Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Low Sugar Pecan Cookies

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It’s baking season! These Low Sugar Pecan Cookies are buttery and delicious!

You might remember our other Low Sugar Cookie recipes. Here are just a few of our favorites:

We adapted a few of those to create these Low Sugar Pecan Cookies because it’s so easy to make a tiny tweak to create a brand new recipe!

The “melt-away” cookies listed above are my favorites simply because they are so buttery. This truly makes them melt in your mouth! No one can tell that these are low in sugar OR that they are made with whole grain flour. And the toasted pecans give these such a delightful flavor and crunch!

Low Sugar Pecan CookiesYum

Low Sugar Pecan Cookies
 
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Serves: 20
Ingredients
  • 1½ cups melted butter (3 sticks)
  • ½ cup sugar (sucanat, raw, brown)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 3 cups whole grain flour (I use freshly ground soft white wheat)
  • ½ cup pecan pieces toasted in 2 Tablespoons butter
Instructions
  1. Toast pecans by stirring them in a small saucepan over low heat for 2-4 minutes. Set aside.
  2. In a mixing bowl, stir together butter, sugar, vanilla, and flour.
  3. Fold in toasted pecans.
  4. Scoop ½ inch sized balls of dough onto a cookie sheet.
  5. Press balls down with the end of a drinking glass.
  6. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 10-15 minutes or until cookies are golden brown.

Want to cut down on sugar while still enjoying occasional treats?

We have an entire eBook full of Low Sugar Treats, which you can check it out here. But it makes more sense to join our Heavenly Homemakers Membership Club so that you can enjoy ALL of our eBooks and much more any time, anywhere. :)

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

Peanut Butter Chocolate Crunch Cups – 4 Ingredients

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These Chocolate Peanut Butter Crunch Cups are practically begging for you to make them!

With college students joining us for lunch, I was searching the internet for ways to treat them, and I had rice krispie cereal that I needed to use up. All the recipes called for marshmallows, of course. But hey, I don’t keep those in my pantry regularly, much to my kids’ dismay.

Therefore, after wading through all of the marshmallow-y options, I finally found this winner! I tweaked it just a bit, and that is how these Peanut Butter Chocolate Crunch Cups were born.

These are incredibly easy and they were a hit with the college students! Who needs marshmallows?! (Well, they are helpful if you’re making smores…) But for rice krispie cereal treats, it’s amazing that we can do other fun things and use more wholesome ingredients to make treats!

Speaking of “other fun things” – I highly encourage that you also put these 4-Ingredient Chocolate Crunch Bars on your list of awesome rice krispie treats to make. These are hugely popular when I serve them to guests! It’s worth noting that the ingredient list in that recipe and in this one are very similar, making life easier. They just turn out two different and fun treats!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Crunch CupsYum

Peanut Butter Chocolate Crunch Cups - 4 Ingredients
 
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Serves: 12
Ingredients
  • 1 cup Natural Peanut Butter
  • 4 Tablespoons Honey
  • 2½ cups Crisp Rice Cereal
  • 1½ cups any variety Chocolate Chips
Instructions
  1. In a saucepan, stir peanut butter and honey together over low heat until melted.
  2. Remove from heat and stir in rice crispy cereal.
  3. Press mixture into 12 muffin cups. (I recommend silicone cups to make them easy to remove.)
  4. Melt chocolate chips on the stovetop, stirring until melted and smooth.
  5. Spoon and spread melted chocolate over each peanut butter crispy cup.
  6. Refrigerate for at least an hour until chocolate has hardened.
  7. Remove cups and serve!
  8. Store Peanut Butter Chocolate Crispy Cups in an air tight container.

 

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Easy 4-Ingredient Chocolate Crunch Bars

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I’m guessing you already have all or most of the needed ingredients on hand to make these Chocolate Crunch Bars. So what are you waiting for? You NEED to make these pronto!

I could go on and on about how delicious these are. They taste like fudge with a wonderful crunch! I make a double batch for college kids and the plate is empty in no time. :)

The fact that they are super easy to make is a great bonus. And the wonderful crunch in these makes you feel like you’re eating a candy bar!

Watch Brayden (age 5) help me make these super easy Chocolate Crunch Bars —>

I personally like to use Bittersweet Chocolate in this recipe so the sugar content is much lower. But you can use any of your favorite chocolate chips.

