Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Gratituesday: Baking

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I know it sounds silly, but this week I’m very thankful for the gift of baking.

This is such a fun time of year to stir together yummy baked goods and casseroles. I spent hours today in the kitchen experimenting with new recipes to share and I loved every minute of it! I know not everyone enjoys baking as much as I do, but wow is it a fun activity for me.

I’m thankful for my houseful of men who love to eat. I’m thankful for the blessing of a pantry full of delicious ingredients. I’m thankful for cooler weather, cinnamon, comfort, and well…butter. What can I say? :)

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Just wait till I share this Oatmeal Raspberry Bar recipe I tried today!

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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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Let’s Do This! Join the Getting Ahead {Snacks} Challenge

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It’s been a few weeks since I threw out a challenge for all of us. With the holiday season coming soon, I thought we could all use a little practice getting ahead in the kitchen. And not that it’s all about me, but I am feeling a little short in the snacks department at my house. So for this challenge, I decided that we would focus on getting ahead with nourishing snacks.

The Let’s Do This! eCourse has an entire lesson devoted to getting ahead with snacks. Why? Because snacks are a must for many of us, and having healthy options on hand and ready to grab means that we are making better choices for ourselves and for our families. Otherwise, when we get hungry in the middle of an afternoon, we may be likely to cave in and grab a handful of chocolate chips. Not that you or I have ever done that in a moment of weakness. Mmmmhmmm.

Soooo, healthy snacks. I’m really hoping you’ll share some fresh new ideas with me! Here is a list of options I regularly give my kids, but they would definitely welcome something new. I’ve been experimenting, looking all over the internet for new recipes, and am counting on you to give me some ideas and inspiration.  No pressure.  I’ll just be waiting by my computer with my apron on and my mixing bowls in my lap…

My goal by the end of next week is to have several fun and healthy snack options prepared for my family – and to have a great new list of healthy (make-ahead) snack ideas compiled to share with you. In the meantime, there will be new healthy snack recipes coming your way – so be on the look-out. Join the Getting Ahead {Snack} Challenge!

Who’s with me?! Let’s Do This!

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Menu Plan for the Week

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Homemade Grape Nuts

This is a fun time of year for baking. My family thinks this is a fun time of year for eating. So it’s all good at our house. :)  Have you been doing any special baking lately?

Here’s what we’re eating this week:

Sunday, October 27
French toast using leftover cinnamon swirl bread, fruit
Cheesy beef and pasta casserole (from Make-Ahead Meals and Snacks eBook), green beans
Small Group potluck – Chili, peach crisp

Monday, October 28
Dark chocolate almond granola, apples
Chicken patty sandwiches, raspberries, baby carrots
Pizza party with Elias’ soccer team

Tuesday, October 29
Homemade grape nuts cereal, blueberries
Homemade corn dogs, peas, baby carrots
Fiesta chicken with lettuce and tomatoes on tortillas (tortilla recipe in Totally Tortillas eBook and Oh, For Real book)

Wednesday, October 30
No-knead overnight bread, clementines, scrambled eggs
Easy noodle stir-fry with carrots, broccoli, and asparagus
Crock-pot barbecue chicken, potato wedges, peas

Thursday, October 31
Pumpkin pancakes, bananas
Sloppy joes, baby carrots, apples
Lasagna casserole, tossed salad

Friday, November 1
Peanut butter honey toast, applesauce
Creamy mac and cheese, green beans
Baked potatoes in the crock pot – baked potato bar with whatever works from the fridge :)

Saturday, November 2
Pancake sausage muffins, apples
Leftovers
Calzones, fruit salad

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Easy and Delicious – Black Bean Salsa

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You’ve likely seen this recipe on my site before, but I wanted to highlight it as a delicious meal that costs less than a dollar per plate!

Black Bean Salsa is easy to make and has only five healthy ingredients. It tastes so fresh, and the cilantro makes it so flavorful. I serve it with Organic Corn Chips. The total cost for the salsa and the chips costs less than $6 and will feed my entire family. This is also a great, inexpensive snack to share with guests at a party.

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You’ll find the recipe here.

Looking for more meal ideas that use healthy, real food ingredients and cost less than one dollar per plate? Here’s what I’ve shared so far:

 

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Malachi’s Business Dream

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Earlier this week, Matt saw an opportunity to win college scholarship money for Nebraska kids 8 and younger. We quickly acted on it and would like your support!

He’s been entered into a “Big Dreams” contest that will be judged in November, but we’d like to get people to give it a bunch of thumbs up so the judges will see its likeability. 1st place-$10,000; 2nd-$5,000; 3rd-$2,500.

