As we approach Easter (only a week away!) and enter Holy Week, my thoughts quickly turn from prepping Easter baskets to the reason this holiday exists. It’s not the bunnies, chocolate, and eggs, though they are certainly fun! It’s the powerful, joyful proclamation that Jesus is alive! He is risen! (Sorry, I know it’s technically still Lent…)

Though it’s not quite Easter yet, I wanted to make this printable and phone wallpaper available to you in advance so you have time to print it if you’d like to use it! I was afraid if I waited until next weekend to publish it you’d be in the midst of prepping for family gatherings and such.

So, I hope you enjoy! I had fun putting it together. As always, thanks so much for following along – I appreciate your support!

(Printable and wallpaper are for personal use only and may not be copied, sold, published, modified, or used in any other way without the explicit permission of Hymns & Home.)

He Is Risen Indeed Printable

To use the printable, simply click on the file and save it to your computer or device. You can then print it on your home printer or order a print online.
The format is 8×10 and you can choose either a high resolution PDF or a JPEG file.

He Is Risen Indeed Phone Wallpaper

To use the wallpaper, click the file and save the image to your phone. You can then set it as wallpaper in your phone’s settings.

Blessed Holy Week and a very joyful Easter to you!

Blessings,
Melissa

I enjoy thinking about what people like and trying to come up with things they could use to make life easier or more fun. Unless we’re talking about my brother – he’s the most difficult person in the world for whom to buy, so I always get him fun socks plus whatever extra ideas my mom has. Ha! I can write that because I’m 99.9% sure he’s not reading this.

Sometimes, though, it can be easy for me to lose track when gift buying – I may forget that I already bought x thing for this person or not realize just how much I’ve already spent on gifts in total. Seeing as that money tree in our backyard never did start producing, my husband and I have had to set a gift budget. While giving gifts shouldn’t be about how much you do or don’t spend on someone, staying within budget is a very real aspect of life for most of us!

The past few years I have kept a list of the people for whom we buy gifts, what I’ve purchased for them, ideas of things still to purchase, item prices, and the total budget we’ve set for each person. It’s really helpful for me to be able to see at a glance who is already “done,” what I have left to buy, and how much I’ve spent.

In case this idea may be helpful to some of you too, I’ve created a printable!

Christmas Gift Planning Printable

There are 2 pages to the printable:
* “Short list” = fewer lines per person
* “Long list” = more lines per person

Please note: the number of lines included on each list was guesswork and very much an aesthetic decision. It in no way reflects what I think you should or should not be buying. Do what works for you, your budget, and your situation.

I figured both lists may be helpful in different settings – we probably will need more lines for our children than our husband’s second-cousin-once-removed, right? You can always use more than one section per person if needed.

There are 2 versions:

–> Please note these printables are for personal use only and may not be modified, sold, or republished without express permission of Hymns & Home.

Print Version – Physically print & write your list

Digital Version – PDF with fillable fields and checkable boxes to use on the computer

There is only one of each list in the digital version.

I decided not to duplicate the pages for the digital version ahead of time as I don’t know how many you will need and I wanted the files to be easily navigable.

If you want to add more pages to your digital list, do this:

On Mac using Preview
Go to view -> Thumbnails, hold down the “fn” and “option” buttons at the same time, and drag the page you want to copy downward. It will add another one.

On PC using Adobe (Haven’t tried this – don’t have a PC)
Viewing thumbnails, hold down “control” and drag the page you want to copy downward.

I hope this little printable brings some organization to your Christmas shopping! I’d love to hear if you use, if it works well for you, and any changes you might like to see in a future printable.

Do you love gift shopping too, or is it something you dread? Leave a comment below!

Blessings,
Melissa

A few months ago, a friend and former choir member at church who follows my blog asked me an interesting question:

“Where are the hymns?”

I must have seemed confused because she explained, “Hymns & Home – I’ve seen a lot of the home part, but where are the hymns?”

I explained that I chose the name “Hymns & Home” because I felt it well represented two major parts of who I am: a church musician and a wife/mom/homemaker. The blog was really just intended to be about home decor & DIY.

But it got me thinking… Why not?

Hymns and their rich, meaningful texts are such a big part of my life and who I am that surely there is some way they could be included here. Well, with all this pandemic stuff going on the last few months, my mind has been drawn over and over again to a particular hymn text: “I Am Trusting Thee, Lord Jesus.” Let me share a few stanzas with you:

I am trusting Thee, Lord Jesus, Trusting only Thee;
Trusting Thee for full salvation, Great and free.

I am trusting Thee to guide me; Thou alone shalt lead,
Ev’ry day and hour supplying All my need.

I am trusting Thee, Lord Jesus; Never let me fall.
I am trusting Thee forever And for all.

– Frances R. Havergal

This hymn speaks of the many ways Jesus provides for us and how we can fully trust Him to: grant us salvation, pardon and cleanse us from sin, guide us through life, give us His Holy Word, uphold and sustain us in this life and the next.

As much as this hymn has stuck in my head, I thought it fitting to create a FREE PRINTABLE for you all, just in case it would be of comfort and assurance to some of you! Just click one of the links below to download it. I am making this available to anyone – you don’t need to be a subscriber to get it. (For personal use only, please – no selling or modifying.)

God does not promise we will not encounter hardships in this life, but He does promise to be with us all the way. Most importantly, He promises us eternal life through the saving work of His son, Jesus Christ. I pray that wherever you are in the midst of this chaos that you would find peace, joy, and assurance from the One in whom we can fully trust.

It’s beginning to look a lot like…

…Winter!

It snowed here a few days ago! Like majorly snowed. It’s not a common occurence to have such a big snow before Thanksgiving around here. Maybe a few flurries, but not the kind where school gets cancelled and the highways are a mess. I do remember it snowing on Thanksgiving when I was really little.

Well, all this snow has me in full Winter mode, and I’m happy to announce that the Hymns & Home Winter Botany Printables are now available!

I decided to make Winter printables instead of Christmas ones for a specific reason: You know that time between New Year’s and Valentine’s Day that’s just kind of a decorating no-man’s-land? I try to combat that by using wintery decor as the base layer for my Christmas decor. I can sprinkle in some Christmas-specific stuff for Christmastime, remove it when New Year’s is past, and I’ve still got all the wintery cozy stuff around! These printables fall into that wintery category.

This season I’ve been loving all the little bottle-brush trees, flocked pine, and subtle use of berries. I drew inspiration from all those when creating these printables – they have the pine and a few berries, but plenty of clean white, like freshly fallen snow.

These prints are a marriage of vintage and minimalism. The drawings are definitely vintage – straight out of an old book – but I’ve kept the text and background simple and clean to give these prints a peaceful, wintry aesthetic.

I hope you enjoy, and as always, please don’t hesitate to drop me a comment or message if you have any questions or issues!

Click here to get the Winter Botany Printables.