Yesterday we talked about being hospitable.  Why not look today for a way to refresh someone else?  Buy a small gift (a book, flowers, CD or gift card), make a batch of cookies, or stop by the bakery and grab a loaf of yummy bread and pop in and pay someone a visit and present your gift. 

If someone stopped in at your door, wouldn’t that refresh you?  In refreshing others, you will yourself be refreshed!

With love,

It’s filled with candy corn, candy pumpkins a mixed nuts.  Oh my.  This should be pictured under the definition for sin…and it’s not even chocolate!  The sweet and salty mixture is really good!  If you haven’t mixed up a jar of this, you must.  I mean, it would just be in the spirit of the season. 

If you don’t trust yourself with a jar of this in your own house, why not package some up to give as a gift?  This was part of a birthday gift to me from a friend.  I’m just glad that dish has a lid…otherwise I’d be too tempted to get a handful each time I walk past!

Seasonal foods refresh us, so find something yummy to mix up for your Friday!

See you in church Sunday!

Love y’all!

I learned a good lesson from my mom – If you don’t have exactly what you need, improvise.  I think I’m still learning how to do that, but have found that it’s getting easier as I’ve gotten older.  The other day I was making a microwave mug chocolate cake and had just used the last of my milk.  I only needed 3 tablespoons, so I improvised with Peppermint Mocha Cream.  It worked fine (though I didn’t think the cake recipe was worth repeating).

Another area of improvising is in decorating.  I’ve watched my mom take a picture of a mantle or tabletop in a magazine and go around the house finding things to mimic the look.  She didn’t always have exactly what she needed, so she improvised.

Yesterday I did the same thing in my kitchen.  I’d seen a really pretty table scape and did what I could to copy it.  Here’s the photo from Better Homes and Gardens Magazine:

Of course I left the baskets of silverware and linens off because I only wanted to use this as a centerpiece.

It really does refresh me to add something pretty and something different to the kitchen table.  It can be easy to just plunk the same centerpiece down.  Why not look in a magazine (or Google images on-line) and find something you love, then try to mimic it on your kitchen table? Remember to improvise on the items you don’t have.   Add some sparkle and beauty to the place your family gathers for mealtime, and I just bet you’ll be refreshed.

See you in church Sunday!

Lots of love,

We all have our morning routines.  We tend to do the same thing the same way most every day.  Why not refresh yourself by using a beautiful cup and saucer for your morning tea or coffee?


My hostess served me coffee like this…and I still remember how special it made her kind gesture.