not dramatically.
Not in ways the world would necessarily notice.

But slowly, through ordinary faithfulness.

Through the constant opportunities to lay down your own pace, your own preferences, your own expectations for how the day “should” go.

Through the interruptions.
Through the repetition.
Through the small daily choices to respond gently when frustration would feel easier.

And I think this is one of the hidden mercies of homemaking: it reveals us, but it also reshapes us.

It exposes impatience.
It softens sharp edges.
It teaches endurance in places we didn’t know we needed it.

“Suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.”

- ROMANS 5:3–4

There are forms of spiritual formation that can only happen through staying.

Through tending the same spaces.
Through loving the same people over long stretches of ordinary time.
Through embracing a life where much of the work is repeated tomorrow.

And while that kind of life may seem small from the outside, God never treats formation as small.

Because He is not only concerned with what you accomplish.

He is deeply concerned with who you are becoming.

- Patient
- Steady
- Tender-hearted
- Faithful in unseen places
- Strong in quiet ways that no longer need applause to feel valuable.

Your home is not just something you are building, it is a place God is using to build you.

And maybe that changes the questions we carry.

Not:

“Did I get enough done today?”

But:

“Did I become a little more loving?

A little more grounded?

A little more like Christ in the middle of ordinary life?”

Because long after the laundry is forgotten, the meals are eaten, and the rooms are rearranged again, the character formed within you remains.

The work matters.

But who you are becoming matters even more.

If this idea of homemaking as spiritual formation resonates with you, these books pair beautifully with this week’s reflection:

The Life You've Always Wanted — A gentle, deeply practical invitation into spiritual formation through everyday life and ordinary habits.

The Practice of the Presence of God — A quiet classic about finding communion with God in simple daily tasks and hidden work.

Adorned — A thoughtful reflection on biblical womanhood, discipleship, and the beauty of a faithful life lived within the home.

Liturgy of the Ordinary — A beautiful exploration of how God meets us through everyday routines and repetitive moments.

They each remind us in different ways that spiritual growth rarely happens through grand moments alone.

More often, it happens quietly, right in the middle of daily life.

❊

We participate in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program,

and this post contains affiliate links. When you click through and make a purchase

we receive a small commission from Amazon.

We appreciate your support

Homemaking Monday's In May: The Theology Of HomemakingA Four Part Formation Series - Part Three: The Hidden Cost Of A Quiet Life

 Homemaking carries a quiet cost.

Not in a heavy or regretful way, but in a real, honest one.

Because choosing a life centered around the home often means choosing things that don’t always feel easy to name.

Choosing to not always be seen, to not always be affirmed, to not always have something measurable to point to at the end of the day. 

And sometimes, if you’re honest, there is a tension there.

A wondering, a subtle ache to be recognized, to know that what you’re doing matters beyond the walls you’re inside of. And I don’t think that feeling is something to rush past or dismiss.

But I do think it’s something to gently bring before the Lord. Because He never asked us to live for recognition, He asked us to live before Him.

“Your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” 

- MATTHEW 6:4

There is a kind of life that is built mostly in the unseen, and it requires a different kind of surrender.

A surrender of being known in the ways the world measures it.
A surrender of being noticed for what you carry.
A surrender of needing proof that it matters.

And yet…nothing done with Him, for Him, or through Him is ever lost, even when it is never named out loud by anyone else.

It is still seen.
It is still held.
It is still forming something eternal in you.

If this idea of the “hidden life” resonates with you, these books sit beautifully with this week’s reflection:

Every Moment Holy — Douglas Kaine McKelvey
A collection of liturgies that help you see ordinary moments as sacred ground.

Garden City — John Mark Comer
A thoughtful look at calling, work, and what it means to live faithfully in your actual life.

To Hell with the Hustle — Jefferson Bethke
A gentle pushback against constant striving and the pressure to be seen as productive.

Sacred Rhythms — Ruth Haley Barton
A deeper invitation into spiritual practices that form a steady, anchored soul.

They don’t rush the tension away.

They help you sit with it… and slowly see it differently.

❊

We participate in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program,

and this post contains affiliate links. When you click through and make a purchase

we receive a small commission from Amazon.

We appreciate your support

Recipes From Grandma's Kitchen- A Popular Recipe - Potato Salad

My mom was a good cook in her own right, but after I got married and started cooking for my own family, there was one dish that from thereon she always asked me to make, potato salad.

To be honest, I'm not really sure what it was that she felt made mine so much better, she just said that mine tasted better, and I guess she was on to something, because over the years it has become my most requested dish for pot lucks and parties.  I've even catered a few meals for friends, and it always makes the list of requested dishes.

With the summer season coming up, I'm sure a lot of us will be grilling and potato salad is one of those dishes that always seems to be a good fit, whether you're cooking up burgers or chicken, it's the perfect side dish! So today I thought I'd pass along my take on this classic dish. I hope you'll enjoy it!

