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A Schedule for a Quarantined Day

April 19, 2020 by Tasha Hackett 2 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

Let me check my schedule: Create a workout parody video. CHECK

Who’s having fun?! We are!? (Hint: I schedule fun into my week.)

Exercise

I schedule Saturdays for playing and Whew! Just finished creating a silly work-out video with my family. We dressed up and I donned some bright pink lipstick. Blue tights, overlaid with my swimsuit. Nothing like a little family fun to get the day going.

“Wow,” you say, “Tasha’s family is so cool. I wish I could be as cool as her.” Well, don’t let me fool you. We completely trashed the house and had cheerios for breakfast all week, pre-packaged chicken nuggets three days in a row because my mind has been so overwhelmed with I-don’t-even-know that I couldn’t think past the next five minutes and then it was time for another meal… and another meal. What is it with these people!? Didn’t I just feed them? I don’t know what day it is anymore. My mom’s birthday was on the 17th and I almost missed it because I was a week behind (thought it was only April 11th) **Face Palm**

I have bad days and good days, BUT I have a daily routine that keeps me mostly sane during this quarantine.

The only way I have survived is maintaining my schedule. Do you have one? Years ago I scoured the internet looking for a Stay-At-Home-Mom routine and didn’t find one I liked. So I made up my own. It morphs through the years, each new kid and season changes it.

Morning Routine and Homeschool Life

The ideal perfect morning would look like this, but more often than not I crawl out of bed at 7 because the baby’s still not sleeping through the night:

5:30 AM Wake // Pray // Meditate on scripture  // Stretch

6:00 AM Make bed // Shower // Dress

6:15 AM Drink water //  Put (frozen or premade) breakfast in oven // Read // Study

6:45 AM Empty dishwasher // Start laundry // Set out breakfast

baby at dishwasher

Lots of help around here!

7:00 AM Wake kids // Help the littles with Morning List

Too often I let my day start here.

Kids’ Morning List: Make Bed, Get Dressed, PJs Away, Diaper in Trash, Drink Water, Go Potty, Fix Hair, Read Daily Verse, Take Care of Pets. (This list is an anchor and must be done before breakfast.)

pet rat on Tashas head

Meet Tippy! Our friendly pet rat.

7:15 AM Breakfast and Tidy Kitchen (Kids Help: Clear the Table, Wipe the Table, Sweep the Floor.)

8:00 AM House Blessings (Each kid has a separate daily chore. Gather laundry from all over the house, empty trash, sweep bathroom), Extra Daily Chore, (This will be anything that needs done to maintain the home such as wiping the mirror in the playroom, dusting the piano, vacuuming around the furniture, watering plants, sweeping the entry, lining up shoes, etc. We skip this when breakfast runs late.)

8:30 AM Walk Outside, Online Workout, or movement of some kind. (If nothing else we pretend to be a variety of animals. I have a 7, 5, and 3 year old, so they like that, and we have to keep moving throughout the day because, you know, kids and energy.)

walking outside

Quack! Quack! Off we go.

9:00 AM Morning Time // School

Morning Time with the Kids, My Favorite!

I learned this term from A Humble Place, but it is a Charlotte Mason homeschooling idea. This is the heart of what is most valuable in our home education. Not worksheets and tests and homework, but singing, and poetry, and beautiful ideas.

Our Morning Time can take anywhere from 10 minutes to a full hour depending on the moods of the kids and what we have going on for the day and if we started on time. I won’t go into much detail, but this is bullet points of what we cover; if short on time, we don’t do everything listed:

Pray for God to speak to us and bless our day

Bible story or scripture to think about

Song from our Hymnal: We sing all the verses to the same hymn for an entire month

Review one or three other hymns from previous months

More Singing: American Folk songs, silly songs, National Anthem

(I excuse myself to put the baby down for a nap right around here, I don’t know what they do while I’m gone for 10 minutes, but they’re all still alive in the living room or on the couch when I get back.)

