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Count Down To Christmas Without Spending Money!

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I wanted to share a fun way we are counting down to Christmas without spending money this year. It’s also giving us some great family fun time too!

Every year I buy new games for Christmas. But this year? I’m not letting myself. Why? Because we have SO MANY GAMES. And many of them we’ve hardly had a chance to play.

So this year? I’m determined that we’ll spend some extra fun time playing games and reading books in the evenings leading to Christmas.

Count Down To Christmas Without Spending Money!

One day when all of the little kids were at school or napping, I dug out a pile of our favorite games, plus some that our elementary-age kids haven’t played before. I grabbed some of our Christmas books too. I wrapped them all and piled them on top of the mantle.

I ended up with 16 packages total, so beginning December 9, we’ll begin taking turns unwrapping one package each evening. We’ll get all ready for bed, then play a game together before our family singing and prayer time.

My hope is that this will become a new family tradition – and not just at Christmastime! During the long winter nights, I’m hoping we get into a habit of pulling out games to play together or books to read together.

Hopefully, I’ve picked out games that our younger kids can play and our older kids will still enjoy! Our game-gift pile includes:

  1. Spot It!
  2. Memory
  3. Uno Attack
  4. Connect Four
  5. Blink
  6. Headbandz
  7. Yahtzee
  8. Farkle
  9. Pass the Pigs
  10. Huskerdu
  11. Racko
  12. Pictionary
  13. Plus several Christmas books from the library!

Need more great family game ideas?

Find a huge list here. 

What about books?

If you don’t have many Christmas books, and you don’t want to spend the money to buy some, head to the library. They are free, you can wrap and enjoy them, then take them back to the library by their due date!

More Count Down to Christmas Ideas

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The Easiest Way to Make a Gingerbread House

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Have you always wanted to make a Gingerbread House but found yourself frustrated because it’s so difficult? Try this way instead!

Listen, if it isn’t easy, I don’t do it. And that’s not just because I have 387 kids now (plus-minus). I’ve always been this way. Complicated projects don’t work for me. I’m not a perfectionist. I’m not super detail-oriented. I’m most definitely not super artsy. So I only make easy projects.

Hahaha, I just re-read what I typed up there. “If it isn’t easy, I don’t do it.” HAHAHA. Well, that is not even true. I do hard things all day long. #387kids  I’ll do the hard things if I feel like it matters. My babies most certainly matter. People matter. Love matters. Detailed projects don’t matter to me.

But shucks if I want to do fun projects with all of these kids that I love! Especially during holidays! Gingerbread houses always sound like such a fun idea to make together. So I finally found a way to make them that is easy!

Here’s what you’ll need to make the Easiest Gingerbread House:

  • Frosted Strawberry Poptarts (like this, because they already look Christmasy!)
  • Frosting Tubes (like this, only I usually just get several tubes of white)
  • Hard Candy Peppermints
  • Red and Green M&Ms
  • Gumdrops

What I avoid:

  • Graham Crackers – They break too easily.
  • Tubs of frosting or homemade frosting – Hard for little hands to use. Big hands for that matter
  • Gingerbread House Kits – Expensive and break easily

But Laura! I thought you never bought Poptarts and Candy!

Oh, I do when we make Gingerbread Houses. :) This is for an art project, yo. This stuff doesn’t get eaten because “sorry kids, the houses have been sitting on the mantle for too long and now they are yucky to eat. bummer.”

How to make a Gingerbread House the easy way:

I’m going to give credit where credit is due. I saw this idea here. She does a lovely job sharing how to do this. Go watch the quick how-to video here. SO EASY!

Bonus tips:

  1. Start with paper plates. If the houses are built on paper plates, we can easily transfer them from the kitchen table to their final destination (at our house: the mantle so everyone can see them!).
  2. I (the mom) cut the poptarts for my kids. They enjoy watching and the poptarts are cut correctly this way. Cutting is hard for little guys and we want this project to be fun!
  3. We use the frosting tubes like glue. Magic.
  4. The kids point to where they want the “glue” and I (the mom) squeeze it into place for them. This makes it easier to actually get the glue where we want it and really? The kids are only excited about placing all the candy on their houses anyway. I provide the glue blobs for their candy-placing pleasure.

