Lifegiving Home Launch Week:Giveaways Galore! Share & Win!

Eighteen inches of snow and still going. We are living through a record snow on launch week. Having been inside for 3 days because the plow has not cleared 2 feet of snow in our street, we are beginning to go a little stir crazy! Since all the Clarksons are hobbits at heart, eating has been a great comfort. Cheesy egg quesadillas, dipped in cherry preserves, (thanks to a generous friend!), fresh chocolate chip cookies and reading Out of the Silent Planet outloud by Joel, and Cheesy potato soup for dinner with candle light, music, and lots and lots of giggles about some funny happenings today.

God has provided us with so many pleasures to enjoy and to "Taste and see that He is good."

I am convinced that one of the ways we most profoundly reached our children's hearts was through great food, meal times together over much discussion of  ideals, issues, stories, world events, and a sharing of hearts. Both my boys always say they are lonely for the food and talk that they don't find in most of their circles.

Today, if it is a crust of bread and cheese or popcorn, make  your meals a feast of pleasure, friendship and build a rhythm in your life that will serve to encourage you for many years to come.

LAUNCH WEEK!

It's an exciting week around here as we celebrate the launch of The LifeGiving Home!  We're so glad you're joining us for the party.

THANKS FOR ALL OF YOU WHO SHARED ABOUT MY NEWEST BOOK. SEEMS THE WORD IS GETTING AROUND AND WE ARE SEEING LOTS OF BUZZ ALL OVER. YOU ARE MAKING THIS BOOK REACH WOMEN ALL OVER THE WORLD! I APPRECIATE ALL OF YOU, MY SWEET FRIENDS, SO MUCH.

And now for yesterday's winners!

Debbie, Becky C., Sheri G, Nicole N, and Alyssa Z won copies of The Lifegiving Home and The Lifegiving Home Experience!

Nicole M, Carol, Brittany, Adriel H, and Jeminah won copies of Music for the Lifegiving Home!

Rachel S won the books from Tyndale, and Danni S won the mug and devotional from Mercy is New!

Today, we have more giveaways. If you share on social media, to a group, send an email to a friend, whatever, tell us about it and we will enter you into the giveaways for today.

And remember! Sign up for the Launch Party, invite some friends for an evening of fun, and you will be entered in our final giveaways. We have added some of the prizes that will be given out on the last evening so go to the registration page and have a look. Remember, one woman and her friend will be flown to Colorado for a weekend with me and friends next summer. But you have to sign up for the webcast to win. Make it a memorable evening for you and your friends.

Here are today's giveaways!

#1.  Original Painting from Crystal Sutherland!

This is an original acrylic painting on a 5x7 canvas board, and then mounted to a white-washed display about 8x10 in size. Crystal says, "I depicted a pair of angels in my pieces because they represent protection, comfort, and guidance God gives us as His children, and I thought a representation of a mother and child would be perfect for the focus of Sally's book!"  Find more from Crystal at Crystal Sutherland Design !

#2.  Two Think Through the Bible Children's Devotionals from Amy Sanderson!

It is said that children are the messages to generations not yet seen.  They will carry the messages that are placed in their hearts today.  Let's marinate this generation of kids in God's Truth found in the Bible!  "Think Thru the Bible" is simple enough to read the short summaries and look at the pictures with young children; and includes longer explanations for an advanced understanding of God's plan in each section of the Bible.  You can order Think Thru the Bible, here!

#3.  2 sets of Princess Parables Sticker books!

Jeanna Young has been a friend of Sally's for many years. These lovely sticker books--one for each princess!--are a fun way to engage with the story and learn some wonderful character qualities along the way. You can find Jeanna blogging at www.theprincessparables.com  and  find the store with all the Princess Parables products at http://www.theprincessparables.com/store/!

#4. Book Pack: Crazy Little Thing Called Marriage and Bible Dinner Devotions from Tyndale Publishers!

Marriage is one of the puzzles we've been given by God.  Here, Dr. Greg and Erin Smalley offer 12 secrets to lifelong romance! Plus, a year of devotions to use at your dinner table.  Find more from Tyndale at your favorite bookstore!

