So Much Love!

   Valentine's Day seems to be a hot button topic for some people.  I'm always surprised how many people get really worked up about hating it.  I don't know how you feel about it, but it's a "minor holiday" at our house.  We enjoy acknowledging the people we love, and you know I put out a few decorations, but it's definitely not a big deal.  This year was probably the most fuss I've made over it since WAY before I got married, and that's mostly because everything is more fun to celebrate with a preschooler.

   I found this idea on Pinterest, of course, and thought it was just too sweet.  Starting February 1, Abby Kate woke up with a new heart on her door telling her something we love about her.  Usually these great ideas of mine are met with complete nonchalance on her part, which is really a buzzkill.  Not this time.  She absolutely loved it.  Every morning she would run in so excited, yelling "Mama mama!  I have a new heart!  Read it to me! What does it say?!" 

   I worked hard to make sure that these were encouraging traits that I wanted to build up in her, and stayed away from looks.  (Let's not start the body image stuff at age 3, right?)  Please note that I took the first picture before Valentine's Day, so there aren't 14 hearts yet.  She did get one every day, although she had to remind me one day...

   This was about the extent of my Valentine's Day decorations.  It made our meals brighter to have something fun on the table, and still left my usual seasonal decorating spot open for our Lent decorations.  (It's so hard when Easter is early.  My holidays start running together.)  Because I don't want to have boxes and boxes of seasonal decorations, I tried to keep things as packable as possible.

   I "rescued" the tree branches out of my neighbor's trash pile, filled a vase with those gross conversation heart candies (does anyone actually like to eat those?), made a few paper conversation hearts to hang and scatter, and voila!  I did buy the fabric new this year.  It's hard to see, but it has tiny hearts printed on it.  And the little purple heart was a Happy Meal toy from a year or two ago.  Find inspiration wherever you can, right?  I threw the candy hearts away today and I'll buy new next year if I decide to, so that's one less thing to store.  I'll probably use the branches for a while longer, but those won't need to be stored either.  Mission accomplished. 

   And here's my sweet little Valentine before church yesterday.  She got some heart and robot stickers and a new owl pen and she was PUMPED.  Chris and I celebrated by cooking dinner Friday night while Abby Kate was at Grandma's house.  We've always enjoyed cooking together, and NOT enjoyed waiting forever at a restaurant.  We made Balsamic and Rosemary Steak Kabobs and a Pavlova.  So yummy!  It was a relaxing low-key evening, and we slept in the next morning--divine.  

   I hope that your "minor holiday" was enjoyable, and that whether it was by a significant other, a family member, a best friend, or a dog, you felt loved.  I know I sure did.  Do you bother with Valentine's Day decorations?  Show me!

Preparing Our Home for Lent

   I am a nester.  Thus the name of the blog.  I absolutely love fussing around the house, experimenting with different ways to arrange furniture, new combinations of decorations, adding seasonal touches here and there, just generally making things a little bit special for my family and myself.  It brings me great joy to feel like I have done my best to make my home welcoming and pleasant for anyone who may dwell here.  When I began observing Lent a few years ago, my first question (after I nailed down the fundamentals) was "How do you decorate for Lent?  Is that even allowed?"

   The liturgical color for the season of Lent is purple.  Traditionally, purple is used in the church during seasons of preparation and repentance, so it is also the color of the Advent season.  Okay, I can decorate with purple.  Now what?  Because Lent isn't really a celebratory time, per se, I didn't feel that elaborate decorations were entirely appropriate.  The almighty Pinterest showed lots of people incorporating elements of nature like tree branches without leaves that were sort of symbolic of a waiting for new life, crosses draped with purple fabric, and other items that remind us of Christ's sacrifice.  I hunted through what I had on hand, and here's what I came up with:

   This small dresser is immediately in front of our front door, in the living room.  You have to walk past it to get to almost every room of the house.  That seemed like a good place to set up a small vignette.  I usually decorate with my seasonal items here, so it was a natural choice for Lent as well.  I wanted to keep things simple, in the spirit of the season, but obvious enough to remind even a three year old what this season is about.  

   I started with a natural fiber table runner to ground everything.  It has nice texture for the decorator in me, but the color and roughness of the material lends to the feeling of dry, solemn, needing new life.  I don't have a cross figurine, but I do have this really pretty cross framed art that I draped in some purple fabric.

