Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Gluten Free Websites?

by 49 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

I’ve been asked several times and I’m wondering a little bit myself…what are the best Gluten Free Websites out there?

glutenfreerecipespicsm

These Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies are TOO good.  :)

We’re doing a little bit of Gluten Free experimenting at our house (I’ll explain more next week), and I know many of you need to eat, or have family members who need to eat a Gluten Free diet. I’d love for you to fill the comments section here with great GF resources to draw from. (If you’re interested, here’s a nice list of all of the Gluten Free recipes on the Heavenly Homemakers site!)

It would be an added bonus if the Gluten Free Website you refer us to also encourages healthy eating. :)

So, what do you know?  What are your favorite Gluten Free Websites?

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

Buy High Quality Shampoo and Still Save Money

by 60 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

I’ve been asked many a time… (Wait, “many a time“? who actually says that phrase?)

Anyway, I am oft asked… (Hahaha, I never say that either. “Oft asked“…eeehehehe)

What I’m trying to say is:

It is not altogether uncommon that I receive frequent inquiries and recurrent requests for me to impart my wisdom in the matter of hair cleansing.

Um, hello. It would appear that I have suddenly turned into a Shampoo Professor with a British accent. You did read all of the above in a British accent, didn’t you?

My apologies for dragging you through that marvelous waste of time. I do have a point and I really am going to share it:

Shampoo. People always want to know what I use in our hair, how healthy it is and how I afford it. So there you go.

I wrote a lengthy post a while ago describing the different soaps and cleaners we usually use around here. When it comes to shampoo, many people prefer to buy the cheapest stuff possible and/or use coupons to get it for free and I completely understand that. I used to do that too. If I found it hard to stop using coupons to buy cheap and unhealthy food…I found it doubly hard to stop using coupons to get free hair care products. Sigh…

But, just like I’ve begun to understand that it’s good and wise to spend money on whole and nourishing food for my family…I’ve also decided that I want to spend money on healthy, non-chemical-filled products for our skin and hair. I do not relish the thought of harmful chemicals seeping into our bodies through our skin, particularly our heads wherein lie our brains. (Eek, Professor Shampoo made a little appearance again. “Wherein lie our brains”, wow.)

We use only the bar soaps from Tropical Traditions for bathing and are LOVING the MadeOn Lotion Bar for our dry skin. For our hair? We love Giovanni 50/50 Balance Shampoo. We checked it out on the EWG website to see if it was safe. Not only is it safe, it works great!

Is Giovanni 50/50 Balance Shampoo cheap? Nope. Not when you’re used to tossing out coupons to get 26 free bottles of Suave. But I’ve found a way to make our shampoo purchase more affordable AND I have peace of mind, knowing that I’m getting one of the healthiest shampoos on the market. There are no icky chemicals seeping into our heads with Giovanni 50/50 Balance Shampoo!

I used to buy Giovanni 50/50 Balance Shampoo 8-ounce bottles by the case from one of my health food co-ops. It was pricey, but much cheaper than buying a single bottle at a health food store (which would usually be something like $9/bottle!!). But THEN I discovered the beauty of buying a gallon jug of the shampoo from Amazon!! I invested a few dollars in a pump thingy…so that I can use the gallon jug to refill our smaller bottles for use in the shower. 

Now granted, I am the only one with long hair in our family of six (unless you count my 13 year old son who prefers his hair to be down over his ears and into his eyes), so this may not last as long for families who have lots of girls with long hair. BUT, we’ve trained our boys to just use a tiny amount of shampoo because they really don’t need more than a little bit. I’m happy to report that our first gallon jug lasted us well over 18 months!!! 

$3/month isn’t the same as free…but it also isn’t nearly as expensive as a good quality shampoo can appear at first glance. I’m VERY pleased that we’ve been able to get away with spending so little on such quality shampoo!

And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, concludes today’s informational session on what I consider to be a superior product and how I heretofore am able to execute such a purchase in a way that is financially feasible.

In other words…that’s how I buy good shampoo and save money. 

Feel like telling us about the shampoo you use?  You can even use big words if you want to. :)

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

Resentment is a Choice

by 44 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

Bitterness. What a fun thing to experience. It eats at you, distracts you, causes you to lose sleep, makes you feel angry and keeps the hurt feelings right at the surface of your heart.

We’ve all had our feelings hurt at one time or another. People have sinned against us. They have been thoughtless toward us. Some have intentionally been mean or hurtful to us. Others have treated us with disrespect. Some have made us feel like a little piece of dirt that is worth nothing more than to be tossed out to the wind.

