Keeping Hearth and Home: Adventures in Homemaking

My name is Jen, and I am a homemaker. I love being a stay at home mom...most of the time. I know that if you are a stay at home mom, too, that you understand that last comment. I have two little boys at home with me, and a wonderful husband who is doing all he can to support our family so I can stay at home with our children. I believe that God has created in women a nature to nurture, and that it is our divinely appointed duty to do our utmost best to raise our children in a gospel-centered home. I understand that not all family situations allow for the mother to stay at home with her children, but I do believe that if it is within our power to do so that it is the best thing we can do for our children, especially when they are young.

I have decided to create this blog as a sharing place for me to post recipes, projects, tutorials, and just plain old knowledge and information that I think is of use to myself and other SAHMs. It will be in part a documentation of my newly begun real food journey, part sewing instructional, and part advice column. At least, that is how I am envisioning this blog at this time. Of course, it may evolve into something else entirely over time. But whatever this blog becomes, I am excited to invite you on the journey with me. So, are you ready to embark on this adventure with me?

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Best Homemade Pizza I've Ever Had!

A few months ago I took a small class about sourdough and sourdough starters. It was all very, very intimidating to me, but I thought I would give it a try. Turns out, once you have a starter, it isn't so difficult after all, just a lot of planning ahead and waiting between steps. So far, I have made artisan sourdough bread, whole wheat sourdough crackers, and this AMAZINGLY delicious pizza crust. Hubster and I both enjoyed the artisan bread, but the kids didn't care much for it the first time around. The second time around they were a little more favorable because it was still warm, but they didn't care for it again once it cooled. I really enjoyed the crackers, but no one else seemed to enjoy them all that much. Then I made the pizza dough from the King Arthur Flour website. OH. MY. GOODNESS. Not only was it good, but it was the best homemade pizza dough I have EVER had. This recipe alone was worth the upkeep of a sourdough starter. ...

Christmas Planning Part IV: Paying for Christmas

While scaling back can take a big chunk out of the burden of paying for Christmas, the burden won't be completely gone. We still have to buy gifts or materials to make them, and we want to do fun things around Christmas that sometimes cost money. Since I don't advocate going into credit card debt for anything short of the most dire emergencies, here are a couple suggestions on how to pay for Christmas. One way we have done it in the past is to set up an extra savings account at our credit union and transfer $10-$20 a paycheck into it depending on what we can afford. If things are really tight, we sometimes only move over $5. If we have a windfall (such as a bonus or tax return) we will take a portion of that money and add it to the Christmas account as well. This Christmas account pays for both gifts AND activities thorough the Christmas season. I know someone that insists that they are too poor to save even a few dollars a pay check, so they put everything they buy for ...

Christmas Planning Part III: Emphasizing Traditions and Memories

We have all been brainwashed. We have been taught by society at large that the most important things in our lives are, well, THINGS. And that those THINGS make us happy. This idea is promulgated more around Christmas time than any other time of the year. So, in order to make a simpler, less expensive Christmas possible, we have to shift our focus from THINGS to something else. What do we focus on instead? Traditions and Memories. This goes hand in hand with my life philosophy that experiences are more important than stuff. Here are a few ideas for simple, inexpensive traditions, and a few ways to make Christmas memories with your families. Traditions Our family acts out the Nativity each year at my mother's home, sometime the week before Christmas. My mother has a nice manger that we use, and we all dress in costume (think bathrobes, sheets, and towels) , read Luke II, and act it out. Since our family is smaller, we all get to take turns p...

Keeping Hearth and Home

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