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A Bunch of Azure Standard Stuff

March 12, 2010 by Laura 22 Comments

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

I wanted to give you fair warning. I’m going to be writing a few posts soon explaining the benefits and great aspects of ordering food from Azure Standard.

This information won’t apply to many of you. If Azure Standard doesn’t deliver to your area (and I’ll be listing those areas soon), feel free to nod, smile and click over to a post that means a little more to you and helps you in some way. (Like my Chocolate Chip Brownie recipe, which means a LOT to everyone I’m sure.)

But if Azure Standard DOES deliver to your area, I’m hoping to encourage more of you to take advantage of Azure Standard’s wonderful services if you can. I’ll be posting sales and special features as often as I’m able. Maybe weekly (if they have anything cool in their bargain bin), or just monthly as they update their produce and sales.

Azure Standard isn’t paying me to say all of this (although if they want to, I’d be okay with that). I just LOVE Azure Standard and want to spread the wholesome food love.

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Frugal, Cheap or Poor?

March 11, 2010 by Laura 70 Comments

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

Heya…just wanted to edit this post to clear up any unintended miscommunication about my use of the word “poor”. I am very sorry if any of you found this offensive. I in NO way want to communicate that I think being poor is a bad thing or that I look down on people who are poor.

The thoughts from this post really just came from the fact that my family has a lot of people in our lives that love us, but don’t always understand our frugal lifestyle. If we aren’t careful about how we communicate our “lack of spending” to people, they take our actions as meaning that we “don’t have enough money” and they feel sorry for us or go buy things for us (things that we were intentionally not buying, not because we don’t have the money but because of choices not to spend). 

Does that makes sense, or did I just make it worse?! ;)

Recently my husband and I were talking about my torn jammies. 

Great conversation piece, huh? 

It’s just that in this post I had mentioned that I *only* had two pairs of jammies and one of them was literally falling apart. So, I finally bit the bullet (yum) and bought a new pair. And then I wrote, “When Malachi saw my new jammies he exclaimed with happiness then asked why I got new ones (cause it’s a big day when anyone gets something new around here).”

This led Matt and me to talk about how that may have sounded.

Does that sound like we’ve been too poor for me to buy new pajamas for myself? Does it sound like buying things we need, like new jammies, is just a far off dream? 

Oh that poor family. Can’t even afford to get new pajamas for the missus.

I really and truly hadn’t bought new jammies for myself because for Pete’s sake, we are a throw-away-society and I don’t feel the need to throw away the old and buy new things until I really, really need them. That’s why I hadn’t bought new jammies for myself.

Do you ever feel like, because you are carefully watching your pennies and working hard not to spend money on things you don’t need, and trying to get a good deal on the things you do need…that you come across to others as looking…poor? Or cheap?

If we aren’t careful, we might come across that way. Are we the poor family with the stay-at-home-mom who has to make all of their food from scratch and cut every one’s hair herself and put her kids in hand me downs and grow a garden? Are we the poor family who can’t afford  family cell phones and frequent eating out and new furniture and new vehicles?

I think it is super important for anyone who is frugal minded to come across to others as people who are happy, cheerful…downright FINE! 

Avoid using the words “can’t afford” or “not enough money for…”. You truly may not be able to afford the subject you’re talking about, but those words portray a “poor me” attitude, literally. That attitude will not encourage others to want to spend wisely…it may instead cause others to feel sorry for you and try to avoid being in the state you’re in.

As we talk with others about what we have or don’t have and about what we do or do not spend our money on…I think it is important for us to share in a way that inspires others to want to be wise with their money also. Share your frugality in a way that sounds exciting and attainable! Say things in a way that lets people know that a frugal lifestyle is in no way boring. 

Saving money, spending wisely, being frugal…it’s a joy! It’s fun! It works!! 

Spread the love!
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This post is linked to Frugal Friday.

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Our Healthy Eating Journey, Part 6

March 10, 2010 by Laura 34 Comments

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

healthyeatingjourney

If you missed them, please catch up on
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 and Part 5.