   I added this hurricane candle holder because lighting a candle always feels spiritual and anticipatory to me.  The candle is sitting in whole coffee beans that I reserve for this purpose (we aren't coffee drinkers). When lit, the heat from the candle makes the hazelnut beans smell great.  I tried to DIY a crown of thorns from a small grapevine wreath and toothpicks.  I must have done alright because Abby Kate instantly recognized it as "the wreath that hurt Jesus."  My favorite decoration, though, and a new element for us this year, is our purple prayer chain.  

   I want to be intentional about incorporating prayer into our Lenten season, as well as a sense of expectation and waiting for Resurrection Sunday.  This was another Pinterest idea, so please don't marvel at my creativity.  I used some purple construction paper to make the chain, and on each link is written the name of a person or concept we will pray for specifically that day, for example, our pastor, neighbors, policemen, family members, and countries that our family is involved with mission work.  

   Each morning we take a link off the chain to discuss and pray.  Not only do we have a reminder of the day's prayer focus, but as the chain grows shorter, we are aware of the nearing Resurrection Celebration!  It took almost no time to assemble, and Abby Kate thought it was super fun to get the link for the day.  If making paper chains is all it takes to get my child invested in the things of the Lord, sign me up.  

   Clearly, Lenten decorations are NOT something that is required to observe or benefit from Lent.  It's just something that I enjoy doing, and I've been surprised and pleased with how seeing our vignette refocuses my mind and reminds me to pray.  Colossians 3:1 urges us to set our minds on things above, and my simple decorations help this visual learner to do just that.  

   Do you have an area that guides your heart back to Christ?  Are there any special reminders you use to set your mind on the things of God?

Lent Begins

   Today is Ash Wednesday, and unless you grew up Catholic or in a fairly liturgical church, that probably doesn't mean much to you.  I know it never really meant much to me--the church I grew up in never observed it or really talked much about it at all.  The only thing I knew about Lent was it was when people that I never knew were religious moped about how they were giving up candy or Cokes for Lent, then a day or two later they were right back to their old habits. I thought it was a Catholic thing, and that probably meant it didn't apply to me or that it might even somehow be wrong for me to participate.

   Then, a few years ago, we had moved cross-country and started attending a new church.  Our new church wasn't particularly liturgical, but I read about an upcoming Ash Wednesday service they were holding.  I honestly had no idea what it was all about, so I did some reading and decided to give the whole Lent thing a try.  I felt like such a phony wearing ashes on my forehead that first time, like someone would find out that I didn't know what I was doing.  I didn't, but that didn't stop me from being deeply impacted by Lent, and it's a season that I choose to continue observing regardless of what the rest of my congregation chooses.  

   Contrary to what I had always thought, Lent is about so much more than "giving up" something for 40 days.  (And did you know that Lent actually lasts longer than 40 days?  Fasting is not practiced on Sundays as every Sunday is a celebration of the resurrection, and not a day for mourning.  So the 40 days does not include Sundays.) Traditionally, there are three basic principles of Lent: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving/service.  So yes, you may choose to abstain from something (fasting) for a time, but Lent also encourages us to focus on our prayer life and on our service to those around us.  I love that. 

   What I found through the few short years that I have been observing Lent is that I am reminded daily, if not several times a day, how much I need a savior.  I become much more aware of my sin and my shortcomings. By eliminating something from my life, even temporarily, I am always amazed at how much more time I have for the things that matter- my family, my marriage, my prayer life... And Resurrection Sunday is so much sweeter when your heart is prepared and has been marinating on your own unworthiness in comparison to the unequaled sacrifice of Jesus.  It's like my whole being longs for the morning when I can shout "Alleluia!!"  Just like the preparation and waiting of Advent magnifies the joy of Christmas morning, Lent sets the stage perfectly for the Resurrection Celebration. 

    

   This year, I have committed to an additional 30 minutes of prayer time daily as I pray through the book Returning to Holiness by George Frizzel.  His book takes a scriptural and systematic approach to deep personal cleansing and confession of sin- how appropriate for Lent.  After lots of prayer and searching, I felt the Lord leading me to fast from things that were taking my time and attention from His glory and His work, rather than from some aspect of food.  For me, that means I am choosing to step away from Facebook and Netflix.  Being a rule follower and a bit too checklist oriented, I do realize how Lent could become legalistic or feel obligatory, or feel like a works-based aspect of man-made religion.  I am sharing this not to set myself as any sort of example, but to show you how Lent has already worked in my heart on this, the very first day.  

