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Showing posts from July, 2011

So Grateful For My Husband

As women, we are prone to emotions that toss us to and fro, hormones that can make us feel like holding onto a chair to keep our world from spinning out of control and responsibilities that make being President of the United States seem like an easier job. I believe it's super important to know your make up so that we can be on guard for becoming out of balance. Being married and keeping the home can sometimes give us tunnel vision. It can be easy to forget what started it all in the first place. Good, strong, happy marriages are not accidental, they are delieberate. We must remind ourselves often of the wonderful blessing that God has given us in our husbands. Seek to shower him with all the love that God has shown to you. The Lord has been gracious to us with his tender mercies. We must always remember that and then let that love overflow onto others. The first one in line for that love is our husbands and then our children. Write him little love notes, poetry, songs. Reminisce t

Perfect Enchilada Sauce

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I've tried a lot of recipes for enchilada sauce and this one is the winner.  My kids don't like a lot of spice and this one is perfect in that department. My husband just adds a little of his favorite hot sauce, Chalula, to his plate so everybody's happy. Best of all, it's easy to prepare with some simple kitchen staples. 2 TBSP Oil 2 TBSP butter 2 TBSP all purpose flour 1/2 tsp cumin 1/2 tsp cocoa powder 2 cups water or chicken broth 1/2 tsp salt (I use celtic sea salt) 1/2 tsp brown sugar 1/8 tsp cinnamon 1/2 tsp garlic powder 2 TBSP Chile powder 8 oz tomato sauce I always put the dry ingredients in small bowls first. Then they're ready to dump in when it's time. So put the flour, cumin, and  cocoa in one small bowl.  Put the salt, sugar, cinnamon, garlic and chili powders in another small bowl.  Wash the top of the tomato sauce can and open it and have a whisk ready. Now you're all set to make the sauce! First, heat the oil and

Picnic Menu

The heat wave hitting the mid to south west this week is hard to take with no central air conditioning. Last night I literally just dripped with perspiration no matter what I did. Today I'm taking the kids to the nearby lake and we're packing a picnic so we can stay most of the day. My picnic menu today is easy to prepare, but very tasty and good. We'll be having turkey wraps, carrot sticks, homemade cherry pie and iced tea. Here's the recipe for the turkey wraps: mix together 8 oz cream cheese, 1/2 cup mayonnaise, 1/4 teaspoon dried basil, 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano, 1/4 teaspoon onion powder, 1/4 teaspoon dill weed and 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder.  Other ingredients needed are 1/4 onion (minced), 10 slices deli turkey and shredded lettuce. Warm 10 flour tortillas and spread the mixture evenly over the tortillas.  Sprinkle the 1/4 cup finely minced onion and shredded lettuce on each tortilla and add one slice deli turkey breast. Roll up tightly jelly-roll sty

Stretching Food Dollars

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We have a family of four in our home and one of the ways that I "earn" money for our household is by doing the labor that ready-made foods offer to do for me.  And the savings of making several foods myself can really add up.  Stretching food dollars is nothing new; my grandmother was doing it in the depression era and beyond and it's one of the only monthly expenses we have any control over.  The key is to stretch wisely because we can't afford to sacrifice good nutrition for ourselves or our growing children.  Teenage boys especially need higher amounts of nutrients during their teens than at any other stage in their life. (More on this tomorrow.) We've all noticed how manufacturers are coming out with more and more convenience foods than ever before.  These are actually very hepful for those who have physical limitations and can't do much cooking as well as for traveling. We had to rely on some convenience foods from the grocery store when we first moved

Timely Tips Tuesday

 It makes a lot of sense to clean with natural ingredients especially when you understand the harmful side affects  of unnecessary chemicals in many household cleansers.  The more we can replace them with safe and natural products, the better. I've tried many different homemade cleaning solutions but I've had a very hard time finding Arm and Hammer washing soda.  I recently found out where I can buy some locally by calling 1-800-524-1328.  Saved me a lot searching and wasted gas because for some reason this product is not sold in most stores.

