Endless Gifts

 

# 537. Finding time to pretty up our Prayer Pail.

 

# 538. Painting garden rocks with the kids.

 

 

# 539. A fridge overflowing with fresh, home-grown spinach.

 

# 540. Stacks of new garden books for the kids.

 

# 541. A free Organic Gardening magazine in the mail.

 

# 542. My three-year-old son with a fly swatter, “Where’s dat stinkin’ fly.” (I wonder where he gets that from?)

 

# 543. Celebrating my dad’s 60th birthday.

 

# 544. Lots of hours outdoors.

 

# 545. Eight month photos (come back on Wednesday to see them).

 

# 546. A new white ceramic bread pan. I’m hoping they have more left this week.

 

# 547. An extra loaf of bread in the freezer.

 

# 548. Cloth diapers dried in the sunshine.

 

# 549. An empty hamper (now full again).

 

# 550. Being surrounded by family at church on Sunday morning.

 

Today's Question: What is one thing you are thankful for today?

 

Will Also be Contributed To: Gratituesday, intentional gratitude Works for Me!, Things I Love Thursday, Finer Things Friday

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Weekend Links

May all your wanderings be blessed!

Giveaway Winner

Joanne M. won a copy of The 5 Love Languages of Children and A Perfect Pet for Peyton. Congratulations!

 

Our Weekly Recap

:: Endless Gifts

:: Free Food on the Table Meal Planning Service (sign up before May 1st to get this service free for life)

:: Top Ten Garden & Yard Deals

:: Meal Planning: Our Very Simple Menu

:: Finished Friday: DIY Prayer Pail (be sure to link up your finished projects, too)

Around the Web

:: The Deadliness of Self Indulgence @ Purposeful Wife

 

:: {Smaller Bloggers} Blogging Is Not About the Money @ Allume Blog

:: Don’t Like Fish? I’ll Bet You’ll Like These Salmon Cakes @ Keeper of the Home (We’ve been trying to add some fish into our simple meal plan, but so far one of our children hasn’t liked them. I’m hoping this recipe will help.)

"Pin"spiration

(Need an invitation? Leave a comment with your email address and we'll send you an invite.)

:: Yesterday was a little chilly so I’m craving hot tea once again. This Chai Concentrate sounds delicious. I can even make my own healthy sweetened condensed milk to use in the concentrate.

 

source: the Kitchn via Joanne Mitchell on Pinterest 
Click here to repin from the original source

:: Right now having one hanging sock bag per bedroom works for us, but I think it would be a great idea for each of the kids to have their own personalized sock & undies bag as they get older.

 

source: noodlehead via Dianne Vohs on Pinterest
Click here to repin from the original source

 

:: I love this baseball bracelet! I definitely want to make one for Jonathan.

 

source: I Can Find the Time via Better Life Bags on Pinterest
Click here to repin from the original source

 

linking up at Simply Staci’s Saturday Stumbles

 

Today's Question: What good reads or great ideas have you come across this week? Please share a link in your comment.

 

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Prayer Pail {Finished Friday} come link up your projects!

Be sure to link up your finished projects at the end of this post.

I pinned the idea of a family prayer pail last month. I knew this idea would be a great addition to our dinner prayer time and would encourage our children (as well ourselves) to pray for more than just the food in front of us.

At first I simply wrote names out on large craft sticks and placed them inside of an old peanut butter jar. Then this past week I took some time to pretty it up a bit.

I used all items we had around the house so our prayer pail centerpiece ended up being a “free” project.

We decided that we wanted to deviate from the original idea a little to include a jar for the sticks we’ve already prayed for, so we could pray for all the people/groups before recycling back through. However, you could easily use this same idea to make a one jar prayer pail.

Materials

• oval metal pail (our was from a yard sale last summer, but I’m guessing you could find them at a craft or gardening store, ours had a plastic planter liner)
• two jars that fit inside the pail side by side (empty peanut butter jars)
• dried beans, small stones, etc
• assorted artificial flowers
• large craft stick (tongue depressor size)
• permanent marker (various colors optional)
• stickers to spell “Prayer Pail” (optional)

1. Simply write the names of people, countries, groups and ministries you’d like to pray for on the craft sticks with the permanent markers.

