hospitality Archives - Page 3 of 9 - Feathers in Our Nest

On Thursday Nights and Community

April 4, 2016 by Aliesha

Thursday evenings, rain or shine, are for small group.

Last fall Tad’s work schedule kept him from coming with us for the better part of the semester, so, by myself I fed dinner to and loaded into the van four kids under five, drove 40 minutes, juggled a nursing baby during Bible study, and then rounded them all up at the end, loaded them back into the car, and drove home. Please, God, don’t let it be raining… I don’t think I can do this in the rain. It was exhausting, but I always felt like it was worth it. (Driving there, I definitely had my doubts. But on the way home, I knew it was true.)

Messy and imperfect, we go anyway.

Most Thursday nights I walk out the door with dirty hair and an outfit freshly splattered with baby spit up. Bless them, those sweet ladies in my small group who hug me anyway. My daughters’ hair sometimes is fixed, but mostly it isn’t. I think my baby has been wearing this outfit for two days. My toddler’s shoes don’t match his socks don’t match his pants don’t match his shirt. I taught my husband the phrase “hot mess”; on Thursday nights I am exhibit A.

Vulnerable and broken, that’s what we are.

Every third week we split by gender and have prayer night. We’re not afraid to cry. We can’t have true community if we’re not real about our struggles. So we share the ugly, hard parts about our lives. The parts that don’t make it to our Instagram highlights reel.

We don’t have all the answers, but we aren’t afraid to take a stab at it.

On Bible study nights, we dig in deeper to the sermon, wrestling with the meaning of the text and seeking to understand God better.

And on meal nights, we feast. Oh, how we feast.

“They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts.” Acts 2:46

Meal nights give us a chance to know each other better. After you eat with someone, you are no longer strangers. Italian night, breakfast night, southern night, Chipotle-style-build-your-own-burritos night… each one has united our hearts closer together as we live our lives in community.

Maybe we can put on a face that says, “I have it all together” for our Facebook friends or even those who just see us on Sunday mornings. But when we meet together in homes week after week, that façade starts to crumble.

And that’s when the true community begins to happen.

* * * * *

If this concept of community is new to you, I encourage you to listen to this recent sermon by my pastor.

Fall Porch Party

October 14, 2015 by Aliesha

Sometimes I allow excuses to keep me from showing hospitality. Things like:

-my house is not clean enough
-our schedule is too crazy
-our budget doesn’t allow it
-etc.!

Maybe these thoughts deter you from having people in your home as well. Enter… the porch party! A great way to show southern hospitality in a way that is doable!

Porch parties are laid back and fun, plus they don’t require you to clean your whole house, you can have them any time (morning, afternoon, evening… over a meal or not!), and you can spend time talking with friends and catching up on life!

We had a fall porch party recently and it was so much fun! I drug all of our furniture (not quite) outside and set up a “living room” on the front porch. If you don’t have a porch, you can have a patio party or a lawn party!

I took these pictures in the afternoon, but the party was actually after the kids were in bed. Many of my friends who came are moms, so it works better for us to schedule stuff post-bedtime so we can talk and actually finish a complete sentence!

The weather was cool, so I told everyone to dress warmly and I had blankets ready for some added warmth.

We had coffee, of course, as well as some snacks. (Easy stuff: a cheese board, apples & dip, a no-bake pumpkin cheesecake, etc.)

I wasn’t sure if we would have enough light, but with the cafe lights, the porch light, and a lamp I brought out, we were fine.

Sweet friends!

Hoping to have another porch party before it gets too cold! They’re so much fun!

I would like to point out that while I thoroughly enjoy decorating my porch for parties like this, it’s not necessary to decorate in order to show hospitality on your porch. I had the time this week to do it (and my girls loved helping me with it), but there may be other times I host porch parties that look much simpler! Hospitality is about loving others through the ministry of your home, not about appearances. We all have varying gifts and speak love differently!

For more posts I’ve previously written on hospitality, click here.

April’s Gold and Floral Bridal Shower

July 14, 2015 by Aliesha

This past weekend I had the privilege of celebrating with my friend April as she prepares to get married in a little over a month!

Our life group threw her a shower and I had so much fun putting together the gold and floral details for the celebration!

April is beautiful inside and out, and we all are SO excited for her and Adam to get married at the end of August. She looked so lovely at the shower (as always!).

Gold vases were spray painted and filled with silk flowers. I sprinkled gold sequins and gold sea shells on the table. The pink ruffle is crepe paper sewn and gathered.

We had lots of sweet and girly food! Macarons are a craze for a reason, and we loved sampling several different flavors. These are from Trader Joe’s (you have to try the fig ones).

We had rice krispie treats.

And chocolate-dipped pretzel rods.

Vera helped me make this cheese platter (Colby cheese cubes and Monterey Jack cheese cubes with blackberries).

We also had spinach artichoke dip and crackers.

My favorite part was the chicken salad on rolls! I could eat that every day.

I didn’t get a picture of the drinks, but we had an assortment of sparkling juices (lemonade, pomegranate blueberry, peach, and blood orange) in champagne glasses (bottoms painted gold).

I had a few “activities” for everyone to participate in. I asked everyone to bring a recipe for April, so we gave her a little stack of some of our most-loved recipes.

We also wrote on little cards “Advice and Well Wishes for the Soon-to-Be Mrs.!”

Finally, we all wrote down a couple of clever date night ideas for April and Adam.

I decorated the mantle in the living room with more gold and floral! Along the bottom you can see photos of Adam & April, which I stole from her Instagram account and clipped to paper doilies.

Of course it wouldn’t be a shower without a showering of gifts! We all wanted the super-cool double-decker casserole dish carrier that one sweet friend gave April!