A weekly catch-up from Our Little House in the Country

🌞 Warm Welcome

Happy Friday, friends.
I’m so glad you’ve chosen to join us again today for our little Friday letter. I hope this note finds you well and that you’ve had a gentle, steady week. Thank you, as always, for taking a few moments out of your day to pour a cuppa of something warm, settle in, and enjoy this week’s letter from our little house in the country.

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🏡 From Our Little House

This week, I’m writing to you surrounded by boxes, black bags, and plastic crates — decorations for every season of the year, toys from when the children were tiny, and a hundred little keepsakes that had been tucked away safely in the attic until now. We had to empty it completely ahead of insulation work, so our kitchen and hallway currently look like an extremely festive storage depot!

It’s funny, because even though I did a huge attic clean-out back in January and everything is neatly labelled, it still feels like a lot. The house feels darker and more cluttered than usual, especially with the gloomy weather we’ve had — those deep grey November skies that seem to swallow all the daylight.

But we’re doing our best to cosy up in the evenings: finding new series to watch, reading by lamplight, lighting the fire, and settling into our winter rhythm. As soon as it starts getting dark around 4 or 4.30pm, I go around closing the curtains, turning on the lamps, and lighting a candle or two. It’s a small ritual, but it instantly makes everything feel softer.

I’ll share a little more about the chaos, the clutter, and how we’re navigating it in this week’s theme below.

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🌿 Theme of the Week: Holding Steady When Life Gets Messy

If you could see my house right now, you’d probably laugh, nod in sympathy, or both. We had to empty the attic this week ahead of getting it insulated, and now everything that once lived neatly out of sight is suddenly stacked in my kitchen and hallway. Christmas trees, boxes of decorations, Halloween tubs, Easter baskets, toys we kept from when the children were small — you name it, it’s out. And it’s everywhere.

Even though I did a huge attic clear-out back in January and everything is organised and labelled, it still feels… a lot. A bit dark. A bit cluttered. A bit chaotic. And if I’m honest, I’ve felt a little chaotic myself this week because of it. It’s amazing how much the state of our home affects the state of our mind.

But this week has reminded me so clearly why the little rituals we build into our days matter so much — especially when life gets messy.

Because life doesn’t wait for tidy kitchens or clear hallways or perfect circumstances to roll in. It keeps going. Real life keeps happening around us… builders arriving, children needing lifts, deadlines looming, candle orders to package, and dinners still needing to be made. And sometimes our surroundings feel out of sorts, or our routines get disrupted, or something in our week just knocks us off centre a little bit.

Those are the weeks when our rituals do their quiet, steady work.

The cup of tea in the same favourite mug.
The ten-minute tidy before bed.
Lighting a candle before sitting down to write.
A quick walk, even if it’s only to the end of the lane and back.
Putting the phone away for an hour.
Sticking to the rhythm of dinner → clean kitchen → slow evening.
These tiny, almost invisible things become the threads that hold our days together.

When the house feels chaotic, returning to the rituals that anchor me keeps me grounded. It reminds me that steadiness doesn’t come from everything being perfect around us, but from the gentle, repeated things we choose to hold onto — especially in the messy seasons.

And November, with its quiet “pause before winter,” is a good month for noticing these things. It’s a natural time to reset, to settle ourselves, to prepare our homes and hearts for the season ahead. But it’s also a month when real life continues to happen — things break, plans change, energy dips, and sometimes the house looks like a small warehouse exploded in it!

So if your week has been a bit upside down too — or if you’ve been feeling tired, unsettled, or just a little bit out of rhythm — you’re not alone. Truly.

You don’t need to fix everything at once.
You don’t need to have the house spotless.
You don’t need to feel “on top of things” every single day.

Just come back to the small, steady rituals that help you feel like you.
Make the cup of tea.
Step outside for a breath of fresh air.
Do the one small thing that brings order or calm.
And let that be enough.

Life will always have messy weeks.
But we can hold steady in the middle of them.

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📝 On the Blog This Week

This week on the blog, I shared a new post titled “The Rituals That Anchor Us,” all about the simple daily practices that hold us steady — especially during the busy festive season. These little rhythms aren’t about productivity or perfection. They’re about comfort, grounding, and creating moments of calm in the everyday. It ties beautifully into our theme this week, particularly with the state of my own house at the moment!

I’ve also continued sharing some festive inspiration as we move gently into winter. You’ll now find:

🎄 20 Festive Family Night Ideas – cosy evenings at home, screen-free fun, and simple traditions
✨ 10 Christmas Eve Traditions – meaningful ways to make December 24th feel magical
🍪 15 Christmas Baking Ideas – cookies, cakes, and festive treats to enjoy throughout December

If you’re in the mood for winter dreaming or gathering inspiration for the season ahead, you’ll find plenty to explore.

And if you’re still firmly in autumn mode, don’t worry — all of our cosy autumn content is still there under the Autumn category. From simple pleasures to seasonal crafts and intentions, there’s a treasure trove waiting for you.

