Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Gratituesday: Our Family Service Trip

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I’ve talked here recently about how important it is to serve together with your family. We’ll be talking about that more – and I’ll be sharing some specific ideas of ways to serve with your family, specifically a ministry we can all be a part of together here at Heavenly Homemakers!

But today, I want to share what my family is up to this week and part of next. We’ve been praying about, saving for, and working out details for this ministry opportunity for quite some time.

Originally, we had planned on all six of us going together on a foreign mission trip. That is still something we’d like to do within the next two years before our oldest, Asa, graduates from high school. 

But for now, while we continue to put funds aside for a bigger trip that will take us to a far away country, and while we give our younger boys a little more time to grow (we’re not quite ready to take our eight year-old overseas for a mission like this), Matt and I decided to plan a “state-side” mission trip instead. There are needs all over the world, and certainly needs right here in the United States. What a great stepping stone and training ground for our family!

God led our destination choice to be in Colorado. It just worked. The more we put together the details of our trip, the more we are seeing just how God has orchestrated this for us.

Supplies are ready. Bags are being packed. We take off Wednesday morning, will be staying with some friends in the Denver area, and will be serving in different forms of ministry the rest of this week and into the beginning of next. We’ll be taking pictures along the way so that I can share it all with you after we get back. In the meantime, I’ve got some fun posts and recipes lined up for you to read while we’re gone!

We are all so excited about this trip! It will be great family time together, a great learning experience, and most of all, a great time to grow closer to God as we serve Him as a family.

(And don’t forget the Denver and Colorado Springs Meet & Greet  events too! If you  live in the area, please make plans to come. We would love to meet you!!)

Share how God is working in your life on your blog, then come link up with us here. If you don’t have a blog, be sure to leave a comment letting us know what you’re grateful for! Please read through the Gratituesday Guidelines so that you understand what kinds of posts you can link up to share here. Posts that are linked but do not fit our Gratituesday theme will be deleted.

If you are linking up a blog post for Gratituesday, please copy and paste the following sentence into your post! Thanks!

Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!

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Enjoy Them While They’re Young

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boys102sm

My boys, spring of 2010

I started feeling it last December. 

I was Christmas shopping online for our four boys. My excitement grew as I continued to come across sites for some of our favorite toys from companies we love. High quality wooden puzzles and games by Melissa and Doug. Books about our beloved Curious George and Corduroy. Super hero costumes. Brightly colored building blocks.  These are the toys that make our world go round.

Correction. Made our world go round. Past tense.

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Asa and Elias, Christmas 2008

My boys aren’t so much into those kinds of toys any more. On their lists were items like headphones, iTunes gift cards, goalie gloves, and the like. At least our eight year old still wanted Legos. But I started to feel a little bit sad. No more wooden puzzles or superman capes? Well when did that happen?

I promise you from the bottom of my heart that I love this stage of life we’re in – having a houseful of big kids. Raising kids ages 8, 11, 13, and 15 is the rockinest season ever. I can’t begin to tell you how wonderful it is to live with teenagers. Now that all the kids can read, all six of us together can have crazy fun playing board games that don’t include a candy cane lane, a hungry hippo, or (praise the Lord) a chute or a ladder. The joy we experience studying God’s word together and having meaningful prayer time? It’s beautiful. And the volume of food we go through? Well, some might be frightened to actually watch the food disappear from our table as quickly as it does, but as long as I don’t think too hard about the grocery bill, I take great pleasure in seeing my boys inhale triple batches of pancakes and two pounds of strawberries in seven minutes flat.

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Malachi, spring 2009

But when I look at their baby pictures? When I see a little plastic plate sporting Winnie the Pooh like the one that used to get flung off our high chair? When I come across a size 2-T outfit that all four of the boys wore as it was passed down the line? I find that I suddenly can’t breathe. How is it that instead of having to take a wet washrag to wipe smeared sweet potatoes off of an unwilling chubby baby face, I’m handing over a razor so that very boy can shave his whiskers?

