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Letting Go
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On Letting Go, Part One | My Father

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Letting Go
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Cloistered Away

is a lifestyle blog, focused on simple, purposeful family living, written by Bethany Douglass.
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A Springtime Flower Party
FOOD GATHERINGS SEASONS SPRING
It feels a tad weird to be writing about Springtime and flowers while currently traveling through winter weather, but Spring has already sprouted in our southern home: trees budding, wildflowers sprinkling the highways, songbirds chirping
Homeschooling | Encouragement for the Little Years
ENCOURAGEMENT HOMESCHOOL PRESCHOOL YEARS
Our four children are five and a half years apart, meaning when we began our first formal year of homeschooling, I had a kindergartener, two preschoolers, and an older infant. I also had a calendar grid
Garden Kale | 25 Ideas + Recipes for the Harvest
FOOD RECIPES SEASONS SPRING WINTER
The days have been warm here, feeling more like spring than late winter. I don’t mind. I spent the day on a blanket last weekend, reading Luci Shaw’s Water My Soul, and soaking up the
WEBINAR | Teaching Reading At Home
CHILDHOOD YEARS HOMESCHOOL RESOURCES
“TEACHING READING AT HOME” When we first decided to homeschool, I felt intimidated about teaching my children to read. I am an avid reader. My husband is an avid reader. Both of us having university
Chicken Soup + Bone Broth for Winter Wellness
FOOD RECIPES SEASONS WELLNESS WINTER
Our home has felt under the weather this last week with fevers and coughs and stuffy noses. With so many friends and extended family members also at home with the flu right now, I’ve again
Nurturing Winter Skin + Reforming the Beauty Industry
BEAUTY LIFESTYLE SEASONS WELLNESS WINTER
In the winter, my skin tends to feel like the branches outside my door: pale, dry, and brittle. It is more sensitive in the drier, cold air, more prone to patches of flaky skin on
Choosing to Homeschool
ENCOURAGEMENT GETTING STARTED HOMESCHOOL RESOURCES
Several times in recent months, I have been quieted by the thought that Mark and I can choose how we educate our children, not simply the methodology we follow but to homeschool at all. Even
Music for the Afternoon Mess
BOOKS - MUSIC - PODCASTS HOMESCHOOL LIFESTYLE RESOURCES
Somewhere amid the tidy online images, the Mess exists. I capitalize Mess because it seems to live and exist on its own, creeping in and out of corners unannounced. Between the creative projects and delicious
Nurturing Wholeness | Retreating
LIFESTYLE MINDFULNESS
“a series dedicated to nurturing and nourishing the self from the inside out” I have always appreciated winter’s wisdom, its encouragement to retreat and to listen. It merely requires a window or a walk outdoors to