Spiritual Truths for our Hearts & Homes - Negative Space

Our lives move at lightning speed.

We fly through childhood, school, marriage and starting a family. If we are not careful those days turn into years and the years well they zip by and before we know it, the kids have moved out and moved on and have started families of their own.

Life moves fast and even faster because we have filled it with so many things.

So many activities, so many good things too - not bad choices, just blocks of time on the calendar that we can’t get back. Negative space is design is the idea that less is more. Allowing room in the decor so that every open space isn’t maxed out with stuff. Having negative space in my schedule means allowing space for those life moments that you can’t plan or script out. They are the impromptu cookie baking, movie watching, sofa chatting moments that occur when life slows down a little and there’s nowhere to be or anything to do.

Instead of rare tidbits, planning with intention means leaving room in our home decor for some white space, but it also means being ruthless with eliminating anything - even the pretty things - that threaten to consume the white space. Doing this with our schedules as well means that we save time for the downtime.

Now as a girl who loves to schedule and plan and who even blocks out her day by 15 minute segments, you have to know that its so easy for me to fill in every time block with something to do. But I’m learning to make some blocks. Marking the blocks off and allowing for some open space for either life’s hiccups, or helping people is important. If people are going to be my priority I need to be sure that there’s margin already planned for them.

How about you - do you struggle with creating room in your schedule?

Tuesday Time Management & Decluttering Talk - Top 3 Kitchen Clutter Hotspots

Over the next few weeks I thought we could highlight different clutter hotspots and see if we can clear them out little by little!

This week we are looking at the Kitchen:

1. Kitchen counters are like paper magnets. Seriously I think the mail piles up and multiplies into stacks of unpaid bills, election fliers, junk mail and I’m literally not sure what else. Take a moment and toss the trash, put the rest in the right files. Seriously, if you do this several times a week you can keep up with the mess so much more easily.

2. The junk drawer. It’s name even identifies it as such. You know that one drawer that kinda is the catch all when you don’t know where to put the matches, the extra pens, keys, safety pins and crayons. I have no idea how things accumulate there but they do and before you know it you have no idea what’s in it or where to put any of it. Empty it out and toss the junk. The rest needs to find a permanent home.

3. The Spice Rack. Oh my goodness - why is this one so bad? I guess it could be the one recipe that calls for 1 tsp of cream of tartar, and you never use it again. So you need to toss them on a semi regular basis. If they are no longer fresh you don’t want to keep them on your shelf anyway because they won’t add the extra flavor you are craving anyway.

Ok those are my top 3 in the kitchen - what would you add to the list?

Monday Meals - The Very Best Alfredo Sauce

We love some Alfredo sauce around these parts. Let me rephrase. We love cheese. All cheese. Any cheese. including cheese sauce. So realizing Alfredo is so easy to make is the bestest news ever and you need to know it!

• 1/2 c butter

• 1-1/2 c heavy whipping cream

• 2 tsps minced Garlic

• 2 c freshly grated parmesan cheese - not too thick or it doesn’t melt smoothly, and not the shaker cheese because it’s not quite right either.

• salt & pepper to taste

Italian seasoning if desired

Add butter & cream to a large pan

Simmer for 2 minutes over low heat

Whisk in garlic and seasonings - stir for one minute

Whisk In the cheese until melted

Serve immediately!

Seriously so easy and incredibly flavorful! out of this world! Makes about 2 cups of sauce

Let me know how it turns out for you and if you love it as much as we do - we use on pasta and on pizza!

Tuesday Time Management & Decluttering Talk - Most Valuable Resource

Time is my most valuable resource.

There was a time when I probably believed that money was the most valuable resource, but the reality is that time is more precious and most fleeting. 

I can’t create more time, but I can work more hours, or sell more things to earn more money.

Once time is used it’s gone, and the seconds turn to minutes which turn to hours and eventually to days, weeks and years. We see the years flow by without any opportunity to stop them and many times we look back with regret.

Instead of living with regret I need to continue to move forward. Pressing on but with intentionality. And don’t think I’m throwing that word around because it’s the current buzzword. I mean it. I mean stepping back and assessing how I am using my time, and in what way and making changes as needed to meet my goal.