Decorating Before and After

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When we moved into this house, there were several red and taupe accent walls which were not only too stark but very poorly done (uneven edges and messy looking). Well, the painting is finally done and I'm so happy with the results! I think the new neutral color looks fabulous. It's been especially good for me, as the red was just an agitating color to look at. The color red tends to "close in on you" plus it's been known to actually raise your blood pressure as well as your appetite (which I certainly don't need, thank you). Check out the results! (I've also updated my Castle tour .)  I actually feel more peaceful in this house now that the red is GONE.  :)  Yippee!!   BEFORE BEFORE  AFTER BEFORE AFTER This is the entry way looking at the front door. This is the entry FROM the front door. BEFORE AFTER It was a lot of work to prime and paint over the dark red but it was worth it. I'm soooo thankful for my sweet husband an

Help for Dry Heels

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Living in an extremely arid climate, my heels have been taking a beating. I found a little jar of Blue Goo Cracked Heel ointment at Walmart with a main ingredients of Emu oil. It's a very orange colored ointment and will stain sheets and such, so a little goes a long way! I apply it to my heels at bedtime and rub it in deeply.  I'm pleaseed with how well it works.When I use it at night, my heels are noticably softer in the morning. Good stuff!

Close Call with a Tornado

This is what we saw when we looked in our back yard last night after tornado hearing sirens.  Our county alerts the communtiy with these eery sounding sirens when ominous, churning storm clouds hover threateningly close to the ground.  I have never been so close to such a sight - we could see the clouds swirling around and around less than a mile from our home.  I found myself feeling just a little panicky a few times. It was pretty scary for a few minutes as we waited and watched.  Then, praise God, the clouds began to pass over us further east and the churning and swirling began to dissipate.  Whew! I'm thankful we have a basement to run to if we needed to, but I'm so glad we didn't need to! :) When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. Isaiah 43:2

Have you Been Blessed with a Hard Working Man?

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Is your husband a hard working man?  If he were asked if his wife appreciated him, what do you think he would say? It's such a privilege to be the keeper my home and take care of my family. Having a place to call home to call my own is truly a blessing. I try to remind myself throughout the day how blessed I am.  Sometimes when tired of washing the dishes, I try to remember to thank the Lord for those dishes - they help me feed my family.  Same goes for the laundry. I have been without so many times in my life that I find it hard to complain about the piles of dirty clothes or if I get behind. I am thankful to God deep in my soul for how much He has blessed me with. I have sufficient clothes and linens for my family - a blessing! And I have my very own laundry facilities right inside in my home. Another blessing! No traipsing to a laundromat.  When I clean the toilets in our home, I am thankful to God that I have indoor plumbing. Not everyone does! Some have a smelly outh

Why WOULDN'T You Homeschool?

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Recently my husband and I met a family who is considering homeschooling their son. He's only 3 right now, but it's never too soon to decide. In fact, the sooner the better because you can begin planning and researching all the many things there are to learn.  What many parents probably don't realize is that, assuming their children aren't punching a daycare clock 40 hours a week, good parenting and homeschooling are kind of the same thing. I cannot comprehend why any Christian family thinks it's a good idea to hand their children over to strangers 40 + hours per week.  And 40 hours is a conservative estimate. The reality for many children, after packing back packs, waiting for and riding a bus (round trip), homework (designed to reduce precious family time), and the many school functions, 50 + hours is probably more accurate.  Some families rationalize that their Private Schools are better.  But the truth is that these merely emulate public schools in nearly ev

Speaking Up in the Community

I sent a letter to our county public library with an emphasis on making the environment inside libraries welcome to all rather than assuming that every person entering their doors was a fan of Twilight, vampires, witches and soft porn.  Increasingly I have found the local libraries (and we've lived coast to coast and seen the same trend) displaying books with the aforementioned subject matter and it is getting to the point I don't want to take my kids in with me when we pick up materials, much less browse !  Browsing the library used to turn up interesting finds on books we never might have thought existed but it's becoming nearly impossible without wading through extremely offensive magazine covers and book jackets all staring us in the face - most of them at children's eye level, which I don't think is coincidental - all over the place.  I've never seen so many displays in a library before - they are literally everywhere! Ok, well I finally wrote to

This and That

We've had nicely busy days this week.  My husband's had a lot of work this week and we haven't gotten to see much of him unfortunately.  But in his line of work, it's either super busy or slow with several days off in a week. Because of this, I think our boys tend to get more time with their dad than most kids.  I took the kids swimming at the lake Wednesday which was so fun. They like to throw around a football while they swim.  They got nice and cooled off that hot day.  Today we went ice skating with some homeschool friends. Our boys had a lot of fun and are always tired and worn out by the time we get home.  They were a little discouraged because they still don't know the other kids very well.  We're the new kids on the block around here. I've been encouraging them to just be friendly and patient. Friendships take time. I've been thinking about hosting an afternoon of games and snacks one of these days so the kids can have a chance to form some f