We love giving away presents around here, so be sure to enter with Rafflecopter below!  To enter, visit Sally's Facebook page--we'd love to make sure you're seeing her posts!  And then come add your name and check for more ways to enter on our Rafflecopter, below.  Winners will be announced tomorrow! a Rafflecopter giveaway

Don't forget you can find Sally's newest books here!

Celebrating the Lifegiving Home Launch Week: Giveaways Galore!

Two little ones in two and 1/2 years, a blueberry eyed little girl with long straight brown hair and a hundred questions a day and a little baby boy who looked a bit like Winston Churchill with a head that was almost bigger than his little body, who just rolled around and grunted and growled--not the same baby noises I had become used to with Sarah. 

Living in Vienna, Austria without parents, support systems, and few friends, I tripped through my days seeking to find routine and rhythms so I could make some order out of life. After 30 days in a row with under 32 degree temperatures and 3 feet of snow lining the sidewalks outside our ancient little Austrian cottage, Clay recognized my cabin fever and dark clouds hovering over my emotions. 

"You need to get out for a bit and have time to be alone. Why don't you walk to the coffee shop down the street and have a little time by yourself. I will stay home from work for a few hours today."

That morning, I was reading in my Bible and stumbled upon Genesis 1:28, "And God blessed them and said, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it...." Right there a lightbulb went on--the first words out of God's mouth were of blessing. He encouraged the bearing of children to his first couple, Adam and Eve, and then He gave them the earth, as a family to rule over and to subdue.

The family, a man and woman, and children were the first institution through which God would bring His work to bear in the world. This was the beginning of my understanding that family was profoundly important in God's plan at the beginning. This was my first "aha" moment that my home was imbued with eternal significance....The Lifegiving Home: Creating a  place of Belonging and Becoming

Hurrah! Launch week, at last!

(Download this photo and send it to your friends in a personal email invitation.)

Giving birth to a book is a little akin to giving birth to a baby. The wait is long, the progress is slow, but finally, the day comes. Today is that day. To celebrate the launch, a number of my sweet friends have offered gifts to give away to you for helping me celebrate this day of birthing two new books.

I am  so excited to announce the official launch today of my newest books, The Lifegiving Home and The Lifegiving Home Experience! (You can order copies at your favorite bookstore by clicking here: The Lifegiving Home .)

Sarah and I hope you will be inspired by our stories, traditions, recipes, favorite books, home rhythms and so much more. Wouldn't it be wonderful to have homes all over the world that are outposts of the love, beauty, life and redemption of Our Lord where people could come to find Him within our walls? My prayer is that real life and real people will be inspired and transformed by these companion books.

 Help us celebrate the week by leaving comments, sharing with your friends.

Next Tuesday evening, we want to connect with women all over the world, who are gathered together in homes to encourage one another in this amazing task of building a home.

Invite your friends, bring treats to share, connect to me in my webcast where I will be sharing some favorite stories, two of my favorite recipes, giving away prizes galore, including a beautiful printable poster of the 24 Family Ways, books, music cd's, kid's journals and the grand prize of a weekend for 2 at my house here in Colorado--with flight paid for, lodging, food and a weekend of inspiration. 

Sign up to come to our celebration party live webcast a week from today, February 9. (You will not be entered into the giveaways unless you sign up for the webcast.)

Learn more and register here: Launch Party Registration

Each day this week, we will share a story from our lives, some podcasts and gifts galore!

Remember, the grand prize will be for one woman and a friend of her choosing to come for a 3 day trip, staying in a hotel, and attending a small private conference in my home. To enter into this contest, you must have signed up for the launch party. Five finalists will be chosen on Monday, February 8, and the final winner will be announced at the launch party on December 9.

 So be sure to also sign up the friends who will attend your party so that they can have a chance to win, too.

Enjoy and check back all week for more giveaways--and to see if you won any of each day's prizes!

You can order copies of our newest books here: The Lifegiving Home

We hope to encourage you to make your home a place of welcome!

To that end, today's giveaways are:

#1. 5 Copies of the Books!  One copy of each book will be sent to the winners.

#2.  5 Copies of Joel Clarkson's newest CD, created to reflect the book!

This beautiful album, Music for the Lifegiving Home, was Inspired by the book, "The Lifegiving Home." This delightful collection of piano and string instrumental compositions immerses the listener in the rhythms of home. Each track corresponds to a different month of the year, and captures the joy of celebrating life in every season. Journey through a world of elegant soundscapes, with soaring lyrical melodies, and warm, elegant harmonies. 

