Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Filling Those Easter Baskets

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Looking to fill your kids’ Easter Baskets this weekend? Do it simply with these Six Easy Steps:

  1. Purchase the biggest basket you can find.
  2. Dump in a good portion of the money you earned this week.
  3. Pour in five pounds of sugar.
  4. Drizzle on three cups of High Fructose Corn Syrup.
  5. Add a wide variety of artificial colors. (Go ahead, don’t hold back.)
  6. Toss in several cheap plastic toys (the kind that like to re-locate themselves under your van seats and couch cushions after one short use).

What? You don’t like my Six Easy Steps? Neither do I.

But that’s often what many of us do when we put together Easter baskets for our kids. We spend more money than we mean to. We can’t decide between the jelly beans, the chocolate bunnies or the malted milk balls…so we get all three (plus several of those foil covered cream filled eggs). The little yo-yos with little yellow chicks printed on them are too cute to pass up, so we throw those into the cart too.

Before we know it, we have completed the Six Easy Steps in twelve expensive minutes.

How about taking a look at some new ideas this year? There are so many fun ways to create gifts for your kids that cost just a few cents and a small amount of your time. Here are a few that our kids have enjoyed.

Fill the Easter Baskets

Homemade Flubber

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Homemade Tootsie Rolls

Malachi's Lego Fudge

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Homemade Vanilla Wafers

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Homemade Bubble Bath

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Homemade Fruit Leather

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Honestly, my kids enjoy the Easter Egg hunt so much, they really don’t think too hard about what’s in the eggs!

AND…what’s really important about Easter anyway?! :)

What kinds of things do you like to put into your kids’ Easter Baskets? Have any fun ideas or neat family traditions to share?

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Menu Plan for the Week

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Soccer season for our boys starts up this week. Malachi is finally “big” enough to play. He’s been waiting his whole life for this moment. :) 

So, here we go. Four boys on four different teams…Matt coaching two of the teams…Evenings and Saturdays full of practices and games…Freezing our tushies off while we jump and cheer and say things like, “No! Go the other way!!”.

I’m mostly looking forward to the season…because it truly is delightful to watch each of the boys play at their different levels. I can’t wait to see Malachi in his uniform, which is surely going to look like a dress on him. 

Oh my word, I hope we have cleats to fit everyone this year. Usually this isn’t a problem because we have had soccer shoes of every brand and size handed down to us. It’s just a matter of finding them all and making sure there is a left shoe to go with the right shoe. Details, details.

This weekend I tried to work ahead in the kitchen so that we’d have some easy meals to pull from before we head off to play soccer. Everyone seems to need to eat before we leave and after we get home from practices and games. 

To make things a little simpler (or whatever), I planned our bigger meals during lunchtime this week, saving our grab and go food for the evenings. At least this way I can try to make sure we get enough veggies in, right?

Sunday, April 5
Honey whole wheat bagels, applesauce
Friends took us out to lunch!
Chicken and noodles, mashed potatoes, carrot sticks

Monday, April 6
Simple sourdough pancakes
Oven fried chicken, mashed potato pancakes, peas
Beef and cheese burritoes, apples

Tuesday, April 7
Biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs, oranges
Beefy enchilada bake, tossed salad
Homemade pizza pockets, peaches

Wednesday, April 8
Chocolate chip muffins, pears
Lamb chops, baked potatoes, green beans
Baked spaghetti, tossed salad, corn

Thursday, April 9
Fruit-kefir smoothies, granola
BBQ chicken, potato salad, creamy cole slaw
Cheesy quesadillas, carrot sticks, apples

Friday, April 10 – Sunday, April 12
LTC and Easter weekend with friends!!

On the blogging menu for the week:

  • I’ll share some simple Easter basket fun (less sugar, less money!)
  • Gratituesday (I LOVE reading about what you’re grateful for!)
  • Gardening 101:  How to plant potatoes
  • Homeschool Hubbub:  Why we chose to homeschool
  • I’m taking a break from sharing High Five Recipes so that I can share my Honey Whole Wheat Bagel recipe. High Five Recipes will return next week!

Have any Easter weekend plans?!
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Visit Organizing Junkie for more menu planning ideas!

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How to Make Peanut Butter

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I just learned last week how to make peanut butter.

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Here is what I must now ask myself…

WHY HAVE I NEVER MADE PEANUT BUTTER BEFORE?

I make almost everything else from scratch. But somehow making peanut butter sounded hard to me. I guess I thought I’d have to crush each individual peanut for three hours with my fingernails until it turned soft and creamy. I’d just never looked into it before. Finally I watched a tutorial here.

