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Win a Natural Soap Package from Tropical Traditions

April 25, 2014 by Laura 325 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

Homemaking is Fun GiveawaysHomemaking is FUN! This is evident in the fact that we all love and look forward to washing dishes three times each day – more if we’re lucky.

Or maybe that’s just a job we do because we have no choice and because we like clean kitchens.

Well, how about if you win some free dish soap? A tub of free dishwasher detergent? Would that make your dishwashing time a little bit more fun? What if we throw in some bath soaps and hand soap? Okay, now we’re talking!

You all know that one of my favorite online resources is Tropical Traditions. Not only do they provide super high quality coconut oil, they are committed to supplying many other nourishing and safe-to-use products too. (Read this article to learn lots of uses for coconut oil.)

Today, Tropical Traditions is offering a lovely package gift to one of you. Be sure to sign up for the Tropical Traditions Newsletter as they require their winners to be subscribers. Here’s what you can win:

  • Natural Soap, including:
    Lavender Liquid Soap Foam Pump
    Coconut Soap, unscented
    Coconut Soap, Tea Tree
    Coconut Soap, Lavender
  • Dish Liquid
  • Powdered Dish Detergent

I love all of these products and use them daily. Want to win this great package to help make your homemaking fun? Leave a comment on this post for a chance to win. Also, be sure to join us during our Homemaking is Fun Facebook Party from 7-8:30 CST tonight for another chance to enter and win!

I’ll draw a random winner on Tuesday, April 29. Be watching for a post stating the winner as you will be responsible for contacting me if your name is chosen.

This post contains affiliate links.

Be watching for more giveaways, coming up later today!

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

The Many Joys and Frustrations of Homemaking

April 24, 2014 by Laura 9 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

Nothing is perfect this side of Heaven. That’s why we have dust and cobwebs, back aches, lost library books, and challenging parenting issues. It can all draw us closer to God (true perfection!) and help us recognize our need for His strength. We also know that even with all the crazy and frustrating aspects of life, there is also a lot of joy. Hey, if we can’t laugh at our spilled buttermilk…

The Many Joys and Frustrations of Homemaking

As we focus this week on remembering that Homemaking is Fun, I want to encourage you with some posts from the archives.

Let’s begin with a few lessons I’ve learned about dealing with some of those less than ideal situations:

~ My best lesson from Grandma…Every Good Cook Burns Herself Sometimes

~ Best (ha!) sleep-over breakfast ever…The Day I Forgot To Sift the Popcorn Out of the Waffle Mix

~ Ugh, picky children!…I Can Now Accommodate Picky Muffin Eaters and Mix and Match Oatmeal Bars

Now let’s talk to all of you who don’t love to cook:

~ This one speaks for itself…So, You Don’t Like to Cook?

~ Donuts, again?…Start the Day With a Healthy Breakfast

~ My favorite “I don’t feel like cooking” breakfast…Instant Oatmeal in a Jar

dark_choc_granola_3

And we’ll wrap it up by talking about ways to save money:

~ Freezer meals rock…Loads of Make-Ahead-Meal posts

~ This is a HOT deal right now!…Grab Your Free $10 For Whole Food Groceries

~ Our favorite whole food meals that cost about $1 per plate…Dollar Menu Recipes

 

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

Preparing For a Great Summer With Your Family

April 23, 2014 by Laura 4 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

During all the seasons of the year…homemaking is fun. I love hot chocolate, snow, snuggling up by the fire, and all the fun foods that come with wintertime. But I’m ready for a break from all of that because I LOVE sunshine!!!!! We’re preparing for a great summer together.

Summertime is my very favorite.  I love the time off from schooling, the fun projects, the camps, the garden, the family reunions, the swimming, the cook-outs…and the sunshine!! (Someone certainly likes her Vitamin D, doesn’t she?)

Preparing For a Great Summer With Your Family

Our family is wrapping up our school year – as in, we’re down to just a few remaining unfinished subjects, and I’m starting to have boys wander around the house looking for something to do to fill the time. I love this time of year (because the sun is shining!) as we find ourselves with extra time to do the fun projects we’ve not had time to do with a full school schedule.

