“Believe me, life can be much simpler. And you'll discover an energy for the things in life that really matter.”
―Emilie Barnes
Category Archives: The Prairie Home
a happy find
It is said to see the birds you must become part of the silence. If that is so then it is especially interesting that it was Brendan who found the little quail (yes? I am pretty sure but could be wrong) all puffed up in the cool evening air. This boy is a ball of energy much of the time but, then again, nothing gets past him. He knows I have tried for a year now to get a good image of my favorite little birds here. Occasionally they make there way up here, but the largest flock of them live one street down. If we are on the road early enough we see them scurry as fast as their little legs can carry them. Once the babies are big enough they follow behind in a line and without fail I break out into C'mon Get Happy. (version with happy little animated partridges and the bumper sticker I should own here)
Too much totally irrelevant sharing? Sorry.
Anyway, he was out after dinner the other night and caught a glimpse of this beauty. He carefully tiptoed back inside to tell me to get my camera then led me quietly back where he found it. It really made my evening.
Patriotic Tablescape – Dollar Store DIY
While hunting for some patriotic ideas for our main dining table (ie the workhouse we use three times a day) I had been both inspired at Pier 1 and then quickly discouraged by the sticker shock. My friend Rebecca suggested I hit up The Dollar Tree where I often find a few useful items but this time scored a whole tabletop for the summer patriotic holidays.
We already had the blue plates from there which have held up pretty well for daily banging around. ($1 each) I picked up the placemats, a pack of red napkins and flatware. My assistant used them to fill the IKEA glasses.
Pinterest had me drooling over these beautiful arrangements. This is a particularly thrifty month however. While at the dollar store my oldest daughter and I pulled up the picture on my phone and gathered a collection of reasonably similar silk flowers. (there are several flowers on each $1 bunch) We had found the chunky square vase at the thrift store some months back. It wasn't quite as cobalt as the inpiration picture so I also grabbed some glass filler beads to toss in. (Athlete son's PT has him doing foot strengthening exercises manipulating marbles so it's all going to be used lol)
The flags came in a bundle of 3 for a dollar. They are too large for my taste but we will keep an eye out for smaller ones before the 4th.
Happy Memorial Day to you and yours. May we never forget.
(story of the above poem here)
beautiful ordinary – morning
"What I am doing is wrestling with my own sin that lures me into thinking that if my work and daily life isn’t considered amazing, or isn’t recognized, then it isn’t important.
And so I’m learning to practice the beauty of ordinariness through things like patiently brushing my daughter’s hair, thoughtfully completing a year-end report that no one may read, responding to emails that may not necessitate a response, holding a sick child, weeding my garden, listening – really listening – to a colleague, and working through spelling words with my first grader.
These are ordinary things that I feel a deep sense of calling to, a calling that necessitates faithfulness to each and every one of them…" more here
These words resonated with me. Maybe it's human nature. Maybe as my dear friend says it is the on-stage aspect of our lives today. Maybe it's just the age-old message driven into our heads that only things with invoices and price tags are of high caliber, products and services that can be marketed and rated. However it happens, the temptation is to think the hidden, daily, private things are somehow of less value. You know the whole if a tree falls in the forest and no one is there and all.
There are people here though. They compose a small, but significant, audience and even when they are scattered here and there an audience of one good God remains behind, noticing the care put into every chore and project, no matter how mundane.
The older I get the greater the peace there is in hidden work and unrecorded exchanges. Ordinary, but beautiful.
A Place of Refuge
A welcoming home is a place of refuge, a place where people worn down by the noise and turmoil and hostility of the outside world can find a safe resting place. A welcoming home is a place that you and others enjoy coming home to.
If you live in a house with small children you may already be shaking your head. "What do you mean, 'noise and turmoil of the outside world?' I have to leave home to get away from noise and turmoil!"
But even in the rough and tumble of family living, home can be a safe haven and even a place of quiet (at least some of the time). And especially if noise and activity crowd your life making the extra effort to create a sense of refuge in the midst of it can pay off wonderful dividends.
Besides, a refuge is not a hole where you disappear to eat and sleep and then emerge to go about the business of life. A welcoming home is where real life happens. It's where personalities are nurtured, where growth is stimulated, where people feel free not only to be themselves but to develop their best selves. That caring, nurturing quality – not the absence of noise or strife – is what makes a home a refuge.
Emilie's words have guided my vision of home for 30 years and helped me to understand that this refuge could be created in a cinder block, multi-family, government unit just as well as in a Georgian farmhouse. It was more about your purpose for your house than the house itself – how it was used, why you were there, and how you emerged from it, for better or worse.
Regardless of where you spend your days, we all go "home" eventually. It is worth the effort to consider what steps we can take to make it a place we long to return to, a true refueling station, a place from which we can launch our best and strongest selves, and a place where we can return to and integrate all those fascinating experiences we have other places.
* photograph from a welcoming old home turned inn where we stayed last month
May Daybook
Maybe we call it a May-book?
Outside: Sunny and 50's. We have had a lot of stormy weather recently. We watched our big aspen lurching into the open part of the yard as a couple roots snapped right in half. It will need to come down now, google tells us, but it is hard to believe it while it's still so green. We then lost power for 8hrs the other day when a power line pole was struck and caught fire. The little ravine our gutters empty into completely filled up after this last storm. Neighbor said it was the first time in 20 years he had ever seen that.
