Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Helpful Hints: Laundry Shortcuts

Feel like your drowning in a sea of laundry? Why not simplify your routine by getting most of it done while you're asleep?

Start a load of laundry right before you head to bed and you can start your morning with almost one chore checked off your list!

I've noticed that my energy level starts to go downhill around 3:30ish in the afternoon, so this way, I've gotten a big chore off my list while I'm still bright eyed and bushy-tailed!!

Here are two easy options that can really shorten your chores for the day. Option one is good for a traditional laundry routine. Option two is great for those in the season of mothering little nursing ones or can work great if you are an early riser or have a hubby that gets off to work early and can switch the load.

  1. Start a cold load the night before "laundry day", and then pop it into the dryer first thing that next morning. Right after taking your morning shower, wipe down the bathroom with your towel and start the hot load. By the time lunch time hits,  you will have two loads of laundry washed, dried, folded and ready to put away!
  2. Start your hot load the night before, make sure to wipe down the bathroom with your towels before tossing them in. In the middle of the night or early morning, switch the first load to the dryer and start the cold load. By the time you are up and around, the hot load will be ready with a nice warm towel for your morning shower and you will have the second load dry by the time breakfast is over!
What are so ways you minimize your laundry duties?

Tasty Tuesdays: Flip it up....


.....flip it back, flip it on the pancake stack!

Pancakes are a favorite here at our house, but most mornings I lack the motivation to make up a batch from scratch. For a long time, I would buy microwave pancakes from the store, but those got to be really expensive. So to save time and money, and give the kiddos one of their favorite meals more often, I make my own version from scratch!!

I always get out my trusty copy of Joy of Cooking and use their basic pancake recipe.

1-1/2 C flour
1tsp. Salt
1-1/4 tsp. baking powder
1 or 2 eggs
3Tbl. melted butter
1 to 1-1/4 C milk.
3 Tbl. sugar.

But again, this takes alot of work, my "cooking assistants" are quite messy and cries of hunger come from impatient little ones. That's why I always double the recipe, sometimes triple it, depending on how well stocked I am with staples. After mixing it all up, I make enough pancakes to feed my herd and we eat.
She-fit.com

After our meal, I head back to the kitchen to cook up all the rest of my batter. I like to make small pancakes, just a little bigger than silver dollar sized. This size is easy to cook, cool, and store. When they are ready to come out of the skillet, I place them on a cooling rack until they are room temperature.

Once cool, I take aluminum foil cut into small squares, and alternate pancakes and foil into a tall stack. I store my pancakes in a normal plastic zipper bag. I can usually store 3-4 medium stacks in each bag and then I just lay them in a flat area in the freezer until frozen. The next day, I toss the bag down into my "breakfast" drawer in the freezer and whenever we have a craving for pancakes, I just take out exactly what we need.

When it's time to warm those delicious flap jacks up, I just lay them on a microwave safe plate in a single layer and warm them for about a minute until hot! So easy, pancakes even on the busiest of mornings! And since I made them from scratch, I know exactly what is in them, I can make them with chocolate chips or blueberries, or a couple of each, and they are super cheap to make. Since we save so much money we can have this treat more often!

Tip: As I use up the pancakes, I take the foil squares out of the zipper bag and put them in my baking drawer to use again next time. It saves money and resources and saves me the time of cutting up more squares! I also label my freezer bag - pancakes - and reuse this bag over and over again when I mix up a big batch of tasty pancakes!

Monday, April 9, 2012

Motherhood Monday: Cast the First Stone

Last Monday, I shared my heart break over the outlook of many women's view of home. I was moved by their responses and saddened about the state of our world over the fact that being home with kids, family, and responsibility led these women to talk in such negative terms.

Thankfully God has transformed my heart, but yes, I used to be one of those women.
And some days my heart reverts.

When we had our first child, I felt it was my duty to load this little one up, drive all over town for play dates and activities. This little guy, who was so young, had no clue what we were doing, but I felt this urge to be busy. To fill our time with constant motion. To focus on things that had no lasting value or purpose. To do anything to pass these boring, mundane hours.

At that time, I had no grasp on the notion of being a homemaker, a helpmeet, and a mother. Sure food was cooked, laundry wasn't piling up, and things were pretty clean, but I wasn't focusing on making our home a haven for my family. I wasn't nourishing my marriage or children. I would love to be able to go back to that time and tell that 23 year old to just enjoy the "being". I love that term.....being. Psalm 46:10 comes to mind when I think of this term, "Be still and know that I a God."

God has such an awesome role for women who are willing to accept it and thrive in it. Don't get me wrong, there are many days when it takes a LOT of effort to enjoy this job. But God has helped me to see the blessing that come from being home.

I'm not sure when home turned into a four letter word, but from the comments I read on that blog page, I saw a true distaste and hostility towards being home. Home, by definition is "one's place of residence, a congenial environment". That sound like a wonderful place to be and it sounds like one has to actually be there for it to fall under this description.

Next time, I'm going to share some of the benefits and blessings we have gained first hand by my being home!

