A Wise Woman Builds Her Home: Tornado Destroys Home of Kelly Crawford of Generat...

A Wise Woman Builds Her Home: Tornado Destroys Home of Kelly Crawford of Generat...: "Dear Readers, we need you to pray for Kelly Crawford of Generation Cedar . We have heard that they just lost their home, and their parent..."


and read THIS about the Lee family.

A Few Pics

Jamison with his baking creation.




Rebekah with curls




Hannah with curled hair




my sofa



Sarah with our dog Buttercup

winter at my house


Hannah in the winter

a Doorposts Giveaway

Doorposts is giving one blessed Happily Domestic reader a $50 Gift Certificate to their online store!!


go HERE to enter

i want Plants Grown Up!!! what do you want? leave me a comment telling me!

woot woot!

how generous is this!! right now Sarah Mae is offering her ebook- 31 Days To Clean totally free!! i am so excited!! please listen to her video about the ebook so you'll know more about it!! you'll love it! go HERE

The Best Banana Bread Ever!

i love to make banana bread and i recently came across a recipe that is absolutely the best i have ever eaten.

the book is "The Rosalind Circle" written by the ladies of First Methodist Church of Texarkana Arkansas back in 1955. this recipe was sent in by Mrs. Paul Hardy.

1 stick butter softened
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
3 mashed bananas
1 1/2 cps flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
4 tbs buttermilk
vanilla

cook at 350. Mrs. Hardy didn't say for how long (!) but i experimented with my oven and chose 37 min as mytime. you'll have tofigure that one out yourself but it is so worth it!

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and with
Little House on the Prairie Living

and with

and



for more go HERE

http://just-making-noise.blogspot.com/2011/04/simple-lives-thursday-41.html

Gardening and more

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see more HERE


my husband and i started thinking- we don't have a ton of money for food storage-tho we managfed to get a few things put away:)- but working towards self- sustainability might be a better answer for us. a garden would provide more for us than putting away cans so we will do both. we also stocked our freezers full of meat.

i bought 100 quarts of strawberries when they were on sale for 75 cents a qt. i made a few pies, made jam,and cut and froze the rest for later use. i plan on using some for my angel food cake this week :)


then we got our garden done! we have:

corn
sweet potatos
peppers
tomatos
pumpkins
melons
carrots
green beans
cucumbers
and a few others that i forget lol(i still need the stakes with their names on the seeds!)
and an herb garden with sage, basil, rosemary ,peppermint,oregano, and a few others. i am trying to get a medicinal herbs garden going too.

we have some plans for our fall crops too.

oh and the great baking soda shampoo experiment? well it's been 1 month with no shampoo- just baking soda and water with a vinegar rinse and i look great!! i never had a bad hair day at all. try it!

Don and Shelly

hey!! i have commented sooo many times on your blog but a day or so after i do i get an email stating that i was rejected by the domain. here is what i wrote after the last part of the story

Tami has left a new comment on your post ""I'll be seeing you" -- a
love story... Part 10-- ...":

i had a feeling, hugs
i am honored that you shared your story with me. i am so sorry you went
thru so much but praise God! you came thru and were made stronger
because of it.
i have tried to comment several times but it always gets rejected and i
get an email stating so. hopefully this will go thru.


there! now you can see it :) ladies- go to homespun legacy and enjoy!!!!!

Prepping This Week

for more go HERE


well this week was a big one in prepping! we have someone coming tomorrow with a tractor so we can till up that 1/2 acre of land and put on a bigger garden. we are too late to plant some things but not all :) oh and my carrots and tomatos are doing well!

we went to sam's - taking advantage of their non member days to shop- you can go on sunday if you missed it so far- and stocked up on a few things. more cocoa, chocolate chips, and a few canned goods.

we also bought a ton of seeds for the aforementioned garden. hubby doesn't want to use any of the survival seeds i have - i have 2 large packages that i won!- til we are living on our own land. makes sense!

we also ordered 9 more containers of wheatberries!! i ordered from emergency essentials this time.

well that wraps it up for prepping. :)

kids are having a sleepover tonight and i am hoping to get some rest lol

oh and pray for my dad- hehas finished his last round of chemo - for the second time- and his body isn't recovering. he is in the hospital with no white blood cells. we live in a different state so i can't visit him.

31 Days to Clean

see the button on the right ? the 31 days to clean? well click HERE and go enter to win a bunch of goodies!