It is so much fun to see our boys being creative in their downtime. I’m seeing fun Lego projects appear and new videos created. I’m hearing new songs on the piano, our synthesizer, and our music software. I’m seeing games being played that haven’t been pulled off the shelves in months. I’m watching activity outside, loving that the boys can finally run around in the yard again (and mess up the grass that is trying to grow).

monopoly

I’m also already starting to hear the words, “Mom, I don’t have anything to do.” Yep, the dreaded sentence.

I never like to follow that sentence up with, “Well, you can go fold laundry” because somehow I feel that my children would then forever and always run far from me when they’re looking for something to do, thus resulting in much wasted time in the long run. My goal is to come up with ideas for fun projects and activities that will keep them busy and productive. The laundry? Oh yes, they can definitely fold that in their spare time – you know, after they’ve cleaned out the dishwasher and gone outside to bury the compost. ;)

Our boys are ages 9-16 right now, so gone are the days of blowing bubbles and splashing around in a kiddie pool. Your list of ways to keep your kids busy might differ from mine, based on the ages and interests of your kids. But here are a few ideas I have for my kids to keep them busy during the next few months…

Great summer fun ideas

  • Play card and board games
  • Create more music and videos
  • Play games outside
  • Learn more card tricks
  • Learn more cooking/kitchen skills
  • Get together with friends and cousins
  • Help Dad with home improvement projects
  • Read books (maybe offer a summer reading challenge?)
  • Clean out bedroom, boxing up toys they no longer play with
  • Work through a science experiment book
  • Clean out the basement (who knows what treasures will be discovered!)
  • Learn to make homemade ice cream
  • Swim often and improve water skills (while getting Vitamin D – woot!)

I’d love to hear what ideas you have for making it a great summer with your family. What do your kids like to do, or what would you like them to learn this summer?

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

Gratituesday: “Mom, Do You Know How Long I’ve Been Waiting For This?”

April 21, 2014 by Laura 9 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

gratituesday[2]

You know how much I love butter? That is how much Malachi, our nine year old, loves Legos. The kid plays with them for hours every day, won a $10,000 scholarship because of his Lego dreams, and has ideas for making Legos a part of his career/business once he’s a grown-up.

You can imagine, then, how much Malachi has been wanting to visit LEGOLAND. We’ve not been able to make it all the way to California to visit the Legoland, but we did provide Malachi with a fun trip over the weekend to the Legoland Discover Center in Kansas City. We were headed that way anyway for our church youth leadership (LTC), so we left a day early to make this happen for Malachi.

We arrived and found a spot in the parking garage with one very excited little boy. I wish you could have seen his joy. As we made our way up the stairs out of the parking garage, there in front of Malachi was the Legoland building. He paused, took a deep breath, and said, “Mom, do you know how long I’ve been waiting for this?” Oh yes, Son. I know. :)

For the next four hours, Malachi and Daddy took it all in. They rode the ride, looked at all the exhibits, watched the 4-D movie, visited Lego Academy to learn more about building – basically experienced the most Lego fun ever, according to the nine year old. Tired as he was that night, he couldn’t wind down to go to sleep until after midnight.

In an effort to save money and have more age appropriate fun, the older boys and I went to Union Station and walked the shopping mall during that time. Once we all met back up, it was so much fun to see pictures and hear Matt and Malachi telling all about their day. Here are a few highlights:

legoland4

legoland3

It is amazing all that can be built out of Legos!

legoland 1

Oh yes, Star Wars.

legoland2

Malachi was hesitant to climb on top of the giraffe, but Matt assured him it was okay and threw him up there for some exploration.

legoland5

This next one might be my personal favorite. My son, the owl, with the owl he just built in the Lego Academy:

legoland6

Praise God for fun opportunities and the joy that comes with them. What a fun memory for Malachi and Matt to share!

Now your turn. Share what you’re thankful for!  Leave a comment on this post letting us know how God is working in your life. If you’ve written a blog post about what you’re thankful for, leave the link in the comments so we can visit your blog to read about it. We love sharing and reading about God’s blessings!

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

Praying for Gladis

April 20, 2014 by Laura Leave a Comment

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

One Child Matters recently sent us a simple prayer card to fill out for our sponsored child, Gladis. I loved this idea and wanted to share!

