Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Clueless

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I have no idea what I’m doing.

I have a pre-teen and I don’t know what I’m doing.

I didn’t know how to have a newborn 12 years ago either, and somehow I figured it out. Will I figure this new season out too?

You know what’s rotten? Being the firstborn. Sometimes I really feel sad for Asa that he has to be the one for me to learn on. Someone has to be the one.

I look back on several things I’ve done as I’ve tried to figure out how to be a parent.

Sometimes I feel like throwing myself down in front of him and crying, “I’m so sorry, Asa. I shouldn’t have put so much pressure on you about that. I didn’t know how ridiculous I was being. I just didn’t know.”

Somehow he has survived my lack of knowing how to do this job and has turned out to be a really neat kid.

But now we’re entering this new stage and it’s weird. It’s different. 

He’s entering that kid-to-adult stage. He’s starting to try to figure himself out. It’s really neat, but no, not really. Oh, but yes…it really is.

I did not enjoy that stage of my own life. How do I help my son figure it out? 

You know what I’ve decided is really easy? Doing laundry. Cooking meals. Washing mountains of dishes.

But raising children? Loving your kids so much that it hurts? Trying to walk your kids through life’s changes and challenges?

Exhausting. Confusing. Painful. Frustrating. 

But joyful. 

And fun. And crazy. And hilarious. And super cool.

I have no idea what I’m doing. I’ve spent more time in prayer about my parenting abilities in the past few weeks than I have for the entire past twelve years.

I’m so thankful that while I feel completely clueless, I serve a God who loves me enough to offer grace and unconditional love. Oh, the comfort of knowing that I’m being guided by the Perfect Parent.

Maybe I’ll be able to handle this after all.

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Homeschool Hubbub: What Curriculum?

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I promised a long time ago to talk more about our homeschooling. Since we’re coming up on a new school year I thought I’d better get my act in gear and answer more of your questions. (We’re starting August 3. Read this post  from last year to understand more about why I like to start so early!)  Here’s the question I’ll cover today:

How do you design your curriculum? Do you do the pre-packaged stuff or customize your own?

I guess I do a little bit of both. And I kind of go about it in a weird way…but it works for me and I love it. It takes several hundred hours to figure out and put together…but I love that too because I love surrounding myself with our books for the year.

Here’s how it works for us:

We’ve chosen to use Sonlight curriculum.  We completely, totally and absolutely love Sonlight.  It is literature based and teaches the kids about history and science and life and all of God’s people all over the world in such a fun and natural way. Instead of textbooks…we read and learn from regular books. Regular really, really good books. I can’t believe how much I’ve learned from this curriculum (and the kids have learned an awful lot too!).

The reason I say that I sort of put my curriculum together myself is this:  I’ll have a 7th grader, a 4th grader, a 2nd grader and a four year old this year. I love all of Sonlight’s recommended books, but I’m not able to teach four different grade levels to my four different boys (and still keep up with their laundry).

I use Sonlight curriculum catalog as a guide…then I piece together what books and subjects we’ll cover for the year. I do this for history, science, Bible and read-alouds.

This year, for instance, we’ll all be studying American History. I will be using several of the books recommended for the 3rd and 4th grade level…and several from the 7th grade level and use them altogether for all the boys.

So far this method works well for us (although this year or next year may be our last year for combining all the kids together since Asa’s working his way toward <cough> high school).

What I’ve found is that my littlest boys catch quite a bit of information…Justus catches more…and Asa learns even more than that. It’s working great and I love that we’re all working on the same materials together. It makes for some pretty cool discussions and some awesome times together plopped together in the living room on couches and pillows.

The beauty of homeschooling is that you can teach your family in whatever way works best to teach your family. Almost all curriculums out there have a very easy and detailed teacher guide to make homeschooling possible and simple for every parent. Sonlight rocks in that department with super detailed week-by-week teacher guides. I just go about it in a different sort of way and create my own teacher guide/school outline because that’s what works best for my family at this point in our schooling.

