Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Gratituesday: Air Soft, Really?

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Well, I’m just a little bit surprised that I’m actually posting about this, but here I go anyway. :)  If you’re interested in learning more about my feelings on the subject of guns and other weapons, I’d love for you to listen to a podcast I recorded on that subject a few months ago to understand my perspective just a little bit more.

You are aware, right, that I live in a household of males? I am surrounded by toy light sabers, swords, knives, guns, and many other varieties of weaponry. Recently, our boys have been introduced to an awesome new toy – the Air Soft Gun. Oh yes, they are now old enough to play air soft. Using their own money, they each got themselves a small air soft pistol. Much to my surprise, Matt had so much fun playing with them, he got his own pistol too. Then, a friend of our family, who happens to be a gal who loves guns, joined the fun.

And long story longer, that very fun girlfriend talked me into playing air soft too. I tried to argue. I gave plenty of excuses. But she talked me into it anyway. Once the boys heard her trying to talk me into it, they joined the begging. What’s a girl to do?

I figure if I can’t beat ’em, I better get out there and join ’em. Or something like that.

Matt got a picture of me trying to figure the whole thing out.
I obviously don’t have a lot of practice aiming or shooting or loading or…

Well, terrible as I was at playing, I can’t believe how much fun I had. It was crazy fun. Exhilarating. I loved it. Unbelieveable.

Then I came back into the house, put down my gun, washed my hands, and continued to make dinner to feed all of us. It appears that I can go outside and shoot an air soft gun with my family and friends, then come back in and still be a homemaker. How about that? It didn’t kill me at all to take a break and have fun like that.

And I might just play again sometime.

Oh, and just in case you might be interested in this bit of information, everytime I open our dryer now, little air soft pellets fall out. They are everywhere in my house. My vacuum rebels. I love it. :)

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Some Encouragement Before We Start the “No More Excuses” Series

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I really appreciated that so many of you left comments sharing your thoughts, struggles, and insights as to why eating a healthy diet may be difficult for you or for others. I have experienced all of these same feelings and shucks, I still do sometimes.

I have definitely not “arrived” when it comes to this healthy eating journey we’re all on. My family does not eat a completely healthy diet at all times. There are many times that I compromise on what would be the best choice to feed my family. There are times I pull out cereal because I can’t make myself get out of bed in the morning to cook the breakfast I have planned. There are times when, while I totally know better than to buy the chips with hydrogenated oils in them, doggonnit, I want them anyway and I don’t care what’s in them, so there. (Which is why you should never dangle a Nacho Cheese flavored Dorito in front of me. I will eat it. I love those awful things.)

Doritos aside, there are many areas of healthy eating I haven’t mastered yet. And guess what? I don’t even know if I want to master them. How’s that for a bad attitude that sort of flies in the face of my “No More Excuses” intro post? I don’t love eating completely raw foods. Fermented foods, while they are great for digestion, aren’t my favorites. And soaking grains? I’m beginning to find that practice very annoying and am therefore becoming a bit rebellious about it. There, I said it.

I’ve run the gamut of emotion on this healthy eating journey I’ve been on for the past several years. The biggest feeling:  Guilt. Now that’s a fun one.

Guilt when I don’t feed my family perfectly. Guilt when I don’t feel like cooking. Guilt when I know I could be doing better. Guilt when it feels like other moms are feeding their children a healthier diet than I’m feeding mine. Guilt when I read about what someone else is doing, but I just don’t feel like I want to go there yet.

Which is what leads me to the point of this post:  Please do not let anything I share on my blog, and specifically in this new No More Excuses series, overwhelm, frustrate, annoy, or otherwise make you want to throw Doritos at me. (On second thought…)  :)

I want to share my thoughts in the No More Excuses series to encourage you to consider how you might be able to feed your family a healthy diet and help you know that it is possible for you. But let’s also subtitle it the “No More Guilt” series, because we women have to stick together. We may all be in different places in our healthy eating journey, but we’re all on the same team. No comparisions allowed. No guilt. No pressure. Just encouragement and ideas, sharing and inspiring.

And maybe, the occasional Dorito. Someone stop me.