2. Use the stickers to write Prayer Pail on the outside of the pail. This is easier to do now than when the pail is filled (ask how I know).

3. Place the two jars into the pail and pour the beans around the outside of the jars to hold them in place.

4. Arrange the artificial flowers in the beans.

5. Place the prayer sticks into the jar on the left. (Once you’ve picked a stick and prayed for the person named on the stick you’ll move that stick to the jar on the right.)

At dinnertime we each draw a “prayer stick” (right down to our two year old) and pray for who or what is written on the stick. Our four year old thinks of her own prayer, but our 3 year old and two year old repeat either Tim or me as we pray for who or what is written on their stick. Tim and I also draw our own sticks.

Our children love the prayer pail and have been excited about drawing sticks and praying for different people. Tim and I love that we’ve found another way to encourage our children to build a personal relationship with God and to help them to focus on gratitude and the needs of others.

Today's Questions: What do you think about the idea of a family prayer pail? Do you think your family would benefit from one? Do you have other ways that you make prayer a priority in your home?

I'm trying to hold myself accountable to finish some of the projects on my to do list by posting each Friday about a project I've completed.

Would you like to join in? Link up to your own projects below.

1. Link to your project post, not your blog's home page, so we can find it easily.
2. Let us know what project you are sharing in your title, for example: Spring Wreath
3. We'd love it if your post links back here so that your readers can come join the fun. Feel free to copy & paste our Finished Friday Button into your post. (Just copy the text in the box below the button, click on the "Edit HTML" tab for your post and paste it there.)


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Meal Planning: Our Very Simple Menu

I’ve been meal planning for several years and have tried several different approaches and methods to find what works best for our family during this season of our life.

I started my meal planning journey when we had only one child. I would choose 15-20 meals to prepare every month, repeating some favorites and allotting days for eating leftovers. This worked well for me for awhile, but as life got busier I found it difficult to keep up with the planning, grocery shopping, and preparations involved.

Now, we’ve settle into a much more simple meal plan method. I’ll admit that I’m only able to maintain this approach because my husband isn’t picky and only requests that I feed our family as healthy as possible within a very limited budget (last month our groceries totaled under $300 for 5 hearty eaters).

Why do we have the same very simple meals every week?

1. planning is quick ~ I have a list of 5 dinners and just plug them into the days in my planning binder
2. grocery shopping is simple and fast ~ at least as fast as it can be with four kiddos, I usually buy the same things every single week plus a pantry staple or two as we run out
3. meal prep is easy ~ I’ve chosen very simple meals for this season of life, so preparing the meals is easy, plus since I’ve made them so many times, I’ve memorized the few recipes that are actually needed
4. dinnertime is happy ~ everything on our typical rotation is liked by the entire family, so we are able to enjoy a pleasant meal together
5. we can eat healthier foods ~ by cutting down our grocery costs, we’re able to afford better quality foods (we buy a lot of organic produce)

So, what do we actually eat?

Breakfast

 

• Green smoothie (raw spinach leaves, kefir, bananas, frozen blueberries, frozen mixed fruit, OJ concentrate)
• Eggs ~ cheese omelets, scrambled eggs (sometimes with cheese), over-medium eggs
• Tim makes a blender full of green smoothie and cooks his own eggs before he leaves for work at 4:45 AM. He puts the remaining smoothie in the fridge for us. When the rest of the family gets up I serve the smoothies (with super cool stainless steel straws) and cook up a large batch of eggs.
• occasionally we’ll toast some homemade bread or have oatmeal instead of eggs (usually just during the winter)
• about once a month, we’ll cook a special breakfast together on Tim’s day off

Lunch

• Tim and the kids eat (all natural) peanut butter on homemade soaked whole wheat bread. I eat celery and peanut butter.
• carrot sticks and assorted fresh fruit: apple slices, pear slices, orange slices, Tim takes a whole carrot and an apple and orange/pear, the kids and I normally share one large carrot and two pieces of fruit.
• Tim also eats a small handful of almonds and/or roasted chickpeas when he works.

