10 DIY Flip Flop with a Flair!

June 26, 2012 by Jill 6 Comments

One can’t have too many flip flops with a flair!

Honestly, they are my favorite type of shoes because they are cheap and can be so darn cute!

Here in the south, we have seasonal flip flops!

HEADS UP: This Saturday is Old Navy’s $1 Flip Flop Sale!

Here are 10 DIY Flip Flops with a Flair !

May Arts Blog
By Wilma
MiBello Boutique
Trinkets In Bloom
Vippins
Mother Huddles - this will be so cute in red, white, and blue!
Balancing Home - could these be any cuter?
My Craft’s Spotlight
The Craft Junkie Blog - the princess would love these!
Itsy Bitsy Paper Blog – I need these!

Where’s your favorite place to buy cheap flip flops to turn them into cuteness?

Connect with other mommy bloggers today!

Have you entered my weekly giveaway yet?

Sharing with WFMW,Encourage One Another,WLW, WhatWorksWednesday, Raising Homemakers,Proverbs 31 Thursday, Six Sisters Stuff

Filed Under: craft ideas, DIY, frugal, WFMW Tagged With: crafts, DIY, frugal

Now I only cry once!

I don’t know about you, but I despise chopping onions. It entails two of my least favorite things to do…Crying and cleaning up messes.

I detest it so much that I used to just sprinkle a bottle of minced onion when a recipe called for chopped onion. Yes, I know it’s pathetic!

Now we all know nothing taste better than fresh chopped onion, especially when browning ground beef.

I created an easy system…..

Every time I get out my food processor, I chop several onions and put them in a snack baggie measuring approximately 1/2 cup in each baggie.

Then I freeze the finely chopped onions. This saves so much time and clean up. Just pop out a bag and let defrost or pop in microwave.

Have you entered my giveaway yet?

For more frugal tips, click here!

Filed Under: Family, frugal, homemaking, WFMW

Weekly Sugar Sunday!

May 11, 2012 by Jill 3 Comments

I try really hard to limit sugar in our house.

My dh and I came up with a solution…

We usually eat our main meal after church on Sunday. So for dinner, we always indulge in some sort of dessert as our meal since we are usually not too hungry. Sunday is the only day we serve dessert. The ~~children~~ parents love it and look forward to the scrumptious sugar each Sunday evening. We sometimes have apple crisp with cool whip, brownie sundaes, or some concoction my dh creates. It’s always a treat!

Cutting sugar in my house works for me? Now, please share some easy dessert recipes that your family enjoys.

For more yummy recipes, click here.

Filed Under: Family, Homemaking, parenting, WFMW Tagged With: family, parenting, simple ideas

I was featured…

April 12, 2012 by Jill 1 Comment

I was completely tickled that 4 of my WFMW post were featured in the NEW ebook, That Works For Me!

In the next couple of weeks, I will be reviewing the best of the best WFMW tips.

And the best part…I am going to be giving away (2) That Works for Me in the next 2 weeks! Stay tuned to see how you can WIN!

In the mean time, you can browse the sample of this fantastic resource.

I admit, I am blown away that I was actually featured in this project. Little old me in the blogosphere!

Can you guess what WFMW posts of mine were featured?

Filed Under: encouraging reads, WFMW Tagged With: encouraging reads, frugal, simple ideas, wfmw

Resurrection Rolls…

April 3, 2012 by Jill Leave a Comment

The Easter Bunny doesn’t come to our neck of the woods.

My dh and I have neglected our children of the Easter bunny for many years now. Although the tradition is fun, we deeply feel it completely takes away from the true meaning of the cross. Hold on a second before you call CPS on us. LOL! We do give our children one BIG bowl of candy to share either the weekend before Easter or the Saturday before the actual Resurrection Sunday.

Our children have never complained or whined about our decision. They are just thrilled to have candy! I often wondered why we can not do the Easter Egg hunt and candy thing some other time rather than Easter Sunday. Originally, Easter festivals or celebrations resulted from Paganism. Don’t believe me, read for yourself here. I do not think there is anything wrong with having a fun Easter Egg hunt, in fact, my children have Easter Egg hunts on their own in our yard the whole week before Easter. They take turns hiding them. They have so much fun. I just don’t agree on having the candy and Easter Egg hunt on the most important day in history!

So our family has our own Easter tradition. During the Holy week, we read from the Holy Scriptures. John 12-18.

We wake up early Easter morning and make Resurrection Rolls together and discuss John 19. We have an Easter celebration with friends and family, but leave out the candy and Easter bunny. Here is the recipe for the Resurrection Rolls we have made for years. I usually serve them with fruit, too.

Resurrection Rolls

Author: Jill

Recipe type: Easter

I triple the recipe for my crew of 8.

Ingredients

1 can of refrigerated crescent roll dough
8 large marshmallows
melted butter
cinnamon sugar

Instructions

Give each child 1 triangle shaped section of the crescent roll(this represents the tomb).
Each child takes 1 marshmallow (represents the body of Christ).
Dip the marshmallow in the butter and roll in the cinnamon sugar (represents the oil and spices that the body was anointed upon burial).
Lay the marshmallow on the dough and carefully wrap it around the marshmallow.
Make sure you pinch all seams together to avoid a big mess.
Bake according to the crescent roll directions.
Break open the tomb and the body of Christ is no longer there! Celebrate the God’s love!

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*Please note this is a personal conviction that my dh and I obey. I am in no way condemning anyone. I know many strong Christians that do the Easter Bunny and egg thing and I love them dearly (:

One of my readers suggested this book to help explain the real meaning of Easter. I have not read it.