So let’s see, you’ll need:

  • chocolate chips
  • coconut oil
  • nut butter
  • rice krispie cereal

You’ll put the first three ingredients into a pan to melt and stir together.

Once the mixture is melted and smooth, you’ll stir in the cereal.

Then you’ll spread it into a dish and put it into the fridge to chill.

See how easy? And yep, they taste as good as they look!

Easy 4-Ingredient Chocolate Crunch BarsYum

Easy 4-Ingredient Chocolate Crunch Bars
 
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Serves: 16
Ingredients
  • 12-ounces bittersweet or dark chocolate chips (any chocolate chips will work!)
  • 1 cup nut butter (I like almond butter for these)
  • ¼ cup coconut oil (I prefer refined coconut oil in these because it's flavorless)
  • 2 cups crispy rice cereal
Instructions
  1. In a medium-sized saucepan, melt and stir the chocolate chips, nut butter, and coconut oil.
  2. Remove from heat and stir in the rice cereal.
  3. Pour mixture into an 8x8 inch pan.
  4. Chill for at least one hour before cutting and serving the bars.

During this busy time of year, you’ll find that these Easy Chocolate Crunch Bars are perfect for a snack or even to make and take to a holiday party!

Chocolate Hint:

Do yourself a favor and order any of the Cocoa Powders, Chocolate Chips, or Chocolate Chunks from Olive Nation. (And use the code home to get 20% off!) I can’t tell you what a wonderful difference these cocoa powders and chocolate chips have made in my chocolate recipes. The quality is MUCH better, and they do not cost more than I was spending on the lesser varieties.

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

Chocolate Pumpkin Cake Recipe

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If you love chocolate, and you love pumpkin spice, then you are going to love, love this Chocolate Pumpkin Cake!

I love any treat that includes ingredients healthy enough for us to serve for breakfast.

What? Cake for breakfast? Oh yes. All year long. And since this one includes pumpkin, it’s a step above. #veggiecake

Of course, the pumpkin in this recipe makes it super moist. And the chocolate in this recipe? Well, that makes it chocolate. Need I say more?

You’ll love that this cake is topped with a thin layer of Honey-Sweetened Chocolate Frosting. Sigh…while I sure do love summer best, NOTHING can beat fall baking!!

Enjoy this fun video we put together, sharing how to make this cake!

Chocolate Pumpkin Cake RecipeYum

Chocolate Pumpkin Cake Recipe
 
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Serves: 15-18
Ingredients
  • 1 cup melted coconut oil
  • 1 cup water
  • 4 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
  • ½ cup sucanat
  • dash of sea salt
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 cup pumpkin puree
  • 2 eggs
Instructions
  1. In a large mixing bowl, stir together flour, sucanat, cinnamon, salt, and baking soda.
  2. Set aside. In a saucepan, bring oil, water, and cocoa to a boil.
  3. Pour liquid mixture into the bowl with the dry ingredient mixture.
  4. Stir well.
  5. Add pumpkin puree and eggs, mixing well.
  6. Pour batter into a 9x13 inch baking pan.
  7. Bake in a 350° oven for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Allow cake to cool completely before frosting.

Low Sugar Chocolate Frosting

1/2 cup butter
4 Tablespoons cocoa powder
2 Tablespoons milk
2-4 Tablespoons honey (sweeten this to your taste)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a small saucepan combine butter, cocoa, milk, and honey. Cook and stir over low heat until ingredients are well combined and mixture begins to thicken slightly. Removed from heat. Stir in vanilla. Spread over cooled cake.

Do you love fall baking like I do? Will you be eating this cake for breakfast? :)

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Easy Cheesecake Topped Treat Recipes

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After you read this list of Easy Cheesecake Topped Treat Recipes, you will most definitely need to stock up on cream cheese. Most of us would agree: cream cheese makes everything better. And usually, it is on sale this time of year.

Why make treats topped with cheesecake? Do I even need to explain this?

You see, the treats in and of themselves are wonderful. Muffins, cookie bars, you can’t go wrong. But then if you whip up a cheesecake mixture and bake it on top of the already wonderful treat? Well, this is where we all sing and dance and shout for joy. Cheesecake-topped muffins! Cheesecake-topped cookie bars! SERVED FOR BREAKFAST!!!! With a cup of coffee or a glass of milk. This is the most delicious.