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Justus and I, heading out for a date in May, 2012

I now understand what all the other ladies have been telling me for years about how “the days are long but the years are short so enjoying them while they’re young because they grow up so quickly.” I heard that over and over when my four boys were little. I heard it when I had multiple children in diapers. I heard it when we were potty training (the boy with pee running down his leg). I heard it when the three-year old had his fourteenth melt-down in the church foyer. I heard it when I had one kid hanging on my leg, one running in the opposite direction, one screaming to be nursed, and the other one…wait WHERE was the other one??! (Hiding under the table.)  I always wanted to say, “Yeah, yeah. Enjoy them while they’re young.  I know. I will. I am. Now shut up and help me put these kids into their car seats so I can get home and put them down for their naps.” (Not really, but yeah. Really.)

I grieve and rejoice at the same time that my boys are all now “big.” My oldest will graduate in two years. He’s the one who made me a mother the very first time. I think it happened sometime around yesterday. But actually, somehow, it was more like a decade and a half ago.

Enjoy them while they’re young? I did. I am. I do. I will.

Every short, long day.

family_7_sm

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Menu Plan for (three days of) the Week

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My family is spoiling me again this Mother’s Day. I just finished a delicious lunch (made by everyone but me), and now I am listening to Matt and the boys clean the kitchen. I think I may go take a nap. 

mothers_day_1 
No, the boys didn’t get up at the crack of dawn to bake fresh rolls. 
I happened to have some in the freezer, 
so all the boys had to do was get them out to thaw before church.  :)

Here are the flowers I received at church today. Each boy (including Matt) got to pick one flower to give me. I am amazed that somehow they coordinated and all picked a different color to bring to me. 
mothers_day_2

Our family has some exciting days ahead of us this week and next. We take off Wednesday for a week long trip. Therefore, the menu plan? There’s no need for one.

I will share with you what the first few days of our week look like before we leave, but I’ll warn you, it is not exciting in the least:

Sunday, May 12 – Happy Mother’s Day to me in which I am not allowed to cook all day!
Scrambled eggs, fruit
Grilled BBQ Chicken, cream cheese corn, tossed salad, butterhorns
Pizza

Monday and Tuesday
Leftovers, clean out the fridge, scramble more eggs, make some smoothies, finish cleaning out the fridge

Wednesday
Pack sandwiches for the road, plus lots of fruit and water bottles

If you want some real (and helpful) menu ideas, please check out this link which is always available to you:  My menu plan archives.

I’ll share more about our upcoming trip on Gratituesday, because without a doubt, this trip is one that we have looked forward to for quite some time and we are so thankful it is finally here!!!

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Food from Venezuela, Denmark, Belgium, and Djibouti (sort of)

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We’ve done some international traveling this week. In the kitchen. And online. Ahhh the blessing of experiencing a taste of four different countries, right from the comfort of our own home.

Each of our boys chose a different country to study and write a report on last week. We’re wrapping up our official school year this week. This was kind of our final “big project.” Yay!

One of their assignments was to make a recipe from their selected country. I mentioned this to you on my menu plan post earlier in the week. When I suggested that you all send us your Djibouti recipes, I had no idea that so many of you actually would! Ask and you shall receive. You all are da’ best. :)

And now I have to sheepishly admit to you that between finding and making all these recipes, finishing all of our school assignments, and preparing to go on a big trip next week (can’t wait to tell you about it!) – we still haven’t tried any of the Djibouti recipes. We’re leaning toward this one though, because it sounds like our family will really like it! In the meantime, Elias (age 11) took the advice of several of you and made milkshakes, naming them “Shake Djibouti.” You’ve gotta love it.

shake_djibouti

Asa made Belgian Waffles. After looking at recipes online, knowing we would adapt it anyway to use healthier grains and oils – we pretty much just used our regular waffle recipe in a Belgian waffle iron. They were sooooo yummy! Especially topped with fresh strawberries and whipped cream. 

belgiun_waffles

  Malachi made Danish Cinnamon Snails. We adapted the recipe (surprise, surprise) to use whole grains and sucanat and we loved how these turned out!

danish_cinnamon_snails

Last but not least, Justus and I made Venezuelan Tequenos. Sort of. I mean, I really don’t know how to convert kg and ml to cups and tablespoons. Not even a little bit. And searching online didn’t help. So, we just guessed at it and made a dough of sorts, wrapped it around some cheese, and fried it. They turned out tasty…but ugly. It’s okay. They got eaten in about five minutes.

venezuela

It is now obvious to me that after eating all of these rich foods this week, it is time to Shake Djibouti. 