Pledge of Allegiance

Poetry: We love poetry! This is a lovely book: Favorite Poems Old and New, Selected for boys and girls by Helen Farris. We read 1-5 a day depending on how we feel. I ask, “Shall I stop or read another?” The answer is usually, “More!” I pick one that I like and read it every day for the month along with the dailies. By the end of the month the kids are reciting it with me. We have found many poets we love, Carl Sandburg and Robert Louis Stevenson, to name a couple.

Art Appreciation. We look at prints of famous paintings. We don’t worry about educating ourselves on the style or anything. I just show them the picture and talk about what we see and what we like. “If you were in this picture, what would you be doing?” “What are they doing here?” “What do you suppose he is thinking about?” “Do you think she is sad?” (You can buy many of the prints here. So far Peter Bruegel the Elder is our favorite. Who knew!?)

Nursery Rhymes. Great for little guys and surprisingly still applicable through elementary. I love watching my three-year-old learning along with the 2nd grader. I often find them reciting these while they play through-out the days.

We close with the Lord’s Prayer, sing the Doxology, and a simple Benediction, “May the Lord be with you.” And we answer each other, “And also with you!” (My boy used to say, “May the Yord be wif me.” It was lovely.)

School Time!

kids writing in notebooks

Working mostly quietly

After our official Morning Time is over, the youngest wanders off the to play with cars and little animals while I read a chapter book. I find narrative stories that are engaging, yet not dumbed down in the least. A.A. Milne’s “Winne the Pooh” we have read multiple times. Currently we’re reading Richard of Jamestown by James Otis. We’ve read all the Laura Ingalls Wilder books and Chronicles of Narnia. If we are short on time I’ll skip this because Dad will read to them in the evenings, too.

boy reading books

We have many nooks for individual play and quiet time.

I do 10-ish minutes of a reading lesson with the Kindergartener out of Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons by Engelmann. This will take us much longer than 100 days because we do the same lesson two or even three days in a row because she was getting frustrated. Slowing it down has been amazing for her confidence. She is now excited to see progress instead of discouraged when it was difficult. With the 2nd grader we’re using McGuffy’s Eclectic Reader Series a lesson a day, then I assign copy work to both of them. Copy work is often short. We desire a few perfectly written words rather than a whole page of sloppy handwriting. My kids have surprisingly neat handwriting.

example of hand writing

The Kindergartener is done with school for the day. The 2nd grader has math practice, or learning new math skills; he’s going through the Math-It packet (Elmer Brooks), and The Complete Book of Math Grades 1-2 (School Specialty Publishing), he looks up a word in the dictionary and we read the definition together, finds a country on the globe and then finds the same country on our large wall map. We then talk about how we could get there from Nebraska. Those things are listed on his schedule; he can complete many of them on his own.

If you’re looking for some simple curriculum that invites family participation, memorizing scripture AND serving your community, I highly recommend Laura’s ebook Learn Your Letters Learn to Serve. This is INCLUDED with your club membership! (Everyone cheers!!)

kids looking at a large map

This map makes us legit homeschoolers, right?

We are often done by 10:30 AM. The kids have free time until lunch. They find all sorts of things to do on their own. (See, and here you thought my kids stuck to a boring schedule all day long.) They have access to craft supplies where they make paper puppets on popsicle sticks and put on shows, draw comic book-style scenes, draw pictures, my girl will often copy her reading lesson to show it off to Dad, they have train sets and blocks and tents, they build towers and dress up and generally make messes everywhere. If it’s nice they run around outside.

kids playing in toy tents

Can you find all four!?

I do a variety of things. I may play on my phone, (I know, I know…Instagram is sucking my brain out.), meal prep, do a special project with one of the kids, sew something, read books, call my sisters, clean the bathrooms or other chores, go outside and check on my plum trees (THEY HAVE BUDS THIS YEAR!!), and put lunch in the oven.

kids outside

11:30 AM Wake up the baby from his nap. Read to him, snuggle, and play.

12:00 Dad comes up from his basement cave where he’s working from home and we eat lunch.

Afternoon

All help tidy the kitchen, switch laundry (2nd grader’s chore), get ready to go outside. 

