{Book Review} Ironing Made Easy

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Ironing Made Easy:  The Far Easier Way to Iron

The other day I discovered how to find free Kindle books on Amazon, and while I was paging through my search results, I discovered this little gem that has already saved me at least ten minutes over the course of two already-short ironing sessions.  I discovered that my biggest ironing enemy was my set-up, and with a few simple changes, I am on my way to ironing efficiently.  

On the first week of school and piano lessons, I'm grateful for anything that saves me time on household tasks.  This ebook is free at the moment, so take a look, and let me know if it saves you time!

Books: Country Living

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I was about eight years old when my parents moved out of a neighborhood and into the country.  Five fertile acres with a big garden plot surrounded by fields and pastures became the world of all kinds of childhood adventures for my brother and me.

If you get us started telling you about the sweetest beets, the tenderest carrots, the loads of potatoes, the plum tree, the rhubarb patch, the piles of basalt rocks that were ours to build fortresses, and the stack of small logs that became our log cabin, it might be a while before you get us to stop.  And I haven't even mentioned the gooseberry bush yet!

And then once you knew all about my childhood homes in the country, it wouldn't surprise you at all that one of my favorite little compilations in the Ellen White section of my bookshelf is called Country Living.

I wasn't sure I had ever read it cover to cover before, so I decided to sit down with it this spring and take it all in.  I pulled a couple copies of it off my shelf, only to discover a gem I hadn't noticed before.  What I first thought was a second copy of the same thing was actually a little book called, From City to Country Living:  A Guide to Those Making the Change.

Perfect!  I could read them both together!

For a little background, the compilation "Country Living" is a collection of Ellen White's statements written in the late 1800s and early 1900s, highlighting not only the physical but also the spiritual benefits of a simple country life.  

What I discovered when I picked up the Guide to Those Making the Change was that when the Country Living compilation was put together and published for the first time in 1946 (yes, right after the second world war, when people all over the world were still shaken by the war-time experiences), the reaction far surpassed anyone's expectations, and the little book got printed over and over again in a few short years.  

People were so inspired and had so many questions about country living that the Guide to Those Making the Change was published to give not only general advice about considering a move to the country, but also historical context to many of the statements found in Country Living itself.

While I of course just soaked up every little detail about the lessons to be learned from working the soil, and the peace and health to be enjoyed in a country environment, perhaps the statements in both booklets touching on how to make good solid decisions as a Christian became my favorite parts.  

In fact, if you needed to make any kind of decision in your life, and you were looking for the best ways to know how to make the best decision, whether it had to do with your home's location or not, I would refer you to these two booklets.

Here are some of my favorite gems.

"Better sacrifice any and every worldly consideration than to imperil the precious souls [in context, children and family] committed to your care."  Country Living, 5

"God will reveal from point to point what to do next."  Country Living, 7

"We are to stand free in God, looking constantly to Christ for instruction."  Country Living, 11

"Those who have felt at last to make a move, let it not be in a rush, in an excitement, or in a rash manner, or in a way that hereafter they will deeply regret that they did move out..."  Country Living, 25

"Let everyone take time to consider carefully; and not to be like the man in the parable who began to build, and was not able to finish.  Not a move should be made but that movement and all that it portends are carefully considered--everything weighed...To every man was given his work according to his several ability.  Then let him not move hesitatingly, but firmly, and yet humbly trusting in God."  Country Living, 26

"Spread every plan before God with fasting, [and] with the humbling of the soul before the Lord Jesus, and commit thy ways unto the Lord.  The sure promise is, He will direct thy paths.  He is infinite in resources.  The Holy One of Israel, who calls the host of heaven by name, and holds the stars of heaven in position, has you individually in His keeping..."  Country Living, 28

"If there was ever time for guarded, intelligent planning, now is such a time."  A Guide, 7

"Too much is involved to take one step in the dark...Get all the counsel you can, but make your own decision."  A Guide, 7, 8

"All rash and careless moves are to be avoided.  We must know where we are to go and what we are going to do for a livelihood when we get there.  On the other hand, we are not to sit idly waiting for an opportunity to present itself."  A Guide, 21

"How do we know what God may have in store for us if we do not begin to look around to see?"  A Guide, 22

And because I'm a homemaker at heart, I can't resist including this last passage, even though it's not directly related to making decisions.

