Weekend Wanderings.... Link Love

I have been very blessed and encouraged by these following posts. ENJOY!

The Secret to Abundant Life!!! I LOVE this post.... really helps to keep our focus!

Walking along side my children..... the importance of my mothering my children! Encouraging!!

Keys to Simple Living! Oh, the truth in this post!

Musings on a Simple Life has a great post to help gain perspective.

Our personal temper tantrums tear our homes down! Such good conviction. Encouragement for me to really THINK about the impact of my words and actions!!

I'm gonna miss this all someday! The fact is that someday I will miss all these CRAZY moments of raising the children. Point: I must CHOOSE to live in and enjoy the moment!!!! LOVED this post!!

14 marks of a wise woman. Continuing to GROW in these areas is what I want to do.

Have a BLESSED day, BE a BLESSING!
Heather

Weekend Wanderings...link love

Time to share some posts I have enjoyed!!!

Did you know that Laura Ingals Wilder wrote columns in a newspaper before she published her books?? Read one here and also find a link to more! I really enjoyed it!!

The true secret to simple living: contentment!! Go here to read an excellent post on the riches found in contentment! To get this truth deep into our Spirit and LIFE would transform us is every way! God's plan, God's way really is blessed.

We had a HOME MADE Christmas (as much as possible) this year. Amy shared some fantastic Bath Salt recipes complete with cute gift tags! We gave these as teacher gifts (along with a pumpkin roll or loaf of celebration bread braid) and they were well received. We have also enjoyed using these bath treats ourselves!

Stinky Attitude?? I am at times GUILTY of this. This article really gave me another PUSH to seek God, repent and turn to a genuine GOOD attitude!

How we DRESS... Some more interesting thoughts on the importance of modesty.

Love paper dolls?? This tutorial on One Pearl Button is going to walk me through the steps of creating MAGNETIC paper dolls! I'm thinking that my niece might love these for her birthday!

Have a BLESSED day, BE a BLESSING!
Heather

Weekend Wanderings...link love

Going Natural! Simple Mom has shared about giving up shampoo and now she shares about her all natural face cleansing regime. I am THINKING about trying this.... I have trouble with my skin... oily and breaks out often... even in my 30's! I have to get past some of my long held beliefs about oil.... Anyone use this method??

Attention LADIES: I read an excellent post reminding me of the importance of certain exercise... kegals to be specific. This is a very well done post and has made me remember the value to doing this kind of strength training.

Laughter is MEDICINE!! My husband LOVES jokes... I mean LOVES jokes! Now that he has texting on his phone he passes jokes around with his friends and then I get to hear them, too. This post by Hillbilly Mama does an excellent job of explaining WHY laughter and jokes are so GOOD for you!! No wonder my husband is such a healthy guy!!

Homemade yogurt: I have been making yogurt in my yogurt maker for a few years now. Today I came across this post that shares how to make it in your crock pot. It is also a sweet vanilla version with unflavored gelatin to make it thicker more like store bought. I am going to give it a try after my next grocery shopping day. Making yogurt at home is an excellent way to stretch the grocery budget and yogurt is so good for you!


Have a BLESSED day, BE a BLESSING!
Heather

Weekend Wanderings...link love

Weekend Wanderings... Time to share with you some of the great on line places I have visited.... If you get a chance wonder around!!!

This picture was taken about a month ago at the local small town parade the children and I attended. So glad to see that patriotism is alive and well in our neck of the woods (or more appropriately, our neck of the corn field)!

These rain gutter book shelves are BRILLIANT. Both Chasing Cheerios and Passionate Homemaking did a GREAT job! I see a project in our future! I love that they are narrow so they can be used behind doors.....

We heat our home with a wood stove. I use dryer lint as a fire starter all the time but hadn't thought about sharing it until I read this post.... She has some good tips.

When I grow up I want to be this woman, too!! Thank you Tammi for sharing this .... so powerful!!