And…have I ever mentioned how much we LOVE homeschooling in our family?  Our books have started arriving and you would think it’s Christmas. I love how excited the boys get! Coming up…I’ll share about our homeschool budget, what books we’ll be using this year…and I’ll answer more of the questions mentioned in this post. I’ll also try to share more of the books and programs we like for math and phonics, etc.

Any of you other homeschoolers care to share what curriculum you like and how you go about planning your school year?

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Gratituesday: My New Toy

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I’ve been wanting one for a long time. I’ve been trying to figure out if I’ve been needing it…or just wanting it. I saved up for it. I researched it.

And last week I got it.

My new laptop computer. It’s actually not new…just new to me and that counts, right?

Now, I can write while sitting in my recliner. Or upstairs. Or outside. 

And…when Matt needs to do computer work in the evenings…we can both get computer work done. At the same time. Together.

I’m very excited about my new laptop! See? Look at me? I’m blogging from the couch!!

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Photo courtesy of Justus

Now, I’m wondering how I might be able to wash dishes from the comfort of my couch? (Kidding. Of course I’m not that lazy.)  (Actually…letting the boys wash dishes while I’m on the couch sort of works, doesn’t it?)

:)

I’m thankful that God provides enough for little extras like this that just make life a tiny bit easier. 

What are you thankful for this Gratituesday? Blog about it, then come link up with us here. If you don’t have a blog, leave a comment letting us  know what you’re thankful for!

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Zucchini Recipes: Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cookies

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Tis the season for zucchini to grow into the size of baseball bats (and be used as such if you live at my house). Tis the season for everyone to lock their doors while at church…just to prevent someone from unloading their overgrown zucchini into other people’s cars when no one’s looking. Tis the season for people to start offering to pay you money just to take zucchini off their hands.

It’s amazing how one little hill can produce enough zucchini to fill an entire kitchen. (Did I mention that I didn’t even plant zucchini this year?!)

We’ve eaten a bunch of zucchini in stir fry or simply sauted it in a bit of olive oil. It’s SO good like that. I’ve already shredded a bunch and put it into the freezer. Now, I’m on a quest to figure out some great recipes that will sneak zucchini into a variety of dishes, making them more nutritious. And well…a zucchini can only serve as a baseball bat for so long. Eventually it must be eaten.

I don’t like eating a huge zucchini as is. The seeds are larger than my teeth and the skin is tougher than I prefer. I like shredding the large ones in my food processor and stirring them into zucchini bread (whole wheat and honey recipe coming soon). 

While making zucchini bread last week (and then looking around at all the other huge zucchini in my kitchen) I realized that surely one could come up with a cookie, or at least a cookie bar that included zucchini. So I tinkered around. I discovered this:  Cookies are a delicious way to eat more zucchini. 

Here’s the recipe I came up with:

Giant Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cookies Yum

2 cups shredded zucchini
1/2 cup melted butter
1 cup organic sucanat (dehydrated cane sugar juice)
1 egg
1/2 t. salt
1 t. baking soda
3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
3/4 cup chocolate chips

Shred zucchini (I use a food processor). In a large mixing bowl mix sucanat, flour, salt and baking soda. Stir in shredded zucchini, melted butter and egg. Fold in chocolate chips. Use a large scoop to put 1 1/2 T. sized balls of dough onto a cookie sheet. Bake in a 350° oven for 15 minutes. Makes about 20 giant cookies.

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Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bars

Follow the same recipe as above, only spread the dough into a 9×13 inch pan. Bake in a 350° oven for 20-25 minutes.

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My husband, kids and I all loved these. Zucchini makes them moist…and of course chocolate makes everything good.

Coming up in my next Zucchini Recipes post…I’ll share my whole wheat and honey zucchini bread and muffin recipe!
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Go check out  Amy’s awesome list of zucchini recipes!