"Make a home worthy of the name, not merely a shelter from heat and storm or from the atomic bomb.  Make it a place of peace and contentment, of progressive development of the intellectual and spiritual nature.  Make it a school for the children and parents, a medical center for the community where all will learn of the broader, fuller joy of right living."  A Guide, 36

Country Living is available free as an audio book or a PDF (actually several different formats) here.  You can also purchase a hard copy here.

From City to Country Living:  A Guide to Those Making the Change is available free as a PDF download here.  You can purchase a hard copy here.

My Five Steps to a Clean Kitchen

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I spend a lot of time in my kitchen, and maybe that's why I'm always thinking about what I can do to make the fun parts (trying a new recipe, anyone?) more fun and the bad parts (another sink full of dishes) take way less time.

In the interest of full disclosure, you should know that I am indeed writing this blog post instead of cleaning my kitchen, but it doesn't worry me, because the system I've been thinking about and working on for months will get me out of the mess I'm in pretty quickly.  Even if I take a few minutes to stop in at this all-too-dormant blog.  :)

So here's the logic behind the system:  I figure I might not have time to do the whole project at once, and I needed a way to prioritize the tasks.  Which things absolutely need to happen?  Which things will wait around for me to come back later without causing further trouble?

These five steps prove to be a consistent success for me, and even if I only have time for one or two steps, I still feel like I've made a dent.  The order is indeed important, and the foundation of the process.  I think through them every time I clean my kitchen, and they help me stay focused.

1.  Put away the food

I hate throwing away perfectly good food, and we all know food doesn't last as long if we don't get it back into the refrigerator.  Putting all the food--even non-perishables--back where it belongs not only preserves it, but also clears a lot of visual space in the kitchen.

2.  Get rid of trash and compost

I'm not always great at cleaning as I go (my mother-in-law is amazing at this), so I often have an empty can, tofu box, wrapper....you get the idea....left out after the meal is prepared.  Plus scraps for the compost bin.  Once the food is taken care of, getting the trash and compost out of the kitchen clears that space and removes the gross factor for later.

3.  Put away clean dishes

My mom tells me I should empty the dishwasher before I make the next meal, and she's absolutely right.  But I don't always do it.  I do find, though, that if I put away all the clean dishes before I start rinsing the dirty ones, I then have a place to put the dirty dishes when they're rinsed for the dishwasher or hand washed.

4.  Rinse and wash the dirty dishes

This goes pretty quickly once all the other clutter has been dealt with.  Even if I have to come back to it later, it's not as overwhelming when the dishwasher and drying areas are cleared out.

5.  Wipe all the counters and clean the sink

I used to clean my sink once per week.  As a single person, that kind of worked, but it really didn't work well when I got married.  Marriage meant that I was cooking a lot more often, and you know what that means for the sink.  Eventually I figured out that cleaning the sink--actually scrubbing it out--every day made a huge difference in how I felt about working in my kitchen.  Cleaning the counters after each meal puts that finishing touch on a the kitchen, so that the next time I come in I feel inspired to cook delicious food once again.

If I've kept up on it through the day, this routine takes me ten to fifteen minutes, which feels efficient to me.

Do you have any tips for keeping up on the kitchen work?  I'd love to hear!

Coming Home

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Rosa Bianca Eggplant

What makes home feel like home, a place you love to come back to?

I've noticed that whenever I move to a new place, I have a nesting routine.  I unpack, yes, but there's more to it than that for me.

For example, I once arrived in a totally new state, and stopped by the house I knew we'd be renting but hadn't seen yet.  They were painting it, and it wouldn't be ready for us to move in for a few more days.  One of the women on the crew just looked like she'd know where to get fresh peaches, and I told her so.  

And I was right about her.  She told me exactly how to get to a good farm with a good deal.  I immediately followed her directions, and bought fifty pounds.

Never mind that I had no clue if I had access to a freezer.  It was the last day the orchard would have peaches at all, and since my canning supplies were still in transit, I also found a store, bought freezer bags, and took my chances.  

I was glad I did, because I did find access to a freezer, and until our moving truck arrived I really didn't have anything to do other than freeze peaches anyway!  And I felt that somehow I had managed to pack a bit of summer away for our new home, something I could pull out and savor during the months ahead.

Or, for another example, when we moved to our current house, our moving truck came to our door a full three weeks later than we did.  

