You don't have to leave home to have an adventure. Just invite your neighbor to dinner.
Hosting doesn’t always happen at home. I recently hosted a group of squirrely girls in a cabin for one week. It was one of those experiences where you try to remember what you were thinking when you decided to take part, several times during the actual trip. But then after the trip, you decide it was a good experience. Here’s […]
Read more“Guests are like fish; after three days they begin to smell.” Great Grandma That poor woman missed out! Guests come for lots of different reasons but today, I’m focusing on people who just need someplace safe to be. Do you plan to host someone for three weeks or more? Here’s how to set yourself up for success. Have a […]
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Even after years of living in Texas, visiting has taught me some new things. I thought I’d share them. We can all learn together. If your parents have a flock of chickens, they’ll likely have a few roosters. If they have a few roosters and you have a few children, they’re bound to meet. This won’t be a happy time, […]
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We’ve closed-up our Embassy for the season and we’re on the move! Freshly landed in Texas, and we’re giving ourselves a proper tourist experience. Our first move was to rent the largest people mover we could get our hands on. Everything is bigger in Texas and so is our rental. What I love is that the company put XL into […]
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Here’s a purely hypothetical situation. Let’s say you’re a guest and you’ve arrived after a long journey. You’re tired. You and your mate have had no rest or privacy nor much comfort at all for days on end. You’re shown to your guest room and you wearily begin to prepare for bed. Innocently enough, you happen to notice the silhouette […]
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During big holiday gatherings, there is often a lull, when people are just waiting for the next thing to happen. This is often the time where feelings of awkwardness take over. People can feel disconnected because conversations are stilted or there is a lack of commonality. As a host, you can create islands of unity around activities. I find that […]
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My husband and I started giving up our room to our parents this year. The choice has been a practical one for us as well as a tangible way to express our love for them. It unexpectedly taught us a great deal about what our other guests experience when they stay with us. If your guests stay in a common […]
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It sometimes seems odd that the master suite of many homes is about the size of a studio apartment, yet only one or two people stay in it while the guests are given a tiny room or a collection of several couches and cushions. This can seem like the most convenient arrangement for a hardworking host, but then the host […]
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This is how you can stretch yourself into trying new things. I recommend committing to new experiences before you think them through all the way. Then, when panic is just about to hit, make planning lists and get down to some logistics work. This technique allowed my husband and I to host a seminar on forgiveness right in our home! […]
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In my opinion, cooking is an umbrella term for washing, chopping, dicing, scooping, stirring, frying, steaming, roasting, rinsing, scrubbing, and drying. You can do one, some or all of these and in the end, if you end up with food you’ve been cooking. Sustainable cooking is the work that you do to provide satisfying food in a way that fits […]
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