If my goal is to spend more time with my family, or be available for ballgames, field trips, and playdates, I have to look ahead and plan.

I either have to take time off work, get a sitter, or clear an afternoon of meetings. If I don’t plan ahead, I miss the opportunity and it’s not one that comes again the next day or the next week even.

While there are seasons in our life where we have to buckle down and hustle, my encouragement to you would be this – don’t let that become the new normal for you. Protect your most valuable asset and make sure you are spending it exactly the way you want to be.  If you are not, reassess and see what changes you could make to accomplish just that.

Monday Meals - Black Magic cake

The most amazing Chocolate cake that you might ever taste! It’s amazingly moist and you never taste it’s secret ingredient - coffee!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

1 3/4 c all purpose flour

2 c sugar

3/4 c cocoa powder

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

2 eggs

1 c strong black coffee, cooled

1 c buttermilk

1/2 c vegetable oil

1 tsp real vanilla extract

CHOCOLATE FROSTING

1/2 c margarine, softened

2 oz melted unsweetened chocolate, cooled

3 c powdered sugar

3 T milk

2 tsp real vanilla extract

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl.

Add eggs, coffee, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla.

Beat all ingredients at medium speed for two minutes.

Pour into a 9x13 baking dish that’s been greased and floured, or two 8” round pans.

Bake for 35-40 min, or 30-35 min for rounds.

Let cakes cool.

Combine frosting ingredients with a mixer and frost the cakes.

Trust me. Amazing cake…can’t go wrong!

My Favorite Things - Candles

For this week’s my favorite things I wanted to mention a few of my favorite candle brands.

Paddywax - With an amazing variety of scents and a variety of containers, Paddywax has something for everyone. A couple of my recent favorite smells are perfect for the upcoming Christmas season - Wassail & Spice, Balsam & Fir, & Holly Leaves & cranberry.

Surfs Up! - One of the vendors the Cool Chicks girls bring in is surfs up. The scents are fantastic and the paint can styles are fantastic. My other favorite thing is the vintage labels - they are amazing.

Capri candles - Hands down my top candle choice is the Volcano candle from capri. The scent is stellar and it’s a candle we personally buy over and over again. Our second favorite is Modern Mint, but honestly all of the scents are amazing. It is my very favorite candle ever!

Thanks for coming by! Tell me your favorite candles in the comments! I’m always willing to try some more! :)

Thursday Tips, Tricks & Trends

While we often shop for pairs of item — think table lamps, and chairs — the rule of three shows up in a variety of places.

Whether we are talking about writing, photography or home design, the power of the odd number is visible. Following the rule of three in your home design helps to add impact.

Things arranged in odd numbers are appealing and three seems to be the favored number, although depending on the grouping, higher digit odd numbers can also be used.

The arrangement of three items can be used throughout your home. Whether setting up items on a shelf or coffee table, a set of three creates a setting with pattern. This can be carried through with lighting above your bar, or the number of barstools used!

The rule of three is also helpful when setting up a gallery wall. Keep your numbers odd though to keep the interest and employ the rule!

Another interesting application of the rule three can be how it could be applied with the materials being used, the heights of the pieces, and even in selecting art and the colors used.

What are ways you’ve employed the rule of three in your own design?

Wednesday Spiritual Truths for our Hearts & Homes

Acts 2:46-47

Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.

The early church had much different view of their possessions then our current American culture does today.

Without denigrating our society today, I want to encourage instead a fresh look at our homes and possession today.  I think getting a new perspective is healthy and always being reminded that the things we own today could all be gone tomorrow. We are not assured of owning things and spaces forever, because we are not even assured of our next breath. Rather we are to hold all things loosely understanding that we have the things we do because of His gracious gifts to us.

This is why I believe our homes should be places that are useful.

Useful, not just to us, or our family or even church and friends, but also to extend to our neighbors and even strangers.  The busier our culture becomes, the more difficult this idea is. And honestly, I get it. We have three of our own kids and they each have had various activities through the years. I know how crazy life is and so I speak from experience and understanding. This concept is so hard to wrap our heads around. 

