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At The Picket Fence with Vanessa Hunt

Where Ideas for your Home Meet Inspiration for your Heart

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February 28, 2011

Blog of the Week-Quit Eating Out


This week’s At The Picket Fence  featured blog is someone Heather met early on in her blogging journey with Gourmet Meals for Less.


In fact she sent out a request for a guest poster for her awesome Saturday Swap Recipe Party,  and Heather  said, “I’ll do it! Pick me! Pick me!” (okay so Heather didn’t really say that, but it’s what she was saying inside..grin) and they’ve become foodie blogging buds!

She has a great site promoting cooking at home as an alternative to eating out so much!

The motto for her blog is: “Recipes to Make Dining Out A Choice, Not A Chore!”

She has been so supportive of both Heather’s former blog and now our latest venture with
At The Picket Fence.  She is 

Kim 


at



If you are looking for alternatives to the I didn’t plan ahead and now I have to eat out syndrome, than we highly recommend you pay Kim a visit over at her great site!  If you have a food blog then you definitely need to link up to her Saturday Swap! 

To visit Kim just click on her button in our sidebar! She’s a great hostess, she’ll love it if you take a moment to drop by and say, “hi!”


We would also like to take a moment to welcome a new friend to At The Picket Fence:

We are so excited to have formed a partnership with The Simple Stencil.  Trust us when we say you’ve never seen a store quite like this!  The Simple Stencil has everything and we mean everything you could ever hope to find in a stencil..and if you happen to be looking for something more than..well…everything…they can custom design it for you!  Watch for an incredible giveaway coming up soon At The Picket Fence courtesy of The Simple Stencil! 


Love from the girls at the fence,

7 Comments Filed Under: Featured Blogger

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Comments

  1. Yvonne @ StoneGable says

    February 28, 2011 at 4:20 PM

    I just found the Picket Fence! WOW! what a great blog you have. It is like a wonderful clearing house for all things delicious, useful and very pretty!
    I’ll be back often! Now off to visit some of your featured blogs!
    So nice to stop!
    Yvonne

    Reply
  2. Sonja says

    February 28, 2011 at 4:53 PM

    What a fun blog! I just came over from… not sure where I came from! But I have enjoyed looking around, so many good, fun and interesting things to see. I’ll definitely be back! 🙂

    Reply
  3. Kim @ Quit Eating Out {Recipes to Make Dining Out a Choice, Not a Chore} says

    March 2, 2011 at 3:10 AM

    Thanks Friends for featuring my blog this week! What a fun blessing. I wish you so much success with At The Picket Fence. {hugs}

    Reply
  4. ❀ⒹⒺⒺ❀ says

    June 14, 2011 at 1:32 AM

    I’m a new blogger. I came over from debbiedoos.

    Dee
    Your new follower

    Reply
  5. andrea says

    September 29, 2011 at 12:57 PM

    I love how your photos on the side bar show you both in serious blog writing mode! You both look hard at work! Thanks for stopping by my blog, I’m adding you to my blog roll. Have a great day! andrea @ townandprairie

    Reply
  6. Curtains In My Tree says

    November 11, 2011 at 2:23 PM

    Well you know it is not healthy to eat out .
    My daughter just recently got ecolli poison from a national
    chain
    Sam’s

    I am scared to eat at any salad bar because of this

    Reply

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  1. Let The Fun Begin.. Opening The Doors For The Chapel Market - Forever Design says:
    October 22, 2013 at 6:09 AM

    […] Thistlewood Farms has us all smiling. Can I tell you how much I love that girl. Thanks for spreading the joy Kariann. (on left)  and Heather (right) from The Picket Fence. […]

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I've been watching our cherry trees bloom for 12 y I've been watching our cherry trees bloom for 12 years now and every year I ohhhh and ahhhh over the blossoms like it's the first time I've ever seen them. I gush and I take photos (that look exactly like the ones I took the year before and the year before that) and I make my family come outside and look at them with me which you know they just LOVE to do. 😉 I think that is one of the main reasons why I love spring so much. On the one hand, it's predictable and yet, on the other hand, it still feels like such a surprise after the long months of barren branches.

And yesterday, as I was staring at the gorgeous blossoms for the umpteenth time, I couldn't help but think that I hope this is how I feel when our lives return to some semblance of normalcy.

I hope that the predictable feels special and that the typical feels anything but. I hope that I ohhh and ahhh over the simple things I've realized I've taken for granted. And, most of all, I hope that feeling doesn't go away for a very, very long time! 💗
Are you living with great expectation friends? Bec Are you living with great expectation friends? Because He is risen!

Happy Easter from my home to yours!
Lemon bars all ready for tomorrow! It’s going to Lemon bars all ready for tomorrow! It’s going to be a different kind of Easter for sure but some things don’t change. Have you been baking and getting ready for tomorrow? What’s one thing on your menu that you have to have every year?
If this is Good Friday, why doesn’t it feel so “good”? It all seems backward doesn’t it?

What could be good about the unspeakable pain he suffered? What could be good about the shame and betrayal?

Easter Sunday is so joyful, bright and cheery. Shouldn’t that be the day we call “good”? It just feels so much better!

But, I don’t know how to rejoice over His resurrection, unless I have felt the pain of His death. I have realized that in life the sweetest victories are the ones which were realized after a pain-filled journey.

And, so it is with Good Friday. I know there will be victory over death, but I can’t skip ahead in the story.

