Hello sweet friends! You guys!!! What an immense blessing you have been to me this year! And WOW! What an amazing 2018 it has been! When I look back on the last 10 years of my life, I stand in sheer amazement of how the Lord has allowed His glory to unfold in my life. Do you guys realize that I only know you because I experienced the greatest heartache of my life? I often wonder where I'd be if 2009 hadn't entered my life..... If I'd still be on the path of "keepin' up with the Joneses?" *face palm* But because redemption is WHOLEHEARTEDLY real, the Lord blessed me with an amazing second chance AND gave me the incredible, humbling blessing of building a community of sweet friends all centered around a little broken down cottage in north Louisiana. Man o man I'm grateful for y'all. In the early days of my marriage falling apart, I was adamant that however this story transpired, it WOULD NOT be lived in vain. It took a LONG time to get to the place I am today, but I'm truly living … Read More
Creating a Cottage Square Foot Garden
About six years ago, I REALLY started to watch what I was eating. I made a conscious effort to only put things in my body that are as close to their natural state as possible. That means cutting out all things processed and mostly all breads and sweets (heaven help me). While I’m not fully vegan, per se, my edible items of preference are not meats, but vegetables. And LOTS of them. And with the cottage, moving to Louisiana, and simplifying, I decided it was time to grow my own food. I’m definitely not a vegetable garden novice, as years ago when I served in public schools, it was easy to plant, grow and maintain a summer and early fall food supply. But when I shifted roles and my career became more demanding, vegetable gardening didn’t come quite as easy. But now, with a beautiful backyard and a perfect place for a garden spot, I decided it was time to give growing vegetables another go! And I decided to try my hand at a little square foot garden! In case you’d like to do … Read More
The Cottage Landscape
With the interior of the cottage basically finished, it became time to shift my efforts to the exterior, in particular the new landscaping and yard. If you remember, the front of the cottage was completely overgrown with Red Tip Photinias and the backyard, well, was just COMPLETELY overgrown with ANYTHING and EVERYTHING. Years of neglect allowed for all kinds of bulbs, poison ivy and other shrubbery to absolutely take over. In a nutshell, EVERYTHING, except a beautiful tulip tree, one dogwood and a few other smaller trees in the back corner, was essentially wiped out and I was presented with a blank slate. As with the rest of the restoration, I was adamant everything stay as close to “period” as possible. Meaning, I didn’t want any vegetation flanking the cottage that would not have been native to Louisiana in 1926 (the year the cottage was built). After spending hours researching, and talking with several landscaping experts, I settled on a design rich in both texture and … Read More
Home for the Holidays
If you would’ve asked me 15 years ago where I’d be spending Christmas 2017, NEVER would I have told you in a beautifully restored 1926 cottage in the seat of Webster Parish. Never. I said more than once when I left Louisiana I would never return (to live). But a funny thing happens as you get older. Priorities shift, life happens and you find yourself longing for home, surrounded by those who love you most. It’s been almost 4 years since the Lord laid a return home to Louisiana on my heart and just over a year since I traded the palm trees on the south Texas coast for the towering pines of north Louisiana. Over the course of 2017, I’ve found myself shedding joyous tears, silently whispering, “This was the right decision. This was the right decision.” It was TERRIFYING for me to return to Webster Parish. I’m a totally different person than I was when I left in 1995, returned in 1998, only to leave again in 2001. I worried about where I’d go to church, who I’d be friends … Read More
Reclaiming and Restoring the Cottage
Y’all there is nothing like seeing something old made new again! Show me an old, broken down piano turned into a desk or a coal cart turned into a coffee table and my heart skips a beat! My mom was with me the first time I saw the inside of the cottage, and she remembers thinking to herself there was NO WAY I was going to proceed with this project due to its overall condition. Little did she know as we were tiptoeing through years of neglect and piles of memories, my heart was leaping! I fell deeper in love with the cottage and was more determined than ever to reclaim and restore every square inch, turning what was old, into something restored and new! From the onset of this restoration project, I’ve been determined to reuse and repurpose as many of the original architectural details as possible. And while I have included various modern, updated features, I’ve worked hard to incorporate many details original to the cottage in 1926. What’s also interesting is I’ve been able to … Read More
Creating a Space for Community at the Cottage
Back in 2014, I learned about a sweet college friend, Sarah Harmeyer, who began a mission to love others well by simply inviting them to share a meal around her table. After chasing her career and feeling somewhat underwhelmed, Sarah eventually founded Neighbor’s Table: A Love Mission. Her focused shifted from “all things her” to “all things others.” Celebrating and loving her neighbors made her come alive! I heard Sarah speak at a conference and share the story of meeting her goal to gather 500 people around her table, in ONLY one year! My heart leapt! She shared about inviting her friends, her neighbors and even people off the streets to join her in a meal around a large, cedar-style farmhouse table her dad skillfully constructed for her backyard. That was 2012. To date, Sarah has served over 2500 neighbors around her table! I don’t believe it was any coincidence the Lord stirred my heart around this same time to move home to Louisiana. I searched high and low for the … Read More
Watching Dry Bones Come Alive
Have you ever had the opportunity to watch dry bones come alive? I’m guessing not physically as Ezekiel witnessed in Chapter 37 of his book, but hopefully you’ve figuratively experienced something dead and dry being brought back to life! If you’ve never been a part of such a story, it’s an AMAZING experience, ESPECIALLY if the Lord allows the dry bones to be yours! Back in 2009, I was forced to enter my own valley of dry bones. Everywhere where I looked, I saw hopelessness, devastation and no way out. I spent hours on my face crying out before the Lord, begging Him to remove the yoke placed upon me. You see, prior to 2009, my life was storybook (or so I thought). I had a successful career, my dream home, Caribbean vacations and was married to my college sweetheart. All of the things that *matter* in life, right?! So when I entered the valley of dry bones, I thought my life was over. Everything I knew to be true was suddenly dead and voraciously stripped away. For years and … Read More