❊ KIM'S POTATO SALAD

3 lbs yukon gold potatoes

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 to 1 cup Hellman's Mayonnaise

2 teaspoons yellow mustard

4-6 sweet pickles, diced small

1/2 small onion, chopped small

2 teaspoons sugar

Salt and pepper to taste

Smoked paprika to preference

Serves 10-12

Wash, peel and chop you potatoes into cubes. Briefly rinse the potatoes in cold water to remove excess starch. Place potatoes in a large pot, cover with water.  Add 1 teaspoon of salt to the water. Boil until tender. Drain with cool water then place in the refrigerator to cool. This helps them hold their shape and not become mashed potatoes.

Once cooled add mayo, mustard, sweet pickles and onions. Gently mix everything together until the potatoes are well coated and everything is combined.  Add sugar, salt and pepper and stir gently again. Adjust seasoning as desired.  To finish lightly dust the top with smoked paprika.

❊

Homemaking Monday's In May: The Theology of Homemaking:A Four Part Formation Series - Week Two: Formation Through Repetition

There are days when the repetition of homemaking feels almost unbearable.

You wash the dishes, and by evening the sink is full again.

You fold the laundry, and tomorrow there will be another pile waiting.

You sweep the floor, wipe the counters, make the meals, straighten the rooms—and sometimes it can all begin to feel like a cycle that never truly ends.

And if we’re honest, I think part of what frustrates us is that we long for completion.

We want progress we can measure.

We want visible results.

We want something we can point to and say, “There. I finished it.”

But so much of homemaking refuses to stay finished, and maybe that is why it forms us so deeply.

Because Scripture is full of rhythms that required daily dependence.

Daily manna.
Daily bread.
Daily surrender.

When God provided manna in the wilderness, He did not give His people enough for months at a time. He gave them enough for that day.

Enough to teach them trust.
Enough to teach them reliance.
Enough to teach them to return to Him again tomorrow.

I think homemaking carries a similar invitation. Not just to complete tasks, but to become faithful in the returning.

Returning to serve.
Returning to nurture.
Returning to tend what has been entrusted to you—even when it feels repetitive.

And over time, something quiet begins to happen in us.

The repetition exposes our impatience.

It reveals our resistance.

But it also slowly builds endurance, steadiness, and faithfulness in places that comfort never could.

“Let us not grow weary of doing good, 
for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” 

- GALATIANS 6:9

I don’t think spiritual discipline is formed only in prayer closets and Bible studies.Sometimes it is formed while standing at the kitchen sink again.While making another meal. While tending an ordinary life with consistency when no one is applauding you for it.

And maybe the repetition you want to escape is the very place God is building your faithfulness.

If you’d like to explore this topic more deeply, these books pair beautifully with this week’s reflection:

Liturgy of the Ordinary

The Common Rule

Habits of the Household

Domestic Monastery

Each one offers a gentler way of seeing the rhythms, repetitions, and sacred routines of everyday life.

❊

We participate in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program,

and this post contains affiliate links. When you click through and make a purchase

we receive a small commission from Amazon.

We appreciate your support

Homemaking Monday's In May: The Theology of Homemaking:A Four Part Formation SeriesWeek One - Homemaking Is Not Small Work

I used to think homemaking felt small because it was small.

Small tasks.
Small moments.
Small, ordinary days that seemed to blur together.

But I’ve been slowly realizing, it isn’t small, it’s just hidden.

The world has trained us to measure significance by what can be seen, applauded, or scaled. But the Kingdom of God has always worked differently.

Jesus spent thirty years in obscurity before anyone called His name.

Most of what God does in a life happens where no one else is looking.And somehow, that includes this life too.

The folding.
The wiping.
The returning things back to order over and over again.

None of it feels like it’s “moving anything forward.”

But Scripture quietly tells a different story:

“What you do matters—not because it is seen, 
but because it is done unto Him.” 

- COLOSSIONS 3:23–24

There is nothing insignificant about faithfulness.

Nothing wasted about a life poured out in quiet obedience.

Maybe the problem isn’t that homemaking is small…maybe it’s that we’ve only learned how to recognize what is loud. And this life—this home—it speaks in a much quieter way.

But God hears it.

Every single part of it.

And maybe this is where the shift begins.

Not in changing what you’re doing…but in learning to see it differently.

Because if this work isn’t small, if it actually holds weight in the Kingdom—then the question becomes:

What is God doing in you through it?

What is being shaped in the quiet repetition of your days?

I’m starting to realize…

the hiddenness isn’t just about where this work happens.It’s about what it’s producing.

And that changes everything.

(We’ll talk about that next.)

If you’d like to explore this more deeply, these are a few books that have quietly shaped how I see this life:

The Hidden Art of Homemaking
this one reframes creativity and beauty inside the home in a way that feels both freeing and grounding.

Liturgy of the Ordinary
it helped me see how God meets us in the most repetitive, everyday moments.

The Life We’re Looking For
this one gently pulls your attention back to presence, especially in a distracted world.

Adorned
a reminder that the way we live inside our homes carries a kind of quiet, discipling influence.

None of them are loud.

But all of them will gently change how you see what you’re already doing.

❊

We participate in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program,

and this post contains affiliate links. When you click through and make a purchase

we receive a small commission from Amazon.

We appreciate your support

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

❊