Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

How I’m Planning Christmas for Our 14 This Year

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I’m planning Christmas for our tribe and I thought it would be fun to process “out loud” while I work out details!

You know I love to go all out at Christmastime. But how I used to do Christmas when there were only six of us does not work now that there are 14 of us.

I’m looking for ways to have a lot of fun without spending as much money this year also. Here’s how I’m hoping to get away with spending very little out of pocket this year.

How I’ve been saving/earning “free” money for Christmas this year

  • I’ve spent time earning Swagbucks during the past few months and made my way up to $100 free dollars in gift cards! I decided to redeem them all to use at Sam’s, so now I have $100+ to use for gifts there!
  • I got a “check” from Costco as part of their cash-back program. I plan to redeem that for free gifts.
  • I’ve been saving the cashback that we earn from our Discover card and I can use that at Amazon for gifts.

Meanwhile, I’ve found some great deals here and there and have been buying and tucking away stocking stuffers for a few weeks.

How I’m Planning Christmas for Our 14 This Year

  1. I’m looking into games that our entire family can play (which is a challenge since our kids are ages 1-25!) This Saran Wrap Ball Game is perfect though.
  2. I’m putting together these Christ-Centered Christmas gifts for our entire family, which will be the main part of our Christmas day.
  3. I’m focusing on consumable gifts again so that we don’t pile more STUFF into our house. :) Here are ideas for consumable gifts (not just food!).
  4. We’ll plan a day after Christmas to enjoy with “just the grown-ups.” So much of our life is focused on the little ones, which is exactly as it needs to be. But two years ago we started a tradition of hiring sitters for all the littles for an entire afternoon and evening. We bigs all head to our church fellowship hall where we eat and play games for hours together. It is much needed and so much fun!

What about the FOOD?!

You might remember that our traditional Christmas dinner for the past several years has been Lasagna. I’m changing that this year because 1 out of 14 of us refuses to eat lasagna. NEVER do I ever cater to one person’s pickiness on a regular day. But this Christmas I’ve decided to. Why? Because our Christmas meal is supposed to be special, and if my daughter can’t possibly put lasagna into her mouth and it causes a fight at mealtime? No thanks. Not on Christmas. (This is my gift to me.)

So we’re having a Nacho Bar. Everyone can fix their bowl or plate the way they like and everyone wins. Plus, by the time we’re hungry enough to eat Christmas dinner after a big breakfast, it’ll probably be time to pull out games anyway. So we can munch on nachos and play games in the afternoon. It’s perfect!

What about that big breakfast? I’ll make an Easy Breakfast Casserole ahead of time and bake it while we dig into gifts that morning. I’ll serve it with fresh fruit and one or two of the following (I haven’t decided yet!):

Here are a lot of great Make-Ahead Christmas Breakfast Ideas to look through!

Christmas Make-Ahead Breakfast Ideas

Do you have fun Christmas traditions or some that you’re starting this year? I’d love to hear!

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Can Swagbucks Help Pay for Christmas?

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I fell off the Swagbuck wagon but now I’m questioning why. After all, right now I’m thinking: Can Swagbucks help pay for Christmas?

I signed up for Swagbucks years ago and have I enjoyed redeeming our Swagbucks to use for free Christmas gifts. But I’ve never spent much time or effort to increase my “earnings” so it never goes very far. Hmmm….

What is Swagbucks?

Swagbucks is a way to earn gift cards through some pretty easy methods like:

  • Taking short surveys (this is my prefered way to earn)
  • Playing games
  • Buying things you are going to buy anyway

It’s free and there’s no catch; it only takes time. Time isn’t something most of us have to spare. But as a way to earn some free Christmas cash, I’m going to make time. It takes just a few minutes each day.

—>I made my way up to 2,210 Swagbucks this week, which earns me $25 to spend on Amazon, Walmart, or Target! <— See why I’m excited?! There are many more gift cards to choose from, I tend to grab one of those three though because I can get just about anything at those stores.

This year I plan to start now and be intentional about racking up the Swagbucks so I can redeem them in early December and use them toward gifts I need to buy. (Sometimes I redeem them for a restaurant gift card to use as a special treat for our family during the holidays!)

They are offering a sign-on bonus:

If you sign up through this link, you get a bonus 300 Swagbucks after you earn 300 regular Swagbucks within your first 30 days. As in, your 300 turns into 600 Swagbucks. It isn’t hard to earn your first 300 Swagbucks. Just fill out a few surveys and you’re there!

A word about the surveys:

Some of them are annoying, but they aren’t difficult and I’m motivated to mess with them because I’m doing it for Christmas money. :) Also, after you answer the first question or two, you’ll either be let in to finish the survey or they’ll redirect you to a different one. This is because they are looking for a certain demographic and we may not fit what they’re looking for. No biggie. I just move on to the next one!

Want to try it?

I encourage you to. It’s free and easy and fun to earn free money to spend at places we like to shop.

Sign up here to try it out!

Then get to “work” right away to earn your first 300 Swagbucks so that you’ll qualify for the bonus 300.

Holler if you have questions!

