Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting
Don’t miss this gem! This recipe stirs together in just a few seconds and costs only pennies. Get the recipe and instructions here.
Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!I think I was out of town more than I was home this week. Between basketball games and appointments, I traveled 5 out of the last 8 days. I am a wee bit tired. Thankfully, we were still able to eat fairly well thanks to how easy it is to grab and pack fruits and vegetables for the road.
With all my comings and goings, how did I have time to actually go grocery shopping four times this week? It was a little crazy, but also kind of necessary. There were amazing sale prices to be had, plus – my family eats tons and tons of food. I’ve found that if I put out the fruit – the people will eat it. Pounds and pounds of it, I tell you. #lifewithteenageboys
Here’s a little grocery run-down of my week. And by the way, we also eat meat, grains, and dairy – I just get them from our food co-op or local sources in bulk, so rarely take pictures of those. Next time I get a big meat order, I’ll snap a shot of all the frozen packages, since I know you’re dying to see them.
On Monday, we were out of almost all fresh fruits and veggies. I went to our local grocery store, which is just a few blocks away. I took advantage of their sale price on cream cheese (Pumpkin Cheesecake, here I come), plus picked up some fresh produce to get us through for a few days. I found a fun deal while I was there which gave me a FREE bag of clementines with my $25 purchase. Sweet!!!
See that fresh coconut up there? My 12 year old was with me and was very interested in trying it. This week, I’ll be assigning him the task of learning how to crack that open and use the insides. :)
Tuesday I went to Walmart to try my hand at price matching. I got avocados for just 29¢ each, honey crisp apples for 99¢ per pound, and pomegranates for 49¢ each. I made Easy Cream Cheese Fruit Dip when I got home, and the entire bag of honey crisp apples disappeared. #toldyoutheycaneat
On Wednesday, the boys and I were in Lincoln for appointments. This also happened to be the grand opening day of a new Aldi store a few blocks from our appointments. All five of us walked the very busy aisles grabbing butter for only $1.89/pound, sweet potatoes for 33¢/pound, and many more goodies for very low prices. What a fun shopping trip! I won’t be able to go to Aldi often, but I will continue to use their prices on produce for price matching at our local Walmart.
By Friday, we were already out of mixed greens, pears, clementines, raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries. I decided to run to our local store for deli meat and cheese for our basketball travels, so picked up more fruit and greens while I was there.
Now here’s hoping I can stay out of the store for several days and instead work with all the deliciousness we have on hand. Hope you don’t get tired of my grocery store pictures. You like looking at pictures of food, right?!
Here’s what our menu choices will look like for this week:
Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner
Fruit and Veggie Side Dishes (I serve 1-4 with each meal)
I’m so thankful for all the wonderful options! I’m also thankful I get to stay home most of this week. I like home best. :)
Don’t miss the BOGO Coconut Oil with Free Shipping this weekend!
Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!In just a few minutes, a simple Hershey bar can become a penguin or a snowman – thank you Pinterest! Look how adorable these are:
I found the free printables for these candy bar wrappers here. You’ll find other wrappers there beyond snowmen and penguins – those two were just my favorites. :) We’re giving these bars as small “thank you” gifts for youth workers at church.
See, I really can do craft projects when they are as easy as this. :)
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What’s more exciting than receiving a sock full of dry rice for Christmas? Getting a jar full of oatmeal, of course.
I wish you could have seen my 12 year old’s face when I told him we were going to make Instant Oatmeal as gifts for our church ministry staff. After all, in a land full of chocolate, candy canes, and marshmallow snowmen – why in the world would we want to give someone instant oatmeal? I reminded my son that our minister has had heart surgery and would likely not appreciate a gift of sugar covered corn syrup. I told him that our office administrator loves to eat healthy food, and that the others on staff would surely appreciate a convenient, warm breakfast.
I also reminded him how delicious this Instant Oatmeal is and assured him that it would look adorable in the jars I’d gotten on clearance after Christmas last year. I lost him after the word adorable. Ahhhh, boys. It’s okay though. He still helped me, and even if he doesn’t get why oatmeal in a jar is a great gift idea, I hold to the belief that our office staff will be thrilled. It comes in a jar, after all. What’s not to love?
If you haven’t made this Instant Oatmeal for your own family yet, I highly recommend that you get right on it. You’ll especially find it helpful this holiday season as you may be just a little bit busy with extra jobs like stuffing rice into socks, pounding nails into boards, and frosting homemade mint oreo cookies. Not only is this a very convenient and quick breakfast, it’ll warm you right up.
