Graceful Little Honey Bee

Cleaning House: A Book Review

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I just finished reading Cleaning House: A Mom’s 12-Month Experiment to Rid Her Home of Youth Entitlement by Kay Wills Wyma and oh my goodness it was good!
 
This book is about a woman with five kids ages four to fourteen who is “dismayed at the attitude of entitlement that has crept into her home.” Basically she’s sick and tired of her kids acting like the world revolves around them and that they’re entitled to a free ride. So she embarks on a year long journey of whipping her kids into shape, so to speak.
 
She basically picks one important life skill each month for her kids to take responsibility of hoping to equip them with a strong work ethic, self-confidence through a job well done and concern for others along the way. 
 
Here is the schedule she follows:
 
Task 1 – Operation Clutter Control (Making Beds and Picking Up)
Task 2 – Kitchen Patrol (Cooking)
Task 3 – Grounding Time (Outdoor Duties)
Task 4 – Working for a Living (Employment)
Task 5 – Domestic Dirty Jobs (Cleaning Toilets)
Task 6 – Roll Tide (Laundry)
Task 7 – The Handyman Can…or Can He? (Fixing What’s Broken)
Task 8 – The Entertainers (Hospitality)
Task 9 – Team Players (Working Together)
Task 10 – Runner’s World (Errands)
Task 11 – It’s About Other’s (Service) 
Task 12 – Lades and Gentlemen (Manners)
 
Following along with Kay as she strives to instill responsibility and a strong work ethic into her entitled children is entertaining and motivating. I’m so glad I got ahold of this book before I have grown kids. I want to raise them to consider others, be respectful and work hard and this book inspires me to do so! I highly recommend reading it! 🙂
 
You can read the first chapter of Cleaning House here. Also, for more info and to learn how Kay’s journey began you can visit her blog here.
 
I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this honest review. 

Hospitality: A Gift or A Mindset?

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We can probably all think of someone who appears to have the “gift” of hospitality. You know the social butterfly type who loves being around people and seems to host parties without any effort at all??
 
But, is hospitality really some supernatural “gift” that is given to some and out of reach for others? The more I think about it, the more God is showing me that hospitality is a way of life. To show hospitality is to open our homes, arms and tables to others. Does this come more naturally to some? Yes, I believe it does, but I also believe those who are continually opening their homes to fellowship are being intentional about it. 
 
Life is busy and if you wait until things are “perfect” to invite people over then it probably won’t happen very quickly, if at all. If we’re going to open our homes and show love to our neighbors we have to plan it and be intentional about it. And just like anything else in life, it gets easier with practice.
 
God has been dealing with me in this area and I’ve started working out details and setting dates for people to come and fellowship in our home on a more regular basis. Having people over every once in awhile when I feel like it is okay, but I want to make it a way of life. A trademark of our family. I want my kids to see us reaching out and serving those around us on a regular basis. 
 
You see hospitality is all about serving others. It’s not about showing off your house or your cooking skills, its about considering the wants and needs of others and focusing on them. I want more of this in our family’s life. I could make the case that we live in a small house and have a baby so having others over just isn’t practical for us right now, but think of the blessings we would be missing out on. Think of the fellowship we would be forfeiting. 
 
Here’s a portion of what the bible says about it:
 
“Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, 
for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” 
-Hebrew 13:2
 
“Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.” 
-Romans 12:13

Obviously, God wants us to be hospitable towards one another by serving them and we can do this by being welcoming and opening our homes to others. 

Who could you call right now, that you’ve been meaning to have over?
Do you have a neighbor that you’ve been wanting to get to know?
Has someone just had a baby or a major surgery that you could deliver a meal too?
Do you know a widow or single person who might enjoy the fellowship of your family?

I hope this has inspired you to consider reaching out and serving others!
 I know I’m working on it. 😉

Do you view hospitality as a gift or a way of life? 
Do you believe it gets easier with practice?
 I’d love to know your thoughts! 

