Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

Family Vacation, Part 3

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Okay, okay…we didn’t really get to go to a U-Pick Chocolate Farm after our U-Pick Blueberry Farm and U-Pick Peach Farm visits. Chocolate doesn’t grow on trees, ya know. (And if you are one of my sons, you will now say, “Well actually Mom, cocoa beans grow on trees which means that chocoate really does…”)

Anyway, we DID stop at the next best thing! Right along the way to the peach farm, we spotted Vineyards Gourmet Chocolate. Matt looked over at me in the van with his eyebrows raised as if to say, “You want to stop there next don’t you?” Who am I to say no an offer like that?

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Vineyards Gourmet Chocolate is family owned and operated. We had so much fun with the gals there!

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Ooh, and they kept giving us samples to try. We are now friends forever.

We got to watch one of the owners make a HUGE chunk of fudge. It was so cool.

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They were featuring a new item:  Chocolate Covered Bacon!!! We figured that the chocolate draws in the women…the bacon draws in the men and everyone wins!

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For the record…we tried some Chocolate Covered Bacon and it was rather tasty! Who knew?

Next up…we go to the beach!

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Family Vacation, Part 1

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I have quite a few pictures to share from our trip to Michigan. Here’s something funny:  We went to Michigan for a wedding. I took no pictures of the wedding. Sometimes I amaze myself. 

Matt and I decided that since we were taking the time off to travel so far, we would turn this trip into a vacation. We took our time on our way there and back, stopping along the way to make memories. 

One of the first things we did was stop just inside the state of Michigan to pick blueberries!!!!!

Pardon me for gushing like an idiot…but you have to realize that blueberries don’t really grow well in Nebraska. We’ve picked and eaten our fair share of fresh strawberries and raspberries. But blueberries? We’ve never even seen a blueberry bush before. 

I can NOT even tell you how much fun the six of us had. The weather was perfect. The kids all cooperated. The blueberries tasted fantastic!!

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After Malachi (age 5) got tired of picking berries, we handed him the camera. He took this picture…

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And this one…

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Matt and I had to tear ourselves away from the field. The whole time we were picking, I could NOT stop smiling. It was one of those family moments that is everything you dream of, you know? 

We finally stopped after we had no less than ten pounds of blueberries. Do you know how much all those berries cost? $17.00.  Are you KIDDING? I’ve paid $3.00 for a tiny half pint of blueberries before and the taste wasn’t even comparable!!! $17.00 for all those berries was the best deal ever!! 

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Cost for one of the most fun family moments ever? Priceless.

After we left the Blueberry Farm, we traveled a few more hours to spend some time with some friends we used to be in the ministry with in Colorado. We hadn’t seen each other for eight years and it was just wonderful to visit and catch up.

Oh, and you might be interested to know that on our drive to their house, we all sat in the van consuming blueberries like there was no tomorrow. We tried to stop eating…really we did. 

And then I dropped a blueberry on my seat. I looked and looked for that blueberry, both because I didn’t want to waste even one delicious blueberry…and because I really did not want to sit on said delicious blueberry. I never did find the silly thing.

Oh, until we pulled up to our friend’s house and I got out of the van. There was the blueberry squished all over the seat of my pants. Grrrr. It was so not cute.

Thankfully, our friends let me in anyway.

Here I am with my lovely friend Jill. Incidentally, she’s the lady who taught me how to make homemade vanilla!

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After a wonderful (but too short) visit, we got ready to leave. Ah, but wait! The boys discovered that our friends had a cool hanging-upside-down contraption and just had to try it out!

And yeah, they insisted that Mom try it too.

There I was all locked up and helpless…and Matt started clicking away on the camera. Stinker.

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Good thing you can’t see my squished blueberry stain.

Stop looking, you really can’t see it in this picture.

Coming up next…we visit a Peach Picking Farm!

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In His Hands

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Please join me in welcoming the final guest poster for this week:  Brandy, The Marathon Mom. You know how I have four boy children? Yeah…Brandy has SEVEN. Boys.  Uh-huh. And I thought my grocery budget looked scary for the future. You’ll love Brandy’s insights and thoughts entitiled, In His Hands.

As a mother of many, I find myself regularly facing the challenge of trusting God with my children. It’s an interesting place, being so close to my due date, trusting God for a wonderful birth and a healthy baby, and at the same time, trusting Him to help me guide my pre-teen son as he grows into a man. And not to mention, the 9, 7, 5, 4, and 2 year old boys in the middle, who I am also responsible for trusting to God.
 