Malachi was about two months old when he suddenly became covered from head to toe with chronic eczema. Ironically all but his diaper area was affected. We immediately took him to our regular doctor, who gave him some sort of cortisone cream and an oral steroid.

The eczema cleared right up. We were so thankful, and we thought his “little rash thing” was all taken care of.

Then about a week later, when the effects of the steroid wore off, the rash came right back, only worse. 

Our baby became miserable.  He was extremely itchy all the time, yet way too little to understand anything that was going on. He could hardly be still in his crib, in his car seat, and sadly, even in our arms. I can’t put into words the helplessness we felt watching our tiny boy feel such misery and not know what we could do to comfort him. 

His jammies and his sheets would have blood spots where he’d rubbed himself raw trying to relieve the itching. His neck became an open wound. His face looked like he’d rolled around in a patch of poison ivy. His arms and legs were a mix of scabs and inflamed red sores.

And he stayed this way for months and months. 

People stared. People asked, “What in the world is all over your baby?” People offered suggestions of help. It seemed to become all people talked to me about and I grew extremely weary.

I remember trying to comfort him in the middle of the night, and just weeping and praying over him, begging God to please give us answers and healing for our baby. 

And I remember that even though it was so painful to watch our baby suffer so much, I was thankful. Thankful that it was “only eczema”. It made me more aware of what a parent might go through as they watch their child suffer from cancer or another major illness.

During the time we were trying to find answers for Malachi, one of my very dear friends was struggling severely and sinking into a deep depression. I had never experienced this kind of depression, nor had I watched a friend feel so much hopelessness. I was amazed by her absolute determination to fight it and find peace. She was desperately seeking answers.

We had yet another friend who had been doing a lot of research on whole body health and nutrition. This concept was foreign to me. But between the eczema and the depression we were all so determined to find answers for, we all began working together to learn and figure out how the food we ate effected our overall health and well-being.

I remember this being both a painful time, and a time of new hope. Could changing the food we ate make that big of a difference in our health? I truly had never though about food in that way. Crazy isn’t it? I never really equated food with nutrition.  Food was just…food.

Not only that, but I was learning about the long term effect of drugs generally prescribed for ezcema. Filling Malachi with steroids and covering his body with cortisone might help in the short term, but his condition was chronic. He only found relief from the eczema when he was on steroids. Did we want to place our baby permanently on steroids?

And so our search continued. It was at this time we discovered the book Nourishing Traditions.

It was also at this time that I landed myself in the hospital for five days because of complications from asthma.

To be continued…

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Gratituesday: Online Community

March 8, 2010 by Laura 10 Comments

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

gratituesdaynov09

It’s finally March, and I could write a 2,000 word blog post about how grateful I am that winter is drawing to a close and spring is right around the muddy little corner.

But, I’ll spare you.

What I will share though is that while the long, cold days of winter can seem never-ending…they have been much more bearable because I never feel completely alone and void of adult conversation.

I may be cooped up in the house with a bunch of kids all day having frequent animated conversations about Darth Vader and Yoda. I may have very few opportunities to be outside getting fresh air. I may have Nerf bullets flying around me and kids launching themselves off the stair case in an effort to burn off wintertime energy.

But I remain sane (relatively speaking of course).

Because I have you.

Through your comments and emails, I am a part of a community that takes me to a warmer climate, a comfortable sofa, a cozy tea party.

The online community I am honored to enjoy with you here has made my winter more bearable. I don’t feel cooped up and alone. 

I feel as though I am surrounded by friends.

I am so very grateful for you.

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 link into your post! Thanks!


Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!

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Becoming a Better Help Meet: Pray for Your Husband (+ a Giveaway!!)

March 7, 2010 by Laura 152 Comments

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

helpmeet
Be sure to catch up on the rest of this series here.

Last time, we talked about working hard to make sure our relationship with God is strong and alive so that we can be readily equipped to meet the needs of our husband.

Today, let’s talk about praying for our husbands.

Besides making sure your relationship with God is what it should be, praying for your husband is one of the most important things you can do as his help meet. You may not be able to change anything about your husband. You may not be able to help your husband be successful at his work. You may not be able to make your husband become a stronger spiritual leader.