Skip the individual bags and instead fill up gift jars with Instant Oatmeal Mix. Download and print these fun gift tags, then attach them to the jar so your recipient will know how to make their oatmeal.
I may be in the running for the “Most Practical Gift Giver Award.” Who’s with me?
Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!Here’s another great idea sent in by Vickie. Be sure to check out her beautiful Pinecone Décor craft, too!
I love this Message Board idea for so many reasons. With my kids being so involved in so many activities, having a board like this to keep track of all the comings and goings (and backings and forthings) would be a great help! Look how adorable and useful…
Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!It’s easy, filling, healthy, and delicious – a perfect treat anytime, but especially during the Christmas season. Serve a Peppermint Milkshake for a perfect side dish or snack!
Easy Peppermint Milkshakes
2 cups milk
1 Tablespoon real maple syrup
¼ teaspoon peppermint extract
Blend and serve!
We always add organic, farm-fresh raw eggs to our milkshakes for added nutrition. I believe this simple recipe would work great with coconut milk as well. :)
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I came home from the store with socks, rice, and ribbon. Here are the questions I heard from my boys when they saw the supplies for this project:
I have no idea why none of this made sense to my boys. It is so self-explanatory.
I quickly had to explain that we weren’t going to cook the rice before putting it into the socks. Still, I don’t believe the idea made sense until they saw the finished product, and even then, I think they thought it would have made more sense to just make our coaches a plate of cookies. I’ll admit, this is kind of a silly idea. But it’s a useful gift, so hopefully they’ll like it at least a little bit. :)
If you, like my boys, have never heard of this lovely Rice Heating Pad idea, allow me to share one of the easiest gift projects on the planet. There are many ideas for these out there, many of which include fabric, a sewing machine, and a pattern. This one though? It only involves socks. The clean kind. New is preferred.
What You’ll Need
How To Make No-Sew Rice Heating Pads
Fill the glass with dry rice. Add 1-3 drops of essential oil if you like (peppermint is a great choice). Fit the opening of the sock over the top of the glass filled with rice, as shown in the picture above, then turn the cup over to fill the sock with rice. Continue this until the sock is full, leaving 2-3 inches of empty sock at the top. (The rice in the drinking glass idea was the best way I figured out to fill the socks since using three hands was not an option that day.)
Tie a ribbon (grosgrain works best) securely at the top. If you want to be very sure the sock won’t open and spill, feel free to use a needle and thread to close the sock with a few stitches before tying the ribbon. We could just call that version “Barely-Sew” Rice Heating Pads.
Because I used large men’s socks, 5 pounds of rice only filled three heating pads. I have no idea what I will do with the odd sock. Maybe I’ll just add it to my laundry and let my dryer eat it. Or perhaps I should buy more rice and make more cool gifts.
How To Use Your Rice Heating Pad
If you have/use a microwave, you can heat this up for 1 1/2-2 minutes, then put it around your neck to keep warm or use it to relieve pain from sore muscles. Don’t want to use a microwave? Place your heating pad in a baking dish in a 300° oven for 10-15 minutes.
If you prefer ice to heat, store the rice pad in the freezer for cold therapy. Then you can call this your Rice Heating Cold Pad, which makes no sense but is fun to say.
Since I’m making these for our boys’ basketball coaches, I bought socks in our team colors and basketball ribbon. Here’s football, soccer, more soccer, volleyball, softball, and baseball. You could also look for ribbon with your recipient’s favorite sport’s team.
Or, skip the sport idea altogether and pick fun socks and ribbon that fits any person on your list. From Hello Kitty to Duck Dynasty, I’m pretty sure you could tailor make these heating/cooling pads for just about anyone.
I figured this gift costs just a little over $2 each. Not too shabby!
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Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!Actually, I’m keeping all of my favorite things. Sorry. They are my very favorite items and I use them constantly. However, I am going to give one of you a package full of duplicates of many of my favorite things so that you can enjoy them too! How fun is this?!
Now, the trick is that all of these favorites have to fit inside a stocking. This is why I’m not giving away my husband or children. (Not even their monthly grocery bill would fit inside a stocking.) Plus, I really want to keep them around.
I also decided not to include butter in this give away. Butter fits inside a stocking, but sending it in the mail? Well, I decided to skip it. I do think it is fitting to ask that every time you use butter, you think of me with a smile.
So, no butter, no family members, and you also can’t have my personal Bible or my recliner. (Again, stocking size restrictions, obviously.) But enough about what this giveaway does not include. What are these amazing items I’m choosing to giving away???
The winner of this giveaway will receive:
I haven’t stopped raving about these since I started using them several years ago. They are completely non-toxic and healthy for the skin, and they have saved my hands!!! I love this stuff and don’t go a day without it.
