Homemaking Archives - KitchenWise

Sweet Tea and Southern Hospitality

December 17, 2014 by Trina 2 Comments

Last year at this time, we had just moved into our new doublewide on an undeveloped lot in my in-law’s trailer part in Alabama. Jeremy had had to leave almost as soon as we arrived to go back and finish getting our house in NY on the market.

I was happy as a lark, settling into our sunny new habitat, unpacking boxes to the sound of Christmas music. I could hardly wait till we could have guests, which is always what makes a house feel like a home to me.

There was just the small problem of not having a sewage tank yet.

Then I heard a knock on the bottom of my door. (We didn’t have porch steps yet, either.)

I opened the laundry room door and looked down to see Joe, the trailer park handyman.

“Ya’ got any ice for ma’ tea cup?”

He held up a tall, blue plastic cup, the type you get the super sized sodas in. It was faded pale in spots and had dark brown grime in every crevice.

“Do you want me to wash it first?”

“Woman! Don’t you dare warsh ma’ tea cup–I’ll whip yo’ rear end! That’s wheya the flava’ is!”

This was the beginning of my understanding of Joe’s religious passion for sweet tea.

Read the rest of the story of how I began to learn the heart of true hospitality in the land of the deep south in the post, Unfancy Hospitality {and how to make sweet tea} over on GraceTable today.

When my friend, Kris, first told me about her dream to launch a site that focused on equipping and inspiring people to fulfill the call to hospitality, I couldn’t have been more excited. Then she asked me to be a part and I was over the top. If hospitality is something you’re passionate about (and, even if it isn’t–yet!) you will be blessed and inspired by the story telling, recipes, and heart of the new blog, GraceTable. Do stop by and join us for tea?

You might also enjoy: How I Learned to Say Ya’ll

November Snapshots

November 15, 2014 by Trina Leave a Comment

November in Alabama…you’re blowing my mind. We had a taste of you two years ago, when we camped in the bus for the month of November. With your endless days of sun and gentle warmth, I felt like I won a vacation to a tropical location. This year we came by you honestly–we survived June, July, August, September and even October’s occasional 90 degree day, and now we are in this magical month that I rarely recognize but am certainly enjoying.

Outdoors…Thanks to the cooler temps, we lifted the ban on the woods–one of the most endearing spots in our little yard, but one we avoid in the heat of summer because of…the snakes. The kids (and me, I readily admit) are drawn to the magic of the woods and are spending hours in fort building, path clearing, and tree climbing. Classic childhood activities, what I’ve always wanted for my kids.

Around the house…Lydia is walking. Her fan club is in ecstasy, constantly raving about her accomplishment. Now begins that season in which you find random items all over the house because, you know, the next thing after learning to walk is learning to cart things around, right? Yesterday she had figured out how to carry two baby dolls simultaneously. She has inherited her mother’s love of twins, methinks.

In school this month… the kids are learning about Castles and Medieval times, and Mommy is reading up on Charlotte Mason, resulting in most afternoons spent in outdoor discovery and unofficial nature study.

Jesse and Claire are both making great strides with their reading, and Jesse wrote his first book report completely on his own initiative. He didn’t even know what a book report was, but he wanted to write about his favorite book in school this month (A Door in the Wall) and he wrote and illustrated a synopsis almost completely by himself. I was so proud.

Also this month…

In the Kitchen…Peter Rheinhart’s American Pie is bringing our home pizza experience to the next level.
In the Studio…more handmade baby doll dresses, this time for a little girl soon to turn 6.
Behind the Blog…so much awesomeness–plans for the new year, but also some fun stuff that’ll go live in the next month! (It might have something to do with helping you enjoy gift giving, despite tight budgets–get on my newsletter list so you don’t miss out!)

This post contains affiliate links because I’m clever like that (not!)–thanks for supporting the blog!

What have you been up to? Is it snowing where you are?

Redneck Deck Reveal

October 6, 2014 by Trina 13 Comments

It’s time to show you our finished deck! If you follow me on instagram you’ve seen some glimpses of our deck project, which we fondly called our #redneckdeck because it really did have very rustic beginnings. Today I’m gonna give you the whole story…

Last November we moved from Upstate New York to my in-laws mobile home park in Alabama, and put a double wide on an undeveloped lot. Things like electric, sewage, and phone lines took priority (imagine that), so we didn’t have much in the way of a front entrance for the first 6 months. This was the front of our house this spring…

(We kept the door locked so the children didn’t fall out of the living room. Obvs.)