Family walk or outside time (if the weather allows)

Free time

boy with block tower

One of many daily creations.

2:00 PM Nap time for baby, quiet time in separate rooms for everyone else. They are not allowed to talk to me or each other until 3:00. The 3 year old usually falls asleep in my bed. I don’t know what the 5 year old does, but she stays in her room with dolls and books and things. The 7 year old plays Legos and looks at picture books and draws in his room.

Finally, I check-out from mom-life in whichever room is the cleanest and causes the least amount of stress, and get incredibly snippy if anyone tries to talk to me during this time. With my laptop I sit and write and write and write. I blog (like now), but mostly I am attempting to write a novel. It’s been three years in the making but I am determined to finish it this year… #goals. I’ll keep you up to date if I ever finish. Because it’s on the schedule, I’m much more likely to do it.

desk with laptop

My office!

If I absolutely don’t feel like writing, I read something I want to read and eat a yummy snack that I don’t share with anybody.

3:00 PM The bigger kids are allowed to come out of their rooms and play quietly in the house or go outside. The younger two generally sleep longer.

toddler sleeping

He naps in my bed because he shares a room.

4:00 PM I close the laptop and come out of hiding. Wake the baby if he’s still sleeping. Dad joins us and we play outside, fold laundry, work on a home project together, grocery shop, meal prep, etc.

big brother reading to baby

5:00  PM Dinner and kitchen clean up.

Evening

6:00 PM Family time. House clean-up, outside time, reading books, listen to music and play, dream and draw plans of the house we’re going to build someday, discuss important things like the most deadly animal in the world: Tiger or Mosquito, I might sew something, paint pictures, kids take baths, go on walks, etc. If I don’t schedule this time in, we miss it! This is my favorite part of the quarantine: Daddy is home every evening.

kids peeling wallpaper

Group project: Removing wallpaper!

6:30 Baby is ready for bedtime routine and he’s asleep by 7:00

7:00 Dad puts the older three to bed. I finish cleaning the kitchen, fold laundry, bring the laptop back out to work some more, sew something, paint something, waste more time on my phone.

Tasha sitting at sewing machine because playing is on the schedule

One of my many hobbies.

8:00 Lights out for the bigger kids

9-10: Lights out for me. And up again at midnight and 3 AM with the baby.

OKAY!!! That’s the basic outline of our day. Not every day goes by this schedule exactly. But the framework has SAVED my kids and me. They know what to expect, and Dad knows what to expect. They don’t have to ask me “Can I go outside?” “When is lunch?” “Am I done with school?” The answer is on the schedule.

What keeps you grounded?

kids pretending to be in a bus

Beep Beep! The bus is leaving.

Do you have a schedule or routine? Does your family know what to expect each day? Do they know what’s expected of them? This schedule has been a life-saver, but it’s been through many transformations. It will look differently this summer and next fall when Dad goes back to work.

Tell me, how is your day planned out?


tasha

Tasha, friend of Laura is a stay-at-homeschool-mom to four kids. When she’s not writing about money and birthdays and how to survive anything, she can be found Instagramming for Laura @heavenlyhomemaker, producing something from a variety of creative hobbies, sneaking treats she doesn’t want to share with her family, and repurposing old shirts into toddler dresses. She and her family recently bought two-acres of prairie and are dreaming of a little house to build on it.

 

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The Easiest Way to Organize Your Recipes

March 8, 2018 by Laura 14 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

Today I want to hear the ways each of you has found to organize your recipes!

Favorite Recipes12

As you all know, I am a recipe nut. A full fledged recipe guru. Recipes are my thing. I love them. I collect them. I invent them. I dream about them. And often these recipes include butter. This cannot be helped.

But recently I was asked, “Laura, what’s the easiest way you’ve found to organize your recipes?” My response, “Oh, I don’t organize them. I just create them.”

You guys do not want to see my recipe cabinet. 