Um, hello Laura! It takes about a minute and a half! And you don’t even break a sweat (or a fingernail). Now, I’m totally addicted to making peanut butter. It’s one of the coolest things I’ve ever made.

After I made it, we ate it on pancakes and it was one of the best meals I’ve ever eaten. I loved it!!! All of us loved it! (Except Malachi who doesn’t love peanut butter at all.)

Here’s how to make Peanut Butter:

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Yum
Pour about 2 cups of dry roasted peanuts into your food processor and begin to chop.

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After about thirty seconds the nuts will all be crumbled up like this.

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Keep going with the food processor…

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Here’s what it looks like after about one minute.

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And after about a minute and a half, it starts to become butter-like and rolls itself into a ball. Continue processing until your peanut butter reaches desired consistency.

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Tada…peanut butter!

How to Make Peanut Butter

Stir some honey into your peanut butter if you think your family would like it better that way. Even better, if you prefer a more spreadable peanut butter (like Jif or Skippy but without all the icky ingredients) – check out this recipe for Super Creamy Peanut Butter.

NOW, I’m going to experiment making other nut butters and sunbutter (which is butter made from sunflower seeds if you aren’t familiar with that one). *Update* You’ll find my Almond Butter tutorial here.

The math: The way I figured it, making my own peanut butter did save me money, but not oodles of it like I was hoping for. However, because of the fresh taste of this peanut butter…and the fact that making it was as easy as using my thumb to push a button – I’m hooked!

Grab the family and try this! Then pour yourself a glass of milk and enjoy your hard work. (I love hard work that isn’t hard…)

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Women with a Mission: The Great Clothing Exchange

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

 

My friend Kim organizes a clothing exchange twice a year at our church for anyone in the community to come and get free clothing for their families.  It has been a HUGELY successful ministry and SUCH a practical and obvious opportunity to bless people around us.

I love this “Mommy Ministry” and asked her to write some details about it for you.

Here’s Kim:

HOW IT BEGAN:

As a first time Mom, I was overwhelmed with the task and expense of keeping my daughter clothed in the correct season and size. Several other moms in our congregation mentioned that they had things I could use. So it came to mind to organize an exchange. It began as a group of Moms getting together with the things they would be willing to part with (or loan) to someone else in the congregation.

An exchange of children’s clothes grew into what is now a community event. Twice a year, in April and October, we take donations of any size or season of clothing, shoes, coats, boots, and bedding to freely distribute to the people of the church first, and the community second.

ORGANIZATION:

The fun begins on the Wednesday evening preceding the Saturday event when tables and clothing racks are set up and all the donations are brought in from their storage area.

Thursday morning, the sorting begins. With all the rows labeled, each person can take a bag or box and put the appropriate items on the appropriate tables. This generally continues all day Thursday and Friday with breaks for meals. Clothing from size newborn up to adult are sorted, organized, hung and folded.

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Friday evening, the congregation is invited to come and take what they can use. Then Saturday morning from 8-12, the doors are open to the public. People can come and take what they can use without restrictions or strings attached. As people walk in the door, they are given an empty bag and asked if there is anything specific they are looking for. If there is, they are guided to that area. If not, we point out the labels for each row and let them begin the hunt. At the end of the event, leftovers are boxed and given to a local thrift store or charity, as they are available and willing to take them.

THE REASON BEHIND IT: I cannot tell you how rewarding this project has become. It allows us to make contact with people in the community that we might not otherwise meet. It allows us to meet needs without people having to ask, thus allowing them to maintain some dignity. Plus, it allows us to clothe our families for little to no expense. Most importantly, though, it allows me to do what Jesus commanded and clothe those who are “naked”. Who knows, maybe he or one of his angels have been through those doors a time or two and picked up a couple of things!
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If you’re interested in organizing a clothing exchange ministry similar to this one, click here to download more information. No need for you to re-invent the wheel when she’s already got a wonderful detailed explanation of how to run an event like this one!
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Thanks Kim for taking the time to share this with us!

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A Little Too Much Hands-On Time…

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Remember that Science Museum I told you about? Last month’s topic was all about reptiles. We were all welcome to hold anything we wanted. 

Of the five from our family who were there, four of us said thanks for the offer.

One out of five couldn’t leave until he held EVERY one of those snakes. 

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I was just proud of myself for getting close enough to snap pictures to show Daddy. 

Could YOU have held one of those creatures?!

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Which Mop?

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I need a little help in the mopping arena.

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I won’t show pictures of all the mops that haven’t worked for me…but if I were to do that, there would be a parade of them.

They either work one time and then stop working…or the little top spongy things gets crusty and gross after I’ve mopped with it twice. Or the head falls off after a few uses.

Maybe it’s because I’m buying cheap mops?

Spending lots of money on a mop doesn’t really make me feel joy or excitement.

