Make This Home A Peaceful Place

 

Bless this house,

O Lord, we pray.
Let your joy

shine here today.
Fill each corner
with Your grace.
Make this home
a peaceful place.
Let laughter ring
throughout the halls.
Bring harmony
to these four walls.
May all who enter
Be at rest as 

Your love touches,
every guest.

- NANCY LYNCH WEISS

Poetry, especially sweet verses like this one which beckon to the peace and harmony that we desire within the walls of our homes, speaks to me on such a deep level. I'll be sharing more poems like these from a fairly vast collection I've curated over the years in the coming months. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

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Two Sweet Ideas For Summer

"I am beginning to learn that it is the sweet, 

simple things in life which are the reals ones, after all."

- LAURA INGALLS WILDER

We went to the most lovely garden center today, and the hydrangea bushes were so beautiful! I've always dreamed of having a white hydrangea bush in my yard, and it's something we will be adding, eventually. The problem now is, which variety will I choose? I'm not sure I knew there were so many, and I loved them all, so now I'm thinking . . . maybe three? They also had some beautiful butterly bushes and lilacs,  the scents were just heavenly!

And speaking of . . .  one of the things I like to do to make our home cozy year round is diffusing seasonal essential oils! I've tried a few over the past couple of weeks, and here are two I've really enjoyed, Sweet Summer is especially nice!

❊ SWEET SUMMER

- 4 drops tangerine

- 2 drops lavender

- 1 drop lime

- 1 drop spearmint

❊ SUMMER NIGHTS

- 4 drops juniper berry

- 2 drops grapefruit

- 2 drops bergamot

- 1 drop ylang ylang

You can also find floral scented oils to use in your diffuser, as well. Two that I like are lilac and peony! (Affliate Links) I just diffused peony yesterday and the whole house smelled as fresh as a summer day!

Another thing I like to do as the days grow warmer, is to make up a pitcher (or in this case, a jar) of iced tea!

And did you know that tomorrow is. . . .

❊ NATIONAL ICED TEA DAY - June 10

Over the weekend I made a little jar of sun tea nothing fancy, just a tea bag, some water and the sun! I'm r-e-a-l-l-y trying to cut back on Coke (I'm addicted!) and tea is my go to replacment, especially in the summer! I've been drinking sweet tea, but to make it even better, now I'm cutting back on that and made the sun tea unsweeted and I actually liked it!

The thing you have to be careful about when making sun tea, is not to create a breeding ground for bacteria.  Tea leaves can carry bacteria, and the process of them steeping for hours in the sunlight raises some concerns. But, that doesnt' mean you can't still enjoy the fun, just do it safely!

1. Make sure your container is clean. I don't make a lot of tea, so I just use a 16 oz. mason jar which gives me 2-3 glasses throughout the day. I run the jar through the dishwasher every night so its ready to be used again the next day. Super simple!

2. Add your tea bags. For my 16 oz. jar, I use 2.

3. Steep in direct sunlight for 3-4 hours. Make sure it remains direclty in the sun, moving it if necessary. Do no exceed four hours, as after that time bacteria starts to breed.

4. Refrigerate immediately. This will slow the bacterial growth and keep your tea fresh!

5. Enjoy your tea! But not for more than a couple of days. Sun tea, especially, doesn't keep it's freshness and flavor as well as boiled tea bags, so best if you drink it quickly!

I like to add flavors to my tea, like blackberries and cucumbers, they are my favorites, especially together. But every now and then I like it mixed with a little pineapple juice, yum! 

I saw a recipe on Pinterest for a recipe for Jolly Rancher Iced Tea, and since someone gave our daughter a bag of them, I thought we might try it a try.  Here's how to make it

Pour water into a saucepan and bring it to a boil

Add tea and jolly rancher to brew

Strain the tea and discard the residue

Transfer to the pitcher and place in the refrigerator

Serve over ice and enjoy

Not the healthiest version you could drink, but it might be fun just to try!

Well, my friends, it's time to close this post! I pray you all have a lovely day tomorrow,

❊

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On Earth As It In Heaven- Making Our Homes A Haven

Good Monday morning, my friends! How are you? Did you survive the time change and losing that extra hour of sleep yesterday? To be honest it's the change in autumn that typically messes with my rhythm more than the spring, which you might think would be just the opposite. But for whatever reason, it's gaining an hour that takes me a couple of weeks to recover from. In some ways I wish they would just do away with this nonsense altogether and leave time be, but, I must admit, I didn't mind that extra hour of sunshine last night one little bit. Still, left to its Creator, this would all happen naturally anyway, so why not let it? But now I'm getting sidetracked so let's move on.

I'm currently participating in a lovely Lenten reading of This Beautiful Truth by Sarah Clarkson (you can learn more about that here) and I wanted to share a short passage from my reading with you this morning.

"Where my parent's dwelt, home was rich and heaven was close. Even as a child disturbed by change, my childhood was largely secure. For the moving van would barely have lumbered away when my mom would locate the kettle and unwrap the cups for tea. In every home we lived in there was art on the walls and music in the air. There were family dinners eaten by candlelight, stacks of books in baskets, our bedrooms made colorful, our beds soft. My mother set to the work of beauty. Where she lived, the rooms were lovely, the meals delicious and the space claimed for love. 