When we originally bought this place and planned its situation on our lot, we put the front of the house facing the quiet, more private back end of our lot and planned to build a generous porch for more room for hospitality and the ability to be out of doors without the bugs carrying us away. We hoped to make it as wide as the middle section of the house, and extend out 20 ft. or so. We could just see it in our minds, and could hardly wait to have that space, but we couldn’t afford to begin that project quite yet.

Then, one balmy spring day we were taking an evenings stroll to through the trailer park (not the most picturesque place to promenade, but it’s what we have. You make do with what you’ve got, and it can be quite…interesting.) We passed by one of our tennants who’ve we’ve made friends with and saw they had a brand new deck on the front of their single wide.

Well, “New-to-Them” would be a more fitting description. Bobby had been doing some work for us in the park, tearing down old mobile homes that needed to be replaced, and had seen opportunity in a section of flooring. He’d hauled it down to his place and jury-rigged it into place, and now they had a place to sit outside in the evening.

Now, I know that redneck is a phrase that has negative connotations in many people’s minds, but since moving to the south and living next door to a trailer park I have met my share of rednecks, and have grown in my esteem of this type of people. They are usually ingenious and refreshingly minimalist. The live with less, make do with what they have, and enjoy the simple pleasures that many of us over look. I saw Bobby and his wife sitting out on their deck, and suddenly all I wanted was a redneck deck.

Jeremy must have felt the same way, because the very next morning, we headed up to Lake Street to see if there was anything we could salvage to build our dream deck.

One man’s junk is another man’s treasure, right?

We set to with hammer and sawsall and metal clippers and sweat and by mid afternoon, we’d dissasembled the old trailer enough to extract two sections of flooring.

Which, in true redneck style, we hauled through the park on a small trailer behind a four wheeler.

(I laughed the entire way through the park following this redneck parade! “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em!”)

Some cement blocks were salvaged from somewhere in the park to work as foundations, and within an hour we had our deck.

For one day’s labor and absolutely no money spent, we had a deck! And it was wider and longer than what we’d originally hope for–this was going to be awesome!

But it was still very much in process. See how yucky that floor looked? It was stained and sticky from paste-on laminate tiles and 30 years of abuse. As bad as it looked, it smelled 10 times worse. I’m not kidding. We had to close all the windows on that side of the house and the children were not allowed on it while it aired out.

It was another month or two before we had the funds or time to make progress on the deck. We painted the whole surface with Kilz paint which resolved any residual odor, and Jeremy began on the roof.

See that lovely white, odorless floor? By now we were into Alabama’s summer temperatures, so the deck was not very hospitable for much of the day, but as soon as the sun went behind the shade trees, we went out and partied. We hung Lydia’s Johnny Jump Up from the rafters and put on dancing music–we already loved our deck!

Then came the day when we realized our air-conditioner was not gonnna keep up with the summers temperatures as long as we had a black shingles on the roof. We followed the example of one of our neighbors and invested in a white metal roof–and while we were at it, the porch got its roof, as well!

Jeremy and his dad and brothers and the park maintenance guy, Joe, spent 2 days in blistering heat getting the new roof on, and when it was done, our air-conditioner sighed a sigh of relief and actually cycled off for the first time during the day! And, we had shade on the deck!

Of course, we partied immediately. Despite the fact that there were no screens yet and the bugs were still a menace, we invited more than a dozen people over for dinner and reveled in having plenty of space to seat everyone!

Then there was a long stretch (3 months?) in which we once again didn’t have the time or resources to make any more progress. We didn’t let that stop us from enjoying the porch as often as the bugs and weather would let us. We had Jesse’s birthday dinner outside, and I confess to leaving the birthday banner up for two whole weeks after his birthday because I was so in love with the pennants against the beams against the backdrop of woods and grass and sunshine. My view outside of other windows of my home is not quite as lovely, but I’m OK with focusing my attention in the direction that gives me the most joy!

We were all excited when once again Jeremy was free to work on the deck. He began by installing the knee-wall that would go all around the edge of the deck. We all joined him, probably more hindrance than help, but we were just so excited to be making progress again!

So close to being done! I realize this still doesn’t look like something off Pinterest–we still haven’t decided what to do for the flooring. Our deck furniture is also rather lacking, but this space is clean and functional so we’re not gonna let appearances keep us from enjoying or sharing it!

Finally, the screen went up!!!

And now we have a lovely outdoor room to be hospitable with and to relax as a family!

Bobby, the source of inspiration for the deck, came by the other day to view our progress. He’s now calling our home “The Triple Wide”. In true redneck fashion, he complimented our creation with these words, “Ya’ll are lookin’ like somebody somebody needs ta’ rob!”

Thanks, Bobby. Thanks a lot. 😉

There’s still work to be done–we want to stain the outside of the knee wall, and certainly skirting and trim would be nice. But, as my favorite home design blogger, Nester, says, “It doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful”.