Women Living Well Wednesdays
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Heart & Home

Featured Reader Monday

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This week we’re welcoming Vikki from The Quirky Quail!
 
If you could describe yourself in five words, what would they be?
Upbeat, Creative, Sassy, Friendly, Frugal (of course my kids would just say cheap!)
 
What do you blog about and why?
I mostly blog about refinishing furniture and sewing. Both of which I love. I have sewn since I was five and can (and have) made almost anything, including jeans (not a pretty story, but I tried). I mostly sew for my four granddaughters nowadays, though sometimes I even sew for my seven grandsons!

I started redoing furniture out of desperation when I was a new mom. We had an ugly old couch covered with brown plaid that drove me crazy. Not only was it ugly, but the plaids didn’t even match and my daughter would tell you I am a bit OCD about stuff like that. I would sit there day after day nursing my son and staring at that ugly couch. One day I told one of my girlfriends about it and she said, “We can fix that!” And we did. We used sheets and recovered that eyesore, and that old couch lasted another six years. Mostly now I like to find poor unloved items and remake them into beautiful items for my home, grandchildren or to sell. Luckily I live in a retirement community and lots of people are downsizing so I get to pick up things for cheap.

 
What are your hobbies outside of blog world?
Sewing, refinishing furniture, painting and lots of crafts. 
And of course PINTEREST!
 
Show us your favorite family recipe:
Funny you would ask that question. Even though I raised six kids, I hate to cook but will make cookies from time to time. My husband now does most of the cooking around here. The one recipe that all my children have asked me for is my pancake recipe. They say no one makes pancakes like their mother. I took an old Betty Crocker recipe and redid it until I liked it. Funny also is the fact that since I have been on a low carb diet I haven’t eaten these for several years. They’re kind of like crepes. Enjoy.

 
Mom’s Famous Pancakes
6 c flour
3 eggs (beaten)
2 c plain yogurt (you can even use sour cream for a bit different taste)
1/4 c sugar
1/2 c oil
1 T salt
1T baking soda
1T baking powder
4 c water (more or less for the consistency that you like)
Mix all together (don’t beat, just until mixed) and cook on a pancake grill. 
Enjoy with maple syrup, homemade jam or honey

　
Show us three of your favorite or most popular posts:

Thanks Vikki for sharing your story with us! 
Stay tuned next week for our last featured reader of the month!!

Gardening Journal – July 17th

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Someone please tell me what I’m gonna do with all these banana peppers?!? I’ve already pickled a few half pints and I’m not sure how they turned out. I’m kinda skeptical because I just used vinegar and water. Anyway, I have a boat load of these that I need to use up.
My beans and cucumbers are starting to come up, which is really exciting since I’ve never grown either before. I can’t believe how fast the beans are growing! (Sorry the picture is focused wrong.)
 Here are some of the marigolds that I grew from seed this year. I’m pretty proud of them since last year they all died. I think I planted them too early though. P.S. Have you ever seen a marigold seed? They are the weirdest looking things.
 I pulled some runners off of my strawberry plants and I’m gonna replant them. I’ve got my hopes up for a good strawberry crop next year! Any tips?
Thanks for reading my ramblings.
What’s going on in your garden?
If you don’t have a garden, do you plan to next year?


Teach Me Tuesday
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Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways
Homestead Barn Hop

Featured Reader Monday

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This week’s featured reader is Tiffany from Healthy-N-Balanced!
 
 
If you could describe yourself in five words, what would they be?
Imperfect, real, loves to laugh
 
What do you blog about and why?
 
In April, 2011 I was set to have gallbladder surgery to have my gallbladder removed due to some serious nausea and tummy issues I’ve had since I was a teenager. However, my very discerning husband felt we should postpone it to try a more holistic option. We were a little unsure because it is so hard to find a good natural/holistic doctor that isn’t wrapped up in beliefs with which I don’t agree. However, in May 2011 God opened up the doors for me to go to a Christian holistic doctor. Through healthy eating, exercise, and vitamins-I am allllllllll better. 🙂 Since then I have been on a journey to spread the word that living a healthy lifestyle is essential and that is anything but impossible. I don’t just blog about food and exercise, but also about spiritual health, relational health, and financial health. 
 
