Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Read Together

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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

Being on the Same Page – Matt’s Thoughts

Variety in marriage is fun. So, when it comes to reading together, mix it up, taking into consideration what would be good for the two of you. Laura and I have never gone wrong by reading books, articles, posts or other material that is written to help marriages. Even if it is not insightful for our context, at the very least we are side by side trying to align ourselves with each other. We have read from the Bible and discussed it and we have read material that is just plain fun…like a joke book. We don’t read together every night, but we talk about what each of us is reading separately. I urge you to read at least one book together every year that is specifically for marriage relationships written by an author(s) who has a Christian worldview. Whether you borrow it from your local library, church library, or a friend, or whether you purchase it so that you can own it and reference it, the key word here is TOGETHER. If only one of you reads the book, then you’re not on the same page…pun intended. Make it happen TOGETHER.

If you are like us, we have good ideas like reading a book together and then we blink and 2011 is almost history. This “good idea” of reading together probably won’t take place unless you agree on the book and schedule it TOGETHER. Of course life happens and schedules need to be rearranged on occasion, but our experience has been that the time together and discussion that follows connects the two of us.

Yes, it needs to be intentional, but beware of the checklist mentality and the critiquing spirit – as in critiquing the author. Speaking from experience, I have needed to choose to have the right attitude when it is reading time. I remember one particular couple’s devotional book that I was counting down the pages ’til it was complete. It just wasn’t doing anything for me. The reason it wasn’t doing anything for me was because of my attitude. Once I stopped the countdown and ceased being critical of the writer’s style, then the discussion about its relativity to my marriage improved.

A suggestion if you are having trouble deciding: Visit with other couples who have healthy marriages and see what they would recommend reading and ask them why they would recommend it.

Yeah, What Matt Said – Laura’s Thoughts

I think Matt said all of this wonderfully. The only thing I’d like to add is this:  For those of you who don’t enjoy reading, try books on CD. (I almost said “books on tape”, which like totally tells you that we grew up in the 80’s and that I used to have big hair.)  You may not love every book or concept you read together, but be sure to ask yourself if you don’t love it because it’s difficult to hear. Sometimes the truth hurts. Allow God to stretch you and challenge you with books that enrich your marriage.

Books That Have Benefitted Us or Other Couples (alphabetical order):

Created to Be His Help Meet by Debi Pearl
His Needs Her Needs by Willard F. Harley Jr.
Intended for Pleasure by Ed Wheat MD and Gaye Wheat
Love and Respect by Dr. Emerson Eggerichs
Loving Your Marriage Enough to Protect It by Jerry B. Jenkins
Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus by John Gray
Night Light by Dr. James & Shirley Dobson
Saving Your Marriage Before It Starts: Seven Questions to Ask Before (and After) You Marry by Les & Leslie Parrot  (This is what we are currently reading and it’s good for us even after 17 years of marriage)
The 5 Love Languages by Dr. Gary Chapman

What have you and your spouse read together that you would recommend?

 

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 – Read Together

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Organize Your Pantry and Shelves with CanOrganizer – A Giveaway!

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Remember my scary storage room clean up and how I like to stare at my bulk food? I’m very excited that my new organizers from CanOrganizers.com help even more to keep my food storage area organized, which makes it even more fun to stare at my groceries. (geek)

I don’t use many canned foods, but I do try to have a few canned items on hand at all times for quick meals. I’ve got my new CanOrganizers stocked with our organic coconut milk, canned salmon and tuna (all from Amazon) and some organic raw honey (from Tropical Traditions). The kids loved helping me put the cans into the containers – you put them into the top, then they roll back and fall to the bottom. This makes it simple to grab a can, then a new can will automatically roll to the front for easy access!

I put my 11 year old on the task of putting together our CanOrganizers. They have a great video to watch which helped us figure out how to assemble them. It was a bit of a learning curve as we figured this out – let’s just say Justus and I bonded a little bit over pieces of heavy cardboard. But, once we figured out the first one, the other three went together fairly quickly!