Yes, it’s true. I have an entire, very unorganized cabinet full of recipes. (And also a cabinet full of Pyrex. These are needed so I can bake the recipes piled up in my cabinet. And also so that I can enjoy the butter.)

butter

#iheartbutter
#andpyrex

So my recipe cabinet. It is about as messy as can be. When I need to use one of the recipes in this cabinet, I have to dig and scrounge and muddle. But never fear. While looking through my mess to find the one recipe I need, I end up finding three more I forgot were there. And you guessed it. Many of them require the use of chocolate. (Bet you thought I was going to say “Pyrex” or “butter.” Ha. Just keeping you on your toes.)

So today, my friends, we’re going to talk about the easiest way to organize recipes. It’s high time I found a system. My messy cabinet pile is no longer working. It never worked. So let’s talk about how to organize your recipes!

I’m sure you’re eager to learn about this subject from someone who clearly has no clue. Come closer, my friends. I’ll teach you everything I don’t know.

Tips for the easiest way to organize your recipes

As I’ve searched for a system, these are the new tricks that are working best for me at this point.

  • Keep all your recipes in one place. (At least having all my recipes in one cabinet was better than tucking them randomly inside school books, the silverware drawer, and behind the toaster oven.)
  • If the recipes are cut from magazines, torn from a book, or printed off the computer, slide them all safely inside a large manila folder or envelope.
  • Invest in a binder. This is my best idea so far.

I came across this DIY Recipe Binder idea online and I don’t know why I never thought of it before! It’s way too simple, and turns my messy cabinet into a nicely organized recipe haven.

binder

DIY Recipe Binder – FREE Printables!!

DIY Recipe Binder - Free Printables

I spent a little time creating these lovely binder pages to help me become more organized. I like them so much I decided to share them with you! Not only can all of our recipes be in one place, we can put them all into one organized (and fun!) binder.

How to make and use your Recipe Binder

  1. Enter your email address here and the free printables will be sent to your inbox. (This will connect you to our Heavenly Homemakers email list so I can continue to send you freebies, recipes, and deals!)
  2. Print each of the Recipe Binder pages you will use.
  3. Use a 3-hole punch to prepare them for a 3-ring binder.
  4. As you print recipes from the computer, add them to your binder within the fitting category.
  5. If you have small recipe cards, recipes cut from magazines, etc, re-write them on 8.5×11 inch paper so that they fit your binder. Or slide them into a plastic sleeve that fits in a 3-ring binder.

And that, my friends, is how we’re going to get our recipes organized once and for all!

Or at least that’s the hope. The fact that my new Recipe Binder is cute and fun offers me lots of incentive. :)

Get your FREE DIY Recipe Binder pages here.

 

What ways have you found to organize your recipes?

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

Menu Plan for the Week – Plus This Week’s Grocery Pictures

November 22, 2014 by Laura 7 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

Here we are, beginning Thanksgiving week already! We’ll head to Kansas to spend time with family later this week, thus the abbreviated menu plan below. Since my side of the family won’t be together again at Christmas time, we’ll be celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas all in the same weekend.

groceries nov4

Home-canned goodies make great gifts!

Here’s a picture of this week’s grocery store run. See that nine year old boy hiding behind the groceries? He was on sale, and I couldn’t resist.

groceries nov3

We’ll be enjoying the special treat of Chex Mix over the holiday.

Our Amazon Subscribe and Save order came this week. I got such good deals – and they are all over my storage room. Not only have I not had time to put them away, it’s freezing in there! I’ll do it….later. ;)

groceries nov

My new Menu Planning Notebook is proving to be soooo much fun – and super helpful too. Do you have yours put together yet? As you can see, I shared my work space with cookie cutters. Malachi and I were getting cookies ready to take to Kansas. :)

groceries nov2

Here’s what my menu plan ended up looking like for this week:

Breakfast

  • Pumpkin Breakfast Cake
  • Scrambled eggs (with spinach) and Poppy Seed Bread with Orange Glaze (recipe in {Healthy} Make-Ahead Meals & Snacks eBook)
  • Zucchini Carrot Bread
  • Poptarts

