Search Results for: blog garden your way to peace

Home and Garden Week in Review: Sep. 18-24

Here’s a list of this week’s titles. Everything from Glassware to Energy and all kinds of other stuff in between. To see these articles in full, just click here for the Home Blog archive, and click on the titles you’d like to read. September 18 * Glassware: Whatever Does It Mean? * Dining Room Equipment: Tablecloths * A Unique Way To Bring Peace To Your Home * Go with the Flow with a Pass Through September 19 * Not Your Basic Bookends * Measuring Cups: A Formidable Past * Sassy Sinks * Your Home: A to Z * Stainmaster Carpet … Continue reading →

A New Home For Your Rock Collection

My mom started collecting rocks when I was in my teens. Over the past two decades the little dishes filled with colorful stones that adorned corner tables, bathroom vanities, and her bedroom bureau grew into an impressive stockpile of stones in assorted shapes and sizes. Slowly but surely, my mom’s rocks had steadily invaded of our home. A few years ago it got to the point where my dad suggested that the rocks find a new home. After careful thought and consideration they decided that the rocks would be better displayed in a rock garden than in various rooms throughout … Continue reading →

Help Your Child Triumph Over Irrational Fears

Our family was visiting a botanical garden, and Kyle was very unhappy. As we walked through the trails between the trees and blossoming bushes, he covered his ears and squinted his eyes, sometimes humming to himself. “He’s afraid of bees,” his older brother informed me. I was somewhat surprised. I’d had an inkling he didn’t like bees, but now I was seeing the real depth of his fear. A couple times on our walk, for no apparent reason, Kyle would shriek and duck in horror, as if aliens were attacking. Sometimes I saw the culprit “bee” (several times it was … Continue reading →

Great Green Reads

Earth Day’s mission to increase environmental awareness means very little to young children, unless you make it relevant. Fortunately, there are a slew of kid-friendly books available to drive home the importance of preserving our planet.  The following affordable titles prove that you don’t have to spend a ton of green to go green: The Berenstain Bears Go Green “Going green isn’t hard to do. It’s good for the earth and me and you, too!” Who better to show kids how to take care of the earth’s precious natural resources than the Bear family? After all, the cuddly clan not … Continue reading →

Indoor Plants That Survive Anything

My home has a talent for killing plants. It’s not that I’m a bad gardener. Outside, with decent lighting conditions and water, I can grow plants with the best of them. I love gardening, and I’m all right at figuring out what plants need. What my house is lacking is light. I live in the dark Pacific Northwest, in a house that doesn’t often get full light, even though it’s not really shady. This is tricky and deceptive. To a human, the house looks good. Plants give it the thumbs down. Or the leaves down, more likely. What can you … Continue reading →

Make December Meaningful

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Last year at this time I was frantically planning our ward Christmas party. This year, I hope to be relaxing a bit more and taking care of a newborn babe. I have worked hard in previous months to get things “done” in an easy way like shopping online, leaving the decorating to someone else, and not planning too many activities. I look forward to sleepless nights with my little baby because I hope to be nursing by a Christmas tree and thinking about what is truly important this special time of year. I hope the slower pace will help me … Continue reading →

Plants That Are Dangerous For Cats

Many years ago, when I lived in a small apartment with two cats, I had a friend over for the first time. She was looking around our lovely little apartment, when all of a sudden my cat started to vomit violently. Oh yes, and things were coming out the other end of the cat too. It was full on cat festivities, and the friend looked moderately horrified as our chat came to an abrupt end and I packed the cat into a carrier to take to the emergency vet clinic – it was a holiday, of course. Several hundred dollars … Continue reading →

Turning Blue

Other blue plants for your garden might include Wandering Jew, which is a brilliant royal blue flower. Mick insists it is a weed because of the way this ground cover takes over, but I just love it because of the color. If you’re going to plant it be careful where you plant it though. The same goes for forget me nots. A sweet old fashioned ground cover flower in sky blue, but they can ruin rampant if left unchecked. Wandering Jew however has been known to cause allergies in dogs. So if you have a canine friend it might be … Continue reading →

For the Strength of Youth Series: Repentance

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Have you ever seen the old Mormon ad with the backpack loaded with bricks? The point of the ad is that sin weighs you down and that repentance can help you take the burden away so you don’t have to carry all that weight around. I recently attended a youth conference, and the speaker there related sin to weeds in the garden. They’re damaging and you know you have to get them out. But if you just pull the top of the weed out, it will grow back even bigger. But when you pull the whole weed including the root, … Continue reading →

The Prayer That Never Fails

The prayer is ‘Thy will be done.’ Recently I came across this is a novel by Jan Karon. At the time it made sense and didn’t sound so hard. But then God, as He so often does, made me put it into practice. In our family a situation occurred where this was tested to the limit. I spent a lot of time pleading, cajoling, arguing and trying to convince the Lord to answer my prayer the way I wanted Him to. I found endless reasons why it would be better for everyone the way I suggested. In the end I … Continue reading →