Well, instead of picking up our friend we are prepping for Frankenstorm as they are calling it. Yesterday Annie and I talked and decided it made the most sense for her to avoid the storm and come at a later date. So sad! We are getting our emergency stuff together and just trying to be prepared. Not sure still when or how hard it will hit. It’s a bit of a funny test to go through after nearly being done with so many projects. Hope she holds up! And that chimney, hope it is as strong as they think it is. We shall see!! This area has had some bad storms in past years so everyone is nervous for good reason. We have made some friends with neighbors and people through the school so we are thankful to have someone close by. To avoid boring you further with storm preparations I am going to oooohhh and awwww you with my friend Nina’s space!!!

Nina is my friend that is originally from Germany but was living in Bern while we were there. She has two little boys around the same age as ours. Owen and her son Mica did swimming lessons together and we enjoyed many fun times with them.  They moved to Warsaw, Poland in early May.  It was such a sad day!! We made them this little polish air cake the day their movers came! Many tears were shed that day!

The most fun part for me with my friendship with Nina is that it really was not just about the kids or for the kids. Most of my friendships these days tend to be finding friends that have kids my kids will enjoy playing with. Nina and I hit it off with our love of fabric, crafty stuff, brocante shopping, pumpkin pie, chocolate croissants, Green Gate pretties…you know the important things in life! I knew when I asked Nina to contribute some pictures that she would have some amazing new space. And I knew that it would be colorful and cheery!!

This space is in the playroom of Nina’s house. I love all of the use of mixed fabrics, all so cheerful!

look at these fabric guitars!! My kids need to trade in their noisy ones for some of those!!

Nina has a little sewing business if anyone is interested in checking her out! You can look for her shop on facebook at “MySweetToBe”. She does lots and lots of custom orders. You can message her to ask about pricing and shipping!

Thanks for sharing, Nina!  Miss you tons!

Hey y’all. Day 26, can’t believe we are still keeping up. Makes for some hectic mornings and sometimes evenings but it is helping me to be mindful of what we are savoring of home lately. Previously I was just feeling a bit foggy and tired from projects. I think the blogging this month is helping me regroup a bit and realize how thankful we are for this home.

Today it’s all about sprucing this place up. Toilet cleaning, laundry washing, treat baking, and other such things. Why you say? My dear friend Annie is popping in for a couple of days. And when it comes to cleaning for the sake of friends coming I kind of like it. I have let the house go quite a bit these days with distraction of bigger projects but I like getting back to the details and readying for time with a friend.  She arrives Saturday and we are hoping to sneak in some fun times outside before the storm comes and once it comes we are praying we keep power so that we aren’t sitting around a candle, singing kumbaya (sp?) and eating tuna out of a can. The great thing is though, if I was to be stuck in a home without power with my family and a house guest, she is the one I would pick!  She is one of those sister friends I have described before. She knows us well and we consider her family. So we have big fun plans but we also know that even if we are just together that will be enough to fill us up. Just hope Seth and the boys can tolerate the non-stop chatting for 72 hours straight…okay, okay we will take a break to sleep. But during waking hours we will might just be non-stop. I haven’t seen Annie since she and a posse of teenage girls came to Switzerland to see us!

Annie will be our first house guest in this home. I have to admit that the perfectionist in me feels a bit insecure that things aren’t quite done yet. We still have a few doors without handles, one random wall remains unpainted and the list goes on. I can see every single unfinished thing like a magnified glass is pointed at each of them. But the thing about having a home that is open to friends is that it doesn’t have to be perfect, it needs only be all that you have to offer. Back to the cleaning and sprucing! And reminding myself that it does not need to be perfect as I prepare! I am going to attempt these Whole wheat Apple Crisp muffins from Dwell on Joy if you need an idea for your weekend baking!!  I’ll be back on here this weekend to share Annie’s house with you.

And completely not on the topic of home, Owen and I are taking a little break from our cleaning to meet Seth for lunch today. He happens to be working from the Foreign Service Institute today which is right around the corner from a little Colombian restaurant. I am so looking forward to some ajiaco and arepas!  It’s so strange, we have so many great memories of friends and experiences from our time in Bogota but there were some intense family times there too. Like Jackson’s cancer diagnosis. Such bittersweet times to remember.  We will be thinking of our Bogota “family” while we have lunch today!

Today’s guest post if from my mom.  So many of my savorings of home are things that my mom taught me how to do or how to enjoy. You will see home for her has been far from what many of us are accustomed to but somehow she made the place special and a place she could welcome others. Here are her reflections on home…

The painting “The Magpie” by Monet is one of my favorites:  A farmhouse is nestled in snow-covered hills while a bird sings on a fence with sunlight streaming over the scene letting you know that though the trees are bare spring is coming. This represents an ideal of home that lures me yet one that I have never known…permanence, surrounded by the comfort of the familiar!