None of that feels good. None of that causes us to smile, to be happy or to feel loved. Hurtful words and actions from others are painful to endure, whether they were intended to cause pain or not. 

It’s okay to be angry. Anger is a God given emotion and a natural feeling after someone has wronged us.

But we don’t get to run a bath full of anger and soak in it.

Most of the time, when I am angry at someone…they are completely clueless that they have hurt me or made me angry. I’ll have countless “conversations in my head” with that person in which I effectively set the record straight, and oh so eloquently let them know how right I am and how wrong they are and boy do I let them have it! In my head. Over and over. And over. What a completely unproductive use of my time and brain power.

This is where bitterness creeps in. 

It’s hard to let go of anger. I hold onto it because I want to “punish” the person who hurt me. Instead, all I’m doing is punishing myself, making myself physically sick with the cancer of bitterness. 

The way I see it, I have three choices:  I can choose to go to the person and resolve the issue, forgive and move on. If I truly can’t bring myself to go to the person and work through the problem of my hurt, then I HAVE to choose to just let go of it. 

Otherwise, I’m making the third choice…the choice to be bitter.

Clearly, resentment is a choice. We didn’t choose for someone to hurt us, but if we remain unforgiving and ugly-hearted, we are choosing resentment. 

We are not allowed to say, “Everything he has done to me has made me SO BITTER.” Nope. He may have hurt you, but he didn’t make you bitter. You chose to be bitter. 

Deciding to let go of bitterness and forgive…it’s hard. It’s painful. It’s gut-wrenching. It takes much prayer and an absolute surrender of your self.

And then it’s freeing. So, so freeing. 

Oh the ways God can use us when our hearts are free of bitterness! And oh how we are stuck in a trap of ugly, painful memories when we choose not to let it go.

Resentment is a choice. What will you choose?

helpmeet

I’m writing this post generically, because there are so many people in our lives we can become resentful toward. However, I’m also categorizing this post in our Becoming a Better Help Meet series. If you are choosing to be resentful toward your husband, can I urge you to repent? It’s easy to let bitterness become a part of you when/if your husband continues to hurt you, or fails to listen to you and meet your needs. All of those actions and attitudes hurt…there’s no doubt about it. But don’t choose bitterness. You’re  hurting yourself and you’re hurting your marriage.

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

Gratituesday: The Circus

by 21 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

We had exactly one hour and ten minutes to get ready.

This is because when the email came through from our home school group at least one month ago about free circus tickets, I somehow didn’t see the details or didn’t have time to think about it or something goofy like that. And then I forgot. This is why I didn’t sign up for our family to go to the circus for FREE. Many of the home school families in our area who HAD read the email and HAD been responsible enough to sign up on time were making big plans. Therefore, last Friday several of our friends were heading out to the circus with their kids while WE were planning to stay home and clean bathrooms and bedrooms. Not nearly as much fun, huh?

Then, just a little over an hour before departure time, we got a phone call. There were exactly six circus tickets now available…did we want them?

Oh yes, we did want them thank you very much!

Of course, we were still all in our jammies (yes, even though it was after 10 a.m.). And needed to pack a lunch. And make sure the van had gas. And fill some water bottles. And tie up a few other loose ends.

We scrambled, we ran, we threw jammies around not caring where they landed.  Eh, we could take care of those later. We were going to the circus!

We made it to Lincoln, found a parking space and ran in to find our seats with exactly three minutes to spare. 

The circus was great! We’d never taken our kids to the circus before. In fact, while Matt and I had each been to a circus once when we were little, we didn’t remember much about it. We all had a blast! 

Since I’d not been prepared ahead of time, my camera took this picture…then the battery died. :(  
At least I got a pic with the fire ring the tigers walked through!

The kids have been talking all about it since Friday. What great memories they got to make! (Although I’m hoping they’ll forget the memory of watching the the stunt motorcyclists riding around in the tiny little circle cage thingy…they don’t need to be getting any ideas.)

What are you thankful for this Gratituesday? Write about it 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!

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

How I Store Bulk Food

by 57 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

 

I received my Azure Standard food co-op order last week…one of my favorite days of the month! It’s slightly ridiculous how much I get a thrill out of boxes and bags of food. I know not everyone  has the storage space to purchase food in bulk…but this method works very well for me and I am so thankful to have this option.

As I mentioned several months ago in this post about why I buy bulk food, I don’t just buy in bulk to save money. Saving money is a wonderful perk, but I also find that buying in bulk makes cooking so much simpler for me. I don’t have to think so hard or shop so often. I buy large quantities of food items, enough to last much longer than a week. This way, I save on gas, time, energy and brain power.