Here’s some helpful information from CanOrganizer:

The 11″ deep Cupboard Organizer is perfect for smaller spaces like your cupboard where you need to maximize space. This is ideal where a pantry or extra storage may not be available. You can simply use one Organizer or many depending on your needs. Fill up your cupboard so you can easily find what you’re looking for!

The 16″ deep Shelf Organizer is deeper so you can store even more cans! Designed to fit nicely on your standard shelf so it is perfect for storage areas like your garage or storage room.

And finally the 22.5″ deep Pantry Organizer is the deepest of the bunch. This system is optimal for those deep pantries or storage racks where you have plenty of space. You will be amazed how many you can fit in the Organizer and well organized your food storage will be. Now you can hit those canned good sales and stock up for your family, saving money and having food on hand for whenever you need it.

These CanOrganizers come four to a pack, making them very economical – a perfect way to get yourself organized inexpensively! Plus, through the end of October, CanOrganizer is offering a 10% discount to all of us, by using the code:  HOME at check-out.

Interested in winning a pack of CanOrganizers? Leave a comment on this post letting us know which size would work best for you! I’ll draw two random winners on Monday, October 24.

This giveaway is now closed, thank you!

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Healthy Homemade {Pink} Applesauce

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For years, I’ve used this method of making applesauce. The past couple of years, I’ve decided to try something new, in an effort to cut down on preparation time and to make the homemade applesauce a bit healthier. Still, I have to say, this process still takes quite a bit of time and effort. After spending several hours making applesauce yesterday and only yielding five quarts – I felt a little bit discouraged. Several of you have mentioned that a Victorio Food Strainer is a worthwhile investment. After looking into this, I have to say that Matt and I are talking seriously about making the purchase. Check out this pretty tool. Does that not look like a life saver when making applesauce and tomato sauce?

Here is a run-down of yesterday’s applesauce process:

We used a mixture of apples, most of which had very dark red skin (Empire, I think). Cooking the apples with skin on created a lovely pink colored applesauce. To start, we gave the apples a good washing. I looked around for the cutest assistant I could find. Since everyone else was busy with math and vocabulary lessons, Malachi got the job.

Yum

While he was washing apples (about 18 pounds), I prepped my huge stock pot. I stirred 2 heaping tablespoons of Vitamin C Powder (ascorbic acid to keep the apples from turning brown) into 5 cups of water.

Then, I began to quarter and cut out all yucky parts. These apples were mostly organic (he had sprayed a little bit early on before the fruit set on), so there were some wormy parts to cut out. As I added apples, I stirred them around so that they would be coated with the ascorbic acid/water to  keep them from browning.


I continued this process until my pot was full and until my right hand was cramped permanently into a claw-like position.

I then cooked the apples on the stove for about an hour, stirring occasionally, until they became nice and soft.

Next I blended the apples in my Blendtec, careful to dip down to the bottom of the pot to get some of the juices with each scoop. I blend until the peelings are completely pureed along with the flesh of the apples. This makes the applesauce pretty and creamy!

Applesauce Cups

I ended up with smooth, beautiful, delicious applesauce that my family had seconds and thirds of at lunch time.

I then canned four remaining quarts (using this water bath process for 20 minutes) and put them into my pantry.

What do you use to make applesauce? I highly recommend the Blendtec to make this process super easy! (I also love the Blendtec for oodles of other kitchen tasks.)

I have yet to make apple butter or any of the other tasty apple dishes I talked about earlier this week. I do believe that next I will experiment with my crock pot and apple butter. Which means that I really need to make some whole wheat biscuits. Doesn’t apple butter spread on a hot, fresh biscuit sound wonderful?

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Healthy Crock Pot Recipes: Turkey Sausage and Red Bean Stew

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This Turkey Sausage and Red Bean Stew is a pretty awesome comfort food!

How nice is it that I put this stew into my crock pot before a soccer game, then came home to dinner all ready and waiting for us to eat? In fact, my crock pot was so nice that as we walked in the door, it scooped the prepared stew into six serving bowls, poured milk for us to drink, set the table and sang us a song while we gathered around. Okay, not really. But still, having a hot meal ready and waiting made me feel like someone else had done all the work.