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Menu Plan for the Week

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We’ve had several weeks off from hosting and cooking for our “High School Huddle” group, so I’m afraid I’m out of practice. Tonight, we start back up again. I made pans and pans of Pizza Casserole, which was easy and will reheat quickly tonight before the kids get here. Funny how taking a few weeks off threw me off my game. I stood at the store forever trying to figure out how much pasta to buy. :)

Here’s what our menu looks like for this week:

Sunday, January 8
Oatmeal, bananas
Mission fund raising meal at church
Huddle – Pizza casserole, green beans, corn, butterscotch bars

Monday, January 9
Homemade poptarts, yogurt
Potato soup, carrots
Chicken fried steak strips, mashed potatoes, gravy, peas

Tuesday, January 10
Scrambled cheesy eggs, clementines
Popcorn chicken, ranch potato wedges, carrots
Spaghetti, tossed salad

Wednesday, January 11
English muffins, turkey bacon, apples
Salmon patties, steamed carrots and broccoli
Three cheese garlic chicken pasta, tossed salad

Thursday, January 12
Honey whole wheat bagels, clementines
Easy noodle stir fry with chicken and veggies
Steak tacos

Friday, January 13
Peanut butter honey toast, applesauce
Tuna salad on crackers, apples
Hamburgers with homemade fries

Saturday, January 14
Whole wheat donuts
Leftovers
Sandwiches at bball games

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5 Simple Ways to Accomplish More Each Day

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I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this before, but my husband is very meticulous and thoroughly thorough with all he does. Nothing is done half-way with him. No matter what he is doing, he does it well. I mean, when the guy puts mayonnaise on a sandwich, it is spread with such love and care, one would think that Jesus himself was coming over for a picnic.

I, on the other hand, am completely non-meticulous and absolutely un-thorough. I figure I can get more done with my time if I hurry through jobs. Therefore, I slap sandwiches together, figuring that the mayo will surely smear itself around once it meets the cheese. I don’t measure ingredients when I cook. I don’t always close drawers or cabinets after I grab something out of them. I hate reading instruction manuals, and don’t ever ask me to paint your walls.

And this, my friends, is my secret method for getting a lot accomplished each day. Yes, my advice for you all is to simply do a half-hearted job of everything you do, and no matter what, do not be thorough, especially when making sandwiches. ;)

I’m kidding of course, except for the part about the mayo. Here are my five (real) ideas for ways I have found to accomplish much each day:

1. Get Plenty of Sleep

Cutting out sleep in an effort to give myself more awake hours in the day is actually counter-productive for me. If I focus on getting the sleep I need, I feel much more energetic and can fly through the day getting all kinds of work done.

2. Get Off the Computer/Couch/TV/Phone

There are fantasic benefits to all of the above. But if your time spent on each of them is not productive for your family, your work needs, and most importantly, for God’s Kingdom, get off. The end.

3. Make a List…and Then Do It

Not everyone likes making lists. I get that. But I find that if my to-do list is just swirling around in my head, I simply feel overwhelmed, and instead of plugging away at all I need to do, I feel bound by all I need to do and will, in turn, accomplish nothing. Write it down. Put your to-do list in perspective. Then start knocking it out, one thing at a time.

4. Stay Home

Funny thing about not being home – I can’t get anything done at home when I’m not here. As much as I love being with people, going to ball games, participating in home school activities, etc., I find that I can get so much more accomplished if I prioritize our outside needs and work to be home as much as possible.

5. Pray

We are on this earth to love God and serve his people. Pray for God to show you how to use your time in a productive way that glorifies him. When we are focused on living our life God’s way, much can be accomplished!

And for the record, my husband’s ability to be meticulous is very much appreciated. The paint going up on our living room walls is looking fantastic. Why? Because Matt is doing it, not me. Need I remind you of the slapping that goes on when I make sandwiches? That method is not recommended for wall painting.

Be sure to read all of these great 5 Simple Ways posts:

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5 Simple Ways…Free eBook

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Some of you may recall that last year, several other bloggers and I worked together to write a series of posts titled “5 Simple Ways”. My post was 5 Simple Ways to Live a Natural Lifestyle, which I’m sure that at least two of you found to be completely inspiring and life changing. (What do you mean, you don’t even remember that post?!)  ;)  That’s okay, here it is if you’re interested in reading it.

This year, we’re all working together on a new series of “5 Simple Ways” posts, which will be featured around the web tomorrow. In the meantime, last years posts have been combined into a lovely little eBook that we are offering free for everyone. You can download 5 Simple Ways at no cost, and enjoy learning all kinds of fun new tricks and tips! (Here’s the print version if you’d prefer.)

Be watching for all of our new 5 Simple Ways posts coming up tomorrow. :)

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Why Aren’t You Eating a Healthy Diet?! Part 1

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I’m not sure if you’re aware of this, but eating healthy food is really, really expensive. It also takes too much time to prepare, and besides that, all healthy food tastes like cardboard.

