Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Low Sugar Flourless Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe

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Low Sugar Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies and my Mother’s Day flowers!

Low Sugar Peanut Butter Cookies

About the time I think I’ve cut the sugar in every recipe that would possibly work, I find another that works just as well.

Do you remember my Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies? One cup peanut butter, one cup sugar, one egg. They’re delicious. They’re naturally gluten free so I can make them for my GF friends. They’re incredibly easy. And they have a very high sugar content.

I thought surely cutting the sugar in that recipe would mess up the consistency and turn out weird cookies – if they even turned out cookies at all. I am so happy to say, “I was wrong.”

The only thing that didn’t work when I cut the sugar in this recipe is that the dough didn’t allow me to do the cute little criss-cross fork squish thing. The dough was too sticky. Thankfully, life goes on and we’re all grown up enough to eat our peanut butter cookies without fork-squishing them, right? Thank goodness.

Low Sugar Flourless Peanut Butter CookiesYum

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Low Sugar Flourless Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe
 
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Author:
Serves: 20ish
Ingredients
  • 2 cups natural peanut butter
  • ⅓ cup sucanat or brown sugar
  • 1 egg
Instructions
  1. Mix the ingredients together until smooth.
  2. Use a small or medium scoop to place dough balls on a cookie sheet, about two inches apart.
  3. Bake in a 350° oven for 10-12 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned.
  4. Allow them to sit on the cookie sheet for a few minutes before removing them to cool on a rack.

Get my Homemade Natural Peanut Butter Recipe here.

Low Sugar Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe

Matt and I are totally good with barely sweet treats. But the boys? Well, they’re a little more particular. Therefore, my kids are always the true testers for whether or not one of my Low Sugar Treats actually tastes good to other people.

I always hesitate to say these are low sugar, come try them because sometimes that makes the boys unsure from the get-go. But there I was, standing in the kitchen eating a peanut butter cookie. This made the boys suspicious. If Mom is eating it, it must be low sugar.

All that to say: These cookies smelled really good, which made my boys want some. Then they saw me eating them, which made them not so sure. I insisted they try a bite because I thought they were so good I could hardly stand it, and I knew they would like them once they tried.

What did they think?

Well, let’s just say that I had to stop them from finishing the entire batch in one sitting, and we all started shaking our heads once again at Betty Crocker for making us all think we needed eighty cups of sugar in cookie recipes just to make them taste good. C’mon, Betty.

You’ll want to look through all of our tried and true Low Sugar Recipes here. It is amazing how much sugar you can cut out of treats and still make them taste delicious! These Peanut Butter Cookies went from 2 cups down to 1/3 cup of sugar – and they are amazing.

Need more Low Sugar Cookie Recipes?

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Free New Summer Reading Challenge Printables For Your Family

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When my kids were little, we went to the library every week during the summer for the special Summer Reading Program they offered. This kept our boys excited about books and they loved the opportunity they had to win small prizes and meet challenges.

As most of our boys hit the upper grades and outgrew the library program, I saw that our younger two boys needed a little extra motivation to read during the weeks of summer they were home. (Our older two are welcome to participate also, but they tend to be gone more than they are home during June and July.) So we started creating our own Summer Reading Challenge here at home. I set up a simple reward system – tailor made to what I knew would motivate them! I wrote about this last year and offered some free printables. This year, I made more to share with you!

For you, Summer Reading Challenge Printables

Create Your Own Summer Reading Challenge

I’ll share how our family sets this up, then of course you can adapt it to meet your needs if the Summer Reading Challenge idea works for you!

1. Set up a system.

Decide how many minutes or hours your child needs to read before he/she earns a reward. Do the minutes/hours count if the child is being read to, or do they need to read on their own? How will you keep track of time spent reading? (I recommend using these charts!)

