Finding Your Way Back Home: A Letter to the Weary Homemaker

 For the Christian woman who longs to return to a life of peace, purpose, and grace

I walked past a quilt top that I first pieced together in 2017. It still is not finished! I have started hand quilting the top but the fact that it has taken me 8 years to get to this point bothered me.

This prompted me to think about when the last time was that I created anything at all. When last did I finish a knitting project? When last did I spend some time enjoying a bit of cross-stitch or excitedly plan out a new project of some sort?

I have Pinterest boards brimming with ideas and projects that at some point inspired me, things I wanted to try my hand. I remembered back to the days when when I was most certainly an inspired homemaker.

When Home Doesn’t Feel Like Home Anymore

There comes a time in many women’s lives when the joy of homekeeping fades into the background. Perhaps you're walking through grief, burnout, motherhood’s exhausting seasons, or simply the noise of a fast-paced world. You look around your home and no longer feel inspired. The laundry piles up. The meals are rushed. The creativity you once poured into everyday life has run dry.

If that’s you, dear sister, you are not alone. 

I've been pondering this thought for the last week and awoke with a sense of clarity on Sunday morning. My decline is closley tied up with the start of my degree studies. I don't regret my studies as it was a season of accomplishing something that I did not think I was capable of. I'm glad I did it, but it came at a cost that I didn't even realise I was paying.

A Gentle Art Forgotten

I have always loved the gentle art of homemaking and there was a time when tending the home was more than chores and checklists. For me, as for many other women over the annals of time, it was a sacred rhythm—baking bread with joy, wiping counters while praying over family, folding laundry as an act of love. I remember being delighted in creating a haven: candles glowing, scripture on the wall, beauty in the small things, and I miss that.

Life has a way of crowding out the quiet.

Maybe like me, you’ve lost that rhythm. Maybe you feel you’ve failed. But friend, hear this truth: you are not too far gone to return.

The Invitation Back

God is always calling us back—not to perfection, but to peace. Not to performance, but to presence.

He gently invites us to slow down. To light a candle. To clear a corner of the house. To make a pot of tea and open our Bibles. To begin again, not in our own strength, but in His.

“In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and trust shall be your strength.” – Isaiah 30:15

Rediscovering Peace in Small Things

You don’t have to overhaul your life. You simply have to begin again—with Him, and that is precisly what I have started doing. Here are a few small things I have started doing each day as I rediscover peace in my homemaking.

Start with One Room

Choose a space that matters to you. Clear it, tend it, pray over it. Let it become a sanctuary.

Anchor Each Day in the Word

Open your Bible before your to-do list. Let scripture be the first voice you hear in the morning.

Create a Ritual of Beauty

Light a candle as you clean. Play worship music while you cook. Make small acts of service feel sacred again.

Keep a Homemaker’s Prayer Journal

Write down your prayers for your home, your family, and your heart. Invite God into every ordinary task.

Plan to be Creative

I spent a wonderful afternoon going through my Pinterest boards and craft books. I have picked out a few creative and seasonal projects that I want to get started with right away and ordered the materials I need to do them. To foster creativity you have to be creative. Scrolling through IG my be inspiring in the moment but it is no replacement for setting aside time to work with your hands on something that brings you joy. So make sure that you plan some time out each week to spend on something you have always wanted to try or make.

The Truth About Worth and Calling

You are not just a housekeeper. You are a keeper of hearts, rhythms, refuge, and love. You are called by God to create spaces that reflect His peace and presence. Your home, however imperfect, can become a holy ground.

And even if you’ve wandered far from that calling as I feel I have, the way back is paved with grace.

“She watches over the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness.” – Proverbs 31:27

But she also knows when to rest in the Lord, and let Him restore what’s been lost.

A Prayer for the Woman Who Wants to Return

Lord,
I am tired, and I’ve lost my way.
Remind me that I don’t have to earn Your approval.
Teach me how to tend my home with joy again.
Restore my heart.
Renew my spirit.
Lead me gently back to Your peace.
Amen.

You Can Begin Again—Today

You don’t need a perfect plan. You just need to respond to the invitation: to come home. Home to the heart of God. Home to the calling He placed within you. Home to the quiet joy of caring, creating, and keeping.

Start small. Start slow. Start now.

And know this: every step you take is watched with love by the One who calls you beloved.

The Kitchen Sink and the Secret Garden

 

A Window into the Wild

From the vantage point of my kitchen sink, I’ve been granted a quiet but intimate view into what I fondly call The Secret Garden — my modest back garden that comes alive with quiet magic. As I stand washing dishes in warm, sudsy water, my eyes drift beyond the glass to catch the antics of the creatures that share this space with me.

