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Menu Plan For the Week

June 8, 2008 by Laura 10 Comments

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Today (Sunday) is Asa’s birthday which means he got to choose what we ate all day long! Mmm…great choices.

Sunday, June 8
Cereal (Asa chose this as a treat, since we rarely eat it!)
Grilled hamburgers on homemade buns, homemade potato chips, strawberries, chocolate pound cake with whipped cream
Nachos, grapes

You HAVE to try these chips!!

Monday, June 9
Whole wheat pancakes (here’s a fun way to shape your pancakes!)
Grilled cheese sandwiches, fruit smoothies, carrot sticks
Deer steak, mashed potatoes, gravy, peas

Tuesday, June 10
Scrambled eggs, oranges
Sloppy joes, baked beans, cantaloupe
Grilled chicken, stir fried rice and veggies

Wednesday, June 11
Orange muffins, bananas
Pizza Casserole, corn, apples
Spanish rice with chicken, tossed salad

Thursday, June 12
Peanut butter honey toast, fruit and yogurt delight
Hearty bean casserole, pineapple orange slushies
“To Go” foods to eat while we’re at the Farmer’s Market (Homemade pretzels, cheese sticks, carrot sticks, apples)

Friday, June 13
French toast, fruit
Homemade chicken nuggets and fries, watermelon
Homemade pizza, fruit salad

Saturday, June 14
Homemade whole wheat donuts
Cheeseburger macaroni, steamed broccoli and carrots
BBQ meatballs, baked potatoes, green beans

And…if you’d like some free downloadable menu planners to help make your menu planning fun click here!

On the blogging menu for this week: I promise to show you inside my fridge and freezers and continue on with my “Getting Real With Food” series. (In case you need to peek into my pantry again, here you go!) I also plan on talking a bit about my food budget and how we eat real food on a real budget. And…Marie asked me if I could come up with a yummy breakfast bar…and I just couldn’t let her down! I’ll be sharing that recipe this week! :)

Have a great week…and I hope to see you back here soon. Head on over to Org Junkie to find more menu planning ideas!

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Happy Stinkin’ Birthday

June 8, 2008 by Laura 6 Comments

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Remember how I mentioned that we were having a sleep-over this weekend to celebrate Asa’s birthday?

It was SO MUCH FUN!!! Everyone loved it…even me…the lone female in the house.

However…

Six boys came over ranging in ages from 11-13. And um…remember how I mentioned that maybe I should light some scented candles and air out the house before they came? *cough*

The boys began arriving at 5:00 pm on Friday. I am NOT kidding when I tell you that by 5:13 pm I began to wonder if I’d be able to make it through the night and continue to breathe at the same time. Shoooo-ey.

;)

I fed them the promised “Junk Food Buffet”…a lovely arrangement of pizza, hot dogs and french fries (with watermelon…I had to throw in some fruit!).

And then, we crammed all 12 of us into two vehicles (roll down the windows, please) and we went to the bowling alley. (We had free passes…so all the kids got to bowl for absolutely free. Wow.)

Okay, but is it just our bowling alley…or is there a universal bowling alley stink? Open the door…and you’re immediately greeted by this thick, heavy, slice-it-with-a-knife stink that grabs you around the neck and picks you up and threatens to knock you against the wall. After a moment of blinking really hard and fast and gagging a few times…then you just sort of suddenly get used to it and it becomes a part of you. After swimming in the stink for an hour and a half…you walk back out into the fresh air, relieved to be away from the deep fat fried cigarettes coated in sweaty shoes…and you think it will all be okay again. But no. The stink is now clinging to every part of you…and you can’t get away from it. It’s in your clothes, your hair, your skin, your eyelashes, your watch band and under your fingernails. If you move even slightly, a part of the stink releases itself from one of your skin pores…and you are now well aware that indeed, you stink. So, so much. And you can’t even try to get away from it. The stink has become…you.

So maybe your bowling alley doesn’t have the stink and you don’t know what I’m talking about. (I’m so happy for you.)

But we piled our stinky selves back into the van…came home and had some chocolate cheesecake. I enjoyed my cheesecake…but I gotta tell ya…I could hardly even stand to be around myself at that point. So much stink.