Those are a few things you might want to say to me if you’re interested in picking a fight. Not that I like to fight…unless you offer me a light saber or a plastic sword, of course. ;)

Trust me, I’ve heard all of the excuses. Shucks, I used most of them myself back before we began our healthy eating journey. I hated spending money on food. And I thought eating a healthy diet meant that I had to live on rice cakes, fake sugar,  and some sort of fat-free cheese like product. (Let us all now pause for a moment of simultaneous gagging.)

Yes, I’ve used all the excuses to avoid eating healthier foods. I have had all the fears. I thought I would get fat if I ate high fat foods. I thought we would go broke if I stopped using coupons for all the “food” I typically purchased at great discount. I thought my kids would hate eating healthy food and feel deprived of their favorite snacks, meals, and treats. I thought cooking healthy would be complicated and beyond my realm of knowledge in the kitchen. Plus, I had no idea where I would find healthy food in our small mid-western town.

But as I was learning more about eating a good, balanced diet filled with whole foods, I realized that something needed to give. I needed to do this for my family.

Therefore, I did a lot of research. I sought the help of friends. I learned that good healthy food is a great investment for my family’s health. I dug deep and found that there are healthy food sources all around me – I just had to know where to look. And I learned that healthy, whole food actually tastes amazingly better than anything else that comes out of a box or a bag.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be writing a series exploring the top ten excuses I hear from people about why they don’t eat a healthy diet. I’ll work to debunk all the myths you’ve ever heard about health food, and offer you hope if you are holding back on eating a healthy diet because of some excuses of your own.

As we begin this series, I’d love to know:  What are your biggest hang-ups with eating a healthy diet? What are the excuses you use or hear most when it comes to eating twinkies instead of broccoli? If you had to make a top ten list of reasons you can’t eat a healthy diet, what might be on your list?

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Healthy Marriage Tips from A to Z eBook – FREE for everyone!

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Matt and I have thoroughly enjoyed writing the Healthy Marriage Tips from A to Z series together, and appreciate the ways you have all sharpened us through your emails and comments regarding the subject of healthy marriages. Now that we’ve worked our way through the alphabet, we have compiled all of the posts in this series and put them into a free, downloadable resource for you. We are excited to offer this to everyone, with no strings attached.

We would be honored if you would be willing to share this eBook with anyone you feel might benefit from reading it. There is no limit to the number of copies you can make of this eBook or the number of times you are allowed to download it. All we ask is that you don’t sell it, but we probably didn’t need to say that, right? :)

We would appreciate any suggestions you might have as to where Matt and I should head at this point as we write more marriage content for the site. Share your ideas in the comments or send us an email to offer your thoughts about what you feel would benefit you and your spouse the most. Thanks!

And now, we are thrilled to offer, free to everyone, Healthy Marriage Tips from A to Z eBook:

Healthy Marriage Tips from A to X ~ Free Download

Click the link below to download the book:
Healthy Marriage A to Z eBook

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Gratituesday: Reflections

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2011 was a year of brand new adventures for our family. If you recall, at the end of 2010, Matt resigned from his job – a job that kept him away from our family for way too many hours each week. It was a huge leap of faith for our family, bringing Daddy home. We knew God would take care of us, but in what ways specifically? Would our business ideas and dreams become the reality we hoped they would? Would our ministry plans take off like we wanted them to?

I can’t even put into words the joy we’ve experienced in following this path we felt God calling us to take. The year has not been without some stress. We’ve had to make some big decisions. We’ve had to make adjustments in our schedules and over all lifestyle, as we are now fully self-employed and running several businesses. But we’ve seen God working in mighty ways this year in our family, in our businesses, and in our ministries. He’s kept us very busy, yet allowed us to be very flexible so that we have been able to say yes to opportunities where we see He is calling us to serve. We’ve especially enjoyed holding marriage classes in our home and reaching out to couples in different ways to help encourage healthy marriages.

And our boys. It is amazing the growth we’ve seen in each of them over the last year. I feel that much of this is because they’ve been able to work with and spend so much time with Matt. I’m not sure there’s a better gift we can offer them than time spent with their daddy.

2011 was a great year. I love how God works to bring people into our lives, to love on us and to be loved on by us. He always meets the needs of his people. God is good.

Share how God is working in your life on your blog, then come link up with us here. If you don’t have a blog, be sure to leave a comment letting us know what you’re grateful for!

If you are linking up a blog post for Gratituesday,
please copy and paste the following sentence into your post! Thanks!

Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!

 

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Homemade Sausage Gravy

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Biscuits and Gravy

Have I ever told you about the time I made a cream gravy for a special boyfriend many years ago? We had reached our six month dating anniversary, and so, to celebrate, I was making him a dinner of hamburger steak, mashed potatoes, gravy, and I can’t remember what else.

Everything was coming along pretty well. I called my mom five or twenty times while I was preparing the food, mostly so that she could walk me through the gravy making process. I thought I had it all figured out and soon, it was time for us to enjoy our meal together.

But the gravy. Somehow between hanging up the phone with mom, calling my boyfriend in for the meal, and serving the food – the gravy (if, in fact, we can call it gravy) had turned into a thick, heavy paste like substance. How could this have happened?

Never fear. My boyfriend was very kind. He simply got a butter knife and spread chunks of gravy onto his meat and potatoes. Then he proceeded to eat heartily, and even complimented me on the great flavor of the food.

Yeah, he was a nice one all right. I shouldn’t have let that one get away. Oh wait. I didn’t. A few months after I made him choke on gravy, that nice boy asked me to marry him. I guess he figured that if he could survive my gravy, we could get through anything – thick and thin. (Ha, get it? Thick and thin? The gravy was thick. Get it? Okay, it wasn’t that funny.)

I have since then perfected my gravy making skills, much to the delight of my boyfriend husband, and all of our darling offspring. Here is my sausage gravy recipe and a picture tutorial that will hopefully spare you all from making the same pasty mess that was once my “gravy”.

Homemade Sausage GravyYum

1 pound turkey sausage (I like using this homemade recipe.)
1 Tablespoon plus 3 Tablespoons butter
3 Tablespoons flour (I use freshly ground white whole wheat)
2 1/2 cups milk
Sea salt and pepper to taste

Begin by browning the sausage with one tablespoon of butter in a large skillet until it is cooked thoroughly.

Add the remaining 3 tablespoons of butter, stirring it around until is has melted.

Sprinkle in the flour. Stir it around with the meat and butter until it is absorbed.

You should now have kind of a thick, meat mixture in your skillet. Turn the heat on your burner up to “high”.

Pour in the milk, and stir constantly. I find that I must leave the burner turned to “high” in order for the gravy to thicken.

Continue to stir over high heat until gravy becomes thick and bubbly. Remove the gravy from the heat, add salt and pepper to taste, and serve.

Trouble shooting your gravy:  If your gravy turns out too thick, simply add more milk, small amounts at a time, continuing to stir, until gravy is the desired consistency.

If your gravy fails to thicken, mix a “paste” of 2 Tablespoons flour with 3 Tablespoons of water. Stir the mixture into your gravy, little bits at a time until the gravy thickens to desired consistency. Do NOT sprinkle flour directly into the gravy. That’s how lumpy gravy is made. :)

We love this gravy served over these Whole Wheat Biscuits.

Have any fun stories about boyfriends or gravy you’d like to share? :)

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Menu Plan for the Week

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Well, Happy New Year everyone! I’m sleepy. I did what I never thought I’d do and stayed up way past midnight last night. I had more fun than I thought I would too, how about that?! But if I’m going to make it through the week, I will have to take a nap this afternoon. :)

How did you ring in the new year?

Here’s what our menu looks like for this week:

Sunday, January 1
Oatmeal, clementines
Cheesy beef and rice, green beans
2012 Pancakes (Because, as un-artistic that I am, I think I can pull off making pancakes into the shape of 2’s, 1’s and 0’s. Maybe.)

Monday, January 2
Pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, scrambled eggs, bananas
Tammy’s chicken pasta salad, oranges, chocolate chip cookies (feeding the YC ladies basketball team)
Chicken fried steak strips, mashed potatoes, gravy, peas

Tuesday, January 3
Pancake sausage muffins, clementines
Lamburger patties, steamed broccoli and carrots, okra
Chicken and noodles, raw veggies

Wednesday, January 4
Warm chocolate soother, fried eggs
Bean dip with tortilla chips, apples
Venison steak fajitas, fruit salad

Thursday, January 5
Mini breakfast pizzas, applesauce
Creamy mac and cheese, green beans
One dish meat and potato casserole with peas

Friday, January 6
Peanut butter honey toast, bananas
Potato soup, tossed salad
Creamy chicken and rice casserole with carrots

Saturday, January 7
Giant breakfast cookies, pears
Leftovers
Cheesy salsa enchiladas, tossed salad

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