Decorating your home for each season doesn't have to be stressful, overwhelming, or expensive--just ask The Nester! In Welcome Home, New York Times bestselling author Myquillyn Smith guides you through a minimalist process of creating and enjoying a seasonally decorated home with more style and less stuff. No matter what the world says, embracing the seasons doesn't require endless bins of factory-made decor or loads of time. In fact, your home can be festive, stylish, and cozy with minimal effort and a limited budget. With engaging how-tos and inspiring photos, Welcome Home will help you create a home that's fresh, meaningful, beautiful, and (bonus!) always ready for guests. Myquillyn guides you step by step through purposeful design decisions to cultivate a space where loved ones gather, meaningful connections are celebrated, and lasting memories are made. Myquillyn's realistic and down-to-earth design tips will teach you how to: Seasonalize your living spaces with simple, actionable steps Pay attention to the rhythm of your life in order to cultivate spaces that work for you and your family Incorporate the beauty of the natural world by paying attention to the five senses Feel confident in volunteering your house for gatherings, parties, and impromptu get-togethers Know what to focus on and what not to worry about as a relaxed and confident hostess Truly enjoy your home Welcome Home will help you rise above the trends, discover your unique style, and usher in each season with more style and even less stuff.

Sage Price comes from the small town Shiner, TX and her dreams about making it as an interior designer are just as big as the state itself. Upon graduating high school, she can’t wait to leave the town and Stetson West behind. Stetson ripped her heart out the day of their high school senior graduation when he broke up with her as they were standing in line to receive their diplomas. He was her first love, and even though she becomes successful enough to have her own show Date with Design on The Home Network where she designs the interior of homes all across the US, she still never feels like she’s made something of herself. How could she when the only person in her life that mattered got away? Stetson West was always a rugged outdoorsy type who enjoyed getting his hands dirty on his ranch. But all of that was BC, before collision with a land mine. Now his prosthetic leg is a daily reminder of what he can’t do. He’s been able to overcome a lot, especially with now having the strength stand on his own with his new leg, but dating just seems like a waste of time for someone like him. Jennifer left him while he was still in recovery. And once he got home, all the others seemed to talk to him out of pity. A new leg gave him a lease on life—but not in love. It wasn’t until the day Sage walked back into his life that he was willing to try to open what remained of himself after the bomb destroyed his chances at a normal life. The only real question left was if he’d give into his phantom pains or would he try to heal what remained in his heart.

A broken-hearted Ward Cartwright left town to join the army when his boyfriend Tyler Hughes turned his back on their love and married a woman. Ten years later, Tyler is a widower with two young boys, and Ward has returned home. He is hopeful he can re-establish his relationship with Tyler. Even though a decade has passed, Tyler still feels tied to the family-owned feed mill. He has folks depending on the mill for employment, there are his children to consider, they live in a small town, and ... But despite this, Tyler finds there are plenty of benefits to giving Ward a job in the mill -- lots of out-of-the-way places to explore Ward’s army-honed, muscular body. Just when Tyler resolves to live more openly with Ward, rumors begin to surface, not just at the mill, but at his sons’ school. Ward knows the upcoming battle is just as serious as anything he’s faced in Afghanistan. Instead of fighting for his country, the soldier is fighting for his lover’s heart. Will Ward finally emerge victorious, or will Tyler’s self-doubt and fear of prejudice win out again?

How are notions of ‘home’ made and negotiated by ethnographers? And how does the researcher relate to forms of home encountered during fieldwork? Rather than searching for an abstract, philosophical understanding of home, this collection asks how home gains its meaning and significance through ongoing efforts to create, sustain or remake a sense of home. The volume explores how researchers and informants alike are always involved in the process of making and unmaking home, and challenges readers to reimagine ethnographic practice in terms of active, morally complex process of home-making. Contributions reach across the globe and across social contexts, and the book includes chapters on council housing and middle-class apartment buildings, homelessness and migration, problems with accessing the field as well as limiting it, physical as well as sentimental notions of home, and objects as well as inter-human social relations. Home draws attention to processes of sociality that normally remain analytically invisible, and contributes to a growing and rich field of study on the anthropology of home.

Experience Advent anew through the lens of hospitality this holiday season! While the world tries to rush us into Christmas, decorating the day after Halloween and packing it all up once the gifts are opened on December 25, Advent is a season of preparation that—like our holiday gatherings themselves—takes time and care. Think of the anticipation that comes with hosting loved ones for Christmas dinner: We begin by extending an invitation. We make plans, and as the event draws closer, we begin our preparations. Ultimately, we open the door and welcome our guests, and that is when, finally, we celebrate. Advent should feel the same way, a time to make ready for the long-awaited event of Christ’s birth. In Stay Awhile, pastor Kara Eidson presents a banquet table of inspiration for Advent, including weekly reflections for personal and small group use, brief daily devotions, and ideas to involve the whole congregation. Congregational resources include liturgies, sermon starters, children’s moments, and even a no-rehearsals-needed Christmas pageant. You can also use video introductions for each session from the author to inspire your individual or group study.

The official monthly record of United States foreign policy.