Having said all of that though…let me emphasise to you how much fun the party was. It was so stinkin’ much fun!

All of the boys that came are just super kids and played great together. What I appreicated most is that they all included my littler boys in their party without giving it a second thought. They let them join in all their games and they were so sweet to them. They were also all very polite to me and told me how great my food was. And trust me, there were plenty of times for them to tell me how great my food was. After the “Junk Food Buffet” and the chocolate cheesecake…we had shaved ice…and then strawberries, grapes and Pringles. (If you just keep putting food out there…it will be eaten. Wow.) For breakfast the following morning, I made two big pans of homemade cinnamon rolls. Oh, they really appreciated me for those. (I’ll try to post the recipe soon so that you can appreciate me too.)

Asa just had a wonderful time and loved every minute of the party he planned and put together. What a great kid.

It was just a stinkin’ good time.

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Who Needs to Hire Out a Circus?!

June 5, 2008 by Laura 6 Comments

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One thing I’ve never really understood about kid’s birthday parties is why some parents feel like they need to spend a large amount of time, energy and money to make it fun.

I feel like I LIVE in a circus…and certainly when you invite extra children to the party (which of course is what makes a party a party)…it becomes even more of a circus…therefore I’ve never felt the need to spend a lot of money to bring more circus to the circus.

This weekend we’ll be celebrating Asa’s 11th birthday <gulp>…and he’s invited several boys for a sleep-over. All the boys are SO excited (in fact…I’ve heard nothing but birthday talk now for the last few hundred hours)!! The excitement comes simply because we’re having a bunch of friends over. Nothing else. We aren’t doing anything big or extravagant.

We’ll have a nice “Junk Food Buffet” for dinner…birthday cheesecake…and shaved ice. And the kids will run around like crazy in and out of the house doing all of the things boys like to do. And that’s it.

I love it that it doesn’t take lots of money to make my kids happy on their birthdays!

But aaaagh…..it just occured to me what I’m writing about! My house is going to be filled with not only my boys…but six extra 11-13 year old boys!!! I think I’d better start airing the house out now and lighting some scented candles…

(Oh you know I love it!)

Need some frugal ideas? Check in with Biblical Womanhood for Frugal Fridays.

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Farmer’s Market Here We Come!!! UPDATED

June 5, 2008 by Laura 14 Comments

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Our local Farmer’s Market opens tonight!!!

Every Thursday night now for the rest of the summer…that’s where we’ll be! I’m SO excited!

I NEED a fresh strawberry. Really badly.

And…along with purchasing lots of fresh, local, very good for us fruits and veggies…we’ll be setting up shop downtown right along with the other venders!

When we purchased our Shaved Ice Machine, one of our intentions was to take it to the Farmer’s Market each week.

(Side note: Our original plan to open up our “Shaved Ice Shack” on June 1 has been post-poned to June 13…due to all kinds of fun licensing and technicality issues. I’ll share more about that adventure soon!)

Soooooo…we’ve got our ice ready and our juices ready and our cups and spoons ready…and we’re very excited to sell shaved ice tonight!

AND…we decided that since we’re going to be set up with a booth at the Farmer’s Market anyway…we might as well bake some things to sell there too. (I had sold baked goods there a few years ago…and it went very well.)

So, today…I’m baking like crazy (which is one of my very favorite things in the world to do)!

I’m making my pretzels (although I’m using white flour and sugar, because it’s not always easy to get my wheat or honey these days…and I’m hoarding it to feed to my own family), applesauce bread, giant chocolate chip cookies, flourless peanut butter cookies and chocolate chip brownies (again with the white stuff).

Baking is very theraputic for me…therefore I will undergo much therapy today and be calm and cool as a cucumber by tonight’s market when I get to eat my fresh strawberry. Ahhh……

What kinds of crazy things do YOU do for therapy?

*UPDATE* Just about the time my therapy session ended (except for the wash all the dishes when you’re done with therapy part)…we got an email letting us know that because of the threat of very horrible weather…the Farmer’s Market will be cancelled for the evening. Grrr. Better safe than sorry though, of course.