It’s a struggle of the heart, for sure, as I want to pull my babies close, protect them, shelter them from the ways of the world, and for some ages, that is entirely appropriate. But at some point, as my child’s mother, I am confronted by the fact that all of the hard work, love, commitment, sheltering and training must come to fruition as I ultimately release my child from my hands and into the world, and allow him to go and do and be all God has called him to go and do and be. I am not quite there yet, even with our oldest, as it is a process. But God has definitely started the work in my heart and has even begun to illustrate for me quite graphically, what that process will look like as I begin to release my sons, one by one, into their God-given destinies.
 
God reminded me again last night that I could trust Him with my children, when one of our younger sons narrowly escaped a potentially bad crash on a bike. Our four year old, Drew, went ahead of me on his bike, still with training wheels, in the dark last night. Not far behind him, I assumed my normal position behind the stroller and watched as he began to coast. 
 
Downhill. FAST. FASTER…..and FASTER STILL.
 
And suddenly I realized, all within a split second, that there would be no way I could abandon the stroller and sprint with my 9 month pregnant belly in his direction to save him from a terrible fall right into the street. And I began to yell, “Drew, fall in the grass, FALL IN THE GRASS!!!” And the next split second I realized a car could be coming to meet him at the exact time of his crash. The other half of that second, I prayed the fastest and yet most heartfelt prayers a mother could muster up – out loud – “Jesus, protect him!!!” Boys from the neighborhood and some of our older sons saw what was about to happen and took off at lightning speed to catch up with Drew, but the momentum he had built up on his Spiderman bike was too much and they came to his rescue just a second after he was a pile of little boy, half on the curb, half in the street. And there was ….
 
NO
 
SOUND.
 
It was dark, so I couldn’t see him, and still trying to get down the hill, I began to yell again, “is he okay???” And then I heard him cry. The cry that let me know he was not seriously injured. “Thank you, God,”  I mumbled as I made it to my sweet boy who had screamed with blood-curtling shrieks of terror as he had flown down the sidewalk.
 
With only a few scraped toes, he had survived, and it didn’t take long for the lesson to sink in. As I questioned Drew for not listening to my instruction to fall into the grass, which would have perhaps saved us from some of the drama, I realized a few things. His response was, “I couldn’t hear you.” And he couldn’t because he was screaming in terror. His own fear actually prevented him from hearing the instruction that could have saved him from the whole experience. And next, he wasn’t trained. I knew I had never told him to fall into the grass if he couldn’t stop. I wondered why he didn’t use his brakes more, but he’s only been riding since this spring, really, so I knew  he was just inexperienced.
 
Clearly, there is an age when we can know that they know when  to brake so that they don’t go too fast and crash, and it’s obviously NOT at age four. Surely, there is a time when we can trust that we’ve done our jobs and recited with our children the rule that states, “when you’re about to fall, choose the softer landing…” Hopefully, the time comes when, as parents, we can be confident that we have trained them up in the way they should go, and that God is with them, that He will protect them, and that we can trust Him, and that our prayers are effective on behalf of our children.
 
God will show us as mothers, how to guide our children, how to train them. He will show us how and when we can and should begin to trust that they’re ready to fly on their own. Walking alongside, and even behind our children (in observation), God will show us where we need to place special attention to help prepare each of our children as individuals, so that when it’s time, they are fully equipped to go and do His work and His will.
 
Thank You, God, for this reminder. I couldn’t do this on my own.
 
Be sure to visit Brandy at The Marathon Mom!

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Gratituesday: No Place Like Home

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I’ve been traveling, so my post today is short and sweet. :)

I love family reunions. I love the chance to reunite with grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and other loved ones. I love meeting and holding new babies. I love meeting new spouses of my cousins. 

I love laughing and crying together with family. I love sharing memories. I love making new memories.

We’ve had a wonderful time this weekend traveling and loving on extended family members.

Now I’m home…back to my favorite place on earth. I’m back home to my husband…back home to the garden and the laundry and the mail.

I’m back home…and there’s just no place like it. I am so thankful.

What are you thankful for this Gratituesday? Write about it on your blog, then come 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!

If you are linking up a blog post for Gratituesday,
please copy and paste the following sentence into your post! Thanks!

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12 Tips for Planning a Memorable Frugal Family Vacation

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The following is a guest post from Jeri who writes a frugal family travel blog where she shares family travel tips like airplane games for kids. Having flown over 75,000 miles either pregnant or with kids, she has some experience in the field of family travel. 
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‘Tis the season for gearing up and trying to figure out what the family will do to entertain the youngsters while on summer vacation. If you want to plan an  amazing family vacation, these tips will help get you on your way.