   My plan was to also sacrifice a bit of sleep and get up a bit earlier for my extra prayer time before starting the rest of my day.  This morning when my alarm went off, I promptly shut it off and went back to sleep, telling myself I'd do it during naptime.  I got up at my usual time, got dressed, made breakfast for Abigail and me, and visited with her and scrolled through Facebook while we ate.  ::facepalm::  I didn't even realize I'd been on Facebook until a bit later when I was thinking through my day and realized that it was Ash Wednesday.  So friends, please know that there is absolutely no judgement coming from me- I didn't even make it through the first hours of my day without breaking my commitment to God.  He took the opportunity to humble me right from the start of Lent. I think that's because He knows that I have a tendency toward pride and self-righteousness and still somehow believing that I can earn His favor.  (You better believe that made for a very humbling prayer time, which did in fact happen during naptime.) 

   I am grateful for Lent.  I am grateful for a time to intentionally prepare myself to celebrate the pinnacle of my faith, Christ's resurrection.  I am grateful for a time to share the tiniest drop of sacrifice in light of what was sacrificed for me.  If you observe Lent, I pray that it will have the same sweet effect on you that it has on me.  If you do not, consider joining in this year and seeing what it might have to offer you.  We're only one day in, so it's still a perfect time to join.  

  Would you share your experiences with Lent with me?  

Fall Travel Capsule

     Summer always throws me off my routines.  No schedules, the heat, my mom and sister out of school and available to play....blogging just didn't happen.  We're well into our fall routines now and feeling settled, so I thought I'd share a little about what's on my mind.  Being the somewhat shallow person that I fear I am, that would be...clothes.

     I did another closet purge a bit ago, and I'm finding that I really am happier with a smaller wardrobe.  Intentional choices.  Well planned and as well fitting as I can manage.  It makes me do laundry more regularly than is my habit, but it makes my mornings just a bit calmer.  It also makes planning for a trip easier.  We plan to take a short trip out of state later this fall and you KNOW I'm already planning what to wear! I'd love to only take carry-on luggage for the three of us since we'll only be gone 4 nights.  Traveling, for me, is like a personal challenge.  How little can I pack and still be well dressed and prepared for my destination?  Here's what I'm thinking:

     I like to layer when I travel.  You never know if your plane will be an oven or a freezer.  A cardigan over a tee (rather than a tank or cami) gives me public-appropriate options either way.  Traveling with a three year old means being prepared for...well, anything.  Scarves hide a multitude of mishaps.  Normally I'd wear easy-on flats to make security speedy, but if I'm carrying my bags on, the boots need to be worn rather than packed.  Our destination will be chilly and damp, so I think I'll enjoy having my boots with me. And my trusty (and practically vintage at this point) Vera Bradley weekender will hopefully handle my packing needs.  Also, once I've put this much thought into an outfit, I want to get my money's worth, so this is what I'll wear en route both ways.  If we happen to cross paths in the airport twice, keep my secret.

     I'm a mix and match girl at heart, so another pair of pants and a couple of tops in a general color scheme are all I need to be happy.  A few jewelry options to spice things up, a pair of flats that are a little more dressy than my boots, and I feel like I'm pretty well set for about anything I might need to do, and any photos that might happen along the way.  I can wear the cardigan over the black top or the striped top, if need be.  (Of course, all of these photos are merely representative of the things I own, not the actual items themselves. You can find links for these photos by checking me out on Polyvore--look for littlenestbigcity.)  Here are a few of the outfits I can make with these options:

     Not a bad selection for such a short trip, eh?  It feels like I can cover the spectrum of dressiness, depending on the shoes and jewelry I choose.  And of course I'll pack one really comfy yoga pants-type outfit for evenings after Peanut goes to bed--fuzzy socks required!  I'll also have an actual coat with me for really chilly or wet weather.  I assume you are imaginative enough to fill in those gaps without a picture.  ;)    

     What do you think?  Am I forgetting anything?  Do you travel with a color scheme, or are you a "grab whatever's clean and put it in a bag" packer?  Do you need lots of clothing options, or are you a minimalist traveler?

