Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Watch That “No Sugar Added” Label!

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Sometimes a “No Sugar Added” label on a container of food or drink means that all that is included in the package is 100% fruit or juice.

Sometimes.

It is very important that we read the fine print and read the list of ingredients! Unfortunately, “No Sugar Added” almost always means, “We didn’t add sugar. Instead, we’ve added artificial sweeteners like Splenda, Sorbitol, or Aspertame. It could be that we added all three. Don’t worry though. We didn’t add sugar. Sugar is bad.”

Packages of fruit and juice with a “No Sugar Added” label are especially deceiving. See these Mixed Fruit Cups?

no sugar added 1

 

The “No Sugar Added” label makes you think that all that’s included in those mixed fruit cups is fruit. But read the ingredients:

no sugar added 2

Along with your fruit, these cups also contain Sorbitol, Natural Flavor, and Sucralose (which is Splenda).

Sorbitol, for the record, is a sweetener made from pulling the glucose out of fruit, which then goes through a chemical process to produce a “sugar alcohol” by adding hydroxil. (I don’t know what hydroxil is. Please add it to my fruit cup and tell me it’s healthy, because yay, “no sugar added.”)

Sucrolose (Splenda) is also made in a lab in which three chlorine molecules are added to a sucrose or sugar molecule. (Mmm, chlorine added to my food. Please pass me a fruit cup.)

By the way, why are we trying to make fruit sweeter than it already is? I do not understand this. But back to the point of this post…

Please, please, please don’t buy into the lie that artificial sweeteners are healthier for us than sugar. And please don’t be deceived by a “no sugar added” label. Our bodies don’t know what to do with artificial sweeteners and in the long (or short) term, they can make us very ill. Too much real sugar isn’t good for us either, but at least our bodies recognize it.

As always, I advocate for eating real food and for eating on purpose for the sake of nourishment.

Nourishment. Real food. It’s what our bodies crave.

Now go eat a naturally sweetened, God-made-perfect piece of fruit. Apples, pears, oranges, and bananas are “no sugar added” foods, but there’s no need for a label because they come pre-packaged and contain all they were ever meant to contain because they are delicious pieces of fruit for goodness sake. (Subjects like this often inspire me to write run-on sentences.)

It would seem as though eating well is not nearly as complicated as our culture tends to make it, wouldn’t you agree?

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How To Care For Your Silicone Baking Mat

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A Safer Kitchen

Remember a couple weeks ago how we talked about using Silicone Baking Mats on your aluminum baking sheets to protect your food from being contaminated by aluminum? Upon seeing the pizza that I baked on my mat, several of you had this question:

Can you use a pizza cutter on the mat or wouldn’t that cut through and ruin the mat??

healthy cooking products 4

Ah yes. You are very smart. These silicone baking mats are high quality and very heavy duty. However, you do want to avoid cutting through them so you can continue using them again and again. After all, not only do these keep your food safe, they save you lots and lots of money since you can use it over and over forever.

How do these mats save you money? Well for years, I’ve been buying and using parchment paper to protect my food from my aluminum pans. I reuse my parchment paper a few times if possible, but over the years, I’ve gone through many a roll of parchment. These silicone mats are a one-time purchase, saving me from ever having to buy parchment again! I have two of the mats so I can bake two pans at once. :)

But back to caring for your silicone mat:

After I bake my food on my baking pan/mat, I simply slide the food off the mat and onto a serving tray. Then I cut the food as needed, keeping my mat out of the way so I don’t accidentally cut and ruin it. By the way, food slides very easily off these mats – another perk!

How about washing your silicone mat?

I simply give mine a good rinse with hot water or with a little bit of soapy water if needed. Then I lay it over my dish drain to dry. Easy!

I’m loving my silicone mats, both for food safety and how it saves me time in the kitchen! I appreciated that Karen left a comment last week stating the same thing:

I received my order of  two of these “Healthy Cooking Products” mats just yesterday based on your recommendation. Today I made cinnamon rolls and some cookies. These mats are wonders! Besides enabling baked goods to just slip off, these mats also produced a superior baking product. Instead of some of the good stuff seeping into the pan or parchment, it stayed on the bottom of the cinnamon rolls. Delicious! Thank you for this recommendation.

Hooray for a great way to save money and time!  And now I’m hungry for pizza. ;)

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Gratituesday: Even the Sound of My Clicking Keyboard is Loud!!!!

