Tag: reading

Consider: “Love the Home You Have”

Published on by Kim

In Love the Home You Have: Simple Ways to…Embrace Your Style, Get Organized, Delight in Where You Are, Melissa Michaels gives a fresh perspective on designing and maintaining a welcoming, orderly home. If you are not naturally detailed and don’t live to clean, you may find inspiration in her story and the Clean-Enough House.

Here are two excerpts:

To make appropriate decisions, we often have to sacrifice one thing for another, but at least we have guidelines to help us make the best decisions for this time and place…It is freeing to live within your means, to have boundaries around your time, and to focus on the bigger picture of your life as you make daily decisions for the home.

Our refuge is the one safe place where people are most likely to love and understand us even on our bad days. But if we are in the habit of filling our home with negativity, complaining, disrespect, selfishness, and laziness, the beauty we are trying to create will take a hit. Giving the best of ourselves to those we love at home changes the playing field. We change the atmosphere of our house by changing the tone of our words and setting the example for our home’s love language.

These books are set here as possibilities for you to explore. Posts and links are not endorsements or paid publicity.

Consider: “Memory Making Mom”

Published on by Kim

In Memory Making Mom: Building Traditions That Breathe Life Into Your Home, Jessica Smartt gives encouragement and practical ideas for creating and maintaining traditions in the home. The book deals with a wide variety of occasions and possibilities, in addition to discussing why traditions have value and what they can do in our homes.

Here are a few brief excerpts:

There is something innate in us humans that craves routine. We are made in the image of the One who created the hours and rhythmic seasons and makes the sun rise every blessed day. We find comfort in the repetition and the counted-ons.

At any given point — isn’t it amazing? — we can create a new narrative. We are not victims of our days. It doesn’t matter where we’ve come from or what we think we’ve missed out on, we can change the story through traditions. We just have to keep our memory-making eyes open.

I believe that there is a good and a better. With our limited time, we must be strategic in celebrating. There are so many super-fun traditions for holidays, and I’m going to share lots of these ideas. Yet the traditions and rituals that strengthen our faith and our families are the ones that deserve the bulk of our time and energy.

 

These books are set here as possibilities for you to explore. Posts and links are not endorsements or paid publicity.