Category: making a home

Where children flourish

Published on by Jennifer5 Comments

Anything created by God will flourish best wherever it is placed by God. Remove that created thing from where God placed it, and it will die (at worst) or not reach it’s full potential (at best).

“…the wise tried to see where God placed individuals in the natural order of things, the assumption being that since God is good, the environments that He puts things in naturally help them to flourish.” – C.R. Wiley

As we seek to raise a child so that he will thrive, not just survive, in this harsh world, we should remember where God placed the child to start with. The child is placed within the mother’s body first, and then in her arms, and then by her side– and all within a home and in a family. This placement has everything to do with allowing the child to flourish.

Continue reading “Where children flourish” →

Patchwork Post {March 2021}

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The Household and the War for the Cosmos
This is an excellent series with deep and relevant content. We have watched the short videos and are soon going to be reading the book. I wish every Christian parent today could hear, understand, and emulate these concepts. From the book description: Because people saw themselves as part of an ordered whole, they also believed that they had obligations to the people around them. They were not just autonomous individuals, but members of households with unique duties to past and future generations. Words like “piety” and “religion” did not refer to what you did in your quiet time, but were more like the seemingly obsolete values of “duty” and “honor.”

Ring-a-Majigs
I found these little toys at a consignment shop while we were deep in the winter doldrums about a month ago. I was instantly taken back to my childhood! I had these toys as a child, in the same container. Anyone else remember these? Turns out they are as much fun today as they were back then.

K’nex
Also during the winter doldrums, this classic toy provided hours (literally hour upon hour) of constructive entertainment. Toby and Sammy especially enjoyed making some very complicated creations, including some with moving parts connected to a little motor. We have some books of designs with detailed instructions which helped them with ideas and specifics. Did I mind having K’nex all over the living room floor, 24/7, for weeks on end….? Yes, but not really, if that makes sense.

Continue reading “Patchwork Post {March 2021}” →

Fun Stuff We Love {February 2021}

Published on by Jennifer2 Comments

Before this month completely gets away from us, here we are with the second edition of our product share feature!

From Jennifer:

We use this rice cooker all the time. We eat quite a bit of rice and it used to be that the rice would so easily burn when being cooked on the stove. Now it never burns, which is the best part of using a rice cooker. It also has some convenient settings such as a delay start option. I have made different types of rice in it, and all has turned out well. Read the instructions carefully, because the measurement for the rice is a little different than you might expect. The only thing I don’t like is that, when cooking the rice, it doesn’t tell you how much time is left until it gets down to 10 minutes, and then it gives you a countdown. It usually takes about 40 minutes to make a batch. It will keep the rice warm and ready to eat for hours, if you need to cook the rice ahead of time.

From Beka:

I absolutely love the milk frother whisk I got recently. I use it to blend anything in a cup, like hot chocolate or my daily greens powder. What’s amazing about this little tool is that it works wonders for mixing things that tend to be lumpy. I made homemade hot chocolate earlier, and getting the cocoa to incorporate is usually quite a challenge. I took this quick video to show you.

Continue reading “Fun Stuff We Love {February 2021}” →

Stay Grounded

Published on by Jennifer7 Comments

As a woman, there is an undeniable pull to my home, to my nest. This is what I call a “grounding force,” placed into the heart of a woman by Creator God. We must stay deeply rooted and grounded during such turbulent times.

We need to make a deliberate effort to step out of our paralysis of fear and all that we cannot control, and step into some positive action right here in our homes. Even a small amount of energy will begin to build upon itself, and you will find yourself looking around at things you can control, a place where you can make a difference and create a peaceful haven, a place where you can have real and lasting influence (the kind unknown to Twitter) in the lives of others, and thereby have real influence in the real world.

Continue reading “Stay Grounded” →

Did you enjoy mothering and staying home right from the start?

Published on by Jennifer6 Comments

Question: Have you found it more enjoyable to be home with your children the more you have had and the older they have gotten, or did you really enjoy staying home and mothering right from the start with one baby? I love staying home and I love my baby, but sometimes I wake up in the morning and think, “what do I do all day long with a 1 year old!?”

Sometimes I prefer the days when I am also babysitting other people’s kids and there is more going on, or when we go help at someone else’s house, but I also want to take good care of and enjoy what God has given me. I want to make the most of my time but do not always feel very productive or fit to the task of staying home with my baby.
Maybe that’s more than one question!

nest
The children found this nest on the ground with one beautiful egg.