"I have been listening to this gorgeous music in my home every day since I bought my copy at the Mom Heart Conference. It has brought a whole new atmosphere to my home. My whole family almost has all the tune memorized." SJB

Joel Clarkson is an award winning composer and orchestrator and has composed several film scores, recorded 4 professional cd's of original music, and contributed to several award winning scores for television and film. (Available on Amazon)

3. One copy of Kingdom Woman, and one Pray Prayer Journal from Tyndale!

Crystal is a friend and we're so glad to have this book to offer today!  And the Pray prayer journal will be a great place to record what you're bringing to God during your own quiet times. Find more from Tyndale at your favorite bookseller!

#4.  One coffee mug and devotional from Mercy Is New!

11oz white coffee mug with dark pink verse on both sides.

“New mercies every morning; great is His faithfulness. Lamentations 3:23”

Dishwasher and microwave safe.

            and the devotional ...

Spend 40 days reading and listening to what God has to say about waiting on Him alone. Each day offers 1 Scripture passage on waiting on God alone, one prayer, a short devotional and journaling lines. 

Find more from Candace at Mercy Is New!

 We hope you will enter to win one of these four giveaways!  We have so many gifts, we're doing a giveaway once every 24 hours, so you only have through 8pm MST to enter.  Today, we'd like you to do so by entering your email in the box here on the upper right corner of the blog page, so you can receive each new post here in your email.  Then, enter your name below in the Rafflecopter box!  Other options there, too. And leave us a comment to let us know you're joining us! Winners announced tomorrow!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And of course, don't forget to order your copy of the book from your favorite bookseller, here!

Thanks so much for all the wonderful comments from those of you who have already read the book and reviewed it. I am so grateful for your wonderful encouragement. So happy you are being inspired by the books.

Announcing The LifeGiving Home Resources Page! A New Podcast about Home

Homes are like gigantic treasure chests to be filled with our own personal artifacts of life.

Sally Clarkson, The Lifegiving Home

Hurrah for Launch Week!

I am so excited. I feel like a little girl with great anticipation!   Living this message over the weekend and traveling through memories with sweet friends and hundreds of women just increased my anticipation. Such a great, heart-warming concept:

Home as a place where people feel they belong, and the laboratory of life where all in its walls can grow into the people God created them to be.

We have just wrapped up the 2016 Denver MomHeart conference.  What a wonderful time with so many friends, both old and new! We pray everyone left with a renewed vision for home, as well as a determination to offer hospitality to others.  I feel so privileged to be a part of what God is doing in the lives of women all over the world who love Him. We hope to tape one of the conferences so everyone can have a part in this years very profound message: Building the Lifegiving Home: Creating a Place of Belonging and Becoming. We all long for home, roots, a people and history to feel a part of--and woohoo! The books are out!

And today, we are launching our resource pages to provide lots of ideas for building the treasure chest of your home with new ideas!

Launch week is finally here--so much excitement for us all.  And so today, we are glad to be ready to welcome you in to the new Lifegivinghome.com!  Here, we have extensive lists of our family's very favorite resources in many areas--favorite books, things to memorize, tv and movies -- all kinds of wonderful topics.

Our plan is to offer these lists so you can return to them at anytime.  We'll be adding posts periodically which will discuss and give more details, so you can hear how they've been used in our home.  And we'd love to hear from you on those pages also--feel free to offer your own suggestions and favorites to the comments!  We hope this will be a great resource for you as you do your own homebuilding.

Be sure to order your copy of The Lifegiving Home and The Lifegiving Home Experience, here, from your favorite bookseller! And be sure to come back each day this week, as the giveaways begin tomorrow!

Today, I have a new podcast for you! Please subscribe and share it with your friends! I am so grateful for so many of you who are helping me share the message of this book! Tomorrow starts an amazing launch week with lots of prizes that my friends have provide for me to give away to celebrate.

Spread the word so that we can see godly homes springing up with the Light and Life of Christ all over the world! So excited and so thankful.

Listen and Subscribe to HERE

A LifeGiving Home Book Club

 

Hi Friends!

Feeling alone or exhausted through the journey of marriage and parenting in seasons of my family life, I always wished for someone to speak into my heart, to pray with me, to do life with me. But with 17 moves, often I could not find that friend.

