This week . . .

The cherry blossoms on the dining room table faded and were replaced with some branches of red-flowering currant.

My son bought his first car. He saved, researched, shopped and found just the right make, model and mileage. He paid cash, and bought a 3 year old Prius, for his daily commute to and from work. And, he shopped around for a good deal on insurance, and maybe found his dad and I a new company (it's time for us to shop around for insurance, too).

I began hardening off the tomato seedlings that I started from seeds. They'll be ready to plant under a row cover in another 2 weeks.

My husband began taking out some overgrown shrubs, that we were going to hire out the work for, saving us about $200, (after cost of renting a chain saw). And I can already see that this year's strawberries and raspberries will get a better dose of sun.

I got the laundry rack out again. I looked it over. The metal supports need de-rusting. Last summer that sounded like too much work. This year, I think I can do it in the next few weeks. But I've been using the rack to dry several loads of wash, anyway (just avoiding the rust areas).

My sourdough starter did not die of neglect over winter, but sprang back to life over the weekend,

and I baked two loaves of San Francisco sourdough.

I had music playing in the background, from a small kitchen radio. It's just a little thing, but it was soothing. I hadn't had music on regularly since the holiday season.

I made myself a hazelnut latte one afternoon, when I was really needing a pick-me-up. I have a bottle of hazelnut syrup in the cupboard that needs using up. This seemed like a good day for it.

(File this one under odd things I do so that I will appear to be "more normal" to outsiders.) I ran out of liquid hand soap for the kitchen sink. Our family has just been using liquid dish soap for the last week. So, I poured some of the dish soap into the hand soap dispenser, but it looked too neon pink. I diluted it with water, still too pink. So, with about 20 minutes to spare before my son's friends would begin to trickle in (they use our kitchen to cook their dinner every Sunday evening), I did a little fix-up job on the dish soap. The label on the soap dispenser says "lavender and chamomile", so that was my inspiration.

I got out the blue food coloring and stirred a bit in. Perfect color. Then I added some lotion. Great feel on the hands. Next I dropped in a few drops of lavender soap fragrance. Beautiful fragrance.

And finally, as I had added water at one point in the beginning, my creation was a bit too thin, so I worked in some thick hand cream. This is such a nice hand soap to use now. It cleans my hands without stripping the oils. I may just continue to "make" this hand soap in the future.

The tulips on the deck are just now beginning to bloom. Aren't spring flowers wonderful?!

How about you? What's new at your place?

Beautiful Everyday Living: the dinner hour

No, this is not a post about how beautiful I think our house is (although it does have some shining features). This post is about how we bring beauty into something so simple as weekday family dinners.

All of our lives are so jam-packed with activity -- meetings, sports and dance practice, school, church activities, work (and the long commute home). These extras can pull a family apart, just at the time of day when we're needing to come together.

What we all really need is a pause, a time to enjoy our families, a good meal, and the homes that we've taken the time to make special and unique.

Beautiful everyday living is our family's way of savoring the moment, and in this case, the weekday family dinner.

For the last month, we've been having our family dinners in the formal dining room. It's such a perfect place for dinner. There are no visual distractions, such as pots and pans, a pile of mail, or schoolbooks. Those distractions only serve to remind us that we need to hurry up so we can get back to the work of life.

Well, why is it so important that those dishes get done ASAP? Why do I really need to go through the day's mail this very minute? Most of the time, I can afford a few extra minutes to listen to my family, and hear how their day went. The dishes and mail can wait. My family is growing up and will only be here, in our home, for a little while longer. I say, make the family the priority, not the distractions.

The dining room is not only a peaceful respite for us all to gather 'round, but the table itself is a nice, generous size. We have this to thank my son for. He and his friends gather here every Sunday evening, for game night. And they like the space of an extra leaf in the table.

This is fantastic for our family dinners. A little extra space always feels like a luxury. For quick breakfasts and lunches, the smaller kitchen table is just about right (although, I caught one of my daughters in the dining room with her breakfast oatmeal earlier this week. She said it's just so much nicer in the dining room -- Agreed!) At the dining room table, we all have much more elbow room. No accidentally kicking my daughter every time I cross my legs under the table.

I don't worry about spills and mishaps in the dining room. There's a sealed wood floor, with no rug, underneath the table. I use cloth placemats for every day, which are very washable, and require no ironing. And the table and chairs themselves, I don't worry over, as this set is 47 years old (or young, however you look at it). My parents bought this set in 1966, and it has seen many years of wear already. It is still holding together quite well.

To enhance the beauty of dining everyday, I use cloth napkins. They're so much nicer to the touch. When I'm shopping for cloth napkins for everyday use, I look either for a print or a dark solid, as both will conceal stains well. When my son and friends get pizza, I make sure to set out my ancient (bought 30 years ago) burgundy-colored cloth napkins. These napkins were a great investment. They have yet to reveal a single stain.

Lighting can either be harsh and make you want to hurry up, or it can be gentle, and make you want to linger. This time of year is perfect for the use of candles on the table. They're very flattering, gentle on the eyes, and again, add that feeling of luxury. There is just enough light outside at the dinner hour, that 2 candles are all the light we need. I buy my candles at the dollar store, so even this expense is minimal.

For nothing more than the water to fill a vase, I can have fresh blossoms on the table everyday, from now until early October. This week we have the cherry blossom branches from my pruning last weekend. I had to take some branches off, anyway, that were blocking a walkway. So I  thought, "I might as well bring them indoors to unfold their beauty".

As a mom, I find there is one more advantage to our using the dining room on a daily basis. My kids have the opportunity to exercise their manners and social graces, under my watchful, but kind eye, preparing them for occasions outside the home.