2. Talk to your child(ren) about what rewards would be fun motivation for them.

Our kids earn a prize after they have read for five hours. Typically our family’s prizes get a little bigger as they read more and more hours. Here are a few our kids came up with that they would enjoy:

  • Redbox movie rental
  • $1 ice cream cone from Runza
  • Choose something from the Dollar Store
  • Invite a friend for a sleep-over
  • $2 Happy Hour Big Pizza Slice at Pizza Hut
  • Drink from Captain Red Beard’s (our local coffee shop)
  • Still brainstorming :)

3. Put it all into a chart.

My oldest boys don’t care about a cutesy chart to log their hours, but Malachi (age 11) still enjoys one. (However, even the older boys need to at least log their hours in a notebook so they don’t lose track.) The rewards are usually listed on our fridge.

This year, Malachi will use the Pirate Chart I made. (For some reason he didn’t choose the Flowers and Butterflies Chart?!?)

Free Summer Reading Challenge Printable Charts

I’ve made these charts as generic as possible so that you can use them in whatever way your family prefers. The Pirate Chart and the Flowers and Butterflies Chart can be used a little differently than the others that are for writing lists and checking off goals. Consider writing prizes on each cut-out piece for your child to glue onto the chart once they’ve earned that particular prize.

Grab your free printables!

These are free for everyone and will connect you to our fun Heavenly Homemaker’s Learning Zone. It’s free, of course.

Enter your email address here, then check your inbox for download instructions. Print one, print them all, use them in whatever ways work best for your family to enjoy reading this summer!

If you are already subscribed to Heavenly Homemaker’s Learning Zone, you should have received an email yesterday giving you instant access to this freebie. Look in your inbox for the subject: FREE Summer Reading Challenge Charts!

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What To Do With Milk You Need to Use Up

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Many people cringe when they think about the amount of milk our family must go through each week with our family of 3 teenage sons (plus a pre-teen). A gallon a day? Two? How in the world do I keep enough milk in the house for all my boys? I’ll tell you.

We go through exactly one gallon each week.

Disappointed? Sorry. That’s really all we go through.

milk (1)

I took this picture back when we used to get two gallons of milk each week. Pretty isn’t it?

What’s up with our tiny milk consumption in a household of enormous appetites? Well I really don’t want to get into a milk debate here because I have not landed anywhere concrete on the “we should be drinking plenty of milk no actually we shouldn’t” scale. I have researched and I have asked professionals and I am conflicted. Some say drink lots and some say don’t drink it at all. We land somewhere in the middle and we do our best to drink milk from good sources.

peach milkshakes 1

If you ever want to waste milk, simply put too much in your high power blender, then turn it on.
It will explode all over you and all over your kitchen and you will be cleaning it up for days.
This is not a recommended way to use up excess milk.

Here are the two biggest (but not very exciting) reasons we don’t drink much milk at our house:

1. Our natural doctor advised that our boys/men don’t really need much milk.
2. Our boys don’t love drinking milk.

That’s it.

While some kids love drinking milk and chug down several glasses full each day, our boys never have really cared that much about it. I take that to mean that their bodies really don’t need it. If you’ve seen any of them lately, you know that lack of milk consumption has done nothing to keep them from growing long legs. Good grief, their pants.

We get raw, organic milk from a local farmer and we drink it moderately. Actually, we mostly just cook with it.

So that’s our milk situation. What’s yours? Go through lots? Hardly go through any at all? Raw, coconut, regular, unleaded? (ew)

What To Do With Milk You Need to Use Up

Let’s just say you got a good deal on milk and bought several gallons. Or you got your regular allotted milk from your local farmer and you can’t drink it up fast enough. We typically finish off our milk just fine in one week (again, I mostly just cook with it). But every once in a while if we are out of town or the boys are at camp – we end up with extra milk we need to use up quickly.

What to do with Milk You Need to Use Up

Here are some ideas of what to do (not that you couldn’t just have a cookies and milk party for the neighborhood):

Freeze It

Milk freezes just fine, although we’ve found that it works best to first skim the cream off our farm fresh milk.

