Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Our Mini Vacation (Part Two)

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The first day of our mini-vacation was spent at the Durham Museum, Red Mango and our hotel swimming pool. The next day, we headed to the Henry Doorly Zoo, truly one of the best zoos in the U.S. 

I will say that our day at the zoo wasn’t perfect, but that was due to the 101 degree heat that threatened to do us in a time or two, which of course wasn’t the zoo’s fault. And thankfully, there were some lovely air conditioned areas we took full advantage of!

Here we are enjoying the “Desert Dome” (which our oldest said he wished was the “Dessert Dome”, because wouldn’t THAT have been fun!). We saw some really amazing birds, some (not so) cool snakes, and my favorite – a little armadillo that I totally wanted to bring home. Me, the girl who doesn’t want pets. Cutest little armadillo ever, he was. Ran so fast in his little round shell he looked like he was on wheels. Mmm, so adorable.

We only missed a few of the zoo’s great attractions, pumping our legs hard in that heat to make the rounds. We left the Desert Dome and followed our map and we were not a bit disappointed with what we saw.

Isn’t this bear a sweet one? Amazing how sweet they look when they aren’t growling in your face. Kinda sounds like me.  I can be real sweet when I’m not growling in your face. It’s true. Just ask my kids.

We stood and stared at the penquins for a long, long time. Ever read Mr. Popper’s Penquins? Oh, you’ve got to read it. And then stare at some real penquins for a while. They’re fascinating.


We saw the biggest butterfly ever. Except that it was really a chair and Malachi and I sat in it to take a little break from walking. 

Possibly our favorite area (although it truly is hard to say) was the Aquarium. This place is incredible, with glass all around you so that you can see all of the amazing creatures swimming. Yes, sharks swam over us and beside us, as did sting rays and sea horses. We also made friends with a big turtle, that in my opinion, had a lovely personality. I’d never seen one like him before and I named him Fred.

It was hard to walk away from this round “tube” of fish. Again, we stared and stared…

We left the zoo exhausted and fulfilled…with still enough energy to talk all the way to dinner about “Remember the monkey on that rope?” and “Are you sure we can’t go back and get the armadillo?”. Not really. I didn’t really say that. I’d never contemplate something like that. Really.

Dinner was fun at Ci-Ci’s Pizza where we’d printed off a coupon and were able to feed our family for an incredibly low price. What a treat!

Last but not least, we stopped at Whole Foods, because if I can’t have an armadillo, I at least need to have a Whole Foods fix while I’m in Omaha, right? Thanks to those of you who signed up for Shop it to Me, we had accumulated a few Whole Foods gift cards to use.

Can I tell you what a blessing those are to us, and how much we appreciate those of you who take the time to (painlessly) sign up for the Shop it to Me email? It means a lot to us, and provides us with a few gift cards to spend on wholesome groceries for our family. I hope that you too are taking advantage of the Shop it to Me  referral program and telling YOUR family and friends about this so that you can earn gift cards as well!!

Here’s a picture of some of the items we grabbed at Whole Foods. We also got some chicken breasts while we were there, but they were in the freezer at the time of this photo shoot and refused to come out. Stubborn little chickens.  (Should have got me an armadillo instead.)

And there you have it…our Mini Vacation. It was a wonderful getaway and I’m so thankful we were able to do this!

Now you tell me – do you have fun travel plans this summer?  (And if you’re coming through Nebraska, do you think you could bring me an armadillo?)

Just a little reminder, Friday, June 10 is the final day for our Heavenly Homemakers eBook Overload sale!! Read details here!

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Our Mini Vacation, Part One

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First, let me say that I really had no idea I was torturing so many of you by not revealing what our boys’ “surprise” was. On Gratituesday when I was very vague again about what we were doing, that truly was because I had just spent part of forever at our hotel trying to get online and then stay online (my only complaint about our otherwise lovely hotel). Then, once I was finally able to post, my brain was so tired, all I could do was write, “we’re having fun – I’m going to bed”.

Now that I’m going to reveal what we’ve been up to, you are likely to say, “oh, is that it?” because really it was just a little getaway and a fun mini-vacation we surprised our boys with. That’s all. Ah, but it was fun. :)

I had been contacted several weeks ago by Corrie from Visit Omaha about sending our family to the Durham Museum and the Henry Doorly Zoo. We were thrilled with the opportunity! Matt and I decided to plan a little mini-vacation around these two visits, and then we decided not to tell our boys. We thought, why not surprise them?!