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Menu Plan for the Week

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This weekend should have been called “The Weekend of the Great Zucchini Experiment”. I’ve been playing around with healthy versions of zucchini bread and muffins, created a chocolate chip zucchini cookie that we really liked, and got a bunch of other zucchini shredded and ready to put into zucchini casserole and whatever else I want to make or invent.

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I’m thinking zucchini brownies are in order (no I’m not kidding). And zucchini cake.

There are several good zucchini ideas on Amy’s post here that were fun and inspiring (read through the comments!).

Here’s our menu for the week:

Sunday, July 19
Whole wheat zucchini bread, bananas
Chicken enchiladas, tossed salad
Hamburgers, watermelon

Monday, July 20
Simple sourdough pancakes
Tuna topped tomatoes, cottage cheese and peaches
Black beans and rice with salsa and kreme fresh

Tuesday, July 21
Fried eggs on toast, oranges
Homemade pizza, tossed salad
Beefy enchilada bake, strawberry-peach slushies

Wednesday, July 22
Chocolate chip zucchini bars, apples
Grilled cheese sandwiches, spicy avocado dip with chips,  fresh pineapple
Popcorn chicken, fried zucchini, tomatoes

Thursday, July 23
Fruit and yogurt delight
BLTs, green beans, watermelon
Beef garden casserole

Friday, July 24
Peanut butter honey toast, cantaloupe
Creamy mac and cheese, peas
Tacos, fruit salad

Saturday, July 25
Breakfast burritos, applesauce
Leftovers
Grilled steak, corn on the cob, zucchini casserole

If I start looking like a zucchini by the end of the week…I guess you’ll all know why. Be watching for some zucchini recipes to be posted in the next few days! (Because if I’m going to look like a zucchini…I think you should too.)
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Visit Organizing Junkie for more menu planning inspiration!

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A Little Bit of Punctuation Follow-Up

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Thanks for all of the wonderful punctuation and grammar discussion from this post. I hope it was helpful to many of you. I loved hearing what all of you had to say! Some of you really had me cracking up…what with your dangling participles and run on sentences. :)

Here are some helpful links I’d like to pass along:

  • Natracare has tampons too: Natracare – Tampons, (Organic) , Super with Applicator 16 Ct
  • Lot’s of people like the diva cup:  divacup.com
  • Insteads were mentioned as being a great option, although not everyone likes this product: Instead 12 Hour Feminine Protection Cup
  • Stephanie has a great post about making cotton pads here.
  • Hillbilly Housewife has a pattern for making cotton pads here.
  • If you don’t want to make your own cotton pads you can buy some here or here.

And now…I think I’m going to go through my fabric stash and see about sewing up some lovely cotton pretties. I’ll let you know how all of that goes. Doesn’t that just leave us all with one big exclamation mark!!!

(Should we discuss colons next? Yeah, maybe not.)

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The Day I Had a Little Too Much Fun with Frosting

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Last week our local library invited a lady in to show us some cake decorating basics. The kids wanted to go because there were cookies and frosting involved.  I wanted to go because I wanted to learn a few things about cake decorating.

I had way too much fun playing with the frosting tips and patterns. In fact…I sort of forgot that really and truly I was supposed to be there to help the kids. 

“Mom…can I have a turn with the squeezy thing?”

Oh yeah.

Anyway…I was enjoying myself so much that after it was all over, the lady offered to let me take the leftover frosting home so that I could keep playing.  I decided to ignore the fact that the frosting was loaded with shortening, sugar and food coloring and I said yes please.  Hey, it was about decorating…not eating…right?

I quickly baked some cupcakes when I got home then played with my Pampered Chef Accent Decorator to make these flowers:

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I thought they turned out kind of cute. I decided that if I was using shortening and food coloring….I might as well throw in a few M&Ms too. Shucks why not? We had a little girl house guest this weekend and she gave me a big smile for these. Yay…someone to appreciate purple flowers with me.