So let’s get started, shall we?

Easy Cheesecake Topped Treat Recipes

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We just shared the latest and possibly the best, our Whole Grain Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Bars. These are a favorite because of the chocolate chips sprinkled over the cheesecake.

 

That recipe came about by tweaking our Whole Grain Raspberry Cheesecake Bars recipe. We simply switched the raspberry jam for chocolate chips. I personally like the raspberry variety better. AND, you can switch out the raspberry jam with any flavor you like!

Say yes to these Easy Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars and you’ll be happy you did. They are perfect for an autumn treat!

Of course, we tweaked the bar recipe and turned it into a pie. And then we added chocolate chips. It’s the same recipe, just “fancier” so we highly recommend this Pumpkin Cheesecake Pie.

Now it’s time to talk about muffins. All of these are basic, wholesome muffin recipes with the same cheesecake topping baked on to add amazingness!

Easy Blueberry Cheesecake Muffins


Easy Chocolate Cheesecake Muffins

Easy Banana Cheesecake Muffins

Easy Pumpkin Cheesecake Muffins

Easy Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Muffins

Easy Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Muffins

See? I told you that you were going to want to stock up on cream cheese after reading this post. Cheesecake baked on top of treats makes them incredible!

Here’s a quick bullet list of all the Cheesecake Topped Recipes:

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Whole Grain Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Bars

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Perhaps you have become great friends with the infamous Whole Grain Raspberry Cheesecake Bars? If not, you must. And now, you must also get to know our new friend, the Whole Grain Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Bars. Where has this friend been your whole life?

But speaking of whole, it is fantastic to know that these bars are made with whole grains. But no one, not even the boxed poptart lovers out there, will realize that these are packed with delightful nutrition. I know this because I fed a batch to a bunch of teenage boys who were visiting our home and who had just polished off a box of poptarts they had brought over. The next morning, I presented them with these bars.

Perhaps it was the added chocolate chips that made these so inviting. Well yeah, of course it was the chocolate chips. Still, they gobbled these down with a pitcher of iced coffee and some fruit, thanking me for the great breakfast like the sweet boys that they are.

It’s so fun to make treats like this that provide nourishment while still being “not weird.” You cannot go wrong with the words “chocolate chips” and “cheesecake bars” in the same title, am I right?

So get yourself some oats (which you probably already have), some chocolate chips (which you probably already have), some whole wheat flour (which you probably already have), and some cream cheese and some butter (please tell me you keep a lifetime supply of these golden ingredients on hand at all times). You will love these delightful Whole Grain Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Bars!

Whole Grain Chocolate Chip Cheesecake BarsYum

5.0 from 2 reviews
Whole Grain Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Bars
 
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Serves: 12
Ingredients
  • 1½ cups whole wheat flour (I use freshly ground soft white wheat)
  • 1½ cups rolled oats
  • ½ cup sucanat or brown sugar
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon sea salt
  • 1 cup melted butter
  • ½ cup chocolate chips
  • CHEESECAKE LAYER:
  • 8-ounces softened cream cheese
  • 1 egg
  • 2 Tablespoons real maple syrup
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
  1. Mix together flour, oats, sucanat, baking powder, and salt.
  2. Stir in melted butter until the mixture resembles crumbs.
  3. Press half of the mixture into an 8x8 inch baking pan.
  4. In a blender or with beaters, whip together cream cheese, egg, maple syrup, and vanilla.
  5. Spread this cheesecake layer over the top of the oat layer.
  6. Sprinkle ½ of the chocolate chips over the cheesecake layer.
  7. Drop spoonfuls of remaining oat mixture on top of the cheesecake layer, then sprinkle the remaining chocolate chips on top.
  8. Bake in a 350° oven for 45 minutes or until lightly browned.

 

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How to Make Delicious Iced Coffee that is ACTUALLY Healthy

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It really is possible to make delicious Iced Coffee that is ACTUALLY healthy! And not that it matters, but is there anything prettier?

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Confession: I didn’t take this photo. I grabbed it from an online photo subscription source that I love to utilize. Occasionally using their photos has enabled me to continue writing here since I don’t have the work time I used to have now that we have little ones in the house again! Without a doubt, their photos are better than mine anyway!

I tell you that for one big reason. When I make iced coffee, I use coffee ice cubes instead of water ice cubes. No need to water down our delicious coffee, right? And making coffee ice cubes is fun and easy!

