Let the Summer Canning and Freezing Begin!

One of my all time favorite thing about the summertime is all the food that we can and freeze for the winter. and this week to my excitement we have put in the freezer 10 quart bags of broccoli, and 4 batches of yummy jam!!!

 I can already taste the yummy broccoli soup and homemade bread and jelly!!! 

Here is the yummi~nss just beginning! all thanks to Mrs. Naomi Yoder!

 ( she had lots of extra this week.  wahhoooo!)

 We've  picked 45 cups of Red Raspberries this summer and we've froze lots and lots, but boy! do we love freezer jam so I'm trying my hand at putting it up. so far so good!

I 'm so excited to see what our little garden will produce this summer. so far lettuce and a Green pepper!
Thanks Lord!!!

Have a Blessed day!!

It's a Soap Day!!

Been wanting to try a new homemade dishwasher soap, so I went hunting on Pinterest!

 Boy, I sure found lots!

This recipe was super easy to make, I'm excited to try it tonight to see how it does!

Here it is...

1c. Borax
1c. Super Washing Soda
1/2 c. Salt
1/2 c. Lemi Shine

Add 1 Tablespoon per load. and I use white vinegar in the place of jet dry!

The kids had a ball helping me make it!

 And 5 minutes later we had soap!

 Here is the Link if you want to check out the blog that it's from!   domesticallyunemployed

We were also out of laundry soap so we made it too!  I love being frugal and healthy at the same time!

Have a Blessed day, I'm off to make dinner!


I linked up at come see!!

Springs is in our Home!

Good Morning!!!

With all of my "nesting" going on I just couldn't wait to get our spring decor out. And with the weather being so delightful I just " Had" to get things out! ;)

So here is a little tour of what our home spring decor looks like.

                    Love this one!!

       This is one of my favorites too, Cause of the 4 little bunnies and our 4 "lil Treasures" to be! :)

In the next few weeks we'll add a bit more with school projects on the "Resurrection and the Cross" as Easter gets a bit closer!!!

How do you Celebrate Spring and the Resurrection in your home decor?? I'd love to hear and see.
Leave me your blog addy in the comments and I'll come see!! :)
Blessings!!!

Loving our Home

Good Morning!!!
This morning I thought I'd share with you a one of my favorite things that help me to make our house a home, and a few of the projects that  I've done to do that!!

I have a new obsession with my little friend called the " Cricut  Cutting Machine" Jon got it for me a few years ago for Mother's day off of Ebay.  I've used it here and there, but just over the past few months I've really started using it more. 

  

Here's just a few things that I've done in the past few months and weeks!

                                                                  On our Dryer!!

This is Lanna's Room!

 We have a desire to have the Scripture in every room of our house, may it be on a picture, printed on the wall... So to do that I've started using my " Cricut " to help get that started!


I think that is one is my fav. so far as Scriptures goes!!!
                   
                                                      The Fruit of the Spirit on the steps.

  I love it, the kids are learning them as they go up and down, even Aiden knows some of them and it's only been up just over a week!

And I also use it for our Scrapbooks!

I'm doing a post not so much about the "Cricut", but just about how much I'm loving having it to help Dcorate and Love our home!  I wasn't to sure just how much I would really use it, but as you can see I think we've got our $ worth out of it!!!

Have Blessed Week!

Every day life!

  I've been thinking today what to do next, our list are so long that I'd like to get done before "lil Mr." arrives in a few weeks. but what really would honor the Lord the most?
I'm thinking through a normal schedule for our family.  here's what a "Normal" day would look like!
(If it's a Wed. we go to the Library for the morning. but the afternoon is the same.)

7:00 am wake up and Daddy leaves for work around 8.
8~ish Breakfast for the family
8:30~10:00 Get our day going,(  Quiet time for Mama, Laundry started, tidy up, dishes in the dishwasher...)
10:00 ~11:30 Home School with the Kiddo's
11:45 Lunch
Afternoon~ finish Laundry, play with kiddo's till nap time. tidy up again!
2:00 All kiddo's down for naps. 
       Mama... clean bathrooms if it's a thurs. think about dinner if it's not in the Crockpot already. relax a bit for baby. pay bills if it's the first of the month. and if there is "really" nothing to do I get to scrapbook!!! :)
3:00 Start dinner, kiddo's up, fix snack for them.
5:00 Dinner on the table and enjoy dinner with Daddy!
6:00~ 6:45 Family time.
7:00 Bed time for kiddo's and family Devotions.
7:00~ On... Spend time with Hubby and enjoy him!!! Usually I try not to do anything at all work wise when he's here. I want to teach our kiddo's to Honor him in that way, and yes there is times when I "Must" do something, but he is so gracious and doesn't care. but it's still my goal to not do anything but be with him! and I cherish those times greatly!!!
        So often I get into that rut that I forget to ask the Lord what He'd have me to do. so I've set me mind to ask this question daily! " What would the Lord want me to do today?" and leave it open to change if that's what He so desires!
So let me leave this same question with you!!
                “How do you determine which things God wants you to do each day?”
 I'd love to hear from you and how you go about your day, and how you do determine what you will do?
Blessings!!!

You Talk About What You Love!

The Lord has really been challenging me this week about where my heart is and what I talk about.
and my Mom use to tell us kiddo's all the time when we were little " You Talk About What You Love."

and you know the more I think about it it's so TRUE.

 Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.”

Proverbs 4:23

My Precious Family !

