Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Instant Oatmeal in a Jar

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Remember the Homemade Instant Oatmeal Packets recipe I shared a few weeks ago?

Instant Oatmeal in a Jar

Yum

I wanted to suggest that in an effort to cut down on waste (that’s a lot of little plastic bags) and effort (it takes extra time to scoop each serving into bags) – you may want to simply store your Instant Oatmeal Mix in an airtight container.

I made a double batch recently, which filled almost three half-gallon jars. On the lids, I wrote,

“Shake well. Scoop 1/2 cup of mix into a bowl. Add 1/2-3/4 cup boiling water.” My boys can take it from there.

instant_oatmeal_jars
This is super easy – and I can’t tell you how nice it is to have this instant oatmeal on hand for busy mornings and for mid-afternoon snacks. The kids stir in any dried fruit or other add-ins they want with their oatmeal.

Here is the Homemade Instant Oatmeal Recipe. And you’ll find more great and fast breakfast recipes in this FREE Healthy Breakfast Made Simple eBook.

And a quick note to reinforce that you shake the jar before scooping out your 1/2 cup serving. One of our boys made a bowl without shaking first. All of the sucanat had sunk to the bottom, so his scoop tasted rather bland. Always shake the jar to make sure you get a more tasty bowl of oatmeal!

Have you tried making this Homemade Instant Oatmeal Recipe?  I highly encourage it. What a time and money saver!

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Meet One of Our Sponsors: Uncommon Goods

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www.uncommongoods.com

If you’re in the market for a unique gift, you’ll want to check out one of this month’s sponsors, Uncommon Goods.

Uncommon Goods provides a platform for artists and designers – half of what they sell is handmade! Most of their products are made in the U.S. and many of their products incorporate recycled or upcycled materials. If you take a look through all the products on their website, you’ll see all kinds of fun gift ideas.

I think one of my favorites is the Aqua Farm. It’s fun, educational, and super cool! You can check it out here.

uncommon_goods
Want something that costs a little less? They carry Kinetic Sand, which I think my boys would love. What a great stocking stuffer! Check it out here. And for the adults in your life, Uncommon Goods carries all kinds of unique items. Their iPhone cases are pretty sweet (see them on this page), and you know all those hard-to-buy-for people in your life? Well, I would say Uncommon Goods has you covered.

I am super impressed with the quality and variety found at Uncommon Goods. With Christmas coming up, it’s great to know that there is a source like this to help us out!

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Stop

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And by stop, I mean literally – stop. Right where you are. Breathe deeply. Sit still. Listen.

Don’t tell me that you can’t. That you don’t have time. That you don’t know how. I am was the queen of can’t, don’t have time, and don’t know how to stop. I am have been the GO!GO!GO! girl. I’m not saying that I don’t empathize with your busy life and your long to-do list. Oh how I understand. I’m just saying that we don’t get to use those excuses anymore. Those excuses keep us stuck on the path of pain and frustration. It’s the path led by self, and its road takes us on a journey to emptiness.

The opposite of GO! is stop. This is what I have to do several times each day as I retrain my thought patterns and turn my heart away from self and toward God’s leading. The truth is that I must make time to stop because I don’t have time in my day to waste thinking anxious thoughts. I don’t have time in my day to worry. I don’t have time in my day to be frustrated over issues I have no control over.

But there are people to care for, jobs to do, meals to cook, bills to pay, and the never-ending to-do list to accomplish! Go! Get it done! We must plow through and work and keep saying yes to people and worrying about how to make it all happen!

NO.  Stop.

We cannot do this without Jesus. Stop. Breathe. Pray. Every time you feel anxious. Every time you are afraid. Every time you feel inferior. Every time you feel like you’re not doing enough. Every time you have to make a decision. Every time. Stop.  Breathe Jesus in. Ask the Spirit to guide you. Relax in His presence. Walk with Him. Accept His gift of peace.

Do you remember my post several months ago called Pull Up a Chair? Can I encourage you to go read it again? God has so much to teach us. His words are so rich. His voice is so powerful. His works sustain us. Nothing we do apart from Him accomplishes anything (John 15:5). We need Jesus for our daily survival and so that we can thrive while we serve.

While God continues to teach me and while I am recognizing that I still have so much to learn – I can not tell you how grateful I am that I am learning to stop frequently during the day to re-focus. I still work hard. I still accomplish everything God needs me to each day. In fact, I do believe I am more productive now than I have ever been before.

I stop so that I can seek Him. I stop so that I can learn. I stop so that I can hear truth. I stop so that I can go.  Only now I am going in the direction God points – the road that leads to peace.