But the older I've gotten, the more I realize that she did not act alone. My mother was dependent upon God's life creating within her the vision she could not sustain alone. The Spirit who brooded over the vast and formless void at the dawn of time is the same one who broods within our hearts, and the words he speaks within us are the ones by which we act with and in him, calling light out of darkness and form out of the shaplessness of our fallen lives. 

All that's required of us is a willingness to come home. To be made welcome by God and to let our belonging transform not only the inward rooms of our hearts but the outward rooms of our lives, so that where we are we dwell in heaven, though we yet live in the broken earth."

- SARAH CLARKSON

This Beautiful Truth

The reason I wanted to share this passage is because if there's one thing I've come to realize more and more as the years pass, it is that I can do relatively little about the changes that are happening in the world outside my door. But, there is one domain, one atmosphere, that with the Lord's help I can influence and that is in my home. This is where, in partnership with the Spirit, I can strive for just a bit of "On earth as it is in heaven." I just found this so inspirational and uplifting, and couldn't we all do with a bit of that in today's restless world?

10 Ideas For Making Your Home A Haven

And while we're on the subject of ushering a little heaven into our homes, here's an article that speaks a bit to that. What other ideas do you have, or things that you do that make your home a haven?

And now I'm off my friends, to tend to my own home! The temperatures are warming up nicely this week and that's re-energizing me, which is a good thing because spring cleaning is on the horizon!

Until then. . . .

❊ 

As For Me And My House

We will. . .

Serve the Lord with gladness. - Psalm 100:2

Love the Lord with all our hearts, souls and minds. - Matthew 22:37

Trust in the Lord with all our hears. - Proverbs 3:5

Love our neighbors as ourselves. - Matthew 22:39

Forgive as the Lord has forgiven us. - Colossians 3:13

Seek peace and pursue it. - Psalm 34:14

Think on things that are good true, honorable, just and lovely. - Phillipians 4:8

Outdo one another in showing honor. - Romans 12:10

this post was inspired by a lovely graphic I came across on Instagram from @Devoted Motherhood. You can find the post, here.

A Longing For The Comforts Of Home

"One of the most fundamental of human longings is the longing for home. We long for a place that feels like the right place, where we belong,  where we ourselves are longed for and welcomed.  And for all its spiritual and psychological dimensions, this longing is physical and material as well.  We want there to be a place where waiting for us is a room, a bed, a chair, a meal - the things that meet the basic needs of embodied things like ourselves.  We want “the comforts of home”, not just somewhere away from home - a fancy hotel, say - but at home, where, we sense, they are supposed to be.” 

- MARGARET KIM PETERSON

Keeping House: The Litany of Everyday Life

Now that the holidays are over, I am slowly immersing myself in all things homekeeping, especially vintage housekeeping, which still resonates so deeply with me. I can't get enough of images like these, the sweet scenes of home and a wife and mother tending to the needs of her family. 

Growing up, I was blessed to have a mother in the home. My mother didn't go to work until I was in high school  and it was a great comfort to me. Regardless of what may have been happening in my life, knowing my mother was home and available to me at any moment grounded me, I suppose you could say. I liked knowing she was there and would be there to greet me any time I returned. Though our relationship wasn't perfect, her choice to be a stay-at-home mom is a gift I will always treasure, and it greatly influenced my life as a young girl.

Something I enjoy is perusing the plethora of vintage housekeeping books that are available on the Internet Archives. While nothing replaces holding a book in your hand, since there is no way I could or should own every book that catches my eye, the archives serves as a useful tool.

A few favorites I've come across are the Mrs. Beeton's Books. Her first book, Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management, published in 1836, was an instant success. There are actually what look to be a number of updated and revised versions at the archives, including;

- The Best of Mrs. Beeton's Household Tips

- The Best of Mrs. Beeton's Easy Everyday Cooking

- The Best of Mrs. Beeton's Cakes and Baking

- The Best of Mrs. Beeton's - Easy Entertaining

- Breakfast With Mrs. Beeton

- A Picnic With Mrs. Beeton

and this one looks interesting,

- The Best of Mrs. Beeton's Christmas

I just love perusing these old texts, which are often filled with practical, as well as a lot of out-dated but still fun ideas. If you enjoy vintage housekeeping, too, I encourage you to spend some time searching them out on the archives.  I often do an initial search on Pinterest, which usually provides me with a number of images of covers and titles and then seek them out on the archives. I find them quite fun, like stepping back to a time when life seemed simpler.

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Planning Ideas and Resources For The New Year

Around here we're not big on resolutions, but now that the holidays are coming to a close and life is settling into a regular pace, we took a few hours yesterday to look over our l-o-n-g ongoing project list and began making a plan to start chipping away at it.  Rather than thinking big picture and planning out the whole year, we just focused on what seemed do-able for January, then towards the end of the month we'll revisit and see what we were able to accomplish.

Along with that, I  have my own list of ideas and projects that I'm mulling over, books I'd like to read, ideas for posts I want to share here with you, as well as making an earnest effort to get back to writing my book, which is something I barely touched this year. There are also a number of crafting projects I'd like to try my hand at. . . . if I'm honest, there are so-many-things that pique my interest, I have a hard time narrowing it all down. That's why I like to keep lists and plan things out, and while I do utilize my phone, at heart, I still prefer an old fashioned paper planner.

