Randomly

We have had a splendid week outdoors. Lots of yard work, hanging laundry, and sitting on the patio folding it with a beautiful view to my courtyard garden.

We had some yummy sausage, egg, & cheese biscuits one morning for breakfast. What a hit they were! They are the *best* when they are homemade-with-love.

We are harvesting the last of our lettuces, spinach, and chard. I need to find a different spot for them next year to try and extend their season. I will be planting more of these salad greens when the weather cools down a bit.

I am hoping that my sweet hubby will build me some of these in the coming weeks........My vegetable garden is ready for them, yay! We have decided to build a custom chicken coop to fit into a different area of the yard. I have a lovely area in my enclosed courtyard garden where we can have the chickens, and they can scratch around during the day protected from our dogs. We will be a little closer to them and better able to enjoy them too.

I am busy, busy, busy today packing for our weekend camping trip. What excitement! We are going with a large group of neighbors and friends. There will be 19 children and 12 adults. Today I am finishing with the food preparations and freezing as much as I can to act as ice would in the coolers. The temperatures are supposed to be in the 90's where we are going, hot by our standards here is Washington State. I can hardly wait to leave in the morning.

I pray that you all have a blessed weekend! Enjoy your sweet treasures, and I will fill you in with all of the camping fun next week. In God's Love, Tami

Summer Sweetness

Sweet angels in gingham dresses.

Buzzing bees on beautiful lavender.

All of God's creatures, great and small.

Tomatoes blooming with the promise of fruit.

Hummingbird-loving Torch flowers (Kniphofia).

All of those summer feet.

Tiny apples growing rapidly in the sun.

Have a beautiful and peaceful weekend!

We are outside in the beautiful Western Washington weather soaking up every ounce of sunshine, just waiting for the inevitable rain to come. What a blessing the rain is though. It nourishes and refreshes God's splendid creation.

In God's Love, Tami

Days Gone By

I am so fascinated by the past. I am especially interested in the lives of women. How wives and mamas lived, what they wore, and how they cared for their families.
My two favorite periods of time are the pioneer times (the Laura Ingalls Wilder in me) and the 1940's, particularly during WWII.
I am drawn to the pioneer times by the wonderful "Little House" books that we read daily in our home, the "Love Comes Softly" series of books and movies that I adore, and a sense that these simpler times, though hard, were so full of joy.
My love of the 1940's has come from my paternal grandma. She was a young bride during the onset of WWII. My grandfather did not go to war because of vision problems. (Praise God). My dad was born in 1944. My grandpa, a talented carpenter, built their first tiny home stick by stick, as used supplies became available, because building materials were so hard to come by. My sweet grandma still lives in that home today, although they did make it bigger as their family grew. I have heard so many stories from my grandma about the war, the rationing, the shortages, but all along she was just so grateful to have her little family and her little home.

I recently borrowed a sweet movie from the library called, "The Magic of Ordinary Days". It is a Hallmark movie and for the most part is family suitable. If you decide to watch it please preview it before letting your children watch the beginning, as it may raise questions. The rest of the movie I would say is just fine. The other series is "1940's house", a PBS series that shows the war from a British families point of view. It is very fascinating how they recreated the whole house just like the 40's.

I realize that overall these two periods of time were full of hard times. But families found joy. The circumstances forced people to be simple in their lives. They (hopefully) had all that they needed, and that was enough. Families made due. What is the old saying, "Use it up-wear it out-make it do!". I am also so interested in how we have come to this place as a society where we are so into overabundance, and that we feel entitled to live this way. How did it come to this?

All in all, I am so grateful to be living when I do, with our medical technology and advancements. We can learn so much though from how others have lived before us. That is ultimately what draws me to the past.

Have a very blessed weekend. After a week of rain we finally have sun! YAY!

In God's Love, Tami

More on *Stuff*

It seems that I have taken a bit of a blog break :~)

I can't believe how quickly time is passing, with all the activities of Spring. We are spending every available moment outside breathing in God's creation.

Last month I read, and am now re-reading a book called "It's All Too Much" by Peter Walsh. He is one of the organizers on a cable program called "Clean Sweep". After my post on *stuff*, this book was one I stumbled upon. It has been extremely helpful for me to truly separate needs vs. wants, and to separate myself a little from my *extreme sentimentality*. Mind you, I am very organized, and therefore come up with all sorts of clever ways to *hide* all my stuff. What I am in the process of doing now is actually going through all of it and very closely examining why I am keeping it. We are 2 large boxes and (4 )30 gallon garbage bags full of donations lighter. I am feeling so much lighter emotionally and I have only done the master bedroom and closet. Well it's nearly finished.....still some tweaking to do to create a calm, restful, uncluttered place to breath and restore. I am going to work on one area at a time. My oldest son's room is next.

My decluttering has been taking a huge chunk of mine time lately. I am trying to see to the end of the tunnel when decluttering will be maintenance and won't be such a focus in our home. I would much rather have my focus on more *precious* things - like my 4 sweet treasures and my one fabulous husband. Not to mention, a clear and uncluttered focus on the Lord, when my mind is not filled with *stuff*. That is the best reward of all.

I pray that you all have a blessed Friday.

It is raining non-stop here today, so we are off to the local children's museum to run off some of this kid energy :~)

In God's Love, Tami