I am often asked how I store my bulk purchases. Here is a little bit of explanation for what works well for me for bulk food storage:

I could just leave the food right in their bags, but I don’t feel comfortable with that for sevaral reasons. We’ve had trouble with mice in the past. Yowza, there’s not much that makes me more frustrated in the kitchen that seeing that those little rodents have gotten into and pooped in my oats. What a waste! Beyond mice, we find that if we don’t transfer food out of their bags and into something more properly sealed, it is easier for bugs to get in and ruin food.

In addition…I just feel like buckets and containers are easier to stack and store than bags. I know I’m a nerd…but I LIKE the way food looks when it’s poured into nice jars and jugs. Crumpled up bags don’t look nearly as cute in my pantry.

When my bulk purchases arrive, out come my jars, buckets and containers. I’ve accumulate quite a nice collection through the years, purchased from garage sales, Walmart or the dollar store. You know how I LOVE jars.  And in general, I avoid plastics. However, for dry food that isn’t as likely to absorb chemicals from the plastic, I’m okay with using plastic containers for bulk storage.

I take a few minutes to scoop out the sea salt or sucanat or wheat or oats or whatever dry bulk item I’ve purchased into large storage containers.

From those, I will funnel smaller amounts into smaller jars for simple cooking use. I  keep these smaller jars in the cupboard right above my stove so I can easily grab them while I’m cooking. As they get low, I refill them from their larger storage container.

Once I have everything divided into the appropriate jars and containers (I stare at it in happiness for a while and then) I put them all away in either my storage room, or in my pantry if there is space.

I especially like to keep my nicest jars full of dry bulk items like beans, rice, popcorn and pasta in my pantry door where it looks pretty everytime I open it!

You may also want to read about how I store bulk grain. And, if you’d like to see a more thorough view of my whole kitchen, I invite you to join me on my kitchen tour!

Do you buy in bulk? What have you found that works best for you to store your bulk food?

Join us on Facebook

If you’re interested in learning more about my favorite health food co-op Azure Standard, join the Azure Standard facebook page!

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

Menu Plan for the Week

by 5 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

“Mom is Great” Breakfast Cake

Happy first day of spring!!!! I actually thought it smelled like spring when I walked outside this morning. And I saw four or five blades of green grass, yes I did. Seeing any green in your lawn yet? :)

Here’s our menu for this week:

Sunday, March 20
Zucchini muffins, applesauce
Chicken and noodles, carrots
Grilled cheese sandwiches, tomato soup, apples

Monday, March 21
Scrambled egg sandwiches, oranges
Taco potatoes, smoothies
Barbecue brisket, cream scalloped potatoes, green beans, homemade rolls, death by chocolate (we’re having company for dinner!)

Tuesday, March 22
Whole wheat waffles, strawberry syrup, whipped cream
Cheeseburger macaroni, green beans
Lamb chops, baked potatoes, steamed broccoli and cauliflower

Wednesday, March 23
“Mom is Great” breakfast cake, pears
Alfredo sauce with pasta, tossed salad
Chicken fried steak strips, mashed potatoes, gravy, peas

Thursday, March 24
Creamy orange cooler, toast
Black bean taco salad
BBQ meatballs, ranch potato wedges, peas

Friday, March 25
Easy breakfast casserole, clementines
Cheddar ranch burgers on whole wheat hamburger buns, green beans
Homemade pizza pockets, fruit

Saturday, March 26
Oatmeal, peaches
Leftovers
Cheesy salsa enchiladas, fruit salad

I’m hoping to do a little bit of freezer cooking this week too. Here’s what’s on my list:

————————————————————-

Free menu planning help at Say Mmm!

————————————————————-

Have you checked out Shelf Reliance? We LOVE their mushrooms!

————————————————————-

If you haven’t spent time at Paula’s Bread, you’re missing out!

————————————————————-

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

Homemade Chocolate Chips

by 30 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

After talking about the Enjoy Life Dairy, Soy, and Gluten Free Chocolate Chips on sale at Amazon the other day…I decided to make a batch of my own Homemade SF, DF, GF Chocolate Chips to have on hand while I wait for the others to come in the mail.

Homemade Chocolate Chips

I made these chips with coconut oil this time. (You can use butter instead, but coconut oil is a great option if you can’t have dairy. Read more about coconut oil here.)

Can I just say…these chunks of chocolate taste incredible sprinkled into a bowl full of peanuts. Or all by themselves if you need a quick chocolate fix. Or mixed into these easy and healthier Fudge Brownies. Or in these Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins. Or with a glass of milk. 