Wonder what kind of mop June Cleaver used?  Maybe I should wear my high heels when I mop? (I don’t own any high heels.) 

We’ve now chucked all of our mops and begun using a bucket of warm water (sometimes with Basic H) and an old wash rag on our hands and knees. It beats anything else we’ve ever tried.

Except for the “maybe we just won’t clean our floors” idea. That doesn’t seem to work either.

What kind of mop do YOU use? Have you found one that really works for you?! WILL YOU COME OVER AND DEMONSTRATE IT FOR ME on all the levels of my house (every Tuesday)? 

P.S. Most of my house is has hard wood floor if that makes any kind of difference in your advice. Thanks!
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More backwards Works for me Wednesday here.

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Gratituesday: God is Good

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I’m not exactly sure what was wrong with me last week, but I was fighting off some big-time discouragement.

It has a little bit to do with lack of sunshine. I have a tendancy to struggle after a long winter with not enough sun in my life. (Plenty of sons…not enough sun…)

Then, a man from church, whose daughter is a friend of mine, died on Thursday from ALS, the same disease that took my mom four and a half years ago.

When I heard the news, I kind of lost it. Feeling the pain of that family…knowing what they’d been through…and what they’ll go through as they continue to grieve…hurts more than I anticipated. My grief seemed to come back fresh again.

But God is good. All the time. And God works through pain…because he is just that amazing and powerful.

I love how God shows himself to us in incredible ways when we’re hurting. How he helps us see parts of him that we can’t see when we’re “fine”. 

And I love how God can use the pain we’ve experienced to help others going through something similar. 

Today, I’m just grateful for God’s goodness. His consistency and his power and his complete and total care for us, his children.
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What are you grateful for this Gratituesday? Read the details here, write about what you’re thankful for 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.

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High Five Recipes: “Angeled” Eggs

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I call ’em Angeled Eggs. I can’t help it.

High Five Recipes 2

I mentioned before that I have a pretty hard time calling these pretty little eggs…deviled. I’m pretty sure eggs don’t really care. I just think that “angeled” sounds nicer.

Have you ever taken Angeled Eggs to a potluck? It seems that they are one of the most popular items. They’re GONE before Great Aunt Edith’s chocolate pie – and that’s saying something! Plus, they are very inexpensive to make!

Here’s my simple four ingredient recipe:

Angeled EggsYum

High Five Recipes: "Angeled" Eggs
 
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Author:
Ingredients
  • 6 eggs
  • ½ cup mayonnaise (I use Hain safflower brand)
  • 1 teaspoon mustard
  • ¼ teaspoon onion salt
Instructions
  1. Put the eggs in a saucepan with enough water to cover them.
  2. Boil for 10 minutes.
  3. Remove the eggs from hot water immediately and place them into a bowl of cold water.
  4. Refrigerate until cool.
  5. Peel the shell off the egg.
  6. Cut each egg in half and place the yolks into a bowl.
  7. Mash the yolks with a fork, then stir in the mayonnaise, mustard and onion salt until smooth.
  8. Fill the whites of the eggs with yolk mixture using a spoon or a fancy cake decorating tool.

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Peel the shell off the egg. (I usually start this process by banging it onto the counter, then rolling it around a bit. Cracks those eggs up. I guess it must tickle.)

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Cut each egg in half and place the yolks into a bowl.
Mash the yolks with a fork, then stir in the mayonnaise,
mustard and onion salt until smooth.

Angeled Eggs
Fill the whites of the eggs with yolk mixture. I used my handy Pampered Chef cake decorator which makes these eggs SO pretty. Plus, the chickens must be really excited about spring because they are laying eggs with SUCH yellow yolks! Lovely!

I love how angeled eggs are a perfect picnic or potluck food – and how they compliment so many spring and summer time meals! And they’re so easy to make!

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Menu Plan for the Week

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Remember a few weeks ago when I showed you a picture of my frozen chicken and told you about Matt’s reaction to me taking a picture of my chicken? Ah, the life of “the blogger’s husband”. 

Well, today I’ve gotta tell you what my kids have learned by having a blogger for a mom.

Last Wednesday, a friend of ours was coming over for lunch, and since it was her birthday, Justus wanted to make cupcakes. He did it all from start to finish. I figured he was ready to go play after he was done. Instead, he said, “Okay. They’re done. Let me get a picture real quick.”