That is why I am so excited to share a place where you can find fellowship, ask questions, be encouraged right where you are. We will have an online Study where you will find women like yourself interacting with all of the issues of home that you face.

I'm so excited to invite you to join a book club right here at SallyClarkson.com. My sweet friend Christin Slade will be hosting the study and I'm so excited to have her share her thoughts and experiences on the LifeGiving Home.

We will begin Friday, February 12th with chapters 1 & 2. You can see the full schedule below:

Schedule

Feb. 12 - Chapters 1 & 2 Feb. 19th - Chapters 3 & 4 Feb. 26th - Jan, Feb, Mar Mar. 4 - April, May, June Mar. 11 - July, August, Sept. Mar 18. Oct, Nov, Dec.

Each Friday Christin will post some ideas from the chapters of the book as well as something she implements in her own home with her family.

We invite you to share your comments and ideas with us here each Friday and invite a friend who my want to go through the book in community!

The essence of home is not necessarily a structure. What makes a home is the life shared there, wherever that may be. And cultivating the life of home requires intentionality, planning, and design. There must be someone (or several someones) to craft the life, the beauty, the love, and the inspiration that overflows from that place. -The LifeGiving Home

If you wan to join us and haven't ordered the book yet, you can order it from several different retailers here. We would love to have you join us!

There is no need to sign up. Just come here after reading chapters 1 & 2 on February 12 and we will have some great discussions.

A Lifegiving Home Webcast! & a new podcast!

The  Life Giving Home is a story that says "Welcome." It has been our heart and our prayer in helping Sally launch this book for others to realize the capacity and beauty and ministry in their homes, where the artistry of God is displayed through the personalities and gifts he has given to each one of you. We see home as outposts for God's Kingdom in the midst of the difficulties of this world, a place that is a sacred haven to your family and to all those who visit there, a light shining in the darkness, and a place that is thriving and full of life, where you find true belonging.

So many of you have written and expressed your own feelings of loneliness, of longing for friends or a mentor, and  that's one of the reasons that we decided that when Sally launched this book, we would have a grand party and invite all of you! Not just to celebrate the release of this new work from Sally and Sarah, but to give you an opportunity to gather together.

So, on Tuesday night, February 9th, we're celebrating together with a webcast from the Clarkson's home in Colorado! We want to encourage you to register for this free event and to ask your friends to join you, so that as Sally and Sarah share their story, you will be inspired to cultivate your own stories of beauty and home and share them with one another- building friendships with like minded women that can encourage you!

The Webcast will  also include a chat box where you can ask questions and talk with Sally directly, and have an opportunity to win some amazing prizes throughout the night, including the grand prize of an all expense paid trip for one person and a friend to fly to visit Sally at her home in Colorado this summer.

We not only want to encourage you to register and celebrate with us, we want to equip you as you love others with simple hospitality.

 So, When you register for the webcast, you will receive:

-A Digital Invitation to the webcast that you can share with friends on email or social media. (Shown here at the top of this blog post)

-A beautiful digital print featuring a quote from the book that you can frame in your home or display during your webcast party.

A beautiful 24 Family Ways  Art Print that lists all the 24 Family Ways!

-Printable Recipe cards featuring some of Sally's own recipes

Blank Printable Recipe cards to be able to exchange your own favorites with friends at the webcast.

-Inspiration for hosting a webcast party, or any gathering, with ideas for how to pray for your guests, prepare, simple ideas to for appetizers to serve and how to cultivate a great conversation that reaches the heart.

We do hope you will join us and that you will be encouraged and have a fun night with new or old friends! Don't forget to order your books now so that each member of your party has a copy to take home!

Sally and I had an opportunity to speak with one of our like minded friends, Kristen Welch, of We Are That Family recently and wanted to share our time with you in a new podcast. Kristen has written a beautiful and necessary book about how to raise our children to be servants and leaders, to find their identity in the Lord and how to develop a strong family culture. We hope you enjoy listening to our conversation with her!

Blessings to you today,

Kristen Kill

Seeing Those in Your Home with the Eyes of God

Tears streaming down his little face, ruddy red from crying, my little one stood  said, "I'm sorry, mama. I know you are sleepy, but I just couldn't get to sleep without one more kiss. My brain wouldn't let me go to sleep unless you kissed me and prayed with me one more time."