I've been putting together my own planner for awhile now, and it's something I look forward to about this time every year. That along my with my portable office cart is how I keep things organized and running smoothly. My planner has varied over the years, but at this point I've finally settled upon a system that is working well. I'll be sharing more about that in the coming days, but for today I thought I'd direct you to some of the free resources that I've used in the past, and some that I still do. Perhaps if you've shifted to your sights toward the new year and have your own list of to-do's, you might find some of these helpful.

2025 Yearly Calendar

This website offers a number of options for a one year page at a glance calendar. I keep one of these at the front of my planner as well as another on clipped to the front of my weekly files.

2025 Monthly Calendars

And at the same website, you'll find monthly calendars that you can print, as well. 

Weekly Calendars

This website offers a number of styles for weekly, day-to-day planners, and here is another one that looks nice. 

To-Do List

I've found a to-do list to be one of the best tools to help me keep things moving and achieving my goals. Something about writing it down and getting it out of my head and on to the paper. I'm much more likely to get it done if it's somewhere I can see it every day.

Suggested Home File Categories For Organizing Your Filing System

One of the things on my to-do list is go through and clean out and organize my files. These category suggestions might prove helpful.

From here you'll find a number of other ideas you could include to help you break down tasks and stay organized. 

- 12 Lists To Help You Organize Your Life

- Home Project Notebook - I really like some of the ideas I found here!

- Make A Yearly Meal Plan - I don't know about planning meals for an entire year, but she has some good ideas! My friend, Heather, breaks her meal plans down by season and that's something I plan to try to implement this year.

- Password Log in today's age, keeping up with ALL the passwords can be challenging. Having them logged in one place can be a huge timesaver.

- Subscription / Membership Tracker - this is something I'm going to be adding to my planner soon. It's just too easy to lose track of things you're paying for but never use!

- Monthly Re-set - 10 things to do at the beginning of each month. I LOVE this idea!

This should give you plenty of ideas and resources work with, and if you don't find what you need, just Google "Free Planning and Organization Forms" or visit Pinterest and you'll find more resources than you'll ever need. As for me, I like to take an idea and then create my own forms using fonts and colors that I like, so that's what I'll be doing with a few of the resources I linked above.  I also have other forms I've made, and I'll be sharing those here in the days and weeks to come. I'm going to begin the year with a series of posts about my homemaking routines, so if you like that sort of thing, be sure to come back and visit. I'll be sprinkling posts on other topics as well to keep things interesting and I hope you'll join me!

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Welcome To My Home!- The Family Room & Dining Area

Good afternoon, my friends!  As promised, and now that I am **just** about done with my deep autumn cleaning, today I thought I would take you on a little tour of our family room and dining area, and we will begin with the first thing you see when you walk inside the door.  Since our house is relatively small, I have done my best to make this small space welcoming. This wall is the dividing wall between the kitchen/dining area  and the family room. The first thing you may notice is the small bookcase which holds a few antique books (I am always on the look for old books with red and green covers), and the bottom shelf holds part of my collection of Gooseberry Patch cookbooks. The chalk board is a treasure I picked up last year at a yard sale.  I typically write something seasonal on it, but that is one thing I haven't got around to yet.  And then the black divider is a piece we found at the dump.  It was a very ugly brown, but I knew the minute I saw it exactly what I would do with it!  There are few things a little black paint and some distressing can't fix for me.  The little pine tree and white pumpkin are sitting on a small black stool which I had to cut out to size my images right. And speaking of the pine tree, something you should know it that our decorating theme is mostly salt box houses and pine trees, kind of a cabiny feel, and so we keep a number of lit trees up year round, and when Christmas rolls around we decorate them, so yes, I suppose we are "those people" who keep their tree up year round, but they are really only Christmas trees once a year, at least, that's the way we see it.

And now if you will turn to the right you will in fact, see the first of those trees I mentioned.  The door you see is technically the front door, but we don't use it as we prefer the side door off of the covered porch, so this door stays locked year round. It made for the perfect spot to put our Christmas tree the first year we were here and, well, then we just never took it down. The old ladder is one we picked up at a yard sale. I have fun decorating it with seasonal decorations, and then to the right of that you can just see the entertainment center and bookshelves. My husband built these pieces for me several years ago and I still love them! The white rug you see is something I am hoping to replace. There was a propane stove on the wall where the entertainment center is now and we didn't care for it so we took it out. It sat on a tile foundation, and when we took the stove out, the tile came with it. We did have some matching carpet remnants, so we put that down first, but it sinks in just a little in that area, so I ended up covering it up with this rug.  I don't mind needing a rug, I would just prefer something that isn't quite as contrasting, but for now, it works.

This is the view of the family room as you come into the house, looking down the hall where the bathroom and two bedrooms are. We got this furniture set at ReStore, which benefits Habitat for Humanity. The cushions were blue and burgundy, kind of a southwestern pattern, but we had them professionally recovered in buffalo check. They have held up so well over the years and I still love them! The recliner is new to us, we picked it up from Facebook Marketplace. The book shelf by the recliner houses all my devotional and daily reading books, found at a yard sale a few years ago for $3.

To the right of the recliner is one of the few walls in our home that didn't get painted. We left the hallway cream to keep it from being too dark, but this wall is technically part of the family room. The shelves you see were there when we bought the house and match perfectly with our furniture. Most of the items on these shelves stay the same year round and I just add seasonal touches.  The antique sewing machine belonged to my husband's mother and is a treasured piece. My husband's father worked for Singer for many years, so it's a little nod to our family history. And then, as you can see, we have two small trees in this corner, as well.