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📅 Coming Up on the Blog

Next week, we continue our gentle wintering theme with a blog post titled “The Beauty of Doing Less.” It’s all about slowing down, honouring your energy, and embracing a simpler rhythm as we move deeper into the colder months.

Following that, you can look forward to:

✨ Seasonal Self-Care Rituals for Christmas
🎁 31 Ways to Slow Down & Savour December – your Advent-to-New-Year calendar (coming 25th November!)

This is one of my favourite posts of the whole year — a slow, intentional guide to December that I hope will inspire a gentle festive season rooted in meaning and calm.

Once that calendar goes live, we’ll be diving into the heart of our seasonal content, and I’m really excited to share everything we’ve been working on with you. I hope you’ll stick around, explore, and maybe find a little inspiration for your own winter.

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📸 On Instagram This Week

Over on Instagram… well, it’s been a very quiet week, and intentionally so.

I always talk about taking breaks from screens, stepping back from scrolling, and creating space in your week for real-life living — and sometimes I have to listen to my own advice. While I adore Instagram and the lovely community there, it can be a lot to create and share consistently, especially alongside everything happening here at home.

So this week, I took a gentle pause. A few small shares, a few quiet days, and plenty of behind-the-scenes life lived instead. Sometimes when we build momentum, there’s a temptation to keep pushing, posting, and performing — but that pace isn’t sustainable forever. And I never want this platform to become a source of pressure or burnout.

I’ll be back properly next week, chatting away, replying to your messages, and sharing daily life in our little house again. If Instagram is your spot, do pop over and say hello — I always love hearing from you. But for now, a little rest has done me the world of good.

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✨ What I’ve Been Loving This Week

Beth Kempton – Calm Christmas (Season 5, Episode 1)

This week, while packing candle orders and navigating a house that currently resembles a very festive storage unit, I’ve been listening to Beth Kempton’s Calm Christmas podcast — specifically Season 5, Episode 1 — and it has been exactly the gentle companion I needed.

If you haven’t come across Beth before, she’s a writer, podcaster, and creative mentor whose work centres around slow, intentional seasonal living. Her books (Calm Christmas, Wintering, Kokoro, Wabi Sabi, and others) are infused with softness, wisdom, and a deep understanding of how the seasons shape us. Her Calm Christmas ethos is all about stepping away from the pressure, reclaiming the beauty of winter, and creating a festive season rooted in meaning rather than madness — which, as you know, is very much my language.

In the opening episode of this new season, she invites listeners to consider what they truly want from this Christmas. Not the performative version we sometimes feel pushed into, but the nourishing, soul-deep version that allows space for rest, warmth, intention, and connection. She talks about letting go of perfection, embracing seasonal rhythms, slowing down, and finding joy in the small, quiet moments — exactly the themes we’ve been exploring in our own winter and November content.

I also picked up her Calm Christmas book this week after a reader recommended it to me, and I’m already underlining passages. It feels like the kind of book you curl up with by lamplight — one that gives you permission to create a season that feels like yours.

Beth also writes beautifully on her Substack, where she shares reflections, seasonal musings, and thoughts on wintering well. She has this calming, steady presence that I’m really enjoying at the moment.

Listening to her this week has reminded me just how aligned our two worlds are — slow living, seasonal rhythms, a gentler festive season, and making room for what truly matters. It’s been the perfect backdrop to my days, especially during a week when the house is anything but calm!

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🌿 Follow Along

If you’d like to keep in touch between letters, you’ll find me most days over on Instagram — sharing gentle reminders, snippets of everyday life, and chats over coffee in Stories.

Here’s where else you can find me:

• 📷 Instagram
• 📝 Substack
• 📌 Pinterest
• 🏡 Blog

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💬 Share Your Thoughts

If there’s something you’d love to see in a future newsletter, blog post, or printable, or if you just want to say hello — I’d truly love to hear from you.

You can reach me any time by:

• 📩 Filling out the contact form
• ✉️ Emailing me at hello@ourlittlehouseinthecountry.com
• 💬 Sending a DM over on Instagram

Comments on the blog or Instagram are always welcome too. I read every single one.

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💌 Until Next Time…

As always, thank you for spending a little part of your Friday with me. These quiet moments of connection — shared from my kitchen table, often with the fire lit and a cup of something warm beside me — mean more than you know. I hope this week’s letter brings you a sense of steadiness, a reminder that you’re not alone in the messy weeks, and a little spark of comfort as we settle deeper into November.

Wishing you gentle days, cosy corners, and small rituals that make life feel soft again.
Take good care of yourself this week — and I’ll see you here next Friday.

With love,
Ciara x

P.S. Just a small candle update…

A quick little note that Christmas candle orders are now open and moving along nicely. If you’re planning to gift one this year, thank you — it truly supports our little family business. Your THANKYOU10 code is still active if you’d like to use it.