I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and let you all know that I am blessed by you! Thank you for taking the time to read, comment, and share your heart here at Passionate Homemaking. Another year is almost complete and we look forward to 2011 where we will be moving forward in continuing to help build, encourage, and inspire you to be passionate in your homemaking!
We pray that you have a blessed holiday season! We will be taking a blogging break till the first of the year as we seek to keep a simple Christmas and focus on the beauty of our Savior’s birth. We will be moving December 31st, so we have some packing to do after Christmas and set up our new home in Portland. We thank you for all your support and encouragement! We will see you back here in the new year!
P.S. There will be two fun giveaways posted on December 29th & January 1st during the break – stay tuned!
Graham Gardens is a Christian family business based in Pennsylvania that has uniquely created an assortment of lovely all-natural wholesome skincare for the whole family. Their products contain only natural ingredients without fillers, or other preservative ingredients – including lotion bars, salves, bug bars, and more.
They recently created a beautiful line of all natural soap bars made from a wealth of wonderful nourishing the skin ingredients. I have been sampling the lavender and coconut milk soap and it has been lovely! The scent is pleasant and yet not over-powerful. It leaves the skin feeling soft and refreshed. And I have to mention the adorable shape, size, and wrapping of these soaps – so cute! A perfect little gift. They offer a special of buy four and get one free!
Graham Gardens is offering a gift basket of three lovely natural soaps ($15 value) to three special winners!
The set includes one each of the following:
Lavender & Coconut Milk: Shea Butter Soap with Coconut Milk, scented with French Lavender & Lemon Essential Oils Silver Alpine: Shea Butter Soap with ground Cinnamon, scented with Silver Fir, Cedarwood, Rosewood & Wintergreen Essential Oils May Chang: Avocado Oil Soap with Calendula Petals, scented with Litsea Cubeba (May Chang), Pink Grapefruit, Lemon & Wintergreen Essential Oils
Made On Lotion was started by a Renee Harris, a Christian stay-at-home, homeschooling, large-family mom who also runs a business from home. She has designed a wonderfully successful lotion, hair product gel, and chapstick with just 3 natural ingredients – coconut oil, beeswax, and shea butter. It is a “hard” lotion bar that works extremely well on all cases of dry skin and many cases of eczema. Shea butter functions as a moisturizer that is very effective on dry skin and eczema. Beeswax binds the ingredients together, acts as a glove to protect the skin from harsh elements, and imparts a beautiful honey smell. It is very nourishing, moisturizing, and safe for all skin types, even little babies. This would be the best option you could use!
As we shared before, these simple ingredients make a wonderful homemade chapstick! And in similar fashion, you can use them together to make a wonderful lotion bar. Here’s a little video from Renee on how to do-it-yourself with these three ingredients and an ice cube tray or something similar. I made some myself in a few small lids. So easy. Just made sure to clean your tools right away otherwise it hardens quickly.
But you can also purchase these lotion bars and other goodies from Made On Lotion. They would make lovely stocking stuffers for family and friends, especially in the cute packages that Renee prepares.
Made On Lotion would like to offer 3 readers a lovely package of her products. Each winner will have the choice of one of these packages:
Large Beesilk Package: 1 family size 2 oz Beesilk lotion bar, 1 pocket .75 oz Beesilk lotion bar, 1 natural lip balm, in large muslin tote, pictured to the left -$17.50 value)
Large Au Chocolat Package: 1 family size 2 oz Au Chocolat lotion bar, 1 pocket .75 oz Au Chocolat lotion bar, 1 peppermint lip balm, in large muslin tote ($18.50 value)
I have personally tried and love her beesilk lotion and lip balm! They are fabulously nourishing to dry skin, especially in the winter, when my hands have a greater tendency to dry out from cooking, cleaning, and washing frequently.
How to Enter:
1. Visit Made On Lotion and check out the lovely array of products. Select which package you would like to win and share it in a comment below.