Dinner

• We always serve a green salad as the first part of our dinner, unless of course, dinner is a salad. This helps make sure that we all eat our salad before filling up on the other food.

• I do not fix side dishes other than the salad. We also do not eat dessert at home (thankfully we usually have a reason to make dessert at least a couple times each month to help with my baking itch).
• We usually eat dinner at my parents’ house about once a week. We typically contribute something and we enjoy whatever we’re served. The kids still have to eat their salad before the get the rest of their meal.
• Depending on what our budget looks like, we like to plan a special cooking night once a month. On this night we try a new recipe or simply cook something we don’t usually eat. Our last special dinner was Tim’s Sweet & Sour Wings—yummy!
• Black Bean and/or Venison Taco Salad (twice a week)~ black beans, cooked ground venison (from my brother-in-law), a little brown rice, half of an onion (chopped and sautéed), diced tomatoes, mince garlic, a splash of lime juice, cumin & salt to taste, served over spinach or mixed lettuce with shredded cheddar cheese, salsa, and kefir cheese (or sour cream). We love adding tortilla chips, too, but decided to cut them out on our last grocery budget review. (During the winter I typically cook this in the Crock-Pot.)
• Pasta with Tomato Sauce ~ I cook our pasta in homemade veggie broth to get a few more nutrients. We’ve used whole wheat past in the past, but we’re looking into brown rice pasta to eliminate some issues with eating unsoaked whole wheat. On past nights we all have a larger salad at the start of dinner so we don’t fill ourselves with pasta.
• Brown Rice and Beans ~ This meal is technically not the same every week, but the main ingredients stay the same. I simply change the taste by adding different spices, veggies or sauces. Tropical  – coconut milk, lime juice and unsweetened shredded coconut; Mexican – cumin, garlic, chili powder, diced tomatoes; Italian – pasta sauce, parsley, basil, oregano, topped with shredded mozzarella or parmesan cheese. (During the winter I typically cook this in the Crock-Pot.)
• “Grilled” Chicken Salad (twice a week) ~ Since we’re living in a town house right now, we can’t actually grill our chicken, but these salads consist of spinach or mixed lettuce topped with pan-seared or baked chicken chunks, cut fruit (apples, pears) or canned mandarin oranges. Sometimes we add a little shredded cheese, some sliced hard boiled eggs, or crunchy chow mien noodles. We typically just serve up the same dressing on everyone’s salad and Tim, Jonathan, and Eliya top theirs with a sprinkle of garlic powder. The kids all love creamy poppy seed dressing, but I’ve been experimenting with making my own dressing, too.

Snacks

• fresh veggies (carrot sticks mainly)
• roasted chickpeas
• almonds
• homemade crackers, when I have time to make them :)
• smoothies

Today’s Question: How do you plan your meals? Have you written about your meal planning method? Leave me a link so I can add your post to my Meal Planning Pinterest board.

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Spring (Wardrobe) Cleaning {TIPsters}

 

Top Ten Garden & Yard Deals

We’ve been busy in the garden and planning our summer garden nature study, so I was excited when I found some great plant deals to pass on to you.

 

 

1. Blueberry Plants – Get 2 Little Giant Blueberry plants for $10 (and P&H) plus a FREE bonus plant.

 

2. Indoor Banana Tree – But one indoor banana tree for only $10 and get another one FREE (plus S&H).

 

3. Sunflower Mat - Grow Hundreds of Glowing Sunflowers in Just Days! Just Unroll, Water and Watch it Grow. Buy 1, Get 1 FREE - only $10 + S&H.

4. Tomato Giant - Super Size Your Tomatoes! Grow your very own big, juicy tomatoes this season in your very own home! Buy 2 Giant Tomato Trees, Get 1 Free for Only $10 + S&H.

5. Lavender Garden - The perfect perennial flower to keep your garden looking fresh and alive year after year. Lavender is guaranteed to grow, thrive and is perfect for patios and decks. Buy 3 Plants, Get 3 Plants - only $10 + S&H

6. Ghost Peppers - World's Hottest Chili Pepper! As Featured on Man vs. Food! These are Hard to Find in Stores - Now You Can Grow Your Own. Buy 1, Get 1 FREE - only $10 + S&H.