I don’t think I’ll quit my day job…but squeezing frosting out of a tube and making patterns is really cool. I’m thinking that I’m going to redeem a couple of Swagbuck earned Amazon cards so that I can get one of these because it will work much better than the one I have for what I’d like to learn.

 Now (because this is what I do) I will experiment with different kinds of frostings so that I can create a yummy one that works for decorating that doesn’t require shortening. And I will play with different ideas for adding coloring that doesn’t require food coloring. (I hear beet juice works well for pink.)

As soon as I have some fun things learned and figured out (and if the result isn’t embarassing to share in picture form)…I’ll let you know.

In the meantime today, check out the carnival going on over at Life as Mom and enjoy all kinds of cake decorating ideas!

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Let’s Discuss…Punctuation (Periods and Question Marks)

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First let me warn any male readers that may be visting here today. You really probably want to stop reading now and go – I don’t know – hit a few golf balls or something. This discussion is sort of “for girls only, boys not allowed.”

Okay, ladies…have they all left? Would someone in the back please close the door? Alright now, everyone come closer.

I’ve been wanting to have this discussion for a while. About  punctuation. Periods to be exact.

I kind of thought I was the crazy one. The only one. Until I had a discussion with some girlfriends of mine several months ago about…punctuation. They were experiencing the SAME things I was.

I never really thought that the brand of “punctuation products” I used mattered very much so I would just use coupons and get regular ol’ Kotex at the store for a pretty good deal.

Then I started developing a minor irritation which month after month turned into an incredibly horrible itchy miserable rash. And it wasn’t on my elbow if you know what I mean.

Not only that, but my punctuation was lasting forever. A long time. Seemed to be longer each month.

I thought it was just me. Not so, according to some of the people I talked to.

According to one of my friends (and I’m really sorry that I can’t find the research to back this up) some companies are actually putting chemicals on their products to make your punctuation last longer and be heavier so that you will go through lots more of their products and buy more.  Are you kidding me?  (Again, I have no official research to back this up.)

BUT, I immediately ordered the Natracare brand to test it out for myself. They are chemical and additive free. They are biodegradable and contain organic materials.

I noticed a difference right away.

First, the miserable rash went away. Hallelujah!

Second, the very first month I switched over, my punctuation was several days shorter and quite a bit lighter. The second month…same thing. Third month…same thing.

Uh-huh. Amazing. If at all possible I will NEVER use regular punctuation products from the store again. The Natracare products have made a huge difference for me each month and I love it. (Well, as much as you can love monthy puctuation that is.)

I don’t even care that they cost a little bit more. Actually…I bought a whole case at once and considering that I go through less of them each month…I’m actually not spending more. Hah!

Here’s what I got:

Natracare Natural Ultra Pads with Wings, Long, 12-Count Boxes (Pack Of 12)

Natracare Pads Ultra With Wings 14 ct ( Six Pack)

Natracare Natural Pads, Slender, Case of 12- 20 Count Boxes (240 Pads)

There are tons of other varieties…those just happen to be the ones that work best for me. (Wow, do you know way too much about me or what?)

Now, eventually I’d like to look into cloth cotton pads (Sckoon Organic Plus Cloth Menstrual Pads with Leak Resitant Sheet Mini Daisey) in order to save money in the long run and prevent waste. Anyone have any experience with these that they can share?

I realize this sounds like an infomercial. Really it’s not. Natracare is not paying me to tell you these things. It’s just that they made a big difference for me and well…I like all of you an awful lot and wanted to tell you about it just in case they can help you too.

Because it is not fun to have question marks about your periods.

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Gratituesday: The Garden

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I know I’ve already shared how much I love my garden…but everytime I go out to water the plants or pick veggies…I am again reminded of God’s goodness and of how He provides.