Sunday night right before bedtime (yes, the perfect time to spring a surprise on them so they would for sure never go to sleep – duh), we told them that they needed to go pack a back pack with clothes for over-night and be sure to include their swimming trunks. Well, their eyes lit up, but as you can imagine, they were hardly satisfied with so little information. We went ahead and told them part of what we’d be doing, and that we’d be staying overnight in a hotel, which is why they needed their swimming gear. (I had booked our hotel through Hotwire, by the way, and got a great deal!!)

Earlier in the evening, when I’d had the kitchen to myself, I had packed a surprise breakfast for them to eat on the road the next morning…

The next morning, the boys got up and dressed and we all loaded up. I handed them their breakfast bags and we were on our way to Omaha!

Our first stop:  The Durham Museum. We really had no idea what to expect there, but wow were we in for a treat! After we ate our packed lunch in their nice lunch area, we got to explore everything from real train cars to an earth lodge to an “old time” grocery store – and oh so much more. We loved the Durham Museum and would highly recommend it if you’re ever in this area!

Malachi made a new friend while we were there, and carried on a lively conversation. I have to wonder what family secrets he shared.

Asa did his best to look like a wooden soldier on a train station bench. Except for the long hair and lack of uniform, I think he pulled it off quite well.

After we left the Durham Museum, we headed to the hospital to visit our friends whose son has been undergoing intense medical care for over a month. It was great to see them, and we are so thankful we could make that a part of our get-away.

From there, we told the boys we were headed to check into our hotel (which we were), but on the way, we stopped to surprise them with frozen yogurt from Red Mango. Have you ever been to Red Mango? Matt and I had discovered this fun treasure when we’d gone to the Weekend to Remember conference a few months ago. It’s so much fun and comparatively, a healthier treat than most!

The boys were able to choose from a large variety of frozen yogurt flavors, then stand in line to fill their bowl with toppings ranging from crushed candy bars to fresh fruit. 

We hardly ever splurge on things like this, so yeah, this was fun! 

From there, we checked into our hotel for a little pool time. Matt and the boys all had fun swimming. Me? I watched them from my very incredibly relaxing spot in the hot-tub. Ahhhhhhhhh.

After we dried off, we went out for a late dinner, then headed to bed so that we’d be ready to hang out with some sharks, gorillas and armadillos the next day.

To be continued…

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The Story of My Mom’s Salsa (and Why I Can’t Share My Salsa Recipe)

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salsa_1

I’ve been promising for months to share my mom’s salsa story. Not her recipe…but her story. I can’t share her recipe. But the story is kind of a nice one. :)

My mom began making salsa when I was a little girl, tweaking and playing with ingredients from her garden until she figured out a recipe that was just right. We all loved it. Neighbors loved it. Family members loved it. Friends loved it. There was nothing incredibly fancy about Mom’s salsa. It was slightly sweet. Slightly spicy. Just right.

When my brother and I were in college, she would send her home-canned salsa to the dorm with us. It became a hit with our college friends and it wouldn’t last long. :)  I’m not sure when Mom’s salsa really began to become a “big thing” locally, but I believe it was around the time I was graduating from college and getting married.

People all over the town where she and my dad lived were requesting that she make them some of her salsa. She began receiving orders. A downtown shop began to request her salsa so that they could sell it to their customers. After a while, she was making so many jars of salsa, she could barely keep up. She knew with the volume of salsa she was making, she needed a licensed kitchen to work in. She was swimming in salsa. :)

Around that time, my uncle and aunt in Chicago who had “connections” set up a meeting with a company who could make and market my mom’s salsa for her. Mom and Dad flew to Chicago, toured the commercial kitchen, made necessary negotiations, signed a bunch of papers…and my mom’s salsa officially became  BJ’s Salsa:

(My mom’s name was Bettye Jo…her family and some friends often called her BJ.)

Now my mom didn’t have to break her neck to keep up with the salsa demand! It was being made and shipped out to stores and marketed by others. My mom was so pleased with this success, and well she should be. She’d worked hard for this!

My mom was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrigs Disease) in the fall of 2002. Salsa sales had begun to slow by then anyway, and all of us were so focused on Mom and her health and keeping her comfortable, salsa was really the last thing on our minds.

After she went to be with Jesus in July of 2004, our family was so thankful to have a few jars of her salsa left. We cherished and hoarded them. We were out of sorts and grieving. We weren’t thinking very logically (or at least I wasn’t), which is why it took over a year for us to talk about or realize that it may still be possible for her salsa to be made and sent to us.

