Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Ultimate Gratituesday 2009!

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Welcome to the very last Gratituesday of 2009! I’m so excited for all of us to have a chance to reflect on our year and on all the ways God took care of our needs during the year.

It’s good to look back at the entire year isn’t it? When I think about what I’m thankful for each week during Gratituesday, it’s always great to choose a specific blessing from God in the past few days. But, looking back over the entire year? It’s quite breath taking. And incredibly humbling.

I believe what I’m most grateful for is how God has grown our family into new ministries this year. I mentioned here about how God is using our home for ministry like he never has before. I love how He continues to put guests at our table, and continues to provide plenty food in our pantry (freezer, fridge, etc.) to share. It’s been amazing to experience.  I love that our children are naturally learning hospitality. I love that the six of us together are able to bless others while being WONDERFULLY blessed right back!

I love looking back at the ways our marriage and our boys have grown this year. While we have “real moments” all the time…our marriage continues to grow stronger and our boys are turning into awesome young men. 

And, as I mentioned last week, I’m so thankful for the job God has provided for Matt and that he loves what he’s doing. I wish I had the space to share all the ways God led us in his perfect timing to this job during the past two years. 
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What ways have you felt God’s incredible presence during 2009? What ways has God blessed your family and how has He provided?

Please share!!  Write your own Ultimate Gratituesday post on your blog and come link up here. If you don’t have a blog, please be sure to leave a comment to let us know how God has blessed you during the year!

Let’s celebrate God’s goodness together!

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Learn About Laura: Movies, Make-Up and Vacations

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This post is the first of several that will answer your questions here.  :)

Josette said:  You always make me laugh…so I am thinking your sense of humor is the same as mine (I could be totally wrong), just wondering what your favorite “funny movie” is?

I am SO SORRY that this is the most boring answer ever and surely not the one you were hoping for.

I can’t even think of the name of any funny movie. Although Veggie Tale movies always crack me up. Love the humor in those. I’m guessing that’s not quite what you meant?

Watching movies is one of my least favorite activities. I don’t know why. I don’t like sitting still for that long (unless I’m blogging/writing or reading a good book).

I’ve been racking my brain trying to figure out what my favorite funny movie is. I even asked Matt, “Hey, what’s my favorite funny movie?” Blank stare.  Yeah, he likes movies as much as I do.

Isn’t that pitiful?

Why don’t you all tell me what YOUR favorite funny movies are and maybe I’ll watch them and say, “AH!! That WAS funny!!!”

What great movies am I missing out on?!?

Sharon asked:  What skin care products and make-up (if you wear it), do you use? Where do you purchase it?

You can read about my favorite Soaps and Sundries here. Otherwise…there isn’t too much more to tell.

Here is my daily skin care routine:  I wash my face with Tropical Traditions coconut soap. I then rub on some Tropical Traditions lotion. The end.

On Sundays and special occasions, I go all out and wear mascara (just the gross stuff from Walmart). 

I used to never leave the house without make-up thinking that I could never get away without “having my face on”. Now (mostly because my husband really doesn’t care for me to wear make-up because he really – thankfully – likes my natural look) I just don’t wear it. I LOVE not messing with it. 

If any of you have any natural make-up products you’d recommend…do tell!

Dani asked:  What is your favorite vacation memory with your family and what are your vacation traditions? Especially in the car with FOUR boys.

Well, we have never actually gone on a vacation that doesn’t involve a family get-together of some sort. At this point though…those are the best kind of vacations. 

Every other year we travel to California to visit Matt’s family. We’ve been able to go to Disneyland several times thanks to Matt’s brother who works for The Mouse (that would be Mickey). 

It always cracks us up when we go to CA in the wintertime. Everyone there is wearing a long wool coat and apologizing that we had to come out for a visit “when it’s SO cold”. Yep, that 50° to 70° weather is just a killer on us Nebraskans. We hardly know what to do with ourselves without the wind chill factor.

Oh, and the day after Christmas several cousins always like to plan a trip to drive three hours to the snow!!!! ‘Cause wouldn’t that be fun to play in snow together?

Yes, I suppose it would if we didn’t have to “play in the snow” with a shovel in order to get out of our driveway on a regular basis. Couldn’t we just not drive to the snow and play together in the yard? In a t-shirt?

