My First Bike

Do you remember your first real bike? I sure do. It probably helps that I was older when I first learned to ride a bike. My first bike was a used banana yellow, banana-seat bike which makes it pretty hard to forget. While I would love to have that bike now, at the time it was definitely not the in-style bike I longed for.

I specifically remember riding my banana nightmare on the street with my older brother, who by the way, rode so well that I was sure he had learned his skills in infancy. To keep me from jumping off into the grass when I started to wobble, by brother told me to think of the grass as fire and just stay on my bike.

To this day I love to ride a bike, in fact I'm currently trying to find a bike for myself so that I can get out and feel the wind in my face once more.

Emahry is very interested in riding a bike. We've entered the running bike giveaway at 5 Minutes for Mom in hopes of getting her a bike of her own. You can find more details about purchasing a running bike here.

Making Home: The Disciple-Making, World-Changing, Heart-Molding Role of Mother

Please, visit Jess at Making Home to read her entire post. It has really encouraged me to look on my role as a mom through the eyes of God. It's so easy to get sucked into the world's ideas of womanhood and motherhood. I'm so very glad that there are people who encourage me to view my life as a wife and mom as a joyous journey and not with a sense of drudgery.

Here's a section of Jess' post that outlines the unique and wonderful privileges of being a Christ-centered mom.

Mothers...

... have the opportunity to impact lives, day-in, day out-for 18+ years, more time than any professor or doctor or preacher or counselor will ever be able to have in the lives of the people they seek to impact.

... have the privilege to study and know their children so that they can train, counsel, and encourage them as they grow towards adulthood.

... are given the blessing and responsibility of connecting deeply and wonderfully with their children in ways that are virtually impossible with the world at large.

... have the opportunity to love and be loved in a way that is entirely distinct from any other sort of relationship.

... are able to change the world through a mastery of various fields and talents that they themselves do not possess, as they spur on and encourage their children to find their God-given place of service.

... are able to teach and train and sharpen and shape and guide and gear their children in ways that will forever alter human history.

... have the privilege of praying with intimate understanding for the hearts and lives of people from the very beginning of their existence.

... have a purposeful career designed by God Himself, with His assistance and leadership guaranteed throughout.

... have the unique experience of watching the man they love grow into a man who loves in ways that were unseen and unknown before he became a father.

... have a God-given life with sanctification built-in by the requirements of hard work, selflessness, disappointment, perseverance, patience, grace, self-control, and a continual seeking of wisdom from above.

... have the unique opportunity to work hand-in-hand with God Almighty and the husband He has given to mold future adults.

Lord, thank you so much for the wonderful gift of being a wife and a mother. Continue to mold me into the woman you desire, a woman who is striving to please you, leaning on your strength, seeking your wisdom, and drawing the hearts of those I love to you.

If you have any encouragement for Christian moms or have read anything that has challenged and encouraged you, I'd love to hear about it. Please, leave a comment with your insight or link. Thanks!

Etsy Shop Showcase & Giveaway ~ Little Sapling Toys

Little Sapling Toys is a family business that designs, crafts and tests quality wood toys from their new home in Boise, Idaho. The goals of Little Sapling Toys are to make toys that will be beautiful to look at, fun to play with and cherished for generations.

Little Sapling Toys strives to take care of our environment by using recycled and recyclable materials for the packaging of their toys and by planting a tree for every toys that is sold through their Etsy shop!

Little Sapling Toys crafts beautiful heirloom quality rattles, teethers, and other toys. All of these toys are made from either reclaimed or FSC Certified hardwood. They are then sanded satin-smooth.

Wooden toys, such as those made by Little Sapling Toys are a beautiful and safe alternative to mass-produced plastic toys. These wooden toys do not contain any of the harmful chemicals that are found in plastics and are not finished with chemical paints. Instead, the toys from Little Sapling Toys are safely finished with beeswax or mineral oil. You can even order your toys with no finish at all.

Since we have been trying to find natural teething alternatives for our son Jonathan, we decided that this adorable elephant teether would be a great place to start.

This teether is made out of Maple and is left unfinished. The elephant measures 2.75" from trunk to tail and 2.75" from top to bottom. The 1.25" diameter center hole is the perfect size for little hands to grasp. This safe, quality teething toy is reasonable priced at $12 (plus s & h).

Jonathan's teething toy arrived ready for gift giving, safely nestled in fragrant wood shavings and housed in a 100% recycled (80% post consumer) and recyclable gift box. It was accompanied by a toy information tag.

Jonathan enjoys chomping and slobbering all over this teether. The size seems to be perfect for him and also makes it easy to tote the teether in my purse or the diaper bag when we're out and about.

Here are a few more of our favorite things from Little Sapling Toys (http://www.littlesaplingtoys.etsy.com/).

Click on the photos to view the listing or just browse through the entire shop. There are many beautiful toys to choose from.

If you make a purchase, please let Little Sapling Toys know that you found out about the shop at A Heart For Home.

Now for the Giveaway!

Little Sapling Toys has generously offered one of our readers one wooden teething toy of their choice. This would make a great addition to any baby toy collection and would be a wonderful baby shower gift!

There are 14 different animals and 3 different shapes to choose from.

To Enter This Giveaway ~ Leave a SEPARATE Comment for Each

1. Head over to Little Sapling Toys and browse through the shop. Then come back here and leave a comment telling us which teether you'd choose if you won this giveaway.

2. Gain an additional entry by placing our button on your blog (include the link in your comment). ~Simply copy the code under the button and paste it into the text box for an Html Gadget on your blog's layout.