Dad checked into it and sure enough. We could get ourselves some BJ’s Salsa.

We still cherish each jar of my mom’s salsa. But we don’t have to hoard it anymore. And every time I open a new jar, I feel like I’m opening something made by my mom. There is a simple statement on each jar:

“Developed in the kitchen of Bettye Jo Hamm”

It helps me not miss her quite so much. Or maybe it makes me miss her even more.

I use her recipe now (which must be kept a secret) to make salsa with ingredients from my own garden. It’s not quite as good as “Grammy’s salsa” was, but we like it okay. ;)

salsa_2

Now, anytime I talk about using salsa in a recipe, you know that I’m not just using any ol’ salsa. I’m opening a treasure each time I open a jar of salsa. One that came right out of “Bettye Jo’s kitchen”.

{Edited to note:  BJ’s Salsa isn’t sold in any stores right now (except for one small shop in my hometown). Thanks for inquiring about it. Maybe we should look into putting it in stores again? Hmm…}

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Our Gluten Free Experiment Results and a New Hope

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If you recall, the past several weeks we have been conducting Gluten Free Experiment to see if taking gluten out of his diet would help our six year old, Malachi, get his chronic eczema under control. And if you also recall, I had quite a variety of emotions that went along with this experiment. It is so much fun to be an emotional basket-case.  Bleh.

Here’s a quick recap of Malachi’s history:

Here are a few things we learned during the Gluten Free Experiment:

  • Malachi is a trooper.  We knew this already, but we were so proud of how he handled not being able to eat gluten for several weeks.
  • Eating Gluten Free isn’t the end of the world.  Several of you suggested that it’s best to focus on what you can eat, not on what you can’t. I wholeheartedly agree with this statement. There are SO MANY foods you can eat that are naturally gluten free.
  • For  years I’d been wanting to expand the variety of grains we consume, but had either been too lazy or too intimidated to go for it.  This experiment forced me out of my whole wheat comfort zone. I am now having a lovely time playing with brown rice flour, millet and buckwheat, and hope to continue learning more. In addition, I think we all know that I am now addicted to coconut flour, which isn’t a grain at all, but a wonderful, healthy flour with great potential in baking.
  • It really doesn’t have to be expensive to eat gluten free. We simply changed some of the foods we were eating to conduct this experiment, and I did not notice an increase in our grocery budget. Now, if I were going to buy gluten free bread (for $6.50/loaf) and gluten free baking mixes (for $3.50/box), then it would be expensive. But by cooking and baking from scratch, our gluten free grocery budget did not increase.

But the main thing we learned during our Gluten Free Experiment is that:  Eating Gluten Free did not help Malachi even a little bit.

Am I relieved? No, but yes, but no not really. Some answers would really be nice.

In the meantime, we took him back to our trusted chiropractor who has been helping us since Malachi began this trial as a baby. He’s helping to cleanse and strengthen Malachi’s liver, which seems to be showing signs of weakness again (this is something that seems to be the root cause of his eczema). As always, there is no quick fix, but we’re thankful to have a loving doctor closeby that cares for our children.

HOPE

Also in the meantime, we learned of a Bio-Chemist in Wisconsin who has helped treat people with this, and other kinds of illnesses. While we’ve known for many years that eczema truly isn’t a skin issue, but the result of something going wrong inside the body, particularly with digestion…we’ve not really known where exactly to turn. This is one reason we tried the Gluten Free Experiment, to see if that would help his digestion.

We’ve been in touch with the Bio-Chemist and soon we will be going through her program, which is designed, by the grace of God, to heal Malachi’s digestive system so that all parts of his body can work properly and so that toxins can be eliminated the way they are supposed to be eliminated, instead of through his skin.

After six years, and a particularly trying few months, I can’t tell you how good it feels to have hope. This program won’t be easy, it won’t be cheap, but we don’t care. (Well, we do care, but you know what I mean.)  We just want Malachi’s body to heal.

And so, with that, I’ll say thank you to all of you who have emailed and left comments of encouragement. I’ll try to keep you posted as we go along with this and as I learn more. I’ll also ask you to continue to pray for healing for Malachi, and to praise God with us that we have hope and that He always provides the help that we need!

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Gratituesday: Disneyland 2011

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One of the greatest highlights of our California trip…Santa brought us Disneyland!! We got a lovely deal on this visit as Matt’s brother is a Disney employee (he is SO talented!). What a HUGE blessing (and no, I’m sorry you can’t borrow my brother-in-law)!