Continue reading: Pride

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Seek

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If you haven’t already, you may want to go back and read Raw, Guilt , Beginning, and Anxiety before reading this post.

So why was I like this? Why did I have this insane drive to go and to do and to please and to fix and to be and to go and to go and to go?

I had no idea. I had been like this since forever. I thought it was just how I was wired.

I realized that I needed to identify the root of this problem. I did not want a Band-Aid to cover it up. I did not want to deny the issue anymore. I needed to start at the beginning so that God could heal me and re-train my heart and head to respond to life in a healthy way.

I surrendered the need to God, stopped to listen, and after several days, He revealed the root of this issue to me. It was quite simple actually. As a small child, I had started believing the lie that pleasing people is the way to please God. That making sure people are pleased with me and happy with me was the gauge that measured my worth as a Christian. That disappointing others was a disappointment to God. Conflict and confrontation needn’t happen because I would simply live to please.

And so I did.

In doing so, I somehow lost myself. I was serving my family. I was serving God’s people. I was knocking myself out doing and being for others what I felt they were needing and expecting me to do and be. If someone was hurting, I thought it was up to me to fix it. If someone needed something, I would drop everything to meet that need. If I hadn’t known of someone’s need, I felt guilty for not being aware.

There is a certain level of pleasing others that is healthy and good. We want to be a blessing to those around us. But the truth is: The only One I need to seek to please is God. In doing so, others will be blessed. My focus needs to be on God and His will for me. Not on others. And certainly not on self.

Satan doesn’t want any of us to thrive. He wants us to struggle, hurt, fight bitterness, and stay stuck in a pool of yuck and assume that it is just a part of this balanced breakfast.

Sure enough, he often tricks us into believing that our struggles are “part of our personality.” We think, “It’s just who I am.” As a matter of fact, he’s such a good deceiver that often, we don’t even realize that a struggle is a struggle. It may even be disguised as a “gift from God.” Satan takes truth and puts a slight twist on it so that it becomes a lie. He is the greatest of all deceivers. He’s a clever one, that Satan. Which is why seeking truth is so very important.

God was glorified even in the midst of my struggle while I strived to serve Him through my weaknesses. It’s just that God wanted to show me a better way. I needed to recognize Satan’s lies about what it meant to be a servant of God. And I needed to stop being deceived into thinking that God was only pleased with me if I served others around me until I passed out cold.

Remember my “high gear?” My always revved engine? I truly was working to glorify God with my Go!Go!Go! mentality and activity. I thought that always putting others first and constantly seeking to meet the needs of everyone around me was the way I was to serve God.

As it turns out, I was really seeking to serve myself. It was time for me to learn truth.

Continue reading: Stop

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Free Printables from Heavenly Homemakers: Fall Recipe Cards

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freeprintables2

You may remember this free download as I’ve offered it before. Now that it’s fall, I wanted to share them again!

There are six different recipes in this set of cards. These recipes all really hit the spot this time of year. It’s fun to put together one of these yummy recipes, then attach the corresponding recipe to the item and deliver it to a friend or neighbor. This set includes:

 

Download Fall Recipe Cards Here

Details and instructions for downloading and printing these recipes cards:

Once you click this link, you will need to click “save as” to save them to your computer. Then, you can open the folder. These recipe cards are in a “zip file”. If you are unsure how to open this to access the recipe cards, here is a simple tutorial that will show you how to open a zip file.

These cards were designed at 300 DPI, and are 4×6 in size. You can print them on your home computer/printer, or take them to your favorite photo processing place for printing. (Walmart and Walgreens make excellent prints for less than 20 cents per card).

While you may NOT print these cards and resell them, there is no limit to how many cards you may print and give as gifts!

 

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Menu Plan for the Week

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dark_chocolate_almond_granola

Dark Chocolate Granola

We are so excited that this week we will be having a house full of company! Each year in October during York College Homecoming, we get to host quite a few friends and family. We fill the house and have so much fun. It’s one of my favorite weekends of the year.

