Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Gratituesday: Back to School Shopping

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gratituesday

If you’ve been hanging around here long, you might already know that the boys and I have a tradition each year a few days before we start school. Each boy gets his very own “school supply list” and off to Walmart we go so that they can pick out new notebooks and folders for the year.

I will admit that I tend to forget each year that while this is an incredibly wonderful experience and I love doing it…there is also a fair amount of chaos involved with four boys, four baskets, four lists and an aisle full of bright and attractive objects. My older guys can be calm and patient while basically picking their supplies without much help. My youngers require more help and also um…they don’t always like to follow their list so much. My youngest doesn’t know how to read the prices on the shelves, which means that I have to quickly redirect him to the 15¢ notebooks instead of the really cool $2.50 notebooks. The paper inside is the same, ya know. ;)

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Oh yeah, and this year I had a fifth boy with me…because if you’re already taking four, you might as well take five. Five boys, five lists, five baskets. Five hundred questions. All at once. (“Is this the kind of folder I need Mom?” “I don’t know…why don’t you get it out of my face so that I can actually see it?”)

And yet, I do it because the boys love it. And mostly, so do I. It is SO much fun to watch them enjoy getting excited for school to start. It is so much fun to watch them walk out of the store with their very own bags of supplies. 

And…it is so much fun to only pay 20¢ for glue sticks.

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The best part is watching them come home and pour the contents of their bags out to look at all over again. Then they put it all away to have it ready for the first day of school. (Or, they leave it sprawled out all over the floor so that it can get ruined already before it even has a chance to be written in yet.)

There really is something magical about new school supplies and new books that brings an excitement to the beginning of a new school year. So far we’ve had three days of school and every one of them has been just wonderful. Perfect? No. But wonderful nonetheless. 

Today, I’m grateful for the chance to be my boys’ teacher and thankful that we share traditions that will be lifetime memories. I’m even grateful for that crazy joy in the Walmart school supply section. Having a bunch of boys eager to start a new school year…now that’s something to be grateful for!

What are you thankful for this Gratituesday? Write about it 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!

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Homeschool Hubbub: Our Eight, Ten and Thirteen Year Olds

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I shared what Malachi (5) will be doing this year…now I’ll share about our three older boys:

Asa (13) will be working through most of Sonlight 100 this year (History, Geography, Literature, Current Events, Creative Writing, Spelling) and will be doing much of it on his own. He’ll begin Apologia Science this year, Exploring Creating with General Science. For math, he will be going through Teaching Textbook Pre-Algebra. We LOVE Teaching Textbooks and HIGHLY recommend them!!!!!

Justus (10) and Elias (8) will be doing much of their work together this year.

We’ll be studying American History with them (from Civil War era to present) using Sonlight’s Level 4 Books. I remember studying these with Asa a few years ago, so I’m really excited to revisit them with Justus and Elias!

These two boys are about on the same reading level, so I’ve put together a big shelf of Sonlight readers for them to choose from throughout the year. Ooh, such good books!!

For science, we’ll be making a monthly trip to our local science museum, where they have a special  program just for home schoolers! They’ll also be going to a once-a-week science class here in town taught by a wonderful gal who really knows her science. Here and there at home, we’ll be reading through a few of these science books that I’ve purchased in years past and never got around to reading.

Elias will be finishing the last two Miquon Math books this year. Justus will be working through Teaching Textbooks 5. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE Teaching Textbooks!!?!! For the older kids, it is a tremendous teaching tool!

