making home

Posted on June 3, 2015 by Kim Halloran-Fry

"Homemaking is seen as a mere detail that can be amply covered as secondary to a job or career, which is "real life."

however…

People and their everyday lives matter more than things or status. Serving others is the highest calling of all (apart from prayer) – serving them in ordinary ways, giving people what they need.

Homes absorb immense amounts of time and energy. This effort is satisfying if one has a balanced schedule and can cover the essentials without too much stress. Essentials include the extras to the everyday round that is part of human life – the celebrations, reunions, disappointments, depression, sicknesses, disasters.

Homes work best when someone is the contented keeper of the home life.

Homemaker is a good description. It really is worth giving full attention to this vital task."

For the Family's Sake

It's been a long several weeks of unpacking but I am so happy to have my old books back. We took a good amount with us on our European adventure but many were stored. It is like being reunited with old friends.

I am rereading Susan Schaeffer Macauley right now, one of my first inspirations. I am newly inspired and refocused in this vocation going over these words. 30 years into this journey they ring truer than ever and now feel more pregnant with meaning than ever before.

Now, as life presents so many possibilities and distractions, I am reminded again and again that keeping the home life is really worth giving my full attention to.

’til the sun goes down

Posted on May 4, 2015 by Kim Halloran-Fry

That evening when they were playing out back and discovered what time the sprinkler system was set to go off?

Magic.

"Because children grow up, we think a child's purpose is to grow up. But a child's purpose is to be a child. Nature doesn't disdain what lives only for a day. It pours the whole of itself into the each moment."

Tom Stoppard

Setting the table – spring

Posted on April 7, 2015 by Kim Halloran-Fry

The home we are renting is furnished and actually furnished quite nicely. Most people would find this to be a great convenience and it really is. Except….it means there has been little opportunity for me as a diehard hunter/gatherer decorator. Since Christmas life has been transient and on the go. By Easter I was itching to make SOMEthing, to carve a tiny bit of personal creative space. The table seemed promising, so one girl and I ran out to see what we could make on a small time and resource and space budget. This is what we came up with.

Though I love bright clean color in other spaces it seems that at home I am drawn to earthy, subtle tones, much like the woods and trails we frequent and much like the old faded treasures we have collected. Probably no surprise we kept walking past the bold candy colored decorations right on towards the garden department, picking up bits of natural materials as we went.

We came home and smoothed out a $5 roll of burlap then topped that with an oblong grapevine wreath. Into that we stuffed some spanish moss. We tucked in a couple plaster birds and speckled eggs. It worked great for Easter dinner and will be perfect for some weeks to come.

Because we are all about simple, especially this month, we made an Easter dessert that fit right in. We picked up storebought vanilla cupcakes from the bakery and topped them with malted eggs. Cheating? Maybe. It all came together in minutes which meant more time on the trail – where my kids run back to show me more of same. (tiny nest dead center) Do you see a theme coming together here?

Win, win.

November walk

Posted on November 28, 2014 by Kim Halloran-Fry

“November is usually such a disagreeable month…as if the year had suddenly found out that she was growing old and could do nothing but weep and fret over it. This year is growing old gracefully…just like a stately old lady who knows she can be charming even with gray hair and wrinkles. We've had lovely days and delicious twilights.”

– LM Montgomery

Lucy Maude captures my love for these days better than I. So grateful for chance to wander the lanes with my boy on a still afternoon.

Nov 2014 aidan web (11 of 14)

wash day

Posted on November 4, 2014 by Kim Halloran-Fry

Does anyone else immediately break into song when they see wash on the line? Perhaps I have lived with tiny people so long I can't help myself. Perhaps during particularly busy seasons it is the simple daily routines I long to return to and treasure most especially. In the midst of an ever changing world there is comfort in the reliability of a sudsy sink at day's end and wash drying in the afternoon. When I start to resent those basic homey, solid, and centering tasks it is always a signal that I am moving faster than I am meant to move and it is time to regroup.

splash

Posted on July 19, 2014 by Kim Halloran-Fry

This morning we had the great summer toy box purge. That went well so we moved on to tackle the indoor/outdoor half bath that was added to the outside of the house for farm staff years ago. (insert shudder) Meantime, the sun and the temperature were rising – a rare combination here. So we finished up and spent the rest of the day focused on vitamin D absorption. For a while there, if I closed my eyes, I could have been in the tropics. I think. I haven't actually been to the tropics, so it's just a guess.

It has been a big week. Doctor appointments, eye appointments, one sick child, one traveling parent, and two working daughters. It was pure joy to spend these hours just watching them smile with no place to be but right here.

bearing fruit

Posted on August 29, 2013 by Kim Halloran-Fry

Those tomatoes. I mentioned them a bit disdainfully not long ago. They had gotten the best I could offer them – new large pots, rich compost, and marigolds to ward off insects. We watered but took care not to flood them. When we noticed the path of the sun had changed we moved the pots across the garden. Long leggy vines shot out of the pots, defying all attempts to brace and train. Frankly it became an embarassingly gangly mess, but there were tiny green tomatoes clinging to those unruly limbs so it seemed wrong to abandon the effort, hopeless as it had started to appear.

I just wandered by the back garden, noting the weeds creeping among the perennials. There is much work to be done that rather snuck up on me. But while assessing those weeds I noticed something else. The tomatoes have begun to ripen. The first thing that became apparent was that they were most definitely not the sort I was expecting. The starter plants had come with labels describing the varieties we had chosen and I had kept those tucked into the pots to reference. What was growing were not beefsteaks in the least, not even a Roma. Turns out we have several different varieties of cherry tomatoes, some oblong, some round, all unbelievably sweet.

Not the harvest we expected. Certainly not as neat and tidy a process as I envisioned.

And yet, we are bearing sweet fruit.

Life and Learning lately

Posted on June 1, 2013 by Kim Halloran-Fry

Saw a lovely quote by the Lambert's of Five in a Row fame this week:

"We're not trying to do "School at Home." We're trying to do homeschool. These are two entirely different propositions. We're not trying to replicate the time, style or content of the classroom. Rather we're trying to cultivate a lifestyle of learning in which learning takes place from morning until bedtime 7 days each week. The "formal" portion of each teaching day is just the tip of the iceberg. "

~Steve and Jane Lambert

no time for more than random snaps then…

looking around lately

Posted on April 13, 2013 by Kim Halloran-Fry

If I were asked to name the chief benefit of the house, I should say: the house shelters day-dreaming, the house protects the dreamer, the house allows one to dream in peace.

– Gaston Bachelard

Happy weekending to you.

Embracing Idle Hours

Posted on January 11, 2013 by Kim Halloran-Fry

"Winter, a lingering season, is a time to gather golden moments, embark upon a sentimental journey, and enjoy every idle hour." – John Boswell

After a full and bustling December we are settling into a somewhat quieter January. Breath in, breathe out. It is a little window before things pick up again and I have learned to gather moments where they can be found. This week we have brought home into clear focus again, taking into account the things scheduled in coming weeks and months and balancing those with a steady rhythm in this house and a generous dose of idle hours. We need those too.

Starry Sky Journal

Reflections from Starry Sky Ranch

Tag Archives: home