How to Plan a Memorable and Frugal Family Vacation

1. Consider your budget.  So, maybe you can’t fly your family of 12 to Europe this summer, but surely there are more options. Look at your family budget, decide on a number, then continue with the planning. Make it a challenge: where can we go and what can we do with this much money?

2. Ask for input. Even if you have young children, ask the family for their ideas. I know my 4 and 2-year-olds love to be involved in our travel conversations. Sometimes I’m amazed at the ideas they have in their minds.

3. Create anticipation. In our home, we read books and play a game we invented called “Airplane, Airplane” where my husband pretends to be a flight attendant and we all practice being passengers. Even very young children can learn words like “departure”, “arrival”, and “rest area.” Get the kids (and yourself) excited about the adventure ahead  -whether it’s a road trip or someone’s first flight. Count down the days or months together.

4. Tell stories from past travels. My two-year-old son still loves us to tell the story over and over and over again about how he ate buffalo food at a Bison Ranch in Wyoming last year. He doesn’t remember it, but he loves to hear all about it. And it breeds more anticipation for future travel. My children also love to hear about all of the countries they’ve been to and the modes of transportation they’ve taken.

5. To save money, be flexible with your dates and destinations. (And, just be flexible in general.)  Make sure you do all you can to book cheap travel and start planning in advance! (That’s why I’m telling you now.)  Also, depending on your lodging, consider cooking meals instead of eating out.

6. Be ready and willing to entertain the kids. After all, it is a FAMILY vacation. Yes, it takes more energy, but it is worth it. I notice that when I pay attention to my children and go out of my way to spend time with them (at home or on the road), I have a lot fewer behavior problems. It’s even possible to keep kids entertained on flights.

7. S-L-O-W down!  Is it really necessary to visit every museum in Washington DC in a single day, go out for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and enjoy the latest viewing of the latest movie that was released, and stop for ice cream on the way home? (Phew!)  To enjoy a vacation with children, make it simple. Make time for naps – that is, if you’d like your 2-year-old to be good-natured at dinner. Fewer activities = fewer dollars, too. We try not to plan more than one “big” activity per day for our young family.

8. Take pictures.  You’ll want to remember what you did on your vacation, and this is an easy way to do it.

9. Check out free activities. I was amazed when we found a FREE museum in Brisbane, Australia on one of our vacations. Also, it’s often the simple things that matter most. Hanging out at the beach or a local park for a picnic can be just as memorable as paying big bucks for Universal Studios. 

10. Stay with friends on vacation. Sometimes I’m afraid to ask because we might be intruding, but we’ve always enjoyed staying with our friends on vacation. (And I think that deep down they like it, too!)  The best part is that after you put the kids to bed, you can hang out with your friends. The days can be spent doing something with your own family, and communicating this with your host family is important. It saves you money, and gives you some time to invest in a relationship that maybe you’ve neglected over a few years. Conversely, we would always welcome our friends to “vacation” in our home. Speaking of which, anyone up for a South Pacific vacation this summer?

11. Pack light. Even if you’re taking a road trip, there’s no reason to take the whole kitchen and bathroom sink with you. As you pack, ask yourself, “Can I survive a week without this?” If the answer is “yes”, leave it at home. This one is tough for me since we’re missionaries in Papua New Guinea and travel for months at a time. But, I can tell you firsthand that it is no fun having too much luggage! Besides, now it is costing more and more on flights for extra weight. More weight often means more wait in many circumstances.

12. Preserve your memories.  I keep a travel scrapbook for our family, in which I make one page for each trip we take. If you’re not into scrapbooking, consider making a short slideshow to view with your kids days, months, or years later. Trust me, it’ll be worth it.

For us, family vacations are important. They have knit us together in a way that every day life can’t. 

What are your vacation plans for the summer?

This post is linked to Frugal Fridays.

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Our Healthy Eating Journey, Wrapping it Up

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If you missed them, please catch up on
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6 , Part 7, Part 8 and Part 9.

I had finally accepted and realized that our bodies needed nourishment. Eating food wasn’t just about filling a hole. Eating food was about providing our bodies with all of the right nutrients, vitamins, minerals, enzymes and fats.

I re-read Nourishing Traditions. I asked millions of questions of my friends who knew more about healthy eating than I did.  I got completely overwhelmed.  I began throwing processed foods out of my pantry. I pretty much turned into a Nazi about healthy eating. If it wasn’t organic, raw, fermented, grass fed, soaked whole grain or cultured…I was scared to let it pass our lips. We would probably die! We would for sure get cancer! Malachi’s eczema would get worse! My asthma would get worse! We would all get terribly sick!