But God can.

God loves your husband more than you do. God wants your husband to be spiritually minded. God wants your husband to love Him and serve Him. God wants your husband to meet your needs and the needs of your family.

You can talk to your husband about these desires. You can hurt for your husband when he struggles. You can encourage your husband to do more of the things you want him to do. You can beg your husband to become more of the man you want him to be.

But most of the time, you just need to shut-up and pray.

Love your husband. Respect your husband. Take care of your husband’s physical needs. Listen to your husband. Be kind to your husband. 

And pray for your husband.

Pray for his role as a father. Pray for his role as your husband. Pray for his work. Pray for his other relationships. Pray for his struggles. Pray for his weaknesses. Pray for his strengths. Pray for his spiritual growth. 

The prayer of a righteous [wo]man is powerful and effective.  (Read James 5:13-18.)
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Going right along with this idea of praying for our husbands…Taraleigh of FBS Books (take note of her sponsorship button on my sidebar) is offering to give away one of the books from her shop, Prayers of an Excellent Wife. 

prayers_of_an_excellent_wife

Prayers of an Excellent Wife appears to be a fantastic resource to help us learn the art of praying for our husbands consistently, faithfully and according to scripture.

I’d like to encourage you to take a good look around FBS Books as it is filled with wonderful resources!! Thank you so much Taraleigh for offering to share Prayers of an Excellent Wife with one of my readers! This book is sure to be a blessing!
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For a chance to win a copy of Prayers of an Excellent Wife:

  1. Leave a comment here on this post letting us know something you pray for your husband about (or would like to begin praying for him about).
  2. For a second chance at winning a copy of this book, join me in becoming a facebook fan of FBS books! This will be a great way to keep up to date with their sales and new products! Once you become a fan, be sure to leave a second comment here letting me know!

Everyone sign up to win this book…then get on your knees for your husband. Your marriage will be blessed as a result! Thank God for the chance to lift our needs up to Him!

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

March 7, 2010 by Laura 20 Comments

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

You all know that food makes me excited. Can I tell you about my latest little fun food thing? I found these cute mini chocolate chips at Amazon. They don’t have any soy lecithin in them (my reason for looking). They’re so stinkin’ cute and fun to bake with. Yep, doesn’t take much to entertain us all around here. (And yes, I often do make my own chocolate chips, but sometimes a girl just needs a little chocolate chip convenience.)

I’ve also got to tell you about how we tried Valerie’s Bacon Cheddar Meatloaves  last week! We’d been excited all week long because, hello? Bacon, cheddar cheese and beef all together in one dish? How would that not be good?

So Saturday night came and I had the meatloaves in the oven baking…went to the fridge to get out the bacon to wrap around the loaves for the last phase of baking…and DIDN’T HAVE ANY BACON. I knew I had some bacon in there. Except that I didn’t.   And I was WAY too scary looking to run to the store (which thankfully I remembered before I went). 

So we had Cheddar Meatloaves , which were still amazingly wonderful, by the way.

cheddar_meatloaves

Here’s our menu for the week, and here’s hoping I have all the ingredients this time:

Sunday, March 7
Oatmeal, pears
Fund raising meal for youth mission trip
Creamy mac and cheese, steamed broccoli and carrots

Monday, March 8
Chocolate chip pancakes, bananas
Homemade corn dogs , apple slices
Roasted chicken, potatoes, carrots, gravy

Tuesday, March 9
Mini breakfast pizza, oranges
Grilled turkey and cheese sandwiches, strawberry peach slushie
Sloppy cornbread, tossed salad

Wednesday, March 10
Orange muffins, fruit and kefir smoothies
Cheddar ranch burgers, green beans
Chicken and noodles, carrot sticks, fruit salad

Thursday, March 11
Fried eggs, cinnamon swirl bread, clementines
Turkey sausage, mashed potato pancakes, peas
Italian stew with green beans

Friday, March 12
Peanut butter honey toast, canned peaches
Taco potatoes
Lamb-burgers on whole wheat hamburger buns, onion rings

Saturday, March 13
Mom is Great breakfast Cake
Leftover buffet
BBQ meatballs, baked potatoes, asparagus
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Find more menu planning inspiration at Organizing Junkie.