We simply attached our family picture to one side of the card…

praying for gladis 1

Then we wrote out our prayer for her on the other side…

praying for gladis 2

This prayer will be translated and sent on to Gladis in Honduras. Praying for our little girl is better than any other gift we can send her. We are so blessed to be a part of this!

If you’re not yet sponsoring a child, please join us in this ministry. God is using all of us to change the lives of children and their families. We are so honored to be a part of this!

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

Menu Plan for the Week ~ Happy Easter!

April 20, 2014 by Laura Leave a Comment

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

I hope you are having a wonderful day celebrating the resurrection of our Savior! Happy Easter to all!

We are keeping our plans very simple today, focusing on worship and rest. After a weekend of travel, we wanted a nutrient filled (but easy to make) lunch. Therefore, we put together Easy Taco Salads and ate outside in the sunshine. Awesome!

Easy Taco Salad with homemade French Dressing

I’m excited to use several of the freezer foods I’ve been making the past few weeks. Catch up with all the Freezer Cooking Challenge posts here. My freezer is full, and I’m loving it!

Here’s our Happy Easter menu this week:

Sunday, April 20
Instant oatmeal packets with dried fruit
Easy taco salad, sweet peppers
Small group potluck – I’m making Black bean salsa with chips, a bowl of grapes, and a veggie tray

Monday, April 21
Whole wheat waffles, fresh blueberries, whipped cream
Tuna salad on lettuce and tomatoes, sweet peppers, peaches and cottage cheese
Cheesy Beef and Pasta Casserole (recipe in {Healthy} Make-Ahead Meals and Snacks eBook)

Tuesday, April 22
Strawberry cream muffins, scrambled eggs, bananas
Spicy avocado dip with chips, fresh pineapple, carrot sticks
Bacon wrapped cream cheese chicken (recipe in  {Healthy} Make-Ahead Meals and Snacks eBook), tossed salad, green beans, creamy orange cooler

Wednesday, April 23
Dark chocolate almond granola, kiwi
Popcorn chicken, ranch potato wedges, peas, sweet peppers
Calico beans, tossed salad, cantaloupe

Thursday, April 24
Poppy Seed Bread with Orange Glaze (recipe in {Healthy} Make-Ahead Meals and Snacks eBook), fried eggs, apple slices
Easy cheesy bean dip with chips, pineapple, cucumbers and carrots with ranch
Baked three cheese chicken pasta, tossed salad, steamed broccoli and carrots

Friday, April 25
Easy breakfast casserole, clementines
Lamb burger patties, sweet potato fries, creamy coleslaw, strawberries
Grilled barbeque chicken, baked potatoes, tossed salad, roasted asparagus

Saturday, April 26
Scrambled cheesy eggs, fruit and kefir smoothies
Leftovers
Italian pasta bake, tossed salad, corn, green beans

Just a reminder to grab your free $10 to spend on whole food groceries. I’m so thankful for resources like this to help us feed our families well while sticking to the budget!

I’d love to hear what you’ve been up to this Easter. :)  Also – be watching for some very fun posts and giveaways coming up this week.  We’re throwing a party!  You’ll receive the official invite in a couple days. Join us for some spring-time fun!

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

My April Subscribe and Save Order Came!

April 18, 2014 by Laura 6 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

Is there anything more fun than the UPS man bringing big boxes of food to the door? Yes, probably. But cases of groceries on my porch make my day. Wanna see part of what we got this month in our Amazon subscribe and save order?

subscribe and save april 1

This time around, I got several different “grab-and-go” snacks to take with us to the soccer field. And yes, I even got a case of Annie’s mac and cheese. We love my homemade Creamy Mac and Cheese, but sometimes it’s nice to have the boxed stuff on hand for the boys to make when Matt and I aren’t around. I got it for super cheap, and the boys were really excited to find it in our boxes!

Are you wondering why I got a case of black tea? (800 tea bags, baby!)  I’m going to get a batch of kombucha started, and have big plans to keep it going throughout the summer for a healthy, refreshing drink. I also ordered a scoby so I am all set! If you have no idea what I’m talking about (kombucha, scoby, what’s that?!) – never fear. I’ll take pictures and share more about it once I figure out what I’m doing. :)

subscribe and save april 2

I think we’re set on olives for a while. I couldn’t pass up the huge discount, plus I really like this brand. Opening a can of olives to help stretch a meal is always great!

subscribe and save april 3

I’m almost out of my home-canned tomato sauce, so I took advantage of the coupon offer at Amazon and bought a case of Natural Value brand to hold me over. It was a super deal! That rice was also an incredible price, and I figured it would be a fun change of pace.