I use Sequential Spelling with them and they work through MCP Phonics books.

sequential spelling

Whatwe do with ALL four boys together (well, Malachi is hit and miss with some of this!):

  •  Grammar Ace – These activities are simple and fun. (When asked to make a list of nouns, one of my boys wrote “boogers”. It was a proud moment.)  Grammar Ace goes along with the School House Rock DVD, which is so much fun and is bringing back so many memories for me! (“Conjuntion Junction, what’s your function” – remember?!)

grammar_ace

    • Mark Kistler’s Draw Squad – I’ve pretty much been TERRIBLE in the past about making time for art lessons with the boys. Sonlight recommened Mark Kistler’s Draw Squad…I got it, along with a nice sketch pad and some pencils for each boy and we are all learning to draw together. (By all, I mean all. Mom is learning too because up until now I have had NO artistic ability. Hand Mama Mark Kistler’s book and give her her very own sketch pad!)

draw squad

  • Bible – I don’t know why I’m mentioning the most important part last. ;)  We read the Bible together at breakfast time (currently reading through the book of Matthew). In addition, I read a section of Why Pray? each morning and we discuss it a little bit. It is AWESOME that the boys are old enough to have thoughtful Bible discussions now. (Which sometimes ends with, “Mom can I have more french toast?” But still.)

I’m sure I forgot something off of our list.  What are your kids studying this year?

I’ll try to take time this week to tell you more about our schedule and what our school days look like. Because yes, we sort of have a schedule. Sometimes.

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Menu Plan for the Week, Plus This Year’s Corn “Party”

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I warned them.  On my way out the door to the farmer’s market Thursday evening I told the boys that I was hoping to come home with a big load of corn so they’d better get their shucker game face on.

At the market, I walked right up to my favorite organic food grower, took a look at her corn and said, “Can I have all of it (please)?!”

She’s always great to work with, I trust how she grows her food and she is very fair with her pricing. In fact, she only charged me for 10 dozen ears, when in fact she sent me home with over 13 dozen!! That’s a stinkin’ lot of corn. 

I’m still sore.

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The boys helped me lug it out of the van (Matt was at work so he missed all the fun!) and they went to town shucking while I started boiling water in my big stock pot.

And they shucked. And they shucked. (13 dozen is no less than 156 ears of corn. They did the math.)

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Just for fun, check out these pictures from their shucking time two years ago. They are so much bigger now. Wow.

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In case you’re wondering, you can read about the process of freezing corn here. I did invest in a cool Kernel Cutter from Pampered Chef this year and it was GREAT to work with! So much better than a regular knife!

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Yes, I thought you’d like to see the gigantic mess I made in the kitchen that night. Not pictured:  My hair looking like a half-shucked corn cob.  By the way, did you know that corn is very, very sticky? Just so ya know.

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I’m happy to report that I got 61 bags of corn for all of this work!!! That’s enough for the whole year, so I am officially checking “put up corn” off my list!! Hallelujah! (You can read more about the Seal-a-Meal I used here.)  The cost for all of that ends up being about 66¢/bag for the freshest, sweetest, organic-est corn there is…woohoo!

In other news, I made a big peach cobbler (recipe found here) with some of our Michigan peaches. Oh, it is so much fun to surprise my husband with his favorite treat. The kids didn’t mind either.

peach_cobbler

And here is our menu plan for this week, filled with so many summertime goodies!

Sunday, August 8
Oatmeal, peaches
Roast, potatoes, carrots, gravy
Black bean salsa and chips, watermelon

Monday, August 9
Peach cobbler
Turkey/cheese melts on biscuits, carrot sticks with ranch dip, cherries
BBQ meatballs, new potatoes from the garden!!, green beans

Tuesday, August 10
Mini breakfast pizza, strawberry-peach slushies
BLTs, watermelon
Taco salad, creamy orange cooler

Wednesday, August 11
Peanut butter honey toast, blueberries
Spaghetti, fried okra, corn on the cob
Pizza, grapes

Thursday, August 12
Scrambled eggs, fruit-kefir smoothies
Feeding YC women’s soccer team:  Nacho Bar with all the fixin’s, homemade ice cream sandwiches
Egg rolls (experimenting with recipes on this!), watermelon

Friday, August 13 (Happy Anniversary to us!!)
Crepes with jelly, bananas
Cheesy turkey sausage stromboli, fruit salad
Cookout with friends

Saturday, August 14
Whole Wheat Donuts
Leftovers
Lamb chops, green beans, tossed salad

Stay tuned this week for a very fun Back 2 School Bash!!