Here is a great snippet I read... read the rest of the quotes here... I think that this would apply to my children as well as my husband. It makes me think about 'ma' on Little House: she was such a smiling person!!
“On another note, this weekend, I made it my practice to smile (or at least have a pleasant expression on my face) whenever my husband looked at me. We spent more time together this weekend than last weekend, and I think that’s the reason why. Who wants to spend time with a sad or angry person? I wasn’t really angry before, but I didn’t look happy, and therefore, was not attracting my husband like I wanted. I guess I was expecting him to think, “She doesn’t look happy; how can I make her happy?” instead of, “She doesn’t look happy; I’d better stay away from her until she gets over it.” Ah! Behold the power of smile!” (Kathy at 701)

If you haven't found Homemakers Homestead I would like to introduce you to my FAVORITE web forum!!! They are such a great group of wise ladies!! They aren't taking any new members right now, but Crystal opens it up for new members a couple of times a year. Until then you can read all the wonderful information.
Pinwheel hair clips are ADORABLE!! I found the link to this tutorial on Down-To-Earth, a favorite blog of mine. I think I might be able to make them and I think that I have a niece that would love them....


Have a BLESSED day, BE a BLESSING!
Heather

Weekend Wanderings...link love

Weekend wanderings! This weekend I will be wondering through a local small town festival with the kids on Saturday and then on Sunday butchering up a hog. (yes, we will be missing church, but when our neighbor friends and pork producers called to give us an injured hog that couldn't load on the the semi we had to jump at the chance.) My husband has to work all weekend and so the entire butchering will be up to my brother-in-law, sister and me!! I think we can, I think we can, I think we can..... We have had plenty of butchering experience, but we have NEVER actually killed, gutted and skinned the pig without Chris (I have always just been his trusty assistant). So, you know I am going to be BUSY over the weekend..... I will leave you with some cool links to check out!

• First of all, don't forget to sign up for my Simple Family Supper MONEY WISE E-book give away!!!!
• Way cool chicken house!!! Perfect for a town dweller or a country dweller only wanting a few hens. (I don't have anything so cute, but I did order a new batch of chicks that will be here in a couple of weeks!)
• Pectin! Make your own!! Wow, I will just have to try this... one less thing to buy and just knowing HOW to make it on my own is so cool!!! I make so much jam that the cost of store bought pectin does add up.
• Soap Nuts! Huh??? My new favorite all natural (totally renewable) "green" cleaner. You can use it with everything from basic cleaning to laundry, in the dishwasher to the carpet cleaner. Read this great article!
• Hand stitched greeting cards look like a great winter time craft project. With a little help the kids could make these, too!! Go here to see tutorials on several patterns. Who wouldn't love getting one of these in the mail. I really like getting hand written notes in the mail... they are so special in our modern high tech world!
• Helicopter Parenting: Another reason I DON'T want to be one!!
• Former president of Proctor and Gamble writes a letter to Obama. I received this via email, but you can read it here, on "snoops"... it totally checks out..... INTERESTING!

UPDATE: Today is MONDAY and the we did NOT butcher the pig...... this one just wasn't for us!! LOL!!! He died overnight Friday night!! YIKES!! Good thing we didn't eat him... something was obviously more wrong with him then a pinched nerve! So, we did go to church and enjoyed the final church picnic of this summer season. It was a BEAUTIFUL day!!!!

Have a BLESSED day, BE a BLESSING!
Heather

Weekend Wanderings...link love

Want to join me on the porch for a chat? Wouldn't that be great! I love REAL, in person, visiting! God created us to be relational and to NEED others (whether we want to or not). I had a wonderful time with my IRL friends at our weekly "Mom's Group" Bible study this week. We had lunch together after. We all pitched in the food and enjoyed, Corn Chowder, Celebration Bread Braid, Layer Salad, Grapes, Baby Carrots, Chips and YUMMY Banana Pudding and Cookies!! (I really need to take a picture next time) The kids also had PB&J's.... they weren't too sure about the soup! LOL!

I thought I would share with you some of the on-line visiting I have done this week...... Some places to wander over the weekend.....

• Her apple cake is going on my "to do" list for the very near future!!
  
• I'm glad to know I am not alone in the struggles of winter blues! I wish I could just copy and paste Valley Girl's posting! I am HAPPY to report that the last couple of days have been WARM!!!! Just this past Tuesday my friend, Michelle, and I started our weekly walk in THIRTEEN degree weather!!! Yesterday morning by 9:30 it was SIXTY degrees F!!!
  
• Jennie and I share a mutual intrigue with the people that lived through the "Great Depression"
• Respecting our husbands is so important! We could all use a little insight in this.
• Do you have an SLR camera?? Want to understand it?? Learn from this simple e-how article!
  

Have a BLESSED day, BE a BLESSING!
Heather