Heavenly Homemakers

Throughout this week, I’ve been trying to answer questions that I receive frequently. So far, I’ve tackled Why I Don’t Have a Sams or Costco Membership, How I Store Fruits and Vegetables to Keep Them Fresh, and Why We Don’t Eat Many Sandwiches For Lunch. This led me to re-read my FAQs page which is located in the drop down menu bar across the top of my website. I decided it needed updating. I also decided I should share it with you here to answer all those questions about me that you’ve been dying to know – even though I’m absolutely sure that many of you have laid awake at night wondering about none of this.

HOW do you get everything done? It seems like with homeschooling, cooking from scratch, cleaning and keeping up with your website…you must never sleep.

I do work hard – and I bet you do too. I never get everything done but yes, I sleep. All work and no sleep makes Laura completely unproductive and ridiculously ridiculous when trying to carry on a conversation. So how do I attempt to keep up with all my responsibilities?

Well, for starters, I haven’t cleaned our toilets in about three years. I find that this frees up my time to be enjoyed in other ways – like writing and cooking.

Another way I get quite a bit of work done each day is that I tend to work rather fast – so much so that a perfectionist might watch me work and be very annoyed. I hardly ever measure ingredients when I cook, I don’t care if something I’m making looks perfect, I often leave cabinet doors open, and most days my hair is pulled back into a ponytail which means I can complete my “try to at least look presentable in case the UPS man shows up” routine in approximately 2.8 minutes.

Our four boys are not babies anymore, so I don’t have to watch them constantly to make sure they don’t put light bulbs into their mouths. Plus, all of my boys are old enough to do a lot of work to help out around the house. For the record, they do a fine job scrubbing our toilets. Wow, and here you thought… Have mercy.

How do you pronounce your kid’s names? And, how did you come up with them?

We chose unique names for our kids because when we were in college there were so many people named Matt and Laura. Plus, when I taught school, I felt bad for the kids having to be called by their last name since they were in a classroom with three other kids that shared their first name. We also wanted Bible names for our kids, just because we did. So, unique Bible names it is.

Our four boys are:

Asa (ay-suh)….was a good king (one of the few). You can read about him in 1 Kings 15:8-24.

Justus (jus-tus)…spent time with Jesus and was considered as a replacement for Judas as apostle. (Acts 1:23)

Elias (ee-lie-us)…is another form of the name Elijah.

Malachi (mal-uh-kie)…a prophet, the last book of the Old Testament.

While we’re on the subject, my name, Laura, is pronounced (lah-rah). Like the music note, la la la. It’s not hard, really. Most people pronounce it (lor-ah) because that’s what they are used to when they see L-a-u-r-a. However, my mom was from the south, and she always loved the name Laura, pronounced the apparent southern way, Lahrah. Almost everyone calls me Lora and I always answer to Lora and I don’t fault anyone for calling me Lora because they just aren’t used to it. But if/when people do pronounce my name correctly, I truly do appreciate it and love it. Just a little something to keep in mind if I ever meet you in person, you say Lahra, and I tear up a little bit.

For the record, Matt has said it correctly from the night of our very first date and I’m pretty sure hearing him say Lahra in the college student center is what made me fall in love with him right then and there.

And speaking of Matt, so that he doesn’t feel left out, his name is pronounced (mat).

Is it loud at your house with all those boys?

I’m sorry, did you say something?

How much do you spend on groceries each month? How do you eat such healthy food on such a tight budget?

You can get an idea of what our real food grocery budget was like a few years ago by reading my Getting Real with Food series, and my Feeding the Family series. At this point though, with two teenage and two pre-teen boys – all four of whom are very active and have huge appetites, growing feet, and long, long legs – I really can’t give you an exact grocery dollar amount. I do my best to feed us real food economically, and I believe cooking from scratch and buying in bulk saves us hundreds of dollars each month. As for how much I spend each month, it varies depending on our meat supply and our grocery purchase needs. But let’s just say we go through a lot of groceries. A lot of groceries.  A shocking amount of much food. Okay, you get the point.

I want to start feeding my family a healthy, real food diet. Where do I start?

This is a loaded question, and one I hear multiple times daily. That’s why I created a very inexpensive, absolutely pressure free, and completely thorough eCourse to walk you through this process of changing your kitchen into a Real Food Kitchen. Check out You Can Do This! The First Five Steps to a Real Food Kitchen.

What do you feel are the most important aspects of healthy eating?

Another loaded question, which I answer in a total of 31 posts. Wow, someone has a lot of words, doesn’t she? Yeah well, we’re talking about healthy eating here – one of my favorite subjects. Read my 31 Days of Real Food Reality posts to learn what I feel is most important, and how I keep it simple!

Which do you love more – butter or jars?

Oh now, you know I just love me a jar full of butter. I store almost everything in jars, and without a doubt, butter makes everything better…or my name isn’t Laura (Lahra).

So now your turn.  Tell me something about you. How do you get everything done every day? How many kids do you have? What’s your grocery budget like? And I really must know – how do you pronounce your name???