Easter Bunny, Are You For Real? – eBook

Filed Under: Family, parenting, recipes, spiritual, WFMW Tagged With: Easter, family, spiritual

FREE Printable Spell Cards!

March 20, 2012 by Jill 4 Comments

I discovered these really cool free Spell Cards to print.

A few of my kiddos are NOT gifted in spelling to say the least. These cards spice up their spelling practice each day with a variety of tasks.

I printed these spell cards on colorful card stock. My ds cut all of them up and we placed them in a cute basket. Each day each student is to pick a miscellaneous card and complete the activity task with their own spelling words.

Fun, huh! Beats writing your spelling words 10x.

Go Print your Free Spell Cards today!

For more fun homeschool ideas, click here.

Filed Under: homeschool, parenting, WFMW Tagged With: homeschool, wfmw

Poor Man’s Chicken Salad

March 6, 2012 by Jill 7 Comments

Being a mother of 6 children and residing on a single income in a double income world, I need to be frugal. Not to mention feeding 5 of those mouths are hungry boys.

I make this chicken salad several times during the month. In fact, I have brought chicken salad sandwiches for pot lucks with this secret recipe. It’s always a hit!

Poor Man’s Chicken Salad

1 can of chicken (you can use a whole chicken and shred it)

1 c of Mayonnaise or more or less to your liking (I use the kind with Olive Oil)

2 hard boiled eggs

dill pickles cut into chunks and reserve some pickle juice

1 sleeve of crushed saltines….Shhhhh!

Mix all the ingredients together and add a some pickle juice to spice it up.

Sprinkle some paprika to make it look fancy if you must.

Refrigerate but not necessary if you are eating it immediately. I just prefer it cold.

Voila!

I have yet have had someone question the saltines. It’s the secret ingredient!

We usually eat this on Wednesday nights with fresh fruit and veggies because we participate in AWANA’s. I always make ahead at time at lunch. Makes great left overs, too!

FYI ~ I have used this recipe with tuna but used unsalted saltines. Taste wonderful.

Do you have any secret ingredients in your chicken salad to share?

More frugal tips here.

photo by: ralph and jenny

Filed Under: Family, frugal, Homemaking, recipes, WFMW

Family Rules Canvas ~ DIY

February 20, 2012 by Jill Leave a Comment

Here are our family rules all made up perty! Looks cuter in real life. I left my camera at a friends house, so bare with me. My phone camera is poor.

I have the canvas hanging in the hall right before you enter the school room. This is where we seem to have the most disputes.

So NO MORE…I didn’t know about that rule deal in our house. Famous last words in your house, too?

Check out, The Pleated Poppy, for in depth details. And her canvas is much prettier than mine.

Do you have family rules? If so, are they posted?

Filed Under: craft ideas, Family, Homemaking, homeschool, parenting, WFMW Tagged With: family, homeschool

Consider the Ants….

February 15, 2012 by Jill 1 Comment

This month we are having science project night with our homeschool group. The three younger boys made an Ant lapbook to go along with their live ant farm that one of our son’s got for his birthday. Our theme was….Considering the Ants.

Each boy colored the print out here and used as their cover sheet.

Each lapbook is slightly different to fit the academic level of each student.

Caleb 10 used most of his little booklets from this free lapbook here.

The information and facts regarding ants were included in the ant lapbook pdf. He worked independently on his.

Grahm 7 learned about the life cycle of ant, parts of an ant, and ant facts. He was fascinated.

We all concentrated on the verse, Proverbs 6:6 and talked about what a sluggard was. We discussed ways they could be diligent like an ant.

The lil’ ones utilized the free lapbook here and I am a member of Enchanted Learning where I printed the life cycle and anatomy.

We read the books that we got from the library….

Ant Cities

Those Amazing Ants

Ants

The boys and had so much fun this week learning about ants. The best part…. it was all free resources.

This works for me.

Filed Under: Family, homeschool, notebooking, WFMW Tagged With: homeschooling

Healthy Church Member Checklist…

January 2, 2012 by Jill 6 Comments

Before requesting membership with our church body, the leadership request that each adult read the informative book, What is a Healthy Church Member?

It is such a helpful handbook outlining the church’s true biblical priorities, especially how they apply to each of us individually.

Each chapter presents one proposal in becoming a healthy church member. The books assumes you are already a member of a local congregation and you either just need a nudge in the right direction or you just simply don’t know what God expects from you as a healthy church member.

I believe that the local church is far more important to the Christian walk than Christians realize today in our society.

A Healthy Church Member is….

an Expositional Listener to the Word of God by letting God set the agenda and seeking the true meaning of the text, so they can apply it to their lives
a Biblical Theologian who studies the themes of the bible to protect themselves and the church from false and unsound teaching
is Gospel Saturated because the gospel is what saves us and will sustain and motivate us in our daily christian lives
is Genuinely Converted and has a true understanding of conversion
is a Biblical Evangelist by sharing the good news about Jesus Christ with the people God’s places in their path
Has a biblical understanding of committed church membership and becoming an humble follower
Has a biblical understanding of church discipline and seeks it joyfully
is a forever growing in their discipleship in the Lord Jesus Christ
is a constant prayer warrior

After reading and pondering the words and scripture references in this little book, I was able to reflect on my own weakness as a church member.

I plan on reading this to my older children this year. Reading one chapter while concentrating on one mark of a healthy church member per month will instill the expectations of a healthy church member in the eyes of the Lord. This is my hearts desire.

It’s a must read for all church members whether your new to the body of Christ or have been walking with the Lord for years. It’s all from a biblical standpoint, too.

Are you a healthy church member?

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