Jesus knew what was coming. He knew what he would experience. And he knew why he would go through it. He did it for me. He did it for you.

Do you know that? Have you felt it down in the very core of your soul? 
Sometimes it makes me squirm a bit. Why would anyone do that for me?

Well, because, I can’t do it for myself!

There is nothing I can do to earn that kind of love and mercy.

That is why it is called GRACE.

His grace is freely given. We don’t have to pay for it. He paid the price for us already.

Do you remember that movie from years ago called “Ransom”? A couple’s young son was kidnapped and the parents went to hell and back trying to find him and pay the “ransom” demanded by the kidnappers.

Well, Jesus is our “ransom”. (1 Timothy 2:6) His life was the payment.

Why is it called “Good Friday”? Because that wasn’t the end of the story….
.
…It was just the beginning!
Raise your hand if there’s a table in your house Raise your hand if there’s a table in your house that’s become the landing zone for ALL THE THINGS! 🙋🏻‍♀️🤪 I’ve never been more thankful for our rarely used dining room table as it’s become command central for school books and laptops and games.

Where are things collecting in your house right now?
“Sighing, tears, frustration, anger.” Every si “Sighing, tears, frustration, anger.” Every single one of these emotions has made their way through our home in recent days and, my guess is, they have in your home too.

I SO needed this reminder today from the new book ‘Adore’ by @sarahagertywrites.

Adoration isn’t just sitting at His feet gazing longingly with stars in my eyes. It’s bringing my fears and my sorrows and gray roots in my hair that desperately needs to be colored and my messy house and all of the things that threaten to send me over the edge right now and laying them down before Him, soaking up His word and His presence so that when I stand back up, I am changed for having spent the time adoring the ONE who is... Healer, comforter, peace-giver, deliverer, redeemer.

What do you need to bring to Him today? I’ll share mine in the comments and I’d love to hear from you too!
I’ve always loved evenings, but since this whole I’ve always loved evenings, but since this whole lockdown thing began, I’ve come to appreciate this time of day even more.

It feels the most...normal. Daytime is strange and foreign right now. My husband has taken over our home office, I’m suddenly taking over the responsibility of managing my kids’ distance learning and let me just say that teaching 7th grade algebra to my daughter is hugely ironic since I struggled with math all the way through school. I’m trying to do my own work but it feels utterly futile with the constant interruptions which take precedence right now. In the daytime, I’m constantly reminded of how upside down life feels.

But, in the evening, I cook dinner like I’ve always done and we gather around the table like we’ve always done and we laugh and tell stories and then clean up and play games or go on a walk or watch a show. And that feels SO gloriously normal.

So now I love evenings even more than I ever did before and I’m so grateful for this little chunk of time where the rhythms we established years ago are helping to sustain us now when so much of life feels outside of our control.

What feels ‘normal’ to you right now? Whatever it is, keep doing it. 🌿
When I was in college I would frequently call home When I was in college I would frequently call home and pour my heart out to my mom, sharing with her all that was happening in my life in that completely unfiltered way that you can talk with the person who potty trained you. These phone calls usually took place at night and my mom would patiently listen as I vented frustrations about professors, roommates, boyfriends and the food in the cafeteria. And, inevitably, they would end with my mom saying, “Everything seems worse when you’re tired. Try not to overthink things or make any major decisions tonight, especially when you are feeling emotional.” Dear friends, may I pass along this advice to you today?

If you don’t absolutely HAVE to make a decision right now, I want to encourage you to wait until life gets back to normal. If you are finding yourself over-analyzing relationships and family dynamics, I want to encourage you to remember that everything seems more dramatic when looked at under a microscope. And, let’s face it, being homebound with our loved ones non-stop makes us all feel like lab rats in an experiment.

If you are tempted to quit a job, start a business, start homeschooling permanently, stop homeschooling permanently, move to a new city, buy a farm, quit pursuing your dream, join a commune or make any other major life decision just…wait. Because, if it is in fact the right decision, it will be made even clearer once our lives return to their ‘regularly scheduled programming’. Instead, in this strange season, let’s all just take a deep, collective breath and let it out slowly, releasing the anxiety that threatens to overtake us. Let’s help each other maintain some perspective and not slip into a posture of over-thinking every little thing in our lives. Let’s remember that the enemy of our souls would love nothing more than to use this time when things feel dark to manipulate us into thinking that aspects of our lives are worse than they actually are.

My prayer for you in these days is that you will have the clarity to know what is true and that you will be filled with peace even while we live in this season of so many unknowns.
Raise your hand if you’re doing more baking thes Raise your hand if you’re doing more baking these days! 🙋🏻‍♀️ I’m trying to avoid gaining the #corona15 but my daughter and I LOVE baking together and it does help to pass the time plus it counts as a science lesson right?

If you’re able to find flour in the stores (for the love people please stop overbuying!) and you’re doing more baking at your house too you need to add this apricot bread to your list of new recipes to try!

Normally I’d point you to my blog for the directions but I’m going to do you a solid and leave the full recipe in the comments.

What have you baked so far during this time of social distancing? I’d love some new ideas!
There are a LOT of people out walking in our neigh There are a LOT of people out walking in our neighborhood right now (but still social distancing!) and she decided that she wanted to bring them some joy and put a smile on their face when they pass by our house. Also, the square with ‘say no to coronavirus’ is priceless. 😂 I just love her so much!
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