Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting
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Having a hard time finding your kitchen? Don’t know what to do with it once you find it? This e-book can help! Get your kitchen organized and functional (get it? funky…functional…) once and for all! Let this e-book inspire you to clean off your countertops, clean out your fridge, pantry and cabinets so that you can be more efficient with your time and energy in your kitchen. Full of practical ideas so that you too can “Do the Funky Kitchen.” A fun read!
$4.95
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If you’re interested in having an organized kitchen…and learning lots of yummy recipes to make in your organized kitchen…this e-book package is for you!
You’ll get “What to Do With the Vanilla in Your Kitchen”, “What to Do With Your Kids in the Kitchen”, “What to Do With the Chicken in Your Kitchen”, “What to Do With the Cow in Your Kitchen”, and “What to Do With the Cocoa in Your Kitchen” in this complete package.
Instead of buying these e-books separately, save money by purchasing this discounted package!
$19.95
Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!I’ve had several requests for my homemade barbecue sauce recipe. Turns out…it’s a high five recipe! Doesn’t get much easier than that!
I mix this Barbecue Sauce up as a dip for our meatballs or Popcorn Chicken…YUM!
Sometimes I put a few pieces of chicken into the crock pot, dump the sauce over the top, and let it cook slowly for a few hours. It’s the easiest main dish ever! Get the details on my Crock Pot Barbecue Chicken Breasts here. It’s also fantastic on Grilled Barbecue Chicken.
Or, sometimes I add it to leftover roast beef for BBQ beef sandwiches. Even more fun? Make your BBQ Beef into Barbecue Beef and Cheese Hot Pockets. They are freezable so you can make them ahead and pull them out as needed.
So let’s review.
What all do you put barbecue sauce on?
Oh, and by the way – I really have no idea what “liquid smoke” is. I’m assuming that it isn’t the healthiest ingredient in the world. BUT…it makes for a yummy, easy BBQ sauce. This version is MUCH healthier than the HFCS versions I could buy at the store.
If I ever figure out how to turn smoke into a liquid and put it into a bottle all by myself, you’ll be the first to know.
Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!
I have started this post and deleted this post about four times.
God did something really awesome this weekend at our family reunion and I want to share it with you because it is so great and God is so great.
But I guess I just really can’t. It’s sort of a private family matter and I can’t figure out how to write this post without saying too much or saying too little and confusing you all to pieces.
Can I just tell you that God did something terrific at our family reunion this weekend? And that I couldn’t even sleep Friday night because what happened was something I’ve been praying about for around ten years? And that even though it was maybe just a little thing that might not amount to the miracle we’ve all been praying for…it might be the first step toward something wonderful?
I can’t even begin to tell you how exciting this was. And is. And…how much more I am in prayer about the situation now.
God answers prayer. Sometimes it takes over ten years. And it may take many more years for our continued prayer about this situation to become the miracle we’re asking for.
But I believe that God’s power is at work in this. Without a doubt, God’s power is more powerful than any other. I’m on my knees. And…even though I’m being vague…I’d appreciate it if you’d join me.
God’s goodness shouted out to me this weekend. Don’t you love it when that happens?
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What are you grateful for this Gratituesday? Write about it on your blog then come link up with us here. If you 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!I don’t think I ever mentioned it, but recently some friends of ours moved away (sad) and left us their trampoline (happy) .
The boys have been having a BLAST on it. On really hot days they put the sprinkler under it, turn it on, and let the water blast through to give them a shower. It has been SO much fun for them.
Here are a couple of shower-less pics…
Whoa, Malachi is flying on this one.
Now it’s Elias’ turn to fly.
They’ve been begging me to join them sometime. I’ve been fighting it for a while. Like…really…the trampoline? Me? Naw, you kids go ahead and have fun. I’ll just watch and take pictures.
But then a few nights ago I surprised them by climbing on!
I can not believe how much fun it was!
I also can not believe that all of my internal organs stayed where they’re supposed to stay. Good Night Nellie…I’m not as young as I used to be.
Here are a few trampoline jumping tips (just in case you might need them some day):
Seriously, I had just gotten on the thing and taken about four jumps when they start shouting at me, “Mom…try a Cannon Ball!” and “Can you do a flip and land it?” and “Can we all get up there with you now?”
I…on the other hand…was shouting things like, “Ohmahgoodness-I-hope-I-don’t-puke. Do your stomachs feel this weird when you come down off a jump?” and “No I can not do a Cannon Ball and I am absolutely sure I can not land anything.” and “No please do NOT get up here with me. We have really crummy health insurance.”
I also laughed myself silly.
And then I got up there again the next day.
Really…you’ve gotta try it sometime.
Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!Learn to make Homemade Vanilla Extract!
Yes indeed. The four boys and I went into Walmart a few days ago for the sole purpose of buying vodka. A gallon of it.
