Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Vulnerable

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~Appreciate Your Spouse~Buoyancy in Marriage~Consult Your Partner~
~Dream Together Part One ~Dream Together Part Two~Empower Your Spouse~
~Have Fun With Your Spouse~Give to One Another~Honor Each Other~
~Be Intentional~Jubilee~Kingdom Focused~Listen~~Mentor Relationships~Nourish~
~Own It~Pray With Each Other~Quick to Listen~Read Together~Selfless~Teamwork~Uplift~

Vulnerable

Surgery on Your Soul – Matt’s Thoughts

Purposely make yourself vulnerable? Although that flies in the face of the human desire to have the upper hand in a relationship it has been my experience that vulnerability, which is seemingly weak, has made me stronger. Hopefully you can follow my choppy thoughts.

In a healthy marriage two people are so connected that they go beyond commonplace communication into touchy topics that make themselves vulnerable. They allow themselves to be vulnerable yet they are confident that they won’t be attacked. The two talk about everything:  temptations, in-laws, physical intimacy preferences, conflicting opinions and stances, sin in your life, fears, failures, confusing issues in life and in your faith journey, sin in your spouse’s life, and other difficult topics.

The two talk about everything, both shallow and deep because they are friends. Friends listen. Friends build up. Friends even wound when necessary. As a matter of fact, the meaning of the root word in vulnerable is – to wound. The “wound” is truth spoken in love from your dearest friend who wants the best for you. Like the Biblical Proverb says, “The kisses of an enemy may be profuse, but faithful are the wounds of a friend” (27:6). So, part of making yourself vulnerable is allowing your spouse to do surgery on your soul.

But who wants surgery?!? Well, when there is floating cartilage that locks up your knee often enough surgery becomes an option. When a sizable cancerous tumor is detected, then removal by knife will be chosen.

I am a sinner. I want a healthy marriage. I need the knife that removes the floating cartilage and cancerous tumors in my soul. I need the faithful wounds of a friend.

And so, becoming vulnerable by sharing my weaknesses with my wife/friend so that she can gently do surgery has made me stronger.

The Gift of Vulnerability – Laura’s Thoughts

Whether we realize it or not, being vulnerable is a gift we can give our spouse, ourselves and our marriage. Don’t try to put up walls to protect yourself from what you might learn while being vulnerable. Trust your spouse and share your heart. There is great beauty in opening yourself up to hear what you need to hear, to share what you need to share, and to love in a way that is so free you’ll wonder why you ever held back.

My greatest moments of personal growth have come from the times I am vulnerable to Matt and let him help me work through my weaknesses. If I ask, “What can I do to stay calm when the boys are trying my patience?” or if I tell him, “I am really struggling today with my feelings toward xyz. I need to forgive and I’m not sure how,” Matt doesn’t love me less. In fact, when we open ourselves up and share intimately, this is when we grow the most – both in our marriage relationship and in our relationships with the Father.

Ladies, we know you’re reading here more often than the guys. ;)  We’d love husbands to read this article as well. If you feel so inclined please send the link to your husbands, or if it’s easier, we’ve created a downloadable article for you to quickly print off and share. Healthy Marriage Tips from A to Z – Vulnerable

 

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Simple One Dish Meat and Potato Meal

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Now that I have posted my Cream of Mushroom Soup recipe, I will share with you the promised One Dish Meat and Potato Meal recipe. A friend of mine shared this with me years ago, back when my 14 year old was just a baby.

Let us all pause a moment and reflect on how much taller Asa is since the day I received this recipe.

Have I mentioned that he’s jumped three and a half shoe sizes since last winter? I guess that answers any questions you may have had about who is eating half the pan of my simple, one dish meat and potato meals. Good gravy. (literally)

One Dish Meat and Potato MealYum

1 Pound beef or venison stew meat, cubed
4 medium sized potatoes, scrubbed and cubed
1 1/2 cups homemade cream of mushroom soup
2 Tablespoons homemade onion soup mix
2 cups frozen peas

In a 9×13 inch baking dish, stir together meat, potatoes, soup and onion soup mix. Gently stir in frozen peas. Bake, uncovered, in a 300° oven for 2 -2 1/2 hours or until potatoes are tender. If you think of it, give this dish a stir half-way through baking time. Warning:  Contents in casserole dish will produce an enticing aroma during 2+ hours of baking. Make plans to distract yourself during this time so that you aren’t tempted to burn your tongue on a raw potato before product has finished baking.

One Dish Meat and Potato Meal

Serve this with a salad, or serve it all by itself since there’s a veggie included. This recipe serves 4-6 people, unless you’re feeding a 14 year old boy with uncontrollably growing feet. ;)

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Get $10 Free Credit to Spend at VitaCost! (Earn more by referring your friends!)

