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Today you are in for a real treat! Graham Gardens is giving away this lovely gift basket of all-natural safe homemade skin care products for your family! I have been a huge fan of Graham Gardens since introduced to their products quite some time ago. Two products that I want to highlight in particular have been a huge help to our family.

BugBar – This all natural bar is a perfect addition for your summer travels and outdoor adventures. Made from olive oil and various essential oils we have found this to be very effective in protecting ourselves against mosquitos. Aaron and I used it in the Philippines and were blown away by how effective it was especially when we were in a mosquito wet land the majority of our stay! Plus it just rubs on like any lotion and the smell is lovely – no sticky or stinky product to apply here. Nor is their risk of all the chemicals in standard bug repellent.

For a limited time, you can get the Bugbar at 40% off by using “Bugblock40” at checkout.

Butter Bar – I love the butter bars! They are my every day go to for dry skin, chapped lips, and general moisturizer for my face with safe natural ingredients. It truly is an all-in-one effective moisturizer. I love the shape of this hard lotion bar because it is easy to hold in the hand for application for young and old. I use it for all these purposes without making my skin look greasy. Again, the fragrance is so pleasant. It’s such a convenient size to throw in your makeup bag, purse, or diaper bag for your use. It lasts forever as well!

What is included in this gift basket (a value of $75.50)? Here are some highlights from Graham Gardens:

2 BugBars (Effective bug bite protection with Catnip oil, which is 10x more effective than DEET at repelling mosquitos)
1 Healthy Skin Salve(Our go-to salve which includes Plantain, Jewelweed, Comfrey & Unrefined Coconut Oil which makes it great for cuts, bites and rashes)
1 Large, Fresh Butter Bar (Our original lotion bar, this one is scented with Peppermint & Eucalyptus Essential oils)
1 Botany Bay Eucalyptus Shea Butter Soap (Our luxury shea butter soap recipe scented with Eucalyptus, Spearmint & Rosemary)
1 Silver Alpine Shea Butter Soap (Our luxury shea butter soap recipe scented with Fir, Cedarwood, Rosewood & Wintergreen)

Graham Gardens just sent me samples of their new line of baby products! It is the cutest little set of baby care items. I cannot wait to sample these products on our new little one!

Want to win this gift basket? One special winner will be selected to win!

To Enter:

1. Leave a comment below! Tell us why you want to win this gift basket and what’s your favorite aspect of it.
2. For a second optional entry, become a fan of Graham Gardens on facebook and let us know in a second comment below.

Giveaway Closed.

And the winner is…

Sundae – jadespeachey@….

Graham Gardens would like to offer a special 25% off discount your order to all Passionate Homemaking readers. Please enter “WholesomeSkincare25″ at checkout. This discount can be used in addition to the Bugbar offer above.

Wow! Another amazing month has gone by filled with crazy adventures around the world. We spent a week in the Philippines with Compassion and our lives were changed by the amazing faithful work this organization is doing. We came home and had a very challenging week of adjusting back into life here. My pregnant body did not want to sleep for a week! Baby was on a different time schedule as well and would be kicking like crazy at night time. But finally, I feel half-way normal again (besides bearing all this extra prego weight!). The Lord has been gracious and merciful.

I set about my before baby #3 goals, first of which was to potty train my son. And the Lord was merciful again and he has got it down in his own cute little independent way. He doesn’t want Mommy’s help or reminders. He will go in his own due time. It has been an hilarious experience! I love his little, “I did it!” I get a diaper break now for 4-5 more weeks.

We spent a lovely weekend at the Oregon Coast with Aaron’s family and what a sweet bonding time that was. With 4 of the 7 brothers in his family married and 5 grand babies (with two more on the way!), the house was lively and full! But what a blessing to have wonderful supportive family nearby. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

My next goal is strawberry freezer jam and stocking the freezer with bags of strawberries! We will be doing that this weekend!

We are 35 weeks along! Only a few more weeks to go before we welcome baby #3…what’s your guess? Boy or girl? All the  Philippinos guessed a boy. In the last few weeks here, I hope to be able to invest some quality time with each of my little ones, finalize our fall Kindergarten plans, rest up, stock up on a few freezer meals, and prepare my heart for welcoming another precious little life into this world.

3 in 30 Challenge

Need some help setting and accomplishing goals? I have found the 3 in 30 challenge to be so incredibly helpful over the last few months. Set 3 goals to be accomplished in 30 days is actually a manageable task!