Lunch

  • Black Bean Chicken Nachos
  • Calzones
  • Chili Mac
  • Pizza Soup

Dinner

  • Sweet Pepper Fritata
  • Italian Cream Cheese Chicken (the kids have been requesting this one!)
  • Italian Pasta Bake
  • Chicken Noodle Soup

Fruit and Veggie Side Dishes (I serve 1-4 with each meal)

  • Pears
  • Applesauce
  • Peas
  • Green Beans
  • Asparagus
  • Broccoli
  • Sweet Peppers
  • Petite Carrots
  • Clementines
  • Grapes
  • Apples
  • Mixed Greens
  • Spinach
  • Romaine
  • Raspberries
  • Fresh Pineapple

What are your Thanksgiving plans this week?

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

Menu Plan for the Week (with surprise, surprise – lots of potatoes)

February 17, 2013 by Laura 15 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

Here is my inspirational and insightful thought for today:  When you have a lot of potatoes, it is neato to come up with a meal plan that includes a lot of potatoes.

How deep was that?

What I mean is…sure I ended up with twice as many potatoes as I really need. But what a blessing to have an abundance of food that is so versatile. There are soooo many yummy dishes to make with potatoes. I had fun coming up with our menu plan. :)

taco_potato_1

Mmmm, Taco potatoes.  :)

Sunday, February 17
Baked oatmeal, apple slices
Leftovers
High School Huddle:  Nacho bar with chips, meat, cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, olives, sour cream, and salsa; brownies with fudge frosting

Monday, February 18
Whole wheat waffles, blueberries
Easy noodle stir fry with broccoli and carrots
Chicken fried steak strips, mashed potatoes and gravy, peas

Tuesday, February 19
Applesauce bread, bananas
Calico beans, homemade soft pretzels, sliced kiwi
Cheesy chicken and rice (this recipe, except using chicken instead of beef) with carrots

Wednesday, February 20
Easy breakfast casserole, oranges
Potato soup, carrots
Pizza boats, tossed salad

Thursday, February 21
Homemade poptarts, applesauce
Taco potatoes, fruit salad
Alfredo sauce with pasta, tossed salad, steamed broccoli and carrots

Friday, February 22
Scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, creamy orange coolers
Chicken patty sandwiches, homemade fries, green beans
Cheesy salsa enchiladas, tossed salad

Saturday, February 23
Peanut butter pancakes, bananas
Leftovers
Lamb chops, baked potatoes, asparagus, tossed salad

100 pounds of potatoes aside, I have some really fun plans to share with you this week. Be on the lookout! :)

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

Menu Plan for the Week

January 13, 2013 by Laura 7 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

Last night before bed, I pulled some Whole Wheat Butterhorns out of the freezer to thaw and rise so that we could have them with our lunch today.

Correction.

I was in bed already and beginning to relax when I remembered that I had intended to get the butterhorns out of the freezer. I then had to wrestle around in my head while I tried to decide whether or not it was worth it to get up and get them out as planned. 

We were planning to invite college students over to share our lunch, and I knew they would love them and that they would help our lunch “stretch” a little farther. So I went ahead and got up. Oh, it was so worth it. These butterhorns are yummy! And the college students, as well as our family, were very happy to eat them today. :)

whole_wheat_butterhorns

Don’t worry. I made more than just these few.
This was the second round I pulled out of the oven.

Here’s our menu for this week:

Sunday, January 13
Baked oatmeal, fruit
Lasagna, whole wheat butterhorns, tossed salad, green beans
High School Huddle:  Chili cheese dogs, fritos, olives, baby carrots, chocolate chip cookies

Monday, January 14
Whole wheat pancakes, blueberries
Beefy vegetable soup, corn bread muffins
Creamy crock pot chicken and rice, carrots, tossed salad

Tuesday, January 15
Pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, applesauce
Chicken patty sandwiches, fruit plate, baby carrots
Beef stroganoff, green beans

Wednesday, January 16
Scrambled eggs, creamy orange coolers
Grilled cheese sandwiches, tomato soup, carrot sticks
Pizza boats, fruit salad

Thursday, January 17
Whole wheat bagels, cottage cheese and pineapple
Chicken tortilla soup, oranges
Tacos

Friday, January 18 (Elias’ 11th birthday choices!)
Donuts
Pizzadillas, fruit
Hamburgers, chips, veggies, fruit

Saturday, January 19
Breakfast pizza, oranges
Leftovers
Pasta alfredo, tossed salad, steamed broccoli and carrots

Did you make a menu plan this week?  Share if you’d like!

