A fun, frugal project to complete at home with a simple twin flat sheet! This can be given as a nice homemaking or Christmas gift as well! One twin sheet at my local Goodwill cost just $4. Eliminating the use of paper napkins around our house and replacing with cloth napkins has been a simple way to be a better steward of our environment. It also makes for an elegant table at all times!
Homemade baked beans are a lovely frugal and protein/fiber addition to practically any meal, from hot dogs and hamburgers to a main dish salad. This recipe is one I have been working on for awhile now before finally perfecting it to our liking! This recipe works very well for making a large batch and freezing in smaller quantities before or after adding the flavorings. You can also add chopped bacon for a special treat. The key: marinating all the ingredients in advance. Enjoy!
4 cups cooked white navy beans (which equals approximately 1 1/2 cups dry beans or 2-3 cans)
1/3-1/2 cup ketchup
Dash of Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp white vinegar
1 tsp dry mustard
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt
dash of onion powder or 1/2 onion, chopped and sauteed
1/3 cup sorghum syrup, maple syrup or combination (molasses is another option, but I would only use in combination with sorghum or maple syrup due to its strong flavor)
bacon, cooked & chopped (optional)
If using dry beans, soak beans for 12-18 hours in water with the addition of a tablespoon or two of an acid medium (vinegar or lemon juice are best for this task). After soaking, rinse and cover with fresh filtered water and cook on low for 5-6 hours in a crock pot (overnight works best) or bring to a boil on the stove and then simmer till tender, just until slightly tender but not overly soft.
Saute chopped onions, if desired. Drain beans and combine with all the remaining ingredients. If time allows, cover and marinate for awhile in the fridge. This provides the best flavor. Re-heat and enjoy!
Makes 5-6 servings.
Houseplants are a wonderful means of bringing fresh and clean air and oxygen into your home! In fact, they are perhaps the most sophisticated air-purification system available at a more frugal cost! They absorb carbon dioxide and chemicals such as formaldehyde and benzene, and provide a healthy level of humidity. Plus they bring a little creation into your home (part of that creative mothering), displaying some of God’s creativity in each unique plant that He created, encouraging a little love of nature when it is not necessarily able to be enjoyed out of doors as in the current winter season. They provide such elegant decorations to our homes as well!
The EPA estimates that indoor air is 2 to 10 times more polluted than outdoor air. How is this possible? Contributors include that variety of furniture, carpeting, ply-wood, adhesives, mattresses, and shower curtains.
According to Renee Loux in Easy Green Living: “Two small plants or one medium size plant per 100 square feet will provide fresh air and healthy, mold-free humidity in any room so everyone can breathe deeply with ease.”
What are the most effective plants for completing this task?
Bamboo palm, Chinese evergreen, corn plant (Dracaena massangeana, not edible corn), dragon tree, chrysanthemum, English ivy, peace lily, pothos, philodendron, and snake plant.
I am motivated to start saving my pennies to include a little more creation into my home and provide a more healthy environment at the same time!
“This is a crucial part of the mission of motherhood: exposing our children to the power and majesty of our Creator God and encouraging them to respond with gratitude and their own creative efforts…It means acquainting all the children with the tangible evidence of God’s nature, creativity, and character, as well as helping them to express their God-given creative nature.” – Sally Clarkson
Romans 1:18-20 so clearly emphasizes, “His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made.” What a passionate call to expose our children continually to God’s magnificent creation! I believe as children are given wide variety in the opportunities to explore creation, the more they will be exposed to a proper view and understanding of the magnificence of God and thus be able to aspire to exercising their own unique creativity in their everyday life and play. Let’s not get sucked into sitting them behind technology all the time! This can be an instrument for great learning but too much can distort their natural creative abilities from blossoming.
Exercising creativity is such an integral part of walking in the image of God. It is not limited to arts, crafts, or home decorating, as I so often assume. We are each created in God’s image and thus we each of the means within us to be creative. Creativity can be poured into every aspect of our homemaking – from storytelling to cooking to building blocks to crafts to music to basic problem solving.
The beauty of it all is that is doesn’t have to necessarily be all our own ideas! We can learn from each other and our creativity springs from learning to tweak each of those ideas to meet our own particular needs according to our households. Praise God for that!
Fill your home with creativity – meet those five senses! Music, nutritious food (another reason to avoid over processed or packaged foods – it doesn’t allow us to fully explore with our taste buds!), less technology, fresh flowers, paintings, pictures, a variety of tools and instruments such as crayons, pencils, paints and paper (recycle all your waste paper for children’s use!) for them to express their creativity, dress ups, legos and building blocks to encourage imaginative play.
I am one of those who can often give the excuss that I don’t have the natural gift of creativity…as it is integral gift of being made in the image of God, I have no excuse! I simply need to exercise and nurture creativity in my home and mothering.
Do you need some encouragement in your role as a woman? Have you lost sight of the importance of your position in the home, church and our nation?
I have been deeply blessed, challenged and encouraged through the content of this past True Woman Conference, held in Chicago in October. Each session has brought solid biblical truth to the forefront and inspired me onward in becoming more solid in my doctrine. As John Piper says in session 1, “Wimpy theology makes wimpy women.”
What is the ultimate meaning of true womanhood?