A River Runs Through It

   We've had some crazy weather the past few weeks.  Crazy like a foot of rain in the past week.  And a few tornadoes.  Tornadoes close enough that the houses on the other side of the "crick" from my garden don't have roofs (rooves?) anymore.  Like I said, crazy.  I wasn't sure what to expect when it finally dried up enough that I could get out in the garden.  Here's what I found:

   Not as bad as I figured!  The ridiculous rain has made several little rivers through the garden, but the majority of it (including the fence, somehow) is still standing!  We did lose a big branch off the cherry tree that was full of cherries, and an entire peach tree was uprooted.  Grandpa decided to leave the peach tree where it is because it still has one big root in the ground, so maybe it will hang on?  Nothing to lose by trying!  On that note, does anyone know if you can pick cherries prematurely and ripen them off the tree?  They're pink, but not bright red yet and that branch is loaded!

Broken cherry tree

Broken peach tree

   By and large, the rest of the garden seems to be intact.  My potatoes and onions are going crazy!  A few of the onions are looking a little wilty, and some of them had to be reburied because the earth washed out around them, but nothing major.  The saddest looking things are some of my tomato plants.  I don't know if they're waterlogged or what, but I have 3-4 that look pretty pathetic.

Go potatoes and onions!

We got a little more dirt on these sad onions.

Sad tomato plant

   My grandma thought that the tomatoes could use some fertilizer, so I got on the magic internet and looked for non-chemical fertilizers I could make.  I've been saving egg shells because I read that tomatoes need extra calcium in the dirt.  So I powdered those and mixed with with epsom salts and crushed up aspirins (supposedly a root motivator?) and we fed the plants this evening.  

Gram supervising us newbies

   After everything was fed, we started our first veggie harvest!  Not a ton today, but I got a bag full of arugula and an armload of green onions!  Gram says that when the onions start to flower they get tough, so we pulled all the onions with blooms on them, plus a few because I have a toddler.

Showing off her first onion!

I felt like Miss America with my "bouquet"

   We weren't out there long today, but it was nice to check on everything and get a little dirt on my hands again.  (I have been out there since my last post, but I didn't figure you'd want to watch my plants grow millimeter by millimeter so I didn't post.)  Anyone have any miracle tomato-life-savers?  Know how to ripen cherries off the tree?  Know how to hold off the rain so we can dry out a little?

Irish Potatoes!

   Top o' the mornin' to ya!  Too much?  Okay...Happy St. Patrick's Day!  I personally don't do much celebrating for St. Pat's, other than wearing a green shirt to avoid being pinched by rude people.  I am fairly certain that being a generic white mutt, I probably have some Irish in me somewhere, but it's never been a *thing* in my family to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.  There is, however, one thing that my great-grandfather, and therefore my grandparents, insisted on.  You must plant your potatoes on St. Patrick's Day.  Lesson #2 learned.

Me and my Daddy-o

   So this morning, we headed out to the farm to get some potatoes in the ground before it starts raining tonight.  It's Spring Break here, so my mom and sis are out of school this week and my dad took vacation to hang out with us.  Somehow I talked them into coming with me to plant potatoes.  (C'mon guys, it'll be fun...)

   The seed potatoes had been cut and drying for a day or two, so they were ready to go in the ground. Dad did the hard part of raking up the soil into a little mound for me.  That way you don't have to dig so far to get your potatoes when they're ready.  

  My sister and I went behind him making holes and popping spuds in the earth.  After that, we covered them up and smoothed over the top of the mounds, and gave them a little drink.

   The potatoes were much quicker to plant than the onions.  Partially because there were much fewer of them, and partially because I had help.  We ended up with two rows of potatoes, and Grandpa says each plant will likely yield 8 or so small potatoes.  Not bad!

Two finished rows of potatoes!

My Seester and I

   It was fun to get in the dirt with my dad and sister.  Even though I finally live close, I never get to see them as much as I want.  Grandpa didn't get too involved today.  He showed me what to do, but then he went to fix a fence with a couple of youngin's.  I think they were looking to make a buck, and he needed some help, so he put them to work!  The farm was hoppin' today!  Abby Kate played in the house with my mom and grandma again today.  We had planned for her to stay down in the garden with us, but it ended up being much colder and windier than I thought.  She was perfectly happy to have tea parties and read books inside!

Arugula babies!

   I did get surprised by this bit of green on this St. Patrick's Day.  My arugula seeds have sprouted already!  Not even a whole week in the dirt and they're already popping up!  When they're a tiny bit bigger I'll transfer them to some big feed tubs out in the garden.  They're pretty cold-hardy, so they'll do fine.  Very exciting!