Our family, along with Matt’s brother and our three year old nephew, spent a wonderful day at Disneyland together. (SIL and niece weren’t feeling well and couldn’t join us that day.)  :(

Right after we walked into the park, we got to meet the “real” Mickey. Hey…what happened to Malachi?

Ah, there he is…

We went on a perfect day when it wasn’t raining and the lines were short. It occurred to me when I was uploading pictures that I didn’t get very many shots of our older boys. They were off having a blast on the “big kid rides” with Matt while I took the younger two boys to some of the “less intense” rides. Picture the older boys screaming (in a manly way) through Space Mountain while the rest of us were hanging out with Peter Pan.

Don’t you love the face Elias gave me when I asked him to smile? He’ll be so proud of this picture when I display it at his wedding rehearsal someday.



Here we are enjoying some pizza, pasta and salad during lunchtime. Riding rides and hugging Goofy works up an appetite.

After Matt and the older boys got off the Indiana Jones ride, they insisted that the rest of us would love it and that we  just HAD to all go! We weren’t sure if Malachi would be tall enough to go on the ride and well…he just squeaked by. We cracked up as he walked right under it and was JUST barely tall enough when he stood up straight. I had to get a picture…

I had many favorite parts of the day, but one of my favorites was watching my three year old nephew galloping through the park with excitement for the ENTIRE 12 hours we were there. I kept waiting for him to stop being so excited or to at least get tired. Nope. He kept on galloping and being happy. I think the only time he slowed down was when we went to the “Jedi Training Academy”. When Darth Vader came onto the stage, he (my nephew, not Darth Vader) grabbed onto my leg and hid…peeking out so he wouldn’t miss anything. Is he the cutest or what?

Our Disneyland trip was everything we were hoping it would be. We made great memories for our family and are so thankful we had the opportunity to experience this together.

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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3,800 miles, 64 hours, Foot Funk and an Elephant

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That’s how many miles we traveled during the past three weeks…3,800. 

I never mentioned that we were going on this big, long trip until after we got home because I always feel a little bit funny announcing to all the internet that our house is home alone. But now that we’re back…I get to fill you in on the details! We drove all the way to California and back and lived to tell about it. We were able to visit many in Matt’s family and see so many great friends along the way. It was just wonderful!

Here is our family with Matt’s grandma!

We loved everything about our trip, but wow is it great to be back home! That’s a very long time to be gone and 64 hours is a very long time to be in a van. 

And did I mention that one of our boys’ shoes got wet somewhere along the way, making for some strong foot funk all the way home? It is very much time to work the newspaper treatment on those shoes. If it wasn’t the only pair of shoes he had with him on the trip, and if they weren’t his new Christmas shoes, and if I weren’t very opposed to littering, and if I wasn’t afraid of them smacking the car behind us…I might have tossed the offending shoes out the window as we drove down the interstate. 

Foot funk aside, and even though we were in the van for what felt like forever and a half…it truly was a fabulous trip. (Oh, but I might advise that you not stop for bean loaded burritos when you have a van full of boys and a 12 hour trip ahead of you.)  The boys traveled wonderfully, meaning that there were only a few times I had to holler something toward the back of the van like, “If that sword touches the back of my neck one more time I will grab it and snap it in half.”

Yes, because of course, we do travel with swords. They are a Coppinger traveling necessity.

I didn’t really threaten to snap his sword in half (out loud). That would have just been mean, and no matter how many times the sword gouged me in the face while I breathed in the foot funk, I would never be that grumpy. {cough}

Matt and I listened to a couple of books on tape, which was a great way to pass the miles. I highly recommend Quiet Strength, by Tony Dungy. Even though he was an NFL coach and talks a lot about football in his book, and even though the only thing I know about football is that some big men in helmets make big piles of themselves all over football fields in an effort to get a funny shaped ball across a line…I loved this book! Tony Dungy is a Christian who lives his faith while leading a team. The book was inspiring and encouraging. 

I have to give kudos to Matt, the great van packer. When driving to California from Nebraska with six people at Christmas time, one must do some strategic van loading. There were backpacks and gifts and suitcases and food…and on the way home…there was an elephant.

It weren’t no small elephant neither.  Nor was it stuffed so that it could be squished.

Matt’s Grandpa Coppinger had traveled to Ghana, West Africa doing mission work many times during his life. Often, he brought back a beautiful, hand crafted wooden elephant. They were all different sizes and they were all beautiful. Matt was even able to travel to Ghana with his grandpa back in 1994. (Matt and I went to Ghana together in 1995…Ghana is a very special place to us.)