I’ve been putting lots of homemade, prepared food in the freezer so that I can enjoy my company instead of cooking the whole time they are here. The first of our guests show up on Wednesday, and the fun continues from there. Here’s what we’ll be eating:

Sunday, October 6
Poppyseed bread (recipe in {Healthy Make-Ahead Meals and Snacks}), apples
Sandwich lunch meeting after church
Small group potluck – Black bean salsa and chips, Italian pasta bake, banana muffins

Monday, October 7
Giant breakfast cookies, pears
Potato soup, carrots
Spanish rice with chicken, tossed salad

Tuesday, October 8
Peanut Butter Pancakes, bananas
Pizza casserole, grapes
Taco potatoes, tomatoes and lettuce

Wednesday, October 9
Dark chocolate granola, apples
Creamy chicken and rice casserole, tossed salad
Cheddar ranch burgers, potato wedges, carrots

Thursday, October 10
Papa’s donuts, scrambled eggs, fruit
Hearty green bean casserole (in Oh, For Real), fruit salad
Sweet and sour meatballs (in Let’s Do This! ecourse), baked potatoes in the crock pot, tossed salad, peas

Friday, October 11
Crock pot breakfast casserole, cantaloupe
Sandwiches, chips, carrots, fruit, cookies
Lasagna (in Oh, For Real), tossed salad, French bread

Saturday, October 12
Whole wheat waffles, blueberries
Sloppy joes, veggie tray with homemade ranch dip, chips, fruit plate
Baked Italian chicken, baked potatoes in the crock pot, green beans, cream cheese corn, tossed salad

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Anxiety

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If you haven’t already, you may want to go back and read Raw, Guilt , and Beginning before reading this post.

~~~

Sit down. Be still. Chill out. Relax. I have been good at none of these.

I have always been – okay not always – but since about age 12, I have been running on high gear. I have been an old clunker of a car that only continues to run if you keep your foot on the gas pedal.

What? You only have new cars and therefore don’t understand the gas pedal pushing of which I speak? I’m thinking back mostly to a car I had in high school. The car would start sometimes and only when the weather was right, if I wasn’t wearing the color blue, and if it wasn’t the fourth Tuesday of the month. Starting it required that I pump the gas pedal continuously, praying that in doing so, I didn’t flood the engine.

Once the (blasted) car finally started, it could never sit idle. I had to rev the engine constantly to keep it from dying.

Me.  I have been the car that has a foot on the gas pedal, continuing to rev. And rev. And rev.

I didn’t know it though. I just thought that this was how I functioned. This is my personality, right? That is how I was able to get so much done in a day. This is how I do things. This was just me.

Or so I thought.

I am now learning that revving my engine in high gear should be saved for the few and far between moments when one of my boys flings himself off a mattress and into a metal bed frame, resulting in the need for a fast trip to the ER for stitches on his forehead. That should not be my normal, daily mode. Life is not an emergency, but I lived each moment like it was.

So that was me, and boy did I kick tail every day. I loved everything I was doing all day long. I love being with my kids, and teaching them. (Although I’m not a big fan of grammar lessons because really, why do my kids and I need to care about, much less identify, a predicate nominative?)  I love cooking and taking care of my home. I love writing and blogging and keeping in touch with all of my readers. I love Jesus and serving his people.

But somehow, I thought I needed my engine to be revved in high gear in order to do these things. There was no peace. Only a Go!Go!Go! mentality that kept me constantly on the move, constantly working to make sure I was being the best Christian possible, all the time, because this is what He’s called me to be and anything less was just not enough because, well, it just wasn’t.

Hardly anyone around me, even those who were closest to me – and I’m talking about my husband here – were actually very aware of my constantly revved engine. I mean, like I said, I certainly didn’t really recognize it. I thought this was just “me” and how I did life.

As so much of my yuck has been revealed to me by God the past few months and as I have shared it all (in detail) to my (longsuffering, amazing) husband – while he has been thankful to hear what God has been teaching me, he has also been surprised. He feels that I’m being too hard on myself perhaps. “Really Laura,” he has told me, “you have never come across to me as being this anxious. I see you as being driven, hard working, intentional – and yeah, you get a lot done in a day. But you do it all in love and with care. I really don’t see you as the crazy brained woman you are describing.”

Yeah, that’s because my revved engine was all pent up inside. It was in my shoulders that were constantly tight and stiff. It was in my head, which was constantly thinking about the next eighty-three things that “needed” to get done. So much for living in the moment! After all, the moment is just about to be sooo thirty seconds ago. Go!Go!Go! (Wow, get migraines much, Laura?)

I’m so grateful to share that God is helping me let go of the anxiety that has been driving me all these years. Hear the key words in that sentence: the anxiety that has been driving me. How dare I let anything as miserable as anxiety drive or control me, my attitude, and my actions? God calls me to serve Him, but like this?

I needed to let it go. But how?

Continue reading: Seek

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Win a Berkey Water Filter from More Than Alive!

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berkeyI’m very excited about this giveaway! More Than Alive is offering to give one of you a Berkey Light. Now that is one great prize!

What is a Berkey? It is a wonderful water filter that sits on your countertop – helping provide your family with pure, healthy drinking water. We love ours! Here’s what I had to say about our Berkey when I first reviewed ours last year:

“Water from the Berkey can only be described as delicious. Smooth. Soft. Clean. Pure. Wow.

You’ve gotta love it when I go on and on in a post about something as simple as water. But well, I’m pretty sure you’d feel the same if you tried it.

What’s incredible about a Berkey Water Filter is this:  It filters out all the contaminants, while leaving in all the good minerals our bodies need! It is powerful enough to purify raw water from lakes and ponds, making it a great choice for campers and overseas missionaries. Amazing. It reduces heavy metals. It rids your water of chemicals. This is all done with gravity – no electricity is necessary.

To say that I am impressed with our new Berkey Water Filter is an understatement.”