What is in your heart is sometime going to come out through your mouth. and from that our actions and how we go about our daily lives, how we treat our husbands, how we love our children, even how we decorate our homes.

So as you go about your week ask your self

" What do I REALLY love and how do I show it?"

 I know for me that I love God's word.

But to be 100% honest with you it's hard to sit and read it.  that's hard for me to share with you. I'm a  Pastors wife. why is it hard for me?

I just don't MAKE enough time for it. that's has simple as I can put it. and it's so humbling for me to see it put into words, but it's the truth.

So that's one of my Goals for 2012 is to MAKE time to be in the Word daily and glean from it all that the Lord has for me!

Ok.... :)

next!!

 I love baking and cooking, if I have help with the clean up :) and you can always use it to share with others in need too!

baking and cooking!!

 I wanted to share with you just a couple things that I love!!!


There is so much to fill our time with these days and I pray that you will fill it with things that will last for eternity, and the bring the Lord glory.
But what do you Talk about? Be so careful, " You often Talk About What You Love" 
 
Have a Blessed Week!

Old to New #2

Just wanted to share another Old to New with you!
I found this ? not sure what it's called. But we call it the "Shoe box". at a little primitive shop.
I loved it and for $25. I liked the oak look, but had other thoughts for it!

old!!!

New!!!

It sets right inside our front door, and it's the perfect place for all our shoes!

Blessings!

Old to New!!!!

The other day I was at a Garage Sale and found this little tray!!! I've been looking for one for a while for our table! and was thrilled with this one but knew it needed just a bit of paint!!!

before!!!

After!!

I love the way it turned out and all for $1 and a bit of paint and stain we had here at the house!
I'm off to our ladies meeting at church!!!
Blessings!!!!

Tooo Much Stuff !!!

I've been thinking and praying over the past few weeks about " Stuff " and how it keeps me soooooo busy. Just trying keep up with the everyday life stuff that I get so over whelmed with.
So I've come to a point that I'm realizing that I'm missing sweet moments with my Savior, my Hubby and out 3 Little Treasures all because I'm trying to keep up with Stuff.
and all too soon my Babies will be all grown up and won't want Mama to love on them, and it breaks my heart.
So I've started to clear away some of that " Stuff " clutter, toys, clothes, books, decorations, all things that keep me busy with try to keep up!
And at times I have to admit that I'm ashamed to have people see how much we have, not that we have everything, but for only having 3 little ones we have Way tooo much.
So with that said...
I'm sooooo excited about the pile that's growing in our basement that's going into the Garage Sale this spring. It's all "Stuff" that's been keeping me busy and distracted from where I need to be right now.
I've decided that to help with keeping up with the kids clothes and " Mt. Washmore". That we don't need 10 shirts and 15 pants. We really just need 10 outfits that all match. And a jacket for spring and winter. Not all the clothes the we have now.
I've set aside a little chunk of each day to sort through some things. weather it be a closet or a toy ben, so when I get to start spring cleaning I'll be just a bit ahead of the game and have all the sorting done! It's ben fun and kinda freeing to see how much we can do without.
Like today I decided that we don't NEED 6 sets of sheets when we really only use one at a time. so why have 6? so I sorted through the sheets and now we have 2 spring- summer and 2 winter sets. and Oh how fun it is to have a closet thats all organized!!! to open it up and not have everything fall out on me, I'm sooooooooo thrilled.
And please don't think that I'm being judgemental if your home is not this way. This is just where the Lord has me . He has started a new work in my heart, and I'm not sure where He's taking me with this but I'm thrilled and excited to see where He leads and the next season for our family!
I'm excited too cause when we move upstairs here in a few weeks, we'll have some much less to move up there to clutter up things!
So simplicity here we come! it may take us all spring to get there, but I'm so excited to see where the Lord takes us from here. and my prayer is that He is glorified by our home.
I'll try and post a pix or two here soon so you can see how were doing!
I encourage you to think through what you have and what you really NEED, and what could either be given away or sold at a garage sale?
Then come back and post and let me know what your game plan is for your home!
Blessings!

Home Made Laundry Soap!!!

A few weeks ago we had a Ladies luncheon at church, it was such a great time of sharing and great "Lady Like" yummy yummy food!
One of the ladies shared how she makes and uses homemade laundry soap for her family, She went on to talk about how it's just about $.20 a gallon to make it. Yep!!! you read right $.20 a gallon to make it!!!!!
When she said that I was in. I was ready to make it.
Any way that I can save $$$$ is so exciting to me. I love that if we can save more on everyday life stuff, the more $$$$ we have to giveaway for His Glory.
Any way, so we planned that day to get together that next week and make it.
We had a ball. we each made some kinda of bread to snack on and got together. it was so much fun and Soooo easy to do. and the bread each of us made was so yummy!



I'm not going to go into detail about how we did it. but if your interested in it, leave me a commit and I can email the info to you!

So here is all you need to make it. and then just add water!

The beginning!

I've been using it for about 2 weeks now and really like it.
Aiden has really sensitive skin and it's working with him, so that again is saving us lots of $$$$ on not having to buy baby detergent.

Oh so fun!!! We had a great day of fun and encouragement while saving $$$$. and my heart was so blessed just to be with other Moms and Grandmas who love the Lord and want to bless their families.


Like I said earlier, if your interested in making your own , leave me a commit and I can email the info and recipe to you!

Blessings!