This is the view of the entertainment center and bookshelves from the other end of the room. You can just see a little bit of my pot bellied stove, which belonged to my mother. It's probably my favorite piece. I like to keep a candle lit inside of it, especially in autumn and winter to give the appearance of a glowing warm fire.

And then, if you turn to the right we will move into the dining area. This is a better view of the dividing wall which I extended a little with the black room divider. Also just on the other side of the chair you can see our antique radio. We love adding unique piece to our decor, and this was our anniversary present to each other last year. We keep a blue tooth speaker on top and often listen to oldies from the 40's, 50's and 60's.

On the left side of the dining room we have this hutch.  My husband built this piece, as well which we originally used as a pantry in a house where we had very little cabinet space.  Now it holds all of my dishes, everyday and seasonal.  The red dishes you see on the table are ones I use in September each year. I still have some seasonal touches to add to this tablescape. The fan is sitting on top of a little heater. I got it at a yard sale last year and painted it, and then to the right of that is a little chest I also got at a yard sale for all of $20.00. It holds my table linens and a some seasonal decorations. My original plan was to strip it and paint it black, and I may still do that, but in some of the places where it is scratched you can see that the original wood color looks like it might be pretty, so I may just leave it natural. That is a project I hope to have completed by the end of the year. Also, you can just see to the left of the black cabinet the antique telephone. This was our anniversary present to each other this year, albeit a bit early, but we couldn't let this one pass us up. We just hung it earlier this week and I just love it!

Here is a better view of the white hutch and the little heater. The other side of the dining room opens up into the kitchen, which I posted about here, if you missed it. 

At the far end of the dining room there is a door that leads out to the back yard and a window. I just finished the second panel of these curtains and got them hung this week. They are double sided, a pretty rusty red pattern on one side and black and tan check on the other (see below), but when the sun shines through they look rust.  The old churn was a gift from a very dear friend of mine, and another piece I treasure, and once again, another tree! I warned you we had several! The little black bin holds potatoes on top, onions in the middle, and part of our vast array of coffee cups in the bottom. We have a problem when it comes to coffee cups, I've added two more in the past two weeks!

Well, I hope you've enjoyed this little tour of our family room and dining area.  I completed all the deep cleaning I wanted to do in the house this past week, but I still have my office/craft room and the cellar to do.  They are both rooms that are not accessible from the main part of the house, and my office/craft room is not air conditioned, so it will be a project for a cooler day!  The only room I haven't shown is the bathroom, so I'll try to get that posted next week. I won't be posting the bedrooms as ours is still a work in progress, and I won't post my daughter's bedroom to respect her privacy.

Until then . . .

❊

Cleaning and Cross Stitching - An Update

Good evening, my friends! Whew, has this week been a busy one! On Monday I deep cleaned the dining room (pics coming soon), and yesterday we were away from the house all day in meetings and running errands. Today I began in the family room, which I honestly thought I would be able to finish in one day. But on top of the fact that I got a late start, I forgot how tedious it can be to take everything down off of two shelving units, dust them and everything on them, and then put it all back.  That combined with the fact that I rearranged some things to make the entryway to look a little more welcoming, and before I knew it, it was 2:00 and time to think about dinner. 

The rest of the week is going to be busy as well. My plan is to finish up the family room tomorrow and then on Friday I'm going to give the bathroom a quick cleaning, but aside from that I hope to take most of Friday as my Sabbath, which I typically take on Satruday. But this week our church is having an event  that I am volunteering for and is pretty much all day, then church on Sunday and afterwards we're having lunch with friends.  But next week my plan is to only be away from home for one day, which like this week will be onTuesday. It will be a full day, but my goal is try to get as much done while I am in town as I can so that I can be home the rest of the week.  Next week I'll tackle deep cleaning the bathroom and our bedroom, and then if things go well  I might even get to my office/craft room and get it cleaned out and organized. That room will be quite the undertaking as it is currently a huge mess!  After that all that will be left is to clean the patio and then all the deep cleaning for the season will be done.

In the evenings I've been doing quite a bit of cross stitching. It's my favorite hobby and one I've been out for more than thirty years now. I do through periods where I cross stitch almost every night and then for some reason at times, I'll realize it's been awhile since I've picked it up. But it brings me a lot of joy and I've had a number of projects that I've wanted to finish for a bit now and so I've slowly chipping away at them. The picture at the top are two small projects I finished this week. I really like them! With that, I need to begin thinking towards Christmas and decide on any gifts I want to cross stitch this year and start on them soon.

And speaking of, I think I'm going to put on an old movie tonight and start something new! I'll try to hop back on here on Friday with some pictures of our dining room and family room, so stay tuned!

Until then!

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Welcome To Our Home - The Kitchen

If you recall in my post earlier this week I menitioned that I was beginning my Autumn / Winter Deep Clean this week, and true to my word, I began today. You may also recall that my original plan was to tackle the kitchen and dining area first, but I felt that since the kitchen is often the room that requires the most work, that I might be being optimistic.

I was correct. :)

Not only did I not get to the dining room, but I didn't even finish  the kitchen. I did get a lot done, however, so I thought I would share what I accomplshed and what still needs to be completed. 