My long and rambling answer: Thanks for the good question; it has been helpful for me to think through my answer over the past few days.

What I hear you saying is that you are somewhat underwhelmed with your job right now, you feel lonely some days and you sometimes feel inadequate for the task at hand. I hope I have understood the heart of your question correctly.

As I have thought this over, my answer has turned out to be longer than I thought it would. 🙂 I don’t ever mean to sound “preachy”; truly these are all lessons that God has taught me along the way, little by little. He is so gracious and He leads us along gently.

I hear you and I understand. To be perfectly up front and honest, I haven’t always enjoyed staying home. I don’t always enjoy it now. Continue reading “Did you enjoy mothering and staying home right from the start?” →

Quarantine Edition – in which we hear from some of you!

Published on by Jennifer3 Comments

I wanted to create a “collage” post of ideas and thoughts about this quarantine period. So, a few weeks ago I asked– What has God been teaching you? What activities have you been doing with your family that are a little bit different from your normal routine? What recipes have you tried? Has something funny happened that you’d like to share? Has your family found a unique way to encourage others? Please send me anything you’d like to share, and I will put it all together into one post.

I have been so blessed and encouraged by the various contributions that were sent in. Keep it up ladies, building your homes during this time! It’s what we do best! God has uniquely gifted you to provide a haven and a place of comfort for your dear ones.IMG_5922

Thanks to everyone who took time to contribute to this post.

♥From Connie (my sister in law, mother of four boys, ages 11 and under):

Take a hike! No, seriously, with all this “stay at home” going on, those of us with children need to get them outside and run that energy off. If we don’t, it turns into sibling rivalry, unpleasant attitudes, discontentment, and general mayhem at home. Continue reading “Quarantine Edition – in which we hear from some of you!” →

Gift Ideas! Toys our children have loved over the years.

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Here are five classic toys that have been well loved and well played with at our house. Maybe this will give you some gift ideas for your younger kiddos, during this portion of the holiday season also known as mom-wracking-her-brain-for-gift-ideas.

1) We’ve had Color & Shape Bingo for a long time. It’s requested over and over by my little ones. An adult can manage about four young children participating in this game. (As you probably know, this cannot be said of many games.) Great learning reinforcement of colors and shapes, and good for short attention spans.Bingo4 Continue reading “Gift Ideas! Toys our children have loved over the years.” →

Saying Goodbye to Windy Hill

Published on by Jennifer3 Comments

Moving is beyond exhausting, and when in that weakened frame of mind, you arrive at the moment of saying goodbye to your home of thirteen years, it can be pretty tough. And so, the heart-wrenching moment had come.

As we explored the familiar spaces for the last time, our voices echoed through the now empty rooms.

Our minds went back to when we, so young and naive, first bought the old place, and the farmhouse adventure began. Continue reading “Saying Goodbye to Windy Hill” →

Inspiration for the Everyday

Published on by Jennifer5 Comments

Several years ago, I began to compile a commonplace book. I called it “Inspiration for the Everyday.” In it, I have been writing down quotations, bits and pieces of various lengths from various sources; words that I have heard or read. If it seems that I might want to come back to those words at a future time, I try to write them down in my commonplace book.

I have found myself coming back to them many times over, and it occurred to me that maybe you’d be blessed and encouraged by some of these thoughts, from time to time, as well. Continue reading “Inspiration for the Everyday” →

A little explanation about where I’ve been

Published on by Jennifer3 Comments

As the title suggests, I haven’t been around much in the blogging world lately. A measly two posts this year so far, and both of them back in January. Close to six months of silence– yikes! IMG_6591 Several months ago, life became such that actual blogging was just not happening.

It turns out that my January 2nd post was more on-target than I imagined at the time. Sometimes God does things in our lives that we never expected or even dreamed of. Perhaps you know what it’s like to just be traveling down the road of life, and suddenly, sometimes out of nowhere, we find ourselves at a major bend in the road. Other times, we can see the bend way off in the distance, on the horizon, and we know change is coming. Either way, the major bend can be a lot to work through. Change can mean deep waters sometimes. It can even be heartbreaking, in a good way, or in a bad way. Continue reading “A little explanation about where I’ve been” →