I felt the need to tell the check out lady why I was buying an entire gallon of vodka. She just looked at me like I was a lunatic and shrugged as if to say, “Hey, do whatever you want to with your vodka, girl.”
And then she wouldn’t let Justus carry it out of the store. You know…just in case I was buying the vodka for my nine year old minor.
It made for some good discussion on the way home: what drinking alcohol can do to your brain…why the lady had to make sure I was over 21 to buy it…why it’s okay to carry a watermelon out of Walmart when you’re nine but not a couple jugs of vodka.
All that to say: I just started my very first batch of homemade vanilla!!! I’m super excited. My friend Jill sent me a beautiful bottle of her homemade vanilla a couple of weeks ago and it’s fabulous!!! (I guess you could say that I was pressured by a friend into buying alcohol. “Go ahead Laura…make your own vanilla. Everyone’s doing it.”)
Now that I’m hooked on the idea…I thought I’d try to influence you too…
A gallon jar
One gallon of Vodka (the cheap stuff is fine) (To keep you from standing in the liquor section too long to calculate this…2 bottles of 1.75 liters each will be the exact amount you need to make a gallon of vanilla.)
50-80 Vanilla Beans (You’ll need about 1/2 – 3/4 pound) – enter code home for a 20% discount on Vanilla Beans through Olive Nation!!
Kitchen shears
Begin by slicing through each bean lengthwise, leaving about one inch at the top of each bean uncut so that it stays together.
See? Like this…
Place all of your cut Vanilla Beans into your jar.
Fill the jar with vodka. (I took the following picture with my left hand while pouring the vodka with my right hand. This proves that apparently…I can really handle my liquor.)
Once the jar is full with beans and vodka, put the lid on…then put the jar in a dark place (like in the back of a cabinet). It needs to stay there for FOUR to SIX MONTHS in order to become vanilla extract! Occasionally, you should get it out and shake it up a bit, then put it back into it’s dark place.
Here’s the cool thing: If you start a batch of vanilla really soon, it will be ready in time to put into little bottles and give as Christmas gifts. (Family members reading this – you have exactly six months to forget all about this post and be surprised on Christmas morning.) If you don’t get it started right this minute, from what I’ve researched, a little less than six months of “vanilla extracting” time won’t hurt anything.
To complete your vanilla once four-six months have passed: strain out your vanilla beans with a coffee filter lined colander and tada…you have vanilla extract! Bottle it up in dark amber bottles – give it as gifts and start cooking with it yourself!! Yum!
AND…if you don’t want to make a whole gallon of vanilla…you can make a lesser amount:
Well…I know I’ve influenced many of you to eat healthier and plant potatoes in a container. Is it now possible that several of you are going to run out to buy liquor? Tell the clerk the Heavenly Homemaker sent you.
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Read this post to learn how to finish and strain your vanilla after 4-6 months.
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I recommend that you purchase your Vanilla Beans through Olive Nation. You’ll receive 20% off your entire order!!!! Thank you Olive Nation for offering HeavenlyHomemakers readers free shipping on orders over $50 and a special 20% discount!
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You can purchase dark amber bottles here.
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Here’s where I ordered my labels for vanilla bottles.
I, also, love these pretty labels! They are customizable, and come in several designs.
Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!
Last Saturday it was HOT. I was feeling rather useless by late afternoon. All I felt like doing was sprawling out under the ceiling fan in my recliner. And so I did.
Imagine my joy when Elias and Justus came to me and asked if they could PLEASE make dinner for everyone. I have no idea what made them want to do this.
Side note: Saturday afternoons are the hours we’ve allotted in the week for the boy’s Play Station time. I couldn’t even believe they were giving up those precious minutes to make dinner. Without being asked. Or threatened.
So off they went (while I stayed in my cool, useless position in the recliner) to scrounge up some dinner. They put together the greatest meal! Seriously, you should (have your kids) make these sometime. (And I should have my kids write their own ebook.)
Elias spread mayo on the tortillas he found. Then he topped them each with the cooked chicken leftover from a few days before.
In the meantime, Justus carefully cut up tomatoes….
And carrots…
Then Elias stuck a piece of spinach on each tortilla and some tomatoes and carrots. Check out his cute little tortilla assembly line!
Now, wrapping them up was a little tricky because they were so full…so I had to get my lazy self off the chair to help. It’s okay though. I’d already gotten my lazy self up to snap the above pics.
For ONE WHOLE HOUR they worked hard on that dinner. They were amazing and darling little servant-hearted angels. And they were SO EXCITED to be making dinner for the family.
Hearing their sweetness and joy in the kitchen was all the refreshment I needed on that hot summer day. (And wow…was my tortilla wrap YUMMY!)
I’m so grateful for precious moments like this with my kids. (It’s good to have these moments to hold onto when they’re tearing my living room and each other apart.) And I’m grateful that they are learning to serve.
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What are you grateful 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 grateful for!
Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!As you could probably tell, we did some re-arranging around here this weekend. Undeniably, by “we” I mean “Char” who is my very wonderful friend…and also my go-to person who knows about all things techie. I don’t know what I would do without her (on or offline). If you would all go over to her place and tell her how wonderful she is…I’d appreciate it.
Beyond computer work this weekend, I spent some time figuring out a few meals that don’t require much heat. I’ve got enough heat now that the one hundred and whatever degree days are upon us…and I don’t feel too much like adding to it with my oven. Even if it does remind me of Grandma. We may be going “breadless” for a while. I think I’ll be making a lot of tortillas instead.
Thankfully we’ve still got quite a bit of lettuce in our garden, so we can eat lots of salads. (If you live close-by, will you please call and ask if you can come get some, because I’ll say yes. Seriously…call me.)
Here’s the menu for this week:
Sunday, June 28
Oatmeal, fruit
Steak on the grill, new potatoes, stir fried veggies
Chicken tostadas, tossed salad
Monday, June 29
Whole wheat waffles
Skillet meatballs, creamy mac and cheese, green beans
Bean dip with chips and salsa, grapes
Tuesday, June 30
Fried eggs, oranges
Black bean taco salad, strawberry-peach slushies
Grilled chicken, creamy cole slaw, fruit salad
Wednesday, July 1
Strawberry bread (from freezer!)
Tuna salad on tomatoes and lettuce, strawberry milkshakes
Turkey ham and cheese egg scramble, cantaloupe
Thursday, July 2
Kefir-fruit smoothies
Lasagna casserole, tossed salad
Quesadillas, grapes
Friday, July 3
Banana muffins (from freezer), apples
Pizza, tossed salad
Cookout
Saturday, July 4
Biscuits and gravy, eggs
Smoked turkey, potato salad, tossed salad
Hamburgers, the works
Here are a couple of FREE Fourth of July Menu Planner for ya!
Click here for the download links!
Anyone have any special Fourth of July plans?
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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!
As we’ve seen as we go through this series, there are so many things we as women can do to minister to others without neglecting what absolutely should be our main ministry: our families. If you haven’t already, be sure to catch up on the rest of this series here.
Today I want to talk about a different ministry opportunity: Compassion International. I love this organization for so many reasons…
We chose to sponsor a little boy a few months ago (yes go figure…we chose a little boy!). The entire experience has been delightful for us. We picked someone who practically shares a birthday with Asa. That made him seem even more real to the boys.
We looked on the globe to see where he lives and learned about his country. His picture is on our refrigerator. We get to sit down and write him letters together. We pray for him together. The boys ask us questions about him from time to time. I love that they have a “brother” across the globe. I think they love it too.
If you have a few minutes…take the time to watch this video.
And then consider if sponsoring a child through Compassion International is a ministry that you and your family could take on together. You won’t regret it.
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If any of you have experiences with Compassion International that you can tell about…please share in the comments!
Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!I decided to do a little baking today. Why? Because it’s always fun to bake on a 101° day, right?
I know I’m weird, but we have to eat…and cooking and baking in a hot kitchen reminds me of my grandma. And thinking of my grandma makes me happy (even in my hot kitchen). I used to help her a lot in the summers, feeding the men during the long hot days of wheat harvest, making sauerkraut, feeding family members who would come by. Seems like Grandma was always feeding people.
Her kitchen was about as big as my small bathroom. And – it was hot. But because I was with my grandma, doing all the things I loved to do, I didn’t even care. And neither did she.
Anyway, even though it was hot (and humid) today, I decided to do some baking. Inspired by my friend Megan, I came up with a Strawberry Bread recipe to share with you!
Strawberry Bread
2 cups fresh (or frozen) strawberries
3 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups sucanat
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup melted butter
3 eggs
First…you can do one of two things with your strawberries: If they’re fresh, you can slice them and stir them into your dry ingredients. Or, if you don’t think your family will like chunks of strawberries in their bread, blend them all up in the blender, then mix in. If you’re using frozen strawberries, thaw, then blend in blender.
Mix dry ingredients together. Stir in butter, eggs and strawberries. Pour into two buttered loaf pans. Bake in a 350° oven for 45-50 minutes.
The bread looks a little bit dark…probably from the whole wheat flour and sucanat. Oh, but it TASTES so good! I’m thinking that throwing a few chocolate chips in might be good too!
Since I had to have the oven on anyway, I doubled the recipe and made four loaves! I also mixed up some Corn Dog Muffins and threw those in. Gotta make the heat worth it right? Now, I’ve got a big batch of Corn Dog Muffins and two loaves of Strawberry Bread in the freezer for another day when I don’t want to turn on the oven!
Now that I’m finished baking, I’m sitting in the living room under the ceiling fan with a cold glass of Limeade. It’s fun having these “hot kitchen memories” of Grandma…but maybe now I’ll just sit in the coolness and think of a snowy Christmas with Grandma…
Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!