This nightly routine had gone on for years. Later I was to discover that the plague in my little boy's heart had a name, OCD. As a young child, he could not say why he could not stay in bed like his brother and sisters. But, as his mama, I prayed to God, "Let me see the inner workings of this child you have placed into  my hands. Show me how to guide this little one to you. Show me when to discipline, when to give grace. Give me understanding."

God showed me that his behavior was not an issue of his disobedience, his heart was sweet. It was an issue of his little brain that never turned off.

Each of my four were different. All had quirks and differing personalities that, many times, were a mystery. But, I knew that I was God's agent, His hands of love, His voice of encouragement, His ways of truth for those He had trusted into my hands.

"Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it."

The Psalms told me that my children were a gift from God--as they were, with their color of eyes, their color and texture of hair, their various personalities, desires, loves--and weaknesses and vulnerabilities. Each of my little ones wanted to be known, loved as they were, and honored as a child made in the image of God who was designed to fulfill a purpose in this world, a part in His greater play in history. This they were created to find in our home.

But I knew that the place of my worship, my obedience, was to treat them as a gift, to serve them because God had trusted them into my hands, placed them in my home. Until a mama accepts the unique puzzle that she has been given, and submits to the limitations of that puzzle out of love for God, she will fight against the burden of raising children every day. There is an illusion that if we find the right formula, the most perfect instruction manual, that somehow we can control our children, our lives, the outcomes.

But God asks us to live by faith, to be obedient to His ways, and to trust Him with the outcome.

My children, those who come into the walls of my home, my family and friends, are divine appointments from God where I live to show His reality by generously pouring out my life because He generously poured out His life for me.

I am so honored today to be on the podcast of Jefferson and Alyssa Bethke's podcast where we talk together about Creating a Lifegiving Home. I love their hearts for God, their desire to encourage, and their passion to become the parents God wants them to be. A sweet time, indeed.

Go Here to find our discussion today. Anything and Everything with Jeff and Alyssa Bethke

This is the time to order my book, The Lifegiving Home, as we will be studying the book together in a book club in just a couple of weeks. Can't wait to jump in to the chapters with you. Stay tuned for more information about this soon.

Getting to the Heart of Hospitality and a New Podcast !

"Come in and sit for a while and let's be friends," were the best words I had heard in months. My sweet friend, also new to Austria, and our work in Eastern Europe, was the first person in 3 months to actually have me in her home for a meal. I had gone to language school, found my way around this new strange city, learned how to buy groceries with my very limited German, but I longed for a personal touch. Loneliness as I had never felt it, thrummed through the beats of my heart. I wished for someone to talk to who understood the "foreigness" of being in a country where few people fluently spoke my native language.

I even remember what she served me that night--meatloaf, cottage cheese and steamed broccoli. Not fancy, but it seemed so familiar and I remember it as one of the best meals of my life, because is was served with such kindness and love. She extended the hospitality of Jesus to me and it warmed me to my toes.

Hospitality comes from the same root word as hospital, hospice, and hotel. Behind the words is the idea that hospitality seeks to provide for, protect and care for the person who stays in your home. Hospitality is really committing to caring for the emotional, physical, spiritual needs of someone as long as they are in your home.

So often, we consider hospitality to be something that symbolizes perfect rooms with lovely decor, a well prepared meal in the order of a Martha Stewart evening.

Yet, the history of the word was much more about heart than it was about performance. The Heart of hospitality is captured in the last supper when Jesus lovingly prepared for his last evening with His beloved disciples. He prepared for these weary men he called his friends by choosing a quiet room, away from the noisy crowds. Food was carefully cooked and laid out to appease their manly appetites. Each man was served by having his dusty, dirty feet washed by the gentle hands of their master.

Candlelight flickered as the shadows of the setting sun creeped along the walls of the old room. The comfort of being well provided for set the stage for their hearts to be open to the final, lasting words He desired to speak to the hearts of the men who would carry the kingdom messages into a dark and demanding world.

Our home is the place where we offer the hospitality of Christ to our children, our spouses, our friends and to the needy who live with us inside our walls.