The last time we got to see Grandpa was Christmas of 2008. He died just a few months later. Each grandchild has been privileged to receive one of these special elephants. We were thrilled when Grandma showed us the elephant she’d picked for us to take home – one of the biggest of the bunch. We were a little bit uncertain about how we could make it fit in the van, but we figured that if Grandpa could bring a huge elephant back on an airplane from Africa, surely we could get it from California to Nebraska.

Matt packed well…and now that elephant is sitting right in our entry way.

I have more to tell you about our trip…but right now I’ve got to go finish airing out our mini van and stuffing newspapers into sneakers. Stay tuned for more tales from our California trip. 

Don’t worry…the other parts smell much better.

Did you do any traveling over the holidays?

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It Happens in a Blink

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Some of you have asked me to share more about what led us to our decision for Matt to resign from his job to work at home with our family. You’d like to know more about what we’re planning to do and what our “new life” will look like.

I can’t share much yet about what our new life will look like as it hasn’t actually started yet. Incidentally, it will start on Thursday the 16th at precisely 3:01 pm, at which time you WILL hear me shouting and banging on pots and pans in celebration. 

We’re setting goals and making plans and praying. Once we settle into January, I’ll be able to share more with you about what we’re doing with our time and how the new plan is working with our family.

What I can share though is a little more about what led us to this decision. I mentioned previously that Matt didn’t want to have regrets about how he spent the time God’s given him on earth. Our boys are growing quickly…and they need the guidance of their daddy. Our marriage is strong and we’d like to keep it that way. We have ministry ideas that we’d like to explore.  Matt’s current job situation hasn’t allowed us to do for our family what we feel called to do.

Ultimately, we had to ask ourselves the questions:  What are we doing for the Kingdom? Is our life in balance with what God wants us to be doing for Him?

We did some evaluating and knew something needed to give. (Later I’ll share a formula we came up with to evaluate the balance of each important area of our lives.)  We asked God to show us how to create a more balanced life, while still providing for our family.

The following song, Blink, by Revive pretty much sums up our thoughts. I’d really like you to listen and read the words as it plays because it’s quite convicting. 

It happens in a blink…what are you doing with your life?

For the record, we are definitely not advocating that everyone should turn in their two weeks notice tomorrow. That family you love so much does need to eat and have shoes. :)  We are just sharing what we’ve felt called to do for our family. We had a financial plan in place before making this leap and have spent many months praying about this decision. We simply want to encourage each person to examine how they spend their time and feel like we should all ask ourselves:  Am I making the most of every moment God’s given me?

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Gratituesday: No Regrets

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Brace yourself for a longer than normal post. I had to stop now and then in the middle of writing to jump up and down with excitement, so it took me a little while to get through this.  :)

We never really know what God is going to do in our life in any given season. If there’s anything I’ve learned during the past few years of changes and challenges, it’s that God’s ways are best no matter if they are painful to go through or joyful.

This newest change in our lives? Oh so completely joyful.

And born out of some pain and challenges.

Which is what makes this change so joyful.

Want me to tell you about it? Oh good, I would love to.

My husband Matt is very “visionary” as in…he is a guy full of great business and ministry ideas. Constantly. All the time.  One of his ideas a few years ago was to look into opening a restaurant. He had loads of business ideas for a restaurant and knew that it would be a great way to be with and serve people in the community. 

Then last year, someone offered him a position as assistant manager of a brand new restaurant opening up in town. It was a perfect opportunity to try out his restaurant dream without having a huge financial investment. He would be working for a fellow church member and we would have a steady income. We went for it!

Within the past fifteen months as Matt has worked out at Southside Grille, we’ve appreciated so many aspects about the job. We’ve been so thankful for the consistent pay check, for the chance for Matt to be out in the community visiting with people, for the opportunity to pursue a dream. God has been so good to give us that. And yet…

Our family time has really been suffering. Matt’s schedule has been a tough one, which has caused his life to feel unbalanced. He found that week after week as he helped figure out the work schedule that he’d have to choose between missing a church event or a family event. How’s a guy supposed to choose between going to a mid-week Bible study or going to his son’s soccer game?

Little by little we recognized that this lifestyle and job didn’t match up with the desires and spiritual goals we have for our family, and there didn’t seem to be any relief in sight. We aren’t quitters, and yet, we began to see that for Matt to stay with this job would mean that he would continue to miss out on and neglect so many of the things we feel are most important. 