I’m talking about exercising. Not eating ice cream. Just to be clear.

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Peanut Butter Chocolate Granola

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I’m guessing that many of the greatest recipe “inventions” have happened by accident. Asa (our 15 year old) really didn’t mean to create this wonderful Peanut Butter Chocolate Granola. His real intent was to make No-Bake Cookies for a mission trip fund-raising meal last Sunday. But somehow the liquid ingredients got slightly overcooked, the oats made the mixture way too dry, and no way no how was a cookie going to be formed once it was all said and done. I told him to press his mixture into a 9×13 inch pan and that we’d try cutting them into bars later. While that was a brilliant idea, it didn’t work any better than forming the mixture into cookies. We ended up with peanut butter chocolate oat crumbles instead. Peanut butter chocolate oat crumbles that tasted really, really good. :)

And so – we all just grabbed a bowl and a spoon and had at it. (While planning a different dessert to take to the fund-raising meal.)

I’m calling this “granola” because that’s what it looks and feels like. But I do have a hard time calling this a healthy breakfast or snack. While it is made with real food ingredients, it is still more dessert-like, for sure. In an effort to make this a little less sugary, and a bit more diverse for “stir-in” options, I’ve tweaked the ingredients from the original cookie recipe Asa used. I’m pretty sure it will still taste awesome with less sugar than originally called for in the cookie recipe!

By the way – depending on how you make this, it can be completely dairy free if you wish. :)

Peanut Butter Chocolate GranolaYum

1/2 cup butter or coconut oil
1/2 cup milk or coconut milk
1/2 cup natural peanut butter (we use homemade peanut butter)
1 cup sucanat or 1/2 cup honey
4 Tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup coconut flakes (optional)

Put butter, milk, peanut butter, sucanat, and cocoa into a medium sized saucepan. Cook over medium heat until butter is melted and mixture is smooth. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Allow the mixture to boil for one minute. Remove from heat. Add vanila, oats, and coconut flakes. If the mixture is too liquidy add a few more oats or coconut flakes until you reach desired consistency.

pb_choc_granola_2

Or shucks. If you “mess up” this recipe and the mixture turns out to be nice and smooth instead of crumbly – go ahead and spoon it onto wax paper and make No-Bake Cookies. ;)

 UPDATE:  If you do find your mixture too wet:  Add a few extra oats to soak up the liquid. Then put it on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet and baked it at 250° for one hour, stirring occasionally. The granola should get nice and crispy!

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Easy Cream Cheese Fruit Dip

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This Cream Cheese Fruit Dip is our very favorite dip to eat with fruit!

strawberry_dip_2

I’ve probably already written this sentence a time or three, but here it is again:  Cream cheese makes everything better!

Or was I talking about butter when I said that? Actually, maybe it was cream? Well, the same is true for cream cheese, butter, and cream. (Although I will draw the line at adding any of the above to my lettuce salad.)

This recipe includes both cream and cream cheese. And homemade vanilla. (Or store bought vanilla, but homemade is so YUM.)  And then there is just a bit of maple syrup to make it sweet. Last but not least – you’ll add a shot of lemon or lime juice. Here are the specifics:

Easy Fruit DipYum

Easy Cream Cheese Fruit Dip
 
Save Print
Author:
Ingredients
  • ½ cup cream (heavy whipping cream)
  • 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
  • 2 Tablespoons real maple syrup
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 Tablespoons lemon or lime juice (fresh or bottled)
Instructions
  1. Whip the cream until it forms stiff peaks.
  2. In a separate bowl, cream together the cream cheese, maple syrup, vanilla, and lemon or lime juice.
  3. Fold cream cheese mixture into the whipped cream.
  4. Chill until ready to serve, or serve right away.