Cultivating a heart for hospitality begins with a mental grid of seeing those in your home as a divine appointment allowed by God to extend His generous and gentle love, His words of healing, His promise of hope.

Join Kristen Kill and me today as we share from our heart some of the messages you will find in my new book, The Lifegiving Home.

Be sure to order your copy of The Lifegiving Home and The Lifegiving Home Experience this week so you can join our Celebration Party and be inspired with great ideas for your home in 2016.

Register for the party and invite your friends!

Celebrating the weekend with a Great Italian Feast

"I reach hearts by cooking meals, by washing sheets and fluffing pillows, by reading a favorite book one more time even though I have it memorized."

Sally Clarkson, The Lifegiving Home

Oh, no! It's dinner time again and everyone will want to eat!"

But it is the rhythms, the regular meals, the daily traditions that make memories and spell love in the hearts of my family. Meals make memories.

Do you ever feel like it's hard one more night to figure out what everyone wants to eat?

I have had a pretty overwhelmingly busy week--launch, arranging details, hotel rooms, meals, meeting with Clay, writing my talks for the Mom Heart Conference, and just living life with my present family of four. And every night this week when dinner comes around, with several of us trying to lose the Christmas weight, I wonder what to make?

However, Friday night starts our weekend and we take off on the weekends and eat our favorite meals. We are pretty healthy 5 days a week, but weekends are for celebrating. In my home, having a stash of my favorite "go to" meals, helps me not to think--but just to to recipes I know by heart. Food makes memories, food draws hearts, food soothes weary bodies.

It will smell like a fine Italian restaurant in our home tonight, and it is all due to a beautiful recipe I have made for years.- Spaghetti Pie! ( It is Nathan's favorite, so I make it every time he comes home! A definite comfort food for everyone! And it is easier than Lasagna--but just as pleasing!

Since I am writing about home a lot lately, I thought I would give you a window into one of our favorite meals that brings comfort to all because it is so familiar and tasty.

This recipe begs to be doubled or even tripled! It is a quick and easy way to make a dinner that tastes like mom’s homemade lasagna, although it only takes a fraction of the time to assemble and cook! I love to make lunch - size spaghetti pies by using a muffin tin. This gives you 12 go-to after school snacks or a great addition to your salad at lunch! Cook, cool, wrap up in plastic and place them all in a gallon size ziplock bag and place in the refrigerator.

Ingredients: 2 tsp olive oil 1/2 cup onion - diced 8 oz baby portabella mushrooms - diced 1 pound ground beef (or 1/2 pound Italian sausage 1/2 pound ground beef) 1/2 tsp garlic salt (or 1 clove fresh minced garlic) 1 tsp dried oregano (or Italian seasoning) 1 tsp dried basil Salt and pepper to taste 6 - 8 oz. spaghetti noodles (depending on your pie dish) 2 Tbsp butter (optional) 3/4 cup parmesan cheese 2 eggs - well beaten 1 cup cottage cheese - blended 1 8 oz can of diced tomatoes 1 6 oz can of tomato paste OR 1 small can of tomato sauce 1 tsp sugar 1 - 2 cups fresh mozzarella cheese - grated *Optional: pinch of Italian seasoning to finish on top of mozzarella

 Directions: In your skillet, over medium high heat, saute onions in olive oil until translucent. Add the mushrooms and saute until cooked through. If using fresh garlic, add garlic and stir into the onion and mushroom mixture for 1 minute. Add ground beef to the skillet and stir until completely cooked. Add dried herbs, salt & pepper to taste. In a colander, carefully drain off any excess oil. Return the meat mixture to the skillet and return to a medium heat. Add diced tomatoes, tomato paste, sugar and garlic salt if not using fresh garlic. Turn off heat and set aside. You can also use immersion blender for sauce if your kids are not fond of a more rustic style sauce with diced tomatoes. This will make your sauce a smoother spaghetti meat sauce.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook spaghetti per instructions on package. Drain. Then stir in butter, parmesan, and eggs into the warm spaghetti. Pour spaghetti mixture into a 10 inch pie dish and press in to form a spaghetti crust. Spread the cottage cheese on top of the crust. Add meat sauce mixture. Bake uncovered for 20 minutes then remove from oven and top with shredded mozzarella cheese and return to oven to bake for 5 minutes longer to melt cheese.