2. For a second optional entry, become a fan of Made On Lotion on Facebook. Let us know in a second comment.
Giveaway Closed.
Giveaway winners will be announced here at the end of this post on Wednesday, December 8th.
I want to take a moment and thank all of you who have so graciously offered your thoughts and encouragement in response to my recent survey. It has been a huge privilege to read through all your ideas! I am eagerly anticipating all that the Lord has in store for this blog in the new year.
November has brought some peace and simplicity to our lives after a month of traveling in October. We have been able to get back into our routine in keeping our home peaceful. One thing I started doing this month, was simply getting all our laundry and housecleaning done in one day – Monday of each week. What I love about this routine is although it is a busy day, I don’t have to think about cleaning or laundry for the rest of the week. I can instead focus on my little ones, making yummy meals, and such. Getting those not so desirable tasks done first thing helps launch me into a good week. It may not work for everyone, but if you set your mind to it, it really was more workable than I thought. I can clean my house in two hours – bathrooms, dust, vacuum, and wipe down kitchen and floors. Set that timer and get to work!
Another goal this month was to cultivate some more special times with the kiddos. I get too easily distracted with homemaking or technology. One way that we have done that is to start attending our local library store time once a week. This gives us occasion to get out, enjoy the benefits of reading aloud, and also participate in a cute craft project. Since I am not a crafty momma, this has helped meet that need that my daughter loves. All for free! The kids love it…especially when we do it with another friend. I try to limit my outings to twice a week, so as to cut down on gas and save my energy. One morning out for library story time, and one morning out for errands.
We also started reading the Jesus Storybook Bible (I love this book!) while the kids are eating breakfast at the table. We keep our devotional book at the table so it is ready to go each morning. And in the last month, we have nearly finished the whole book. And then we’ll start again! We use this time to read, work on our memory verses, and pray together. It has been so fun, and they are contained in their seats, so I can keep their focus well. It has been so sweet to plant seeds of the gospel in their precious hearts. And my daughter will not let me forget…every morning she states, “can we read the story?” If I can accomplish nothing else in my day, this quality time is of greatest Kingdom building importance.
We actually placed an offer on a cute house, and will be moving here before the year’s end, Lord willing. It happened really fast. We looked at it on Sunday, placed an offer down on Monday, and she signed on our offer on Wednesday. The Lord totally opened the doors. And the beauty of it is that we will be so close to our church community, Aaron’s work, and in a house that is perfect for hospitality. I am eager to be able to have a little more room to love on people through our home. And the kids will have a yard to run around in! After being in a condo for the past 4.5 years, this is a huge blessing! So I am thrown into the world of packing amidst the holidays. We are super excited…this has been our dream for a year now. We didn’t sell our condo, as the market has been dead, but the Lord has opened the doors for us to find a good renter to cover our expenses.
Any tips on how to simplify the moving process that you’d like to pass on to me? I’ve never really moved in my life. I was born and raised in one house and then moved my simple bedroom belongings when I got married. So this is the first real deal!
Holidays
We had a sweet Thanksgiving holiday with both sides of our family, enjoyed the local Macy’s parade, found a lovely $10 Christmas tree, and are simply enjoying a wonderful holiday season. I love Christmas! I love being able to step back and refocus at the end of the year around the goodness and beauty of our Savior’s coming. I love doing our Advent celebration with our Jesse Tree (check out the new free updated Jesse Tree devotional), and cultivating new family traditions. I love buying and making gifts (vanilla extract, chapstick, peanut brittle, canned goods, photo books, etc) for our family and extended family. I love being able to bless my husband with surprises. Now if I can just reign that in so I don’t overspend.
1000 Gifts
As promised, I am monthly listing out many of my blessings as recorded in my gratitude journal. This exercise has been so helpful for me, and I recommend it to anyone, especially if you battle with depression and anxiety, like myself. I am up to 180 gifts listed in the last 30 days. I’m on my way to listing 1000 gifts that God has given me. Every time I am tempted towards depression, I stop, and continue on my list. It is so helpful in restoring my joy.