A Hair clip of your choice from Lilla Rose ($15 value)
A Plan to Eat Membership-Meal planning made simple ($39/year value)
A Ruched skirt from The Modest Mom ($44.95 value)---order my size so you can send it to me!
The Get Clean Starter Kit from Shaklee (Retails for $115.32)
The Get Clean Starter Kit contains:

Basic H2® Organic Super Cleaning Concentrate, 16 oz. (1)
Germ Off Disinfecting Wipes, 35 Wipes (1)
Nature Bright® Laundry Booster and Stain Remover, 32 oz. (1)
Dish Wash Concentrate, 16 oz. (1)
Dish Washer Automatic Concentrate, 32 oz. (1)
Fresh Laundry Concentrate HE Compatible, Regular Scent 32 oz. (Liquid) (1)
Soft Fabric Dryer Sheets, 80 sheets (1)
and last but not least- A Copy of 31 Days to Clean E-Book

homestead blessings

i like to let you know when there is a giveaway that a homemaker can really benefit from and i found one!
homemaker by choice is giving away 3 homestead blessings dvds of your choice.! isn't that great?! so go enter HERE!

Simplifying

here are a few things i have done to simplify my life

i bought a grain mill and wheatberries and i make my own flour.
i switched from using shampoo to using baking soda, water and essential oils. so far so good! oh i use a vinegar rinse too.

i don't buy toothpaste- i make it :)

i got rid of clothing! this way i won't have so much to wash.

i got chickens so i have eggs (or i will!)

i planted a container garden.

i got rid of schoolbooks that we don't use so i am not overwhelmed by choices each day. boy they looked good in the catalogs!

we don't buy processed foods. we make just about everything from scratch.

i make all our cleaners.

i use cloth shopping bags.

those are just a few ways i have simplified. what about you?

A Few Way I Save Money

I'm gonna sure a few tips I've learned with you. I shop almost exclusively at Walmart. I live in a small town with only a Walmart and a Brookshire - Brookshire's is too expensive so off to Walmart I go. Yes, I could drive thirty or so minutes to a bigger town and go to other stores but I don't have a car during the week and hubby doesn't like grocery shopping on the weekends so I go here in town. SURPRISE - I STILL GET ALL THE SAME BIG TOWN DEALS AT MY LOCAL STOP BECAUSE I AD MATCH. That's right, if it is listed in an ad for another store for a lower price, Walmart will honor it.

My printer is broken so I don't get to print coupons anymore so I am not much good in that department anymore.
Anyway, here are those few tips.

Did you know you can buy baking soda on the laundry aisle? It comes in a larger box and is a better deal then the small box on the baking aisle.

Buy a fresh herb plant of whatever seasoning you like to cook with. They cost two dollars each right now at Walmart. They are extremely easy to take care of and you will get a lot of more servings out of a plant then you will a bottle but the price is the same. Just pinch off the amount needed for your recipe when you're ready to cook.

I have found it beneficial for me (maybe you're better at this) to buy one pump dispenser of Dawn dish washing liquid and then refill it with other brands when I come across a good deal. I tend to be heavy handed so it is good I can only get one pump out at a time. So make the initial purchase and save money later.

I buy our drinking glasses on the canning aisle. I can buy both small and large size jars that all match and will always been available at several places to buy identical replacements if and when the kids break them. They're usually a better deal then the boxed sets in the kitchen section.

Check the prices of those bags of cheese! For a while, the bigger bag was a better deal. Then for a while, two smaller bags equaling a bigger bag was a better deal. Now it's back to the big bag. I don't know why this is but I keep an eye on the prices per ounce all the time.

This doesn't work for me but my mom swears by it - she buys her trash bags at the Dollar Tree and saves big bucks. I don't usually have access to a Dollar Tree so......
Buying a canister of oatmeal is cheaper then buying those little packs and it takes about the same amount of time to make a bowl. Add your cinnamon and nutmeg and you've a tasty breakfast.
If you have a blog, check into blogspark.com and see if you can get free products to review for them.

The ingredients in a jar of spaghetti sauce are: tomato puree (this is water and tomato paste), diced tomatoes, mushrooms, peppers, onions (veggies like that), AND SUGAR. Why not save money and get rid of the sugar and simply use canned tomato puree, the herb plants I told you to buy and any fresh veggies you have leftover from various meals and make your own spaghetti sauce? Other then chopping some veggies, it takes the same amount of time to make.

Check the dollar stores for spices, these are an especially good source for cinnamon sticks for a cheaper price then the grocery store. You can use the sticks to simmer in a pot of water with orange rinds and make an air freshener that way.

Long grain rice is much cheaper then minute rice - it just takes a little thought on your part to plan ahead to make it. Long grain rice takes 30 - 40 minutes and is much healthier for you then the bags you microwave.
It goes without saying we threw away the microwave.

If you make sour dough bread you don't need to buy yeast!

Cocoa is due to go up in price by a high percentage due to a lack of importing it (due to inclement weather) so stock up now. we never buy those packets of swiss miss but rather we make our own and save money. plus we use it for baking.

ok that is just a few but i hope i gave you some ideas. send me any ideas you have too- we are all in this together :)


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think good thoughts lol

i'm outta shampoo so here i go!!