Other than those fine pieces of vacation information…I’ve got nothin’. Unless you count this trip… Yeah, that was a good one.

As far as traveling in a car with four boys…you can just imagine the musical numbers I must put up with.  Need I say more?

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Menu Plan For the Week

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Hope you all had a Merry Christmas! We had a wonderful day with Matt’s dad…although our plans were changed a bit because of a crazy blizzard! We had planned on spending Christmas morning at our house, then making a quick drive to Kansas to see my side of the family, then driving home so Matt could work on Saturday. We ended up having a relaxing and snowed-in Christmas at home instead. It was nice, but I was a little weepy about not going to see my family in Kansas. 

Here’s a shot of the drift on our porch, right outside our front door (I was staying warm, taking the picture from the inside!).

snowdec092smI’d estimate that the drift was almost up to my waist. 
Gotta love 50 mile per hour winds. 

Once we realized that we couldn’t travel…I decided I’d better figure out some kind of Christmas Dinner menu…FAST! I ended up roasting a big chicken with carrots, made some scalloped potatoes and a green been casserole. It ended up being very nice, even though I only had about four hours notice!

I have yet to leave the house since the storm started Thursday (church services were even cancelled this morning), but Matt has been working long hours at the restaurant, which is a part of a motel, which is full of stranded travelers. What a way for them to spend Christmas! Boo.

Hope you’re all staying warm and safe! Here’s our menu for this week!

Sunday, December 27
Oatmeal, peaches
Creamy mac and cheese, steamed broccoli
Chicken and noodles,  mashed potatoes, carrots

Monday, December 28
Scrambled eggs, oranges
Quesadillas, pears
Southside Grille with Grandpa (if we feel brave enough to get out)

Tuesday, December 29
Whole wheat waffles
Fish and chips, fruit-kefir smoothies
Honey mustard chicken, stir fried rice and veggies

Wednesday, December 30
Applesauce bread, bananas
Tuna on toast, applesauce
Cabbage rolls, peas

Thursday, December 31
Peanut butter honey toast, clementines
Corndog muffins, apples
Homemade pizza, tossed salad

Friday, January 1
Whole wheat donuts
Black eyed peas and cornbread
Swiss steak over rice, green beans

Saturday, January 2
Giant breakfast cookies, apples
Leftover buffet
Easy chicken alfredo, peas

Oh my goodness…may I just say how much faster I was able to find all the recipe links now that I finally created “Recipe Quick Clicks” on each of the recipe drop-down category pages? I should have taken the time to do that months ago!!
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Be sure to make plans to join us this week for Ultimate Gratituesday, where we’re taking time to reflect on our blessings from 2009!!
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Starting tonight…I’ll begin posting more in the Learn About Laura series, based on your questions. Prepare yourself to learn way too much about me. ;)
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Visit Organizing Junkie for more menu planning inspiration.

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

Ultimate Gratituesday 2009

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Just a reminder…

This upcoming Gratituesday will be the last Gratituesday of 2009.

Whether your year was especially a tough one…or full of unexpected joys…God is good. Take some time to reflect on the ways God took care of your family and blessed you this year.

Write about it on your blog, or come prepared to leave a grateful comment!

Meet up with us here on Tuesday, December 29 for Ultimate Gratituesday, 2009!

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

Mare Egrets Moose!

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Wee fish ewe a mare egrets moose,
Wee fish ewe a mare egrets moose,
Wee fish ewe a mare egrets moose,
panda hippo gnu deer!

No, I didn’t write that myself. I’m not that creative. But you can think I am if you want to.

Actually, after I saw this little song, the boys and I had to turn it into a little research project. We did Swag searches to see what some of those animals looked like! How could I not gno about a gnu? Ah the things we wish we gnu.

I’ll be signing off for a couple of days to celebrate Christmas. I’ll do my best not to eat too much fudge this year.

Check back in soon! I’ll start answering your questions to add to my Learn About Laura series!

Have a wonderful, blessed Merry Christmas!

 

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A Little Real Mom Follow-Up

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First of all…WOW.

Thank you all so much for your wonderful response to Will All of the Real Moms Please Stand Up? So many of you stood up. You shared your struggles. And your deep love for your children.

And your realness.

Thank you.

You are a blessing to me. You are a blessing to many, many women who will read your comments and know that we’re not alone in the journey we call motherhood. Thank you.