Again, according to John Piper, “True womanhood is a distinctive calling of God to display the glory of God in ways that would not be displayed if there were no womanhood.
“If you try to reduce your womanhood to physical features or biological functions, and then determine your role in life purely on the basis of competencies, you not only miss the point of womanhood, you diminish the glory of Christ in your own life. Your distinctive female personhood is indispensable in God’s purpose to display the fullness of His glory.”
Beautiful! It’s all about displaying the glory of God in our own unique way! You must listen to these messages! Take advantage of your kitchen time, cooking, cleaning, etc. to listen to a sermon. It will provide you with fresh biblical encouragement that your role is so important and foundational to a strong family and nation!
Listen to the sessions available for free here.
I have been desperately needing a new apron and since Karis loves joining me in the kitchen now, why not make matching ones for fun? I took an old apron and used it as a pattern. It took 1 1/4 yards of fabric for the main fabric and about 1/4 yard for pockets and ties. Karis’ was a little more tricky and it took cutting it down several times and trying it on again before we found a size that worked! This is one of our Christmas presents for both of us!
Shellie asked:
What a wonderful question! I am open for lots of ideas from my readers on this one! I personally wasn’t really raised with a strong desire to be a good steward of the earth. I always thought that was just for the environmentalists and they were a little too radical for me. It has only been over the past year that I have grown with a passion for being good stewards of the earth that God has entrusted to us, as I have studied the Word of God, especially the cultural mandate of Genesis 1:26-28. My eyes have been open to see that this is a means of glorifying God as I seek to take care of His creation.
We were made to subdue the earth by making it productive and fruitful and this can be accomplished in many ways just around our homes and in the decisions we make as to purchases. All and all, I believe God is in control of creation and that it will morn and groan until God returns and creates a new heaven and a new earth, but until then I want to strive to be faithful in taking good care of the resources He has entrusted to me, make them productive and seek to bring about good fruit on the earth.
Cornelius Plantinga’s says it this way in his book, Engaging God’s World:
“God gives human beings authority in the created world, what we might call ‘responsible dominion.’ Let them take responsibility for keeping the earth, for respecting the integrity of kinds, and times, and seasons. Christians and others have sometimes taken dominion as justification for the ‘conquest’ of nature…the Bible speaks of dominion, not in the sense of conquest, but in the sense of stewardship…To have dominion is to act like the mediator of creation. This means that a human steward of God’s good creation will never exploit or pillage; instead, she will give creation room to be itself. She will respect it, care for it, and empower it. The person who practices good animal husbandry, forest management, and water conservation shows respect for God by showing respect for what God has made.”
How can we begin to train our children in valuing being good stewards?
How do you imagine the ideal holiday season? I would imagine it would include the company of loved ones, fun relaxing times together, and maybe an inch or two of snow. How often does this actually happen unless we are purposefully deliberate in all that we do (besides the snow request – that is a bit out of my control!)
I am thankful for the idea once again from the Holiday Planner to sit down and complete a holiday evaluation together as a family to determine what your family’s goals are for the holidays. Determine what the Lord would want your family to do as far as activities, traditions, etc. this holiday season. Keep this form in a place where you will frequently see it and be reminded of your goals for the holiday season.
Here are few questions to consider:
1) What would be the ideal Christmas for your family?
2) What activities are particularly important to your family?
3) What traditions do you want to keep or establish?
4) What do you want to focus on? Hospitality? Family? Or just resting?
5) How much emphasis do our usual activities place on the spiritual side of Christmas?
6) List all the holiday related tasks for which you are responsible for (i.e. buying gifts, sending out Christmas cards, baking, decorating, etc). Consider which activities you enjoy and which need to be scaled back to reduce stress. Which can you enlist help to make the tasks easier and more fun? What activities can you cut altogether? Sending out Christmas cards can be a huge task…maybe you could just send a picture card this year or shorten your recipient list?
Let’s come back together at the end of the season and review!
“Home – it’s such a beautiful word! It’s the center of our lives, the place that holds us with invisible strings of love within its walls…Home is a haven from a world that is swimming with challenges and difficulty. It is a school where one learns how precious life is intended to be. It provides the context of learning to know and love my Creator, the beauty of the world he made, and His Word, which guides me. And it is the envirorment where direction and purpose and values are passed from generation to generation, protecting and preserving all that is precious in life.”
This chapter was such an encouragement to me to look above and beyond the daily responsibilities of homemaking to restoring the heart and purpose of it all. Organizing and cleaning have their place, as a messy home is not necessarily a haven, but what is my motivation and ultimate goal?
These are simply delicious made with whole grains and a wonderful treat for a breakfast or dinner meal depending upon what you choose as filling. Breakfast crepes taste delightful with a variety of fresh fruit! We made chicken curry dinner crepes a few weeks ago and they were yummy as well! This recipe makes approximately 6 crepes.
¾ cup kefir, coconut kefir (for dairy free), or cultured buttermilk
2 tsp coconut oil (or olive oil)
1 egg
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp honey, only for sweet crepes
¼ tsp cinnamon, only for sweet crepes
½ cup flour or 1/3 cup whole grain (raw, uncooked) – we love it with spelt or kamut, but you can also use a combination of brown rice and millet or quinoa (make sure to rinse for a full minute before grinding) if you are gluten intolerant