Three or four months ago we began to talk about and pray about the possibility of Matt doing something else. He was continuing to miss time with us that he didn’t want to miss any more. At the end of each day (and at the end of his life), he wanted to have “no regrets about how he spent his time”. 

And so.

Four weeks ago, Matt resigned from his job at Southside Grille, effective December 18.

Can I just say, we are so full of joy and peace over this decision and the possibilities it presents that we are bouncing off walls and doing back flips?!! God has given us this opportunity and we can not wait to see what He has in mind for our family.

So, the question many people around here have, and one I would assume you are wondering as well is:  What is Matt going to do now? 

We aren’t able to put our finger on any one thing, because there truly isn’t just one thing. We plan to go back to being exclusively self-employed and have multiple streams of income as there are many things we are interested in doing. Most of them involve working togther as a couple and often will include the kids. In addition, we own and rent out storage units, which are now paid off and creating income. Matt has had a snow removal business for the past three years that he’ll continue to grow – although this particular business tends to be quite slow in the summertime. :)   He plans to join forces even more than he already does here at Heavenly Homemakers, working some of the business and marketing end of things so that I can focus more on writing.

And…we plan to dream together.

My visionary husband is going to keep dreaming and pursuing some new dreams. I am so, so excited for him.

We’ll be “doing teamwork” while we homeschool and train our boys. We’ll be pursuing some of the ministries that are on our hearts but that have been on the back burner for a while.

Yes indeed. We get to be a team.  I mean, we’ve always been a team. But now, we get to work together almost constantly, getting the boys more involved with some of Matt’s business ideas and work. 

In case you’re concerned or wondering, we’ve been financially planning for this life change and would not be making this move if we were not prepared. That alone has been a wonderful lesson for our boys to learn.

I’ll continue to share during the next few weeks more about some of the goals we’re setting and give you an idea of how all of this is going to work for us. I will tell you right now though that one book that’s been a huge help as we’ve worked to take this leap of faith is 48 Days to the Work You Love by Dan Miller. It is an EXCELLENT book that encourages us all to find where God has gifted us and find work that will utilize those gifts and provide for your family at the same time. We recommend this book wholeheartedly as it has been quite instrumental in changing the focus of our lives.

While we don’t have an ultimate picture of what our lives are about to look like, without a doubt, we see clearly that this is what God wants us to do. And we know with full peace and confidence that He is going to provide everything we need while we work hard for Him…as a team.

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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Blessings on Your Day…

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I hope that your day is filled with family, fellowship, fun and…food. :)

We’ll be having a big ol’ party at our house today while Daddy’s at work. Husker-Du, Sequence, Apples to Apples Jr., Traverse….and of course…some Nertz.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

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I Heart Green Foam Insulation

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It’s been so long since I’ve shown you any living room pictures, I’m sure you’ve all continued to picture that the room looked like this…

Thankfully, we’ve made a LOT of progress since then. And by we’ve…I mean Matt and the boys. I’ve really only been able to be the side line cheerleader throughout this project. My asthma doesn’t allow me to help with a project that includes THIS much dust. Matt’s dad helped with the first two weeks of this project and helped us get much of the work done.

So let’s review a little bit shall we? First, Matt and his dad began to break down the walls and tear down the 100(+) year old plaster.

Once all the plaster was off (and completely covered the floor in a big mess), they began to tear off the lathe. We saved it for kindling – yay!

Would you look at that? Nothing between the lathe and the outside wall. THIS is why we’ve been so cold each winter!

Once they had the walls prepped, the boys and I vacated the house. Matt and his dad put on protective gear and they sprayed in foam insulation from SprayFoamDirect.

Oh look, green foam. That’s a whole lot better than cold air in the walls, wouldn’t you say?

But what’s even better is that now a little clean up is starting to happen. Check it out, there are floors under there…

My father in law had to fly back home, but Matt was able to get drywall up within the  next few days. This is getting exciting isn’t it? Now look…we have walls!

Better yet…our living room is clean and put back in order!!

Aaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!

Now here’s the deal.  The drywall hasn’t been mudded or sanded or painted yet. The trim work is still not back up. There is still a lot of work to be done as we completely finish the living room. BUT…we ended up with some leftover spray foam…and if you don’t use it within thirty days, it loses it’s pressure. We are NOT going to waste that spray foam. Therefore…we begin project number two…

Our bedroom.

So, life continues to be a bit…dusty. Matt and I have moved into one of the guestrooms. I usually can not find my slippers.

But I am so thankful for my husband’s hard work and I am SO thankful that we are going to be warm.

One room at a time.

 

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