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The Month of the Funky Fresh Kitchen! Join Us!

September 1, 2012 by Laura 455 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

Our Funky Fresh Kitchen series last fall was so enjoyable, we’ve decided to do it again. Only this time, we have so much planned that we’re going to “party together” the entire month of September!! (And by “party”, I sort of mean work hard…so get out your rubber gloves and a mixing bowl — not to be used at the same time, of course.)

First, what is the Month of the Funky Fresh Kitchen? As summer fades and our fall routines begin, our goal is to inspire you to have a wonderful, fresh start! We want to encourage you to create a kitchen that is healthy and funky (aka functional). It’s time to clean out, clean up, be encouraged, and learn to (or be reminded that you) love your job as a heavenly homemaker!

All throughout the month of September, you can expect to see:

  • Fresh, New Recipes (All are easy, all are healthy, and many utilize a crock pot.)
  • Funky Fresh Freebies! (Including some eBooks from my shop! Some will come and go quickly – so be on your toes!) (Sit back down – that was a figurative statement.)
  • Funky Fresh Challenges (We’re all in this together. Be ready to get your game on. If you have a blog, be ready to link up.)
  • Encouragement and Inspiration (Unless I’ve already overwhelmed you with the obvious “loud excitement” of this post. Really, please do come back…)  ;)
  • because there are GIVEAWAYS!!!

Seriously – the giveaways!! Sprinkled all throughout the many fun (and hopefully helpful) posts this month will be some downright incredible giveaways. Want a sneak peek?

  • A Food Dehydrator from Cultures for Health
  • A Vanilla Bean Package from  Olive Nation
  • A Coconut Oil from Tropical Traditions
  • Gift Sets from  Redmon Real Salt
  • Gift Certificates from us here at Heavenly Homemakers
  • (Drum roll please…) a Nutrimill from Paula’s Bread!!
  • More!

You may remember seeing some of those great giveaways last year at this time, and I am so grateful that so many were willing to work with us again this year as we inspire you toward a Funky Fresh Kitchen!

(It’s possible that I’m using too many exclamation marks in this post, but in all my excitement, I’m not sure I’m capable of editing them out.)  !!!!!!!  (sheesh)

Well now, are you feeling the excitement? Do you feel the love? Do you wish you could give me a chill pill? 

I’m warning you now, there will be a lot of posts this month. Freebies, giveaways, recipes, challenges – they will all be posted at random times, sometimes up to three or four posts each day. Don’t worry – I will keep each post short and sweet. After all, how are you supposed to create a funky fresh kitchen if you’re spending all day reading about it?

If you haven’t already, you may want to Subsribe to Heavenly Homemakers, and/or Like Heavenly Homemakers on Facebook so you won’t miss any posts. Of course, scrolling down through the posts on my blog works too. ;)

Take note:  All throughout September, each time you leave a comment on a post which displays our Funky Fresh Kitchen button (as shown at the top of this post), you will be entered in a drawing for three gift certificates to our Heavenly Homemakers Shop, good for any downloadable items. We’ve got two $25 certificates and one $50 certificate to give away!

Shall we start practicing now? Leave a comment on this post for a chance to win. AND, if you share about this post about the month of the Funky Fresh Kitchen on Facebook, leave another comment on this post for a second entry!

Let the Month of the Funky Fresh Kitchen begin!

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

Menu Plan for the Week

January 1, 2012 by Laura 9 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

Well, Happy New Year everyone! I’m sleepy. I did what I never thought I’d do and stayed up way past midnight last night. I had more fun than I thought I would too, how about that?! But if I’m going to make it through the week, I will have to take a nap this afternoon. :)

How did you ring in the new year?