In my real life I have lived more places than most people on the planet!  My parents were missionaries and being on the move was very much part of the lifestyle: a house on stilts in a dusty town off the railway line,  a home at a Bible school/leprosarium, two different houses in a provincial capital, and that was all before I started attending boarding school in three different countries! My best count is that I have lived in thirty homes so far.

These days, I call Ft. Worth, Texas my home. We are living in a charming 1930’s bungalow complete with a front porch swing and  pecan trees whose branches sweep down across the front of the house loaded with a harvest of nuts.  This is not our home really; the owner needed someone to commit to 27 months of caretaking for his two dogs Jake and Elwood while he went into the Peace Corps!  We not only inherited the dogs but all the friends that one would make in the course of living in one place for 25 years!  (Doesn’t God have His ways?)  

We have owned our own home during one season of our life when my husband pastored a church in Houston, Texas.  It was a wonderful, new home that provided space for our high school and college kids to come and go and a place where we welcomed our first three grandchildren.  Because of this house my mother, a retired missionary was able to live with us for eight years. It was a sad day when I packed up that house to move thinking of all the family dinners around that big table and the friends who had come and gone. God actually sent a hurricane barreling right towards our neighborhood the day I finished packing the last box!  It was a reminder of His great power and the impermanence of all we put our earthly security in.  (Believe me there have been days when I have moved forward dragging my feet every step wanting to have that back.)

One of my favorite places in my home is this corner where I drink my coffee each morning and ground my life in the truth of who God is.  My father used to love Psalm 90:1 which says, “Lord, You have been our home (dwelling place) throughout all generations.”  From this place of deep and enduring relationship I have known “home” and have been able to open my life and space to new friends in every new place.  One evening this week a dozen new friends will gather and we will study the book of Luke which tells about the incarnation of Christ, One who came and made His home among us so that we could know who God is.

The other reasons I love my corner is that behind me are the faces of the people I love most- my children and grandchildren and on my lap is always my little friend, Bogie.  Memories of holidays together and the growing up years, the visits and hope of more visits to come make this house a home.

Thanks for sharing mom!  Can’t wait to have you and dad here for Christmas!

Hope you all have a great day as this week winds down. It’s Kindergarten field trip day for us today! I am going with Jackson on the big yellow bus!! Wish me luck.

As much as we enjoy (“enjoy” is a bit of an overstatement, this line of projects has been a stretch for our skills or lack there of) doing these DIY projects and pushing through on our own there are many times, in home renovation and life in general that we just can’t do it on our own. We have to rely on friends and family.

I look back on seasons in motherhood in particular and the times I was on my own and setting up life for us, I was most drained and isolated. Not because of the exhaustion of moving but from not being recharged by friendships and the encouragement that comes from relying on others. Wouldn’t it be nice to think that I could be supermom or super DIYer and  not need anyone to pull me through? For a split second while the self-sufficiency was still patting me on the back maybe, but as soon as the pat let up I would be keenly aware of how lonely it was to do it on my own. I love the community of family and friends we have developed in each and every home and in our current new space.  It has been so hard at times to cultivate it and it takes many months, even years but the work is so worth it.

I never could have imagined how much our friends and family would have to jump in with this house gig. From looking at houses with our realtor, checking out the engineering of our deck (thank goodness my brother is an engineer!), watching our children while we worked, to helping me paint molding on each and every rung of the stairs. The list goes on. And goodness knows we never would have made it out of Switzerland without the endless hours of garage-saling, corralling kids and cleaning from our dear friends there. Many times we didn’t even ask for help people just jumped in or called to offer help. You may remember when some of our friends surprised us and came to the house before we arrived and cleaned up the yard.  At the time I was so resistant to feeling like we needed to be rescued. My friend reminded me that each one of them had moved and renovated homes in the past couple of years and not one of them had done it all on their own. There are days when the projects are flowing and our energies are high and there are days when you just need a friend to pop in with enthusiasm and encourage you on your way!

this picture frame came with us from Switzerland. This was not a necessary house fix up project but I had a crazy idea to hang it in our entry way. I love that it is ornate but simple and filled that random space. Our friends were here for dinner one night and the guys helped Seth hang it. True friendship huh?!   I did feed them well when they were done! And the ladies had great entertainment watching them get it done!  Each time I see it now I am reminded of the friends who helped hang it! Reminders that this place is not put together on our own!

What project are you currently postponing because you need some help? Call up a family member or friend. It’s likely your friend would love to be asked and would love to feel needed and it is likely that your time together working on it will be a boost for both of you!  Or if you know of a friend who is working on a project call and ask how you can help! You don’t always have to be an expert in something to offer moral support!