If you’ve been tracking with me for a while, you may have noticed that my writing has taken on a bit of a heavier tone lately. That’s not part of some new blogging strategy; it’s just life spilling out onto the “pages” of this blog.

I go back and forth about whether or not this is a good thing, but I always come back to the belief that I’m not the only one—and that others in the midst of difficult seasons might find a bit of encouragement in knowing that they are not the only one.

That said, I’ve been looking forward to sharing some lighter fare as I join with Emily Freeman and others in recounting what I’ve learned this winter. Such as:

• Candles in the fireplace are my new favorite coziness enhancer. We can’t use our gas fireplace because the flue is cracked and we don’t want to spend the thousands of dollars needed to repair it. With candles—three wicks in a single jar or an odd assortment of pillars—we can still enjoy the ambiance of flickering flames in our living room. They don’t put out much heat, but they do make everything feel cozier on a snowy winter day.

• I don’t need to fill out an online quiz to determine whether I have too much on my mind. My daily life pretty much lets me know. Like when I set the timer on the microwave and forget to push “start.” Or when I type a text and fail to hit “send.” Or when I frantically search around my kitchen trying to find the egg I got out for breakfast, only to look down and discover it was in my hand the whole time.

• It is possible to keep bananas from ripening too fast. I don’t spend much time looking up housekeeping hacks, but this one—from a video Ann Voskamp shared in her weekly collection of “Good Stuff”—really works. All you have to do is take a bunch of greenish bananas, wrap one of those bags from the produce department around the stems a few times and put it back on your kitchen counter. The bananas still ripen, but much more slowly than they would without the bag.

• Some of the best quotes come from novels. Like this one, from Kate Morton’s latest book, The Clockmaker’s Daughter:

“Parents and children. The simplest relationship in the world and yet the most complex. One generation passes to the next a suitcase filled with jumbled jigsaw pieces from countless puzzles collected over time and says, ‘See what you can make out of these.’ ”

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been spending a lot of time at the family puzzle table lately. And I know one thing for sure. It’s tough to place the pieces in the right positions when you don’t know what the end result is supposed to look like.

• You can polish brass with ketchup and salt. I never would have known this were it not for my Pinterest-loving daughter, who recently spent two hours sprucing up a very dingy kettle that used to sit atop one of my kitchen cabinets. If you want to try it out yourself, just spread ketchup on the brass you want to clean, sprinkle it with salt, wait for a few minutes and then scrub it off with a microfiber towel. (Of course, you might want to test it on a small area before you slather ketchup everywhere, just to be on the safe side.)

• Music evokes emotion in me at random times and in random places. Like when I’m at a district honor choir concert and a massive group of talented teenagers starts singing about angels coming after me all night and all day. (I really need to start keeping tissues in my purse.)

• • •

That’s it for me, at least for now. So what have you learned this winter? Please share in the comments, along with any favorite quotes or helpful housekeeping hacks that you can’t bear to keep to yourself any longer.

♥ Lois

P.S. I’m linking up this week with Purposeful Faith, #TellHisStory, Let’s Have Coffee, Emily Freeman, Faith on Fire, Faith ‘n Friends and Grace & Truth.