The first thing that I did was to clean out the refrigerator.  This is actually a task that I complete every week, as the kitchen is the room that I focus on Monday's. There tends to always be a lot of food and leftoevers that accumulate from the week before and in particular over the weekend, so on Monday's I like to clean it our and start fresh.. But today I did a little more thourough cleaning. I went through all the bottles of condiments and other things and threw out anything that was expired, and gave the inside a good cleaning. I also had it on my list to clean the freezer, but I didn't get to that, so I'm bumping that to another day.  I also cleaned the top and the outside of the refrigerator.

Next I took everything out of the cabinet you see above and to the left of the refrigerator, wiped it out and organized and replaced everthing. I took the items off the top of the small counter you see to the left, gave it a good scrubbing, dusted all the items and replaced them. Still on my list is to take everything out of the drawers,wipe them out and then organize and straighten the contents. 

Next up is the stove top/oven and microwave. I lifted the top of the stove up and scrubbed the inside around the burners, took the drip pans off and cleaned them, cleaned the top of the stove and then replaced everything.  I had planned to clean the inside of the oven. I did not that too long ago, but to make it easier to keep it clean I was going to do it again, but I ran out of time. Then tonight I was making a batch of chocolate chip cookies and when I reached for the pan I burned my finger and dropped it inside the oven. The broken cookies fell all over the heating element in the bottom and caught on fire. It ended up making a HUGE mess! Needless to say, I'm actually thankful now that I didn't get around to cleaning it. It will be a much bigger job now, but at least I don't have to do it twice! I also cleaned the inside and outside of the microwave, and took out the glass tray and washed it.  

As with the other cabinets, I took everything out of all the upper cabinets around the stove, wiped them out and organized and replaced the contents. I also removed all the items from the countertops, scrubbed them down, dusted things off and replaced it. Tomorrow I'll be tackling the lower cabinets. 

I gave the sink a good cleaning, and then swept and mopped the floor and called it a day.  Along with the other things I mentioned, I still need to clean the toaster oven which you can just see to the left of the sink, all the lower cabinets and drawers still need to be wiped out and straightened, and the pantry (the white doors to the right of the refrigerator in the first small picture above) needs to be organized, so there is still a lot to do. I got started a little later than I had planned today, as well. My husband and I got into an interesting conversation over breakfast and lingered a little longer than usual, which I don't regret at all.  

In case you're wondering about the Christmas Tree Farm sign hanging above the sink, we keep that up all year round. It's not so much a Christmas decoration, and more because we like a wintry/cabin feel in our home, and decorate with a lot pine trees, saltbox houses and stars, which may sound like an odd combination, but we like it. Our color scheme throughout the house is deep green, rusty red and black. I made the valance above the kitchen window and I'm currently working on curtains for the dining room window. 

So anyway, I hope you've enjoyed this little tour of my kitchen. I've been meaning to share pictures of our home for some time now, and I figured since I'm deep cleaning now would be a good time, since it's looking its best!

We are bracing for Tropical Storm Debby which is scheduled to hit our area some time tomorrow. They are calling for 4-6 inches of rain and high winds (30-40 mph) between now and late Friday, early Saturday, and some areas could see as high as 8" inches.  Thankfully we are situated at a higher elevation, so flooding shouldn't be much of a problem for us here at home, but it could present some problems with traveling. All  the rain combined with high winds will  likely mean downed trees in the area and power outages. We're prepared in the event it happens, but if you don't hear from me for a few days, that is likely the reason!

Until then!

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My Portable Office:What's In My Cart And How I Use It

If you happen to be a person who enjoys posts about planning and organization and learning about systems that other people use, then this post if for you! And if not, feel free to pass this one by and hopefully in the coming days I'll post something that will interest you. This post will be image heavy and perhaps over-explained, but since I am a person who enjoys these types of posts when I come across them, I thought today I would share!  The picture above is my rolling cart. I bought it a few years ago from Amazon, though it doesn't appear that this particular model is available anymore, which is frustrating because I was considering purchasing a second one for all of my Bible study supplies, so I guess for now, I'll stick with my current system (I'll discuss that in an upcoming post!).

I think the best way to explain what is on this cart and how I use it would be to simply start at the beginning with the top shelf and then work my way through until we reach the bottom, and so with that, let's begin.

SHELF #1 - TOP SHELF

This is a picture looking straight on at the contents on the top shelf.  

In the very front is where I keep my Ipad.

Behind that I have a small hanging file folder basket where I keep my seasonal, monthly and weekly files, although I just realized my Autumn file, (I've already switched from summer), which would normally be in the very front, appears to not be in here, so I'll have to look for that tomorrow. Never the less, for now the first file you see is August, and behind that there are files for Weeks 1-5, and since we are in Week 1 it is currently in the front. Typically this time of year I would still be in summer, but I've been a little lax with my filing system this year, and I never finished it out. That is why I've already switched over to autumn but I am still working my August files. Behind Week 1 there are files for Sunday-Saturday, and these files get rotated daily bringing the current day to the front. At the end of the week, I will bring the Sunday folder back to the front and then rotate the weekly folders to Week 2 and place Week 1 in the back. I will do this all through August, and then at the end of the month the file for September will come to the front and the August file will be moved to another hanging file folder basket I have that houses all of the out of season files until the following year. Hopefully that makes sense. :)

I don't use these files as heavily as I once did when we were homeschooling, but enough that I appreciate having the system in place. I've used this system for years, it's familiar and it works.  I use the daily files most of all, it's where I keep things like receipts from any shopping I've done that day, mail that I want to keep, notes about upcoming appointments or fun events I want to attend, among other things. I work my files every Sunday afternoon, and as I go through my daily files for the week everything that has accumulated in them gets filed to a more specific place, and then I start the week fresh with empty files.

