Ladies, I have two wonderful things I’d like to share with you today!

Although my children are still ‘preschool’ age and I stay at home with them, I homeschool them. I used to teach in a preschool, and learned real quick how to make a cute classroom on a budget!

One of my main shopping thrills was the Dollar Tree. Now, in your mind, the Dollar Tree might just be JUNK, but if you have a keen eye… you can find some GREAT products - and the price is even better… only a buck!!

Make a monthly calendar from a piece of cardboard, find different laminated cards to use as each day on the calendar, even cute baskets for keeping each child’s school supplies separated! Check out the Sonbeams blog to see pics of some of my great school finds!!

And the second “Fantastic” Find is a website that Kathy from Teaching Good Things shared on her newsletter.

Ever get tired of high produce prices at the store?? Bad quality/ old produce?? Want to get away from all the chemicals and pesticides, eating organic??

Well, this website just might solve your problems! Pick Your Own is a great resource for finding local farms in your area where you can pick right from the fields! You know what you’re getting is fresh - it’s right off the tree, or bush, or out of the ground! Some farms are organic, just look for that in their description or titles!

I haven’t had a chance to visit a farm in our AL area, but Kathy wrote how they picked 5 GALLONS of blueberries for only $20!!

PS - Don’t forget… If you didn’t get a chance to check out Crystal’s deal on Money Saving Mom - ALL of her ebooks, audio, downloads are in a fabulous package!! Today is the last day, and the price is $11.97. This is over $100 of invaluable information.

I was excited to buy the deal, and am loving my first read - Thriving on One Income. Check it out before midnight - it’ll be gone!

A Proper Tea ($6.97 value!)

The Bread by Hand eBook ($4.97 value!)
Growing Your Groceries ($7.97 value!)

Successful Home Management ($5.97 value!)

Home Grown Business ($15.97 value!)

How to Start Your Own Business ($15.97 value!)

In Good Season - Autumn ($6.97 value!)

Make Your Own - Crafts and Decorating ($6.97 value!)

Menu Planning Made Easy! ($5.97 value!)

Supermarket Savings eCourse ($17.97 value!)

What to Do While Waiting for Prince Charming ($3.97 value!)

Simply Centsible Breakfasts ($4.97 value!)

Simply Centsible Suppers ($4.97 value!)

Thriving On One Income ($7.97 value!)

What My Parents Did Right ($3.97 value!)

WOW!!!

Go here to read more about this huge sale!

Reading this after Wednesday? The sale actually last until the strike of midnight Friday night - it just goes up $3 each day - still a good deal. Thanks Crystal!

“Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.”

It seems to me that if every word of God is pure then we should not have any worries or concerns because we can trust what God says to be true. However, all too often we humans do succumb to the cares of this world, forgetting that our loving Heavenly Father knows our every need and has prayed for the events that happen in our lives. (Romans 8:26-27)

Today’s Proverb has a potent little thought in verse 5. Here it is again: “Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.”

“Every word of God is pure…” It doesn’t say some, it says every.

“He is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.” He is our protector, our shield of defense if we put our trust in Him.

Many of the Psalms echo this thought. Could that mean if our trust is not in Him, that we are not as protected as we could be? Could it be that when we stop trusting in Him and trust in ourselves or some other thing or person that we limit our access to the protection He offers?

Now, if I had more time, I would have done a word study of shield, trust, word and pure, but I am on the road to our friend’s farm. Nevertheless, don’t let it hinder you from using your Bible study tools to dig deeper for yourself.

I do believe that when we commit to putting our whole trust in the Lord, that blessings come with that obedience - and they far outweigh anything else we could experience if we try to do it in our own strength.

Like the peace and joy we experience when we are totally trusting in the Lord for our salvation.

I have heard it said often that if we can trust Him with our souls for all eternity, we can definitely trust Him with the every day events in our lives.

Then why don’t we? Lack of trust. So let’s remember to trust Him with our whole hearts and lean not on our own understanding. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

These are fitting thoughts for me, as we face the unknown with work and income.

We do fine when we are simply trusting the Lord to provide the leads to jobs, clients and income etc., but as soon as we stop trusting it is like our shield of protection from the doubts and worries is lifted…..leaving us with only those doubts and fears.

It is like the trust we put in the Lord shields us from those worries and fears. I, for one, long to consistently rest in the promises of the Word of God. How about you?

Mrs. Theresa Gould is Robert’s wife of 14 years ~ today! She is the homeschooling mother of seven children. She resides in a Northwest suburb of Chicago with her family. She and her family enjoy reading, walks and working together on their home businesses – Faith and Family Books, as well as RobnT Business Solutions. In her free time, Mrs. Gould can be found reading, writing, or talking with her children.

**From Candace - We continue our new Character Series today, written by one of our new authors, Terri. Allow the Lord to speak to your heart as you read, and ask Him to develop His character in our lives.

Only when we’re filled with His Spirit will these traits shine through us, allowing us to bring “Heaven In Our Homes”!

Now to Terri!**

This week, the topic is “Loyalty”, friends….Hmmmmmmm…

Loyalty is standing with those who I am serving (DH, Children, Family) in their time of need.

The Dictionary says it means; faithful and true.

The concordance says; faithful and security.

Luke 16:10 says: “He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much, and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.”