Tastes great with strawberries, grapes, and apples. Makes about two cups of dip.

Cream Cheese Fruit Dip
Have to eat dairy free? This wasn’t a winner of a post for you then, was it?! I’ll try to make it up to you next time. :)  Everyone else – multiple choice question:

Everything is better with:
a) butter
b) cream cheese
c) cream
d) all of the above

I’d love to hear your opinion on this one!

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Gratituesday: An Upcoming Date and an Unexpected Gift

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Last week, my husband asked me out. I said yes. :) 

Many recommend that you date your spouse once a week, or at the very least, once a month. Matt and I have never felt that we needed to make “going out” on dates a high priority. However, what we have made a priority is spending time together often and making plenty of time for meaningful conversation. We’ve never felt that we needed to spend money on restaurants, movies, and babysitters to keep our marriage healthy. But really…the occasional date that involves going out and spending a little money? Well, that’s pretty fun every once in a while. :)

Our kids are old enough to stay on their own and fix their own meal, so Matt and I decided that the two of us would go out for lunch this week at one of our favorite local restaurants, Chances R.

I’ve been excited since making these plans, and we looked at the schedule to pick a day this week to make it happen. That alone was going to be my Gratituesday post, but guess what else??!!

Sunday at church, we were handed a “thank you” card for a ministry we’ve served in for the past two years. On the way home, I opened the card and told Matt, “Ha! Look what we just got?” 

Inside the envelope was a gift certificate to Chances R. How about that? I believe I can now splurge by getting a dessert with my meal. What do you think?

Isn’t it neat the fun ways God gives gifts and bonuses to His children?!

Share how God is working in your life on your blog, then come link up with us here. If you don’t have a blog, be sure to leave a comment letting us know what you’re grateful for! Please read through the Gratituesday Guidelines so that you understand what kinds of posts you can link up to share here. Posts that are linked but do not fit our Gratituesday theme will be deleted.

If you are linking up a blog post for Gratituesday, please copy and paste the following sentence into your post! Thanks!

Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!

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

Breakfast Pizza {Real Food Dollar Menu}

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Yum

Our boys discovered that you can use my Whole Wheat Pizza Crust to make an awesome Breakfast Pizza. They also discovered that if you work ahead in your math book, you will finish ahead of schedule. On the contrary, if you avoid doing math some days, you will have to do double the lessons on the days you’d really rather go outside and play with your brothers on the trampoline.

But back to the pizza.

breakfast_pizza_2

Make it just like you would a regular homemade pizza, using this crust recipe. Top it with salsa, scrambled eggs, cheese, and any other toppings of choice – like veggies and meat.  Homemade Turkey Sausage is great on this pizza!

Bake it as directed. Serve with fruit.

breakfast_pizza_1

Without adding meat, I found that it cost about $4.52 to make this meal, which filled my family of six. That’s about 75¢ per person, for a meal that actually sticks with them for several hours!

Easy, delicious, filling, versatile, inexpensive, and healthy. What more could you want? (Except maybe to be finished with math lessons for the year.)

*I calculated my cost based on the food sources and prices I have available to me. Most of the ingredients I use are organic. Your cost may be slightly more or less depending on where you find your ingredients.

Looking for more meals on our Real Food Dollar Menu? Here are the recipes I’ve shared so far:

Stay tuned for many more recipes and ideas for our Real Food Dollar Menu!

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Menu Plan for the Week {Which Includes Some Foreign Foods}

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strawberry_shortcake

We have a few strawberries left from my shopping trip last week, so I think I need to make some Strawberry Shortcake. What do you think?! :)

A couple of weeks ago, we were blessed to go to a Geography Fair on our local Christian college campus. There, our boys got to “experience” and learn about many other countries in the world. It was a lot of fun, and inspired me to have our boys create a little geography fair of our own. :)

They were each in charge of choosing and researching any country in the world last week. They wrote information about it, created a flag of their country, and looked at the foods found in those countries. This week, they are each making one dish that represents their country. We’ve worked them into our menu plan this week!