Culture It

I always keep Homemade Buttermilk on hand for baking and so I can quickly make Ranch Salad Dressing. It’s also super easy to make Kefir or Yogurt. If you culture your milk, it will keep longer in the fridge.

buttermilk

Make Shakes

We’ll go through a half gallon of milk pretty easily if I make it chocolate. :)

milkshakes

Cook or Bake With It

These recipes use quite a bit of milk (especially for my family since I usually double or triple or quadruple a recipe).

garlicchickenpastasm

Those are my go-to options when we need to use up milk. How about you? What do you do or make when you need to use up milk?

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If I Love Homeschooling So Much, Why Do I Love Summer Break Better?

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I am a homeschool mom and I have some confessions to make.

We just finished our school year, put away all the books and CDs, drop-kicked our science lessons, and had ice cream for breakfast to celebrate. (It’s a yearly tradition the boys don’t let me forget about for some reason.)

boys school shopping 2015

Oh look. Here are the boys at the beginning of this school year – 
so full of hopes and dreams and eager to do Algebra.
In other words, they were bummed that summer break was over.

Last week I made a face at all our reference books as I put them back on the shelf as if to say, “I don’t want to see you for a very long time. I’m sick of you. Gather dust you…you big huge book full of words.” (Do I know how to give out insults or do I know how to give out insults?)

I no longer care if any of the pencils in our house are sharpened. I don’t know where any notebooks are, nor am I concerned with how many blank pages remain in them. No one has to give me a report at lunchtime on how much school work they still need to finish up for the day. Instead of saying, “Whose turn is it to do math at the computer?” I will say, “You guys want me to pull the van out of the driveway so you can shoot hoops?”

These are some of the emotions I feel about our impending summer break:

end of school year 1 (1) end of school year 1 (2) end of school year 1 (3)

But really. I love homeschooling.

It certainly isn’t for everyone, but as for me, I love pretty much everything about homeschooling. It is the rocking-est thing that I get to spend this much time with my kids. We seriously get to do some of the coolest activities, go to the most amazing places, and get to know some of the most incredible people. I love the homeschooling life!!! I even love the actual learning part. 

But when we can put the books away and just be? Oh it is so nice and wonderful.

Also? I love summer better than all the seasons. You all know this about me. I love heat and sunshine and I am so over cold, cloudy winter weather. I’m ready to enjoy being outside, soak up Vitamin D, swim, grill, garden, oh and you know what else?

I’m excited to take my kids to the library.

See, this is where I start to sound silly. (Because the selfies. Those weren’t silly.)

I like going to the library more in the summertime than I do during the school year. When we go during the school year, we usually go with a purpose and we need to hurry back home to study and learn. But when we go to the library during the summer we browse the shelves, linger over “just for fun” books, take our time, and check out all the books that look remotely interesting. There’s just something about the library in the summertime.

So there you have it. This mom loves to homeschool. But I also love summer break so much that I am busting out in dance moves (selfies not included).

Whether you are a homeschool mom or a public/private school mom – what are some of your emotions about summer break? Leave a comment to describe, and by all means do feel free to send me an emotion selfie. (I’m serious. laura @ heavenlyhomemakers.com)

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The Best and Easiest Homemade Guacamole

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I posted this recipe several years ago, but last month when I was cleaning out some old, irrelevant posts – I think I somehow deleted this one for Homemade Guacamole! Yikes. One should never delete their guacamole.

Homemade Guacamole

What I love about guacamole is that it is a super easy way for our family to add nourishment to the table. Everyone in our family loves this guac. They just think they’re eating chips with dip, and I’m like, “Yay, they’re eating another veggie!” Actually, avocados are a fruit aren’t they? Well, whatever. They are super nutritious.

Before I (re)share this recipe, I need to have a slightly weird conversation with you. Avocados are green and guacamole is usually green, but what happens when you mix green (avocados) and red (salsa) together? Wellllll….