1000 Gifts – Continuing the Journey!

What a blessing to continue on in the pursuit of recording 1000 gifts of everyday blessings in our lives. This has been such a rich and rewarding experience. My little moleskin notepad stores such treasures and graces from our day to day life. When I am down and discouraged, it is a sweet reminder that God is good no matter what. It has been a springboard of wonderful times of prayer and thanksgiving. With each record of thanksgiving, my eyes are opened in new ways. It has been the best practice in cultivating true joy and contentment. We passed number 500 this week!

477. Early morning prayer moments with my hubby

480. The healing power of tears

486. The blessing of laughter

487. Making friends in other cultures

491. Pleasures received from teaching and planning our homeschool curriculum

495. A precious girl painting (literally) flowers

496. Success in potty training

501. Karis at her pretend baking station

503. Fresh flowers indoors from our own backyard

505. Baby in position and ready to go

506. The delight of a bubble bath

508. Tucking the kiddos snuggly in at night

511. A thoughtful pedicure from a sweet sister in law

514. A windless day at the beach

515. Wonderful fluffy pillows to aid sweet sleep

516. Delightful lemon bars

517. Chocolate milk tea party on a humid afternoon amidst an array of books

518. A short walk to a fun playground to explore

519. A surprise gift card to welcome baby from co-workers

June Book Reviews

Give them Grace: Dazzling Your Kids with the Love of Jesus by Elyse Fitzpatrick – a truly great read for gospel centered parenting! A new favorite on my list to be read again and again. I love this lady!

31 Days to Clean: Having a Martha House the Mary Way by Sarah Mae – A fabulous short easy read inspiring a vision for biblical homemaking with easy step by step tasks to do each day along with the encouragement. Both vision and practice in one!

Loving the Little Years: Motherhood in the Trenches by Rachel Jankovic – a sweet real life view of delighting in motherhood even with multiple little ones! I thought it was quite randomly laid out but overall very encouraging with lots of practical advice.

We will not have a specific theme here for the month of July but rather be talking all about different aspects of homemaking and parenting. With with the joys of summer ahead of us we wanted to have the freedom to just have fun as we feel led to share about.

July Sponsors

We are excited to welcome back Sweet Bottoms Baby Boutique (my favorite source for cloth diapers and gear all with free shipping!) and Willow Pads (dryer balls, diapers, and more!) as continued sponsored for July, along with Graham Gardens (wonderful lotion bars, natural bug bar, and other skin care goodies). Check out these awesome companies for quality natural care products for your family! We greatly appreciate their support!

Photos by Christa Taylor Photography

Karis and I have been using the Learn Your Letters, Learn to Serve preschool curriculum by Laura Coppinger this year along with the Sonlight preschool curriculum 4/5 and we have been truly enjoying it! The beauty of this curriculum is its simplicity with such intentionality – it keeps to a real basic flow covering the letters of the alphabet with corresponding memory verses, projects, and service opportunities.

Through the inspiration of Learn Your Letters, Learn to Serve, we are having a blast reaching out to others through service and baked goods that correspond with their name. We choose a neighbor and/or friend whose name begins with the letter of the week, and then we bake something yummy or serve in some way that also begins with that letter. We baked applesauce bread for our neighbor Ann, and we baked banana bread for our elderly neighbor Bob, for example. The curriculum has tons of great ideas to get you inspired as well. “Bring flowers for F_____”, or deliver a Bible to B______”.

This curriculum contains 240+ pages with lesson plans, games, crafts, recipes, memory verses, Bible story suggestions, vocabulary stimulation and discussion, play, books to read and so much more…all while encouraging service to God!

There are plenty of fun hands-on activities and recipes included in this curriculum which is a huge benefit for the average preschooler who is active and eager to learn through experience.

While I found we preferred supplementing with the book selection offered through the Sonlight curriculum and a few fun Kumon workbooks, this course was fairly complete on its on. I found it was easy enough to adapt to our desires and needs, as we mainly focused on the service aspect and various hands on activities. Or if you have older children in school, this is a perfect manageable curriculum to keep the little ones engaged as well.

What Learn Your Letters, Learn to Serve includes:

• 159 Page Learn Your Letters, Learn to Serve Book of ideas, instructions, recipes, tutorials and service planners  (the majority of this book can be left paperless, unless you choose to print it and bind it)
• Alphabet Practice Packet (26 pages of printable letter writing practice)
• Alphabet Project Packet (printable projects that go along with various lessons)
• Memory Verse Packet (26 printable memory verses to decorate and place on the wall or in a binder)
• Parent Planning Packet (planning pages, teaching suggestions, scheduling ideas)

This kit is available in download form (have it in your hands today!) or hard copy form (allow about two weeks for shipping.)