This is the only time you’ll ever hear me say this: Go out and get yourself some poptarts, candy, and frosting tubes. :)

Enjoy making these super easy Gingerbread Houses with your family!

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Junior Chef Club Registration OPEN AGAIN – One Week Only!

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Did you miss out on getting your Junior Chefs signed up a few weeks ago? Great news!! We’re all caught up with our initial registrants and able to give you one more chance to get your kids registered!

Get all the details here!

But here’s a quick breakdown of this week’s final offer:

  1. Subscribe to our Junior Chef Club – hurry to use the coupon (LASTCHANCE10) to get a super great discount on the entire year’s subscription!
  2. Yearly subscribers receive a big packet of bonus materials to help their Junior Chef get started with an amazing cookbook binder.
  3. Every week, beginning December 22,  we’ll send you a packet of Recipe and Serving Ideas Printables to print and give to your Junior Chef. They can add it to the 3-ring binder Junior Chef Cookbook they are building and they can have a blast trying new recipes!
  4. This offer officially ends Friday, December 3, and will not be available again until November 2022.

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Sign up for the yearly subscription and get these right away:

Can’t wait to add your Junior Chefs to our list!

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Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Simple DIY Coconut Milk

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Simple DIY Coconut Milk

by Tasha Hackett

diy coconut milk

Dairy-free milk is good to have on hand these days. This simple DIY coconut milk is going to wow you, I’m sure of it. Even if you’re not on a special diet, the chances are high you know someone who is! Of all the nut milk options, coconut milk is the one I’ve landed upon for all my dairy-free baking and cooking. After almost a year of eating paleo to combat migraines, I’m embarrassed at how long it took me to try to this simple method. (Hi! Tasha, here.) If I wanted a yogurt or cream substitute, I used canned coconut milk or coconut cream. If I wanted simple coconut milk for smoothies and baking, I bought the jugs and ignored any added ingredients.

I finally tried making my own coconut milk.Yum

Don’t get too excited. I’m not out there foraging coconuts and shredding the meat into milk. #aintnobodygottimeforthat. But I am side-stepping buying water in a jug. I had convinced myself that making my own was going to be too complicated. Silly Tasha. Once I mustered the proper sense of adventure and ingenuity, there’s really been no turning back.

Not only is this simple DIY coconut milk unadulterated with added ingredients, it is significantly cheaper, and saves the landfill and the factories from dealing with those obnoxious plastic/cardboard jugs. And because I Subscribe and Save my canned coconut milk from Amazon, I don’t even have to think about buying it. It just magically appears on my porch. Poof!

Simple Coconut Milk Recipe

I’m really stepping out on a limb here to call this a recipe. But if Laura can tell you to pour salsa on the chicken in the crock pot and call it a recipe, than we’re calling this a recipe.

You will need a half gallon glass jar and a can of coconut milk. I currently use this brand. I’ll go over all the steps very slowly for you, just be sure you can keep up: Open the canned coconut milk. Pour it into the jar. Fill the jar the rest of the way with water and leave an inch or so at the top. Put the lid on the jar. In case you missed it, that last step is very important. A lidless jar is hazardess. Shake your lidded jar before using the coconut milk in smoothies, pancakes, muffins, and any recipe that calls for milk! As it happens, I pour a splash of it into my coffee each morning.

DIY Coconut Milk Recipe in Pictures

Because this recipe is very complicated, I decided to go the extra mile and show you the process step-by-step. I hope this clears things up for you.

Set out your supplies.

canned coconut milk

Open the canned milk and pour it into the half gallon glass jar.

 

diy coconut milk

Fill the remainder of the jar with water.

homemade coconut milk

I hope you don’t mind, but I combined a step in this picture. See how the lid is on the jar?