7. Hummingbird Vines - Turn Your Backyard into a Natural Hummingbird Playground! Grow Vibrant Trumpet Flowers to Attract the Beautiful Hummingbird into Your Yard. Buy 2 Vines, Get 2 FREE - only $10 + S&H

8. Topsy Turvy - Grow delicious homegrown tomatoes without the backbreaking work! Get 2 Topsy Turvy Tomato Planters and 2 Topsy Turvy Strawberry Planters - only $10.00 + P&H. (originally $19.95 for just the Tomato Planters)

9. QuickLawn - An Evergreen Lawn all four seasons of the year! Buy 1, Get 1 Free. Grows in just 5 days and stays beautiful ALL year.

 

10. Have you come across any great gardening or plant deals?

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Free Food on the Table Meal Planning Service

Food on the Table - the better way to plan meals and save money. Use promo code SPRINGFREE, through the end of April, and get the premium service for FREE for life!

Food on the Table combines the weekly sales from your local grocery store with your family’s food preferences. Your free membership gives you a three-meal menu plan each week.

The link in this post is my referral link.

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Endless Gifts

Today is the last day to enter our giveaway for The 5 Love Languages of Children and the companion children’s book, A Perfect Pet for Peyton.

 

# 521. A clean email inbox.

 

#522. Jonathan taking responsibility for watering our patio garden.

 

 

# 523. Fried eggs and homemade bread.

 

 

# 524. Two armfuls of books for our garden theme from the library.

 

# 525. Garden hose helpers.

 

 

# 526. The joy of spraying water.

 

 

# 527. Evening stories on the patio.

 

# 528. Freshly picked spinach from the garden.

 

 

# 529. Building with castle Legos from my childhood (here’s one of the newer ones).

 

# 530. Stainless steel water bottles.

 

 

# 531. Naps on Sunday afternoon.

 

# 532. Happy baby smiles.

 

 

# 533. Watching the next What’s in the Bible? DVD with the kids.

 

# 534. Toddler playsets.

 

 

# 535. Waking up surrounded by little ones.

 

# 536. Everyone waking up early on grocery shopping day…early to the store :)

 

 

Today's Question: What is one thing you are thankful for today?

 

Will Also be Contributed To: Gratituesday, intentional gratitude Works for Me!, Things I Love Thursday, Finer Things Friday

Be sure to click the link in the first email to activate your subscription.

How I Emptied My Inbox in 2 Minutes {Finished Friday} come link up your projects!

Over the past several months, our email inbox has been bogged down with coupon offers, expired deals, newsletters, and lots of other unwanted emails. I’ve tried several times to go through the emails, deleting ones we don’t want and organizing the rest into folders, but I just couldn’t keep up.

 

So yesterday I emptied our entire email inbox!

 

 

No, I didn’t simply delete all, though I did think it. Instead I moved all of the emails from our inbox into an “Emails to Sort” folder.

 

 

I’ve also determined to take care of sorting emails the first time I see them, to keep the crazy overgrown inbox from happening again.

 

Now our inbox can breathe a little while I know I haven’t deleted anything important. I can also find any emails I need with the search feature.

 

And someday I can sort through all those emails…like when the kids are grown.

 

Today's Questions: How do you keep up with your email inbox? Please share in the comments section below.

I'm trying to hold myself accountable to finish some of the projects on my to do list by posting each Friday about a project I've completed.

Would you like to join in? Link up to your own projects below.

1. Link to your project post, not your blog's home page, so we can find it easily.
2. Let us know what project you are sharing in your title, for example: Spring Wreath
3. We'd love it if your post links back here so that your readers can come join the fun. Feel free to copy & paste our Finished Friday Button into your post. (Just copy the text in the box below the button, click on the "Edit HTML" tab for your post and paste it there.) <center><a href="http://a-heart4home.blogspot.com/search/label/Finished%20Friday"target="_blank" ><img border="0" src=" http://i443.photobucket.com/albums/qq160/aHeart4home/checkmarkgray2.jpg"/></a></center>

 

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