I hope to challenge others to live healthy lives…to think about what we are eating to fuel our bodies…to take a little walk instead of turning the TV on…to take a minute to thank God for the day and read His word. We need to simplify our lives. Get rid of the relationships, circumstances, food, etc that are not healthy. Live today as if it is our last. Laugh, Laugh, And Laugh some more! Serve God and love love those around us.  When we do that, we will start to find a little more balance in our lives and a lot more joy and peace.
 
What are your hobbies outside of blog world?
 
I wish I could say that I sew cloth diapers and make my own butter…but alas I’m just not skilled like that. 😉 I love to play and laugh with my little 2 month old, teach and preach to kids, youth, and adults, and hang out with at my parents and chase the chickens around work on their little farm.
 
 
Show us your favorite family recipe:
 
Applesauce Bread
 
Show us three of your favorite or most popular posts:
 
DIY Quick and Natural Sinus Relief
 
Healthified Chocolate No Bake Cookies
 
How to Healthify Your Favorite Dish
 
 
What an awesome testimony Tiffany! Thanks for sharing with us!
Stay tuned next Monday to meet another lovely reader. 

Gardening Journal – July 12th

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I’ve been harvesting lots of tomatoes, banana peppers and jalapenos. Everything else hasn’t done quite so good (corn, bell peppers, carrots). Anyway, here’s a picture of our strawberry plants. They seem too look pretty healthy. I’m hoping for a nice crop next season. 
They look kinda ghetto in the random pots, but you use what you can, right?
We planted a second crop of potatoes in these bins. Your suppose to keep adding dirt as they grow and then just dump the bins when the leaves die back. We’ll see how it goes…
 We pulled up our corn, potatoes, and carrots so we planted some sweet potatoes (hopefully it’s not too late), cucumbers, carrots, and green beans. This is my first year to do a second crop in the same bed and I’m pretty excited about it. Plus, I’ve never grown green beans or cucumbers so I’ll be learning a lot. 
 Here’s our other bed still going pretty strong, except the okra is infested with aphids and ants (I gave them all a good spray with the hose!!) and there are these nasty black bugs eating my tomato leaves and pooping all over the place!!! It’s disgusting and I WANT THEM GONE!!! I’m gonna buy some organic spray tomorrow so hopefully that will do the trick because they sick me out.

How’s your garden growing?

Spending Time Wisely – Ephesians 5:15

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“Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”
-Ephesians 5:15-17
 
These verses seem to be in the back of my mind a lot. Maybe it’s because I feel guilty for spending just a little too much time on the Internet. Obviously, these words apply to everyone. We are all going to be held accountable for the way we spend the precious time God has given us, but I feel like these words have special meaning for me as a stay at home mom. 
 
As a stay at home mom, I don’t have anyone planning my days or telling me how to spend my time. It’s up to me to get done what needs to be done. It really takes some self discipline to do what I’m suppose to when no one is watching. 
 
But wait, isn’t God watching!? 
 
Yes, of course He is! I need to remember this as I’m on Pinterest for just a little too long. God has called us all to be wise in how we spend our days, therefore we need to be asking ourselves: Does what I’m doing have an eternal impact? Could I be doing something else with my time that would Glorify God more?
 
I believe every generation has it’s own set of temptations and these verses have always been relevant, but it seems so easy to waste time with the Internet at our fingertips ALL. DAY. LONG. I don’t know about you, but I get to the point where I don’t even want to look at a screen any more. 
 
I’m not saying the Internet (or whatever your time waster is) is bad, but we should be setting boundaries and planning our days in a way that Glorifies God. I’m really writing this for myself as a reminder to step back and try to stay balanced. It is my prayer that I would examine my time and make sure that I’m spending it wisely and understanding what the will of the Lord is for me. 
 