We planted our seeds the second full day in our new house, so that even though we were dealing with a makeshift bed, we'd at least have a head start on our tomato plants.  And when there were free lemons advertised on Craigslist?  And forty pounds of limes for sale at the flea market for $4?  

We went straight down and bought jars, a big pot, and a citrus juicer, and canned ourselves several months' supply of lime and lemon juice.

Maybe I'm too centered around food, I don't know, but these old fashioned ways I have of preparing for winter, so to speak, and putting down real garden roots, make a place feel like my little haven on earth.

Having a garden to come home to, wondering just how much everything has grown while I've been gone, and knowing there is home-grown, home-made pesto in the freezer waiting to be pulled out for supper right after the plane lands, fills me with such a satisfied, eager contentment in coming home.

Heart and Home: Preparing for Sabbath

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For part of my evening worships, I've been reading on a collection of topics from medical missionary work to Christian education to hospitality to the importance of daily Bible study.  The latest topic, 'The Observance of Sabbath", has my mind whirring with the ways Sabbath can be a much deeper experience for me.

I tend to work from to-do lists, it's easy for me to skip over things that don't lend themselves to getting checked off.  

For example, how does one really know when the heart is at peace, ready to rest in Jesus on the Sabbath?  Well, it's probably not when I'm frantically glancing back and forth from the clock to my list.  Yet at the same time, it's hard for me to take a deep breath if I'm still surrounded by all the visual evidences of things I didn't get done.

Thus I was especially encouraged to find in my recent reading a focus on both sides of the coin:  knowing what physical things really need to be done to create an atmosphere of peace (a list! yay!), as well as deeper heart things that can't always be quantified on a sheet of scratch paper to be crossed off after a quick sweep of a broom.

And the best part?  What I read felt doable.  Not overwhelming.  Not sloppy.  But practical, smooth, balanced, in my reach.

Which was all good news, because I found I really have some reorienting to do as I get ready for Sabbath this week.

Look Toward Sabbath all Week

It's hard to keep Sabbath free of the stress and craziness of the week if we aren't walking with God each day.  Yet more than that, we can take the opportunity each day to ask God to help us be ready for the Sabbath blessings He has to bestow.  

In particular, talking with our families about spiritual things during the week, singing together, and keeping a cheerful outlook throughout the week will set a sweet tone not only for the weekday grind, but also for the Sabbath. 

On a practical, list-making note, looking ahead to Sabbath during the week might mean we take a realistic look at how and when we do laundry, buy groceries, clean the house, and cook meals, so that none of these things will overwhelm a single day and so that there won't be last-minute pressure to rush through these things right before Sabbath.

Preparation Day for the Home

These goals feel easier to set for me, even though life often catches up with me, and I feel in a mad rush by the last hour before sunset on Fridays.  {Is that because I try to do too much, or just that I try to do too much of it in that last hour?  hmm...}

• Clothes:  Church definitely doesn't need to be a fashion show, but have nice clothes ready for wearing to church the day before (or sooner, really).  That way, there's no fuss, no last-minute ironing, no digging through the laundry pile.  
• Food:  We don't have to kill ourselves off to make a huge feast for Sabbath, but it is nice to have most of the prep work done ahead.  I'm learning more and more to just throw something simple in the crock pot, and I love having lunch essentially ready  to dish onto my plate when I walk in the door from church.  That does two things:  first, it feeds us at a reasonable lunch time, and second, it gets us out the door into nature sooner.
• De-clutter:  Get all the school and work and secular stuff out of the way for Sabbath.  Organize the spaces.  If those distractions are out of sight, it's harder to spend the Sabbath thinking about them.

Preparation Day for the Heart

Ah, the heart.  Less quantifiable, less list-able.  And that equals less attention from someone like me.  Yet I deeply need my heart to be prepared for each Sabbath, unless I want to keep rushing into the day of God's delight in a frenzy without a full peace in my heart.

• Do I have any unresolved conflicts?  What can I do to resolve them?
• Am I keeping bitterness in a dark corner of my heart?
• Have I humbly confessed my faults and asked forgiveness for them?  Have I prayed with someone I wronged, asking God to bless them?
• Have I taken an inventory of my week, and honestly taken stock of whether I'm closer to Jesus by the end of the week, or further away from Him?