The picture to the left is a top view of the same shelf.

Behind my hanging files is my planner which I use daily, and it deserves a post of it's own, so I'll be sharing more about it soon.  And then behind that is my clipboard filled with notebook paper (college ruled!), because I am a writer and I write down everything! After that  I have some clear pocket sleeves, which is a new system I'm trying out. I have seven of them, and they each hold a print out of my daily routine. I also have this in my planner, but I found that dry erase markers were not working as well as I would prefer on the cover sheets, and these pockets are designed to be used with dry erase markers. I tried it for the first time last week and so far I'm liking it. And then behind that I have an accordian folder where I keep important papers and files. I don't have nearly as many files as I once did and most of them fit easily here. I do have a small plastic filing box in my office where I keep my archived files, but most anything I need access to is in this accordian file.  Then on the side you can just see a couple of pairs of scissors, and there are a few pens in a little pen cup, as well as a whole punch, a couple of rulers, just a few basic office supplies at the ready. I also have another small accordian file on the side next to the hanging files, and another small spiral notebook with some 3x5 cards inside of it. My plan is to use this to keep track of all of my passwords. I currently have them in a note on my phone, but I decided that probably isn't the safest solution, so I plan to take some time to write them all down and keep them in this little notebook.  The small accordian file I've had for a couple of years now but still haven't found a use for. I've considered tossing it a couple of times, but I really like it and I think eventually an idea will come to me and I can put it to use.

SHELF #2 - MIDDLE SHELF

The second shelf is where I keep most of my notebooks. I have a notebook for blogging, which you can see more clearly in the first picture at the top, a notebook for a book that I am and have been writing for a couple of years now, my recipe/meal planning notebook, and a notebook for our house/homestead, which I haven't used as much as I thought I would and I may end up repurposing, but the other three I use regularly. I have two other notebooks that I use for Bible study. One notebook is dedicated to the my study of the spiritual practices, and another houses my individual studies of each book of the Bible as well as other studies I've done in the past. I would like all of them to fit on this shelf but they don't. I currently use a morning basket system for the Bible study supplies, and I suppose for the time being I'll just continue on with that. 

In the back you can see a black and white striped magazine holder and that holds a good portion of my scrapbooking paper, although I don't scrapbook, at least not in the traditional sense, anyway. But, I do like to keep little journals that I make out of cheap composition notebooks. I used to make and use these all of the time and I've kind of fallen out of habit with that practice. But I'm in a stressful season of life right now with a lot of unknowns and struggling to find the balance, so I think I might try to resurrect that idea, and . . . that will have to go on the cart somewhere as well, so I'll have to figure that out. Anyway, I use scrapbooking paper to cover the front of these composition books and to decorate the insides at times as well, and since red and green are my favorite colors . . . . as you can see, most of my scrapbooking paper are Christmas designs, but the biggest percentage of these patterns, the florals and plaids, work for me year round.

On this shelf I also have three journals. The two black ones are my dump journals and typically I carry one of these with me wherever I go. The world is filled with inspiration, and so often when I am out I'll see a quote, or hear a song, or find a neat recipe in a magazine. Just the other day I came across some sauces that Ranch is making, they have  Garlic Ranch, and a Hot Honey and Jalapeno flavor, but I don't see those two on Amazon. Anyway, I want to look up recipes for ways to use them and maybe try a few, so into the notebook it went. Sometimes I will take a picture on my phone, as well, which I did with the sauces because sometimes a visual helps. But if it's just a quote or an idea that comes to me that I don't want to forget, I try to immediately get it out of my head and into the notebook. Then on Sunday afternoons I go back through my notes from the week and move things to another location, like my commonplace notebook, or if it's an idea for a topic I want to discuss here, I'll make a note in my blogging notebook. As I move each item I draw a line through it in my notebook so I'll know it's been processed. And as for the Snoopy journal, I  recieved it as a gift and I've had it for several years now but so far Ihaven't written a thing in it! But, I loved the gift and the giver so it's not going anywhere. If it's Snoopy, it's a keeper!

And finally . . .

SHELF #3 - BOTTOM SHELF

This shelf is where I keep additional office supplies, envelopes, post it notes, 3x5 cards, a larger three whole punch, a stapler, glue sticks, tape and my small collection of washi tape which I use to decorate my journals, as well. 

I also have two bags of pens and pencils that usually lay right on top of everything else. I have a small bag that I was keeping in my planner, but it got so full that it wasn't allowing the cover to close and that was driving me crazy. So I need to sit down and purge it so that it will be functional again. The larger bag is where I keep my surplus, and if you are or ever have been a homeschooling family, then you understand what I mean by a surplus of pens. I could probably never purchase another pen or pencil again and still never use all that we have. But alas, I have my favorites and they do run of out of ink, so it seems I am will always be adding to the collection!

The black bag is the one that I like to keep in my planner and the plaid one, which is actually much bigger though it doesn't apper to be in the picture, is my surplus. 