There, now you know. Shall we talk about healthy iced coffee now?

How to make Iced Coffee that is Actually Healthy

1. I begin with a Dollar Coffee Club coffee packet. 

They have two coffee options, but I prefer the taste (actually, I love the taste!) of their Burn and Control coffee. Here’s a quick summary of why their coffee is actually healthy!

Dollar Coffee Club coffee (formerly known as Javita) is filled with fabulous God-given herbs and mushrooms that our bodies need for great health. We could grow these herbs ourselves and utilize them every day to help cleanse our systems, give us energy, regulate our blood sugar, and so much more. Or we can take advantage of the fact that the hard work has been done and the wonderful herbs are already prepared for us in these delicious drink packets!

Typically, I make my coffee packet into a regular hot coffee. But to make it into an iced coffee, I simply heat a little water and dissolve the packet in the hot water (about 3 Tablespoons). Then, I add cold water, my coffee ice cubes, and voila! I have healthy iced coffee!

2. Next, I add 1/2 and 1/2 or heavy cream.

Lest you fear that the cream makes the coffee unhealthy, I will remind you that it is a real, natural fat that our bodies recognize and can utilize for nourishment. Hooray for cream! This makes it sweet enough as for my taste and preference, therefore I declare that coffee with cream is absolute perfection! My family disagrees and prefers something sweet with their cream. And so…

3. They add this NuNaturals Chocolate Syrup.

It is sweetened with stevia, but you can’t even tell! My family is a bit picky over most stevia-sweetened treats. But this chocolate syrup wins them over and is perfect to add to coffee and cream for a fabulously sweet (but not sugary!) coffee treat!

So, coffee filled with wonderful, healing herbs, plus cream, with or without stevia sweetened chocolate. THAT is how you can make an iced coffee that is actually healthy!

Are you an iced coffee lover?

—-> Read more about Dollar Coffee Club coffee and other products here The entire business structure has been revamped, making it so much better for everyone! AND the prices had gone up, but they just went back down, oh yeah!<—-

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

Homemade Chocolate Pudding Recipe

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Apparently, it is the week for pudding! We’ve shared our Homemade Vanilla Pudding recipe, a great idea for a Pudding Parfait in a Jar, and today our Homemade Chocolate Pudding Recipe!

Just like our Homemade Vanilla Pudding recipe, this one is tried and true and worth another share. We wanted to highlight it again as another school year is approaching (I know, I don’t want to talk about it either!). This is a great recipe for an after school snack or to pack in a lunch.

How should you pack it in a lunch, you ask? Well now, check out this fun idea for How to Make Your Own Pudding Cups!

And get our other homemade pudding recipes here so that you can mix and match!

Homemade Chocolate Pudding RecipeYum

Homemade Chocolate Pudding Recipe
 
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Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
  • 2½ cups milk
  • 3 egg yolks
  • ¼-1/2 cup real maple syrup
  • ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 4 Tablespoons arrowroot powder or cornstarch
  • ¼ teaspoon sea salt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
  1. In a medium saucepan, whisk together milk, egg yolks, maple syrup, cocoa powder, arrowroot powder, and salt.
  2. Cook over medium heat, whisking/stirring CONSTANTLY until pudding begins to thicken.
  3. Stir over the heat for about 15 more seconds.
  4. Remove immediately from the heat, and continue to stir until pudding is creamy.
  5. Add vanilla and continue to stir until mixed.
  6. Pour into serving dishes and serve warm, or chill for two hours and serve cold.

Need some Homemade Whipped Cream to eat on top of your Homemade Chocolate Pudding? YES, you really do! It’s super easy to make and well worth the small amount of effort so that you can enjoy the additional treat of whipped cream on top of your homemade pudding! Get our Homemade Whipped Cream recipe here.

 

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Summer Activities for Kids: Make Ice Cream in 10 Minutes!

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Looking for some fun activities to do with your kids this summer? I’ve enjoyed 22 summers with kids (and counting!), so I certainly have a few ideas to share! Stay tuned during the next few weeks as we provide all kinds of suggestions for making your summer with your kids meaningful. (Subscribe here so you won’t miss out!) Today’s idea: Make Ice Cream in 10 Minutes!