Asa did the video and editing as part of a school project, and he and Justus collaborated on the original music. Matt and I did next to nothing. It was great to see the boys working together on this project!

If you have a minute, would you go check out Malachi’s Business Dream video and click on the thumbs up for us? You can click it once each day through the end of October.

Thank you for helping us with this fun project!

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Visiting One Child Matters in Colorado Springs

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Remember way back in May when I shared about the trip our family took to Colorado? We were able to spend an entire week in the Denver and Colorado Springs area doing a variety of service projects and ministries together. It was such an awesome way to spend our family vacation! We saw God work in so many ways to make this trip come together, from opening up opportunities for us to hand out food to families in need to joining with some college friends to serve the homeless.

Now that I’ve been able to share the One Child Matters ministry opportunity with those of us here at Heavenly Homemakers, here’s another piece of that glorious week in Colorado I want to tell you about. What you have to know is that our family was already planning to be in the Denver/Colorado Springs area before we made the connection with One Child Matters. We got so excited about the ministry opportunity with OCM, then learned that their headquarters are in Colorado Springs. We asked if we could spend time with them while we were in the area and asked them to please put us to work! They did just that, and they treated us like royalty from the moment we walked through their doors.

It’s one thing to look at the Once Child Matters website and talk to the people on the phone to hear their heart regarding the ministry. That alone had made me fall in love with the children and mission behind One Child Matters. But having the honor of meeting the One Child Matters Team face to face, and then spending the day working with them? It was awesome. These people care about the children they are serving – there is no doubt.

They had our kids feeling right at home in no time.

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I loved meeting everyone, but it was a special treat to meet Kate – the one I’ve been in contact with the most. She took our family on a tour of the office so we could meet and get to know what each person did to fulfill the needs in this ministry.

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A great bonus is that my cousin works at One Child Matters, so we were able to catch up with her a little bit and steal some hugs.

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After a tour, we got to sit down and work together on the letters people send to their sponsored kids. This experience was so rich and so much fun. I’ll share more details about sending letters to your sponsored children in a future post, but wow if working through these letters didn’t inspire me and make me feel the love between sponsoring families and the children they are serving.

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During the late morning, our younger boys headed to the kitchen with some of the OCM team to cook up a Jordanian feast. You’ll notice on the One Child Matters Blog (written by Kate, pictured with me in the second picture above) that they occasionally share recipes from the variety of countries where the sponsored children reside. I love this feature as it can help connect us to the children there. Our boys loved helping prepare this meal and being featured on the One Child Matters Blog. Remember how I mentioned that our boys felt right at home? The pictures in this blog post featuring the Jordanian meal will prove that to you. ;) 

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After we ate together, some of us continued to work our way through sponsor letters, while the younger boys headed over to create some masterpieces to send over to our own sponsored child.
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I am excited to introduce you to our sponsored child soon. It’s amazing how you can feel connected to someone you’ve never met, and how praying for someone holds so much power. If you haven’t had a chance, head over to the Once Child Matters site and consider sponsoring a child. We are so thankful for the opportunity to participate in this ministry!

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What Are You Putting On Your Skin? Win a Great Package of L’BRI Products

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L'BRI Skincare Set
You all know that I go all out when it comes to my facial cleansing routine, using moisturizer, and applying make-up. And by all out, we all know that I really mean that I’m…out. All out.  I don’t use anything. I wash my face with a non-toxic soap. I use coconut oil for moisturizer when I need it. And I haven’t worn make-up for years. I am as exciting as they come. {yawn}

BUT, I know that there are many of you who prefer a better skin care plan. I’m excited to talk to you about L’BRI products that I was recently able to review. But first, let’s talk about skin.

Since our youngest son was born almost nine years ago, we’ve learned more about skin than we ever wanted to know. His severe eczema helped us understand how crucial it is to care for our largest organ – skin. Whatever goes on the skin is absorbed into our body. This can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on what it is. So many skin care products contain chemical ingredients that might seem fine when applied topically, but what about what happens once it enters our body through the skin?

Don’t let it over-whelm you (good luck). Just be aware that everything from soap to laundry detergent to shampoo to make-up is absorbed into our body through our skin. Therefore, we want to choose products that are less harmful. There are plenty of products on the market now that are working to provide great options that are healthier for our bodies!