How do we create the margin in our lives to be able to even consider being intentional to develop a home that is open and inviting to others?

The first step is really stopping the crazy train on our schedules. Years ago we had to tell the kids we were limiting activities.  I know don’t throw stuff at me. But here’s the thing..we have three kids, even when we tried to limit them to one thing each, we were still on the go constantly.  Before we homeschooled, I promise you we had zero extra time. We barely had time together especially since we had jobs too.

 Stepping back and assessing what we are doing and why is important. I think we have to be honest and at times make choices about how busy we really want to be.  Because busyness becomes the enemy of connecting with people – our people, and other people. And God loves people. If we are here to love God and love others, we have to assess how we are doing on this journey. Perhaps as we look at how we are doing with this one objective we can then move forward with decisions about how we really want to live our lives. The thing I know to be true is that many times, I find myself often wondering where time actually goes. The reason this occurs is because of busyness and just trying to get through the day. Before you know it, the days turn to weeks and the weeks turn to months and man the months become years and we have been in survival mode.

I have often found that this reflection has caused me to make changes and specifically in the last few years, I have been focused on creating space in my life for people. Using my home as a natural connection point for people is my goal, and I am constantly reevaluating my schedule to be sure I am keeping my goal in mind.

Jesus loved people, and if I am going to reflect Jesus to others I must love people too. Showing love might mean different things at different times, but I’m sure it often means bringing people into my space. Sometimes that means bringing them into our messes, but mostly it means being comfortable with the role Christ calls us too and utilizing all the blessings He has given us.

Tuesday Time Management & Decluttering Talk - Clean It Up

One of the most difficult obstacles to keeping up with a clean households is navigating all the stuff.

Let’s face it compared to much of the rest of the world, even the most modest of households can admit that we are incredibly blessed.

Yet the accumulation of stuff can sneak in and overwhelm us without a doubt.

The challenge of organizing our stuff is that it’s never enough.

Things like food are consumable and must be purchased regularly, but right alongside the food we need is the extra little things. You know what I’m talking about - the air fresheners, kitchen utensils, equipment or my goodness depending on where you shop, shirts, bathing suits and socks! These are the things that consume space and crowd out the room we actually crave.

The secondary issue is that clutter keeps us away from people.

How many times have you decided not to have company over, friend or family member, because your house is a mess? Listen, I’m not judging, I’m sitting right here with you in the midst of my own mess acknowledging there are not enough fingers & toes to give an accurate assessment.

I’m just asking us all - why does our stuff get to take priority over people?

The challenge is recognizing the problem for what it is. It’s not a funny little problem that happened overnight. It’s a sequence of events, behaviors even, that we may not truly recognize or even be able to articulate. It’s buying an extra toy just because you can, because your childhood memories include being told “no” on multiple occasions because there was no money for extras. We justify that we want our children to have a better childhood than we did by overbuying and spoiling and then wonder why our kids can’t appreciate all they’ve been given.

Because this problem doesn’t occur overnight, we have to first attack the clutter with a drill sergeant mindset.

Keep the necessities, toss the broken things and donate things that others might need or want.

As this decluttering occurs, I can guarantee you will feel much happier. The things that are left behind can be displayed, arranged or stored for later and the beauty of this process is that everything that remains can have it’s “place.” When the kids play or things are a bit messy, not having 9,255 items makes it a much faster process for cleanup.

A faster process for cleanup feels more doable than a hours long organizing/hiding fest. Been there, done that, and designed the tshirt. I’ve stashed more stuff than you even know. And honestly the stuff clutters up not just physical space but mental space too, but I want veer off on to that today - it’s a subject for another day.

The blessing of a faster cleanup is that our homes, once again, become places for people, not stuff!

Monday Meals - Homemade Pizza

We started a new favorite tradition last summer.

Homemade pizza on Sunday nights.