I also ordered a few other items like toilet paper, which I didn’t figure needed to be featured with a picture. It’s toilet paper. What more do you need to know? But yay for a discount and for having a case of tp on hand, which was lovingly delivered to my door by my dear UPS man.

I took advantage of many of the coupon offers to go along with the 20% discount I got from Amazon Prime/Mom.

Want to learn more about using Amazon Prime and Subscribe and Save to get the greatest Amazon discounts? Read this post for more information. Also, always check in with our Amazon Deals page which I try to keep updated with the latest awesome deals at Amazon. Some of the items I talked about are still being offered at a great discount. Details here.

Did you (or will you) receive an Amazon Subscribe and Save order this month? What did you get?  (It’s so much fun to talk about food…)

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

Sweet Pecan French Toast Casserole, Basic Cream Muffins, and Poptarts ~ Freezer Cooking Challenge

April 17, 2014 by Laura 1 Comment

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

I was planning to share part of this yesterday, but my website server was down most of Wednesday (ack!). Therefore, I’m sharing the rest of my freezer cooking challenge results all in one post. Actually, since I couldn’t work on my website Wednesday, that ended up being great kitchen time in which I experimented with new recipes and knocked out the rest of the baking I needed to do for this challenge. Sometimes, not being able to work on the computer is a good thing. :)

Tuesday, I made two dishes of Sweet Pecan French Toast Casserole (recipe in {Healthy} Make-Ahead Meals and Snacks eBook). We ate one that morning, and I froze the other one. My freezer is beginning to be super full. Love this!

french toast 2

french toast 1

Yesterday, I rolled out a double batch of dough and made tons of Poptarts. It’s been a while since I’ve made these, so everyone was very excited to have these for breakfast. It’s a good thing I froze half before serving them, otherwise I think the boys would have just eaten them all!

poptarts freezer

Once the Poptarts were in the oven, I mixed up a double batch of Basic Cream Muffins (recipe in Let’s Do This! eCourse, Lesson 4). I had plans to divide the dough in half, and add in different fruits. But then I got lazy and just dumped blueberries into the bowl. Eh, we like blueberry muffins.

cream muffins freezer

I froze the batter, unbaked, and will simply pull them out some night before bed to bake the next morning. If you haven’t tried freezing muffin batter, you must! I love how easy this is! Here are all the details.

And that completes this week’s freezer cooking challenge! How did you do?

We’ll be taking a break next week and pick back up on our freezer cooking challenges later. I’ve got a party planned for us next week (can’t wait to share!), plus my freezer is really full. ;)

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

Forget Everything I’ve Ever Said About My Low Grocery Budget

April 17, 2014 by Laura 60 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

How to Handle an Increasing Grocery Budget

Well, please don’t forget everything – just the parts I shared a few years ago about how I can feed my family of six a whole foods diet for less than $500 each month.

See, I thought my kids ate a lot of food at that time (2011)…because they did. They’ve always been very active and have had hearty appetites. But now? Well, we can polish off 2 pounds of meat, 2 pounds of strawberries, 1 pound of frozen vegetables, 5 pounds of potatoes, and a half gallon of milk – in one meal. An hour later they’ll need (and I do mean need, not want) more food, so we’ll eat a bowl of apples, four bowls of popcorn, and a hunk of cheese.

The boys who used to look like this:

boysbreaddough15sm.JPG

Now look like this:

GG_8

The little one who loved dressing up in costumes and climbing on my bulk groceries…

bagofoats6sm.JPG

Can now eat his weight in bulk groceries. And he’s the youngest one of the bunch. You should see his 6’3″ brother eat. Those 50 pound bags just don’t stretch as far as they used to.

The food portions we put on our plates at meal time still look like this:

fruits and veggies 11

But that’s just a warm-up. An appetizer. A teaser plate. They polish that off and go back to heap more onto their plates, twice, or maybe three times – if there’s anything left. I typically have to act quickly if I want seconds (or firsts as is the case at times).