After reading all of your comments (because yes, I read all of them and yes, I will continue to read them as you write them) I wanted to take a moment to encourage everyone just a bit more. Here’s what I learned about you from all of your comments:

You, my friends, are doing a wonderful job. You love your husbands. You love your children. If you didn’t love them so much you wouldn’t care about raising them successfully for Jesus.

You work hard. You work very, very hard.

You want to better yourself. You want to be more like Jesus.

You keep looking to Him and striving to be better.

Good job, Moms.

As a bit of follow-up and so that we can continue to help each other, I have two  requests:

1. As you have “Real Mom” moments…will you please continue to visit this post and share them in the comments section? I put a quick link to the post at the bottom of my sidebar for easy access. We can all use a good dose of realness occasionally. PLUS, whenever “real life” happens…sometimes it can help put everything into perspective if we have a place to share it.

and…

2. As we all strive to improve our homemaking and parenting skills…will you please leave a comment on THIS post describing some of the tools and books you use or have used that have been helpful to you in your journey? I’d love for all of us to have a wonderful list of resources!

My contribution to the topic:

  • Motivated Moms planners have been a wonderful resource to many. These downloadable ebooks not only help get you organized in your homemaking tasks…they can even help keep you on track with daily Bible reading. Scroll down to the bottom of this page to click on sample pages of Motivated Moms downloadable planners.
  • Some ladies swear by the Fly Lady. She claims to be your personal online coach to help you gain control of your home and your life! Woohoo!
  • My favorite parenting books are mentioned in my Amazon Store here.

Please…take a moment to share what tools and resources work for you!

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

Gratituesday: Southside Grille…Now Open for Business

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Celebrate with us! Matt’s restaurant (aka Southside Grille) is now open!!!

I went in last week and took a few pictures. They (as in Evelyn, the head manager) have it decorated SO nicely!

grille5

grille1Isn’t it beautiful!?! 

Wow, what a lot of hard work getting it ready to open. And now that it’s open…wow, what a lot of hard work. Both Matt and Evelyn have been working a lot of hours the past few days. 

Matt’s been loving every minute of it.

I love that my husband loves his new job.  I can’t even begin to tell you how thankful I am and the joy I feel seeing how happy he is at his work.
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Take Note:  Next Tuesday, December 29 will be the last Gratituesday of 2009. Please give thought to all the ways God has blessed you (during your happy and sorrowful times) during the year 2009. We’ll have a special Gratituesday next week celebrating the joys of 2009! Please plan to join us!!–
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What are you grateful for this Gratituesday? Write about it on your blog, then come link up with us here. Don’t have a blog? Please leave a comment letting us know what you’re grateful for!

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

My Random Christmas Food Post

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I’ve had several posts lately about gifts of food. Obviously I have more of a fondness for food than I have for Snuggies. Although…we could always give the gift of food…with a Snuggie. Hmm, I might be on to something there.

This week my father-in-law is here…Adam is hanging out while he gets in a few more days of work in before heading home for Christmas…plus my friend Shannen is here for a couple of days! I feel like making my food festive.

Out come the cookie cutters.

cookiecutters2sm

I just put them in a basket and left them on the counter so that they’re easy to grab (and so that I don’t have to sort through the Easter bunny and pumpkin cookie cutters every time I want to make a stocking shaped biscuit).

Here’s a post from last year about how I used my Christmas cookie cutters to make Christmas Biscuits, Christmas Donuts, Christmas Graham Crackers and Christmas Pizzas.

I’ll be making some of the same this week…plus I experimented cutting out star shaped Peanut Butter Honey Fudge. 

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It worked great. Except for the fact that Malachi was helping me cut out the stars. Then he went to go play and came back with hives all over his neck. We’ve been suspicious, but this confirmed to us that yes…he has an allergy to peanuts. Poor guy.

So, I experimented with Lindsey’s coconut oil/cocoa/honey fudge for Malachi. I’d been wanting to try it for a while and…YUM! It’s super good!

coconutfudgesm

This fudge was a little gooey and therefore harder to cut into stars…so I left most of it as little squares. I love how healthy this fudge is!

Now…talking about fudge always makes me think about salad dressing.

Okay, not really. Talking about fudge always makes me think about fudge.

But now I’m going to talk about salad dressing.

Hey, I didn’t call this a random post for nothin’.