What's your view of home? Sanctuary or sanatorium?





Sunday, April 8, 2012

Flush


I was at the library last week and as usual, my little guys just love those tiny potties there so we HAD to visit them. We had completed our business and after the toilet had flushed for the sixth time, due to that little sensor, we moved on to washing our hands. As I moved my hand under the water to turn on the automated faucet that isn't triggered by a two year old's tiny reach, it hit me. When did this become the norm??

When did EVERYTHING have to become automated??

I looked around the room, the foam soap dispenser, put your hand under it and -  boom -  it spits out soap. Put your hand under the paper towel dispenser, again, paper. All these things, that can easily be accomplished by pushing a lever, turning a handle, or lifting a knob have become automated.

Are we that lazy? Are we that dependent on electricity?

Did Franklin, Faraday, and Volta have such high hopes for their discovery? "My good man, this could change history..... this could flush a toilet someday!"

No, I don't think electricity is evil. Yes, I think it is very beneficial. Every time I hit the start button on my dishwasher, I am very thankful for not having to stand over the sink and wash every dish we use. I'm thankful for my washer and dryer and not having to stand over a tub and scrub. At the same time, while my dryer has been broken for the past 3 weeks we have lived. I have a clothes line in my back yard that I use weekly. I use it for cloth diapers and now for other items. My mom has also been kind enough to let me use her dryer as well. When my dryer is fixed I will remember not to take it so for granted (maybe clean out the lint thingy more often.)

Are these things nice to have? Yes, but we could function without them easily and many do. That got me thinking about the bathroom there at the library...............

What if there was a power outage, would the water work? Would the toilet flush? Would we be able to even access paper towels? (Oh disposable towels, grrrr, that's another post! :)) It's when we move from using an item for practical purposes to that item making us dependent on it that troubles arise.

 Where does it end? Will our children even know what to do if trouble arises and there is no power? Would we all be stuck with overflowing toilets and no way to get clean water?

Are we too dependent on electricity? What about your family?

Friday, April 6, 2012

Faith In Action Friday: Love ~ 1

1 Corinthians 13:1 If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love. I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.
The woman in Proverbs 9 comes to mind when I read the above verse.....clamorous.
clam·or·ous [ klámmərəss ] Audio player
demanding attention: demanding attention loudly and insistently
loud: loud and excited or angry
noisy: making a loud noise
Well, here we are, verse 1.....guilty as charged. Oh I can hear myself prattling on about something. Lecturing on some fact, something that is so insignificant, yet I'm the eloquent expert when it comes to this trifling matter.......
Have I stopped to think what I am saying? Have I stopped to process thoughts and realize who my words will affect? What do I sound like to my husband and children? Am I saying these things in a loving manner? Or have I even realized that my thoughts may not be filled with love?

Being a great speaker means nothing to the Lord if I don't have love filling my heart and my soul. The ugly that is inside of me will spill out and show my true colors. Love speaks the truth and thinks before it opens it mouth.

As women we love to talk as our quiet thoughtful husbands sit and listen, trying to process a thought and we continue to talk and talk and talk. This verse is a much needed reminder to me that I need to stop, think, process, and then talk and many times, I don't really need to say anything. I need to make sure my talk and my walk match. It is easy to SAY one thing and not have any of God's love to back it up.

So stop. And when in doubt, zip it.



"To keep your marriage brimming,
With love in the loving cup,
Whenever you're wrong, admit it;
Whenever you're right, shut up."
-- Ogden Nash

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

The Money Saving Mom's Budget

I was honored by being selected to receive a free copy of The Money Saving Mom's Budget audio book and to be part of Litfuse's Blog Hop party to share my opinion of Crystal Paine's book!! For those of you that know me, I have been a huge fan of MSM for a long time. For a while, I think I was a obsessed groupie but that changed into a true respect  for what the Paine family has done to live a counter cultural life. They have lived in the now, saved for the future, made sacrifices, given extravagantly, and tried to be the best stewards of God's gifts that they can be.

So I was super excited to get to review this book and share with you a great giveaway that they are holding in honor of its release!

I have to start off  by saying I love Crystal's simple approach to things in her book. It is easy to understand, there is no strange jargon to dissect, and the principles are everyday steps to move your family toward their goals whether those be to live with less, give more, get out of debt, save money, or get organized.

I enjoyed her overall approach to getting to your financial goals by changing the entire way one lives. While many may say that a cluttered home has nothing to do with drowning in debt, I have to disagree. Her outlook is that if one area of you life is in disorder, most likely that will spill into other areas as well. She points out that if piles of clutter are disorganized all over your counters, there is a good chance a bill may get lost which will then cost you more money whether it be in overnighting a bill or in late fees. She also points out that not knowing what you have can lead to duplicate purchases and waste of funds.

I liked that she not only covered ways to get out of debt by creating a budget and sticking with it, but she also focused on goal setting, saving money in the first place, and other strategies to bring in extra income. Some examples given in depth were staying home, using coupons, and selling unneeded items to bring in money. She explained how to plan goals for the now, a little way out, and for the big picture of life. She proves that having a goal with no plan is like planning a trip but having no idea how to get there.

