Spring Cleaning the Front Porch

On March 10th of this year, an Internet tea friend organized a Facebook group called Christian Tea Time and Hospitality.  It already has 95 members and is growing rapidly.

Bernideen [the administrator and organizer] has chosen some wonderful topics:  Tea Wares Tuesday, Share a book Thursday [Afternoon Tea recipe books or Hospitality books], Tea in the Garden on Saturdays, and Scripture Sunday.   I like all the subjects, but Share a book Thursday and Scripture Sunday are my favorites.

It's so much fun seeing which books the other members have, and so far I have almost all the books that have been shared.  I can hardly pass up a recipe book and if it includes Afternoon Tea then purchasing a copy is a sure thing!

A couple of Thursday ago I posted one of my favorite hospitality books by Alda Ellis.  I wrote in the inside cover that I purchased it in 2007, the year I attended one of her classes at World Tea Expo.

It prompted me to pull her other books in my collection from the bookshelf:  A Table of Grace; Southern Teatime Pleasures [Alda lives in Little Rock, Arkansas], and Sentimental Living from the Porch - Four Seasons of Hospitality.  

I took this book to bed with me Sunday night and read it from cover to cover before going to sleep. Alda quotes her grandmother who used to say, "A front porch is a postcard of all who live beyond the door."  Alda says, "the front porch is the place where you welome others into your life... it's an extension of the house... an outdoor living space."

After reading her book, I was motivated to give my front porch a makeover!  My hubby and I went yesterday and bought a new mailbox and porch light - brass is out, black is in.  He took the porch swing down to give it a fresh coat of paint and make some minor repairs - it'll be 44 years old on Memorial Day, when we moved into our new house.  My parents gave it to us as a housewarming gift.  We ordered a new outdoor rug for the porch [first time for that], and the front door will get a fresh coat of red paint.  I'll look for a spring/summer door wreath, and the porch will be ready to welcome guests.  I'll post pictures when the project is completed.

Below is the swing when it was refurbished a few years ago.  

Since it hangs outdoors year round, it was time to do it again.

On another 'Share a book Thursday', Bernideen posted a hospitality and recipe book called, Come Over to my House - a guide to Christian Hospitality by Lora Lee Parrott.  I have her Sunday Dinner cookbook and have made several dishes from it, but somehow I missed this one [actually she's authored several books I don't have].  Lora Lee was the wife of Olivet Nazarene University's President, Dr. Leslie Parrott.  The book has been out of print for quite a while but I was able to find a used one.  Lora Lee transitioned to Heaven in 2011, but her legacy lives on.

I miss mentoring young women and mothers and I've been feeling a tug to get back into it.  I think I'll go to bed reading Lora Lee's book tonight.