This stew is especially easy to make if you already have turkey sausage and red beans cooked up ahead of time. I typically make six pounds of the sausage at a time, then freeze it in one pound packages, making it easy to throw into a meal like this one.

Turkey Sausage and Red Bean StewYum

Healthy Crock Pot Recipes: Turkey Sausage and Red Bean Stew
 
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Author:
Serves: 6-8
Ingredients
  • 1 pound turkey sausage (browned)
  • 2 cups cooked red beans or 1 can (15 ounces) small red beans
  • ½ cup brown rice (uncooked)
  • 1 cup water
  • 1½ cups corn (frozen or canned)
  • 2 cups tomato juice
  • ½ cup chopped sweet green pepper (more if you like)
  • salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
  1. Combine all ingredients in a slow cooker.
  2. Cook on low setting for 6 hours.
  3. This stew is great served with hot cornbread and a glass of milk.
  4. It is also gluten free - a bonus for those of you with GF needs!

You need this recipe: Turkey Sausage

Crock Pot Turkey Sausage and Red Bean Stew

With my crock pot cooking our dinner for us, now all I need is an appliance that will clean my kitchen for me. Oh wait – that’s what the kids are for. We make kitchen clean-up a family project – here’s a post explaining more, along with a free downloadable kitchen chore chart.

Is it stew weather where you live? (If it’s still warm and sunny at your house, break it to me gently.) ;)

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Reminder…

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Just a quick reminder for those of you who purchased a Heavenly Homemakers Gift Certificate at half price last week –

They expire one week from date of issue, which means that they will be expiring within just a few more days. If you haven’t redeemed yours already, head to our shop and use them before they are no longer valid!

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Did You Know That Today is Gratituesday? – Share the Love

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We’ve been celebrating Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers since January of 2008. That’s about three months after I began blogging – back when about four people read this regularly (and I was one them). I love how Gratituesday has grown since then. I love that now, many of you take special notice on Tuesdays and search your heart for something to be thankful for. Some days it’s easy, some days it isn’t – but when we truly look at all God has done for us, there is always something to be grateful for.

I was so tickled when I read my friend Jill’s Gratituesday post last week. It seems that she’s been taking the Gratituesday idea to the bank, to McDonalds – to wherever she happens to be going each Tuesday. She’ll say, “Hey, did you know today is Gratituesday?” She may receive a questioning look initially, but after she’s finished explaining that Gratituesday is a day we pause and reflect on what we’re grateful for, she’s likely to have changed that person’s outlook on the day.

I felt challenged by this idea and wanted to share it with you. I’d love to see Gratituesday go beyond this blog (and yours when you link up!). Think of the grateful attitude that could spread through Facebook. And how about taking Gratituesday offline like my friend Jill has been doing? What if you took it to your workplace? Or to businesses as you run errands? How about sharing it with your family around the dinner table? Or talk about what you’re grateful for on the car ride to gymnastics.

Being grateful is a huge part of stepping outside of ourselves and recognizing that God is truly at work among His people. Take time now to reflect, then share with us – either on your blog or by comment on this post. Then, take it one step further. Share with others beyond this blog. Ask your friends on Facebook to share what they are grateful for this Gratituesday. Talk it up amongst your “real life” friends. Focus on being grateful and encourage others to do the same. A little gratitude goes a long way.

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A Week of Apples

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I have a grand total of 110 pounds of apples in my kitchen right now. You know what this means don’t you? Yes, it means that by the end of this week my fingers are going to look brown and dirty. And they’ll stay that way for about two weeks until the brown wears off. It’ll be really cute and not at all embarrassing (as long as I keep my hands stuffed into my pockets while out in public).