There’s the robin, ever bold, defending his winter territory with song and spirit. Blackbirds busy themselves among the leaf litter, tossing it aside with vigorous scratching in search of earthworms. One moment they’re still, head cocked to listen, and the next—beak to soil—they're pulling a worm from the earth.

And then, there’s the squirrel: a comical, daring acrobat, leaping from branch to feeder with impressive agility. I’ve even had the pleasure of watching a male pheasant strut across the frosty lawn, his entourage of females foraging dutifully at his heels.

Twilight Visitors

As night falls, the Secret Garden reveals more of its hidden guests. I’ve often found myself holding my breath at the sight of a fox, its russet fur glowing under moonlight, as it moves with silent precision across the garden. These are the moments that feel truly enchanted.

Hedgehogs, on the other hand, draw squeals of delight and cries of, “There’s a hedgehog in the garden—come quick!” The dishes are quickly forgotten as we dash outside to observe our prickly visitor snuffling in the shrubbery. We often offer a little dish of cat food, which is gobbled up with noisy gratitude.

The Unseen Secret Garden

I often wonder what goes on when I’m not looking—when I’m not at the window, or the garden is cloaked in the silence of night. It’s this quiet mystery that makes the idea of a Secret Garden feel so real.

No wonder so many amateur wildlife lovers set up garden cameras to catch glimpses of this unseen world. The thought of what remains hidden is almost as magical as what’s observed.

How to Create a Wildlife-Friendly Garden in Winter

If you want to transform your outdoor space into a haven for local wildlife, especially during the harsh UK winter months, here are a few simple, effective steps you can take:

1. Keep Bird Feeders Stocked

Birds expend more energy in winter, so keeping feeders full helps them survive. Use a mix of seeds, fat balls, and suet to attract different species.

2. Leave Leaf Litter Undisturbed

Resist the urge to tidy every corner—piles of leaves provide essential shelter for insects, frogs, and hedgehogs.

3. Scatter Hedgehog and Ground-Forager Food

Sprinkle food such as hedgehog biscuits or cat food under hedges and shrubs where ground dwellers feel safest.

4. Provide Fresh Water

Leave shallow dishes of clean water in sheltered spots. In winter, check daily to ensure they haven’t frozen over. My daughter made this beautiful mussle-shell flower which I fill with water. It is shallow enough for the instects to safely drink without the danger of drowning.

5. Build a Simple Insect Hotel

Create a cosy hideaway by piling twigs, bark, and leaves in a quiet corner of your garden. You can also make bug hotels from old plant pots and bamboo canes.

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Complementary Crafts and Learning Activities

Make the most of your own Secret Garden by pairing wildlife-watching with creative and educational projects, especially great for children or seasonal home educators.

✦ Garden Wildlife Journal

Start a nature diary to record daily or weekly wildlife sightings from the kitchen window. Encourage drawing pictures of birds, sketching leaf shapes, or noting animal behaviours.

✦ DIY Bird Feeders

Use pinecones, peanut butter, and seeds to create natural bird feeders. Or recycle yoghurt pots and string for simple hanging feeders.

✦ Make a Hedgehog House

Use old wooden crates or boxes to build a hedgehog shelter. Tuck it into a quiet corner of the garden and line it with straw or dry leaves.

✦ Create Wildlife ID Cards

Print or draw simple identification cards for local garden birds, mammals, and insects. Keep them near the window for easy reference.

✦ Storytelling Prompt: The Secret Garden Watchers

Encourage children (or adults!) to write short stories or poems inspired by the animals they see—or imagine what goes on in the garden at night when no one is watching.

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Closing Thoughts

Whether it’s the bold chirp of a robin or the quiet rustle of a hedgehog in the dark, the Secret Garden is always teeming with life—even when we can’t see it. The view from the kitchen sink has taught me that sometimes, the simplest moments are the most magical.

This season, I hope you’ll take a moment to look out of your own window and discover the secret world that might be hiding just beyond the glass.

An Old Soul

 I am an old soul and often feel like I have been planted in the wrong time in history. I would have been happy to not have the pressures of modern technology and all that they bring.

To see mans lust for power, money and other things spewed out morning, noon, and night over the radio and television is enough to make anyone dispair. 

So I make time to escape to the lands and worlds created in the pages of books and sometimes, those lands and worlds are grasped and turned into television productions. I've recently come accross the period drama inspired by the Candleford books written by Flora Thomspson - Lark Rise to Candleford.

I am hooked. I'm tempted to binge watch it, but then it will be over all too soon. So I'll resist the urge and instead savour it slowly, escaping to a world that had it's own pressures but maintained a sense of humanity and care for the people that were neighbours. 