We didn’t know we were starting something, but it turned out fantastic and we love making our own home made crust, sauce and assembling each pizza as we like them. With a fun woodfire pizza oven that we keep outside, we can prep dinner start to finish in an hour or less. Flavor filled and delicious, I want you to have the crust recipe and sauce recipe to try yourselves. But you might wonder if you have to have your own pizza oven. Good news - You don’t! Cook inside no problem!

Classic Pizza Dough

Flour, salt, water and yeast – what do these simple ingredients have in common? They come together to create the perfect foundation for any good pizza!

Ingredients
Makes 5 x 12in (30cm) pizzas - equivalent to 5 x 5½oz (160g) dough balls
or
Makes 3 x 16in (40cm) pizzas - equivalent to 3 x 9½ oz (270g) dough balls

1¼ cups (300ml) cold water
2 tsp (10g) salt
¼oz (7g) fresh yeast (if unavailable, use ½ tsp (3g) active dried yeast or ⅓ tsp (2g) instant dried yeast)
4½ cups (500g) “00” flour, plus extra for dusting

Method
Place two-thirds of the water in a large bowl. In a saucepan or microwave, bring the other third of water to boil, then add it to the cold water in the bowl. This creates the correct temperature for activating yeast. Whisk the salt and yeast into the warm water.

If mixing by hand:
Place the flour in a large bowl and pour the yeast mixture into it. Stir with a wooden spoon until a dough starts to form. Continue mixing by hand until the dough comes together in a ball. Turn it onto a lightly floured surface and knead with both hands for about 10 minutes, until it is firm and stretchy. Return the dough to the bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and leave to rise in a warm place for 1-2 hours.

If using a mixer:
Fit the mixer with the dough hook and place the flour in the mixer bowl. Turn the machine on at a low speed and gradually add the yeast mixture to the flour. Once combined, leave the dough to keep mixing to at the same speed for 5-10 minutes, or until the dough is firm and stretchy. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and leave to rise in a warm place for 1-2 hours.

When the dough has roughly doubled in size, divide it into 3 or 5 equal pieces, depending on what size you want your pizzas to be (either 12 inches or 16 inches wide). Place each piece of dough in a separate bowl or tray, cover with plastic wrap and leave to rise for another 20 minutes, or until doubled in size.

Note:
It’s also possible to cold-prove your dough, a technique that allows the yeast to work on the sugars in the flour for longer, thus helping the dough to develop a deeper flavor. To do this, use half the amount of yeast listed in the ingredients, and leave the dough to rise in the fridge for 24-72 hours – basically, until the day you need it. Divide the dough and cover it as described in the main recipe, then set aside (not in the fridge) for at least 5 hours, until it is up to room temperature.

Kneading and stretching the dough:
Our top tip is always to start with a perfectly rounded ball of dough as this helps to keep the shape of the pizza base circular during the stretching process. Place the ball on a lightly floured surface, flour your hands and use your fingertips to press the dough into a small, flat disc. Working from the center, push the dough outwards while spreading  your fingers, making the disc slightly bigger. Pick up the dough and gently pinch it all around the edge, allowing gravity to pull it downwards into a 12-inch (30cm) circle. Neapolitan-style pizza bases are very thin, so you should be able to see through the base when you hold it up to the light. Take care when doing this – you don’t want it to tear.

Once the dough is fully stretched, lightly flour your pizza peel and lay the base on it. If at this point you see any small holes in the dough, gently pinch them back together.

This recipe originally appeared here - https://ooni.com/blogs/recipes/classic-pizza-dough-how-to-make-it-perfect

Pizza Sauce

Use 1 tsp. of olive oil to soften 3-4 garlic cloves chopped/minced. Be careful not to let them brown to much - keep your temperature low!

Add one can of stewed tomatoes - whole. Now the best part. Squeeze the tomatoes with your hands into the pan. Yep…squeeze them - I know - you can wash your hands when you are done so don’t worry too much!

Let this lumpy mixture simmer for awhile - 10 minutes or so.

Add chopped basil, salt and pepper to taste and 1 T honey.

Continue to let it simmer.

Taste and add seasonings or sweetness until you are satisfied.

Add your favorite toppings and bake your pizzas until the cheese is melted and crust is crisp.

ENJOY - let me know how it turns out for you!