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*UPDATE*  Vitacost has updated their referral program to state that new customers, get a $10 coupon on your first purchase of $30 or more at Vitacost.com. Still a great deal!

While reading MoneySavingMom yesterday, I discovered this VitaCost deal. Many of you have told me about VitaCost during the past few months, especially since they occasionally have great deals on coconut oil. So, I was excited to see that as a first time customer, I could snag $10 of free credit to their site!

Since I’m well stocked on coconut oil for now, I spent quite a bit of time looking over VitaCost to see what other products they had that I could spend my credit on, and to see if it was worth your time and mine to pass this deal on to you. Wow – you should see the great selection of healthy foods, drinks, snacks, and bath and body products they carry! I found my favorite Giovanni Smooth as Silk Hair Conditioner, put two into my cart for “free” with my credit, then paid a flat $4.99 for shipping. That is a great deal for this usually pricey conditioner!

If you sign up through this referral link, you’ll receive an automatic $10 of credit to VitaCost. I’ll also receive $10 of credit for referring you (thanks!). Then, you can refer your friends through your blog, email, facebook or twitter, and receive $10 of credit for each new customer who makes a purchase through your link! This is a wonderful way to earn some extra healthy grocery cash!

Look around the VitaCost site to see how you could spend your $10 free credit. If you find something for $10 or less, you’ll only pay $4.99 (shipping cost), which means you can score something healthy you need for your family for half price!

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

Homemade Cream of Mushroom Soup

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Learning to make Cream of Mushroom Soup will be a fantastic tool to have in your real food kitchen tool belt!

Just in case you lose count while reading the following sentence, I used the word “cream” or “creamy” six times, because apparently I like these words and like to overuse them. And also because once I realized I was doing it, I exaggerated on purpose:

When I shared my Creamy Chicken and Rice Casserole recipe, I told you that I don’t usually make cream soups to replace the canned cream soups called for in many creamy recipes, but instead substitute straight cream to make the dish creamy.

(Someone give me a synonym for “creamy” to enhance my future sentence writing creativity.)

However, I have a great recipe for an easy one dish meat and potato meal that I hadn’t made for years because I wasn’t sure how to make it without the cream of mushroom soup. For this, straight cream just wouldn’t cut it. I need to make the soup.

Homemade Cream of Mushroom Soup

Therefore, for all one of my recipes that need cream of mushroom soup, here is how I make it:

Homemade Cream of Mushroom SoupYum

Homemade Cream of Mushroom Soup
 
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Author:
Ingredients
  • ½ cup sliced mushrooms
  • 3 Tablespoons butter
  • ¼ cup organic corn starch or arrowroot powder
  • 4 cups milk, divided
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt
  • pepper to taste
Instructions
  1. Begin by sauteing mushrooms and butter until mushrooms are tender.
  2. In the meantime, shake the cornstarch or arrowroot powder in a jar with 1½ cups of milk.
  3. Use a whisk to mix the milk mixture into the sauteed mushrooms, stirring constantly at medium heat.
  4. Slowly add remaining milk, salt and pepper.
  5. Stir with a whisk until smooth and thick.

You probably could have figured out how to do this step without a picture, but when have I ever missed a chance to take a great photo of a jar?

Ooh, Ahh

This recipe will make around three cans worth of cream soup. I haven’t done it before, but I would imagine you could substitute celery for the mushrooms to make cream of celery soup instead. If you have extra soup that you don’t need, this can be frozen.

This recipe tastes great in my One Dish Meat and Potato Casserole!

What recipes do you make that require cream of mushroom soup?

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How Many Calories in a Recipe?

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I have been excited to welcome back Say Mmm as a sponsor here at Heavenly Homemakers. Say Mmm is a site that can help you with meal planning and grocery list making – all for free! Plus, I’m excited to see that they’ve recently completed and launched a brand new feature on their site that is sure to be very helpful to many of you.

I’m often asked how many calories are in my recipes. My answer is always:  I have no idea. Counting calories isn’t something I usually talk about because not all calories are created equal. Still, if you want to know a calorie count on my recipes, it would be nice to offer a suggestion of how to figure it out.

Well, here it is! Check out this new page at Say Mmm. To see how it works, copy and paste the following URL into the box on their site:  https://www.heavenlyhomemakers.com/pancake-and-sausage-muffins

Next, click “GO!” and immediately you’ll see a grocery list for everything you need to make my Pancake Sausage Muffins, plus a break down of the calories and other information you might be looking for. Isn’t that nifty? I can’t believe how fast it is. And how handy that the grocery list is all laid out and ready to go too!

I encourage you to sign up to use the Say Mmm site – it’s free and a great site to aid you in kitchen organization!

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Gratituesday: Focusing on the Positive

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Today was a great day! Matt and the boys spent the afternoon raking leaves for an elderly lady. I got a wonderful, encouraging phone call from a friend. I was able to get a lot of work done on the Gift in a Jar eBook. We’re making plans for a visit with far-away cousins at Christmas time.

