"Home Is the Nicest Word There Is" Laura Ingalls Wilider

"I could never in a thousand summers get tired of this." Susan Branch



I baked a blueberry pie today (therapy for me).  I made some homemade soup and a great big salad.





The girls and I read on the couch after lunch for 2 hours.



Today was a day of getting down to the basics. Like this:

1. Putting the Lord first

2. Putting something in to my home to make it a place for the people I love to feel nurtured. 

When I take care of my home I am taking care of my family. In that same process I am honoring God and all He's given me. Sometimes I need to stop and take some time and put some elbow grease into this home of mine.

Sometimes scrubbing and sometimes 'fluffing', changing things around. Making my home a welcoming place is can be decorating for the seasons or mid season for a change.

But making my home a welcoming place can also be putting things away so that it LOOKS peaceful and welcoming. I've always said in our 21 years, "everything has a place, everything in it's place" The girls helped me today with a quick, super fast, whole house tidy. Running through with fun music from a Disney soundtrack. And when we were done I texted Scott to pick up flowers on his way home from the store. I turned on some of essential oils in the dining room (central to the whole house), put in a favorite strings (classical) CD and smiled at how welcoming our house was.

3.  Guarding TIME with my family

Oh sure, I like to do things.  Lots of things.  But even when we can all be home I don't want to always be 'somewhere else'.  Today I asked the girls to come and hang out with me in the kitchen while I cooked.  I took out some markers and art paper I had forgotten all about.  And they colored, laughed, and made the work in the kitchen fly by with little effort.

4.  Nurturing my family 

So many times Abigail has pain and lots of times I stop to hug her, or say a kind word.  But honestly, it's so often that there are many times that I'm quick to pass it off, say, "it'll be okay honey"  and hardly stop to turn around.  But really I want to SAVOR the time with my daughters.  Stop, hug Abigail and tell her that I wish she didn't have pain.  Sometimes my teen Anna wants to chat at night.  I am sooooo a morning person.  She's silly and cute at night.  She likes the attention of her mama and daddy.  And I can be quick to say, "Anna, enough, I love you.  Go to sleep."  But nurturing means that I can get silly with her, loose myself in her joy of life.  I want to savor the time with them and with Scott.  Those three are my world; such precious gifts from God.  And I need to nurture to show that.  That big 'ol world out there is not going to nurture them.  I want to make after dinner treats, teach Anna how to give herself a pedicure, give Scott a backrub, read more than one chapter of Hedi to Abigail at bedtime.