Happy Friday y’all. Things are a bit tense around these parts. We learned this week that our chimney likely needs to be rebuilt at a hefty little price tag of between$ 8-10,000. Yep. Fun times I tell ya. Add into that Seth being home for a few days to work on pending projects and this is some real time DIY sta-RESSSSS.  But we press on. And we savor this space despite the sheer terror that it might all crumble around us. Ha, ha!  But ya know, it’s Fun Friday in Kindergarten and that makes this a fun Friday! And the Swiss chard is looking gorgeous!

Whew, okay. Back with the program.

On any given day if you were to show up at our house you would see the end of the dining room table draped with an oil cloth, wide open bag of markers and a slew of masterpieces. This is where so much of the boys afternoon time is spent. Jackson “writing” and illustrating books, begging for scotch tape for this or that, asking for me to spell and respell and Owen imitating all the way. Owen is begging for scissors and paints and conversation! I am savoring these afternoon “table times” as we call them.  The boys are like sponges. I am often coming back and forth from the kitchen cooking a little, spelling a little, breaking up fights…

In our last home we had an eat-in kitchen and a formal dining room. We now  have an all-in-one. Which has it’s perks and downfalls.  The perk is that I have only one space to keep up with, the downfall is that if I ever do want it to be a bit more “dressed up” I have to be mindful of keeping the kitchen under control as well. Really for our phase of life with little ones it makes perfect sense. We aren’t exactly wining and dining these days. When we have people over they either have kids themselves or they love our kids so they pretty much know what they are up against when they come. We love having friends and family over so the leaf pretty much lives in the table!  Our house wouldn’t be home for us without a space to share meals. Not only do we want our kids to learn good manners and learn to make conversation and host but we want them to know real community and that takes serving others!  That is really the purpose of this space!

Although I want the space to be comfortable for life and accommodating to our day to day activities I wanted it to be pretty as well.  When we were working on the kitchen design and moving around cabinets we had to save money on buying more we ended up with some space in some cabinets in the kitchen that wouldn’t be accessible. So, we asked if our contractor would be willing to just build a couple of shelves. These shelves are the perfect spot for cookbooks, table linens and the baskets disguise the markers, artwork and oilcloth when it’s time to close down shop.

I used treasures from our time in Switzerland and other travels to fill the dining room wall. Remember the thrift store find that my friend Leigh talked me into?…here it is.

It is The Lord’s prayer in German. It’s super old and goes perfectly with this menu from France (another thrift store find) and these plates. The bottom plate was a gift from my mom. She found it in an outdoor market in Paris. On the opposite wall I have a big clock that was given to me for my bridal shower before we got married. The skeleton keys and keyholes I found with my sister-in-law Tina at the Old Home Supply House. If you are in the Ft. Worth area you MUST go sometime!!!

So there she is. We are still lacking curtains which will add color and texture but like with the rest of the rooms they will be waiting a while!  Buckle up, tomorrow is all about savoring home with a power washer!

I promise I will get back to before and after pics of the house but I was already bored just after the kitchen! So for today, we will take a little detour and head back for the dining room and living room tomorrow!

Home is far from being about the stuff that’s in it…although stuff sure does dress it up. I can distinctly remember the smells of our homes in Bogota and Switzerland when we arrived. I know, so strange. This house smelled like paint for the first weeks.  It wasn’t until we started cooking meals, lighting a candle now and again and baking that it really started to feel like home.   All it takes for me to transport back to my parents house is the smell of jasmine rice, Thai curry or seasonal things baking.  For those of you that don’t know, my mom grew up in Thailand so our comfort foods are hers! And curry it is. She always can detect the slightest homesickness from any of us kids when we call home for pointers on making curry. Her’s is the best.  The smell of lavender also takes me back to my mom’s house. My mom loves France more than the French and for some reason my brain now connects her with lavender and herbs de Provence!

In recent years when we were overseas I couldn’t pop out and buy a seasonal candle. I had never been one to even light candles much in the past but when we were away from the falls of smell or Christmas I was wishing for a big ol’ yankee candle on the countertop. To solve the problem I started to put a few goodies in a little pot on the stove and that did the trick. In the Fall I would slice an apple (usually one that had been in the fruit bowl too long for anyone to want to eat it) a cinnamon stick and some cloves. Towards Christmas I used apple slices, cinnamon stick, cloves and orange slices. And during the summer and spring I used a lemon or orange. Basically I just used what was seasonal and wasn’t something our fruit bowl would miss!  I would set the pot on the stove, add in water to cover the goodies, bring it to a boil and then lower it to low heat and simmer it for a little while. The house instantly filled with the fresh aromas and it smelled like home! If you do this you can cover the pot overnight and use the same stuff the next day. The apples will turn brown and the fruit will obviously be more broken down but the smell will be the same!  Another trick was to buy a box of the mulling spice tea bags. They are normally used for wassail or gluwein (have I mentioned Gluwein lately….hmmmm, must mean it’s that time of year.) but you can pop those in with a few apple or orange slices for the same effect.

If you are delivering a meal to a friend who is moving or just had a baby add a little baggie with the ingredients to pop on the stove. Write little instructions so they know they can just add a little water and simmer away!   During a time when cleaning or decorating might not be on the top of their list at least the house will smell like something happy!

What makes your home smell like home to you? Or what smells remind you of home growing up?