My daughter made herself a fantastic 2025 moodboard background for her desktop computer...

It got me to thinking that I want to do one myself. To spend a bit of time thinking about the things that are important to you and thing about how and where you want to spend your time. I think it is such a good idea to have something that inspires you, to remind yourself what it is that is important. To see the beauty in the world rather than all the wickedness that is forced upon us on the one device, that I for one, spend a lot of time on given my work. Yes, I think I will take a leaf out of my daughters book and work on that this week.

The garden continues to flourish and I'm taking joy in spending time in the garden, planting, feeling grounded in the things that remain the same and have done for thousands of years, even though the world feels like an unsafe, ever-changing, and hostile place.

I was washing the dishes in the kitchen sink this morning when I spotted this little fellow having a drink from the garden pond. I paused and watched him for a while ...

He picked at the offerings that had fallen from the feeder thanks to a resident squirrel...

I am always amazed by the life that happens in our gardens while we are busy with our daily tasks. Most of it goes unseen. But if you take the time to pause and notice...you will be rewarded with these little cameo moments of lives been lived out by the small creaturs that make your garden their home.

Yes, we live in a very busy, loud, messy world. But we can find peace in the small things every day if we just choose to notice.

Wishing you all a wonderful week.

Ordinary Days

It's been longer than I had intended since being here. I've thought about it a thousand times but March turned out to be a very busy and disruptive month. 

You see, our house sale fell through yet again! Second time! This time, the person who was buying our buyers house pulled out, as a result, we lost our onward purchase.

Initially we were a bit sad but we know that everything happens for a reason and that God has always been and remains good! We relisted our property and sold it within days for significantly more than we had hoped for. This has opened up an opportunity for my husband embark on a new business venture so we look forward to seeing how that will come about.

In the meantime, we have decided to rent while we look for another property. It will also mean that we will be able to do away with any lengthy chains which has proved so problematic for us so far. By renting, we will be ready to move quickly once we find our new home. 

So for the next few months, we are still in our lovely home which means there is no need to put off planting my vegetable seeds. Once they are big enough, they will go into pots so that when we do move, they can come with us.

Growing

 I've got tomatoes, beetroot, peas, beans and courgettes growing on the windowsill. You can see how much they have grown in just a few short weeks since planting them.

I have also been growing new spring onions from a bunch of spring onions I bought at the grocery store. You simply trim the roots halfway and pop them into some potting soil. It is amazing at how well it works!

Reading

I mentioned in a previous post that I had resolved to only read 'real' books in 2025 so to that end, I applied for another library card and paid a visit to my local library.

It was lovely to be back in a place surrounded by books. I spent a lovely hour choosing my reads for the next 4 weeks. I am looking forward to diving into this pile of books! The only author I am familiar with in this collection is Alexander McCall Smith. The Agatha Christie book is about her life and characters, written by Cathy Cook. Agatha Christie is my favourtie author so I'm looking foward to seeing what the author has to say.

In the Kitchen

It seems like we are just not getting though our bananas very quickly these days so I have made a couple of dozen banana bread muffins. I have frozen them in batches and take out 6 at a time for us to enjoy with our tea and coffee mid morning or mid afternoon.

Around the Home

As we are staying in our home for a few more months, I unpacked the boxes that we had packed before Christmas. I now have all my receipe books back in use!

We are still enjoying our the new layout of our spring reshuffle. This space is working well as a dining room so I'm glad that we will get to enjoy it for a couple more months.

I have also reinstated our milk delivery. I had stopped this a week before we were supposed to complete on our sale way back in October. Given our luck with the sale I decided that I was no longer going to live in a state of flux - it's just too stressful. I'll stop the delivery when those papers have been signed and there is no turning back! 

In the Garden

One of the good things about being in our house for another few months is that we get to watch the garden come back to life.

We build this garden from nothing and we love it so. It is a blessing to see it slowly come into it's own. At the moment, it is an explosion of yellow punctuated with the bright pinks from the tulips.

The Marsh Marigold seems to have come out of nowhere. One moment is was a compact mass of leaves hunkering down, and the next this...

The garden has responded well to the burst of warm weather we have been having. I've enjoyed hanging the washing outdoors to dry in the breeze and we have spent quite a bit of time pottering about the garden. 

It is looking Easter Egg Hunt ready! Yes, even though our children are adults, they still enjoy a good old hunt. I think it's the free chocolate! Plans for Easter will be underway next week and I'm looking foward to turning my thoughts and heart back to the simple joys of observing the liturgical year and nuturing those who cross my threshold.

Anyhoo lovelies, I've prattled on for long enough today. Have a lovely weekend and I'll see you back here next week.