Sunday, May 5
Baked oatmeal cups, kiwi
Nacho bar fundraiser for mission trip kids at church
Huddle at our friends’ house

Monday, May 6
Belgian Waffles (made by Asa, who studied Belgium last week)
Chicken patty sandwiches, fruit salad
Alfredo sauce with pasta, steamed broccoli and carrots, tossed salad

Tuesday, May 7
Homemade poptarts, oranges
Tacos
Something Venezuelan – made by Justus  (update to come)

Wednesday, May 8
Danish cinnamon snails (made by Malachi, who is studying Denmark)
Chicken burritos, sweet peppers, pears
Lasagna casserole, fried zucchini, tossed salad

Thursday, May 9
Honey cinnamon muffins, strawberries and cream
Recipe from Djibouti – if in fact Elias and I can find one that will work!
Black bean salsa, organic chips, fresh pineapple, orange slices

Friday, May 10
Fried eggs, hashbrowns, turkey sausage, clementines
Cheesy beef and rice, green beans, sweet peppers
Homemade pizza, baby carrots, apple slices

Saturday, May 11
Scrambled egg sandwiches, fruit
Leftovers
Teriyaki chicken and veggies (broccoli, carrots, zucchini, peppers)

If you happen to have any wonderful Djibouti recipes hanging out in your kitchen – please share!! Elias wasn’t kidding when he said they were hard to find. :)

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No Longer Fruitless {My Super Fun Shopping Trip This Week}

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If you recall from my menu plan this week, we were pretty low on our supply of fruits and vegetables. Yesterday, Malachi and I had appointments in Lincoln. Therefore, we made our way to two fun stores that we don’t get to go to very often:  Natural Grocers and Traders Joes.

Fact:  I am so in love with food, it’s not even funny. (Don’t worry, Matt. I still love you most.)  Grocery shopping makes me very happy. Spreading my purchases out and gazing at all the food once I get home offers me long moments of joy. (Don’t worry, kids. I do truly love your handsome faces more than I love staring at zucchini.)

I mean, we all knew this about me already, right? But really. Who else gets so excited when putting food into a grocery cart? How many people are energized just by looking at a package of mushrooms and a big bag of broccoli? What 39 year old lady jumps up and down in the produce department when she finds a four-pound carton of strawberries (while sending her 8 year old back to the other shelf to put away the measly 2-pound carton)? Why get 2 pounds when you can get 4 pounds!!?! After all, at my house, they’ll be gone in two days.

Confession:  I didn’t really jump up and down…very high. Although I may have shrieked a little bit (and startled a baby in a cart by the kiwi).

Here’s what I was able to get:

trader_joes

Clementines (5 pounds), strawberries (4 pounds), pears (4 pounds), gold potatoes (4 pounds), sweet potatoes (6 pounds), cherry tomatoes (1 pound), kiwi (2 pounds), sweet peppers (3-pack), apples (3 pounds), avocados (4-pack), broccoli (three bunches), green leaf lettuce (2 heads), baby carrots (2 pounds), mushrooms (1 pound)…and three small zucchini

I just geeked out and did the math on that. I couldn’t resist. That’s around 35 pounds of fruits and vegetables. You know you were tempted to add it up too. Yeah, and some of you are looking at it right now, double-checking my math. Don’t think I can’t see you.

When I got home, after the boys unloaded the van and grocery bags, and exclaimed loudly over what I had brought home – I decided that “who cares what was originally on the menu plan for tonight – we are soooo having Stir-Fry.”

I cooked up some rice, then filled a cast iron skillet with carrots, broccoli, zucchini, mushrooms, and pineapple – along with olive oil, garlic, and sea salt. I would have thrown in some of the sweet peppers, but I was hoarding them for another meal. :)

stir_fry

Fess up:  Does food make you yawn, or do you love food like I do?  (My heart-felt apologies, once again, for startling the baby in the cart by the kiwi.)

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