Two exciting things to announce today… Clean water for families The first is that through the 48 hour book sale, we raised almost $220 which is going directly to Compassion International’s Water of Life initiative. What that means is that not 1 or 2, but 4 families will be receiving a unique water filter that …
Project-Based Homeschooling
Written by Kate Tietje, Contributing Writer This year is going to be our first year homeschooling. I’m excited! My first is finally 3.5 years old, meaning she’s old enough for “preschool” now. She also has a strong interest in learning, and I can’t wait to get started with her in a couple weeks. We’ve chosen …
So, Mornings… How Are They Going for You?
Have you met my friend, Kat? Allow me to introduce you… She makes a ball cap look great. She loves Tex-Mex food (me, too- except I live in Canada. Drat.) She actually has a chin-up bar in one of the doorways in her home, and every time she walks by, she does a chin-up. She …
Dirty Water, Clean Water
Updated: Thanks to my amazing readers rising to the challenge, we will be providing 4 families with clean, pure drinking water for a LIFETIME! How’s that for exciting? 🙂 Water. So critical, so taken for granted. We may talk about staying hydrated enough. Make sure that we are using a quality water filtration system to …
A Heart For Adoption
Written by Beth Corcoran, Contributing Writer Adoption is a topic that is very near and dear to my heart. And for some time now, I’ve been itching to share my story and my unique family with you. Today I get the chance! I have been blessed to be part of an amazing and unique body …
Ever Get Tired of Natural Living?
Do you ever get tired of it all? Have you read an article on nutrition or being green, and found that your eyes began to glaze over as you thought, blah, blah, blah? Does the garbage sometimes seem like a more convenient option than the compost? Do you just want to break down and buy …
Natural Shampoo and Body Bars from Apple Valley Natural Soap (Plus a Giveaway!)
Update: Giveaway has now ended. Thanks, all! I have to let you know, I’m a bit of a natural soap junkie. Underneath my bathroom cupboard are baskets, literally full of various kinds of handmade soaps– ones with oatmeal for scrubbing, with essential oils, with herbs, for oily skin, for sensitive skin, shampoo bars, regular body …
8 Unique Recipes With Zucchini
About this time of year, people are wondering what to do with all the zucchini that just keeps coming from gardens. Zucchini is nutritious – a great source of fiber, antioxidants, Vitamin C and many B vitamins – and it’s delicious too! But we seem to have a love/hate relationship with zucchini. It’s fun when …
Herbs I Have and What I Do With Them
This post was originally published on August 18, 2011. Although our traveling “medicine” kit is big enough to sink a ship and full of things like herbal tinctures, essential oils, clay, arnica cream, and all sorts of other goodies, I am sorely missing my drawer full of dried herbs back home. Using them for homemade …
Simple and Fresh Tomato Salad
To make a superior tomato salad that is full of flavor, buy locally grown tomatoes that are of different shapes, sizes, and colors. This will make the salad visually interesting as well as delicious! The following tomato salad is a perfect side dish. Alternately, serve as an dinner entree or light lunch with a few …
Why Every Moment Matters When You’re a Mom (and Giveaway Winners!)
Find me this week over at Raising Homemakers, where I share how a difficult loss this summer has encouraged me not to waste a moment of the time that I have as a mother. Winners of My Buttered Life eBook We’ve got some winners for the popular ebook giveaway last week. My Buttered Life is …
Preserving the Harvest: Sweet Fruit Chutney
by Meg Dickey, Contributing Writer Summer, and the fruit it brings, has a way of overwhelming many of us. If you’ve got a pile of peaches, plums, nectarines, apricots or any other kind of fruit sitting in the middle of your table, you need to figure out a way to deal with it! One of …
Surviving Early Pregnancy With a Houseful of Littles
I remember when I was pregnant with my first. I was working full time as an ESL teacher, but during my time off? I could put my feet up, take a nap when I was tired, make whatever food I was craving (or not make food at all if my stomach was off), go for …
Eliza Spurgeon: Legacy of An Apt and Godly Helper
Written by Sharon Kaufman, Contributing Writer A womanly legacy worthy of passing on A while back I began compiling a collection of mini-biographies of Christian women, single, married and widowed, whose lives might inspire us to live godly in this present age as that relates to all of the divinely created helper functions devout women …
Even Real Food Bloggers Get the Blues (and How to Keep Nutrition Up in Busy, Stressful Seasons)
**I shared our exciting news the other day, which entirely relates to the re-posting of this post from almost exactly one year ago. Morning sickness, fatigue and some other challenging circumstances have made it a real struggle to put decent food on the table (or desire to eat it, for that matter) these past two …
Four Steps to a More Peaceful Home
A peaceful home is something many of us long for. A place where relationships are healthy and spirits are happy, where we can rest our weary bones and just be ourselves. There’s no denying that creating a peaceful home takes work. The road to peace is not smooth or easy, but it’s worthy! I have …
Affording Cloth Diapers on a Low Income
After the recent series on cloth diapers, you may finally be thinking: Hey, I CAN do this! She makes cloth diapering seem so EASY! But have the upfront costs of modern cloth diapers frustrated you? I’ve been there. And I found a solution. My Story It wasn’t long after the birth of my second daughter …
All Our Little Ducks in a Row (And Baby Makes 6)
You know you must be tired when you’re a writer and you have exciting news and the only way that you can think of announcing it is to simply blurt it out… We’re expecting baby #4! Upon returning home from our trip to the Philippines with Compassion International (literally, the day after we got home), …
My Buttered Life Ebook: 5 Summer Skin Recipes and a Giveaway!
By reading the ingredient list on most skincare products, you would think that it’s necessary to have a degree in chemistry and your own in-home lab if you ever wanted to create your own. Sunscreen in particular seems daunting to me and I wouldn’t have the faintest idea where to begin if I wanted to …