Why is it then, even though there are many, many positives in my life, I find that it can still be easier to focus on the negative? Another marriage is in crisis. Our friend is going through radiation. My house can’t stay clean for longer than two minutes. The potatoes boiled over again, making the kitchen smoke and stink. I’m tripping over the jackets that didn’t get put away.

Instead of focusing on the delights on my life, this is instead where my thoughts dwell.

So I repent, and work to recall the joys that fill my life.

My life is full of blessing. By focusing my heart on the positive, I am better able to minister to others, meet the needs of my family, and even cheerfully clean the crusty mess on my stovetop.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Philippians  4:8

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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By Whose Standard?

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I do not get up before dawn each morning. Instead, I sleep until my body is well rested, and then I get out of bed. (It’s a novel idea – you should try it. I call it my “we’re often up late and if I don’t get enough sleep I get sick so this is how I avoid coming down with pneumonia strategy”.)  For a long time, I’ve struggled with the way my “sleeping in” looks to others. If I’m just getting out of bed at 7:45 am, might some think I am being lazy? Maybe, although, if you’re feeling brave, ask my husband if I’m lazy. He’s likely to ask you how long you’ve got so that he can give you a detailed run-down of what my days look like. ;)

The real question should be, do you or your uncle or your neighbor’s cousin’s dog really care what time I get up in the morning? Do I really think there are people sitting at their desk or at their kitchen table drinking coffee, pondering what time Laura gets up each morning? If I think that people are actually doing this, how self-focused am I anyway?

Do you ever worry about stuff like this? Are there decisions you’ve made in your life that you feel good about, or are even convicted about, yet you worry about what others might think of your decision?

For instance, I love schooling my kids at home and grinding flour to make our bread and baked goods from scratch. I feel called by God to do these things for my family. But I promise that I don’t sit at my kitchen table drinking coffee, pondering the fact that you might send your kids to school, buy white bread from the store or hand your kids a Twinkie for an afternoon snack. You know why I’m not pondering your choices over a cup of coffee? Because I trust that you are living your life the way you feel God is calling you to live. And also because I don’t like coffee.

The question is then, are we all walking around judging each other, or are we all just walking around thinking that everyone else is judging? Do we look at what others are doing and feel “less than” because we aren’t doing what they seem to be doing? If so, by whose standard are we living and by whose criteria are we making choices?

If we’re spending time worrying about what others think of us, it seems to me that we’re wasting a lot of God-given time that could be used in a much more productive way for the Kingdom.

I am working to believe that it really doesn’t matter what others think about the way I live my life. What matters in my life is that I am following God’s calling for me according to scripture. What matters is that I am listening to what He is asking me to do, serving the people He puts in my path to serve, and honoring Him in my choices and actions.

By whose standard are you living?

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Menu Plan for the Week and Still Looking for Homemade Vanilla?

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I’d like to offer a huge thank you to everyone who made our morning so much fun yesterday. Our entire stock of Vanilla Extract sold within just a few hours, thanks to you! For those of you who missed out, there are three more options for you:

1. Wait until February when we’ll have another batch ready to sell here.

2. Learn how to make your own vanilla extract. This is so much fun, very easy and cuts your cost down significantly. The vanilla beans may seem expensive initially, but I’ve learned that by making homemade vanilla, my cost is at least half what I’d pay for store bought vanilla. (Plus, you can get a discount on your vanilla bean purchase – read how this works!)

3. Check out this post in which I shared about my friend Jill’s homemade vanilla. She is the wonderful lady who taught me how to make vanilla, and she has some bottles available!

In other news, I baked a few more pumpkins yesterday for pies and muffins. Note to self (and to whoever else might benefit from this advice):  Do not forget your pumpkins and leave them baking for five hours while you visit with a friend and make a trip to the store. Your pumpkins will turn black.

Ask me how I know this.

I’m happy to report that the pumpkins were only black on the outside and still worth using on the inside, even if they were a little darker orange than preferred. Perhaps this is where the color “burnt orange” originated?

