This Week In My Home: Hustle

As of this post I plan to return to my former way of doing things.  I'd like very much to share my plan for my week before the week is done, as that makes me accountable for what I do!   I will also plan meals and share those with you.  Both my work plans and meal plans have sort of fallen into the 'by a wing and a prayer' category and this is not good.  I hate hearing myself stammer when John says "What's for dinner?" and I realize it's 11:45 and I have nothing planned.  Not that he fusses, but it flusters me to come up with a plan on the fly.

In My Home This Week: Where Did September Go?

Saturday:  Sam and I were exchanging again this Saturday morning.  He made cinnamon rolls, I had an extra loaf of Pumpkin Banana Bread.   Those cinnamon rolls were lovely; light, finely rolled, well risen, and plenty of cinnamon with a surprise touch of lemon icing.  Yum!

Looking for Fall: Menu Inspirations

Eating seasonally is increasingly difficult this day in time.  Strawberries are in the market year round, and at current prices, it's often hard to distinguish what is actually in season, because prices may be about the same as they are all year round!  At least I'm finding this to be truth.  That's why I like to look at monthly or seasonal lists of what is normally available.   Every now and then I'll see a low price on an item and think "Is it the season for that?" and reading the label discover it is if you live in the southern hemisphere but not in our northern one!

In My Home This Week: Oh My Aching Feet

Sukkot starts this Sunday.  It seems appropriate to feature a photo of a filled pantry with summer's harvest.  We don't have any special plans for this particular Holy Week.  John is working.  I'm to keep the little boys for a few hours twice.  I expect keeping up will be about all I do.  In the meantime, here's how I worked and thought this week:

Looking for Fall: Home Decorating Inspiration for Fall

Remember on the Fall Inspiration post I mentioned the blue plates with a copper charger?  I looked around in my Inspiration notebook and found I'd kept the photo.  I was absolutely wowed by both of these photos, one an ad for Dillards and the other from Country Door catalog.

Coffee Chat: Looking For Fall

Hello dears.  Do come right in...There's Spicy Apple Cake in the cake carrier.  Won't you have some?  It's really good.  So glad to know that thirty odd year old memory wasn't faulty and it really is a great recipe. I divided the batter into two loaf pans and made two cakes.  I put one in the freezer.  I like to have a little something sweet tucked away.

I am bone weary this afternoon. I started my day early-ish and went out early to pick up sticks about the trees.  We had some wind and a little rain but not at the same time this past weekend and sticks fell.  I noted that the pecan tree out back has dropped every single nut that was on the tree.  It was a considerable number and all lying on the ground.  They never got ripe enough for the outer green shell to open and let the nuts drop.  We'll have nothing off that tree nor the huge old one in the bottom that has flung nuts to the ground as though they were all surplus weight.  Sigh.

In My Home This Week: Reset

Saturday:  Today has not been a 'usual' day.  I did two things I'd normally not do on Saturday: I planned to go to the grocery where we get our prescriptions filled  to buy a handful of items. I also planned to buy takeout for our dinner.  Why?  Why when I'm about to tamp down on excess spending, am I out on a Sabbath flinging money away?   I'll tell you.

Looking for Fall: Outdoor Decor Inspirations

All of the ideas in this post today are from Pinterest boards.  I haven't even walked out to the shed to look to see what I might have to use.  I don't generally go for pumpkins in my décor because in our area autumn tends to be warm.  It is not conducive to keeping pumpkins fresh.

I chose photos based upon what I have on hand and to give me inspiration for what I might do with it.  As I am writing I'm also thinking of a large basket made from vines that might be fun to use, too.  Oh the ideas!

 I have a burlap wreath or two in the shed.  I think this one is very pretty with the touch of orange on the bow.

Looking for Fall: 2018 Outfit Inspirations

I know it's not quite Fall.  In fact, it's quite hot outdoors at the moment with a dry hot breeze and thunder sounding.   The lawn is looking very 'end of year'-ish and while leaves are drifting off the trees as though it were autumn, it's misery out there.  Great for drying clothes, not so much for putting on sweaters and ankle boots!

This Spiritual Journey: Dear Lisa

This year I've been struggling with a number of things as you all know.   The summer months were so bad for me and our family as a whole were under such a heavy attack that I fell away from my Bible study and prayer life and just barely slogged through the days.  It was a difficult time, but as the anxiety attacks decreased, I realized that above all I need God.  I need to get back to my faith roots.

That said, I was not quite prepared for Rosh Hashanah.   I was not even sure I would observe it at all, but I recalled my very real longing to observe Passover and how impossible it was at the time with my home full and a four year old whose dietary mainstay is bread.  If all else fails to appeal, offer Josh a slice of bread.  I knew that we could never follow the Feast of Unleavened Bread while he was in the house and so I told John quietly that we'd observe Second Passover, thinking the family would have moved by the time it came along.  They weren't and so it too passed and then the Feast of First Fruits came and went.

Looking for Fall

It's hot.  It's humid.  I have a load of outdoor work to be done and it's too uncomfortable even at 7:15am to even think of doing much of anything at all outdoors.   I'm calling the late summer cleaning of the house my seasonal clean for autumn, so there's nothing much left to do here.  Fall, where art thou?

In My Home This Week: A Lovely Week

Saturday:  Got up early this morning just so I could have a quiet coffee and devotional before John came in.  Lovely morning outdoors!  What a beautiful start to September!  Sunrise, coffee, a Bible reading that spoke to my heart, and finally my husband walking in the back door with every appearance of being glad to be here.

Freshening Up: The Bedrooms

Josh expressed his over all dislike of the few things I've done about the house of late.  "I don't know why you have to re-do the whole house!"  I explained that we'd only moved out a broken chair and a very rough looking cabinet in the living room but we have made a few changes here and there.  Nothing major.  I guess 4 year old Josh has his opinions on home décor just like every other male in the family.  Oh well.  I'm going right ahead with my few changes.  It's time to freshen the house once more.  I can tell because things are broken, torn and worn.

The master bedroom was  the only project I worked on this spring.   I'd taken a day in May and gone shopping for a few items for Spring/Summer wear.  As I wandered about TJ Maxx I found a pair of coral pillows.  They were $25 for the two.  I knew I wanted to do something different in the room, add a pop of color of some sort and while I'd thought of coral I'd also pictured a blush pink.   Seeing the coral pillows at a decent price clenched the deal.

I'd noted that several of the pictures in my room not only shared the teals, greens, and grays I was already using  but also had coral in them.  The ones shown below are just a few of the pictures in the room.

Coffee Chat: A New Season

Hello dears, do come in.  I've coffee for you or an iced soda or water, if you'd rather.  It's warm outdoors but we can sit here near the window and look out at that bluest blue sky and the lovely leaves tumbling slowly down from the trees in that hot breeze and pretend it's actually Fall.  It looks enough like it that Friday Josh stood gazing over the front yard at the leaves upon the ground and said "Gramma!  It's...It's fall!"  As I shared with a group of friends earlier, Josh is four and a four year old is brutally honest.  They don't mean to be hurtful or mean but are just learning to take note of things ("Gramma...Why do your arms flap like that when you move them?" sigh, lol), so it can't be just that I think it looks like fall. Josh thinks so, too.  It must be true!