Or on a Friday afternoon at 2:47 just because.

These homemade chocolate chips make yummy Chocolate Chip Cookies too…but they don’t hold together when baked as well as commercial chocolate chips. They’re just too “pure” I guess, and tend to melt into the cookie. This isn’t a problem with taste…but can be a problem with appearance. 

Just send the ugly cookies to my house. They’ll get eaten. :)

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

The little Green Project 2011

by 21 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

littlegreenproject

Welcome to The little Green Project 2011! 
Saving Green, Eating More Greens, Earning Extra Green,
Going Green, Your Green Thumb, Crafting Something Green

This year, I decided to share a few of my favorite tips in each of the GREEN categories. I could have come up with something new and green, but I got a little bit lazy busy, so old and green it is. But let’s not call it old and green. That sounds like something that got lost in the back of my fridge. Eh, call it whatever you want. Here’s my little Green Project 2011:

Saving Green

My favorite way to save green is to simply not buy stuff in the first place. There is no need to try to keep up with the Joneses. If you don’t have money, don’t spend it. Even if you do have money, consider carefully if you truly need something before spending the money on it. Like socks. I think it’s okay to spend money on socks…if in fact you need socks. I also think it’s wise to spend money on nutritious food. But stuff? Stuff just gets dusty. Or I step on it in the middle of the night and it hurts. Don’t buy stuff.

Eating More Greens

If you haven’t tried my Strawberry Peach Slushie recipe, you really should. There’s green leafy spinach hidden in there and no one ever knows. These slushies are a great way to eat more greens.

And also, if you’re going to be eating greens in a salad, I strongly encourage you to easily make your own salad dressings! It’s unfortunate that most commercial salad dressings have icky ingredients, turning your fresh green salad into junk food. (Not completely, but you know.)  If I want junk food, I’ll eat a Cheeto. (Not that I ever want junk food.)  (Especially Cheetos.)  (The crunchy kind.)  (Laura, will you stop already and go eat a some lettuce?)

Anyway, here’s where you can find my simple, money saving and healthy salad dressing recipes!

Earning Extra Green

I haven’t talked very much on my blog about earning extra green, although I do have a wonderful guest post: How to Find Legitimate Work From Home Opportunities. Otherwise, I have just two tips to share: 

  1. Look into Heavenly Homemakers Affiliate Program. One of the main reasons we set up an Affiliate Program was to give all of you an opportunity to earn some extra money. We would be so honored and excited if our Affiliate Program could benefit you and your family.
  2. Sign up for Swagbucks. Then tell all your friends about it. It’s free. There’s no catch. It’s just a search engine that earns you FREE gift cards. I love Swagbucks and turn most of my earnings into Amazon gift cards. It helps our family buy books and organic groceries…for free. Swagbucks are a wonderful blessing!

Going Green and Your Green Thumb

I’ll combine these two categories because for me, they go hand in hand (or thumb as the case may be). I’m not a gardening expert, but I have been doing this for a few years and have a few gardening tips to share. Here is a link to all of my gardening and preserving posts. We garden organically and in case you want to see my husband holding a bucket of my kitchen garbage (and you know you do), hop over hear to learn how we compost.

Crafting Something Green

Well, of all the green tips I have to share, crafting something green may be where I fall short. I don’t do a lot of crafting at my house, mostly because my boys are a little bit too busy building cities and knocking them over to sit down with glue and glitter. I do have a fun post about how to make Flubber…and since you have to put food coloring in it…use green. There. I came up with a green craft. Hopefully you’ve got something better in mind to share.

SO…what’d you come up with for your little Green Project this year? Tell us about anything green:

  • Saving Green
  • Eating More Greens
  • Earning Extra Green
  • Going Green
  • Your Green Thumb
  • Crafting Something Green

You’re welcome to link up an older post if it fits the above categories. You’re also welcome to link up more than one post. If you don’t have a blog, please leave a comment letting us know of your little Green Project! Then let’s all go visit everyone’s blog and learn more about their little Green Project!

If you’re linking up a post, please copy and paste the following link into your post…

Join us at Heavenly Homemakers for the little Green Project!

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

Gratituesday: What’s it Like Having Matt Home?

by 38 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

I’ve been asked questions about our “new lifestyle” quite often and thought I might share with you how the past two and a half months have been going for our family. If you recall, Matt resigned from his restaurant management position in December to work from home full-time. Our desire was for Matt to be able to spend more time with our family and in ministries. We were tired of having regrets. 

So, how about I do a little bit of Gratituesday “Matt’s Home” FAQ? 