Just reviewing my highlighted book and typing out these words gives me pause.  I so much need this kind of heart work on a regular basis, and while it feels daunting, I greatly desire it.

{While I shared all these thoughts in my own words, because I need the reminders for my own heart, I'd be remiss not to direct you to my source, where you can find far more profound expression of all these thoughts and more:  White, Ellen G.  "The Observance of the Sabbath" in Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, pages 349-368.  For this post, I focused on the section of this chapter titled "Preparation for the Sabbath".}

Welcome to Your Hotel Room

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My husband and I have been blessed over the last two weeks to spend time traveling, especially since the traveling yielded, by God's leading, a new job for him.  We've spent a lot of nights in hotels, and I found it interesting to note a couple of the welcoming touches the staff put into the bathrooms.  Maybe I'll use the ideas for guests in my home sometime.

The toilet paper here was folded in a simple fan rather than the typical triangles end, and tucked in to make a fan-flair.  It probably took only a few seconds longer, but had so much more personality.

The towels in this photo had then wash cloth folded diagonally, with the corner turned up in the back.  Then they were wrapped around the hanging towel and tied in a simple knot to create this sleek look.

Polishing Silverware

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 We've been polishing old silverware around here, and it got us all thinking, about silverware and people, about investing in the seemingly mundane tasks of life.  See, we never knew which ones would be savable until we did the polishing.  Some of the worst became the most beautiful, and some of the "easy" ones didn't shine up so well as we expected.

 

It's been a good reminder.  Or several good reminders.

Jesus recognizes the true silver in people, beneath all the tarnished messes of our lives.

Sometimes those folks with the worst looking lives?  Turn out to be the sweetest in the end.  Every piece is worth working with.  We just hope we're getting to them all in time.

Maybe we didn't go looking for these pieces, and maybe they came into our lives when we, well, didn't really want to spend time on polishing silver.  Maybe it took a change of heart and some outside encouragement to get us going.  But think how delighted the Giver would be to see us working over every detail, loving every gift, rescuing every perishing piece.  Better late than never, don't you think?

The tarnish may be thick and it may take a lot of work to remove.  The results may even be unpredictable.  Yet think how many beautiful pieces would be lost if we never tried.

Washing the Dishes: Keeping Up

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A friend and I recently discussed the question of motivation, and more specifically, how to motivate oneself to do household chores that are not naturally pleasant to us.  Because both of us experience a good pile of dishes every day, and neither of us love doing dishes, yet both of us need to do dishes.  To remind myself, and perhaps to give you some little tips you might find helpful, I'll share some of the discussion here. 

1.  Before You Begin:  See the End Result, and DECIDE.  When I'm not in the mood to wash the dishes, I have to remind myself that I don't have to like it, it just needs to be done.  There's nothing wrong with disliking a chore as long as I don't let that stop my from doing the chore and therefore taking care of my family.  Some chores just come with the territory of being an adult--or for kids who are old enough to carry some responsibility, being a younger member of the household who is being taught the principles and practices of responsible habit-building.  I also have to remind myself why I like the dishes to be done on a regular basis, and decide to do something about them.  Here are some things that motivate me:

• I am more in the mood to cook when the kitchen is clean.  Healthy entrees, home-made bread, a special treat for Sabbath.  If the kitchen is dirty, my family and I do not eat as well, because I tend to scrounge around for something easy without the clear space to put together a viable meal.
• Clean dishes clear the way for the rest of the kitchen to be clean.  Without dirty dishes stacked on the counter or in the sink, it takes only a few seconds to give the counter a wiping and rinse out the sink.  And let's face it, a clean kitchen is a healthy kitchen.  No smells, no grime in the sink.
• When I keep up with the dishes on a regular basis, I don't end up with a mountain that seems too hard to climb.  More on this later.
• When the dishes are done, I feel free to move on to other enjoyable things throughout the day.  Without feeling guilty.