We are excited to offer TWO copies of Learn Your Letters, Learn to Serve curriculum download today to TWO special winners!

To Enter:

1. Simply leave a comment below!
2. For a second optional entry, become a fan of Passionate Homemaking’s facebook page or pass the word on through your facebook or twitter. Let us know in a second comment below.

Giveaway Closed.

And the winners are…

Polly - sweetppolly@…
Camille - ccl@dslext…

Congrats!

If you just can’t wait to get your hands on this curriculum, Laura has offered all Passionate Homemaking readers a special coupon of giving you 15% off your order. Please enter: PH15 at checkout. Coupon code expires on 6/30/11.

 

My husband and I depart this morning for the Philippines to participate in the Compassion Bloggers team. I am thrilled to see and hear all that God has in store for us! I will be blogging daily here this next week (May 29-June 3) about all our adventures, so stay tuned!

I would appreciate your prayers for our safety, health (at 30 weeks pregnant!), and the ability to express all that God desires me to communicate with you! I want to see my vision for His mission expanded!

Join us in sponsoring a child from the Philippines! We get to meet our special little girl, Jerry (age 4), during our visit!

It’s time to give mommy a treat! Who doesn’t want some new kitchen tools? Paula’s Bread is a wonderful Christian family run business based out of Oklahoma offering a wide selection of kitchen tools (from Bosch mixers, grain grinders, to stainless steel baking and cookware items).

Paula, at Paula’s Bread, shares:

It has been my passion to help the harried cook feed their family nutritionally while not overtaxing the cook.  The kitchen products I carry are kitchen tools I personally use to help/enhance getting the finished food product done. We bought our first Bosch Universal Mixer in 1984! I could/can make 5 loaves of bread in one hour and the bowl goes in the dishwasher.  We are still using this mixture today!  I fell in love with all that the Bosch Mixer could accomplish as my one stop kitchen center plus was making wonderful bread that didn’t take up my time and tasted wonderful.  I started my business selling the Bosch machines in 1987 and haven’t looked back!

I love helping others make great bread, saving the cook time and saving family’s money with all the wonderful things they can do to stretch their budget with a simple batch of bread.  Our business is a family affair with all hands on deck.  You can see a picture of my ‘gang’ on my web site.  I love my business because I don’t feel I have customers because you all become my friends.  I look forward to helping you serve your family and letting me serve you.

Today, Paula’s Bread would like to offer one special winner their favorite item out of the following selections:

2 Norpro stainless steel cookie sheets (valued at $40)
1 stainless steel cookie sheet & 1 stainless steel jelly roll pan (valued at $40)
5 stainless steel bread pans (valued at $55)
1 stainless steel muffin pan & 1 stainless steel cookie sheet ($45)
1 lasagna pan (the one with handles $45)

To Enter:

1. Visit Paula’s Bread through the links above to select your favorite baking collection out of the options provided. Come back and share your choice in the comments below along with your favorite baking tip or recipe.

2. For a second optional entry, become a fan of Paula’s Bread on facebook.

Giveaway Closed.

And the winner is…Rebekah – bekarene@…. who selected the lasagna pan!

Paula’s Bread has been a faithful sponsor of Passionate Homemaking for over a year now! An awesome source for all your quality kitchen appliances and tools!

Our home has been overflowing with visitors this month. We were blessed to host our first overnight guests for a few nights, and then came church gatherings (we hosted an Easter sunrise breakfast and weekly community group), a baby shower, and a birthday party for my sweet Karis (she is 4 years old!). We had over 130 people come through our doors in one week! I am enjoying a quiet recovery this week from all these exciting events. It has truly been a joy to open our home and use this gift to bless others!

We have been enraptured in the beauty of Spring peeping out in our backyard, bringing flowers indoors, taking nature walks, climbing trees, and exploring as the sun begins to make an occasional warm spring day. I have grown to realize how easily it is to fill our days with such activities that we have no time to stop and treasure the beauty that God has placed around us. I am eager to glean fresh eyes.

We arrived at 26 weeks in my pregnancy this week! Wow! It sure is flying by…but definitely starting to feel it more in my physical body. After that busy hospitality week, I felt like my legs would fall off from all the standing and hosting. You will see me sitting a lot this week just to give my body a rest. Baby is healthy, head down, and growing every day. Now if I could just deny my cravings for sweets!

