Wonderful Quotes

Hi friends!

I hope you all are enjoying this Christmas season!

It's time for me to hunker down and get to work towards preparing my home for our annual Christmas Eve party. 

I look forward to sharing more about that with you, but for now I'm popping in quickly with a post about some wonderful quotes that I've come across.

It encourages me in my homemaking when I hear others confirm what I've long believed about the importance of being home...

"Not everything has to happen 'somewhere else'. People get their social life 'somewhere else'. They do their creative work 'somewhere else'. They go on vacation 'somewhere else'. I've learned that one reason people want to go 'somewhere else' is because the home is not as cheerful and uplifting as it should be." ~ Lydia at Homeliving.com 

"Play with your cat, plant a garden, take your kids to the park, bake a pie, take time to be a friend. Keep putting the little moments together and they'll turn into contentment." ~ Susan Branch

"The ordinary arts we practice everyday at home are of more importance to the soul than their simplicity might suggest." ~ Thomas Moore 

"So long as we have homes to which men turn at close of day;

So long as we have homes where children are and women stay;

If love and loyalty and faith be found across those sills, a stricken nation can recover from its greatest ills." ~ Grace Noll Crowell

"With pomp, power and glory the world beckons vainly, in chase of such vanities why should I roam? While peace and content bless my little thatched cottage, and warm my own hearth with the treasures of home." ~ Beatrix Potter

"The corporate woman has been defined as the 'liberated woman' and I see that as the exact opposite. I think she now is more enslaved. Imitating male power is not female power." ~ Kenny Loggins

"It was the only ambition I ever had - not to be a dancer or Hollywood movie star, but to be a housewife in a good marriage." ~ Doris Day

Aren't those all such wonderful quotes for the homemaker?!

We need all the support and encouragement we can get in our modern day! We unfortunately live in a generation that does not consider the stay-at-home life to be a worthy pursuit!

Of course, those of us who are at home know differently!

Our days are filled with meaning and purpose.

We are not wasting our time and efforts on someone else's dream and agenda, but rather we are investing our time and efforts in our own legacy.

"She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her." Proverbs 31:27-28

Well friends, I wish I could spend more time with you, but this is all the time I have for tonight. Like I said, Micah and I host Christmas Eve in our home each year, and I have about one hundred things that I need to do over the next few days!

This is my To-Do list:

Hopefully by this Saturday, my hard work will pay off and my home will look like this:

(This is Micah and I last year on Christmas Eve, and what I'm striving for again this year.)

Wish me luck, friends!

I will do my best to be back here blogging again very soon!

Until then...

xo,

~ Courtney ~

Christmas Music

The best Christmas music (as far as I'm concerned) isn't trendy or rocky, but beautiful and meaningful... and has been with me since my childhood.....

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"In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan ~

Earth stood hard like iron, water like a stone ~

Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow ~

In the bleak midwinter, long ago..." ~

My Christmas music is very 90's, but I don't care!

It fills my home with warmth and happiness!

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"Oh Emmanuel, God with us ~

With a light to break the darkness ~

That we may show your hope to the world ~

Emmanuel, be God in us" ~

I am very careful not to listen to Christmas music outside of the holiday season.

That way when I pull out my CD's, it all seems exciting and new!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"The happiest wishes are just old-fashioned wishes ~

May your days be merry, your sorrows be small ~

May the ones you love be near you ~

That's the happiest Christmas of all" ~

Would you like to see my favorite Christmas CD's?

I know this all seems 90's, like I said, but the truth is, the music itself is perfectly timeless...

Here they are:

George Winston, December

Point Of Grace, A Christmas Story

Michael W. Smith, Christmastime 

Frank Sinatra/ Bing Crosby, A Christmas to Remember 

Twila Paris, It's The Thought...

Smoky Mountain, Christmas

(By the way, I should probably mention that there are no affiliate links in this post. I've just simply loved this music for years and wanted to share it with you. :)

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"And a loving thought sends us out to find ~

Something special for someone on our mind ~

And we think of friends and of family ~

As we hang our gifts on the Christmas tree" ~

"Truly He taught us to love one another ~

His law is love and His gospel is peace" ~

"One king held the frankincense ~

One king held the myrrh ~

One king held the purest gold ~

One King held the hope of the world" ~

What are you listening to this Christmas season?

I hope it's filling your heart and your home with God's love!

xo,

~ Courtney ~

A Christmas Tour

I thought it'd be fun to show you my house decorated for Christmas!

I should warn you though...

This is a picture-heavy post!

So, I'll try my best not to talk much, but to just let the pictures speak for themselves!

These photos have been taken over the last few days, as time has allowed.

Some during the day...

Others at night.

But ALL were taken while desperately trying to shoo children and kick toys out of the way!

(((*eye roll...)))

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

Let me show you what Micah and I have been working on...

Welcome to my home!!!...

This is my kitchen...

 In my childhood home, my mother would always put this little red car out every Christmas.

Several years ago she handed it down to me...

The same goes for this handmade snowman. It hung above our kitchen sink every year.

I love meaningful decorations, so placing some items from my childhood around my home is a joyous thing for me!

Moving into the dining room...

The red roses on my table are artificial for now.

They're just for holding me over till Christmas Eve when they will get replaced.

My tradition is that I go out, the day or two before Christmas, and purchase a couple dozen fresh red rose bouquets for the big day!!!

If all of this decorating wasn't enough to get me in the Christmas spirit, a beautiful heavy snowfall would certainly do it!!!

Micah decorated the front of the house just in time for our first snow!

I love that I can see it from inside the house...

This is our front room...

If you shine up the glass around your house, the reflections from the lights will really sparkle!!!

See what I mean on the hutch door?...

Antique glass birds and a Christmas book!!!

Be still my heart!

The foyer/staircase...

Lastly, I'll show you the room I never put on this blog...

I've wanted to renovate it since we first moved in, but we haven't gotten to it yet.

The kids have claimed it as their playroom, and I try my best not to let it drive me nuts.

This is our family room...

We put up two full-sized, real trees each year. The one up in our front room has been decorated how I want, so it's only fair that the one in here is decorated by the kids...

~Whew!!!~

That was a lot of pictures!

Are you still with me? Haha...

I hope you enjoyed the tour, and I truly hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!

Bake cookies, go to Christmas programs, drive your kids around in their pajamas to look at lights...

and enjoy the season!!!

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog.

You all mean so much to me!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a goodnight!

xo,

~Courtney~