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gratituesday[2]

Figuring you’d rather read about my exciting produce purchases, my fun new recipe discoveries, and my exciting life with teenagers – I have spared you the details of my silly but very annoying physical malady of the past few weeks. But, lucky you, now I’m going to share. It’s Gratituesday, after all – and this is something I’m very thankful for. Praise God in everything, right?

Christmas day (yes 6 weeks ago), which also happened to be the day we left for a long road trip to California, my left ear plugged up. Typically when an ear plugs, you can yawn to pop it, right? Not so for me this time. Figuring it would pop any minute, and knowing my chiropractor was closed for the holiday, I did nothing but wait (and yawn a lot).

As it was, my ear remained plugged through our entire drive and visit to California. I went to my chiro immediately after returning home. He adjusted me. He did acupuncture. I went to my homeopathic doctor. I went back to my chiro. I did ear candles. I used essential oils. I went to my massage therapist. I stood on my head (not even kidding). I prayed. I prayed. I prayed. My ear remained plugged.

I had not been sick. I was not in pain. I simply couldn’t hear well in my left ear, and every time I talked I heard my own voice loudly inside my head. Argh! So annoying! I gained a new appreciation and compassion for those with hearing loss. No wonder they struggle to be in large crowds of people.

Bless my family for having to say everything twice. Matt would whisper something sweet into my left ear and I would respond with a blank stare. Poor guy. ;)

Finally I recognized that my ear issue had nothing to do with drainage or lack thereof. Took me long enough, right? Hey, I’m not one to just run to the doctor for every little thing. Typically ear issues can be treated easily and entirely by the chiropractor or with a specific ear draining massage. I wanted to exhaust all other possibilities first. So I did. Since nothing else worked, I finally went to Urgent Care.

This turned out to be an ear wax impaction. They flushed my ear out and two minutes later I was a new woman. The nurse yelled, “THERE NOW, IS THAT BETTER?” Come to think of it, she probably used her quiet inside voice. It just seemed so loud and clear to my freshly cleaned out ear. (You’re welcome that I’m not going into detail about what was flushed out. Wow and wow again.)

So yay for me (and for my family)! I can hear again! From typing on my keyboard to hearing trains go by, I am noticing all the sounds I’ve been missing the past several weeks.

Of all things, today I am thankful for conventional medical treatment and a doctor who didn’t question me or suggest that I take some sort of medicine that would only treat the symptom and not the real issue. That is, after all, why I had avoided going in the first place. Had I known 6 weeks ago that none of that would happen and that all I needed was a date with a high powered water blast through my ear….

In the meantime, my chiropractic adjustments and massage benefited my health, so nothing was lost on those appointments.

So please, leave a really loud (or really soft) comment telling me what you’re thankful for this week. I’LL BE ABLE TO HEAR YOU!!!! How great it is to be reminded of the little things (like hearing) that we take for granted.

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What is Price Matching and How Does it Work?

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What is Price-Matching and How Does it Work

I’ve recently learned the art of “price matching.” Where has this been all my life? (Right under my nose. I just never looked into it before.)  This new practice has been saving me $10-$40 per week. That’s $40-$160 per month. That’s big savings for my family of big eaters!

What is Price Matching?

Wal-Mart offers an Ad-Matching Guarantee. This means that if another store within 50 miles is offering a specific food at a lower price (shown in their weekly ad), Wal-mart will honor that price. Read all the detailed information about their policy here.

It is important that you pay attention to the details of the grocery store ads. Price matching is only valid on items “pound for pound,” “ounce for ounce,” etc. I try to be very diligent about making sure I don’t accidentally pick up the wrong size item.

How Does Price Matching Work?

Sound complicated? It really isn’t. It took me exactly one shopping trip to work out all the kinks and learn how easy this practice is.

Before going shopping each week, I spend a few minutes looking at all relevant grocery store ads online. We have very few stores in my town, so I am thankful I can price match with the stores in our nearby cities which have 6-7 stores to price match with. I find the lowest prices from each store (mainly focusing on the produce), and make my list.