Making Homemade Vanilla Extract has been one of the most fun and delicious adventures in my kitchen since we switched to real food. Everyone needs to make this.
I wear Flexi-Clips almost daily. They are crazy easy to use and so very pretty. They don’t pull or break my hair like cheap ponytail holders. I absolutely love Flexi-Clips. The winner of this giveaway will win an extra-small Snowflake Flexi – perfect for young Frozen fans and their moms. :)
Ever heard of a Spurtle? It’s like a spatula, spoon, and paddle all in one. Not only is it a super handy kitchen gadget, it is beautiful and the best quality utensil I have in my kitchen. It is hand made – pure walnut. The winner of this giveaway will receive an Original Spurtle Spatula. These are fantastic!
While this isn’t a winter item, you will be very glad you have this Deborah and Co. Half Tee Tank come spring and summer. I love mine so much I’m going to need to order more next summer. They are wonderful for comfortably adding a modest layer under tanks and dresses – definitely one of my very favorite things. (I just learned that this week only in the U.S., Half Tees are shipping for free!)
Seem like an expensive pair of slippers? Well, you get what you pay for. Regular $20 slippers from the store don’t last long since I tend to wear slippers all day long several months out of the year. I’ve had my Purple Lamb slippers for over two years and they still look and feel like they did the day they arrived. I cannot say enough about these amazing, custom, hand-made slippers. They are so well made, so perfect for my foot, so warm and comfortable – they are amazing. The inside of the slippers feature New Zealand Shearling – seriously the softest most luxurious thing ever. They include suede soles and are made from 100% wool. You will love these. (Available in up to an 11 inch foot.)
Oh, For Real! Cookbook ($25.95)You know my cookbook is one of my favorite things. ;) I use this so much that my copy has splashes and stains on it by now. It is a cookbook full of our family’s favorite recipes, as well as all my best tips for keeping life simple (and healthy) in the kitchen. I want you to have my cookbook!
Leave a comment on this post for a chance to win this fun giveaway of many of my favorite things. I will draw a random winner on Thursday, December 18. Be watching for a post stating the winner as you will be responsible for contacting me if your name is chosen!
12 other bloggers stuffed stockings with their favorite things too! Not only can you enter for a chance to win the package I put together for you – you can enter 12 more wonderful giveaways while you’re at it!
1. Thriving Home 2. Happy Home Fairy 3. The Nourishing Home 4. Heavenly Homemakers
5. Meaningful Mama 6. Slugs and Bugs 7. Seeds Family Worship 8. Jennifer Ebehack
9. The Generous Wife 10. The Modest Mom Blog 11. My Humble Kitchen 12. Kara Chupp
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This is a year of music lessons for our family. I wish we’d started earlier – particularly for our oldest who has much musical talent but no spare time now that he’s a senior. But, there’s no point in having regrets. We’re thankful we were able to work in music lessons for our three younger boys this year. (Asa’s sure to pick up on bits of what his brothers are learning, right?)
We gave them each a choice. Because they all have musical ability but different interests, the three boys chose three different instruments. Justus chose guitar, Elias chose drums, and Malachi chose piano. Who knows? Maybe someday they’ll have their own band!
Juggling in all the lessons and practices has been a good discipline for the boys. Is our house even louder now than it was before? Oh yeah! But we love hearing them practice. It’s been wonderful to hear them develop their talents.
This Sunday, Malachi had his first piano recital. He had practiced his songs so many times he could play them in his sleep. He wore his favorite shirt and tie for the occasion, and played his first song without a mistake. He acted like he wasn’t nervous at all!
And then there was me. See, I had agreed to play a simple duet with Malachi that he and I had had so much fun with at home. It was an appropriate song for this Christmas recital, and he wanted us to play it there together.
This mama only plays the piano just a tiny bit, and I never – never – play for people. But because playing with Malachi has brought so much joy, I said yes to joining him for his second recital piece. Phew, I got nervous. I believe I only messed up three times, so we’ll count it as a success. ;)
Bless my friend Jenny for getting pictures! (My older boys had tried but hadn’t been successful in getting good ones.)
I can’t wait to see where my boys take what they are learning with their music. They are off to a great start, and we’re so thankful God has provided such wonderful, godly teachers for them!
What are you thankful for this Gratituesday? Please leave a comment to share. I’m always so encouraged to hear how God is working in your life!
Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!A friend showed me a similar version of this list, and I loved it so much I decided to recreate it. There’s so much “noise” and busyness this time of year that we can quickly lose our focus. May we always remember what is important as we love others this Christmas season.
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