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My First Trip to a Whole Foods Market!

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The closest Whole Foods Market is about two hours away from me in Omaha….and we almost never go to Omaha. This is why I have never, ever been to a Whole Foods Market. Until Monday!!!  We decided to stop there on our way home from our trip and I was (like the nerd that I am) very excited. Who needs a shopping mall or a theme park when you can go to a really cool grocery store while on vacation?!?!

Judging from all the previous posts…it would appear that all of the fun parts of our trip centered around food. What is it with us, anyway?! Blueberries…Peaches…Chocolate…and a Whole Foods Market. THIS is what family vacation memories are made of…apparently.

Do you want to see what I got? (Yeah, just humor me.)

whole_foods

See, I had to get some sparkling mineral water because it’s a special treat that gives me “the burn” I miss. Plus I needed the dark green bottles to give my friend for when she makes kombucha for me. Ah, a twofold purpose for purchasing the mineral water.

And I had to get cherries, because I had to get cherries. Do I need another reason?

I got cheddar cheese because the last time I ordered cheese from Azure Standard, it didn’t come in and I was completely out of cheese.

I got hotdogs and lunchmeat because we’re in the middle of a very busy season with gardening and canning and soccer and school…and a girl needs a little convenience sometimes. (At least these are healthier versions.)

I got yogurt because I was out and I need to start a new batch.

I got organic apples and then I HAD to get Gjetost Cheese…because have you ever had Gjetost Cheese?!?!? It’s only THE BEST CHEESE EVER to eat with apples. We call it “caramel cheese” because it looks like little slices of caramel and it tastes sweet somehow. I bought not one, but two Gjetost cheese blocks because it’s almost apple season, and Gjetost with apple slices makes the BEST snack ever. They cost $5.95/block…but we can make it last quite a long time. You just need a tiny little piece of Gjetost with a slice of apple. Seriously, I think it may be one of the happiest snacks I’ve ever eaten.

And there you have it. I paid $35 for what you see in that picture. (I would have paid $55, but I had a $20 Visa Gift Card and – like the nerd that I am – it made me happy to use my gift on special groceries.)

While I LOVED my Whole Foods Market experience…I do have to say that I am VERY thankful for my health food co-op. Not only does it give me much easier access to organic and whole foods…it also saves me a lot of money.

And now, I do believe I will go treat myself to a little juice mixed with mineral water. Ahhhh…the burn….

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Family Vacation, Part 3

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Okay, okay…we didn’t really get to go to a U-Pick Chocolate Farm after our U-Pick Blueberry Farm and U-Pick Peach Farm visits. Chocolate doesn’t grow on trees, ya know. (And if you are one of my sons, you will now say, “Well actually Mom, cocoa beans grow on trees which means that chocoate really does…”)

Anyway, we DID stop at the next best thing! Right along the way to the peach farm, we spotted Vineyards Gourmet Chocolate. Matt looked over at me in the van with his eyebrows raised as if to say, “You want to stop there next don’t you?” Who am I to say no an offer like that?

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Vineyards Gourmet Chocolate is family owned and operated. We had so much fun with the gals there!

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Ooh, and they kept giving us samples to try. We are now friends forever.

We got to watch one of the owners make a HUGE chunk of fudge. It was so cool.

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They were featuring a new item:  Chocolate Covered Bacon!!! We figured that the chocolate draws in the women…the bacon draws in the men and everyone wins!

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For the record…we tried some Chocolate Covered Bacon and it was rather tasty! Who knew?

Next up…we go to the beach!

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Family Vacation, Part 2

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Stopping to pick blueberries on our way to the wedding in Michgan was so much fun that we decided to stop at another U-Pick farm on our way home. This time, we got to ride on a hay wagon to a huge orchard of peach trees!

Asa, the teenager, ate more than he picked. I think he couldn’t help it.

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Oh my, he’s still eating.