I can’t agree more.

For Those With No Natural Talent for Rest

September 20, 2014 by Trina 14 Comments

We have friends who own some acreage with a small house and barn which they use for family retreats and hunting. We got a chance to stay overnight there this week–ostensibly as part of our eldest’s birthday celebration, but especially just to get some rest and relaxation as a family. Jeremy took Jesse fishing, the kids went on four-wheeler rides with daddy and explored the barn hay loft, and I spent the majority of the time doing nothing but reading a novel while keeping an eye on Lydia.

It was rather divine, but not as easy as you might think. A passage in my book made me laugh and I read it to Jeremy. It was describing a stroke patient during recovery and said, “it isn’t easy for anyone being bed-bound weeks on end, but for someone like him, with no hobbies and no talent whatsoever for relaxing, it was torture.”

“…no talent whatsoever for relaxing…”

That is so me. Rest is not something that comes naturally for me–it’s ridiculous to say it, but rest is hard work. I have to mentally gear up for it, physically prepare, must have tools and supports and crutches in place, and then, finally, for a few moments I balance in that strange and unatural state, and then quickly revert back to the nearest task at hand, panting with the effort it took to rest.

That might be a bit of an exaggeration, but sometimes we need a cartoon to help us see the truth, right?

I’ve seen growth in my ability to rest in the last few years. There was a time when I would have packed an entire bag of books and activities to keep me busy during even just one day of something that was meant to be ‘vacation’. I’m also apt to put a really big project on the calendar before a scheduled time of rest so I can feel like I earned the time off.

This time, all I did before we left was make a pile of food in advance (I didn’t even leave the house clean! Hooray! This is progress, people!) and all I packed was journal, Bible, and one novel.

And I was able to step out of my routine and all the to-dos I have constantly simmering in my mind, and just do practically nothing for a whole day and a half. Without twitching.

I think it’s because I’ve begun to see how valuable rest is. I’ve been through some seasons in my mothering and business lately that have me desperate for rest–I no longer argue that I don’t need a break. Another contributing factor to my growing appreciation for rest is having wise people like Emily Freeman who have gently informed me that rest is a gift.

At any rate, I held still long enough this week so that everything stopped spinning, and that’s when I realized why it’s so important for someone like me to make rest a priority.

Because when we slow down enough, we eventually find the pace our souls were made for. Our souls breathe a deep, contented sigh, and we remember that we weren’t created simply for our ability to produce. That He’s called us to so much less than our to do list. He made us simply to worship. To be still and know that He is God.

Rest re-calibrates our souls.

Then, even when we have to jump back into real life (which we have to do because we live in a broken world, hello) our soul can still move at the slower rate of a worshipper, lending the sweetness of rest even to the longest Saturday Morning Chore List In The History Of Mankind.

So, that’s what I did this week, in moments in between chapters in my novel. I held still long enough to remember how to just be and not constantly do.

If you struggle to slow down enough for your soul to breath, here’s some hints for you…

Study the theology of rest. Emily Freeman is a great place to start. So is Genesis. Reread the story of creation and notice that God owns and rules everything–He didn’t have to earn the rest He embraced on the Sabbath. Neither do we–work and rest are both gifts from our Father, not commodities we buy or earn.
Find active ways to rest. Personally, I cannot sit still and do nothing. I seriously think I would die. So, I do stuff I love to do, but that doesn’t produce anything. Taking a walk. Painting or drawing. Writing words I don’t ever plan to publish. That’s my version of nothing. And–it works.
Choose a good book. I’m loving The Modern Mrs. Darcy’s book matchmaking posts. Her blog is helping me choose good reads from my local library.
Get out of your habitat. I know how hard this is–we only were able to get away this week because of the generosity of friends. But even if you’re stuck home on a tight budget, you can still create a pace or space that is different than your normal daily grind, and it can help you rest. At home, my productive spaces are the kitchen and office areas. Often all I have to do to find soul rest is to step outside onto the porch, or slip into my bedroom for a few minutes–places I don’t normally produce anything–and I remember that I am more than just what I can tick off a list.
Schedule Rest. This is a new thing for me, but I’m starting to actually let myself put ‘do nothing’ on the calendar on the odd Saturday afternoon when the stars align and my baby is napping and my big kids are playing happily outside and the house is relatively clean and everyone has clean underwear to wear to Church tomorrow so I don’t technically have to do laundry, I’m planning on just sitting on my porch and reading a novel. (Right after I finish this post.)

Rest is a gift we can’t afford to neglect. I’m putting it on my list to get better at this. 😉

(Do you struggle to rest, or is it just me? How to do you find or create rest in your day or week? Why do you believe in rest?)

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