3. Subscribe to A Heart For Home (let us know if you've already subscribed).

4. Follow Our Blog (let us know if you already follow).

5. Post about and link to this giveaway on your blog or tweet about this giveaway (leave us the link in your comment).

Please leave a separate comment for each entry! That's one with the teething toy you'd like to win, one telling us our button is on your blog (with the link), one telling us you've subscribed, one telling us you've signed up to follow our blog, & one with the link to your blog's advertisement or tweet of this giveaway.

The giveaway will end Monday, July 6th, at 12 Midnight EST. We will pick the winner through random generator. Make sure you leave a way for us to contact you.

This teether works for me!

Safe Teething Toys

Since Jonathan began teething a few months ago we've been tackling the toy situation in our home.

While we've always stuck to the "no battery operated toys" rule and tried to limit the amount of toys in our home, we have recently been more convinced that we should eliminate harmful plastics from our children's toy collection.

Therefore, we are trying to phase out plastic toys in our home, especially toys that Jonathan can chew on. This is mainly due to the harmful chemicals that leach from many plastics, but also because we are drawn to the beauty of natural and handmade toys. We've been exploring the options for teething toys and will continue to look into plastic alternatives for our little ones.

So far, we've been blessed with a couple of beautiful wooden teething toys from Little Sapling Toys and Pinkhouse Handworks. We'll be reviewing these toys over the next few weeks and will also be offering a couple of heirloom quality wooden toy giveaways.

These toys would make a great addition to your home and would also be highly appreciated as baby shower or birthday gifts for those special babies and children in your life. If you have not already done so, please subscribe to our blog so that you don't miss out on these great giveaways.

If your child has a favorite non-plastic teething toy or other toy, we'd love to hear about it.

If you make safe teething toys or toys for small children and would like for us to feature your toy and business with a review, please let us know.

We're very excited to help spread the word about toys that are safe for our precious little ones.

Janey Mac Gift Certificate Winner

Congratulations Sarah Robbins from Our Cozy Robbins Nest! You should be receiving an email from us shortly.

Didn't win, but you're still interested in a vinyl decal to decorate your space? Visit Janey Mac for lots of inspiration and to order your own decal.

Free Recycled Crafts Ebook

Are you looking for ways to creatively recycle and reuse materials you have on hand? Do you like to create unique crafts? Download a free copy of the Recycling Crafts Ebook here. This Ebook contains 42 different crafts made from recycled paper, metal, plastic, glass, clothing, and more.

Jonathan's First Solid Food

Make a Smilebox recipe

Eat More Fruits and Vegetables Challenge

Fruits and veggies have so many health benefits, but sometimes it's difficult to get them into our diets on a daily basis. Well, today we're joining in on Laura's Challenge by sharing some of the ways we eat more fruits and veggies at our house.


Fruit & Veggie Smoothies
Smoothies are a daily occurrence in our home. All of us love Green Smoothies, but we also like to experiment with different fruit concoctions. We also enjoy Peanut Butter Banana Smoothies on occasion. We usually stock up on bananas when they are on sale and keep frozen banana slices in the fridge. The frozen fruit bananas really give smoothies a creamy consistency. We also have been freezing strawberries from our garden this year.


Salads
We're trying to eat a main dish salad every day this summer. Right now, we're probably averaging 4 or 5 main dish salads every week. We'd like to increase this to at least one salad every day. You can join in on the fun and find some great salad recipes at our A Slew of Summer Salads Carnival.

Two of our favorite salads are the Fresh Asian Noodle Salad and the Grilled Margarita Chicken Salad. We've eaten these salad numerous times and have served them to guests who have also greatly enjoyed them.


Homemade Pizza
By making our our pizza we can increase the amount of vegetable we eat while enjoying a meal that everyone likes. You can easily include pureed carrots in the pizza sauce, add finely chopped vegetables under the cheese, or load the top with vegetables of your choice. We recently tried a Tropical Pizza that we enjoyed.


Soups
We're hoping to get enough yellow squash out of the garden this year to make a couple large batches of Summer Squash Soup which includes a variety of vegetables. This soup is great served with BLTs or your favorite crusty bread.


Healthy Sides
Emahry and I love these Sweet Potato Fries although Tim isn't a huge fan. I only wish I knew how to get them crispy without frying them. We also love this quick and easy Chunky Crock-Pot Applesauce. I'm not sure how it would freeze because we've always cleaned out the entire crock-pot with two days.

We hope you enjoy these ideas and that they will help you add more fruits and veggies to your diet.

Squeaky Clean

Trying to get them both to smile and look at the camera at the same time. "Mama, she's squeezing too hard."
"Are you sure you can see me in there?"

Visit 5 Minutes for Mom to view more Wordless Wednesday posts.

Frozen Fruit Cocktail ~ A Refreshing Summer Treat

We're always on the look out for ways to stay cool during the hot months of summer. Here's one of our favorite cool treat to make. My Grandma first made this recipe when she saw it in Ladies Home Journal probably back in the '50s. My mom has made this cool treat for all kinds of occassions over the years. Now Tim and I are introducing another generation to this deliciously refreshing summer treat.

Frozen Fruit Cocktail

3 - 29 oz. cans of Fruit Cocktail, drained
1 - 10 oz. jar of Marachino Cherries, undrained
3 1/2 to 4 cups of Ginger Ale (1/3 to 1/2 of a two liter bottle)

Combine drained Fruit Cocktail, undrained Cherries,and Ginger Ale in a glass bowl or dish. Stir to evenly distribute cherries.

Cover bowl or dish with foil and place in freezer for 8-12 hours or overnight, stirring occassionally during the first 1 to 1 1/2 hours of freezing.

Remove from the freezer about an hour before serving. Break into chunks with an ice pick or sturdy butter knife.

The fruit should still be partially frozen when you eat it.

What cool treats does your family like during the summer?

This Post Contributed To:
Tempt My Tummy Tuesday
Tasty Tuesday

Works for Me Wednesday