Store in the refrigerator and give it a shake before using. That’s all, kids! I hope you enjoyed learning a new skill that will impress all of your friends the next time you’re at a party in need a parlor trick.

homemade coconut milk

 

Tasha HackettTasha Hackett is a friend of Laura and loves to eat homemade chocolate bars, potato chips, and yes, even salsa on chicken. A homeschooling mom of four, author, and recovering DIY addict, she loves to take a walk on the prairie as time allows. Her debut novel, a historical romance set in 1879 Nebraska released Summer 2021: Bluebird on the Prairie. (Print and Kindle options available.) Though Tasha likes to do All The Things, most of her time is spent with four chatty children and an incredibly supportive husband. They give her the kind of love people write books about.

To learn more about Tasha and her works of fiction, find her at www. TashaHackett.com.

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Family Game Night: Favorite Games!

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I love sharing our favorite games!

It’s much trickier now to find time to play games as a family – mostly because we have a lot of little ones who like to put game pieces into their mouths. But whenever we can, we like to pull out a game to play with our 6 and 7-year-olds. And once all six little ones are put down for the night, we can get out some of the more detailed games for the grown-ups!

In case you’re looking at games to enjoy during the holidays with your family, we wanted to share these lists again. We’ve added new ones too!

Favorite Games List

Family Games Little Ones Enjoy

Family Games for Bigger Kids and Adults

Your turn to weigh in! What are your favorite family games?

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The BEST Pumpkin Bars

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Are these really the BEST Pumpkin Bars? I guess you’ll have to try them to see!

I love how moist these are! And how cool is it that they are made with whole grains and no one can tell?! (I use freshly ground soft white wheat, which is a whole wheat pastry flour, to make these.) I love that they are lightly sweetened instead of loaded with sugar. And this:

I LOVE THE CLOVES.

There’s something about the flavor that the cloves gives this recipe that makes is so very good. Cinnamon? I’m always all in with the cinnamon! Sometimes I skip other spices just so I can enjoy the cinnamon in a recipe.

But don’t leave out the cloves in this one. Oh, it makes the Pumpkin Bars – well – it makes them the BEST Pumpkin Bars.

The BEST Pumpkin BarsYum

The BEST Pumpkin Bars
 
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Author:
Serves: 15
Ingredients
  • 2 cups whole grain flour
  • ¾ cup brown sugar or sucanat
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon sea salt
  • 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 4 eggs
  • 16-ounce can pureed pumpkin
  • 1 cup melted coconut oil
Instructions
  1. Mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and cloves.
  2. Add eggs, pumpkin, and oil, stirring until batter is smooth.
  3. Pour batter into a 9x13 inch baking dish.
  4. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Here are more Pumpkin Recipes you’ll love. Twenty more to be exact!

  1. Pumpkin Spice
  2. Make-Ahead Pumpkin Donuts
  3. Pumpkin Breakfast Cake
  4. Easy Low Sugar Pumpkin Whip
  5. Pumpkin Cheesecake
  6. Easy Flourless Pumpkin Muffins
  7. Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread
  8. Whole Wheat Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
  9. Pumpkin Pie
  10. Cream Cheese Pumpkin Muffins
  11. Pumpkin Bars
  12. Low-Sugar Pumpkin Roll-Out Cookies
  13. Simple Pumpkin Pancakes
  14. Simple Pumpkin Waffles
  15. Chocolate Pumpkin Cake
  16. Whole Grain Pumpkin Bundt Cake
  17. Warm Pumpkin Custard
  18. Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cake
  19. Warm Pumpkin Custard
  20. Pumpkin Pecan Pie Squares
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Favorite Fall Recipes: Crockpot, Oven, and More!

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I love lots of recipes in the fall. But these are my favorite fall recipes!

Favorite Fall Recipes For the Crock Pot

I use my crockpot all year long. But somehow in the fall, the food tastes more comforting when it comes out of the crockpot!

Favorite Fall Soup Recipes

Because it’s fall. So it’s soup time.

Favorite Fall Throw-Together-Quickly Recipes (10-20 minutes start to finish):

We need a lot of these quick ideas handy because we are on the go for soccer games during the fall!

Fall Apple Treat Recipes

It’s a great year for apples. We love making these fun treats with all the fall apples!