If your husband quit his job, how do you have an income?

Our answer to this question has been, “We may not have jobs…but we have work and we have income.” We are self-employed, doing a variety of work that provides income for our family. We’re working very hard…and we get to do most of it side by side. We feel that for us, it has been wise not to “put all of our eggs in one basket”. We have income from several different sources…all of which adds up to enough to meet our family’s needs. We own and rent out storage units; the Heavenly Homemakers site provides income; Matt has a snow-removal business; Matt does odd jobs for people in the community. There isn’t a job, but trust me…God has provided plenty of work. Our needs are always met.

What are your days like?

Each night we discuss what needs to be done the next day. We make lists, we prioritize and we continue to dream and set goals.

Every day is very different depending on what the needs are for the moment. I’m generally home most of the time, just like I was before. If it snows, Matt is gone a good part of the day spending quality time with his snow-blower, or if someone calls on him to help out with something, he heads out to help. If he can, he takes all the boys over to help him with a job someone has called on him to do. Otherwise, he is usually home working on whatever needs to be worked on. We are tag-team teaching the boys, depending on what needs to be done and who is available. Sometimes I have work I need to get done for Heavenly Homemakers, so I go “hide in the office” while Matt jumps in and helps the boys with their work. He loves that he now has the opportunity to take a more active role in their schooling. 

Matt is working on getting his Real Estate License (which is another income source he’ll be able to operate mostly from home), so recently he’s been studying and taking tests online. He’s also been working on marketing our Learn your Letters, Learn to Serve pre-school curriculum and other Heavenly Homemakers resources.

Do you get tired of having your husband home all day every day?

Abso-stinkin’-lutely not!!! God has blessed us during this season while we raise our boys to BOTH be home to parent and train and work. I know not everyone might feel this way or work as smoothly as a couple…but for us, this situation is working very well. Matt makes my life and my days easier, not harder. My stress level has gone down a great amount since he’s been home. He’s a huge help, a wonderful encouragement, and a solid provider. We love being together. God has made us into a great team and are so thankful that we get to work daily as teammates. 

I’m constantly thankful and do not take this blessing for granted. When I run into him in the kitchen or office at 10:56 in the morning or 2:23 in the afternoon, I can’t help but smile and give a shout out to God that my husband is home. (And I usually steal a kiss, because well…he is just right there and I can’t really help myself.)  ;)

What does your future hold?

We really have no idea. We know that God gave us this gift of time together with our family at least for now. Because our schedules are flexible we are able to be open to ministry opportunities God puts on our hearts. We’re really just trying to remain open to whatever it is that God has called us to do right now, and we look forward prayerfully to what God has in mind for our future. There is much to be done for the Kingdom. We’re so grateful that we get to work at it…together.

What are you thankful for this Gratituesday? Write about it 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!

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

Being a Better Help Meet: Choose Your Friends Wisely

by 25 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

helpmeet

Who are you spending quality time with? (I mean, besides your toddler and The Cat in the Hat.)

Are you choosing your friends wisely? 

I think it is very important to spend time with lonely people, hurting people, needy people and struggling people…because people need people and we all at one time or another are lonely, hurting, needy or struggling. This post is not suggesting that you ignore all people who have nothing to offer you at this moment. God calls us to reach out and love on his children.

But what I’d like to suggest to each of us is that if you’re interested in keeping your marriage strong and together, it is wise to spend time with people who can help you and encourage you in those efforts.

Look around you. Who has been married for many, many years? Who outwardly adores her husband? Who speaks kindly of her husband? Who has gone through difficult marriage struggles and landed on her feet beside her man? Who will help you hold your marriage together?

And I’m not just talking to those of you whose marriages are barely holding on. I’m talking to all of us.

Do the people around you engage in “husband or men bashing”? Do your friends prefer to do their own thing, leaving their husbands out of the picture? Do your friends hold marriage as sacred? Do your friends encourage you to put your  husband first? Do your friends challenge you be a devoted wife…no matter what?

You wouldn’t ask financial advice from your broke, scatter-brained uncle, right? Neither should you seek godly marriage wisdom from someone who truly isn’t equipped to offer it. 

Choose to surround yourself with people who can show you how to love. Develop relationships with women who can encourage you as a wife to be the best godly helper that you can be for your husband.

On the flip side…no matter how old you are or how long you’ve been married, make a decision to be a good example to young girls and younger married women around you. Show others how much you love your husband and how grateful you are to be married.

Seek mentors. Be a mentor.

I do believe this is exactly what Titus 2:3-5 is all about. :)

Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children,  to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.

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