This week, my list looked something like this:

Aldi

~ Strawberries, 16 ounces, $1.29
~ Onions, 3 pound bag, 99¢
~ Red Potatoes, 5 pound bag, 99¢

Alert

~ Carrots, 2 pound bag, $1.19

Super Saver

~ Grape Tomatoes, 1 pint, 96¢
~ Blueberries, 18 ounces, $3.48 (our Walmart didn’t have this size, so I scratched that off my list)
~ Gala or Yellow Delicious Apples, 3 pound bags, $2.50 each

Wal-mart employees have been trained to quickly adjust the price of the items you are price matching. You simply tell them the price you found that was cheaper, and they ring it up at that price. Easy! I try to separate my price-match items from my other items to make it easier on the cashier.

Here is a sample conversation between the cashier and me…

Cashier:  You have such beautiful hair.
Just kidding. For some reason, the cashier never says that. Here’s the real conversation:
Me: These are my price-match items.
Cashier:  Great, we’ll start with the pears. How much?
Me:  99¢ per pound.
{Cashier rings up my pears at 99¢ per pound}  
Cashier:  Okay, now how about these onions?
Me:  99¢ for each bag

And so it goes until we work our way through all of my price match items. :)

How Much Can You Save?

Here’s an example of everything I bought and how much I saved through price-matching last week.

price matching

  • 2 bags of Yellow Onions priced at $2.98 for a 3 pound bag – I got for 99¢ each (saved 3.98)
  • 3 bags of Red Potatoes priced at $3.47 for a 5 pound bag – I got for 99¢ each (saved 7.44)
  • 1 pound containers of Strawberries priced at $1.99 – I got for $1.29 each (saved 5.60)
  • D’Anjou Pears priced at $1.67/pound – I got for 99¢/pound (saved 3.69)
  • 2 bags of Halo Clementines priced at $4.97 for a 3 pound bag – I got for $3.99 each (saved 1.96)
  • 2 bags of Carrots priced at $1.48 for a 2 pound bag – I got for $1.19 each (saved .58)
  • 2 bags of Gala Apples priced at $3.47 for a 3 pound bag – I got for $2.50 each (saved 1.94)
  • 2 bags of Golden Delicious Apples priced at $3.47 for a 3 pound bag – I got for $2.50 each (saved 1.94)
  • 2 pints of Grape Tomatoes priced at $2.98 per pint – I got for 96¢ each  (saved 4.04)

Price matching saved me $31.17 this week.  It took me about 10 minutes to sit at the computer and find the prices I wanted to match and make a list. Saving over thirty bucks in 10 minutes to feed my family real food? Yes, I think that’s very worth my time!

Watch that you don’t fall into the trap of snatching up good deals on processed foods. Those are out there too, so of course, I had to remind us all that those are just not worth the “price” we pay later. You’ll be surprised though at the great deals you can get on fruits and vegetables, meats and cheeses, often organics too!

One last note:

I try not to price-match from my hometown grocery stores. My town is small, so it doesn’t take much extra time to run into our local grocery stores to pick up the food I need. I like to support our local stores. Where price-matching really works well for me is offering me big city sale prices from bigger stores that would cost me an hour’s drive and a half tank of gas. :)

Share with us! Do you take advantage of Wal-mart’s price matching policy? How does it work for you? Have any other great tips to share about this?

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Top 10 Money Saving Recipes

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Menu Plan for the Week – and What is Up With All the Strawberries?

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Never, ever, ever have strawberries been available in our grocery stores this time of year that are both tasty and reasonably priced. Typically between the months of October and April, we go strawberry-less.

Somehow though, the past few weeks have brought very tasty strawberries to our stores at a very good price – in January and February. What in the world? Seriously, does anyone know how this can be possible? These particular strawberries are coming from Florida. Are you able to find good strawberries in your area at a good price right now? Shocked as I am, this Nebraska girl is thrilled.

feb 5 groceries

I price-matched (more on that tomorrow!) and got strawberries for just $1.29 per pound. That price is amazing. The strawberries are super tasty, too. As you can see from my huge haul from the store, it was a great price matching week. I loaded up on produce even more than normal. All of the above cost under $100, so I’m very grateful. We will have a great week of delicious food!

Here’s what this week’s menu options look like:

Breakfast

Lunch

Dinner

Fruit and Veggie Side Dishes (I serve 1-4 with every meal)

  • Strawberries
  • Blueberries
  • Apples
  • Pears
  • Cantaloupe
  • Mixed Greens
  • Spinach
  • Romaine Lettuce
  • Green Beans
  • Asparagus
  • Peas
  • Cheesy Cauliflower Cakes
  • Grape Tomatoes
  • Carrot Sticks
  • Clementines

Thanking God for such abundance of wonderful food. How blessed we are.