Cultivating a delicious meal that "wows" your family doesn't have to be time consuming and filled with extreme difficulty. Turn your home into your favorite Italian restaurant tonight. Light candles, put down your favorite red tablecloth, and you can even grab the "Little Italy 1930 Radio" station from Pandora for free (it is so much fun and really creates the Italian ambiance)!

Enjoy Little Italy tonight!

Happy Weekend!

Creating A Home That Says Welcome!

Home: A Place of Welcome

By Sarah

I arrived home this past Christmas at the end of a rather grueling journey. The process of any flight from the UK to CO is quite an undertaking to begin with (bus, multiple airplanes/airports, then shuttle, all with huge and heavy suitcases in tow since I’m forever trying to shift a bit more of my library overseas), but this one had included stopovers in odd places, late flights, and a blizzard that stranded me at the Denver airport after arrival. On top of this was the sense of twilight zone disconnect from self and place that modern travel and jet lag produces in a weary mind. Wendell Berry has written of airports spaces of great anonymity - something that rings truer to me every time I travel alone, feeling myself unnamed and isolated in the great crowds and strange places. All this combined meant that by the time I stumbled through the foot of new snow up to the door of the Clarkson home, I had a frayed soul, exhausted body, and a mind that felt like a whirlwind out of which I looked out upon the world.

But as I stood upon the doorstep, I glanced to my left and saw something so eminently familiar I’d almost missed it: the old, chalkboard sign hung by my parent’s front door on which the name of every new guest is scratched. Welcome home Sarah. This time it was my name, and in the instant of spotting it, the storm in my mind began to subside. Out of the frantic, hurried, grey hours of the past days, I was pulled into the particularity of that place on earth, where people who knew my name and my story were waiting to greet me.

Then the door opened and arms were thrown round me - two pairs at once. I felt the soft familiarity of my mother’s touch and the tangle of my sister’s hair. I was drawn into a space prepared and lit especially for me. Having hugged each member of my family, I set down my bag and looked around the home waiting to greet me. Christmas lights tangled with the green of the tree, my grandmother’s Christmas dishes lay waiting on the set table, candles were lit, the old family favorite music played and I was drawn into the living room where a cup of tea (for oh, we love strong tea, we Clarksons) was waiting to warm my weary bones.

As news was exchanged and stories told, I settled into the place that had been prepared for me and marveled at the way that a home where one is loved and known, even in the first moments of welcome, can repair and restore the lonely exhaustion of the soul. To be known, remembered, desired, and to come to a place where those qualities of love have been enfleshed in food and candlelight and comfortable rooms is what it means to come home.

Home is the place where we are known, where love has prepared a room for us.

Home is the place where our stories our remembered, our griefs comforted.

Home is the place to which we can return from the wild storm of the outer world, to heal, to rest, to remember who we are and what it is we were meant to be.

But homes like that are only present by the grace of those who keep, prepare, and enrich them.

I knew, on that Christmas arrival day, that every candle had been lit, the rooms cleaned, the food made, by hands driven by love. I knew the amount of work it took to welcome me back, because I had done it many times before for other returning Clarksons. Often, in my teenage years, I questioned the amount of preparation we invested for each person who came to our home. Now, as the guest myself, I knew, in the moment of rich, prepared welcome, why we did it, and what it meant to those who returned.

The world is roamed by lonely, homeless people. We live in an age that isolates, a time that drives us to hurry and harried living. We live, often, in the fractured pain of broken relationships, of broken homes, with the feeling that we cannot return to a place of beauty or love. But home can always be built anew. All it takes is a single heart given in willingness to love, create, and keep. I have had to begin anew in every place I have moved as a single adult, but the creation of beauty, the formation of friendship, the lighting of a candle… its always possible. The home my parents have built, the family home to which I have the grace to return, began with that willingness to create a place of belonging in student housing, a tiny apartment, or one more new house as they moved yet again. It was built by years of love and grit, but it became a place of belonging because of the faithfulness that undergirded it.

I tasted that long-given love as I walked in the door at Christmas and was embraced by the sense of belonging, of welcome, of love. That is what home truly is. As you read, as you love, as you give in your own lives, may you too both find and keep the beauty of home.

GREAT NEWS!

Do you want the books now?