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As I was remembering this fun summer activity idea, I decided it would be much more fun to do if we invited friends over to join us! So we sent out the invitation, got our supplies ready, and had a little Ice Cream Making Party!

By the way, we are SO CLOSE to final adoption day for Bonus Boy that I almost waited to post this so that I could show you his precious face. Soon and very soon he will officially be a Coppinger and then all stickers come off!

This “make ice cream in a bag” idea is one of those we always WANT to do, but never seem to get around to ACTUALLY doing. Somehow inviting friends to do it with us made it much more doable, you know? Afterward, the kids played and the moms visited. Bliss! And also, there was ice cream to eat, so double win!

Make Ice Cream in 10 Minutes!

5.0 from 1 reviews
Summer Activities for Kids: Make Ice Cream in 10 Minutes!
 
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Serves: 2 servings
Ingredients
  • 1 cup heavy whipping cream
  • 3 droppers full of liquid stevia, or 3-4 Tablespoons real maple syrup, or 3-4 Tablespoons sugar
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ½ cup rock salt or coarse sea salt
  • Ice
  • quart and gallon sized freezer bags
Instructions
  1. Measure cream, sweetener, and vanilla into a quart-sized freezer bag and seal.
  2. Fill a gallon-sized freezer bag half-full of ice.
  3. Add ½ cup rock salt to the ice.
  4. Place the sealed quart-sized bag filled with ice cream ingredients into the bag of ice and salt. Seal.
  5. Toss the bag back and forth, shaking and tossing for 5 minutes or until the mixture thickens to ice cream.
  6. Remove the quart-sized bag and rinse the salt off.
  7. Open the bag, scoop out the ice cream, and enjoy!

We moms found that the ice cream shakers needed a little bit of help to get the mixture shaken vigorously enough to turn into ice cream! Also: be sure to do this activity outside!! The bags tend to get drippy. :)

Here are some of our other Simple Ice Cream Recipes.

Use any of these with the above Freezer Bag Toss idea!

Here’s to a great summer of fun with our kids! Here are other ideas we’ve shared so far:

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

No-Bake Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites – (Gluten and Dairy Free)

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You might notice that this No-Bake Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites recipe looks identical to our No-Bake Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bars recipe. This one is a fun one to make with your kids!

Yep. You figured it out. Same recipe. One shaped into bars. One shaped into balls. We are so creative, are we not?

Speaking of creative, we’ve got three other simple varieties of this recipe here. Just a few ingredient variations will give you one of these!


Grab the No-Bake Cookie Dough Bite recipes here:

Need Coconut Flour?

I found a great price here!

Need Almond Butter?

It’s hard to find a good price on this! Aldi has been my best option, if and when I can make it there to shop. (I live an hour away from the closest Aldi, boo!) Try to find one without added sugar. Or better yet, if you can find a good price on almonds, make Homemade Almond Butter!

Need Honey?

I much prefer and recommend buying local honey! Otherwise, I recommend buying a big jug from Azure Standard if that is an option for you.

Need Chocolate Chips?

My very favorite chips are these Enjoy Life Mini Chocolate Chips! They are usually more expensive in the summer as they don’t ship well in the heat. So watch for them to go down in price in the fall and winter months, then stock up!

Need Vanilla Extract?

Oh how I love making it myself! Unfortunately, the price of vanilla beans has gone up over the years. Boo. Still, I think it’s best to make it ourselves if we can! Learn how here!

And now, grab your kids and let them help you make these awesome little treats!

No-Bake Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough BitesYum

No-Bake Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites - 5 Ingredients
 
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Serves: 12-15
Ingredients
  • 1 cup natural creamy almond butter
  • ¼ cup honey
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ½ cup coconut flour
  • ¼ cup mini chocolate chips
Instructions
  1. Mix the ingredients together in a bowl until well combined.
  2. Roll the mixture into teaspoon-sized (or whatever sized) balls.
  3. Refrigerate for about 30 minutes before serving.

We like using a cookie scoop like this one to make these Cookie Dough Bites.

Looking for more help as you pull your kids into the kitchen with you?

If you really want to go all in and teach your kids to cook this summer, I encourage you to invest in Katie Kimball’s Kids Cook Real Food eCourse. I used this course with Malachi and plan to use it with Bonus Boy too. It is FANTASTIC!!! Get the details here. And pick up her awesome FREEBIE —>

 

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