~~~~~

We’ve now been using our Berkey for over a year. It’s still working great, and still kicking out delicious water for our family. Today, More Than Alive is giving away one Berkey Light to the winner of this giveaway!

To enter for a chance to win, leave a comment on this post.  I’ll draw a random winner on Monday, October 7. Be watching for a post stating the winner as you will be responsible for contacting me if your name is chosen.

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Beginning

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While many of you have shared with me since I wrote my Raw and Guilt posts that you can relate, that you have been or are in the same boat, or that you appreciate that I am being open – I believe I may have caused some of you to worry.

First let me say this: You all are rockin’ for caring so much. Thank you.  God is powerful and I can tell you are praying. Second, let me assure you: I am okay.  In fact, I’m more okay now than I ever have been. Why?  How can I be more than okay when I’m going through something challenging?

That, my friends, is what we call peace that passes understanding (Phil. 4:7). This is what James meant when he said to consider it pure joy when you face trials of many kinds (James 1:2-4). I had to become broken in order to see the beauty God was waiting to reveal.

God is working to help me break down and clear away yuck that has been inside my head and heart for a very long time. I’m learning how to be more fruitful for Him. I’m struggling, laboring, fighting hard, and am occasionally discouraged and weary. But I am not defeated.  In fact, the victory has already been won. I just happen to be on a journey right now to help me discover how to completely embrace that victory.

I love this difficult path that I’m on right now. Why? Because I don’t want to be the girl I was for 39 years. That girl was self-seeking, anxious, and almost constantly overwhelmed with life. Sure, I was a blessing to many and productive for Christ in many ways. God has used me, without a doubt. But learning to let go of self while seeking to become more whole for God? Yes! I want this!

Am I or should I be under a doctor’s care? As a matter of fact, I am. That’s actually what started all of this.

I was on a mission in September, 2012 to get on top of my migraine headaches and asthma. My migraines had been getting worse through the years, until I was having them at least twice a month. They lasted three days each time. Six days of migraines every month? No, thank you.

I found a natural doctor in a city nearby who has been giving my physical self a big time over-haul. I see her once every 3-4 weeks, and I have seen much improvement in my health during the past year. Nothing is a fast fix, as she is getting to the root of my issues, instead of just slapping on a band-aid. Through this process of physical healing, I am learning more and more about how our physical and emotional selves are intertwined. As my physical body has de-toxed, my emotional self has gone through major over-haul too. Layer after layer of emotional crud has been brought to light, and I’ve found that God wants to heal all of me.

Well now. It seems that God really intends for me to share more of this story. Put on your seat-belt. I’ll continue to share more of the lessons God is teaching me through all of this. I believe after I share more, you’ll understand why I really do find joy in this trial. Truly, there is a way to live life without freaking out, worrying, fretting, stressing out, being overwhelmed…

Continue reading: Anxiety

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Is Amazon Prime Worth the Yearly Fee?

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I am brand new to Amazon Prime. We signed up for the free trial, and are now at a point of deciding whether to pay the yearly fee or not. What’s the best way to make a decision about something like this? Ask your friends on Facebook of course. :)

This morning, I threw out the question “Do you have experience with Amazon Prime? Is it worth the yearly fee?” on my Heavenly Homemakers Facebook page. Within minutes, I had over 200 responses – most of which screamed a great big “YES! Do it! So worth it!”

Thanks, all. I knew I could count on you.

It seems that from your experience, the savings on free shipping pays for itself in no time – especially if you are planning to Christmas shop at Amazon (which I am). Many of you enjoy all the movies and TV shows you can watch for free, and who doesn’t love their orders delivered within just two days?!

Based on your rave reviews, we’ve decided to stick with it for now – especially with Christmas coming up.

Your turn to weigh in:  Do you have experience with Amazon Prime? Is it worth the yearly fee? If you haven’t tried it yet, I’d suggest signing up for a free trial to see how you like it.

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