The pumpkin puree still worked great to make Pumpkin Pecan Pie Squares this morning for our class, thankfully. ;)

Here’s our menu for this week:

Sunday, November 13
Marriage class treat – Pumpkin Pecan Pie Squares
Roasted chicken, carrots, potatoes, gravy
High School Huddle – Sloppy Joes (x4), chips, pickles, olives, carrots with ranch dressing, pear slices, butterscotch bars (x3)

Monday, November 14
Mini apple pies, cheese slices
Pizza casserole, tossed salad
Creamy chicken and rice casserole, green beans

Tuesday, November 15
Coconut flour muffins, pears
Chicken burritos, apples, carrots
Shepherds pie, tossed salad

Wednesday, November 16
Crustless breakfast quiches, creamy orange cooler
Baked potatoes with cheese and sour cream, peas
Teriyaki chicken and vegetables with rice

Thursday, November 17
Mini breakfast pizza, oranges
Turkey ranch pinwheels, fruit salad
Turkey sausage and red bean stew, tossed salad

Friday, November 18
Fried eggs on toast, fruit-kefir smoothies
Sub sandwiches, apples, carrots, fruit leather
Popcorn chicken, ranch potato wedges, steamed carrots and broccoli

Saturday, November 19
Multi-grain pumpkin waffles
Leftovers
Easy noodle stir fry with veggies

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

Uplift Your Spouse in Prayer

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~Appreciate Your Spouse~Buoyancy in Marriage~Consult Your Partner~
~Dream Together Part One ~Dream Together Part Two~Empower Your Spouse~
~Have Fun With Your Spouse~Give to One Another~Honor Each Other~
~Be Intentional~Jubilee~Kingdom Focused~Listen~~Mentor Relationships~
~Nourish~Own It~Pray With Each Other~Quick to Listen~Read Together~Selfless~Teamwork~

Uplift Your Spouse in Prayer

Intercessory Prayer – Matt’s Thoughts

Blogs are great because run-on sentences are acceptable. So, here goes.

I pray for my children, the elders of my local church, the movers and shakers of our country, those with specifics needs I know about. I pray for those in tragedies many miles away because that is sometimes the only way I can help. But I feel like I can pray best for myself and the one I know most intimately, the one I share the most joy and pain with, the one I’ve failed the most, the one who needs my grace, the one I’m teaming up with to parent our children, the one who lives with my annoying habits, the one encouraging and sharpening me in my faith, the one who vowed for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health until death do us part, the one I committed myself to for life, the one…praying for me.

No Greater Gift – Laura’s Thoughts

Wives, we can try to do all the right things. We can cook his favorite meals, work to manage our home in a way that is most pleasing to him, and try to meet his needs in all the ways he prefers. But none of these tasks are as important to our healthy marriage as making it a priority to pray for our husband’s needs, and asking God to grow his character into the godly man he needs to be.

Husbands, you can be a hard worker, provide well for your family, help out around the house, and work to meet your wife’s needs in all the ways she prefers. But if you are not praying for her, bringing her needs before the Father, asking God to work in her heart for His purposes…something vitally important will be lacking in your marriage relationship.

There is no greater gift we can give our spouse than the gift of prayer. Uplift one another before God. He’s waiting to hear you and to work in your relationship in mighty ways.

Ladies, we know you’re reading here more often than the guys. ;)  We’d love husbands to read this article as well. If you feel so inclined please send the link to your husbands, or if it’s easier, we’ve created a downloadable article for you to quickly print off and share. Healthy Marriage Tips A to Z – Uplift

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

Healthy Crock Pot Recipe: Italian Cream Cheese Chicken

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You’re about to learn about my amazing Italian Cream Cheese Chicken recipe – one of my family’s favorite meals!

If you didn’t know it already, after reading this recipe it will be very clear to you that I am not afraid to cook with, serve my family, or eat high fat foods. Welcome to a recipe that includes butter, cream and cream cheese. Oh yes, that’s why it tastes so good.

If you are afraid of fats, I’d love to assure you of how healthy it is to eat these whole, natural foods. There’s a big difference in the fat you consume at McGreasies and fat which is whole and natural. Our bodies, skin and hair need healthy fats in order to thrive. Here is a post I wrote a while ago regarding butter and cream – and if you’d like to read through my entire series of Getting Real with Food posts, you can do that here.

Ah, and I have to laugh at myself because while this recipe calls for butter, cream and cream cheese – it also calls for boneless, skinless chicken breasts, which always makes me think of low-fat cooking. I’m not afraid of the fat in the skin of a chicken, nor am I afraid of cooking a chicken with bones – but I don’t really prefer pieces of bone or skin in my pasta dishes. Therefore, I find that boneless, skinless chicken works best in this recipe. ;)

Italian Cream Cheese ChickenYum

Healthy Crock Pot Recipe: Italian Cream Cheese Chicken
 
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Author:
Serves: 6-8
Ingredients
  • 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
  • 2 Tablespoons dry Italian Dressing Mix
  • ½ cup butter
  • 1½ cups cream
  • 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
Instructions
  1. Place chicken, dressing mix and butter in a crock pot. (I used my homemade Italian Dressing Mix to make this dish.)
  2. Cook for 6 hours on low or 4 hours on high.
  3. Shred chicken with a knife and fork. Add cream and cream cheese to the chicken and stir.
  4. Cook for ½ hour longer on low.
  5. Serve with whole grain noodles or brown rice.

Italian Cream Cheese Chicken

What are the fats you include in your healthy diet?

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