Let’s just say my guac ends up looking a little bit like…um, well, it’s brownish. Red and green make brown, and that’s what color your guac will be when you follow this recipe. There is no other way. So the end result of blending these fine ingredients together makes an ugly mixture in a bowl.

We are used to it and don’t even care. But when we serve it to company we have to have a “sorry this guacamole looks like baby poop, please try it anyway” conversation. Then we all enjoy snacking together. Hospitality is always fun at the Coppinger house.

Well now that we got that out of the way…

Easy Homemade GuacamoleYum

The Best and Easiest Homemade Guacamole
 
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Author:
Ingredients
  • 4 ripe avocados
  • 16-ounce jar of your favorite salsa
  • 3-4 Tablespoons of lime juice
Instructions
  1. Cut open the avocados, pull out the pit, and scoop the "meat" into a blender.
  2. Dump salsa and lime juice into the blender.
  3. Blend until smooth.
  4. So what if it's brown?

Do you see how easy this is? Dump in the ingredients, blend it up, scoop it out, eat it because you just can’t stop. After one bite, you will no longer care what color it is because the flavors are just so wonderful together.

Easy Homemade Guacamole

Don’t sweat the exact measurements on this “recipe.” Add or subtract ingredients to taste. Use hot salsa, medium, or mild – your choice. It pretty much tastes great no matter how you blend it. It just looks ugly. Bless its heart.

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Stainless Steel Garlic Sauce Maker Review and Giveaway

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Remember when you had a chance to win a Stainless Steel Strainer, and received a big discount to go with it? Today the same folks are offering an amazing deal on their cool Stainless Steel Garlic Sauce Maker. Check this baby out:

garlic sauce maker1

You can’t beat fresh garlic, right? This little gadget makes prepping garlic super easy. Our favorite recipe that calls for garlic is my Homemade Alfredo Sauce recipe. We tested the Garlic Sauce Maker on this recipe and it worked wonderfully!

garlic sauce maker2

Here’s a little tip for you too: As much as we love how garlic makes the Alfredo Sauce taste amazing over pasta, we almost like this sauce better drizzled over steamed veggies. Oh my goodness. So good.

 garlic sauce maker4

As much as we loved how easy this Garlic Sauce Maker is to use, we loved even more that it was easy to clean. (And I’m not just saying that because Matt did the garlic prep and clean up while I did other work for this meal.) ;)

Not only is it great for garlic, you can use this for ginger, carrot, onion, turnips, and other root vegetables. You can even use it to make baby food if you have a little one!

garlic sauce maker

I think it’s safe to say most of us love fresh garlic! Our family is thrilled with this Garlic Sauce Maker and it doesn’t even take up much room in the drawer. It’s a keeper.

Five of you will win one of these tools in this giveaway. OR skip the giveaway and head straight over to get yours for 50%! Use the discount code CDVWHABL through December 31, 2016.

In an effort to make giveaways a little bit easier for me and find better ways to connect with you (I’ll hang on to your email address but I won’t spam you!), I’m going to try Rafflecopter for entries this time. Just enter your email to be entered in the giveaway! I’ll send an email out to all entries on Wednesday, May 11 to tell you who the 5 winners are! (Newsletter subscribers need to click over to this post to enter!)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I was given a free Garlic Sauce Maker and paid an advertising fee in exchange for sharing this with you. This helps support my work here plus offers you great homemaking tools.

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Have Any Dating Advice?

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I have an almost 19-year old and a 16-year old, a 14-year old and an 11- year old. All boys. Four very, very good looking boys. {Laura pauses to take a deep breath.} Someday I suppose you and I can discuss teenage dating or courtship or whatever we choose to call it. But today, that’s not where I’m asking advice.