Well…looks like for dinner tonight we’ll have Pretzels and Brownies with a side of Cookies. Anyone want to join us? :)

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WooHoo…Summer With the Kids!

June 3, 2008 by Laura 20 Comments

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I LOVE using summer time around here to work on fun projects that we just don’t seem to have as much time for during the school year. AND…I think summer time is a great time to focus hard on godly character training with the kids. (Yes…by summer’s end…I plan to rid my children’s hearts completely of all selfishness and pride and lazyness and…*ahem*…well…we’ll be working on it anyway…) :)

Seriously, there are all kinds of fun things to do with the kids during the summer time…and my kids are rarely bored. (If nothing else…we have a pretty big garden with endless weeds. And dirty toilets. And dirty dishes.)

My boys LOVE the summer library reading program in our town…therefore they are inspired to read like crazy all summer long!

Matt is great at assigning the boys outdoor projects…and they love doing these jobs with and for their dad! It is amazing how much help they can be with yard work, hauling stuff, cleaning up wood and sticks, etc. I LOVE watching them work with their daddy!

Inside the house, the boys and I have fun making up new recipes and cooking together. And we play tons of games of Skip-bo. And War. And Old Maid. And Crazy Eights. And we make up our own card games.

As the summer progresses…and we work on fun projects and activities together…I’ll be sure to share the ideas with you! Here’s one idea to start off the summer:

This week one of our kitchen projects was making cool shaped pancakes. Using this whole wheat pancake recipe with a couple of extra tablespoons of milk stirred into the batter…we filled a ketchup-like container with pancake batter and started getting creative with pancake shapes and letters.

This little tool didn’t make it quite as easy as I was hoping it would when I first read the idea…but it was really fun to experiment and play with! (And of course the pancakes tasted good no matter what they ended up looking like!)

Here, Justus is working on a “J” for Justus.

Here’s Asa’s name (And by the way…in case any of the rest of you are wondering ~I’ve been emailed with this question~ Asa’s name is pronounced: “ACE-uh”.)

We were pretty happy with the way this bear and bunny turned out.
We decided the bunny reminded us of Buster on Arthur!

I LOVE this extra “down time” with my kids! I’ll look forward to sharing more ideas with you during the next several weeks! Here’s to a wonderful fun summer with our kids!

Find more great ideas at Rocks in My Dryer!

[tags] kids in the kitchen, summer projects with kids, summer activities[/tags]

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Gratituesday: Blogging

June 2, 2008 by Laura 8 Comments

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I just needed to take a Gratituesday and appreciate blogging with you.

When I began my HeavenlyHomemakers website back in October…Char, who helped me with the whole thing, suggested that I also have a blog.

Laugh if you must (because I’m totally laughing)…but I had to ask her what exactly a blog was. <Roll your eyes here> I’d been living in a non-computer world for a while…and I’d heard of blogs, but I didn’t really know what I’d do with one. (“Will I need to feed it every day? Does it require daily exercise? What happens when my blog gets wet? Does it stink? Will it create extra laundry? ‘Cause I don’t need extra laundry.”)

Finally Char convinced me to begin a blog. It took writing about two blog posts for me to decide I LOVE blogging!!! And it’s all been exciting and wonderful since then!

The absolute best part of blogging has been getting to know all of you!!! What a wonderful way to be a part of a community of people who can encourage one another and laugh together and give each other tips and pray for one another and share the ways God is working in our lives.

I can’t imagine not having this. I can’t imagine not having this opportunity to get to know you.

Suezque would not have been such a big part of my life had we not been blogging friends as well as cousins.

I am just so, so grateful for this blogging world we are a part of. Thank you for letting me be a part of your blogging world. What a joy!
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What are YOU grateful for this week? Write aboout it on your blog and come over and link up! If you don’t have a blog, just leave a comment here to let us know what God’s been doing in your life.

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Suggestions for Helping Grieving Families

June 2, 2008 by Laura

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When we hear that our friends or family members have lost a loved one…we often don’t know what to do to help them. Should we go visit…or leave them alone? Should we take something to them? If so, what should we take?

