My house is not Pinteresting.

I’ve never made a pennant banner, and I don’t own spray paint or Mod Podge. Seriously, did God know about Pinterest when He told us to love our neighbor? Didn’t He know we’d break out in a cold sweat at the thought of creating the perfect centerpiece and folding our napkins like swans?

I feel pressure to be impeccable before I can be sociable.

As a woman, wife, and mother, I know how important our homes are. It might be old-fashioned, but I still think of myself as the keeper of my house—and I do want it to be nice. I have to be careful that my desire for “nice” doesn’t clash with Christ’s command to love our neighbor. It’s tempting to compare my lived-in house to touched-up, professionally-staged rooms that are Photoshopped more than a swimsuit cover model.

When my husband and I were moving cross country, we had a hard time finding a house. I was living in South Carolina with a toddler and a dog, trying to sell one house, while David worked in Ohio and tried to find us a new one. He called one day with a prospect. When I asked him to describe it (this was way back in the days before smart phones and real estate websites), he replied, “It’s really ugly.” When I asked him to tell me something good about it, he said, “It’s really big.”

You know what that house was? {finish reading at Not Quite Amish}

I’ve been contributing at Not Quite Amish Living, for women who’d like to be Amish…but not quite. You’ll enjoy it if you want more peace in your life, in your home, in your family, and in your heart… You want to try a new recipe and pick up a needle and thread…. You want to learn to simplify and care for God’s green earth (and teach your children to do the same).