L’BRI is a company I found out about that is doing just that. Here is just a small piece of information I found on their website about their products:

  • Are paraben free
  • Never use (SLS) sodium lauryl sulfate or propylene glycol
  • Never use mineral oil, lanolins, or waxes
  • Never use artificial colors or fragrances
  • Are never tested on animals
  • Effective for all skin types: normal, oily, dry, men, and women.
  • Backed by the L’BRI PURE n’ NATURAL 100% Satisfaction Guarantee

Read more about the L’BRI company and products here. From skin care to cosmetics, L’BRI has a high quality line of items that you can trust. I also find it very nice that you can order just what you need and have it delivered to your door. (I’m all about shopping from the comfort of my home.)  I highly encourage taking advantage of the free samples to see how you like the products. Simply pay shipping, and the samples will be on their way to you.

Today, Caroline, an independent consultant with L’BRI is giving away a great package which includes a facial masque and a holiday makeup compact kit. How fun!

L'BRI Facial Masque  L'BRI Holiday Compact Makeup Case - Perfect For The Holidays!

Interested in winning this prize package? Leave a comment on this post for a chance to win. (Subscribers, click the title of this post in your email to come to my website to sign up.)  For additional entries, Like Caroline’s Facebook page and/or subscribe to her blog. Leave a second comment here if you do either of those.

I’ll draw a random winner on Monday, October 28. Be watching for a post stating the winner as you will be responsible for contacting me if your name is chosen!

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How to Make Freezer Biscuits

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As with any freezer food, these freezer biscuits are going to make your life easier!

Freezer Biscuit Tutorial

Yum

My family loves biscuits and gravy. But by the time I brown sausage and make gravy, mix together biscuits, roll them, cut them out, and bake them – I end up with a very messy kitchen and a lot of time spent trying to get breakfast on the table. Therefore, I used to only make this meal on special occasions like birthdays and Father’s Day.

But now!! I have unlocked the secret to getting a meal of biscuits and gravy on the table within just a few minutes and with very little mess. My men think I’m wonderful for working so hard when they walk into the kitchen to see the delicious breakfast feast. Little do they know that making biscuits and gravy has become easier than trying to get them to see the laundry that is waiting for them to fold and put away. How can they not see it when they have to step over it to get to their room, I’d like to know. But back to the biscuits…

Making a super fast meal of biscuits and gravy is dependent on two simple tasks:

  1. Have sausage pre-made, browned, and frozen in meal-sized portions.
  2. Make biscuits ahead of time, then freeze them to pull out and bake.

If you recall, I typically make 12 pounds of Homemade Turkey Sausage at one time. It just makes sense. I’m already getting out all of the spices. I’m already dirtying a pot. Might as well just dirty a bigger pot and make a huge batch of sausage, right? Then I freeze the cooked meat in 12 quart-sized freezer bags. The night before I’m planning to make biscuits and gravy, I get out one bag of meat and put it into the fridge to thaw. Easy!

How to Make Freezer Biscuits

Now how about the biscuits? I’ve learned to mix up a triple or quadruple batch of Quick Mix Biscuits, roll and cut, then freeze the unbaked biscuits on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet. One mess, lots of biscuits. So easy! Once the biscuits are frozen, I transfer them to gallon-sized freezer bags. The night before I want to bake them, I place the desired number of frozen biscuits on a baking sheet, cover them with a cloth, then let them thaw on the countertop overnight.

The next morning, all I have to do is slide the biscuits into the oven to bake while I quickly make Homemade Sausage Gravy with the pre-cooked sausage. Slice some fruit, and I’ve got a favorite, hearty meal on the table within about 15 minutes.

My family will now be enjoying biscuits and gravy more often, thanks to these quick freezer methods!

Have you tried freezing unbaked biscuits before?

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Back Up Your Computer With Carbonite (Get a $20 Gift Card)

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You may remember me sharing this story last year. But with the idea of helping you save your computer like I saved mine, I wanted to share it again. Plus, Carbonite just announced that they are once again giving out $20 gift cards to those who sign up, so it makes this a much better deal for everyone!

A little over a year ago, a friend told me about Carbonite – a source she trusted and loved for backing up all her files on the computer.

At the time, we had nothing backing up our computer. This scared me quite a bit, because if our computer ever crashed, we would lose thousands of pictures – not to mention the eBooks and other projects I was working on for the website, financial documents we had saved, and who knows what else.

We took our friend’s advice, and signed up. For $59 per year, this seemed like a very worthwhile and reasonable investment.