 2.  Getting Started:  Habit Forming.  When I was in graduate school, I honestly ran out of time to work on washing dishes on a regular basis.  We did not have a dishwasher.  My husband and I both tried to do what we could, but there were many days where neither of us even had five minutes to devote to washing dishes.  After two years of that kind of life, I was sadly out of the habit of doing dishes in any kind of systematic way.  I had to start reminding myself that I really did have time to do the dishes, and to set aside the time to do them, rather than rushing off to the next thing without a thought of dishes when I didn't have to.  I had to learn some new habits, such as:

• Accept that the dishes will take a chunk of time every day, and as you get going, figure out how much that is and plan for that chunk every day.  For me, NOT expecting that I can take five minutes a day and have a perfect kitchen is freeing, because I don't put such a heavy expectation on myself and fail every time.
• Set aside 15-20 minutes after each meal to clear the table, put away leftover food, wash the dishes, and wipe the counters.  Once per day doesn't usually work for me, because by the end of the day the mountain feels too large.
• Ask family members to carry their own plates, bowls, cups, and silverware to the kitchen after each meal.  If each person rinses their dishes and either loads them in the dishwasher right away or hand washes their own, there's much less left for me to worry about when I start the clean-up process.
• When I'm cooking and baking, I try to use wait times to rinse and wash dishes, or at least put away food.  There are always those moments, and it's amazing what I can do in those little spaces of time to keep the kitchen from becoming a total wreck.
• I try to stack up the dishes in an organized way.  Plates of the same size together, bowls together, cups together, mixing bowls nested inside each other, etc.  When I can wash a stack of similar things together, they stack more neatly in my dish rack (or the dishwasher), and I tend to work more quickly.

3.  Getting Through the Task:  Passing Pleasant Time.  Washing dishes can seem like boring time, but there are plenty of ways to feel like you're enjoying the time rather than just passing it in drudgery.  For example:

• Listen to music you love while doing dishes.
• Sing.  Hymns or praise songs.
• Work on memorizing a Bible verse or a poem.  Make a recording of yourself saying it, and repeat it with yourself as you wash dishes.
• Hook up your hands-free device and call a friend.  I've passed many an hour of cleaning the kitchen this way.  I even know when some of my friends are liking to be doing THEIR chores, and I call while we're both occupied in our kitchens.
• If you don't have enough time to get everything done, set the timer for the amount of time you do have.  You won't lose track of time, and you'll make progress on the stack.
• Enlist a family member to help you with the dishes, and make it a point to engage them in meaningful conversation.

4.  Tell Yourself the Truth:  They Won't Stay Done.  It's funny which stories get passed down through several generations and stick in your mind.  For me, one of those is about my great grandparents.  My great grandfather decided to do something special for his wife:  He got everything ready, maybe even got down on his hands and knees, and mopped the kitchen floor.  Not a spot remained when he was through with it.  The floor sparkled.  As the story goes, he was quite pleased with himself.  It wasn't long, though, before some person or dog came through the kitchen with muddy feet, ruining the whole freshly washed floor.  My great grandfather was beside himself.  How could someone be so thoughtless that they would undo the job he had just beautifully finished?

Well, my great grandmother knew just exactly how these things work.  I picture her smiling, or laughing.  Do you know what she said?  

"Just because you did it, did you think it would stay done?"

Yes, the words of a veteran home-maker.  Although I never met her, these words give me a chuckle and the gumption to get going on the the piles of dishes again, even when it seems like I just finished a mountain of them.  I'm not perfect at it, and it truly never ends, but that doesn't mean I don't keep trying.

Organizing Closets: What to do with Blankets

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For the longest time, I've been wondering what in the world to do with our extra blankets.  Stacking them on shelves just meant they would all come tumbling down when I got the first one out.  Stacking them on closet floors meant they would easily fall onto the doors' tracks and make it hard to open the closet at all.

We are the kind of people who don't get rid of blankets.  You can never have too many, and you certainly wouldn't want to have to go replace any merely because you got rid of them prematurely.

We are also the kind of people who must have all manner of blankets:  throws, quilts, thin ones, thick ones, large ones, small ones.

So it was with glee that I stood in front of the blanket closet (in this house, at this time, they have their own) and realized something:  I could hang them up.

And with the blankets hung up, a new world opened before me.

If I wanted one blanket, I could immediately spot the one I wanted and take it out without the rest following.  If I wasn't sure which one I wanted, I could easily view the whole collection, taking in size, texture, thickness at a glance.  If I needed to quickly make space for a guest to hang things in the closet, I could transfer some or all of them to another closet without trouble.

Yay for hanging up blankets.

Five Years Ago Today

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Did you realize that five years ago today I published my first post here at Ladder of Mercy?  It's the post that tells you where the blog name came from, and it started a tradition of writing about hymns that I still love.

