Happy New Year! – Patchwork Post {January 2022}

Hi dear ladies, congrats on making it to January. We can all take a deep breath and also take a minute to realize what we’ve accomplished. We’ve navigated another holiday season. Although it was done imperfectly, the fact remains that we served our families to the best of our abilities, did all the shopping, choosing, planning, decorating, cooking, wrapping, sizing, baking… and all the other things. God is gracious to give us such a reason to celebrate and the strength to make it special for our dear ones.

The last link of the Christmas countdown chain!

You can read our family Christmas Update 2021, here.

Just two things have been on my heart for the year ahead.

Continue reading “Happy New Year! – Patchwork Post {January 2022}”

Fun Stuff We Love {February 2021}

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

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”

Our first giveaway!

Here on Treasuring Home, we will be giving away a lovely one-of-a-kind piece, skillfully created by my talented sister-in-law Esther. She designed and wood-burned this beautiful piece of home decor, by hand. I love placing decor around our home that will remind us of truths, especially Scripture.

We tried hard to capture some photos that would do this piece justice. We *almost* succeeded.

To enter the drawing:

  1. Sign up on the email list for Treasuring Home (if you are not on it already). Use the subscribe button at the bottom on mobile devices, or on the sidebar on a desktop. **Be sure to check your email, in order to confirm your subscription. You may have to check your promotions folder or your spam folder. You are not actually subscribed until you click the link in the confirmation email.**
  2. Next, leave a comment on this post, here on the blog. (A Facebook or Instagram comment will unfortunately not be counted.)

Doing the two things above will give you one entry into the contest.

After you have done that, if you would like a bonus entry, either share this post on Facebook and tag me (Jennifer Hall), or tag my account in an Instagram post or story (@treasuringhome). If you do both, it will count for two bonus entries.

That’s it! The giveaway will close on October 31, a name will be randomly drawn (out of a literal hat 😜), the winner will be notified.

Stay at Your Post

God has you where you are for a reason, even though you may not understand what that reason is. None of us fully understands God’s plan at work in our individual lives. It’s tempting to think that something really important, something that makes a lot more sense, is out there somewhere.

“That something else is, in our imagination, a very important thing, and it has an imagined importance that makes sense to us. It is a creature of ours. And if it makes sense to us, then it is a sure thing that we are flying blinkered and blind.” -Douglas Wilson, Ploductivity

Trust the Master Planner. He is working all things together for His kingdom, and He has given you a part in it that is uniquely yours. Continue reading “Stay at Your Post”

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

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!”

Inspiration for the Everyday

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”

Your Home and God’s Kingdom

Be encouraged today, dear ones!edit5I know it’s easy to get discouraged. We hear bad news everywhere. Kids are departing from the faith. Hate and violence overwhelm our streets. Churches are shutting down. Families are splitting apart. Unrighteous lawmakers seem to prevail. Children are abused. Our world seems to be going crazy in many respects.

Fear and sadness grip our hearts as we hear of these things. But is this the whole story? Are there any battles being won for righteousness? Are there any advances being made for the kingdom of Christ in our world today?eeditOh, yes. Yes, there are! Continue reading “Your Home and God’s Kingdom”

A Coat Rack for the Old Farmhouse

Old farmhouses present unconventional problems. In certain places there are things like floors that aren’t level and lathe-and-plaster walls that crumble when you try to screw or nail things into them. Our front hallway has both of these problems. But, we needed a coat rack. The small coat closet didn’t provide enough room, not to mention that the younger ones couldn’t reach high enough to hang the coats in it.

A year or two ago, I had an idea. The unused space beside the front door would be the perfect spot for a coat rack. The floor beside the door is not level, so something would have to be hung on the walls, which, as I mentioned, are crumbly, and would never be sturdy enough for a coat rack with all the weight of the coats hanging on it. After considering my options, assisted by my trusty crew, we came up with this. Continue reading “A Coat Rack for the Old Farmhouse”