#27 – To start the week off well with a clean house and laundry tucked away
#28 – A date night out with my love
#31 – A good night’s sleep
#32 – Playing a card game with my Karis and laughing together
#37 – Warm soup on a cold night
#42 – Bringing a meal to a friend
#43 – Sourdough bubbling up
#52 – Cold wash cloths on a feverish body
#59 – Dancing with my little ones as we worship Jesus
#68 – A freezer full of food for the winter
#70 – A head massage
#77- The fun of bringing trikes indoors
#78 – Titus inventing a drum from a blender
#86 – Little hands sneaking raisins from the cupboard
#88 – A cozy bearskin rug
#98 – Being feminine
#99 – 15 people in a cozy condo with every bowl and plate in use
#104 – Free access to the throne of grace amidst every minimal activity – in my closet, car, or at my sink.
#106 – Cheesecake ice cream – “my one weakness!” – (A line from Lark Rise to Candleford - a sweet clean family movie series we started watching recently)
The more I start to record these little gifts, the more He is opening my eyes to see!
By the way, the Lord also lead me to write out my personal testimony this month. I have added it to the About tab above. I pray this would encourage you all as you learn of my own personal struggles and finding victory in Christ.
November Reading
Because He Loves Me: How Christ Transforms Our Daily Life by Elyse Kirkpatrick has been a beautiful challenging reading on understanding who I am in Christ. I have found it very encouraging in learning how to apply the gospel to every day life. It is so easy to go through our daily life without even considering the gospel’s implication and how it can grant us victory over sin and transformation. Learn your true identity and how to live it out.
1000 Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are by Ann Voskamp has been a truly life-changing read. This woman is an amazing writer! She pierces to the heart in dealing with ingratitude, and how to transform your life into a joy and grace filled daily experience. Her challenge to record 1000 gifts of the little things that God has done for you, has been helping to grant me victory in attack of anxiety, depression, and discontentment. It is truly a call to the full and blessed life through cultivating thanksgiving.
May you all have a blessed holiday season!
Thank you to our new sponsor for December: Graham Gardens - a wealth of natural body products, soaps, lotions, and cremes for your family.
Our family photos pictured here were taken by my lovely sister, Christa Taylor Photography. If you are local, I can highly recommend her!
As I pray and plan for a new year of blogging here at Passionate Homemaking, I would really appreciate your input! My goal has always been to serve and encourage you in your roles as wives, mothers, and homemakers, and want to continue in this ministry as the Lord leads. Would you take a moment and share your thoughts with me by filling out the survey below?
And as a thank you for filling out our survey, we are offering a special giveaway of three wonderful books. Three different winners will get to pick their favorite book from these three choices:
Vintage Remedies Guide to Real Food by Jessie Hawkins – A simple introduction to real food including food throughout history, real food on a budget, how to recognize real food, and a very useful food guide from A-Z.
2. Come back and leave a comment letting us know that you completed the survey and share which book you would choose if you win!
UPDATE: Survey is limited to 600 entries (due to cost). Once this cap is reached, you can still enter the giveaway by answering these two questions in a comment below: 1. What do you love about Passionate Homemaking? 2. What is one thing we could improve?
GIVEAWAY CLOSED.
Thank you to everyone who completed the survey and shared your sweet thoughts with us! Congratulations to the following winners!
Vintage Remedies Guide to Real Food….Aubrey Roberts – alroberts8.@…
The Joy of Family Traditions…Brie – mrs.matlach@…
Seasons of A Mother’s Heart…Brandi - brandiguel@…
Paula is a homeschooling mom of 7 who recently became an independent consultant for Lilla Rose. Lilla Rose sells beautiful, feminine hair clips as well as other jewelry. The Flexi-Clip, in particular, is a very unique clip in that it flexes around your hair with a metal stick that is attached that slides through to hold your hair in place. They are elegantly hand crafted in a Victorian style that can be dressed up or down for the occasion. It is great for the busy wife and mom, because she can do her hair beautifully in only seconds!