MY WONDERFUL PUBLISHERS HAVE SAID THAT IF YOU ORDER THE BOOKS, AND SEND YOUR RECEIPT TO momentum@tyndale.com, you can receive a pdf of the book ahead of time to read portions before the actual book ships. (All they ask if that you please do not share the pdf with others as it is copyrighted material and is for private use only.)

Be inspired today!

Routines That Give Children Security and Love

It is useless for you to work so hard
 from early morning until late at night, anxiously working for food to eat;
 for God gives rest to his loved ones. ~Psalm 127:2, New Living Translation

Keeping "Home" as a place of lifegiving, inspiration and love requires constant attention because it is the place of life 365 days of the year. There will never be a moment in the life or story of home when everything will be perfect, but constantly simplifying my home, ordering my place and days keeps me moving toward a place that gives life back to me and all who live in its walls.

In my new book, The Lifegiving Home, I have listed 5 areas where I have tried to make plans each year that will help bring some order and rhythm to the days we live together. Here are some questions I ponder each year for planning.

• What daily rhythms will help me accomplish what needs to be done and enhance our relationships? How can I include meaningful expectations of the work to be accomplished and the ways we will spend our time together? Morning, noon, and night bring their own demands and practices, and a good plan will take these into consideration. Planning daily rhythms—meals, devo- tions, cleanup, bedtime routines—should take into consideration the abili- ties and personalities of everyone who lives in the home.
• What chores need to be done each day? Who will do them, and how will I make sure they are done? Housework, cleaning, paying bills, yard work, shopping, hosting guests, setting the table, washing dishes—all of these must be done. Establishing routines for handling these things builds an expectation for my family or roommates that will bring a constant stream of order to our lives.
• Am I doing something now that doesn’t need to be done? How can I simplify my work to provide more time to do what I value most? I want to avoid “mile-wide and inch-deep” commitments and commit to a few activities that are central to my values.
• What daily and weekly rituals will bring pleasure and mark important areas in which I can invest my moments? Celebrating life on a regular basis keeps me happier and more energized in the midst of caring for my four children, my husband, and our family of friends. I have learned to provide life rituals that bring energy back to my heart, mind, and soul—Saturday night movie and pizza, Sunday afternoon tea times, going out for dinner as a family every Friday night.Many years ago, Clay, my very organized husband, gave me an acronym to work from. 'the categories below are just general areas but the most prominent. He said if I made a plan for managing the following areas, life would be more centered--and he was right:

Family--Personal relationships, rhythms and routines in our home that will keep us close, loving, moving ahead in a healthy way, is the place I have to start. What intentional routines do I need to establish in order to be sure our relationships, faith and love are growing.

Information--Planning for organizing, throwing out, filing important emails, receipts, addresses, etc. is a constant for me. I never catch up, but having a plan keeps me from feeling constantly overwhelmed.

Rest--planning to take care of our need for recreation, rest, a break from the demands of life every week, insures that we will not burn out and get totally out of order in our personal relationships and will promote  more long term health.

Stuff--clutter, clothes, kitchen stuff, seasonal stuff--taking time to simplify every few months keeps me from always being overwhelmed by all of our stuff. Having a plan for how to order it all the time gives me goals for decluttering every day.

Time-Learning to manage my commitments and demands up against my limitation for our time keeps me from getting our lives out of control. Margin is always required in each day because every day there are interruptions.

There is no one right way to live life in a home. No one size of routine or rules or order fits all…. But the more carefully we plan our days, the better our homes will provide us with freedom and enjoyment as well as purpose and accomplishment. … Familiar rhythms and routines give structure that provides leadership and personal care to all who live there. When children and guests know what to expect, they also know how to ask for their personal needs to be met and understand what part they play in the life of the home. ~ Sally Clarkson, The Lifegiving Home

Here are some questions for you to think through.  I pray they’ll help you develop your own rhythms and routines!

• What chores need to be done each day? Who will do them, and how will I ensure they’ve been done?

• What daily rhythms will help me accomplish what needs to be done and embrace our relationships?

• Am I doing something now that doesn’t really need to be done? How can I simplify my work to provide more time to do what I value most?

• What daily and weekly rituals will bring pleasure to my life and mark important areas in which I can invest my time?

These are just a very few thoughts contained in the chapter about ordering the new year in The Lifegiving Home. Hope they help you this month!