So yeah. Crazy weather but beautiful blue skies once again. They always come back if you ride it out.
Wearing: You're probably like, who cares right? Fwiw, it's some coral ankle length cotton pants, white tee, and a denim jacket for appointments today. Fun look back at fashion by the year here.
Reading: fiction. New fiction at that. This, friends, surprises me. More Chris Bohjalian which quite honestly freaked me the heck out. I grabbed it on the way out of the library and then was taken aback at the opening graphic depictions. NOT g rated. Be clear on that point. This is more a review than a recommendation. I admit though the writing was skillful and one could never, ever be lukewarm about human trafficking after reading. Am choosing a different genre for the next read though, since that is the next best thing to mind bleach.
Tess is all Nancy Drew these days. Steadily working her way across the shelf of the library.
Fitness: Spring training for mom happening now. It's been a good month. Slow but steady progress. This is my last year of the first half century of my life. God willing I will be entering the second half strong. Today was a good day starting this way. Yesterday I was so tired and frustrated with some new resistance exercises I overshot and ended up collapsing on the carpet. There may have been some tears involved. I just got up today and hit it again. Persistance wins right?
In the kitchen: there is an Instapot pressure cooker on the way! Sending up a prayer it is the answer to my weekday dinner time crunch. Are you in on this latest and greatest gadget? Friends have added me to Facebook groups and this promises to revolutionize meal prep. Paleo Instapot recipes here 5 jillion instapot pins here.
From the learning room: Finishing the last few books for several students. Lighting a (motivational) fire under one other…. The boys have been busy with extracurricular sports. We are enjoying exploring some old shows on youtube like Liberty Kids, Wishbone, Bill Nye and even Cover to Cover (yes, I am that old) which follows my best motto of "Speak slow, Speak low." And if you are also a midcentury mom you might remember Write On and probably also saw that one played on a filmstrip…
In other news: Moira has saved up for and purchased her first car. Her brother has been driving me around prepping for his license. I am awed at the passage of time this represents. Not sad at the speed of it, nor particularly anxious for it to hurry up. It's rolling along as it should.
Around the house: I picked up this set of embroidered linens from the antique sale. There had been another similar set at the flea market in Germany which left me with serious reverse buyer's remorse when I left them there. Now they are here. My young German friend tells me they say:
What mother bestowed upon me once
shall be smoothly and prettily ordered,
I treasure/hold it up it in this closet,
like once my mother did.
In community: Such a time we have had. A dear older lady we know had a massive stroke. We helped get her home for hospice and were blessed to help in the small ways we could until her death the other day. It has been so good to have something purposeful to be a part of.
We meantime are awaiting confirmation of what looks to be a grave diagnosis for my mother. The past weeks have been chock full of discussions and decisions, texts and calls. Some of those have been middle of the night which probably explains the being flattened on the carpet part above.
How do you navigate times like these? St. Therese is a good model:
"If I did not simply live from one moment to another, it would be impossible for me to be patient, but I look only at the present, I forget the past, and I take good care not to forestall the future. When we yield to discouragement or despair it is usually because we think too much about the past and the future. But, pray much for me."
yes, please : )
Chandelier
There was some thrifty DIY home improvement going on this last weekend. A couple weeks ago I was wandering through Hobby Lobby's deep discount aisle and found this fixture For less than $20. We have been talking about putting something over the table but were hesitant to do anything too permanent since the room is originally a family room and our table is not centered in the space. Still I hoped for a piece that would work and coincidentally also really truly dislike our family's advent wreath. When a facebook friend mentioned a four candle chandelier option I was determined to find such a thing, thinking that in December it could have colored candles and do double duty as a hanging wreath.
Thank you kindly, Hobby Lobby.
building together
This seemed ambitious to me – building the playset ourselves. Sooooo many pieces labeled with letters and numbers. "Oh yeah," he said. "We can do this. It'll be good for them," he said. "They need to learn to this kind of thing." He was right.
The kids asked everyday how many more days til they could open the big boxes that have been waiting in the garage since Christmas. Last weekend was the start date. They got up bright and early Saturday morning and began doing inventory and making a game plan. My head does not work this way, for the record. I'm sure glad his does. Patiently they sorted and piled and hammered and tightened screws. It's nearly finished and with any luck it will be together before the weather turns again Sunday.
Homes graced, refined, and gladdened
"Let us have homes crowned with the clambering vine, amid the cooling shade of trees, surrounded with the verdant lawn, with pendant berries, with golden fruits, and cluster of purple grapes. Homes graced with pictures, refined by books, and gladdened with song.
Homes in which there shall be no scorching blasts of passion, no polar storms of coldness and hate. Homes in which the wife and mother shall not lose all her attractive charms by unremitting drudgery and toil, nor the husband starve his brain and dwarf his soul by hours of over-work.
Homes in which happy children shall ever see the beauty of love, and the beauty of holiness. Homes of plenty, homes of sympathy, homes of self-sacrifice, homes of devotion, homes of culture, homes of love."
affairs of the heart
"…in today's impersonal, mass-produced age, the handcrafted card, especially for family members, is a rare token of affection. What happy home circle memories can be fashioned out of paper, glue and imagination! Family traditions, such as a home-grown celebration of Love's Own Day, require an investment of creative and emotional energy. But most of all, they require commitment. Like enduring love, they are true affairs of the heart."
Starry Sky Journal 