Here’s what our menu looks like for this week:

Sunday, January 1
Oatmeal, clementines
Cheesy beef and rice, green beans
2012 Pancakes (Because, as un-artistic that I am, I think I can pull off making pancakes into the shape of 2’s, 1’s and 0’s. Maybe.)

Monday, January 2
Pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, scrambled eggs, bananas
Tammy’s chicken pasta salad, oranges, chocolate chip cookies (feeding the YC ladies basketball team)
Chicken fried steak strips, mashed potatoes, gravy, peas

Tuesday, January 3
Pancake sausage muffins, clementines
Lamburger patties, steamed broccoli and carrots, okra
Chicken and noodles, raw veggies

Wednesday, January 4
Warm chocolate soother, fried eggs
Bean dip with tortilla chips, apples
Venison steak fajitas, fruit salad

Thursday, January 5
Mini breakfast pizzas, applesauce
Creamy mac and cheese, green beans
One dish meat and potato casserole with peas

Friday, January 6
Peanut butter honey toast, bananas
Potato soup, tossed salad
Creamy chicken and rice casserole with carrots

Saturday, January 7
Giant breakfast cookies, pears
Leftovers
Cheesy salsa enchiladas, tossed salad

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

Menu Plan for the Week

December 11, 2011 by Laura 6 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

As I mentioned last week, we won’t be hosting High School Huddle at our house again until January. This week, middle and high school huddles come together at the church building for a Christmas get-together. Asa and Justus are in charge of making snacks to take to this get together, since they are in high school and middle school. I love watching my boys cook – they do a great job!

I’m excited to make some Peppernuts this week.
My grandma always made these little cookies around Christmastime and I loved them.
They are a perfect snack with hot cocoa.

Here’s what our menu looks like for this week:

Sunday, December 11
Marriage class treat – Mini apple pies
Beef roast, carrots, potatoes, gravy
Huddle Christmas party – taking Cream Cheese Salsa Dip and chips

Monday, December 12
Applesauce bread, bananas
Grilled cheese sandwiches, tomato soup
Turkey sausage and red bean stew, cornbread

Tuesday, December 13
Mini breakfast pizzas, oranges
Baked potatoes with butter and sour cream, green beans
Italian cream cheese chicken, steamed broccoli and carrots

Wednesday, December 14
Homemade poptarts (maybe made with Christmas cookie cutters?!)
Chicken tortilla soup, fruit-kefir smoothies
One dish meat and potato meal, peas

Thursday, December 15
Scrambled eggs, turkey bacon, hashbrowns
Bbq chicken, potato wedges, peas
Three cheese garlic chicken pasta, tossed salad

Friday, December 16
Peanut butter honey toast, apples
Bean and cheese burritos, fruit salad
Lamb-burgers, onion rings

Saturday, December 17
Funnel cakes (shaped like snowflakes, maybe?)
Leftovers
Beef stroganoff, green beans

What’s on your menu this week?

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Menu Plan for the Week

November 27, 2011 by Laura 4 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

All last week, I cooked, and I cooked, and I baked – and I loved it all. But once Thanksgiving day was over, I felt ready for a break from preparing food! I didn’t cook a thing on Friday, and we instead ate leftovers (which I let everyone warm up on their own). On Saturday, I sucked it up and took the time to make Turkey and Noodles (just like my Chicken and Noodles recipe) from the leftovers. And now that I’m working on our menu plan for this week, I’ll admit that I’m having  a hard time motivating myself. Maybe I’ll resort to my Mac and Cheese solution this week? ;)

Sunday, November 27
Oatmeal, pears
Taco salad (because I’m feeling rebellious against turkey and I feel like a salad)
Turkey veggie quesadillas (because I think I can handle turkey again after eating some beef for lunch)

Monday, November 28
Simple soaked pancakes, blueberries
Corn dog muffins, carrot sticks, applesauce
Turkey alfredo with pasta, steamed broccoli and carrots