It’s hard to know what to do sometimes…but we all want to do something.

Having experienced a loss in our family last week, I was reminded of some wonderful ways you can help someone who is grieving.

First….just go be with them. If you can’t decide whether or not you should “bother” the family…just know that the ministry of “being there” is a wonderful one. Even if you don’t know what to say and how to act….just go. The family needs to be surrounded by people who love them and care. Stay for as short or as long of a time as you feel is right once you’re there.

Next…should you take something? If so, what should you take?

You don’t have to take anything. Just offering a hug and encouragement is enough. I can’t emphasize enough the importance of just being there. But, if you’d like to take something to help the family…here are a few suggestions:

*Food*

The grieving may not have much of an appetite…but they do need to eat. Take a nice bunch of fruit…some muffins…a jar of trail mix…yogurt…anything that is easy to eat.

Take food that will freeze well. If lots and lots of people bring food, yours could get wasted if it doesn’t freeze easily. Sloppy joes, casseroles, breads or cookies freeze well and are great to have on hand.

Take food that will make an easy breakfast for the family. Cinnamon rolls, egg casseroles and quick breads are perfect because they are easy for the family to eat in the mornings…yet they also freeze well if they aren’t needed yet.

Drinks such as bottles of water or juice are very nice for the family to have on hand also.

*Non-Food*

When my mom died a few years ago, someone showed up to the house with a big package of toilet paper. I kind of cracked up….as I would never thought of that. But, wow was I ever glad they had brought it! With many, many people coming and going for several days…we went through a lot of toilet paper…and certainly none of us would have felt up for a Wal-mart run.

Other non-food items that are helpful: paper plates, napkins, paper towels…plastic containers, food labels and baggies for freezing leftovers…kleenexes (both boxes, and purse sized pouches).

Also, postage stamps and blank thank you cards are needed as the family will need to send many thank you notes out after the funeral.

*For Kids*

Most likely there will be children who are also grieving, and/or hanging around a bunch of adults who are distracted and distraught. Consider taking some fun snack foods that kids would consider a treat, cereal, granola bars, crackers, popcycles or juice boxes. You might also take some inexpensive quiet items like new books, puzzles, coloring books, or even a new DVD for the kids to enjoy.

I hope these lists were helpful, but remember…you don’t have to take anything. Just praying for the family and being there is enough.

Please feel free to add to these lists as you leave a comment. If you’ve ever been through the loss of a loved one, you know how helpful it is to be surrounded by those who care.
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Check in with Tammy’s Recipes for more Kitchen Tip Tuesdays. :)

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Menu Plan for the Week

June 1, 2008 by Laura 6 Comments

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I think I’m almost getting caught up around here…and I’ve even figured out what day it is again. (Thursday, right? No, Saturday. Okay, yeah…I still don’t know.)

The events of last week made me appreciate everything that is fine and normal. Like menu planning and doing laundry and washing dishes and seeing my husband come home after a day of work and listening to my kids argue and reminding them to pick up their messes, etc. I appreciate those things so much more than I did a week ago.

After coming home from Kansas on Wednesday night…we went for several days without a meal plan. Put together the fact that I was in an emotional fog and the fact that I didn’t have a meal plan…and you know there were issues. I look forward to being more on top of things this week. (It is Wednesday after all.) (Friday?)

For the sake of everyone who lives at my house and tends to get hungry frequently…here’s my meal plan for the week. With dates and coordinating days of the week and everything. And of course it’s printed out and put right onto the refrigerator to make it easier and more fun.

Sunday, June 1
Banana bread, oranges, milk
Italian Roast Wraps, steamed carrots, watermelon
“Clean out the fridge special” (Who knows what we might find!?)

