June 14th - Seasonal Decorating: Summer

Start Quote

Mother Nature's palette

is a rich resource of inspiration

for decorating your home.

By bringing the seasons indoors

with inexpensive personal flourishes,

you will rarely grow tired of where you live.

"Change is an excellent remedy for that tired feeling.

And by 'change' I do not necessarily mean taking a trip,"

Elsie King Moreland wrote in American Home in 1934.

"Changing the furniture around is to a woman

what taking a vacation is to a man.."

Traditionally women have prepared their homes for summer

by getting rid of anything that was hot or heavy-looking. 

[Today] take a look around your home...

Not all of us can afford a month in the country

or a sojourn at a beach house,

but we can transform our homes

into refreshing warm-weather retreats

by taking a cue from the calendar. 

Like every other Simple Abundance blessing, 

creating "a summer house" starts with a state of mind. 

End Quote 

I don't really know if I change my home seasonally...

I know I change the backyard for sure. 

Right now we're trying to put shade up

and have the pools out, but they're gone in winter.

My cousin brought in a beautiful bouquet of 

wonderful summer roses for our grandma today...

(it was her birthday and we were having a party!)

Even if you don't change a lot of things seasonally, 

that's okay.
I was looking around my grandma's house and realizing that
it has stayed the same through all my years,
and I love it.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. 

But maybe you can bring some summer into your home.

When my cousin brought in that bouquet,

the entire room and everyone in it lit up. 

(Of course I didn't get a picture of the bouquet, this is just an internet image of some peonies)

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Gratitude Journal

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1) A busy day, so the kids went straight to bed after a bath. And now I'm off to bed.

2) Nature walks. Even with the tears, and not knowing where we were going at first, and having some crazy anxiety for absolutely no reason, it was so much fun. We saw lizards and rabbits and dragonflies...so good. And of course, friends.

3) What's better than a nature walk? Two nature walks. We walked to the lake from grandma's and played in the creek. I keep trying to get the kids to be adventurous and try to touch new things, but they refuse to touch or try and catch a frog. There were hundreds of them. And pretty blue dragonflies, and the dog chasing frogs, wading in the water, and rolling in the weeds. And of course, what would childhood be without falling into the creek....the twins were very muddy.

4) Ginger. I'm grateful for my grandma's dogs. I was never a dog person because I never had one, but my grandparents have always had dogs and I've always loved them. Nana had Skippy. Grandma had Greta. When they die you know you're going to see them again one day, because love like that doesn't come to an end. How can they not be family? Anyways, I hope when I get old I can be like Ginger. She acted like she was still a puppy...and then made her way home, sometimes limping and sometimes running a little. Even though she's getting decrepit, nothing was going to stop her from enjoying her time at the lake. And then as my mom drove up, she just laid in the middle of the road until she had to move, and then she didn't move very far...like she was saying "eh, you're just going to have to wait for me". Love that dog.

5) Kittens. Oh my goodness. Her name is Tuesday, and she's a stripped gray tabby. She was feral when grandma first got her, but not anymore. I loved watching her play with the kids and vice versa.

6) Family, and cousins. And my cousins kids...And ice cream. Not everyone is as lucky as I, I have family that I not only like and get along with, but that I love and they love me. I loved hanging out with my cousins and how even though we haven't hung out like this in YEARS, it was just like old times when we were kids. I am so grateful for them and for our relationships.