Decorating |

Before 2015 arrives and the Christmas decorations go back to the attic for another year, I tidied up my house and took some photos of what our home has looked and felt like for the past month.

This year was our best Christmas yet, and the peace that permeated my soul this season seemed to spill over and encompass our home in a cozy and life-giving atmosphere.

It wasn’t always perfect, no, not a bit. There were boots and scarves and mittens scattered to high heaven. There were baking days where the kitchen was unrecognizable. There was the aftermath of Christmas morning…

but in between the Christmas merriment, our little home seemed to glow with a sweet holiday ambiance that just pleased and ministered to me so deeply, enough to inspire me to work hard all year long to present my family with such a back-drop, one that puts the soul at rest…

one that shelters and encourages…

one that embodies all of the meaning and emotion behind the word “home”…

Merry Christmas, from Mrs. Gore’s House!

Every year, I get excited about all the Fall décor I see on Pinterest, at Country Living, at Pottery Barn, via Martha Stewart…

every year, I determine that I’m going to make something cool with a pumpkin.

I’ve seen pumpkins made to look like vintage yellowware, pumpkins painted with chalkboard paint, pumpkins stacked and accessorized to make the Fall equivalent of a Winter snowman, pumpkins with this, pumpkins with that…

And every year, I either run out of time or my pumpkin craft turns out looking like a weirdo.

And so this year, with an infant, a homeschool and a back surgery patient on my hands, I gave myself a break, and when my dear friend, Charlotte, gave me some perfect pumpkins she accidentally grew in her pasture, guess what I did with them?

Nothin’.

Nothin’, that is, except to gaze upon their unadulterated beauty as they sit upon my front porch table, bringing autumnal cheer to my heart everytime I see them.

Pumpkins are pretty, just as they are.