I thought it would be fun to take a quick snapshot of my life then, compared with my life now.  After all, half a decade can bring a lot of change! 

Back then, I was working as an administrative assistant.  I sometimes longed to earn my living from something "more creative", but was constantly reminded how much I was learning and growing in the field I was in.  {Now I wouldn't trade it for anything.}

Now, I work as a piano teacher (taught seven lessons today, and loved every minute--wish I had more!) as well as a housewife.

Back then, I had many friends who were housewives.  I knew they kept busy.  I know how busy there were now because I have time to carry the load of running the household smoothly.  I barely keep up!  But I love the opportunity to more carefully plan for meals and errands and laundry and summertime gardening.

Back then, I volunteered a lot at my local church.  I played the piano for services, organized everything musical, and even sat on the church board as clerk.  

Now, I haven't managed to volunteer at my new church much.  I frequently travel with my husband's music groups, and I was asked today to play the piano for a children's Sabbath school when I can.  I'm excited to re-enter the church-involvement part of my life back then that I loved so much.

Back then, I wondered if God was planning to unite my life to a husband.

Now, I see how brilliant His plan really was, and my appreciation for His leading and the man He put in my life daily grows.

Back then, I lived in a little rented three-bedroom house across the street from my office.  It had two apartments in the basement, and some flower beds out front that I used for my vegetable and flower garden.

Now, I live in a bigger house {my husband keeps saying we should fill it up with children...} that has a wonderful kitchen and a great big garden out back.  Rather than a busy street out front, we have a quiet neighborhood to live in, and an orchard behind our large back yard and garden.

Back then, I was within four driving hours of my parents and brother.

Now, I am thousands of miles away from my family AND my in-laws.  {Sometimes sacrifices must be made to follow the will of God and work in the harvest fields.}

Back then, I didn't dream of getting any more education.  Life was providing me with enough of that.

Now, I am blessed to have my master's degree.  I would have been the last one to guess it, but I'm grateful every day for the learning, experiences, and people God put in my life via graduate school.

Back then, I didn't have a camera, and I didn't include many photos in my sporadic posts.

Now, my goal is to invite  you here for new words and photos more and more often, with a constant desire to grow as a woman of God, as well as to bless you, my readers.  

Thank you for stopping by today for a visit.  I hope you'll stick around for my next five  years!

How to Keep a Bedroom Looking Clean

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Notice I said "looking" clean.  Because the thing is, even if we're most or full-time homemakers, life gets busy, and it can be hard to keep the clutter down.

Bedrooms are lived-in space, and if you share a bedroom, the other occupants might not share your idea of clean.  Yet a clean bedroom is a haven, and an important one to protect.  Here are four simple things I {try to} do every day to keep the mess from getting overwhelming.

Make the bed every day.  In my room, the bed is the largest uninterrupted space.  If I keep it made every day, the largest space in the room stays free of clutter.  You can see I don’t do a lot with extra pillows, so making the bed each morning takes less than five minutes.  I make the bed, choose my clothes for the day and lay them on top, and then shower.  That way, it doesn’t hang over my head when I feel like I should already be on the go.  {You'll notice mine isn't perfect.  But it's done.}

Close the closet doors every time you’ve opened them.  And many times, even if you’re not the one who opened them.  No matter how organized your closet is, it gives the eye a lot more to look at.  The room looks simpler with the doors shut, and if you’ve decorated the room (like I haven’t yet—only a few months since we got into the house), keeping the doors closed keeps the focus on the atmosphere you’ve created.

Don’t use the tops of your dressers to store the mail.  Or anything else.  Decorate them however simply or detailed you want, but don’t put anything extra on the dressers in the room.  If the dresser tops are pretty—or at least neat—it’s another place in the room where your eyes find rest.  Right now, my dressers are a bit randomly decorated, but most of the surface is clear, so it helps the room keep a clean look.  Fresh flowers from the yard and garden in the summer are a nice touch.  {You'll see a sort of random gathering of items on mine.  1.  They're not totally random to me.  2.  I haven't really decided how to decorate our room yet because the non-neutral color they painted the house just before we moved in is throwing me off.}