Let's Talk About Dating

Today I want to talk about myself. And you, too. About how a married couple can possibly keep dating a priority. Or if dating really matters once you’re married. And if it does matter, what it is supposed to look like. And about when in the world I might possibly find a moment to have more than a five-minute conversation with my favorite man that doesn’t end with me falling asleep in the middle of his sentence at night.

matt_and_laura_2

Let’s talk about married couple dating stuff

Matt and I are very intentional about keeping our marriage healthy. We love everything having to do with the subject of marriage. God has given us the opportunity to offer several classes in our home for young married couples. A few years ago He even opened the door for us to begin couple-to-couple pre-marital mentoring, where we spend many weeks with an engaged couple, tackling all the subjects of marriage from the blissful to the challenging.

We’ve watched and guided as couples dive into some very deep waters together and we all experience God at work. It is amazing to be a part of this. Through it, Matt and I have had to fight our own spiritual battles. The enemy doesn’t want our marriage to win, and he certainly doesn’t want us to influence others toward God’s way. God’s victory has been great over all of this, and just about every time I speak of it, I get teary eyed. (Like right now. Tears. I love how God heals, redeems, restores, and helps us thrive.)

So dating.

Of all the subjects we tackle with engaged and married couples, rarely do we talk about dating each other once you’re married. Then last month while talking to a godly couple who has been married longer than we have, they brought up the subject of dating. The husband stated, “My wife and I go on a date every single week.” Oh yeah, that’s nice, really great. Wait. EVERY SINGLE WEEK???

What? Do they have more time on their hands than we have? More money? Fewer commitments? I don’t even get it. Matt and I can barely find time to go out together more than twice a year.

I know that various ideas work for some and not others, so sometimes we need to listen with an open mind, pray, and then move on if the advice isn’t something we can go with. Yet I can’t let go of it. This advice. Why can’t I drop this subject out of my brain and move on?

Because perhaps this is the Spirit at work?

There’s no doubt Matt and I would love to spend more one-on-one time together. Now that our kids are older, we’re finding it harder – not easier – to make time for dates. Now, we are blessed to work from home together and school our boys at home together, so we are together many hours of the day. Plus we serve together in almost all of the ministries we are involved in. We’re so thankful for this teamwork way of life. But actual dates? They’re pretty rare.

This has become a prayer focus for me. While I’m not convinced that we must go out on a date every single week in order to make our marriage thrive – I do desperately seek more time with my guy. I want it, need it, and there’s no doubt it would be a blessing.

 How do you make time to date your spouse

I’d love to hear from you on this.

I’m curious to hear from you whether you are a newlywed, have been married for 70 years, or are somewhere in between. Even if you aren’t married I want to hear from you because I bet you’ve seen great examples in other couples. We can all benefit from hearing what is working (or what isn’t working) from couple to couple.

Do you date your husband? How often? What are your favorite kind of dates? What works for you?

P.S. I’ve listed several of our marriage posts and free resources here if you’d like to check them out.

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How to Make Iced Coffee for a Crowd

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iced coffee

In three years I went from not liking coffee, to loving coffee, to becoming a coffee snob. I mean this in the sweetest way. I’ve learned that there’s coffee, and then there’s coffee. Can I help it if I prefer the coffee that makes me feel the actual love of Jesus flow over me? Well of course I can’t help this.

I blame my oldest son for my particular coffee preferences, because any time I can blame one of my children for something, I do. (I hate it when I spill something and none of my kids is around to blame. It’s very frustrating.)

Why are my coffee snob issues Asa’s fault? Because I was in my early years of drinking coffee about the time he took a mission trip to Ecuador two years ago. While he was there, I happily sipped my “coffee from a red canister that shall remain nameless” like I had done since I started my coffee drinking ways. When he came back home, he brought me a cute little Ecuador bracelet as a souvenir and a package of Ecuadorian coffee. How nice, I thought. Coffee from Ecuador. I’ll pray for the ministry there while I drink it. It will be so lovely.

Lovely didn’t even begin to describe this experience. I took my first sip and exclaimed, “Oh my goodness!! This coffee!! I’ve never had anything like it. I think this must be the most amazing thing I’ve ever tasted. I might even like this more than butter.”