I received a flexi mini for my little girl, who at three, has very thin hair. With this clip, she has a cute hairdo in no time. Since she prefers me not to touch her hair at this age, this works wonders. I selected the small size for my thick curly hair which works well for half-up do’s or a full pony tail on my hair.
I have certainly been impressed by the strength and quality of the Flexi-Clip and can recommend it to you all. It can adjust so well to meet your needs. And it certainly is a huge improvement over those plastic claws! These sweet clips would make a great stocking stuffer for any gal in your life!
Today, Paula with Lilla Rose, is offering 5 Flexi-Clips (up to $15 value each) to 5 readers!
To Enter:
1. Visit Lilla Rose and pick out your favorite Flexi-Clip design (up to $15 value)! Come back and share it in your comment.
2. For a second optional entry, become a fan of Lilla Rose on Facebook. Submit a second comment letting us know!
Thank you for helping us to support this lovely WAHM!
Bulk Herb Store is a delightful Christian family run business by the Easling family offering a wealth of freshly grown herbs, teas, herb blends, heirloom seeds, water filters, in addition to practical hands on lessons and tips for training the family how to use herbs for healing and wholeness.
When we were growing up, herbs were like tomatoes. We grew them. We put them up for the winter. We used them daily, and gave concoctions away to other people in need of them. My mother was always teaching us. If we were weeding the garden, she would talk about which weeds were herbs and what those herbs could do. She instilled in us a passion to learn and create.
By the time I (Shoshanna) was 13, my family started the Bulk Herb Store. Quite a few years have passed since then, and my wonderful husband James and I now run the Bulk Herb Store together.At the Bulk Herb Store we provide our homemade concoctions, our experiences, and the tested wisdom of others. We want to do more than sell quality herbs. We want to teach you what we know and inspire you to learn and research beyond that. Happy herbaling!
I have been delighted with my experience purchasing herbs from this sweet company, as described in more detail in my Herbal Smoothie post. I recently received their Making Herbs Simple DVD set and have greatly enjoyed watching and learning from the information provided. These DVDs are high quality, clear, simple, and down to earth. I love watching Shoshanna and her mom, Debi, just laughing together. It is adorable seeing them share of their lives and experience while clearly showing us real life routines. These DVDs are a fabulous resource if you are wanting to learn more about natural healing with herbs in God’s glorious creation.
Today, Bulk Herb Store is offering 5 sets of the Making Herbs Simple DVDs (volumes 1 & 2 – $49.90 value) to 5 select winners!
To Enter:
1. Visit Bulk Herb Store and check out the supply of herbs. Come back and share one fascinating thing you learned about herbs, a particular herb healing idea, etc.
2. For a second optional entry, become a fan of Bulk Herb Store on Facebook or share about this giveaway on facebook, twitter, or your personal blog. Let us know about it in a second comment!
Giveaway Closed.
Thanks to Bulk Herb Store for the sponsorship of Passionate Homemaking for November!
#1 - Kristi - kristileonard..@… learned: I learned that arrowroot powder is a very nutritious substitute for a thickener for soups and stews. Also that it is the only starch that contains calcium ash and is very easily digested.
#2 – Jess – jessdening@…. – who shared: I hadn’t really thought to look into herbs too much. I knew that they are healthy, but the information seemed overwhelming. The Bulk Herbs Store made it easy and I was so excited to discover different herbs that we could possibly begin using to help my husband who has Cystic Fibrosis (a hereditary lung disease).
#3 – Megan - emmattinson@… – who shared: I was interested to learn that eggshell water is good for treating arthritis and bone density problems. So cool!