Put your dirty clothes inside the laundry hamper inside the closet with the doors closed every day.  You really don’t want piles anywhere, and this  helps oh-so-much.  It feels easy to step out of clothes and into bed, but then there’s a pile to clean up the next morning.  Even if the pile takes thirty seconds to put away, it’s one more thing to do before you start the day.  {I haven't done this yet today...but I WILL!}

The New Best Hot Weather Idea

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We've been trying to save money on air conditioning, but let's just say studying when it's hot is, well, hard.  So we've made a wading pool.  It's also known as a bathtub.  We just fill the tub ankle-deep with cold water, set a folded up towel outside to step on when we're leaving the wading pool, and that's it.  We've been amazed at how long the water stays cool (or at least feels cool to our feet), and it will get us through another hot one today.

The Friday Night Table

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For the first time in my Michigan home, I dug out Christmas decorations today. What better way to open Sabbath with my in-laws than to set a lovely blue table?

My guests are the only ones left in a long line of guests who came for my husband's graduate choral recital, which went brilliantly well on Monday night.



And I had a few moments to myself today, which hasn't happened in quite some time. I thought a spot of beauty was in order. With my ribbons and blue glass "rocks", saved from dorm room decorations in college, my sparkly snowflakes bought for my first tree on my first Christmas on my own, a couple ornaments from the collection my aunt gave us, and a few candles, my husband and guests decided it looked quite nice.

And this last one is for all of us fisher-folk in the family.

Pick Me! (A lesson in home decor)

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"Here the few hours of our stay were not spent in useless labor or in doing that which could be done as well as at some other time, but were occupied in a pleasant and profitable manner, restful alike to mind and body. The house was a model of comfort, although not extravagantly furnished. The rooms were all well lighted and ventilated...which is of more real value than the most costly adornments. The parlors were not furnished with that precision which is so tiresome to the eye, but there was a pleasing variety in the articles of furniture.

"The chairs were mostly rockers or easy chairs, not all of the same fashion, but adapted to the comfort of the different members of the family. There were low, cushioned rocking chairs and high, straight-backed ones; there were also comfortable sofas; and all seemed to say, Try me, rest in me. There were tables strewn with books and papers. All was neat and attractive, but without that precise arrangement that seems to warn all beholders not to touch anything for fear of getting it out of place.

"The proprietors of this pleasant home were in such circumstances that they might have furnished and embellished their residence expensively, but htey had wisely chosen comfort rather than display...The God-given sunlight and air had free ingress, with the fragrance of the flowers in the garden. The family were, of course, in keeping with the home; they were cheerful and entertaining, doing everything needful for our comfort...This was a home in the fullest sense of the word."

--Ellen G. White, 1877

Resting on Grace, part 2

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I promised the story of my front porch chairs, newly enthroning me as I eat my fruit salads in the early-autumn evenings.

A friend of my father's gave him two old camp chairs--or perhaps he found them at Goodwill--wooden folding framwork complimented by thick, faded red canvas fabric to make the seat and the back.

He was particularly fascinated and delighted by their design, but because my mother didn't care for them and because one of the chairs had ripped fabric, he was never able find a suitable place to use them on a regular basis.

My parents recently moved, and I became the fortunate heiress of several treasures as they packed their boxes. As I visited them in their new home in a new state, Dad took me out to the garage, attempting to send me home with more of the things they couldn't find places for.

I stood in amazement. How could he be offering to part with his precious camp chairs? But that he was, saying, "Now that you have a sewing machine, you could get new fabric and fix them."

Without realizing it at the time, I heard in that moment one of the central themes of grace in our world: Sometimes you have to give something up in order to restore it. In giving me the chairs, my father gave them their only hope of survival, the chance that I would take pity on them and sew them some new seats and backs. Which is, in essence, what we all must do with our hearts, giving them up to our God to be created new.

Meanwhile, I had the dusty old wooden frames and some idea of what kind of fabric to look for. I eventually made my way to the fabric store, and browsing through the bargan scrap bin, found a piece of denim sturdy enough and big enough to do the job. And rather than the $4.37 I thought I would have to pay, the clerk gave me a discount and I got it for just about $2.50. A bargain-lover's favorite kind of shopping trip.

I finally finished the project, got rid of the junky chairs that used to occupy the porch, and called Dad as I sat in one of the chairs to tell him they were done. I knew he'd be pleased to hear it.

"Well, cool!" he said. "Now you can give them back to me for Christmas!"

