As I’ve been looking through old posts, I realized that I’ve actually shared very little from our family life. I’ve written more about issues, things I’m learning, helping people solve problems, and encouraging others. But I haven’t shared much about our day to day activities of pursuing a cozy life and bringing peace, understanding, and joy to our home. I’m far enough along this parenting and homeschooling journey that I want to be more deliberate about sharing some of the fruits and joys of our experience.
Today is the first in what I hope will be an ongoing series of posts that show A Day in Our Cozy Life. They will be posts with photos that illustrate more of the joy aspect of our cozy life. David said the other day he feels like we’re really starting to reap the rewards of all the hard work we’ve put into parenting and I feel the same way. We’re still on our parenting journey and far from done, but it does feel like we can see the fruits of our labors now in a big way. I want to share some of that, especially to encourage those who are still in the midst of the figuring it all out and trying to survive day by day or even hour by hour with small differently-wired children. It is worth the effort. It truly is. To see peace and understanding in your home move into greater joy is worth all of the tears, prayers, stress, and sacrifice.
In addition, I think it’s just fun to get a glimpse into the life of a family. I know I enjoy seeing pictures that others share so I want to be more open about sharing from my own home life.
A gorgeous July morning with colorful geraniums and our beautiful American flag.
We started growing cucumbers on our deck when I did this product review for a company a few years ago. Caroline loves cucumbers so this has become a regular occurrence each year. The other day David said he thought there was probably a hundred flowers on the vines. (The picture only shows a fraction of the cucumber plants growing on the deck.) We’ll see how many cucumbers we get!
We’re reading through the Little House books as a family. (We have the full color set from several years ago.) David reads aloud, I look up details on the smartphone (such as what a Morgan horse looks like), and Caroline tells us jokes afterwards from her joke books. Farmer Boy is one of the books I included in my A Month of Cozy Books series.
We bought the Calico Critters Town Grand Department Store Gift Set and several other small accessory sets when we discovered they were deeply discounted at Meijer the day before Caroline’s dental surgery last December. It was something fun for us to do and keep us busy so she didn’t think about what was coming the next day. These sets are amazing in the detail they have. This one is set up in the library.
I bought The Kelloggs at our bookstore that opened in Cute Little Town. I haven’t started it yet, but it looks really interesting. I enjoy reading Michigan history.
A lighthouse painting Caroline made for David for Father’s Day. It sits on top of a bookcase in our office.
I hope you enjoyed stopping by our home today!
Happy Birthday and July 4th, Calvin Coolidge!
I love these simple glimpses into your family life and home. Thank you for sharing!
Hi Cathy,
Thank you for your kind words. I’m glad you enjoyed the post!
Sallie
I’ve been out in the garden for a month , my cucumbers are barely alive !…. I loved seeing your home , looking forward to more , and those Calico Critters !! I bought a bunch ( they were called something else ) about 30 years ago …8 years before I even had babies , because I knew if I did have children I would want them to have such beautiful toys . Karen Jones
Hi Karen,
Oh, the Calico Critters. I would buy lots of them. LOL! Something about them calls to both Caroline and me. I tried to interest Caroline in them when she was younger, but she wasn’t interested. Now she’s a bit too old to spend the money on them. But they are really cute!
Sallie
Of course, I remember when you had lots and lots of blog posts about a simple life. 😉
Stephanie is finally able to enjoy everyday life more now that her youngest is nine years old (which I find hard to believe). Anna was and is so much like her when she was little. She says she now understands how I could say she was both easy to raise and difficult
Hi Brenda,
Well, we still lived a simple life when Caroline was little. It just was a different kind of simple life. LOL!
I would say everyday life became a lot more enjoyable around age nine as well. We’ve really enjoyed the tween years (which I’ve written about recently).
We’ve discussed on the fly with Caroline all the ways she was easy to raise even though she was also very challenging. She was intense and high maintenance, but never really naughty. I”m thankful for that. I can’t think of anything really naughty that she did. Childish things, yes. Testing limits, yes. Melting down from frustration, yes. But never being naughty or sneaky about things. So that was a blessing.
Sallie