Oh, and if I don’t wear an apron while I’m working with all of these apples, the front of my shirt will also be covered in brown splatter stains, which will never come out. I learned this the hard way a few years ago when I made applesauce all day, while wearing a cute Disney shirt, before going to a soccer game. I completed the task of making applesauce, ran it through the water bath process to can it and put the jars away in my pantry. I didn’t look down at my shirt until I was at the soccer game that night cheering for my boys. It was then that I noticed that Eeyore was completely covered in ugly brown specks. (Of course, it had to be Eeyore.)  I was by far the most pitiful looking mother out at the soccer field that day. Of all days to leave my jacket at home.

So now you know:  While you peel, core, slice and chop apples – the juice will spit and splatter everywhere. If you work on 110 pounds of apples, everything around you, including every crevice on your hands, will turn brown for days. There’s not much you can do about this, so just embrace the fact that you’ll look like you’ve been working under the hood of your car. To avoid answering any difficult-to-answer questions from the powers that be, remove all school papers, bills, library books, and photos before proceeding. And for the love of Eeyore, please wear an apron.

My 110 pounds of apples await, and I guess it goes without saying that my apron is ready for action. Here’s what I’m looking at doing this week:

I’ll start by making and canning as many jars of Applesauce as I can make before I get sick of making applesauce. I will probably be using a slightly different method than the one described here, so I’ll give an update on that sometime during the week.

applesauce11sm.JPG

If, in fact, I still have a few pounds of apples left after making applesauce, I hope to then make a few Mini Apple Pies. These are great to have in the freezer for a quick breakfast or dessert.

miniapplepies7sm

I may also can a few jars of Apple Pie Filling. This is great to have on hand to when throwing together a quick apple crisp or of course, to make a big apple pie. Here’s my Whole Wheat Pie Crust recipe if you’re interested.

Malachi_apple_pie_1

I may also use my Excalibur Food Dehydrator and make Apple Fruit Leather and/or dried apple rings. When you have 110 pounds of apples, you can just keep going with the apple preserving until you’ve got a wide variety of apple goodies, or until you faint onto the floor of your kitchen – whichever comes first. Don’t worry – I plan to get my boys busy helping me with these projects this week. They are great applesauce makers.

We also plan to simply eat a bunch of these apples. I love having so many apples on hand for snacks. If you haven’t tried making Caramel Apple Dip, I highly recommend it. It’s one of my favorite ways to eat apples.

Throughout the week, I’ll be snapping pictures and sharing my apple preserving progress. Prepare to get sticky around here. I might even experiment with Apple Butter like several of you requested last week!

What is your favorite way to eat apples? Ever ruined an Eeyore shirt with apple spatters? This is why aprons were invented.

 

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Menu Plan for the Week

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We had lots of company over the weekend while we celebrated York College Homecoming – one of my favorite weekends of the year! One of the meals I served for our guests was “Huge Hamburgers” with potato wedges, grapes, veggies, olives and cookies. The Huge Hamburger idea came from one of our boys when we were planning the menu for our guests. Ever since I made this big burger to feature in our curriculum (while you’re learning the letter Hh, of course!), my boys beg me to make it. The bun (Kings Hawaiian that I find at our regular grocery store or at Walmart) is not very healthy, but boy is it good. It’s a real treat, and I find that when I have lots of company, I have to make compromises on the food we eat so that I’ll stay sane. I want to enjoy my company – not spend time making huge hamburger buns while everyone else is visiting!

Here’s our menu for this week:

Sunday, October 16
Oatmeal, pears
Sub sandwiches with all the fixings, raw veggies with ranch dip, grapes
High School Huddle:  Italian pasta bake, green beans, honey whole wheat bread, apple crisp

Monday, October 17
Pancake sausage muffins, applesauce
Tuna casserole, peas
Cheesy salsa enchiladas, tossed salad

Tuesday, October 18
Sweet potato streusel muffins, bananas
Easy noodle stir fry, fruit salad
Turkey sausage bean stew, sourdough biscuits

Wednesday, October 19
Mini breakfast pizzas, oranges
Chicken noodle soup, carrots
Shepherds pie, tossed salad

Thursday, October 20
Breakfast burritos, creamy orange coolers
Crock-pot experiment (for the new crock-pot recipe series)
Chicken fried steak strips, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans

Friday, October 21
Peanut butter honey toast, applesauce
Salmon patties, potato wedges, peas
Homemade pizza, fruit

Saturday, October 22
Homemade donuts
Leftovers
Three cheese garlic chicken pasta, tossed salad

I may be wrong, but I do believe this week may be a little calmer around our house. We will have some company here and there, but if you can believe it, I think we only have one soccer game during the next few days. Whatever shall I do? (Yes, I know – laundry. You weren’t supposed to answer that. It was rhetorical.)