Fall Pumpkin Treat Recipes

There’s something about pumpkin recipes from September to December!

What are your favorite fall recipes?

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Get Our Homemade Vanilla for Gifts and Baking (While Supplies Last; Freebie with Purchase!)

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It’s that time of year again! We have a batch of our delicious Heavenly Homemakers Vanilla Extract bottled up and ready to ship out to you!

Our Heavenly Homemakers Vanilla Extract is perfect for:

  • Holiday Baking! and
  • Gift Giving!

Our vanilla is:

  • 100% pure
  • Not watered down
  • Has no sugar added
  • Shipped for free!

We make it like this – it’s the best of the best. It’s better than what you can buy at the store, yet it costs about the same or even less. Shipped to your door!

BONUS – free “Made With Love” Stickers!

When you buy 2 or more 8-ounce bottles of vanilla, or 3 or more bottles of 4-ounce bottles of vanilla, we’ll send you a free sheet of these gorgeous Made With Love stickers ($8.95 value ~ 20 stickers per sheet!)

Use these beautiful stickers as you give gifts of homemade goodies this Christmas season! (You can personalize them here if you want to purchase them separately!)

Our Homemade Vanilla quantities are very limited, so get this while you can!

Usually, we sell out within less than 48 hours.

Home / Shop

Heavenly Homemakers Homemade Vanilla Extract - 8 ounce

$32.00
Heavenly Homemakers Homemade Vanilla Extract - 8 ounce
Heavenly Homemakers Homemade Vanilla Extract - 8 ounce

Home / Shop

Heavenly Homemakers Homemade Vanilla Extract - 8 ounce

$32.00
Model Number: 8-ounce-vanilla-extract
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Categories: Vanilla Extract
Manufacturer: Heavenly Homemakers
  • Description

Made with only the best ingredients, this vanilla extract is 100% pure! Ingredients include high-quality vanilla beans and vodka - that's it! Slow brewed for 6 months, this vanilla is delicious and perfect for your baking needs. Because this extract has such a strong, pure flavor, feel free to cut the amount of vanilla in half when following a recipe - then you can get even more bang for your buck! FREE SHIPPING included with your purchase!

Home / Shop

Heavenly Homemakers Homemade Vanilla Extract - 4 ounces

$20.00
Heavenly Homemakers Homemade Vanilla Extract - 4 ounces
Heavenly Homemakers Homemade Vanilla Extract - 4 ounces

Home / Shop

Heavenly Homemakers Homemade Vanilla Extract - 4 ounces

$20.00
Model Number: 4-ounce-vanilla-extract
Maximum quantity exceeded
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OUT OF STOCK
Categories: Vanilla Extract
Manufacturer: Heavenly Homemakers
  • Description

Made with only the best ingredients, this vanilla extract is 100% pure! Ingredients include high-quality vanilla beans and vodka - that's it! Slow brewed for 6 months, this vanilla is delicious and perfect for your baking needs. Because this extract has such a strong, pure flavor, feel free to cut the amount of vanilla in half when following a recipe - then you can get even more bang for your buck! FREE SHIPPING included with your purchase!

How we make Vanilla Extract

Want a peek into how we make our Vanilla Extract? Here you go! We highly recommend that you try this at home. ;)

Want to make it quickly – even in time for Christmas? Here’s how to make Vanilla Extract in your Instant Pot!

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Delicious Pie Recipes

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It’s that time of year again! Baking season! I think we’re going to need us a list of Delicious Pie Recipes.

I’m here for you. I have such a list. Oh, and if you recall, I also gave us all permission to buy pre-made pie crusts if we need to.

If you make several pie crusts ahead and freeze them, or if you purchase them already made in the freezer section, it is super easy to put together any of these great pie recipes!

10 Delicious Pie Recipes

Just for kicks, I wanted to re-mention this fun Chocolate Pie Crust idea.

And it only makes sense that I end by telling you more about eating Pumpkin Pie for breakfast. In March?? Read about that here.

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Junior Chef Club – JOIN US!! (This Makes a Great Gift!)

