Home making

A Personal Helper For Your Home

Ina Garten wrote this in one of her cookbooks regarding home ~

A good home should gather you up in his arms like a warm cashmere blanket, soothe your hurt feelings, and prepare you to go back out into that big bad world tomorrow all ready to fight the dragons.”

Refreshing your heart, HOME, and life have been my passion and inspiration here on my blog since 2008. I have LOVED being a homemaker for 42 years, and I am passionate about making my home inviting, organized and comfortable. It’s far from perfect, and I often drop the ball when it comes to home management. It takes intentionality, discipline, work and a whole lot of inspiration sprinkled in to keep me motivated! It’s not about perfection, but the spirit of welcome. I find that when my home gets disorganized or dirty, I don’t feel at home here, so how can I feel ready to welcome others inside my doors?! It’s then that I know it’s time to get things in hand!

While I was blessed to have great training ground from my own parents regarding cleaning and organizing while growing up, I realize that not every woman had that advantage, or perhaps it was there, but she was distracted by her education or simply a lack of interest. Now that she has a home of her own, she feels unequipped or frustrated because all the homemaking tasks are hard, or maybe even seem impossible. How can she ever figure out menu planning and grocery shopping so mealtime can be easier? How can her home ever get organized? What are the best ways to keep a home clean and tidy? She doesn’t know, and she feels embarrassed to seek out help.

Maybe that “someone” is you.

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Home making · podcast · Work

A Biblical Attitude Towards Housework

(You can listen to this post on my podcast.)

You sleepily turn off the alarm and stumble to get your morning coffee. Entering the kitchen, you are greeted by the dishes that are sitting in cold water in the sink, like sunken ships at sea. Also drumming its fingers in need of attention is the pile of laundry that is tumbling out of the bottomless pit hamper. You wonder if you’ll ever get caught up on everything that needs to be done. Housework. Isn’t it just a drudgery that we have to plug through each hour, each day and each week? From the floors to dishes to laundry, there’s always something calling for our attention. While it can be overwhelming, having a biblical attitude about it can truly change not only how we approach it, but it could also enable us to accomplish more. Does the Lord care or have anything to say about the way we work in our home? Oh, yes, and it’s so encouraging and can be a game-changer if we apply His Truth to those responsibilities.

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canning · Home making

Sweet Refrigerator Pickles

When your garden gives you cucumbers…

you thank the Lord and make pickles! I’ve been making this refrigerator Dill Pickle recipe in past years, but I decided that this batch would be a sweet variety. I found a recipe on PInterest from this site. She has some great recipes…if you don’t mind scrolling through LOTS of ads that pop up. (Grrr.) The blessing of refrigerator pickles is that you don’t have to can them. They can stay in your fridge for a couple of months.

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home · Home making · refreshment at home

Practical Steps Towards Having a Heart for Home

I was blessed to have a mother who was home most all of my growing up years. I remember her presence in our home and what a warmth and security it created for me. When she wasn’t there, things just weren’t right. She created the cozy atmosphere, set the tone, kept things running smoothly and made it lovely.

A woman that has to work outside the home can do all those things; it will just take much more energy and effort. Some who ARE home struggle with loving it. It seems more like a cruel taskmaster that is breathing down their necks. Indeed, there is always something that needs our attention! But how do we deal with those responsibilities with joy, rather than dread?

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home · Home making · Uncategorized

A Heart For Home

After being away from home for over half of the month of October, my heart and feet have been very happy to be back in my residence! I am very much a home-body, loving everything about home life. I think I’ve learned to appreciate it even more after so much absence. As I have “dug my heels” into the necessary chores and responsibilities of running a home, I’ve thanked the Lord for His gift of home, and for the blessing of being a homemaker. When our girls were young, at one time, my husband worked three jobs so I could stay home and care for our family. What a sacrifice! For many years, I have said to my husband,

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