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What’s Your Favorite Kind of Cake?

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It’s homecoming weekend at York College, our local Christian college (and our alma mater). We’ve got a house full of guests and we’re lovin’ it!

We celebrated the birthday of one of our guests yesterday – a great excuse to make and eat cake! I made this Lemon Pound Cake recipe, but instead of baking it in a bundt pan, I made it into a sheet cake then frosted it with Cream Cheese Frosting.

Instead of butter, I used coconut oil to make this cake. The coconut oil flavor was a bit overpowering with the lemon juice, but wow, it’s tasty. And, in my opinion, you can never go wrong with cream cheese frosting. ;)

My very favorite cake flavor would have to be Buttermilk Chocolate Cake (with Chocolate Fudge Frosting). Unless we count cheesecake, and then I’d have to say that my favorite kind of cake is cheesecake. I suppose we could count both, but we really shouldn’t eat them both at the same time because goodness, that’s a lot of cake.

Just because I’m curious – and because maybe I can come up with healthy varieties of your favorite cake flavors, my questions for you this weekend are:  What is your favorite kind of cake? What kind of frosting would you like on that? With ice cream or without?

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Quick to Listen

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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

A Family Motto – Matt’s Thoughts

Most interactions in any relationship can benefit from the maxims, “Be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry” (James 1:19). Boy, do these ever benefit a marriage relationship. I’ve tried being slow to listen and experienced the results there. I either needed to sheepishly ask Laura what she said because I wasn’t listening or worse yet, I tried to guess what she said and go with that. Your guess to where that has ended up is much more accurate than my guess was at what I didn’t listen to.

I’ve also practiced being quick to speak and found my foot in my mouth. The taste of the sole of my shoe is all too familiar.

And yes, I’ve been quick to anger. That dirty Kleenex that missed the trash can means that I’ll have to pick it up when I take out the trash!!! I’m incensed!!! (That’s me throwing a terrible two’s tantrum.)

We posted about listening and looking into each other’s eyes for our “L” marriage tip, and we wanted to add more to it. James 1:19 is one of our family mottos. We try to repeat it often because we need to remind ourselves often and train ourselves. As a soccer coach I know there are fundamentals of the game that must be practiced very often in order to improve our game/skills. Likewise, in life, we feel that these are a few of the fundamentals in relationship development. Practicing these in our family will prepare our sons to be skilled when interacting with others and if they do marry someday, then these can improve the health of their marriage.

Hurry Up and Wait – Laura’s Thoughts

I’m trying to understand what it looks like to be “quick to listen”. Usually, I’m quick to jump to conclusions, quick to spat out something off the top of my head without giving it much thought, quick to make a judgment on someone before I know the whole story. None of these practices are healthy in any relationship, but they can be particularly harmful in a marriage relationship.

So what does it look like to instead be “quick to listen”? Could it be that I simply learn to simply be still? To be calm and wait? To listen with my heart to the needs of my beloved?

I try to be quick about every aspect of my life. I find I can get a lot done in a day by being quick about my work. But I think if I were to be quick to stop, be quick to be still, and be quick to listen to what God would have me to do, I may accomplish more for Him than my “quick” efforts ever could. I think I could go from a frantic mode to one of calm and peace.

And it’s likely that if I’m quick to walk to the trash can with my dirty Kleenexes instead of trying to throw them across the room in hopes that one out of ten might actually make it to the destination, I will save my dear husband and myself much time and frustration. I’m working on that one. ;)

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 A to Z – Quick to Listen

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