Tuesday, November 29
Honey whole wheat bagels, apple slices
Tuna salad on crispy cheese crackers, fruit salad
Creamy turkey and rice casserole, green beans

Wednesday, November 30
Scrambled eggs, creamy orange cooler
Bean and cheese burritos, peaches
Taco potatoes

Thursday, December 1
Warm vanilla soother, toast
Homemade beef bologna, cheese, crackers, apples
Italian pasta bake, tossed salad

Friday, December 2
Sweet potato streusel muffins, applesauce
Chicken tortilla soup, raw veggies
Hamburgers, homemade fries, carrots

Saturday, December 3
Whole wheat donuts
Leftovers
Steak fajitas

What’s on your menu this week?

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Thanksgiving Preparations

November 23, 2011 by Laura 14 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

Just in case you’re interested in my cooking plan for our holiday meal, here’s a little look inside my brain at how I have organized myself to get the meal on the table for Thanksgiving. I figured I needed to make the lists anyway – might as well bore you with them. ;)  Thankfully, everything from the Saturday through Wednesday lists are completed!

Saturday – Cook Thanksgiving turkey

Monday – Finish all Thanksgiving meal shopping

Wednesday –

  • Make Pumpkin Pies
  • Make Chocolate Pie
  • Make Cheesecake
  • Put together Green Bean Casserole (recipe found in Holiday Hospitality eBook)
  • Bake sweet potatoes, mash and have ready to rewarm tomorrow
  • Prep Stuffing (recipe found in Holiday Hospitality eBook)
  • Peel potatoes and put in water for tomorrow
  • Get cooked turkey out of freezer to thaw

Thursday Morning –

  • Make a double batch of rolls (recipe in Holiday Hospitality eBook)
  • Set out butter to soften
  • Cook and mash potatoes – put into crock-pot to keep warm
  • Cook corn for Cream Cheese Corn (recipe in Holiday Hospitality eBook)
  • Bake stuffing
  • Rewarm turkey
  • Bake Green Bean Casserole
  • Rewarm sweet potatoes
  • Make gravy
  • Whip cream for desserts
  • Have boys set up tables and prep plates, napkins, etc.
  • Do whatever else I’ve forgotten to do….

{I’m not really trying to be annoying by  putting (recipe in Holiday Hospitality eBook) several times in the above lists, but many have asked about those recipes and I thought I’d curb more of those questions by letting you know where to find those recipes. If you’re interested in that eBook, great, but – wink, wink – wait until at least Friday to purchase so that you’ll save a few bucks!!}

Here are my cooking and baking pictures from today. I had lots of fun and my feet are a little bit tired from standing so much. ;)

Below, it looks like I made six pumpkin pies – but really, there are just three. I have a big mirror in my kitchen, and I thought it would be fun to take the picture there to make it look like I got carried away with pumpkin pies.

Pictured with the cheesecake in the following picture is a batch of chocolate chip cookies. One college girl that is around town this week isn’t able to come for our Thanksgiving meal, but she really (really) likes my chocolate chip cookies. I made some to serve at lunch today (Wednesday) when she joined us.


It’s not likely that we’ll run out of desserts. I made this chocolate pudding recipe and poured it over a graham cracker crust for a “chocolate pie”. It ended up in a rectangle dish because I was out of pie pans. :)

I am so excited to eat this healthier version of Green Bean Casserole! Why don’t I make this more often?

Peeling and prepping our potatoes ahead of time is a tip I learned from my former hair dresser many eons ago. I love getting this chore out of the way a day early!

I baked three small sweet potatoes and only ended up with a small dish of them to serve tomorrow. I don’t think this will be the most popular part of the meal anyway, so a small amount will hopefully be fine.

Last but not least, I made dressing – for what I believe is my very first time! My sister-in-law has a wonderful recipe, which she shared for my Holiday Hospitality ebook. It is so easy, I’m not sure why I haven’t tried it before.

And now, I look forward to a good night’s sleep before I get up and tackle my Thursday list. How are your holiday preparations coming?

I’m thankful for all of you and pray that you have a wonderful, blessed Thanksgiving holiday!

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