#4 – Naiomi - mimihol@… – shared: I looked at the liver cleanse mix and learned that the liver is a vitally important in the cleansing of the body:)
#5 – Katie – homesteadnutrition@… shared: I learned that athlete’s foot can be cured by soaking the feet in distilled vinegar for 20 min, five days consecutively.
I was thrilled to recently learn about Puritan Picks – an awesome resource of Christian educational and inspirational movies in a Netflix style lending library. The Sofia Family launched Puritan Picks in 2009, birthed out of a passion to provide families with quality movies with solid biblical resources and entertainment. They shared their vision with us here:
Why did you start Puritan Picks?
We are Christians who have been greatly encouraged by the writings of the Puritans. We have also been greatly encouraged by the increased amount of faithful video’s and films being produced to equip the saints amongst a corrupt age of post-modern “Christianity.” Many of the good solid teaching DVDs are expensive and hard to find. Puritan Picks was an attempt at creating something that would make them easier and cheaper for families to obtain.
How it works?
Puritan Picks is a subscription based DVD lending library. For a flat fee you can borrow DVDs from our library. We pay the round-trip postage and provide the return envelope to make borrowing DVDs easy.
Once signed-up you can select as many DVDs as you would like to see by adding them to your ‘queue.’ We then begin sending you DVDs starting from the top of your ‘queue’. You can always add and remove items from your ‘queue’ as often as you like. The amount of DVDs we send you at a time is determined by the package you have chosen (packages range from $4.99 for 2 DVDs per month to $59 for a year subscription). As you send DVDs back to us, we will send more DVDs to you.
Our family is currently watching a series of sermons by Tedd Tripp on parenting and loving it!
Today, Puritan Picks is offering a special giveaway of a one year free subscription to Puritan Picks ($59.88 value)!
To Enter:
1. Visit Puritan Picks and browse the selection of movies. Pick your favorite title and come back and share with us in a comment.
So as you can see it has been a full month of traveling at our home. Aaron attended two conferences, and I attended two conferences…all within 30 days! We decided to get all our traveling out at one time! But it was so rich! True Woman & Relevant were life changing experiences, ones I will cherish and continue to learn and grow from and will surely be inspiration for my writing. It is certainly fall here in the Northwest and the weather is mighty nippy. We are bringing out the warm soups and stews! Karis and Titus are doing very well – learning the importance of playing peacefully together has certainly been our challenge. Karis took the scissors to Titus hair this month and we had to say farewell to his adorable curls. I am praying they come back! But every moment with them is such a gift – of that I am certain!
We are settling down this month getting ready for a simple holiday season.
October Reading
Heaven at Home: Establishing and Enjoying a Peaceful Home by Ginger Plowman – a refreshing read about the importance of establishing a peaceful home for God’s glory. Your homemaking is your worship when completed with a joyful heart. True beauty radiates from a woman who gracefully walks the path designed uniquely for her. Ginger delves into addressing dealing with conflict gracefully, disciplining your children, and so much more in this inspiring and practical book.
“Home is a haven where energy is restored, spirits are renewed, and love resides.” – Ginger Plowman
Real Food on A Real Budget & Healthy Homemaking E-book Sale by Stephanie @ Keeper of the Home – Stephanie is running a huge sale on her ebooks while she celebrates her blogaversary! Get her books for 50% off!Real Food on A Budget is a useful tool to help practically assist you in saving money while buying good wholesome food for your family. And when you buy Real Food on A Budget, you get a free copy of Healthy Homemaking – a basic guide to establishing a healthy non-toxic home. And 50% of the profits is going towards caring for orphans in the Philippines as well as helping Stephanie’s family move towards international adoption.
Welcome new sponsors!
Bulk Herb Storeis a wonderful Christian family business that offers whole nutritious herbs, books, and tutorials for your natural healing and wholeness.
Puritan Picksis a sweet reformed version of Netflix. Find a great collection of Christian movies, sermons, and documentaries to inspire your family through a monthly subscription!