Anyway, I was putting together Anne’s stocking stuff which surprise, surprise consists largely this year of food. I made a jar of Ranch Dressing Mix and a jar of Italian Dressing Mix for her, which I know she will adore and appreciate.

dressingmixessmI’ll attach a little card explaining how to make each of the dressings.

Okay, last but certainly not least because I am VERY excited to tell you this next piece of foody news! I finally took the time to create lists on each of my Recipe Pages containing each recipe in that particular category. This will make it SO MUCH EASIER for all of us to navigate and find the recipes on my site.

To understand what I’m talking about…go up to the menu bar across the top of my site. Put your cursor over the RECIPES link. See the drop down menu? Click on any one of those links…Main Dishes, Desserts, whatever. Scroll down on the page you click on and you’ll see a section called “Recipe Quick Click“. Under that you’ll see an entire list complete with links to EVERY RECIPE in that particular category. And it’s alphabetized. 

I’ve been wanting to do that forever…but knew it would take forever to do. It did. It took me about four and a half hours to create those lists with links. But…WOW…is it easy to find Swiss Steak and Homemade Soft Pretzels and ANY recipe you want on my site. Hoorah!

So…have any random food news you’d like to share? Does talking about fudge also make you think of salad dressing?

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Menu Plan for the Week

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Wow, this weekend Malachi turned five. My baby. Who isn’t a baby anymore.

My SIL Kari called Friday to console me like she does everytime Malachi has a birthday. Come to think of it, she has to console me anytime Asa, our oldest, has a birthday too. ‘Cause when Asa has a birthday, I tend to get all freaked out about having a kid that old and oh my how is that possible and I must be old too and I can’t possibly have a baby who is almost thirteen.

Sounds like I have issues. Honey, you have no idea. It’s okay. I have all of you to help me deal with them. Thank you.  And I’m sorry.

Anyway, Malachi is finally getting to an age where he thinks about and cares about his birthday and what happens on his birthday. Which, bless his heart, happens just a few busy days before Christmas.

Grandpa made it in time for Malachi’s birthday, which made it super great. Plus, we host a church small group at our house on Sunday  nights…so I made a cake and I’m calling it a party. Lots of Malachi’s friends are going to be here anyway so I don’t have to plan anything extra – and he doesn’t feel one bit neglected!

Here’s our Christmas Week menu:

Sunday, December 20 (Malachi’s birthday choices)
Donuts
Sandwiches, chips, grapes
Silly Face Pizza, chocolate birthday cake

Monday, December 21
Blueberry pancakes
Tuna on toast, carrot sticks, smoothies
Crunchy ranch chicken, stir fried rice and veggies

Tuesday, December 22
Christmas sourdough biscuits with butter and honey, pears
Chili with cheese, carrots, fruit salad
Roast beef gravy over mashed potatoes, green beans

Wednesday, December 23
Cinnamon spice muffins, bananas
Salmon patties, creamy mac and cheese, peas
Lasagna, tossed salad, corn

Thursday, December 24
Christmas donuts
Christmas Tree Pizzas
Snack buffet:  Ranch cheese ball with crispy cheese crackers, spicy avocado dip with chips, turkey rollups, veggie tray, fruit tray, cookies, hot cider

Friday, December 25
Cinnamon rolls, breakfast casserole, warm vanilla soother, fruit
Sandwiches on the road
Ham, scalloped potatoes, green beans, rolls, desserts

Saturday, December 26
Peanut butter honey toast, applesauce
Leftovers
Veggie soup, homemade soft pretzels 

If you want to write this week’s menu on a fun FREE Christmas Menu Planner…click here! You’ll find four different designs to choose from!

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Find more menu planning and all kinds of organizing 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!

Learning about Laura: Reader’s Choice – Question #52

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Ever answered a question by asking a question?

Yeah, you get to do that today. Cool.

Last year during the week or two around Christmas time, I shared a little series called Learning About Laura. 

This year during Christmas time, I thought I’d do something similar and add to the series. But this time…I’m letting YOU pick the topic matter. 

Now, you already know about my horrid high school nick-name…you know about my favorite childhood memory…and you know about how my husband lost a coin toss and that’s how we started dating.

What else would you like to know? Have any burning questions you’ve been just dying to know about me? 

I’ll work on answering your questions during the next couple of weeks!

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