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Now he’s got his brother in on the act. (Malachi may not have wanted me to take this picure, what do you think?)

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We couldn’t resist having all the men stick their heads into the fruits/vegetables for a picture. I was laughing so hard I could hardly hold the camera still to take the picture. Something about seeing a corn cob with a goatee gave me the giggles.

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That apparently wasn’t funny enough…so we had to throw in silly faces.

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Good grief. Now the teenager is eating the watermelon made of wood. Wait Asa! Really, honey. Mama will get you something else to eat.

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We came away from this farm with a lovely basket of peaches…most of which are just now becoming ripe enough to eat!! Yes, I can be seen frequently standing at my kitchen sink with peach juice running down my chin. 

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So, let’s review. We went to a U-Pick Blueberry Farm. Then we went to a U-Pick Peach Farm.

Next up…a U-Pick Chocolate Farm?!  :)

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Cooking Ahead for August

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It’s coming…and I’m bracing myself. I’ve been doing everything I can to prepare and be organized so that I won’t be stressed and short tempered with my boys. Not that I would ever be short tempered with my boys. Ugh, I do try not to be short tempered with my precious angels who leave their stinky shoes in the middle of my kitchen floor so that I can stub my toe on them while I’m trying to cook and fill their constantly hungry bellies. I try.

So what’s coming, you ask? Just a very busy couple of months, that’s all. August and September are two months of very,very hard work while I do a lot of canning and preserving in the midst of beginning our school year and running to lots of soccer games. I absolutely love this time of year, but it can sometimes get hectic.

As soon as I finished writing and putting together Learn Your Letters, Learn to Serve Curriculum Kit, I saw that I had about three weeks before we were going to start our school year. (We like to start in early August at our house.)  I decided that during the last part of July, I would prepare a bunch of freezer foods, stock up on items like canned salmon and tuna for easy meals and order meat from our local farm source so that I’d have a full freezer and plenty of meal options. I even pulled out Do the Funky Kitchen and read it again so that I could get my kitchen organized an in order! Anything that I could do ahead of time to prepare for this busy season, I did. I think. I’m pretty sure I forgot a few things.

Anyway, my pantry and freezers are well stocked so that putting meals on the table during the next few weeks will be easy and quick. I am excited now to begin a new school year with the boys! (More details on our school year coming soon.)

Here are some pictures of the food I prepared and froze during the last part of July:

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Strawberry Bread – Pictured above is the unbaked version. Isn’t it a pretty pink?!

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Mini Pizzas, using this Pizza Pockets recipe…
I’ll be able to just pop a few of these into our toaster oven to bake up while we finish our morning school-work.

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Whole Wheat Waffles – ready to be re-heated in our toaster oven for a quick breakfast or dinner.

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Whole Wheat Sourdough Biscuits – I may use these for turkey/cheese melts…or I may grab some turkey sausage I have pre-made in the freezer to make some quick gravy to pour over them. NOBODY would complain if I made biscuits and gravy. :)

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Sloppy Joes and Meat and Cheese Burritos

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Whole Wheat and Honey Zucchini Bread

In addition, I’ve got these items stashed in my freezer:

I also started a new gallon sized batch of Homemade Vanilla, which as you can see, will be finished “extracting” in January! I didn’t get “carded” this time when I was buying my gallon of vodka. Sniff.  Do you think that means I look older than 21 now? ;)

freezer_cooking_august_2

Call me a nerd (go ahead – you know you want to), but I purchased a whole bunch of canning lids and put all of my canning supplies into a basket and put the basket on top of my fridge. That way, I know where everything is and I have it all ready to go each time I’m ready to can a new batch of something. I may be one of the only people who think that canning supplies in a basket is…cute.

canning_supplies

Okay, so food (lots and lots of food)? Check.  Schoolbooks? Check. Canning supplies? Check.

Oh good grief…where are the soccer cleats?

I knew I forgot something.