From that moment on, no other cup of coffee measured up. Once you have the best, it’s hard to go back.

(Our second son, Justus, will have the delightful opportunity to go to Ecuador this summer for his first overseas mission trip. I am so excited for him to bring me back a suitcase full of coffee share the love of Jesus with people there.)

How to Cold Brew Coffee

Needless to say, I hoarded my little bag of Ecuador coffee and rationed it – saving it for the mornings I could truly savor it. I might not have shared even a drop with anyone, but I can’t remember all the details. I’ve since started buying (and yes, even sharing) these Guatemalan coffee beans online. I find the flavor to be very similar to the Ecuador beans. This coffee is so delicious!

I questioned myself. “Should I really be spending extra money on high quality coffee?” So I did the math.

I discovered that it costs between $0.50-$0.60 per pot of coffee when I use the good stuff. This is more than a pot of the cheaper coffee. But worth it? Well, is it worth it to spend more on butter instead of settling for margarine? Obviously! (I know. That’s not an apples to apples comparison because the butter/margarine thing is more about eating real food for good health, but still. I think it’s worth it to pay a little extra for good quality and taste.)

Iced Coffee for a Crowd

Well, all that to say – get yourself some good coffee and treat people to this delicious Iced Coffee I’m going to tell you about. Or just use the cheap stuff for this recipe since you’re adding sugar anyway. :)

Last week I was asked to provide drinks for a get-together. I made a gallon of Homemade Lemonade (with sugar instead of maple syrup to cut the cost). Then I decided to make a big jar of iced coffee just for fun. It was a hit, so I thought I’d better share the idea with you!

My rough calculations tell me that a half-gallon of this Homemade Iced Mocha Coffee costs about $1.00. (I priced it at the store a few days later. The cheapest one cost $2.66. Boom.)

How to Make Iced Coffee for a CrowdYum

How to Make Iced Coffee for a Crowd
 
Save Print
Author:
Ingredients
  • 1 quart coffee
  • 1 tray coffee ice cubes
  • ½ cup heavy cream
  • ½ cup homemade chocolate fudge sauce (more or less to taste)
Instructions
  1. Cold brew coffee, or hot brew as normal, then chill.
  2. Stir cold coffee, coffee ice cubes, cream, and chocolate sauce into a half-gallon jar.
  3. Shake well before serving.

Some helpful links for you:

You might also enjoy this idea:

How to set up an Iced Coffee Bar

How to Make an Iced Coffee Bar

We set up that Iced Coffee Bar for my birthday guests last year and it was so much fun! See? I’m nice and share my good coffee now. I’ve grown so much.

Are you particular about what kind of coffee you drink?

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Make Cookies or Brownies in Your Waffle Iron!

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Friends, I have an oven again! Not only that, it is my dream oven!! I can’t find an exact match to show you, but it’s like this, only we got it for $less$ because we found it on Craig’s list. It is so perfect. The family who originally owned it had loved it, but moved into a house with electric and couldn’t use it any more. We got a great deal on a perfectly wonderful double gas oven!!!

My husband is amazing, working for hours to switch our electric hook-up to gas, getting it all set up for me. I love it and drag people into my kitchen to show them my new toy – even if they probably don’t care. Thankfully, everyone has pretended to care. People are so nice. My apologies to our mailman. Little did he know that when he brought a package up to our porch that I would grab him by the collar and… Relax. I’m kidding.

(It was really the UPS man.)

While it felt longer, it was really only two weeks of oven-less time for me. I missed having an oven, for sure. But we survived with all our other appliances and our grill. When you have to adapt in the kitchen, you start getting creative. Thanks to one reader, Lisa, who put this grand idea in my head – we learned that we can make cookies and brownies in our waffle iron!

Waffle Cookies - Low Sugar

If that isn’t the coolest kitchen hack since…ummm…the last cool kitchen hack I learned (freezing muffin batter, perhaps?).

A word of warning: It’s a little messy.