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Apparently, my children think that before we can serve food,
we need to take a picture first. 
I don’t know where they get that idea. :) 

Here’s our menu for the week: 

Sunday, March 29
Cinnamon swirl bread, pears
Roasted chicken with potatoes, carrots, parsnips, onions and herbs
Nachos, fruit

Monday, March 30
Whole wheat waffles, milk 
Salmon patties, ranch potato wedges, fresh pineapple
Lasagna casserole, tossed salad, corn

Tuesday, March 31
Cheese omelets, orange slices
Taco potatoes, strawberry-peach slushies
Three cheese chicken pasta, steamed broccoli and carrots

Wednesday, April 1
Baked oatmeal with whipped cream and blueberries
Chicken tostadas, pineapple-orange slushies
Sloppy joes on homemade buns, “angeled” eggs, carrot sticks

Thursday, April 2
Orange muffins, bananas
Grilled cheese sandwiches, tomato soup
Chicken tortilla soup, tossed salad

Friday, April 3
French toast
Homemade pizza, peaches
Lamb-burgers, homemade french fries, fruit

Saturday, April 4
Giant breakfast cookies
Leftovers
Tacos

Come back for fun recipes, Gratituesday and more Women with a Mission this week!

Have you signed up to win the $25 Gift Certificate yet?

:)
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Visit Organizing Junkie for all kinds of menu planning help!

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

Feeding the Family: Eating Out

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Throughout the Feeding the Family series that I’ve been doing (and before I even started it) I’ve had many of you ask if our family EVER eats out since you never see it on my menu plans.

As I’ve mentioned before, our food budget for our family of six is between $500-$550 each month. That amount includes everything we eat for the month…so there really isn’t any room in there for eating out. 

Yeah, we’re pretty sad and deprived around here. Instead of eating out, we are forced to choke down steamy pot roasts with carrots, potatoes and gravy…or homemade popcorn chicken with ranch potato wedges…or delicious homemade pizza, made to order. It’s a tough life, but somehow, we’ll try to deal with it. :)

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YES, there ARE times that I’m worn out, tired and JUST DON’T FEEL LIKE COOKING.  I know, you’re shocked. The Heavenly Homemaker doesn’t always feel like putting on her happy little apron and cooking a delicious meal for her adoring family. 

Even when I don’t feel like cooking, grabbing fast food for our family is just really not an option. Even “cheap” fast food can cost $25-$35 to fill the boys’ hollow legs (and yes, that’s without drinks, and with coupons).

WHEN I don’t feel like cooking, we scrounge around for leftovers…or throw some  peanut butter and honey on a tortilla, eat an apple, drink a glass of milk and call it a meal. Or I just quickly make a batch of pancakes and scrambled eggs (which everyone feels is a treat at night anyway!). 

OR every once in a while, we’ll grab a couple of take and bake pizzas from Walmart for $7 each. 

Our kids do enjoy eating out and get excited about the possibilty when the opportunity arises. That means that when we actually do go to Pizza Hut to redeem their Book It coupons…our time out with them is a treasure.

Here are a few of my thoughts on eating out…or not eating out:

  • Food from restaurants is addicting. That’s because it’s often loaded with MSG and sugar, which makes you think that the french fries you’re eating are SO the best thing in the world. The next day…you’re likely to be craving more. That’s how I felt when we used to eat out a little more often. The more we ate out…..the more I wanted to eat out. Now that we practically never go out to eat, I don’t even want to anymore. (It did take me a while to get to that point, though.)
  • In my opinion…by the time we get our kids ready and out the door, into the van, buckled in, drive to the restaurant, get everyone out of the car and safely through the parking lot, find a table big enough for all of us, sit down, figure out who gets to sit by Daddy (since there are only two sides of him), figure out what we’re ordering, wait for the food, try to sit patiently while we wait for the food, try to keep everyone from spilling the food, (do I need to go on, because I’m getting tired and flustered writing this)….we may as well have stayed home and cooked a simple meal. It’s far less work.
  • Very rarely (if ever) do I walk away from a restaurant and say, “THAT was the best meal I’ve ever had”. Instead, I’m usually bummed out that I just spent $12 on a plate of something that will likely make my stomach hurt later.
  • Our boys think it is SO much fun when I decide to open “Mama’s Kitchen” for the night. That’s usually on a night we have hamburgers and onion rings or homemade chicken nuggets and fries. Justus, my assistant chef, gets out a tray and puts straws in our water (or homemade chocolate milk shakes!) and delivers them around the table. They pretend they’re getting a kids meal from “the best restaurant ever”. (I do not pay them to say that. On the contrary, usually I charge monopoly money for the meal.)

Sooo, I hope that helped to answer your questions. What are your feelings on eating out? I know some people really do enjoy it. It just doesn’t work for our family. How do you handle eating out?  What are some of your “I don’t feel like cooking but everyone needs to eat” solutions?
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This post is linked to Frugal Fridays.

P.S. Be sure to join us on Saturday for The little Green Project…and a GIVEAWAY!

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