Lilla Roseoffers adorable hair clips for ladies to make doing your hair a breeze while maintaining lovely elegance.
The Relevant blogging conference was a rich time building new friendships, learning the importance of time management, balancing priorities, writing well, and striving to become intentional bloggers for the Kingdom of God. I was privileged to meet so many lovely ladies – including my lovely contributor and now a dear friend, Kat (pictured with me below). We roomed together for two of the nights and had a blast! She is a woman with a mission – God’s mission to encourage wives and mothers to live intentionally. I love her! I loved finally meeting Stephanie & Donielle as well (pictured above), my fellow real food bloggers.
Crystal Paine shared on the importance of time management and I have gleaned so much from her tips and suggestions. She stressed the importance of keeping a simple and clean inbox – unsubscribing from anything that is cluttering it! A huge help for me! She recommended an ebook: Tell Your Time: How to Manage Your Schedule and Live your Life Fulfilled by Amy Lynn Andrews that I have been delving into and can highly recommend. It helps you learn how to make a time budget and list out your priorities, scheduling and such. Amy (who was also at the conference) also blogs extensively about how to set up a blog, maintaining it and such, which is a great resource for those who are wanting to venture into this world of blogging.
I also was privileged to meet Sally Clarkson – a dear godly woman and author of my favorite book on motherhood, Mission of Motherhood. What a sweet challenge she had for us to become message maker’s after God’s heart in our blogging. She encouraged us to see the importance of being faithful in our homes because we are God’s word to our children. She stated, “it is the living of life not the writing of life that changes lives.”
Finally, Ann Voskamp (pictured with me above) gave a final challenge that was incredible about Blogging in the Upside Down Kingdom. Thankfully, you can read and listen to it here. This woman is an incredible writer and encouraged us to tell our story through our writing. Like a mother duck that plucks feathers from her chest to build her nest, we are to pluck feathers from our chest to meet the needs of our family first and for others in our writing (or whatever ministry God has called you too). She called us to humility. To see our writing as an art, a service, a worship to our King! To make our writing a gift. It’s not about the numbers, the statistics, but about the only ONE number that counts – Jesus! Her book, One Thousand Gifts comes out in January, and I highly recommend it! She gave out downloads to attendees and I have been blown away by her call to a radical life of thanksgiving. It’s changing my life and I plan to share more in the upcoming weeks as God changes me…
So my cup is full this month and I have much to process and pray through as I move forward in this ministry that God has assigned me. I want to glorify God in all that I do – including my writing here at Passionate Homemaking. I am seeking direction. Stay tuned for a special giveaway and survey as we move forward in planning out the new year!
I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and let you all know that I am blessed by you! Thank you for taking the time to read, comment, and share your heart here at Passionate Homemaking. Another year is almost complete and we look forward to 2011 where we will be moving forward in continuing to help build, encourage, and inspire you to be passionate in your homemaking!
Lavender & Coconut Milk: Shea Butter Soap with Coconut Milk, scented with French Lavender & Lemon Essential Oils
Made On Lotion
Large Beesilk Package: 1 family size 2 oz Beesilk lotion bar, 1 pocket .75 oz Beesilk lotion bar, 1 natural lip balm, in large muslin tote, pictured to the left -$17.50 value)
I want to take a moment and thank all of you who have so graciously offered your thoughts and encouragement in response to my recent survey. It has been a huge privilege to read through all your ideas! I am eagerly anticipating all that the Lord has in store for this blog in the new year.
Paula is a homeschooling mom of 7 who recently became an independent consultant for 
Bulk Herb Store
I have been delighted with my experience purchasing herbs from this sweet company, as described in more detail in my 
So as you can see it has been a full month of traveling at our home. Aaron attended two conferences, and I attended two conferences…all within 30 days! We decided to get all our traveling out at one time! But it was so rich! 
Whole Foods for the Holidays: A Real Food Progressive Dinner
Real Food on A Real Budget & Healthy Homemaking E-book Sale