This way of thinking turned me into a nervous wreck anytime we went anywhere. If I was at home, I could control what we ate. But if we were at a friend’s house or out of town visiting family or if someone offered my children candy…I was scared to death to let us eat! Those foods were poison!! It sounds crazy (because it was) but that’s how I was when I first learned about eating nourishing foods. When you’re first learning about the harmful ways animals are raised for meat and milk and how many pesticides are sprayed on produce, it can make you want to run away screaming. 

It took me a few months to come around. Part of it was that I just needed to wrap my brain around this new lifestyle. I had to figure out how to eat and serve my family a healthy diet. I had to learn where good food sources were. I had to learn to spend money on food (and figure out where that money was going to come from). I had to learn how to grow my garden organically. I had to learn how to cook and bake differently.

But I had to learn to CHILL OUT.

I learned that while we could try our best to eat the best foods we could most of the time…we could never eat perfect foods all of the time. And guess what? That’s okay! The stress of trying to eat perfectly, and the fears I had developed when we couldn’t were probably more harmful than the occasional store bought pizza or non-organic apple we might eat.

And so I discovered a healthy balance. More importantly, so that our children would come along with us on this journey and not be afraid that Mommy would be serving them yet another weird dish that they’d never heard of and that they hated…I learned to re-create all of our favorite foods. Now, we could eat all of our favorites (Pizza, Mac and Cheese, Tacos, Nachos, Spaghetti, etc.), but they were made with healthy and wholesome ingredients! The kids were happy. The parents were happy. Our bodies were happy.

So that’s where we’ve landed. We don’t eat a perfect diet…we just do the best we can. Our journey continues, because that’s what journeys do, don’t they?

Now my goal is to continue to develop more healthy and tasty recipes that my family loves and share them with you!

I’m wrapping up this series about Our Healthy Eating Journey today, with plans to launch into another series of sorts in which I’ll share some simple steps you can take toward healthy eating if this journey is new to you. I’ll share specific information about healthy meats, dairy products, eggs, spices, grains, produce, fats, etc. More importantly, I’ll give you ideas and tools for where to start. You DON’T need to change everything all at once!

My goal is to help you know that eating healthy is a possibility for EVERYONE. No matter what your budget, your cooking ability and experience, your understanding of nutritious food. You can do this!

Healthy eating tastes so good! Learn along with me that changing over to a healthy lifestyle is simple, affordable and delicious!

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Family Photo Album

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A few weeks ago, we were privileged to be given a family portrait session from Jennifer Albin Photography. Despite the fact that the grass and trees had no green on them yet…and the fact that the wind was blowing like mad…Jennifer did a wonderful job taking our pictures.

Allow me, if you will, to show you some of my favorites?

Here’s one of all the boys together looking (if I do say so myself) oh so very handsome. They also look so quiet and calm. What is that about?

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The sun was shining so brightly that day, which helped to make up for the lack of color around us. Here’s one of all six of us:

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And…I have to show you this one just to prove how crazy the wind was that day. I don’t know HOW MANY shots Jennifer took that were perfect of all five men…and then there’s me with hair all over the park and neighborhood. Shew, talk about crazy hair….

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Here’s another of our boys. Doncha love their soccer jerseys?

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Jennifer took several of just Matt and me. I LOVED that part of our photo session the most. I realized that we’d never really had pictures done of just the two of us. Our engagement pictures were taken at Walmart 15 years ago for a whopping $4.95. It was so much fun to take several different poses with him now.

Here we are in our matching soccer jackets:

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  Did I mention how much fun it was to take these pictures?

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Okay, now we’re just goofing around:

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I don’t know why, but I think this one is my favorite:

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There are a ton more pictures, but I didn’t want to scare you too much with all of my fly away hair. I’ll leave you with these for now! Jennifer, thank you SO MUCH for taking the time to capture our family forever on film. What a wonderful blessing you gave us!

I realize many of you live a little bit far from me (like in other states or over seas and such). BUT, if you happen to live somewhere within Nebraska or northern Kansas or western Iowa or southern South Dakota you may be very interested in learning more about Jennifer Albin Photography! If you live in any of the above mentioned areas (or if you live farther away but feel like visiting me in York sometime soon!), you have a chance to receive a FREE Family Photo Session with Jennifer Albin Photography! This is such a generous offer! Email me with the subject line:  Family Photo Session and let me know you’re interested! I’ll email you back and tell you more about this fantastic opportunity Jennifer is offering!

Be sure to check out all of Jennifer’s beautiful work at her website and facebook fan page!

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