What’s on your menu this week?

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My Top 10 Kitchen Tips Ever and 10 eBooks for $10 – Through Monday Only!

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Top 10 Kitchen Tips

Here is a life-changing  list of my top 10 kitchen tips ever, and the links where you will find the wonderful details on each:

10. Don’t forget to close the dispenser on your blender.
9. Never overfill said blender.
8. Clearly label your freezer food so you won’t have to wait for the food to thaw and bake before you recognize what it is.
7. A fresh tablecloth makes everything better.
6. Be sure to allow room for expansion when you fill jars with food for the freezer so your beloved jars won’t break.
5. If your garden is destroyed by a hail storm, wait and trust. It might just bounce back.
4. Buttering your pineapple is not a good idea.
3. Wearing mis-matched rubber gloves is the best way to clean.
2. Don’t touch your eyeball with your hands after chopping hot peppers.
1. Never, ever forget that God is bigger than a free range chicken.

Just reading that list makes you a better homemaker, does it not? Really. What would you ever do without my insights and advice? (I forgot to mention earlier, you should always be sure to sift the popcorn out of your waffle mix. Keep hanging around. The wisdom never ends around here, my friends.)

And now, I am excited to share with you that through Monday, February 9 at midnight, our very popular Heavenly Homemaker’s eBook Overload Package is marked down to just $10.  That’s 10 eBooks for $10.  Seriously!

 

eBook Overload sm
This package includes loads of real food recipes that are easy and family friendly. From chicken to beef to fruits and vegetables to chocolate (of course!), here is the wonderful books you will receive:

Feel free to click on any of the above titles to learn more about these individual books. Once purchased, you’ll recieve an email giving you the download links to each eBook. You’ll have so many healthy, kid friendly recipes you won’t know where to start!

Heavenly Homemakers Ebook Overload!
$51.49
$10.00

Add to Cart

Feel free to add your best kitchen tip in the comments. It’s always great to learn from each other. :)

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Easy Ham and Egg Breakfast Bowls – a Quick and Filling Breakfast To-Go!

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Oh man (lady – whatever). You are going to love this idea! Unless you don’t like eggs.  But for those of you who love eggs, and for everyone who wants an easy, real food meal that will pack a punch with nutrition and keep you full until the next meal…

Please allow me to introduce you to these delightful little Ham and Egg Breakfast Bowls:

ham and egg cups1

See that? The ham is the bowl. Isn’t that clever? I didn’t think of this myself, but was enlightened by my friend who was excited to tell me about her fun breakfast of the day. She knew I’d need to know about this idea. She knows me (and my hungry crew) well, don’t you think?

Everyone get out your muffin tins and get ready to have some fun.

How to make Ham and Egg Breakfast BowlsYum

You will need:

Muffin Tins
Thin Slices of Ham
Eggs
Shredded Cheese
Sea Salt
Garnish like Fresh Spinach, Green Chilies, Mushrooms, Peppers, Onion, Broccoli, or Salsa

Push a piece of thinly sliced ham down into each muffin cup.

ham and egg bowls 4

Crack an egg into each “ham bowl.” Poke each egg yolk with a fork and carefully scrambled it around inside the bowl. Sprinkle with salt, top with cheese, and garnish however you like. Bake in a 350° oven  for 10-20 minutes or until the eggs are cooked through.

You can make these ahead of time, then rewarm them for a quick, ready-made breakfast or lunch! (That’s my favorite part, of course.)

You can also scrambled up your eggs in a dish, and then scoop some out into each ham bowl if you prefer. My kids like the texture of these better if I do it that way.

5.0 from 1 reviews
Easy Ham and Egg Breakfast Bowls - a Quick and Filling Breakfast To-Go!
 
Save Print
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
Author:
Ingredients
  • Muffin Tins
  • Thin Slices of Ham
  • Eggs
  • Shredded Cheese
  • Sea Salt
  • Garnish like Fresh Spinach, Green Chilies, Mushrooms, Peppers, Onion, Broccoli, or Salsa
Instructions
  1. Push a piece of thinly sliced ham down into each muffin cup.
  2. Crack an egg into each "ham bowl."
  3. Poke each egg yolk with a fork and carefully scrambled it around inside the bowl.
  4. Sprinkle with salt, top with cheese, and garnish however you like.
  5. Bake in a 350° oven for 10-20 minutes or until the eggs are cooked through.