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Family Vacation, Part 1

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I have quite a few pictures to share from our trip to Michigan. Here’s something funny:  We went to Michigan for a wedding. I took no pictures of the wedding. Sometimes I amaze myself. 

Matt and I decided that since we were taking the time off to travel so far, we would turn this trip into a vacation. We took our time on our way there and back, stopping along the way to make memories. 

One of the first things we did was stop just inside the state of Michigan to pick blueberries!!!!!

Pardon me for gushing like an idiot…but you have to realize that blueberries don’t really grow well in Nebraska. We’ve picked and eaten our fair share of fresh strawberries and raspberries. But blueberries? We’ve never even seen a blueberry bush before. 

I can NOT even tell you how much fun the six of us had. The weather was perfect. The kids all cooperated. The blueberries tasted fantastic!!

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After Malachi (age 5) got tired of picking berries, we handed him the camera. He took this picture…

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And this one…

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Matt and I had to tear ourselves away from the field. The whole time we were picking, I could NOT stop smiling. It was one of those family moments that is everything you dream of, you know? 

We finally stopped after we had no less than ten pounds of blueberries. Do you know how much all those berries cost? $17.00.  Are you KIDDING? I’ve paid $3.00 for a tiny half pint of blueberries before and the taste wasn’t even comparable!!! $17.00 for all those berries was the best deal ever!! 

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Cost for one of the most fun family moments ever? Priceless.

After we left the Blueberry Farm, we traveled a few more hours to spend some time with some friends we used to be in the ministry with in Colorado. We hadn’t seen each other for eight years and it was just wonderful to visit and catch up.

Oh, and you might be interested to know that on our drive to their house, we all sat in the van consuming blueberries like there was no tomorrow. We tried to stop eating…really we did. 

And then I dropped a blueberry on my seat. I looked and looked for that blueberry, both because I didn’t want to waste even one delicious blueberry…and because I really did not want to sit on said delicious blueberry. I never did find the silly thing.

Oh, until we pulled up to our friend’s house and I got out of the van. There was the blueberry squished all over the seat of my pants. Grrrr. It was so not cute.

Thankfully, our friends let me in anyway.

Here I am with my lovely friend Jill. Incidentally, she’s the lady who taught me how to make homemade vanilla!

Jill_and_Laura

After a wonderful (but too short) visit, we got ready to leave. Ah, but wait! The boys discovered that our friends had a cool hanging-upside-down contraption and just had to try it out!

And yeah, they insisted that Mom try it too.

There I was all locked up and helpless…and Matt started clicking away on the camera. Stinker.

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Good thing you can’t see my squished blueberry stain.

Stop looking, you really can’t see it in this picture.

Coming up next…we visit a Peach Picking Farm!

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Gratituesday: A Real Vacation

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gratituesday

We are just pulling back into town after a five day (LONG) trip to Michigan! Matt performed the wedding ceremony for one of the sweetest couples on earth, which is what took us so far north.

I will admit it:  I was not looking forward to the trip. I was looking forward to the wedding and I was looking forward to staying with our friends in MI…otherwise…I was sort of dreading the getaway.

I don’t like spending money on gas and hotels. I don’t like sitting in a van for hours. I don’t like compromising what we like to eat for days on end. I just like being home. I’m a stick in the mud when it comes to travel…and this summer has been FULL of travel!

I now completely and totally take back everything I ever felt about traveling. Before we left, I talked myself into relaxing and calling this a “VACATION”. Why do I have to talk myself into these things? I pre-wrote posts and set them up to show up on my blog each day without me needing to be on the computer. I got the house clean, packed food, made an inexpensive hotel reservation for our stop on the way there. 

And then I relaxed.

You can’t see me right now…but my face is beaming. I just spent HOURS of car time talking with my husband. Do you know what hours of time talking to your husband will do for a gal’s disposition? We NEVER have enough time to just talk…and oh we just talked and talked. The boys were fabulous riders and only argued a little bit about whose turn it was for the laptop. ;)

We not only enjoyed a wonderful wedding, but we were able to spend time with people we haven’t seen in years. We stopped along the way and did some things we’ve never done. Wow, it was absolutely awesome!