And there you have the contents of my portable office/rolling cart. I really love this system, and even more so that it's portable. I love the flexibility of keeping it near me whether  I want to spread out no the couch and work, or sit at the dining room table. Once we get my office/craft room finished, then I will probably move it there, but I haven't decided yet. I do have a desk out there, so I may just keep a few supplies there and leave this as it is, I'm just really not sure, but thankfully those are all decisions for another day.

Tomorrow begins my seasonal deep clean. I've decided to stretch it out over several days/weeks, and I'm beginning tomorrow with the kitchen and dining room, or it may end up just being the kitchen because things tend to always take longer than you originally planned. The pantry needs to be cleaned an organized, I'm taking everything out of the cabinets and giving it all a good wipe down, so the dining room may get bumped to another day. The plan is to do the family room on Friday, but since I think that may be an easier job, I may try to lump the dining room/family room together. And then next week is the bathroom, our bedroom the porch and my office.  My plan is to l take you along, share some pictures of our home and how I have things set up and the way things function, so if you liked this post and you're interested in more like it, then follow along! Summer is winding down and it's time to prepare for the 'ber months, my favorite time of the year!

Until then!

"The greatest wealth is to live content with little."

- PLATO

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The Small Ways and Ordinary Days of August

It's hard for me to believe that we have passed the half way mark of the year! We have arrived at August, and in thirty short days the autumn months will be here!  This week I've been doing a little pre-season planning and thinking ahead to the coming months and days, but today I want to focus on the time at hand, the lovely month of August.

"August brings the sheaves of corn,

then the harvest home is born."

- SARA COLERIDGE

Here are some small ways I plan to spend the ordinary days of August . . .

- Complete my regular daily and monthly tasks.

Over the summer months I typically set aside my more disciplined schedule of tasks for keeping our home neat and tidy.  The yard and garden take up much more of my time in this season, making indoor tasks harder to accomplish. The necessary day-to-days are seen to, but a good bit of dust does build up over the summer months, which is why late summer and late winter have always been my preferred times to deep clean.  I'll be seeing to that here in just a few weeks, but over the next week or so, there are a few outdoor projects that I need wrap up.

- Switch Out Files / Update Planner

I have a rolling cart were I keep 3 months worth of daily, weekly and monthly files. I used this system heavily in my homeschooling days, and while I don't need it as much now as I did back then, I still find it helpful in keeping things moving along at a smooth pace. As with other things, however, it's sat untouched over the summer, in fact, I never even switched out the spring/summer files! So today I'm going to take some time to clean it and straighten it and get it ready to serve me for the rest of the year.

My planner is actually updated, I did that this week! :)

- Make a list of outdoor tasks to be completed by September 1

I still have a few things on my list that I would like to complete this year. We have so-many-outdoor-projects, and about 80% of those fall to my husband.  But this year I discovered that I like landscaping, and I'm fairly good at it. My nemesis, of course, is weeds. I've tried pulling them, and had some success with that, but the largest percentage of them just grow back. To my detriment, I tend to be a touch it once and done kind of girl, and gardening does not lend well to that thinking. Come to think of it, not many other things do, either . . . laundry, cleaning, cooking. If only. I had hoped to accomplish a lot more than I have this season, and I may still piddle away at a few projects here and there come September, but the 'ber months bring with them a their own list of to-do's, so anything outdoors that requires my involvement (at least on a large scale), needs to be wrapped up this month.

- Deep End of Summer / Autumn Cleaning

I'm not sure at this point which week I will schedule this for.  I briefly considered the first week and to then set my mind to outdoor tasks. But, since so many of those outdoor tasks track dust and dirt into the house, it seems more fitting to move this to the end of the month. My husband is going to be out of town for a week at some point later in August, and that might present the perfect opportunity. It will keep me busy and we won't have to work around each other.  In the mean time, I'm going to begin making a list of all-the-things that entails beginning this week. 

Fun Ideas For the Month of August

This week I sat down and did some seasonal planning, including filling in my calendars from now to the end of the year with all the fun days ahead!  Here are a few that are coming up in August.

- Today!

August 1 is National Ice Cream Sandwich Day, which is and always has been one of my favorites!

August 2 - National Watermelon Day, this one is on my Summer Bingo Challenge, which I need to review and update, but I know I haven't marked this one off yet.

August 3 - National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day - hands down, my favorite cookie! I think I'll make up a batch for the coming weekend and be sure to eat some on Sunday!

August 9 - Booklovers Day - I've had Thimble Summer by Elizabeth Enright on my summer reading list for a couple of months now, maybe I'll try to tackle it in my spare time this week and write a review.

August 12 - National Vinyl Record Day - I have a turntable and a small collection of vinyl records, but when we moved I somewhow misplaced the power cord to my turntable.  If I have time maybe I'll try to locate it and spin some tunes!

August 17 - National Thrift Shop Day - I used to a do a lot of thrifting, and while I still enjoy it, I decided it was high time that I do something with all the items I had already thrifted before I brought anything new into the house. But, I do have a few things I'm on the lookout for, so maybe this would be a good day to peruse a few shops.

August 18 - National Fajita Day - this one is easy! I LOVE fajitas and I have a couple of wonderful recipes for beef and chicken fajitas! I really love throwing shrimp into that mix, too, so maybe I'll splurge and do all three!  I'll share my recipes in time for you to make up a batch if you want, too!

