Kristin Hill Taylor

Seeking God as the Author of Every Story

Love Your Home Once Again

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Life certainly doesn’t look like it did a year ago, thanks to the global coronavirus pandemic that interrupted our lives. So many people have spent more time at their homes – working from home, schooling kids at home, distancing themselves from crowds. Of course, this has come with much adjustment in routines, logistics, and even our spaces. Improving our home has been a good day to navigate our increased time here.

While spending more time at home, we have been made adjustments to our space and noticed possible improvements. Yes, you can use even this weird season of social distancing to fall in love with your home all over again. Here are some ways to do that:

Renovated Your Spaces

Conducting home renovations is important to make your space feel like home. Many people have the time to do this, so this is one way to focus on moving forward in your home, even when so much of the world is uncertain.

We haven’t done any major renovations, but my teenager did paint her little sister’s room. She may not have agreed to it had she known bright pink doesn’t easily cover mint green! We’ve rearranged closets and bedrooms as we make our spaces function better for all the extra time we’ve spent here.

Take Pride in Where You Live

Taking pride in where you live is vital, especially when you’re truly living in your home like we have been. I discovered how easy it is the clean my hard floors with the Shark VacMop, ordered more forks and spoons because we were eating so many meals at home, and ordered cleaning and household supplies online.

Honestly, I like a clean house, but I also know we live here, so taking pride for me involves some daily tasks to contain the clutter and crumbs. Of course, there are bigger projects, such as using window cleaning services, in order to really spruce up your views.

Speaking of views, I truly have appreciated country living as we’ve socially distanced ourselves from crowds of people. The wide-open spaces have been good for my soul, especially in the spring, summer, and fall. I’ve loved noticing how natural colors change. And we’ve all needed the extra space to safely roam.

Plant a Garden

We actually planted our first garden! It was small and barely successful, but I was so glad the spring and summer days at home helped me accomplish something I’d wanted to try. We planted zucchini, tomato, and pepper seeds in planters. Then once the plants grew, we transferred the zucchini and tomato plants to the ground. They grew well and produced, but then the deer ate all the tomato plants – produce and all! We got several zucchini and sweet pepper to enjoy. And we came away with some better plans for this year.

Making summertime fun is always important, especially during the pandemic when traveling may not happen as much. Gardening is one way to do this. Plus it improves and helps you appreciate where you live and the natural seasons.

How have you found yourself loving your home and property during these social-distancing days?

*****

I’ve written some other posts about social distancing that may encourage you.

The cost of postponing a mission trip

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UPDATE: In a Twitter conversation with American Airlines customer service, I learned I could get full vouchers without having new travel dates. When I called American Airlines to officially cancel our tickets this morning, that customer service representative said our tickets were eligible for a full refund! That’s better news than I was expecting, and I’m grateful for the accommodations that were made. The airline turned out to be more helpful than the travel agent who specializes in humanitarian travel. At least now I know for next time.

We have to indefinitely postpone our mission trip to Guatemala, again, thanks to COVID-19. And we are going to lose $1,800, thanks to American Airlines.

In the spring of 2019, we started planning to lead a short-term mission team to Guatemala with our friends who serve as Bethel Ministries International. We prayed, raised money, collected household and school items to give away, and watched God assemble a team of 12 people – five adults and seven kids. The plan was to build two houses, distribute 50 wheelchairs, and visit about 20 families during our families’ Spring Break, which would have been in April 2020.

A couple of weeks before, as our country and others shut down, we had to postpone this trip. At the time, October seemed far enough removed from the worldwide pandemic. Of course, we’ve since realized that’s not happening next week like planned.

Yes, Guatemala borders are technically open. With a negative COVID test, we could get into Guatemala City. But that’s just too risky for us and the people we want to serve. There are local COVID precautions here in rural Kentucky as well as rural Guatemala where we’d be serving that make this trip not viable right now.

That’s disappointing, obviously, but understandable. One, there’s a risk of having to quarantine in a foreign country with parts of three families still in the U.S. and not with our team. Plus there’s no vaccine yet to offer another layer of protection for us and the Guatemalans who struggled with malnutrition and limited access to healthcare before this coronavirus altered our world.

Making plans these days, especially too many months in advance, is difficult now. So many uncertainties exist, especially when considering traveling to a developing nation with an at-risk population. Of course, this also makes us want to help the more. We’ve been able to send some money to aid Bethel Ministries in the work the missionaries are continuing to do.