   I'm not sure what comes next in the garden.  I think I'm in a bit of a holding pattern at the moment, waiting until the frost danger is over, and waiting for my little seeds to grow.  I'm looking forward to getting them in the ground and seeing what grows!  What's growing in your garden?

Spring Has Sprung!

   I am officially declaring the end of winter!  (Hear me, Mother Nature?  No funny business.)  The past week has been gorgeous, even the rainy day seemed to promise changes and new life.  Sigh.  I love it.  I love the end of the bleak grey cold.  I love the end of darkness.  I love the end of a stuffy stale house.  I love the end of trying to come up with ways to entertain my toddler indoors...(only partially kidding about that last one).

   My new undertaking this season is a garden.  Not just a few bedding plants in the front yard--I'm talking grow your own food, mud up to your knees, need a tractor to till it up garden.  No, we did not move to the country, although that is my heart's desire.  My grandparents, however, already live out of town a ways, and have had a massive (half an acre?) garden that has fed the family, neighbors, church members, and anyone else who needed produce for the past fifteen years.  After last year, Grandpa declared that he was done gardening, said it was too hard on his knees and he just wasn't feeling up to it anymore--well, maybe a couple of tomato plants because, you know, the ones you get at the store aren't fit to eat.... He kindly offered his well-tended garden to me, said he'd plow it up if I wanted to plant anything.

Our blank canvas!  Love that red dirt!

   I have a not-so-secret desire to be Ma Ingalls and a dream of having a little land with a clothesline and chickens and a garden, so I jumped at the chance to learn from the master and see if I kill outdoor plants as quickly as I kill indoor ones. So Grandpa got out the tractor and tilled up the earth, and I bought some seeds.  He informed me that the first thing to go in the ground was onions, but we'd be planting sets and sprouts, not seeds.  Lesson #1 learned.  When it quit snowing and the ground dried out last week, we set to work.

Grandpa gettin' work done

   Grandpa had said he'd pick up the onions to plant when he was at the store next.  It never occurred to me that he never asked how many I wanted to plant.  When I got to the greenhouse where they were being stored, I saw this:

Baby onions!

   That, my friends, combined with the sets he had for me, is THOUSANDS of onions.  Did I mention that green onions are grandpa's favorite thing out of the garden?  Apparently they are.  So we got to work, poking holes and planting tiny little wisps of onions.  It wasn't too hard, and I enjoyed spending the time in the red dirt that I missed so much when we lived out of state.  The weather couldn't have been better, and it was a rare chance to spend some one-on-one time with Grandpa.

Putting in the elbow grease!

   I was tired at the end of the day, but it was so satisfying to look back at the work we had accomplished.  I'm sure I'm romanticizing things, but I kept thinking about all of the generations of pioneers who had come before me, who had worked this red dirt and survived by the sweat of their own brows and the strength of their own hands.  It felt right to be learning something so ingrained in the state I grew up in, sort of reverent for everyone who made it what it is.  But like I said, ask me in September how I feel about gardening and I may have changed my tune...

Look closely--can you see my babies out there?

  I also started some seeds for some other things I'd like to try growing this year.  I'm considering this my experimental garden year, learning how things grow and what does and doesn't like the weather and soil here.  I started carrots, spinach and arugula, green beans, zucchini, and corn.  I have seeds for a few other things, but it's a bit early for them, and I plan to buy young plants for tomatoes and strawberries when the frost danger passes.

Seed babies growing in the greenhouse!

   I snapped a few pictures while I was there because everything felt so alive.  Spring was whispering everywhere, from the bluebird that visited the garden to the blooms on the fruit trees.  Every time I took a picture I thanked God for making all things new!

Our colorful visitor

   Before we left, Abby Kate, who had been napping and playing with my grandma, convinced Grandpa that she needed a ride in the Mule.  It's one of her favorite things to do at their house, and there isn't much that she can't convince Grandpa of, so they loaded up and went for a ride.  I love that they get to know each other, and that she loves them the way I do.  I hope she keeps these sweet memories forever!

Waving at Mama!

   I'll attempt to keep things updated as to what my kill count is--I'm not sure these poor plants know what they're getting into!  In the meantime, I have several flowerbeds full of weeds that are mocking me... Time to get a little more dirt under my nails!