I would appreciate your prayers as my husband, Aaron and I, prepare to go to the Philippines on May 28th. We will be leaving our kids with extended family and joining the Compassion bloggers team to see the work and ministry of Compassion International in the Philippines. I am praying the Lord would sustain me physically (I’ll be 30 weeks pregnant at this point!) as well as keep our children safe and comforted during our absence. I will be recording our adventures here during the first week of June. So excited!

We also will be celebrating our 5 year anniversary this month! May 21st marks 5 years with my wonderful hubby – who diligently provides and cares for our family! I am a blessed woman!

April Reading

Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand – I greatly enjoyed learning a little American history and the enthusiasm that rose around this little horse during the trying years of the Great Depression. Hillenbrand is a excellent writer!

Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God by Francis Chan – a powerful challenging call to see the magnificence of Christ and to motivate us to display that love to a dying world around us by living intentionally for his glory. This is a wake up call to the Christian church to live radically for Christ as we witness the crazy love that He has given to us.

Idols of the Heart by Elyse Fitzpatrick – Another good read by Elyse on the topic of helping to identity and battle the idols in our lives with the truth of the gospel. Lots of encouragement and practical advice for making sure Christ is first on the throne in our hearts and not this world, beauty, the opinion of other’s, or anything else that might shape our purpose in this life.

May Theme: Pregnancy & Motherhood

With the celebration of Mother’s Day this month, we wanted to focus our May theme on tips, inspiration, and encouragement for natural pregnancy, childbirth, and motherhood. We hope you will join us as we share encouragement regarding the beauty of birth, inspiration for motherhood, advice for new moms, and more.

May Sponsors

We want to take a moment to highlight and thank our May sponsors!

Your Gardening Friend - check out this fun blog highlighting lots of tips and advice for natural gardening!
Azure Standard: Midwest Route facebook page - If you reside in the Midwest, you don’t want to miss out on learning about Azure Standard and the wonderful natural food co-op that delivers all over many parts of the US and recently expanded into the Midwest. Join the conversation!
Paula’s Breads - Find high quality kitchen gear and resources for your home at Paula’s Breads!

 

Are you lost in the kitchen desiring to make quality meals for your family but don’t have any inclination as to where to start? Enter…Say Mmm – a practical hands on program online that helps parents save time and money getting dinner on the table. The website provides several free meal planning, grocery shopping, and recipe organizing features for all your needs.

The founder, Brian, launched Say Mmm after seeing his wife stress one too many times over planning dinner, which led him to leave his job at Google to make a set of tools that would help all parents. A lot of other places focus on helping people find new recipe ideas, and Say Mmm is more focused on helping people with organizing ideas from anywhere and easily using them in meal plans and smart shopping lists that help do some of the organization work for them. And all the basic features are absolutely free allowing you to store up to 100 recipes in your account! It also has free features for bloggers, like printable grocery lists, to use on their sites. Here are more specifics as to the features:

Today, Say Mmm would like to offer four readers a 6-month free trial ($18 value each) of the Say Mmm Plus service.

To Enter:

1. Check out Say Mmm and come back and share your favorite aspect of the program and your most useful meal planning tip.

2. For a second optional entry, become a fan of Say Mmm on Facebook. Let us know in a second comment below.

Giveaway Closed.

And the winners are…

Jamie – jj_hammond@…
Nicki – nicnak401@…
Jenna – jennaflannery07@…
Marlene – Marlene@…

The Modest Mom is a small family business started by Caroline Allen after the birth of her third child when she realized what a need there was for modest maternity skirts. Cute modest skirts are difficult to near impossible to find in the stores. She started designing, sewing, and selling a few online, and soon The Modest Mom was created. She has since expanded to include a wide variety of women’s skirts as well. She is passionate about providing modest skirts for ladies who have a need for them and loves to encourage other ladies to dress modestly in a feminine manner. She discusses the topic of modesty extensively on her blog, sharing her life adventures, a glimpse into her wardrobe and reviews of various products.

Caroline does an excellent job sewing her skirts. They are well made in a professional manner and she offers them at a very reasonable price, especially for something custom made to meet your style and need. It is encouraging to see a fellow mother seeking to fill the gap and help meet the need for other mommies.

Today, The Modest Mom would like to offer one of popular long ruffle skirt (women or maternity style) to one select reader!

To Enter:

1. Visit the Modest Mom and pick out your favorite skirt from the collection. Come back and share your choice in the comments below.