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Our brand new Junior Chef Club is a perfect way to help your kids have fun learning in the kitchen! We can’t wait to include all of your kids in this!

What is the Junior Chef Club?

The Junior Chef Club is a weekly cooking subscription just for kids! (Bonus: Parents get to enjoy all the recipes and food too, and maybe even a night off!) Here’s how it works:

Each week, we’ll send a brand new Recipe Printable Packet to your inbox. You can print this packet and turn it over to your Junior Chef! It will share simple prep instructions for a brand new recipe plus a Grocery List, a Kitchen Supply List, and a bonus page with Serving and Sharing Ideas.

We suggest that you print the pages each week and let your Junior Chef add them to a 3-ring binder as they build their Junior Chef Cookbook!

Here’s a sample of what your Junior Chef Club Member will receive each week:

Cost for the Junior Chef Club?

Your Junior Chef will receive an email packet of recipes and printables every single week! What a super fun gift that keeps on giving!

To make it easy, we have options to make it work for your budget! What works best for you?

    • $2.00/week ($104/year) or
    • $5.00/month ($60/year) or
    • $36.00/year (BEST VALUE!)

—> And check out the additional huge Christmas Coupon below that we’re giving you! <—-

Yep, there’s more…. :)

Yearly Subscribers receive a Big Bonus for joining!

We want to encourage you to save money with our yearly subscription fee, plus we want to set your Junior Chef up for success!

If you choose to jump in for an entire year, you’ll save lots of money AND receive the following printables right away so that you can get your kids set up with a fantastic 3-ring binder and begin to Build a Cookbook. Check this out!

These bonuses add $15 to the value of the subscription. And guess what else?

We’ve got a Christmas Coupon for you!

YES. That means that if you hurry, you can sign up for just $26 for the entire year!!! AND, the $10 coupon will be re-applied year after year, so your subscription will always be $26 instead of the regular $36. Woooo!!!! What a fantastic gift for your kids!! Are you as excited as I am?!

COUPON CODE: LASTCHANCE10

This offer is only good through Friday, December 3. After that, registration will not open again until next November. GET IN WHILE YOU CAN!

Let’s review!

  1. Subscribe to our Junior Chef Club – hurry to use the coupon (LASTCHANCE10) to get a super great discount on the entire year’s subscription!
  2. Yearly subscribers receive a big packet of bonus materials to help their Junior Chef get started with an amazing cookbook binder.
  3. Every week, we’ll send you a packet of Recipe and Serving Ideas Printables to print and give to your Junior Chef. They can add it to the 3-ring binder Junior Chef Cookbook they are building and they can have a blast trying new recipes!
  4. This offer officially ends Friday, December 3, and will not be available again until November 2022.

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Questions?

Let’s see if we can answer them for you!

When will I receive the free Bonus Pages? If you choose to become a yearly subscriber, we’ll email you the Cooking and Baking Basics eBook, the Cookbook Cover pages packet, and the Cookbook Divider page printables just as soon as you sign up. We’ll also email you a certificate that you can print and include with your gift which helps explain all the fun to your Junior Chef!

When will my Junior Chef start to receive new recipes? We figure a lot of you will plan to give this subscription as a gift to your Junior Chef at Christmastime! Therefore, we will begin emailing the Recipe Packets starting Wednesday, December 22. 

So the printables to get started will hit your inbox immediately after purchase, as described above. But the year’s worth of recipes won’t start coming in until right before Christmas. When your Junior Chef opens the Cookbook Binder on Christmas morning, you can explain what they’re getting, and you’ll have a starter pack of recipes waiting for them in your inbox to get them going!

What if I have more than one Junior Chef in my family? Awesome! We allow the printables to be used for more than one person IN YOUR IMMEDIATE FAMILY.

If I only want to pay per week or per month, will I still get the freebies? No, those are only free for yearly subscribers. But you can purchase that packet here for just $15 if you’d like!

Let us know if you have more questions! Otherwise, jump on this right away so you can be eligible for the extra $10 off the yearly subscription!

Coupon Code: LASTCHANCE10

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