Monday, June 2
Whole wheat pancake shapes*, milk
Cheese quesadillas, cantelope, carrot sticks
Spaghetti, tossed salad, corn

Tuesday, June 3
French toast
Homemade pizza, pears
Turkey ham, macaroni and cheese, green beans, applesauce

Wednesday, June 4
Scrambled eggs, fruit slushies
Homemade chicken nuggets, french fries, watermelon
Taco potatoes, fruit salad

Thursday, June 5
Peanut butter honey toast, banana slices
Bean dip and chips, pineapple
Sandwiches, carrots, raisins (packed to take to farmer’s market)

Friday, June 6
Applesauce bread, oranges
Cheesy beef and rice, broccoli and carrots
Hamburgers on homemade buns, onion rings

Saturday, June 7
Breakfast cookies
Grilled cheese sandwiches, cantelope
Spaghetti squash with chicken in cream sauce, tossed salad

Be sure to visit Organizing Junkie for more great menu ideas.

And join us here this week for Gratituesday (really…I will figure out what day it is by Tuesday!) There’s SO MUCH to be grateful for!!!!!

*Also…I just learned a fun and EASY way to make shaped pancakes that I plan to share!! See you soon!

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And Life Goes On…

May 30, 2008 by Laura 7 Comments

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It seems that time just stopped for a few days as we were out of town with family and dealing with the news of my cousin’s deaths. I have no idea what day this is…and I’m not sure what’s for lunch.

While we were gone, two of the clocks in our house actually stopped. Weird.

And yet, time did not stop. Life goes on…even when you’re in the midst of tragedy and grief and you feel like everything else needs to stop and wait for you to catch up.

So we’re back home now, and reality is setting back in.

Because we left in such a rush on Saturday…there were a few things that normally we would have taken care of before leaving for a trip that just didn’t get done.

As a result, we came home to a stinky house. :) Somehow there was wet laundry that had gotten put into a pile in the bathroom…and we all know what wadded up wet laundry does in the course of five days. And…the dishes in the sink had begun to grow fuzz…which of course added to the stinky house situation. And…there’s just a lot of moisture in the air from all the rain and humidity…so everything just feels heavy and wet…and stinky.

So, today…I’m working to de-stink my house. Several loads of laundry and a few open windows later…things are starting to smell better. (Oh, and I handed my boys the toilet brush!)

The lawn looked like we’d moved away for good….with it’s 3,457,982 dandilions and only 12 blades of grass….all long enough to clog the mower. Sheesh. :)

But we also came home to this:

And it proved to me in a joyful way that indeed, life does go on. And for those of us remaining on this earth, God will continue to bring about changes and death and new life.

He is real. He is unchanging. He is steadfast. And because of Him…life goes on.

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An Awful and a Wonderful Time

May 29, 2008 by Laura 10 Comments

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It’s funny how great and how horrible you can feel at the very same time.

I’ve noticed that irony every time I go through something difficult. At the same time you can be experiencing something so hard you think your heart is going to explode with sadness, you can experience a joy and comfort and love so intense you can hardly keep yourself from shouting out to God!

I love how God does this for his people. How He offers the same level of comfort to match the level of dispair you are feeling.

As we celebrated the lives of my cousins during their funeral yesterday, I was so struck by the mixture of pain and joy. As a congregation, we sang several songs focused on heaven and God’s promises. How amazing to be able to worship the God who feels our pain with us and is loving us through it during the time we are grieving and sad and angry and falling apart.

As we sang “Blessed Be the Name of the Lord” together, I was struck by the power of the song:

Blessed be your name
In the land that is plentiful
Where the streams of abundance flow
Blessed be your name

Blessed be your name
When I’m found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness
Blessed be your name

Every blessing you pour out,
I turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say…
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be your glorious name

Blessed be your name
When the sun’s shining down on me
When the world’s all as it should be
Blessed be your name

Blessed be your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there’s pain in the offering
Blessed be your name

You give and take away
You give and take away
My heart will choose to say
Lord, Blessed be your name

Though we’ll all have times in our lives when we are walking through the desert and the darkness is closing in…we can praise God…because He is so good. No matter what we are going through, God’s goodness is just so, so good.

Thank you all so much for your prayers, love and encouragement during this difficult time for my family. The most wonderful part of this awful tragedy was how our family was all brought together. It was an incredible blessing to be surrounded by so many of the people we love.

And although God chose to take Gary and Kim from us now..we bless His name. He is so good.

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