2. For a second optional entry, become a fan of The Modest Mom on facebook. Let us know in a second comment.

Giveaway Closed.

And the winner is…

Joanna – joanna.n.rodri…@….

Also, take note that all the Modest Mom skirts are on sale through April 23 in celebration of Mother’s Day!

 

I finished unpacking my final boxes this month, and what a joy that was. I feel so much more settled and our pictures and photos are on the walls making it our home. We’ve been doing some more focused organizing and gardening to get things arranged to make them workable for our family. The Lord also provided some great renters for our condo this month! This was a huge blessing and answer to prayer. It had been vacant since our move (for 2.5 months), so the Lord really stretched our faith in His provision, but He was faithful once again!

I am 4 1/2 months along (otherwise known as 22 weeks) with #3 and we are doing very well. Naps have still been essential, but my little ones surely keep me busy and distracted. I cannot wait to see our new little one. Thankful to be able to prepare for another homebirth with my same faithful midwife. Mommy’s belly is certainly expanding. I have to mention how much I have loved my Bella Band though! I have been able to wear my normal jeans all along with this little helpful tool. And now that I am starting to wear maternity jeans, it is helping keep them up! What a blessing!

We just returned this past weekend from an inspiring weekend beach trip to our favorite spot on the Oregon Coast. It was such a rich time. Scheduling in time for rest is so fruitful for the soul. I enjoyed delving into the Word more, reading more on identifying the strongholds in my life (via Idols of the Heart by Elyse Fitzpatrick), and just basking in the beauty of God’s creation. God is good!

March Blessings

I am continuing on in my recording of 1000 gifts to tune my heart towards starting each day in a spirit of thankfulness. I have been lazy and stopped it for a bit of time, but the Lord challenged me anew this month to continue on in my pursuit. It is so refreshing to start your day journaling His gifts. I hope you can join me in this pursuit! Here are some of His sweet gifts to me this month:

#294 – accountability time with a sweet sister
#295 – a missing special dolly for Titus is replaced
#297 – Quinoa porridge
#306 – unpacking the final room
#308 – the ability to read
#310 – learning her ABC’s (I love hearing Karis says words and trying to identify the starting letter – so much fun!)
#313 – a friend’s shoulder to cry upon
#314 – an evening stroll as a family in the Spring sunshine
#318 – utilizing our basement for worship practice
#321 – little hands to help mommy
#325 – two little ones sleeping soundly together
#326 – grace to wake up at 5:30am even after a poor nights rest
#328 – giggling babies under the blanket
#331 – sweet kicks in my womb
#334 – enjoying glimpses into history and amazed at the privilege to learn
#338 – a greater understanding of God’s amazing love

To be continued…

March Reading

I have been inspired by my friend, Kat (through her awesome blog, Inspired to Action), to begin to listen to more books on CD or via my ipod. What a great way to get some good books and sermons listened to while our are doing various housecleaning or traveling. I started listening more while I did my housecleaning, laundry, and dishes, and found I really could get a lot listened too when I used this time wisely and discovered that I enjoyed doing these tasks more when I had something enjoyable to listen too. And with one ear bud in and another out, I can always hear the needs of my children and stop to address them. Sermon apps such as Mars Hill Church and Revive Our Hearts are my favorites for Christian living/doctrine inspiration. Christianaudio.com also offers a wide selection of books, and I especially love their monthly free downloads. Audible.com has a great selection of books as well at very reasonable prices. For a wide selection of free public domain books, visit LibriVox.

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption by Laura Hilenbrand – I listened to this book on tape this month and was in utter amazement and awe the whole way through. I couldn’t stop listening. It is a powerful story of courage and redemption highlighting the life of a World War II prisoner of war. You see immense struggle, purposelessness, and God’s grace entering in the end via his salvation to birth a story of beautiful forgiveness. Highly recommended!

April Theme: Hospitality

I am excited to announce that our April theme at Passionate Homemaking will be all about hospitality and cultivating a mission-minded family and lifestyle. I am excited to share about how to make hospitality and loving on others doable and practical while being wives, mothers, and homemakers. I look forward to hearing your thoughts and ideas too!

Thanks to The Willow Store (dryer balls, cloth diapers, menstrual care and more!), Apple Valley Natural Soaps (a wide assortment of natural homemade soaps), and Paula’s Bread (every appliance you need for a natural kitchen!) for your sponsorship of Passionate Homemaking for April!

What has God been doing in your home this month?