Heavenly Homemakers

With the launch of our Oh, For Real book coming in March – we are so excited to share what is falling into place to go along with it! This is something we’ve been wanting to do for a long time. Somehow, the timing just wasn’t right. Until now.

As our family looks ahead toward the coming months, our calendar shows quite a few out of town trips. A basketball tournament, an extended family vacation, a wedding, a family service trip, a family reunion…

During each of these trips, as we are able, we will be planning a “Meet and Greet” time in various cities. I want to meet you – For Real! (Get it? We can meet “in real life”!) I want to get to know you and learn more about your life. I am so excited about this!

What I’m not excited about? All of the areas we aren’t visiting in the near future. There are so many of you all over the U.S. and beyond that I would love to meet. Unfortunately, we don’t have any family reunions in New York. Or Oregon. Or Japan. ;)  Maybe someday I will meet all of you this side of heaven. We’ll do what we can!

So what do we have lined up in the coming months for Oh, For Real ~ Meet and Greet times? 

Thursday, March 14 ~ Kansas City ~ 2:00 pm ~ details to come!
Friday, March 15 ~ Branson, MO  ~  2:00 pm  ~ details to come!
Tuesday, March 19 ~ Springfield, MO  ~ 10:30 am  (Please email me if you are interested in helping me secure a location.)

May (sometime between the 16-22) ~ Denver, CO  ~ Purple Door Coffee ~ details pending
May (sometime between the 16-22) ~ Colorado Springs, CO  ~ details pending
Sunday, July 7 ~ Oklahoma City, OK ~ 2:00 pm ~ Vintage Coffee

Be watching for additional posts which share further details and specifics of these events. In the meantime, make plans with your friends to join us if you can!

The past few weeks have been very exciting (and maybe a little bit busy) around here. Why? Because we’ve been finishing a big project and making some big plans. 

We have been putting the final touches on a book that has been in the works for over two years. I began working on it in 2011 and added to it as I had time and as more ideas came to me – usually based on questions from you. :)

Then finally, last summer, God allowed all of the pieces to come together and I began to work on the book in earnest. Now, here we are at the end of February 2013 and the book is almost complete. The goal is to launch the book the beginning of March. (Less than two weeks…is it possible?! We shall see.)

So what is this book all about? Mostly, it is all about how I always feed my family a perfectly healthy diet, every day, without fail, while maintaining a spotless house, and…

Oh, for real!

On the contrary, this book is about the real me and my real family, with our crusty dishes, picky children, and a trail of reeking compost juice that somehow managed to dribble its way out of the bucket from the kitchen all the way outside.

Oh wait. That was just yesterday.  That particular bit about fermented compost didn’t actually make it into the book. But you get the point.

Over the five plus years that I’ve been writing this blog, I have received countless emails from people asking me, “How do you do it?” How do I manage to work from home full time on this website, home school my kids, invite people into our home frequently – all while feeding my family a healthy diet of real foods? How do I afford it? How do I get my kids on board with healthy eating? How do I figure out what is healthy and what isn’t? And how in the world do I find the time?

If you’ve read here long, you know that I don’t always have the time. My kids don’t always like what I make for them to eat. And if you open any number of the closet doors in our home, you will be frightened by what you’ll find inside. 

Our family is real – with a real busy schedule and a real budget. But we still eat real food. (Along with the occasional Dorito.)

Eating a real food diet is possible for everyone. For real. This book answers the question of, how I do it. How I find the time. How I manage to consistently put healthy meals on the table in a simple way and without killing myself all day in the kitchen. It also talks about how much I love butter. Are you surprised?!

Coming March, 2013

Oh, For Real is more than a cookbook. It is a fun read, full of healthy food information, time saving tips, and freezer cooking ideas. Oh, For Real compiles much of the information I’ve shared over the past five years on this blog (in over 2,875 posts). Now, you can read through all of those posts, scroll through loads of recipes, and try to piece together all of the information as you work to figure out freezer cooking, getting ahead in the kitchen, buying basic real food ingredients…

Or, you can just store Oh, For Real in your kitchen, which encapsulates everything my blog is about, and organizes it into 99 pages – with over 115 of my favorite, most used recipes!

Recognize this though:  I don’t have a flawless system! In fact, my system really is systemless. You will be able to take the information in this book and make it work for you in your real world and in your real season of life. Oh, For Real offers simplified information that you can learn from, then you can grab what works for you and drop kick the rest.

Watch for more information as the book comes together and is ready to launch. :)

As for the other plans we’ve been working on recently – you’re just going to have to wait a little while longer for me to share that news. We’re still working out some of the details.  And trying to finish the book. And going to our son’s basketball games. And wiping up fermented compost juice.

In the meantime, I will be sharing some sneak peeks into the Oh, For Real book – just so that you can learn more about what’s inside. I can’t wait!

For today:  Tell me something “real” about you!   Don’t remember the last time you cleaned behind your refrigerator? Did you eat ice cream for dinner last night? Do you need to organize your closets as badly as I do? Let’s share. After all, we’re all real, right? :)