I love this. Feeding people is fun for me, watching my family eat great food is a joy, and observing healthy appetites does my heart good. Bring on the food, bring on the appetites, bring on the healthy eating!

But it does come with a price tag – an ever growing price tag that sometimes shocks me, especially when see the shopping cart, the bulk co-op purchases, the cases of food delivered to my door – and I know how long the food will (won’t) last.

grocery cart

This is what my grocery cart usually looks like (weekly) – filled with fruits and veggies to go with the farm fresh meat, eggs, and milk – plus all of our bulk food purchases.

Do I really mean for you to forget everything I’ve ever said about how to keep a low grocery budget while still feeding your family a whole food diet? No way. All of my tips and tricks still hold true. Our grocery budget would be increasing whether we were eating whole foods or not. I don’t even want to think about how much I would be spending every month if we were eating large amounts of processed food. I believe eating healthy whole foods is what is keeping our food budget as low as it is right now.  Therefore, we’ll continue to:

  • Make as much food from scratch as possible
  • Buy food in bulk to cut cost
  • Avoid eating out much
  • Do freezer cooking
  • Find great deals online
  • Shop through our co-op
  • Take advantage of Amazon Prime/Mom/Subscribe and Save
  • Eat less expensive foods like rice, potatoes, beans, and pasta
  • Grind our own grain to make whole grain flour for our baked goods
  • Drink mostly water instead of purchased drinks
  • Avoid wasting food (as if there are ever any leftovers to waste)
  • Watch for sales on items we buy at local stores, then stock up

Our grocery budget increases, but only because we’re eating more food, and there’s not much I can do (or want to do) to change that. If they are hungry, let them eat.  Just save some for me, boys!

To accommodate the changes in our grocery budget, we’ve had to shuffle some numbers around in our overall budget. Eating is not an option. The money has to come from somewhere, right? So where has it come from?

Well, as we’ve taken a look at all the line items in our budget, it can look at first glance as if there is no flexibility. After all, we try not to spend money on anything we don’t feel is necessary, so what can we possibly cut out? Nothing, really. And while I’m on the subject, can I tell you how nice it is to have a clearly itemized household budget so that we can put a name on every dollar we earn and spend? There is so much comfort in this, even if there are sometimes question marks about how to adjust those numbers.

What has worked for our family is this:  Our boys are now able to earn money by doing various jobs such as mowing lawns, raking leaves, shoveling snow, babysitting, and other miscellaneous jobs people call on them for. Our two oldest boys are licensed soccer officials, which means that in the spring and fall they are called to the soccer fields 4-5 days/evenings each week to referee games. They are good at what they do, they enjoy the work, they earn nice paychecks, and they are good savers. So guess what? In an effort to both help our household budget and teach them how to manage money, our boys have become more responsible for purchasing many of the items they need.

As a result, we’ve been able to shift some money from our clothing budget over to our grocery budget. We let the boys pay for their own outings with friends, church youth functions, part of church camp costs, etc. Aha! It’s a win-win. The boys get to continue eating (you’re welcome, children), plus they learn about budgeting for themselves.

I’d love to hear how you manage your grocery budget, how you cut food costs, and how you teach your kids about managing money.

Also, I want to encourage you to take advantage of what BudgetFocus offers in the area of setting us a specific (but simple!) household budget. I love this resource! Through Mother’s Day, they knocked down the price of an annual plan to just $19.95 – a super deal!

Now let’s talk grocery budgets. How are you holding up with growing appetites at your house?

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

Make Your Own Salad Dressings – A Simple Way to Eat Healthier

April 16, 2014 by Laura 9 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

If you’re looking for just one way to eat a healthier diet, I encourage you to look into making your own salad dressings. Here are our favorites along with the links to the recipes:

  • French Dressing
  • Italian Salad Dressing
  • Ranch Salad Dressing
  • Thousand Island Salad Dressing

These are so easy to make, so fresh, so delicious. I like making big batches of the dressing mixes to have on hand. Then all I have to do when we’re out of salad dressing is grab the mix and stir it into the other ingredients. This gives us healthy salad dressings in just a few minutes. We’ve been eating a lot of salads lately, so making salad dressing has saved us a lot of money and kept us healthier too!

Make Homemade Mixes With Real Food Ingredients

I’d really like to come up with a Caesar Salad Dressing too. Anyone have a good one to share?

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