I’ll tell you more about all the wonderful fun as soon as I unpack my camera. And catch up on laundry. Okay, I’ll share the fun before I catch up on laundry, because you’re likely to not want to wait that long. ;)

For now, I’ll just tell you how grateful I am for an incredible getaway filled with joy and memory-making for our family. It truly was a vacation.

(Ooh, and it just so happens that this Gratituesday is my birthday! Friends are coming over for lunch, which is a perfect welcome home for us!)

What are you thankful for this Gratituesday? Write about it 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!

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Healthy Beverages

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simplesteps

I’ve encouraged you to knock out the soda/pop/coke…whatever you call it. I’ve encouraged you to drink more water. But is there anything you can drink besides water that isn’t bad for you?!

First, I need to remind you that if I can kick my Pepsi habit…anyone can. I used to drink a ton of the stuff. While it’s super hard to give it up…I can testify that it is 100% worth it. 

Now I mostly just drink water or raw milk (more about raw milk eventually in this series!). But occasionally I do have a few other drinks that I consider to be treats:

  • Iced Green Tea   I don’t drink tea very often, but I love it as a treat if we ever eat out…or occasionally I’ll make it at home. I drink it straight…I am not a sweet tea kind of girl. I do like the occasional lemon wedge. (See, I just sometimes like to go ALL out, huh?)  If you do like your tea sweetened, you might try liquid stevia or honey as natural alternatives to sugar. Also, I’d think putting a little bit of 100% juice into the tea might be fun.

 green_tea

  • Homemade Lemonade or Limeade  Ooh, this stuff is refreshing and SO delicious (uh, if I do say so myself). It can get a little pricey though since it’s sweetened with real maple syrup. We have this very infrequently…definitely not often enough according to my children.

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  • Mineral Water with 100% Juice   Okay, THIS is what gives me my “soda fix”. You know what I miss most about my Pepsi? The burn.  I just love the fizzy burn of soda. Loved. Past tense. I loved the burn of soda.  I miss the burn. Sometimes now I splurge on mineral water and put in just a shot of 100% juice (grape is my favorite). I usually mix about one part grape juice to 4 parts mineral water. Ooh, the burn is so good. If you’re used to drinking soda, this mixture will likely not taste at all sweet enough for you. However, if you haven’t had soda for a while, you may find that this is just the treat you’ve been looking for. I even find now that the less juice the better. Of course…I’m really just going for the burn. ;)

mineral_water

 

  • Kombucha    I’ve just recently fallen in LOVE with kombucha! It kinda took a few weeks to make myself like it…but now I love it! It’s a little bit fizzy and really refreshing on a hot day. And it is a super healthy, probiotic drink! Right now, a friend of mine and I have a lovely arrangement worked out:  I buy the supplies…she makes the kombucha and shares it with me. We both win! Eventually (although I make no promises that it will be any time soon), I’ll try to go take pictures of her making it and share the process with you. It isn’t hard…I’ve done it before.

Now, I am excited to share a wonderful comment that my friend Serenity left on a post several months ago. I thought it was so awesome to read about how her husband gave up coffee…and to hear about how much BETTER HE FEELS!!! Here’s what Serentity had to say…

My husband is an RN and had a coffee addiction for YEARS. He finally quit this winter when he got the flu and I can not believe how it has changed him. First, he is no longer tired. He was drinking coffee to stay awake (he works nights) but he has found that without caffeine he is actually much more alert and less tired. Second, right after quitting coffee he felt so good that he started exercising. Now he runs 3 times a week for 4-5 miles and lifts weights twice a week. He looks AWESOME! For the first time in our marriage he jumps out of bed each morning ready to conquer the day. For the past ten years I had been bringing him a cup of coffee every morning to wake him up and I would have to coax him out of bed. I am loving my energetic, motivated husband :)

What are some of your favorite, healthier drinks?

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