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

Favorite Pizza Toppings – Question #60

March 5, 2010 by Laura 49 Comments

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

panpizza2sm

Tonight was pizza night at our house. 

I usually make pizza using this recipe, but tonight I was more in the mood for a thicker crust, so I made a yeast dough.

And of course, pictured above is just one of the pizzas but really I had to make three pizzas to fill us all. (I just picked the prettiest one for the picture.) 

Three pizzas did fill us all but most everyone needed more food two hours later. That’s how it works around here. Wow, these kids can eat.

We like making our pizzas with a variety of toppings. Some with “just cheese”. Some with cheese and turkey pepperoni. Some with cheese, turkey pepperoni and black olives. Some with cheese, turkey pepperoni, black olives, mushrooms and green peppers.

panpizzasm

Pretty tasty. 

Ooh, and my favorite ingredient? I like using white cheddar cheese instead of mozzarella. It gives the pizza SUCH good flavor!

So what’s your favorite kind of pizza? Do you like making pizza yourself? If not, where do you like to get your pizza?

Is anyone now hungry for pizza? Sorry about that. If you come on by, I think I might have a couple leftover slices.

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High Five Recipes: Cream Scalloped Potatoes

March 4, 2010 by Laura 36 Comments

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

High Five Recipes 2

Had I not tasted these potatoes myself (when my friend’s mom made them) and realized that I had just bitten into a bite of comfort food heaven, I would not have believed that these three little ingredients all by themselves could actually create such a wonderful side dish.

All of the other scalloped potatoes I’ve ever made have required quite a bit of work:  prepare potatoes…make a white sauce…layer the potatoes with the sauce…cook covered for a specific amount of time…then uncovered for another specific amount of time.

But this potato recipe?  Scrub and slice potatoes. Sprinkle with salt. Pour cream over potatoes. Bake. Stir every once in a while. Eat. Try to be nice and share. No really Laura…please pass the potatoes.

creamscallopedpotatoessm

Cream Scalloped Potatoes

4-5 medium potatoes
1 1/2 cups cream
sea salt to taste

Scrub potatoes and cut into very thin slices. Spread into a casserole dish. Sprinkle with salt. Pour cream over potatoes.

Bake uncovered at 300° for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, pulling dish out and stirring occasionally. Serve when potatoes are tender and cream has thickened.

The starch from the potatoes naturally thickens the cream into it’s own white sauce! SO simple!

Now, you’re welcome to throw in some onion or even sliced carrots into this dish if you want more flavor. I personally love it with just a generous amount of salt.

This potato dish is inexpensive, healthy and takes very little time to prepare. And it tastes like comfort food heaven. What more could we ask for?

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

Our Healthy Eating Journey, Part 5

March 3, 2010 by Laura 45 Comments

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

 healthyeatingjourney
If you missed them, please catch up on
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4

Back in Nebraska now, I had to adjust to the fact that NONE of the stores doubled coupons. I sort of went through withdrawals. Crazy, I know…but double couponing and getting most of our food for free had been a big part my grocery shopping/menu planning/cooking for the past four years. I had to learn how to shop in a new way now.

I continued to shop the sales and clip as many coupons as I could. I found I was still able to save quite a bit of money using coupons, spending only about $200/month for our family of five.

Our first summer here, I had my first real garden…asking as many questions as I could to people who knew more than I did (because at that point, EVERYONE knew more than I did about gardening!). It was fun…yet hard because I had a five year old, a two year old and a five month old at the time. 

I remember learning that I had dug up a nice strawberry patch because I didn’t know what that area of green stuff was growing in the middle of the place I wanted to put my green beans. I remember asking about what I should put on my tomato plants, then buying and using some sort of bug killer that would also hurt my children if not put up in a high place (yeah, I had barely even heard the word organic then).

My second year of gardening, I brought home my mom’s canning jars and her book about how to preserve food. That was the first year I attempted to “home can” anything…and I loved it! (I believe the rest is history in regard to canning and preserving!)