There were many positive stories from other readers and MSM followers, that showed how her principles look played out in real life. They shared how taking simple steps transformed their lives and their outlooks on money, budgeting, and stewardship. Crystal showed how using a budget is a freeing tool not the ball and chain many people view it as. In a detailed portion of the book, she shows how sitting down and writing out a budget can work for anyone. She uses a gradual method that allows for people to ease into this new concept and make it work for them.

As much as I am a fan, there were a few things about the book that stuck out as negatives. Crystal has stated many times on her blog and FB page about how awkward vlog posts are and how new things make her uncomfortable and have really made her have to step out of her comfort zone. I really felt this showed through in her audio book. I felt uncomfortable for her the entire time I was listening and wished that maybe someone else should have read the book, but at times you could really feel her passion for topics that no one else could have emphasized while reading.
As a longtime follower, I have to admit the book was very, very basic stuff. Most of the book was repackaged ideas from Dave Ramsey with a little organizing and decluttering thrown in. Most people will know how to do most of these basic things mentioned in the book, applying them will be the test. For someone who is reading her blog on a daily or weekly basis, the ideas discussed in this book will be old hat. There were many places in the book where I could match it up with posts on her blog verbatim, which makes me wonder why people would want to pay money for something they could read online anytime. It is nice to have all the information in a succinct format all in one place and the knowledge that all proceeds are going to a fabulous cause would make me want to splurge on the small price tag.

I really enjoyed listening to this book as there were a few things in our home that I had let slip through the cracks lately and this encouraged me and spurred me on to be a better steward and focus back on why we are doing what we feel convicted to do. For those in a downward spiral of debt and chaos, it is a easy quick read and can help you quickly get your life back on track and achieve your goals with a little hard work and determination!

See the giveaway below!!
Celebrate with Crystal by entering her iPad2 Giveaway (a GREAT tool to keep track of your budget!) and RSVPing to the Live Webcast Event on 4/5!
One savvy winner will receive:
  • A Brand new iPad2
  • The Money Saving Mom's Budget by Crystal Paine, audio edition
Enter today by clicking one of the icons below. But hurry, the giveaway ends 4/4/12. Winner will be announced at The Money Saving Mom's Live Webcast Event on 4/5. Crystal will be hosting an evening of chat, laughter and encouragement - bring your friends! She'll share tips and advice and her husband will be joining her to share how the principles Crystal outlines in her book have dramatically impacted their family life. She'll also be giving away some GREAT prizes: gift certificates, books, and much more!

So grab your copy of The Money Saving Mom®'s Budget and join Crystal and friends on the evening of April 5th for an evening of fun of learning, sharing and encouragement.

Don't miss a moment of the fun. RSVP TODAY and tell your friends via FACEBOOK or TWITTER and increase your chances of winning. Hope to see you on the 5th!

Want more info about the MSM?

Click here!

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

What A Terrible Place

Trapped:  to place in a restricted position

Confine: a: to hold within a location b: imprison

Stranded:: to leave in a strange or an unfavorable place especially without funds or means to depart

These words tend to make me think of horror movies, killers, kidnappers, and prison....sounds scary doesn't it? All the words I listed above were used to describe being at, wait for it, HOME.

I read this encouraging post on Money Saving Mom this past week and thought all the Likes were a positive vote for this great idea, then I read the comments. :( The post was about how this family is living with one car in a two car world. What a novel, inventive idea! Yes, I'm being sarcastic! However, when I see posts like this I'm encouraged about some of our family's choices, but at the same time it makes me scratch my head and wonder if some really think this is some original idea. It feels like sometimes, people really have no grasp of reality. (I may have just been born in the wrong time period.)


Anyway, as I read through the comments, it became all to clear what the overarching theme was. A few comments agreed with what the lady had said, but even many of those comments also included qualifiers like, "not by choice", "just barely surviving", and "too much longer or I'll be in an asylum". Then it hit me, what must these homes be like to invoke such strong and negative terms? Are there husbands locking them in closets and beating them?? Were they inner city slums in crime torn areas?

While I don't know these women, from them FB profiles and the other information in their comments, I highly doubt that many of them are living in a real life horror film.....they said things about how being forced to stay home with children would make the crazy, how their schedule was so full it would be impossible to stay home one day, and that cabin fever with the kids was not good for their mental health.

My heart broke, what a sad picture of culture today. Women, wives, mothers not wanting to be at home. Not enjoying the blessing of seeing little ones grow, leading little lives to Christ, and just enjoying the down time to grow as a close family unit. They were filling their lives with things, stuff, and activities.

Then I stopped, was I one of those women?

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Simple Spring Cleaning!


Finished purging your home???  Ready to spring clean????

Eversave is a great place to get coupons to help you cut down on your grocery bill and now they will help you save time and energy with their free spring cleaning guide!