Would you believe, that the investment with Carbonite paid off exactly four days later. Out of nowhere, the hard drive on our laptop (which was only one year old) got completely fried. When the “computer guy” who was examining our laptop looked at me and said, “There’s no way I can retrieve any of your information. Your hard drive is gone. I sure hope you have your files backed up somewhere…” I breathed a huge sigh of relief that God had led us to Carbonite just in the knick of time.

And I also wanted to kiss my friend who had told me about it…and maybe could have kissed the Carbonite people if I was in the business of kissing strangers, which I’m not, so I just chose to be grateful to them instead.

Anyway.

I just received an email letting me know that everyone who signs up with Carbonite receives a free $20 gift card or your choice. (Yay – just in time for Christmas!)  This is a great deal, because receiving that card pays you back for a good chunk of your initial yearly investment. Plus, you can get a free 15 day trial to start with to see if you like it. (I’m pretty sure you will like it. We love it because it is super easy to use. Plus, because our files are on Carbonite, I can get online from a different computer and access anything I need to at any time. Love that!)

I encourage you to look into Carbonite and take advantage of this offer. It may save your neck! Or at least it will save all the information stored on your computer that you don’t want to lose!

P.S. If you sign up with Carbonite’s Refer a Friend program, you can help your family and friends back up their computer too – and you’ll both receive gift cards. I’m using my Refer a Friend links in this post, because I like gift cards! Amazon gift cards are the ones I’d choose! But I love how Carbonite saved my pictures and hard work even more, so that’s why I’m sharing this with you. :)

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Empty

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If you haven’t already, you may want to go back and read Raw, Guilt , Beginning, Anxiety, Seek, Stop, Pride, Surrender, and Peace before reading this post.

Because of God’s power and healing, He was working in my heart and in my life to show me the beauty of calm. I was finally able to experience the joy of working on my chores throughout the day without the constant internal freak-out. Yes, I was able to enjoy more of His blessed peace. It was rockin’. I noticed His healing in so many areas and I rejoiced as my heart responded to life in ways it never had.

And yet, in so many ways, I was thoroughly confused. For all my years, I’ve enjoyed serving others, being a part of people’s lives, and participating in ministries. As I searched, surrendered, and allowed God to teach me more about who He wanted me to become – I found myself continuing to fight against my old self.

I kept feeling like I needed to give and to serve and to be this for her and to be that for him. Along with all the exhaustion that had come from fighting this long, hard spiritual battle – trying to keep up with all that I believed I needed to do and to be for others was creeping in on me and threatening to suffocate me.

One night, I reached a breaking point. What was I supposed to do now? There are needs everywhere that I can’t meet. I’m tired. I’m weak. I’m confused. I’m frustrated. I’m…I’m…

Empty.

In desperation I cried out to God, “My cup is empty, Lord. How am I supposed to serve others when I have nothing left to give? I’m worn out. I’m completely dry. I don’t know who I am anymore. I don’t know what service to you is supposed to look like. If you tipped me upside down, there would be not one little drop left to spill out. How am I supposed to give when I have nothing in me to give?”

I took a deep breath. I surrendered my weakness and confusion to God. And I waited.

Soon after that night, I shared this specific battle with a trusted friend. I shared with her the image of my empty cup – how I was dry, with nothing left to give. She spoke these simple truths to me:

“Laura, you have the Holy Spirit living in you. Because of that, you are never empty. Your cup overflows! If you feel empty, it’s because you’re giving from the wrong cup.”

The wrong cup. The empty cup. The cup of self. The cup that demanded praise from others. The cup that delighted in affirmation and appreciation for my works. The cup that was self-seeking and fruitless. I was trying to learn how to be the new me, all while hanging on to the painful parts of the old me. No wonder I felt so tired and confused.

My further studying led me to drink in (literally) John 7:37-39:  “Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, ‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.’  By this, He meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive…”

I’ve read these verses over and over since that time. The words share two very important truths:

1. If anyone has a need, it is not up to me to fix, change, heal, or rescue. I am to point people to Jesus. He is the one who can quench their thirst.

2. We who believe in Jesus have a continual stream of living water flowing from within us. We are never empty – always full and overflowing. This life source is not from ourselves. It could never be from our selves. This life source is from the Father, filling us because of the Holy Spirit that is a part of us.

Accepting these truths gave me great new hope – hope that spilled out of me and had nothing to do with what I did, how good I was, how much I did, or what others thought. It was Jesus – living in me and working through me.

Did this mean that I could now sit back and not serve or love on people? Of course not. God calls us to serve!! But I must take the self out of my service. I must surrender and allow the Spirit to guide my actions, listening to His leading instead of my self.

Continue reading: Journey

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