Do you struggle in this area? 
I’d love to know I’m not the only one!


Better Mom Mondays
Teach Me Tuesday
Women Living Well Wednesdays
 

10 Ways to Use Tomatoes

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If your a gardener, then you probably have a widow sill or two piled high with ripe red tomatoes right now. And if your like me and don’t really have enough to can, then you might be wondering how your going to use them all up before they get too mushy!
 
Today, I’m gonna make a list of ways (as motivation and a reference for myself mostly) to use them up.
10 Ways to Use Tomatoes
 
1. Give them away!Gardeners are notorious for being extra generous. 😉
 
2. Slice a few up at every meal and add a little salt. Delicious.
 
3. Make BLTs. This is one of my FAVORITE ways to eat homegrown tomatoes.
 
4. Crush and simmer on the stove until you have tomato sauce for pizza or pasta. Add Italian seasoning and your good to go!
 
5. Mix some cherry tomatoes in with a pasta salad (or green salad, or potato salad, or any kind of salad!)
 
6. Make Salsa. Enough said.
 
7. Slice and let dry on the dash of your car for sun dried tomatoes. 
 
8. Freeze them to enjoy later! (Instructions here.)
 
9. Make stuffed tomatoes. Hollow out and make mixture of rice, peppers, cheese, corn or what ever you like.
 
10. If you have enough, can them! There are MANY ways to can tomatoes: whole, diced, stewed, crushed, as a sauce, as soup, etc. (Instructions here.)
 I hope you’ve enjoyed this!
Well, I’m off to make lunch (full of tomato-ey goodness, of course.)
 
What are you favorite ways to use tomatoes?
 
Homestead Barn Hop
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Teach Me Tuesday

Garden Happenings

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Since our corn didn’t do very well this year, we bought a few dozen from a produce stand. 
We shucked ’em, blanched em’ and froze ’em!
 We also got some peaches and froze them in 2 cup portions to make cobblers. 
 It’s crazy how much work goes into preserving (even just to freeze!). I don’t know how women used to do it with babies to take care of! They must have helped each other out a lot. 
Anyway, we dug up our potatoes and carrots tonight. The potatoes did pretty good especially since we didn’t hill them or do anything, but the carrots were pretty puny. We fed most of them to the neighbors goats.
I’m gonna replant the ones that are sprouting and see if they will make before our first frost. I think I’m gonna try growing them in baskets this time. Has anyone tried this before?
What have you been preserving or harvesting lately?

Homemaking Link-Up
Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways

Gardening Lesson Learned

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I bought okra plants on a whim this year. Once I got them home, I realized I was completely clueless about how they grew. Fast forward to harvest time and here I am again, clueless. My husband and I have been discussing when to pick them and we decided to wait and let them get big. Bad idea. Apparently after they grow past 4″or so they begin to get tough. 
I went to make my grandparents some baked okra and most of the ones I had picked were too tough to do anything with. Sad. Anyway, I decided to save the seed out of them for next year. I bought the plants from Wal-Mart. Do you think the seeds will produce? I guess we shall see. Gardening is just one big science experiment too me. 🙂
What lessons have you learned in the garden?

Garden Update

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I haven’t posted many garden updates this year, mainly because Walker keeps me so busy, but also because it doesn’t really look too pretty. The weeds are out of control in this bed, actually everything is pretty much out of control here:
Our corn didn’t do very well. We aren’t cut out to grow corn, I don’t think. It’s almost time to dig the carrots and potatoes though, so this bed will soon be ready to replant for the fall! I’ve never planted a fall crop before, any tips? Our other bed looks a lot better:
We have several tomatoes that will be ready to pick tomorrow or the next day!! Yes!! We are so having BLTs this week! Also, we’ve been picking jalapenos and banana peppers for a while now and I picked our first crop of okra tonight:
What’s going on in your garden??
 