P.S. Add the Swagbutton to your computer and earn an instant 25 Swagbucks.

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What are Swagbucks?

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Search & Win

I talk about Swagbucks here and there, mostly saying phrases like, “I used my Swagbuck earnings to buy Organic Groceries from Amazon.” This is all well and good if you’ve been reading my site for a few years and know about these Swagbuck thingies I’m talking about. But recently I’ve recognized that not all of you know what I’m talking about, as I’ve heard some questions like,  “Laura, what are Swagbucks?”

Well, it would be my pleasure to tell you. I love Swagbucks. Watch me jump up and down while I tell you that:  It’s basically free money and it has paid for some Organic Groceries from Amazon for my family and free books for school and free Christmas gifts and free other things we’ve needed. You’ve just got to join me in this Swagbuck thing!

“Okay great, but really Laura. What are Swagbucks?”

Swagbucks are “bucks” earned while doing normal internet searches.  Typically, many of us use something that starts with a “G” and rhymes with Schmoogle to do online searches, right? This is wonderful and fine and easy and I’ve learned some great things about gorillas and the continent of Asia while using that search engine. 

But by using the Swagbuck search engine, I learn great things about gorillas and the continent of Asia AND I get free money. Real money. The kind I can use to buy Organic Groceries from Amazon or books or gifts.

I have found it easiest to download the Swagbuck toolbar onto my computer…that way everytime I need to do an internet search (which is about eight hundred times a day) I do that search through my Swagbuck toolbar. Several different times each day, as I do those internet searches, I will see a little picture letting me know that Yay! I just won some Swagbucks!!

All of the Swagbucks I earn accumulate in my account. Once my account reaches a total of 450 Swagbucks, I can turn them in for a $5 Amazon Gift Card. I save my Amazon Gift Cards and use them for items we need, because I can find all kinds of great items through Amazon.

There are other ways to earn Swagbucks and you can read all about it once you set up a Swagbuck account. Beyond doing normal internet searches, the most success I’ve had for earning extra Swagbucks is telling other people about them, so that when they sign up and earn Swagbucks, I do too! Several of you have signed up through my links in the past, which has been a lovely and free way to support our work here at Heavenly Homemakers (so thank you oh so very much!). You can earn Swagbucks by referring others too. Once you sign up, be sure to tell everyone you know so that they can sign up under you and you can earn more Swagbucks! (However, you are not allowed to refer someone else in your own household…just people outside of your home!)

The beauty of Swagbucks is:  There’s no catch and it’s all free.  There’s nothing weird about Swagbucks or any need to feel nervous about joining me in the Swagbuck craze. It’s just a search engine, and you can earn free stuff or gift cards by using it. I’ve been using it for something like two or three years and have not had one bit of trouble or weirdness with it. 

You can sign up for Swagbucks here.  It will take you about two minutes. Or one minute if you’re a fast typist.

Swagbucks is a lovely thing indeed. It’s a wonderful way for everyone to earn some free money to use for things they need! (And P.S. There are other goodies and gift cards you can turn in your Swagbucks for. I just almost always turn them in for Amazon Gift Cards because that is the most helpful for our family.

If you’re a Swagbuck user, what do you turn in your Swagbucks for?

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Homeschool Curriculum and Unhealthy Soccer Snacks! Podcast #2

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It’s podcast time again! Matt and I are still working out some of the kinks, but overall I think we’re getting things figured out. We WILL be asking to boys to “keep it down” in the next room as we record future podcasts. You may or may not hear a little rough housing in the background.  And a bird might chirp here and there. My children I can control (usually)…birds? Not so much.

On a completely different note, and don’t ask me why I feel the need to share this with you, but ever since I lost my mom to ALS six years ago…there have been random moments when I sing or speak that I am able to HEAR her voice through mine. I think the older I get, the more I sound like her. I am her daughter after all. Occasionally at church I’ll be singing away and suddenly notice…WOW, that sounded just like Mom! And then I melt into a puddle right there in the pew because “hearing her voice” makes me miss her so much more.

That’s what happened when I listened to myself at the beginning of this podcast. Not the whole thing…just when I open with the word “Hello!” It completely took me by surprise and I immediately began weeping all over the computer right there in my headset. Whew…I was not expecting that. It’s amazing how the pain fades, yet the tears and yearning are always there. Perhaps God has given me a gift today in being able to “hear” what my mom’s voice sounded like. Yes, it is amazing really.

Thanks for letting me share that. You all are really, really great and I appreciate all of you so much. {She says, as she pauses to blow her nose again. Man, I’m weepy today.}

I really am okay.  :)  {deep breath}  In today’s podcast, I address the question of which curriculum I recommend and how in the world to keep curriculum affordable!! Also, I talk about how to handle it when our kids are handed sugary, food coloring filled snacks after events such as little league games. Isn’t that counter productive to the exercise they just participated in to keep them healthy?!

Sit back and relax…or get some dishes done while you listen. (Actually if you’d like to get some of my dishes done while I sit back and relax and we can listen together…that would be great!)

Heavenly Homemakers Podcast Two

Links refered to during the podcast:

Thanks for taking the time to read and listen to the podcast!

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