When you make actual waffles in a waffle iron, the only potential mess is adding too much batter and having it run over the edges. (So I’ve heard. I’ve never, ever actually done that myself. I’m always very, very clean when I cook.)

But with cookie and brownie batter, I found that the butter separates out a little bit, filling the waffle iron crevices with buttery goodness. It’s not a big deal. I just ran hot water over it to clean it out after it cooled. Just be aware that this process can be a little bit messy. Worth it. But messy.

Waffle Brownie Strawberry Parfaits

See that? For company one night we made Waffle Brownies and set them out with strawberries and whipped cream. What a fun treat!

How to make waffles and cookies in a waffle iron

  1. Mix up cookie or brownie batter as normal (my suggested recipes are below).
  2. Use a medium or large sized cookie scoop to add batter to a pre-heated waffle iron.
  3. Close iron and “bake” brownies or cookies for about 2 minutes each.
  4. I was able to make three at on time if I spaced them out correctly.How to Make Cookies and Brownies in Your Waffle Iron

This process takes more time than simply throwing a pan of brownies into an oven to bake. But when you don’t have an oven, or when you want a little something unique – these cookie and brownie waffles are SO MUCH FUN.

Recipes I Used:

Pin this idea to use this summer when you want a fun treat but don’t want to heat up the house by turning on the oven!

Have you ever tried this trick before? 

 

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Take Time to Pray (and Color) This Weekend

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I’ve seen all the “Adult Coloring Books” making their way into the world and two things have come to mind:

1) When you put the word “adult” in front of other words, it makes it sound kind of sketchy. But it’s not. It’s a coloring book for goodness sake.
2) Who has time to color?

I didn’t get the hype. I figure if I don’t have time to do dishes, I probably don’t have time to color.

coloring pages2

Color me corrected.

Monday evening I had precisely 45 minutes to myself. Matt and the three younger boys had left for a soccer game. I was missing this one so I could go to our oldest son’s choir performance, but I didn’t have to leave quite yet. In my very, very quiet and peaceful house, I spent my minutes working more on coloring some of my new journal/devotional books. I’m not sure if I mentioned this, but those minutes were so very peaceful and quiet.

Until Asa texted to let me know that he was supposed to be on the risers for choir five minutes ago and he’d lent his dress shoes to someone so he was very sorry but could I please find Justus’ shoes and run them up to the performance building…

So I guess I just got about 37 minutes of quiet.

Whatever though. And how nice is it to have three teenage boys who can share clothes and shoes?

But back to my quiet time.

I had no idea coloring would be so relaxing.

I was so surprised by how it fed me. I guess I would say it filled me with peace? I don’t know. It was just nice.

What I especially loved is that while I was absentmindedly coloring, my mind was able to focus and cut out distractions. I was able to talk to God for minutes and minutes without also zooming out to think about what was for dinner or what still needed to be done before the end of the day.

It was so cool.

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The next day I colored another picture while our family was hanging out in the living room before bed. Justus, our 16-year old, was playing his guitar next to me. It felt like I was chillin’ at a coffee shop, only there I was, in the living room with my family.

I’m not sure why others are jumping on board the adult coloring thing. But obviously it’s meeting a need for people and after just one page, I am hooked.

How strange that paper and design and pretty markers bring calm to a mother’s busy mind and heart. I can’t explain it. It’s just what it does for me.

So if you’re like me, and you find yourself with way too long a to-do list and struggle to create the down-time you need to keep yourself healthy, I’m going to suggest this:

Take time to color and pray.

I know. What an interesting idea. I’m just saying that it is refreshing and chill. Colors and prayer can all go together to help you learn what you need to learn during a focused time with the Lord. It’s quite amazing actually. Try it and see if you agree.

It made me want to print out all the coloring pages from the bundle, put them all together in another binder, get all my markers and colored pencils, and put together a coloring/prayer basket for myself.

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Do you like to color? Have you found that you’re able to focus and pray during color time? 

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