 

Easy Ham and Egg Breakfast Bowls

Is this idea genius, or what? You must try this! :)

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“So Laura, where do you grocery shop?”

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I didn’t think this was a difficult question with a complicated answer until I found myself answering a friend a few weeks ago. She was in my kitchen enjoying a meal with some of our basketball team families. That’s when she asked, “So Laura, where do you get your groceries here in York?”

I don’t think I have a complicated grocery shopping situation in the least, especially since I’ve been fine tuning it for years. But my answer was no less than several paragraphs long. I’m sure she was thinking, “Girl, just tell me what grocery store you like!”

groceries jan 5

Indeed, I do shop at our local grocery store and at Wal-mart (hooray for price matching, which I will explain in more detail soon!). Also, I:

  • Order beef, chicken, and the occasional package of bacon from a local farmer about an hour away.
  • Order from a food co-cop, Azure Standard, which delivers once per month.
  • Get several dozen eggs each week from a man from church who raises chickens just out of town.
  • Get milk once each week from a family who raises animals in a nearby town.
  • Order one lamb per year from the same family who provides us with milk.
  • Buy from the farmer’s market and grow/preserve our own produce during the summer.
  • Order food from Amazon – lots of it. (This shocks so many people. “You can order food from Amazon?” Oh yes you can!)
  • Order food from iHerb.com.
  • Order food from Vitacost.com.
  • Order food from TropicalTraditions.com.
  • And occasionally, when I’m in the city, I’ll shop at their bigger health food stores or regular grocery stores.

Um, hi. I have a dozen grocery purchasing sources. I really never considered how many different ways I have found for saving money and purchasing the best food I can get my hands on at the best prices.

Your food sources are going to look completely different from many of mine simply because of your location and options. My tip for you today is to think outside the box and find the sources that will work best for you as you find wholesome, nourishing food for your family! There are sources out there, you just have to find them. And if you’re in the U.S. I encourage you to look into the online resources I mentioned above. Online grocery shopping rocks!

You should know that our source for farm-fresh eggs has changed something like five times during the past nine years. I share that to encourage you that if one source falls through, ask around and search for another source!

With a bit of trial and error, you will find what works best for you as you seek ways to find quality, real food ingredients for your family. :)

Leave a comment and let us know where you grocery shop! Do you like shopping online?

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Chocolate Cheesecake Dessert

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Not that you have to wait until Valentine’s Day to make this, but just in case you’re starting to think about hearts and chocolate and treats with the ones you love – I thought you might be interested in this recipe. You should probably make one now, then another early next week, then another on Valentine’s Day. Or would that be considered cheesecake overkill? (Is there such a thing?)

Remember this Chocolate Cheesecake Pie recipe I shared about this time last year? Here’s another similar idea using stevia to lightly sweeten. I also used my Shortbread recipe for the crust this time since I’ve discovered what a great, buttery crust it makes. It does not get any easier than this! (Here are Pumpkin Pie Bars with shortbread crust and Pumpkin Cheesecake with the same crust. Told you I love it.)

chocolate cheesecake
Easy Chocolate Cheesecake DessertYum

2 8-ounce packages cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Liquid stevia to taste (I use 30-40 drops)
2 cups heavy whipping cream
Baked and cooled Shortbread Crust

Cream together softened cream cheese, cocoa powder, vanilla, and stevia. Set aside. Whip cream until soft peaks form. Fold in cream cheese mixture until smooth. (I actually throw all ingredients together in my BlendTec and let it do all the work of whipping and blending at the same time.)  Spread mixture over cooled Shortbread Crust. Cover and chill for about two hours until set. Makes about 18 servings.

Easy Chocolate Cheesecake Dessert

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Gratituesday: Snow Day

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gratituesday[2]

Phew! This weekend has been incredibly fun and exhausting. I was too busy to take pictures so I will instead give you a bullet point run-down of our past four days:

  • Friday evening, 140 teens and sponsors arrived at our church building for a weekend youth rally. Matt was home working frantically to at least get our new shower in place since we were housing boys all weekend. I stayed at the building and helped organize housing for all the people. THAT is a job.
  • 17 teenage boys came home with us to “sleep.” They found our drum set.
  • We fed the boys snacks, even though they had just eaten at the building.
  • I accidentally said words out loud about the smell of the feet. All of the boys blamed all of the other boys.
  • Matt stayed up until 4:30 in the morning trying to understand instructions about installing a shower that read something like, “Put the white thing with the other white thing, then slide it onto the round piece.” There were a lot of white things and different sized round pieces. God bless him. He got it up and running.
  • I slept from about midnight to 1:30, then could not go back to sleep until 5. What in the world???
  • We delivered the boys back to the church building at 8:30 (it took three trips to get them there). We dropped Malachi off at a friend’s house, then Matt and I headed to the rally to teach classes.
  • Matt and I enjoyed teaching four sets of teens throughout the day – Matt with mixed classes and me with roomfuls of girls! It was wonderful and fun. What great youth!
  • We finally got back to pick up Malachi at 8:00 pm. He was thrilled that he had been able to play with his friend for “over 10 hours, Mom!”
  • We made three trips to get all the boys back to our house.
  • We fed the boys snacks, even though they had just eaten at the building.
  • Somehow after the full day and lack of sleep, the boys still didn’t want to sleep. They have so much fun together and have limited time together throughout the year so it would seem that sleeping would waste their precious together time.
  • We woke up to snow. Lots and lots of snow.
  • Matt has a snow removal business. He bundled up and headed out for what would be a very long day.
  • We called for help and got all the kids to the building for brunch and worship.
  • It became very clear that no one could drive home as had been the plan. Several other moms and I worked frantically to pull out leftovers to warm up to feed everyone. After church, we had a huge spread of random but tasty items for the kids to eat while we visited with sponsors about driving conditions.
  • 110 of the youth and sponsors needed to stay an extra night. The kids were thrilled with the extra together time and the fact that they would miss a day of school on Monday. Phone calls were made, youth leaders talked to all the parents.
  • Housing arrangements were made yet again for all the youth. We shuffled them around so that entire youth groups could be together, making it easier on the sponsors/drivers to get up and go on Monday.
  • We needed more food! And a Super Bowl Party! What to do, what to do? Adults made plans. Kids hung out, fell asleep on church pews, headed across the street to play in the college gym, or played board games. They were loving life.
  • A man from church with “connections” came to the building with the hugest TV I’ve ever seen. He set it up in the fellowship hall, and fixed it up to stream the game that night.
  • Several adults headed to the store and came back with 48 frozen pizzas, a ton of popcorn, and stuff to make 14 batches of party mix. We got busy in the kitchen.
  • We had a fabulous party, the kids loved it, they were very gracious and seriously – I think this turned out to be the kids’ favorite day of the entire rally.
  • Matt had been moving snow all day (that continued to fall and blow). I texted him to let him know that we’d be having 12 extras that night and to please put sheets in the washer when he went home. (I hadn’t been able to stop and go home all day.)

Let’s pause now so that I can tell you that Matt called around 6:30 to tell me that:

Our washer had busted. We could do no laundry.

I giggled because I was loopy, exhausted, and giggling sounded like the best response. As I hung up the phone, I looked straight ahead of me and realized there was a washer and dryer right in the kitchen I’d been working in all day. I called him back. He brought the sheets to the building. We washed them while we worked. Perfect.

  • At 10:00 we made it back to our house with the 12 extra people.
  • You guessed it, we fed them snacks, even though they had just eaten at the building.
  • We had a great time getting to know our new guests (a few girls and a mom this time, yay me!).
  • We went to bed at a more reasonable hour, like 12:30. It was bliss.
  • I made a big breakfast before sending everyone on the road this morning around 10:00. I was so thankful for bags of muffin batter in the freezer!
  • We declared the day to be a “snow day” even though as home schoolers, we never take snow days. Most of us stayed in our pj’s all day. Bliss.
  • Matt picked up the piece we needed to fix the washer and had it ready for me by early afternoon. Then he went out to do more snow removal. Love him.
  • The afternoon and evening has been spent making broth and soup (perfect for a cold day like today!), doing laundry, and reading quietly. I took a really long nap and woke up as a new woman.
  • OH! And our internet has been out since last night and none of us had the energy to do anything about it until this afternoon. It was a wireless router issue, and at this point, everything is working except for my work computer. Oh well. :)  We’ll get it figured out when our brains work again.

So there you have it. It was truly a wonderful weekend. We love these kids!!! I’m pretty sure they will remember this youth rally for a very long time – hopefully the spiritual parts too. :)

What did you do this weekend, and what are you thankful for? You must leave a comment to share! (I’ve missed hanging out here the past few days.)

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