August 30 - National Beach Day - my daughter and I do have plans to go to the beach this month, and by beach, I mean a local beach at a nearby lake. While my daughter would prefer a trip to the ocean, I am definitely not a sun and sand kind of girl, and I won't even get in the ocean! The man made beach at the lake suits me just fine, and thankfully she enjoys it as well!  We have been going to this particular lake since she was a child, so it holds a lot of memories.  We didn't get there much last year, and this summer we promised ourselves we would be intentional about going at least once a month, and we've been three times already! One more to go!

August 31 - National Eat Out Side Day - the weather towards the end of August can be pretty hot, so we'll have to see about this one. If nothing else, maybe we'll eat under our covered porch? We typically do this on Labor Day Weekend, which is the official end of the summer season in our home, so we'll probably just wait until then. It's a nice idea though!

"The long, languorous days of August have cast their spell over the earth. Little by little, nature yields to the seductive influence and sinks into her summer sleep. Lazily-languid like southern beauties, the hours follow each other in slow succession. "

~ SISTER MARY BLANCHE - from "A Summer Siesta," Idyls and Sketches, 1916

I'll be sharing more in the upcoming weeks about my plans for my seasonal deep clean, my yard and garden projects, and my daily homekeeping routines, so if you are interested in things like that, be sure to meet me back here! What about you, do you do a deep clean this time of year?  What are some of the to-do's on your end of summer list? Let's chat in the comments!

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My Favorite Everyday Diffuser Blends

Today I have a fun little thing to share with you! I love my diffuser and I get a lot of use out of it! I started out several years ago with a number of autumn blends, and then of course Christmas. But over time I've come across a number of blends that just smell homey and cozy to me, and they are the blends that I use most frequently.  I still add in some seasonal favorites here and there, but since warm vanilla, nutmeg, hazelnut and ginger scents are my year-round favorites, many of the seasonal blends I love best are similar! I do lean a bit more toward peppermint and pine during Christmas, but I love both of them too, so it would not be out of the question for me to diffuse either of them in the middle of July. But these cute little 3x5 cards are my go-to blends and if you were to come to my house you would almost always find one of the sweetly scenting the air!  I hope you'll enjoy them, just click on the link below.

MY FAVORITE EVERYDAY DIFFUSER BLENDS

Four Scriptural Images of Home

Good morning, friends!

My family and I are away today visiting Colonial Williamsburg, so I thought I would share this post that I originally posted almost a year ago now.  It is from the book Keeping House: The Litany of Everyday Life, and I just love these three biblical depictions of home. I hope you'll enjoy it, and I'll see you back here in a few day!

Making a home involves constructing and maintaining an environment in which people can flourish in ways in which God desires for people to flourish. Four images, each of them rooted in Christian scripture and tradition, suggest themselves as ways in which Christians can picture what home is for and thus some of what might be involved in making a home.

❈ AN INN

"In the first place, a home is an inn. An inn is a place where a traveler can find a meal and shelter for the night, usually in the company of other travelers. It is a modest sort of place, offering simple accomodations to people of modest means, and with normal, forseeable human needs. Joseph and Mary sought refuge at an inn when Mary's time of delivery drew near. The Good Samaritan took the man who had fallen among theives to an inn, where he cared for the man. So also should a home be a place where it is safe to be if you are hungry or tired, or sick, or a new parent, or newly born yourself, for that matter, because meals and beds and the care that goes with them are available there as a matter of course.

❈ A SANCTUARY

A home is also a sanctuary. A santuary is a place to set apart for encounter, whose separateness exists for the sake of relationship. When God led the people of Israel out of Egypt, he commanded them to build him a sanctuary so that he could dwell in their midst. The psalmist sings of entering the sanctuary of God and having his despair turn to confidence as he encounters God and God's renewing comfort. A sanctuary, in other words, is not a cocoon whose inhabitants dwell in splendid, inpenetrable isolation. A sanctuary has boundaries that are meant to be crossed. A home, likewise, should be a place with a door that can be opened and closed. A place whose very separateness serves to foster relationship both within and across its boundaries. 

❈ A CITY

A home is a city. Again and again in scripture we find God's desire for human flourishing expressed in terms of a city, from the earthly Jerusalem of the prophet and psalmist, to the heavenly Jerusalem of Revelation. A city is an active place, there are a lot of people there, and they are busy with a lot of things. A city is very different from a suburb, the central notion of which involves getting away from other people and the everyday commotion of urban life. Often we can be surprised when running a household involves more or less continuous activity. We shouldn't be. The life of a city ebbs and flows with the hour and the season, but it never ceases altogether; so it is with the life of a home.

❈ A CASTLE

And finally, a home is a castle. When scripture describes the dwelling place that God designs for himself and for humans, it does so in terms that call to mind the rich ceremonious beauty of a castle with all its pomp and pageantry; the tabernacle, with all its rich fabrics and woods, the jewel-encrusted New Jerusalem. This kind of labor-intensive richness is out of fashion nowadays; and we want everything to be quick and easy, or we think we do. But there is something in the human soul that longs for beauty beyond necessity. Of course, it is easier not to make the bed. But there is a substantial difference between turning down a neatly made bed in the evening and lying down in a mess of sheets left from the night before. To be beautiful, a home need not be luxurious in size or in contents. The beauty of a well-kept home may arise simply from structure and ritual and attention to detail, things that can be present even in the most modest of homes.

- MARGARET KIM PETERSON

Keeping House: The Litany of Everyday Life

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