Here are a few current pictures of my garden areas. I love to see how much it has changed in just a few short weeks.

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Our potatoes are big and full. AND a random pumpkin plant decided to grow right in the middle of our potatoes. What a fun treat for the kids to find several big pumpkins growing!

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Our broccoli plants are pretty well finished for the year. It doesn’t get much better than fresh broccoli. Just beyond the broccoli, our hot peppers are starting to form. And…the okra plants have teeny tiny okra growing.

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Here are our sweet pepper plants!

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Check out how crazy my potato container looks now! The plants grew up huge over the top and now they are toppling over the sides! I can not wait to dump it out in the fall and see all the potatoes!

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We are just now starting to pick green beans. A few butternut squash are growing on the plant there beside the beans. Can you believe that squash plant is from ONE tiny seed? 

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I’m not sure why I saved the ugliest picture for last. Yikes. Here are our tomato plants which have grown huge and gangly all over the place. We have lots of little green tomatoes which will soon be lots of big colorful tomatoes. I can not wait! Just pretend that you can tell that those are tomato plants in the picture!

Seeing God’s goodness and power as He makes awesome food grow from a tiny seed just brings me such joy!
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What are you grateful for this Gratituesday? Write about it on your blog, then 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!

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Making Homemade Chocolate Chips…In Detail

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I posted about making homemade chocolate chips a long time ago. Since that time, I’ve received several emails asking for more help and detail about how this works. It seems that many of you who tried the recipe are having trouble getting everything to melt and dissolve and mix like it should.

In light of your chocolate chip frustration…I decided to do a more thorough tutorial about how I make chocolate chips. The words Chocolate and frustration should never be in the same sentence together. Ever.

You can use coconut oil or butter to make your chips. I used butter this time because I’m almost out of coconut oil. Butter doesn’t quite work as well as coconut oil. They tend to be softer with butter…but still oh so good. Especially when you put them in these Chocolate Chip Brownies.

Here again is the recipe:

Homemade Chocolate ChipsYum

1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup rapadura or sucanat (you can use white sugar if you want)
1 cup coconut oil or butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract  (homemade vanilla extract if you have it!)

Begin by placing the cocoa, sucanat and butter (or coconut oil) into a quart sized jar. 

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Fill a small saucepan with two or three inches of water. Place the jar into the saucepan/water. Turn the heat on medium/high to begin melting the butter.

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Stir often. After five minutes, my mixture looked like this:

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After ten minutes, my mixture looked like this:

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It took a total of thirteen minutes for the butter to completely melt. I then pulled it out of the water, added the vanilla and stirred well.

The mixture in my jar looked and smelled SO GOOD that I wanted to drink it. But I didn’t.  That would have made quite a mustache. 

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Pour the mixture into a 9×13 inch pan covered with parchment paper. Spread it as evenly as you can. 

As you can hopefully tell from the following picture, I still have a little sucanat that refused to completely dissove. Can you see the bits of chunkyness? That’s been one of the questions I’ve received from several of you. But…the little bits of chunkyness don’t hurt anything. My chocolate chips tasted just fine!

You like how the ceiling fan is reflecting in the chocolate? 
I’m just trying to show off my terrible photography skills.

Place your pan into the refrigerator for 1-2 hours so that the chocolate can harden. Remove it from the parchment paper and break it into chunks. Store in refrigerator in an airtight container (unless you and your family eat them all first).

Just a note:  These chocolate chips taste wonderful in Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies, but keep in mind that they are very pure and therefore tend to melt and get runny while baking. Chocolate Chip Cookies with homemade chocolate chips taste wonderful, but might look a little bit funny. No matter, ugly cookies taste good too. :)  I recommend eating these chocolate chips plain, mixed with peanuts or in trail mix, in Chocolate Chip Brownies or in Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins.

And now, I do believe I need to use my freshly made chocolate chips to bake brownies. After I eat some green beans and broccoli of course…

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