Teach Me Tuesdays

Fabric Necklace Tutorial

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I have a necklace like this that I found at the thrift store, but it’s an awkward length so I’ve never worn it. I figured I could just make my own. Here’s a quick tutorial if you want to make one too.
What you’ll need:
fabric
beads
sewing machine
 1. To make the short version, you’ll need a long strip of fabric that measures 3.5″ x 75″. 
For the long version (comes slightly below the bust on me), you’ll need a strip that measures 3.5″ x 130″. You’ll have to adjust your length according to how long you want your necklace to be. I had to kinda play around with it to figure it out. It’s better to go longer than you think because you will cut off the extra at the end. It seems really long right now, but the length gets used up as we knot the fabric. I had to sew strips of fabric together to get the right length.
 2. Next, you need to fold your fabric in half lengthwise with right sides together (the seams will face out) and sew along the edges leaving one end open.
 3. Now, turn your fabric inside out (I used the flat end of a knitting needle). You will basically have a long tube of fabric with one open end. 
 4. Next, measure 12 inches above the closed end and tie a knot.
5. Then grab a bead…

 6. …and push it down next to the knot. Make a knot right above the bead pulling tight and repeat until you get your desired length.

7. When you reach the end, tie a knot leaving 12 inches of fabric past the last knot.
Fold open end of tube in and sew along the edge. Tie the ends in a bow and your done!!
What do you think?

First Harvest!

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I picked two cherry tomatoes and two jalapenos! Actually, I picked a couple jalapenos yesterday and put them on my pizza, but I didn’t get a picture. Anyway, I’m so excited to start getting produce from the garden. I’ve got so many healthy looking tomatoes that are just waiting to ripen. Hopefully by the 4th of July I’ll have some ready to slice. 
On another note, did you know you can regrow romaine lettuce from their stumps? 
All you have to do is put them in water, see:

Amazing! You can also do this with green onions and celery (although I’ve never tried the celery).
What’s growing in your garden?
Also, do you have any recipes that use jalapenos or banana peppers?

Homestead Barn Hop
Teach Me Tuesday
Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways

In the Garden

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We went to a u pick farm today and picked 6 quarts of strawberries. Actually, my husband picked them  in the rain while I kept Walker undercover and talked to the lady who was working. I’m sure that’s how he wanted to spend his Sunday afternoon! Anyway, I’m gonna make some strawberry jam soon. I’m pumped! I’ve never officially canned anything so we will see how it goes.
 Also, we just planted our second raised bed full of tomatoes, peppers, okra, and sweet potatoes. My tomato plants ended up dying so we had to use store bought plants this year.
 Our corn and potatoes are still looking good. We may have planted the potatoes a little too close. We shall see. Also, I had a bad problem with ants and aphids last year eating my corn. I read you can sprinkle maltomeal or instant grits around and the ants will eat it and it will expand and kill them. Hopefully it will work because I want some sweet corn!

How is your garden coming along?

Tomato Failure

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So I started my tomatoes almost two months ago and they look pathetic.
They haven’t grown since the first week or so…what’s going on?!? Last year by this time they were quadruple this size and way healthier looking!! Here’s what is different from last year:
1. Used seeds from last year that were kept in the fridge
2. Started in seed starting mix and never transplanted into soil
3. Temp might be cooler in the house this year?
4. Used biodegradable pots instead of plastic cups (I’m starting to think this plus the soil is the culprit!)
They’ve been watered frequently and kept under grow lights. What do you think happened? They aren’t even strong looking enough to transplant so we’re gonna have to buy plants. Maybe I’ll just say a prayer and stick them outside. I have nothing to lose at this point, right?
My sweet potatoes slips and bell peppers look a little better than the tomatoes, but not much:
 On a more positive note, my strawberries are growing well and even have blooms! Hopefully we’ll be getting some berries this year:
 The corn and potatoes are also growing fast:
What are you growing right now?

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