It wasn’t until I was pregnant with our fourth son that we even started thinking remotely about eating healthy. Even though I was pregnant, I still drank my Pepsi regularly…enjoyed lots of lunches out with friends…had a pantry full of boxes.

Then Matt went on a short trip to Scotland (LONG story) to visit some friends who were living there. While he was there, he kept a journal. In his journal, he even kept a record of the food he ate (because he thought I’d probably enjoy knowing…is he the sweetest or what?!).

The friends he stayed with there were pretty health conscious and ate lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. During meals, they would discuss some of the foods they focused on eating, and some of the foods they worked to avoid.

Matt came home from his trip and told me, “Did you know margarine is made from this stuff called ‘partially hydrogenated oil’ and that’s really bad for us?” To which I replied, “How bad is it?  Because margarine is really cheap and real butter is expensive.” Matt finally convinced me that it was worth it to buy butter, not margarine…but oh how I cringed when I put it into my cart.

Our switch from margarine to butter was the very first step we took on our healthy eating journey. Although, at this point, I wouldn’t yet call it a “journey”. 

It wasn’t until our littlest guy Malachi was born with chronic eczema that we really began looking into what it actually meant to eat a healthy diet.

To be continued…

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Homeschool Hubbub: Am I Qualified to Teach?

March 2, 2010 by Laura 66 Comments

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

For those of you who are considering homeschooling, wondering if you’re qualified to teach your kids:

I wish I had a dime ( more would be fine too) for every time someone has said to me, “It’s so great that you have a teaching degree so that you can teach your kids. I’m just not qualified to teach. I’d never be able to do it. I wouldn’t know how to teach them. I know I’d miss tons of information and they’d never be ready for college.”

Am I Qualified to Teach My Kids

Here and now, I would like to debunk the myth that in order to home school your children, you must have a teaching degree or somehow “qualify.”

Here. Use this check list:

  1. Can you read?
  2. Do you know your numbers?
  3. Can you write?
  4. Do you know where your pencils are?

If you answered “yes” to at least three out of four of the above questions – you’re in. You’re good to go.  You’re totally qualified. And if you actually know where your pencils are, you may be overqualified and put the rest of us homeschooling mothers to shame. (To my credit, I do happen to know where some of my pencils are, but none of them – I repeat – none of them are sharpened.)

So, you may ask, what about all the things I don’t know? How will I ever teach my kids history or science or math? I don’t remember half of the stuff I was taught in school.

What? You think that since I have a teaching degree I actually know stuff? Or that I magically remember everything I was taught?

That’s what BOOKS are for.

I don’t remember 7/8 of the information I was taught in school. It doesn’t matter.

I have books. Lots and lots of books. I have software. I have search engines. I have friends who know things. I have a husband who knows things. I have a library.

And sometimes, on a good day, I have a sharpened pencil.

I promise…promise you that if you have the desire to teach your kids at home, that is truly all you need. The desire – and resources.  Resources are out there all over the place for you.

You don’t need a degree or 459,392 facts stored up in your head.

If there’s something you don’t know – there is a book that will tell you or someone else you can ask.

You don’t even have to try very hard to find these resources. Home schooling materials of ALL kinds are available out there now. For every type of child. For every type of parent. For every type of home. For every type of learning style. For every type of schedule.

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. You don’t have to think hard. You don’t have to know much.

You want to know how I teach my kids? We read together. We look information up on the computer (cheering each time we get a Swagbuck!). We talk to each other. We look at what is going on around us. We ask questions.

Never ever feel like you aren’t qualified to be your child’s teacher. You are the person who loves them the most and knows them best of all.

Guess what? You are already your child’s teacher.

And see? You’re doing just fine.

More About Homeschooling

  • Here is an entire category of posts I’ve written about homeschooling at our house.  Scroll down to the beginning if you would like.
  • I talk about my favorite curriculum choices here.  Be sure to read the comments to read what others recommend!
  • This post lists some great resources I highly use and love.

Moms (and dads)…please leave comments here letting us know your favorite homeschool resources, aids, curriculums, books – anything you’ve found helpful in your homeschool journey!

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