"I don't know..." I said. "You're certainly welcome to come and visit them..."

Resting on Grace, part 1

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This September 17 post, Grace Around Grace, got me thinking not about my wooden table, but about my wooden chairs. The table itself was a gift, yes, a grace given as I finished college and moved into a nearly-empty house. But around the table--Oh, these graces, as well as their story, hold me up each time I sit down.


Their story began long ago, when my childhood front porch, an expanse large enough for us to pretend it was a platform, sat void of chairs. My mother wanted, I think, a bouquet of wooden chairs, each one different in shape and color. We children, likely influenced by our father's skepticism, thought this an odd idea indeed, and it never bore fruit.


She did get a few wooden chairs and paint them white, but her bouquet of chairs still rested in her imagination, waiting for the proper time.


Fast forward ten or twelve years to the day Mom and I stood in the yarn aisle, choosing the colors for my afghan. I was finishing school, and this twenty-something young lady had become much less the tom-boy of her youth. Bouquets of color suddenly made sense. How could life be any other way?

I had become so much of my mother over the years as my understanding of her grew.


I began with three colors: vivid turquoise, lime green, and yellow. Mom suggested a warm color, and the brightest pink seemed the best. There was a catch, though, because she had always taught me to group things in odd numbers...and salmon joined the mix.


Those moments decided the colors for my whole house before I even knew where I would live.


I had bedroom furniture, but nothing else. Mom found a little round table and one old wooden chair for me; Dad reluctantly offered one of his favorite Goodwill finds from beside the wood stove in the garage where he would sit next to the fire just for fun, or to cook his food over its top (a winter-time barbeque).


Then Mom planted an idea in my mind--I'm sure it was she who did it: to paint each chair (I eventually acquired three more from Goodwill) to match each color of my afghan-in-progress. The idea sprouted, and as I bounced it off several (married) friends, the response was always the same:


Do it now, before you're married, or you'll never have another chance.


Whether they were right, I have no idea, but I proceeded with the paint idea anyway, one color at a time. One friend even gave me a gift certificate to a local paint store to spur me on.


The colors had to be specially mixed. I took my yarn pieces with me to the paint section, held them up to the paint chips, and asked the sales representatives to please mix the colors as close to my yarn as possible. I showed up to church and school board meetings, my hands a bright wash of spots. And finally, the chairs were done.
Here you see the first two chairs, the turquoise and the green, reflected in one of my mirrors, also gracefully bestowed out of an aunt's garage after ten years of hiding. You can see from the yellow ladder that the paint spilled over from the chairs to other old wooden things.
Isn't that how grace works, spilling over and touching everything in our lives, never really ending where it started?
Although my little home is now well-furnished, five little yarn swatches still ride around in my mother's purse, ever ready to advise her in the gifts she considers sending my way.
Since every piece of furniture I own has a story of grace, perhaps this will be the first post in a sprinkling of posts on the topic. At the very least, I must also tell of my front porch chairs, which were my dad's delight before he gave them to me, again out of the garage.

A New Heart

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Last evening, I buckled down to the solemn truth that my faithful, once-cream-colored plastic shower curtain liner needed either a good bath or a trip to the dump. I've been contemplating a preferred cleaning method for weeks, without gaining a single idea that would make the task less onerous or even guarantee a spotless outcome.

Should I clean it? Or should I spend money and just get a new one?

On the way to Shopko, a new bout of road construction sent me through a bit of a maze. I, however, was not to be deterred. I had a decided on a new shower curtain, and a new shower curtain I would have, that very day.

I took some deal of pleasure in the realization that the price of the liner that struck my fancy was actually less than I make per hour. Some of you will understand this right away. Not only would I avoid the hour it could (hypothetically) take me to clean the old one, and therefore save the hour, but I would also spend fewer dollars than the hour is monetarily worth.

My pleasure has by no means worn out. I smiled to myself this morning as I rinsed my hair and as I scrubbed my foot. You see, it's a charming liner (above). Something about the drops of clear water on the clear liner makes me happy, and brings to mind a vague feeling that I have loved the drops on clear platsic before, perhaps on a childhood umbrella.

My heart is dirty, too--so dirty that God Himself does not dare to clean the old one, but defies every bit of road construction and every price tag to secure for me a brand new one. Spotless. A clear one through which you can see His face.