With that said, we don’t have dates set for our next attempt at a mission trip. And without travel dates set before the end of 2021, American Airlines won’t refund our tickets in full because of the type of ticket we bought. We were trying to be good stewards of the money people donated and sacrificed for us to go, but now we are going to lose $150 per ticket, so $1,800 total for the 12 tickets we purchased in January, well before we knew COVID was going to be a disruption.

In Guatemala, that $1,800 could provide so much relief. Specifically, the money we are just wasting with American Airlines would provide:

  • a month’s worth of food for 36 families,
  • six triple bunk beds for families who sleep on dirt floors,
  • eight wood cook stoves that pipe the smoke out of the house,
  • a good portion of a metal house with concrete floors, or
  • twenty-one wash stations that have sinks and holding tanks for water.

I understand COVID has been hard on every single business, ministry, and family in some way. I know people’s livelihoods are at stake. But I also know we have a team of people willing to go serve when the time is right. My hope is American Airlines would just let us leave our tickets open for when we have dates, like a great big team voucher.

The question isn’t if we will go but when. And that’s uncertainty I have to go be okay with. I wish American Airlines could be too.

Redefining busyness

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Social Distancing Day #34 felt busy. Of course, the way we’re all defining “busy” is different these days. Before the coronavirus disrupted our lives, I had time commitments most every day – picking up kids, taxiing kids to where to needed to go, errands, meeting friends, volunteering. All of that is good stuff. But these days having a time-specific commitment is rare.

On Day #34, I had two: a birthday parade for a friend and a Zoom meeting with my Bible study, but I also decided I should grocery shop while I was out and drop off some mail. I also needed to help Ben with school, put dinner in the Crock Pot, and tend to other meals and chores around the house. Plus I wanted to finish a scrapbooking project.

I felt mentally spent by the afternoon, so I took two of my kids on a walk to a creek at the back of our country property. I sat on a tree stump, talked to my mother-in-law who I miss, and soaked in the fresh air and sunshine. In this slower season of uncertainty, I’m feeling changed. And I can’t imagine going back to “normal” when the economy and schools and parks open up again.

I want to protect this slower pace. I want friends to miss each other and reach out. I want family time together and so many meals at home to be valued. I want busyness to feel like a stranger.

When I was organizing photos and writing for that scrapbooking project I was motivated to finish, I was ready through my Reflect & Refresh posts from the end of 2019 that looked toward 2020. I realized I basically expressed my desire for more time at home and having the freedom to say no to some things. Obviously, I had no idea just how real that would become in 2020.

I know people are suffering and lives are far more disrupted than mine, but I am thankful for this season, even though we really don’t know how long it will last. It’s looking more and more like school at home is going to lead right into Summer Break, which usually involves more time at home for us. I’m ready for our pool to be open. I’m ready to see some friends.

But, most importantly, I’m ready to hold onto what I’ve learned in the slowness.

*****

I’ve been journaling every day, so here on some confessions I shared on social media recently:

I haven’t wanted to read. I’ve read three books in the last month, but my other hobbies (scrapbooking, working puzzles, board games, TV shows) have gotten my attention I also think I’ve had to be careful about how much information I take in, and that apparently includes stories!

Although a fabulous deal on Kindle Unlimited got me to dive into another book, which I finished over the weekend! Hello, TWO FREE MONTHS of Kindle books at my fingertips. Through April 30, you can sign up for Kindle Unlimited for two months for free, go to manage subscriptions and immediately cancel, and have access for two months and not have to worry about getting charged when you forget to cancel. (Learn more about Kindle Unlimited here!)

I haven’t been bored for a single moment. Seriously.

Our days go quickly, even when have very little planned. I haven’t even done that many organized activities or crafts. When I declare it’s bedtime, somebody still has something else they want to do, usually with Daddy, so I always remind them we get another day at home tomorrow!

I created a playlist for this season. The theme is basically: Be still, know God is God, and do not fear. (Listen here.)

We produce a lot of trash and dirty a lot of dishes when we don’t go anywhere. My kids have been outside so much (good thing!) that we have a lot of dirty shoes and clothes because we live in the country, and there’s a lot of dirt here.

*****

What have you learned in this coronavirus-prompted season of social distancing? Do you have any confessions to share?