I have had many, many thoughts about this, and finally just started writing….this time an animal came to mind of being extremely Loyal/Faithful/True…The Canadian Goose.

If one is hurt, the other will stay with the hurt one till it is better.

How often do we just want to give up on one that has “done this again and again….”?….or, “we roll our eyes at the one who just cant get a grip…”?

Do we really bear each others burdens, if we feel this way, even if we just do it in the privacy of our own home?

We must be forgetting, walls have no meaning to our Heavenly Father, He sees right through them. I am wondering if, how we really feel really does come across, to the “weak”, even if we try and hide it?

Loyalty?….How often do we “Help the slow learners?”

What about our DH’S? Do we forebear to be Loyal to them? Or do we move ahead, because they are not moving fast enough? How often are we rolling our eyes at them, even if it is inside?

If we are sincere when we come to Christ, He is right there to lift us up, give us the strength to overcome and carry us through the hard part until we can walk again….

Loyalty?…One example from the Bible, is Queen Esther…we all probably know this story by heart, She needed to go before the King for her people, she bathed weeks(?), to smell just right, she wore her best finery to look just right, yet all the while knowing that all of this may or may not, get her into the king….she knew she still might be put to death….

Was she afraid, you bet….but, was she LOYAL…even more so….Loyalty gave her the “stick to it” power we all need today.

Our world is spinning out of control, or so it seems, and we need as wives, mothers, friends, and Grandmothers to be “Loyal”.

Just think , of the goose again for a moment…they also scare danger away BEFORE it is upon those that they love…now, you say, I cannot do that all the time for everyone, you are right, you cannot, but, when called to do it, can we?

Are we that Loyal to our DH’S?, do we DO for him way beyond our call?(Or shall I say, what we think is our call?)

This a high calling, my friends, but, in all of my Christian walk, God has never failed me, yes, he may or may not answer what I want, but, HE always knows what is best for us, better than we ourselves.

Oh Ladies!!!! Let us pray for our hearts to be filled with “Loyalty” this week. Loyalty as Queen Esther, as the Canadian Goose; Loyalty to be the wives, mothers, grandmothers God has called us to be!

Can We??????? Love to you all….Terri

Terri is a Christian mother of 6, grandmother of 9 - serving the Lord and her husband. She has started a sewing business and blog that can be found at: http://www.froccsfrillsfurbiloesandmore.blogspot.com/.

Alright, I must begin by apologizing about promoting fluorescent light bulbs! It has since came to my attention that they are not completely safe.

Problems linked to these bulbs, whether the mercury inside that requires a good deal of effort to clean up properly (Google this!), or the side effects of the light itself from cancer to behavior issues in children.

I could list article after article of my recent findings (thanks to my mom!). I just Google searched “fluorescent light dangers” and TONS of stuff came up.

I know we can’t avoid every single potential problem in our world today, but this is worth looking into. I don’t think we should be ignorant either. I just felt I should share this info since I posted in favor of these lights a couple months ago.

I will be removing that information soon.

And sharing one on of my favorite kitchen pals - my Swiffer! (PLUS - How to use it frugally!!)

I was fortunate enough to have a Fred’s Discount Store in our area a few years ago, and snagged up one of these with a great coupon for $5 I believe.

I wasn’t all that sure about this ‘new’ product at the time, but as we had been house hunting, we visited one lady’s home. She mentioned how she used her Swiffer all the time and loved it!

It swiveled in and out of furniture, turning this way and that.

But weren’t they too expensive to keep supplying??

NO! She didn’t use those expensive refills - but her floor looked great. Know what she used??

Paper towels! But not just any paper towels - Viva.

We bought a Swiffer soon thereafter, and LOVED it! Since we had replaced the flooring in that house with a laminate flooring, we noticed that a broom would scratch the floors - even a soft broom. So we tried this.

She was right, and about two things. The Swiffer was very easy to use, but also - you needed to use Viva.

We tried other brands that were on sale, but only Viva seemed soft enough to not scratch the floors, PLUS be thick enough to withstand the dirt and crumbs. I even ‘swiffed‘ the rug under my table before vacuuming!

FYI - you don’t want to vacuum food, it could lead to bacteria growing in your machine and blowing up in the air each time you vacuum.

I’ve also found that the Swiffer works great on the laminate floors after hair cuts. I always try to use the dustpan brush to clean up all the hair I cut, but it never gets all the tiny little pieces.

Trust me, I know they are there, they get stuck in the bottom of my feet - ha! OUCH!

But with the Viva paper towel and Swiffer, it’s unreal how many little hairs come up AFTER I sweep!

If you don’t have one of these, trust me, you’ll love it!! Just be sure to compare prices, call your local discount or dollar stores before paying more at Target or WalMart - you never know how much you could save!

Blessings!!

**If you haven’t checked out Sonbeams, you have until next weekend before it’s subscription accessible only! I post new info each day to fill you in on what exactly you’ll receive from this preschool guide. Remember, you can earn your subscription for FREE by referrals - ask me how!

Candace

Hello once again! I’ll tell you, the Lord doesn’t bless us once and then move on to someone else - He’s faithful to ALWAYS help us!

As the school year is approaching, I really am devoting more time to finishing up some ‘behind the scenes’ stuff with Sonbeams. (You can check out the blog and website - though not finished, hey, I’m making progress!!)

After Terri wrote that she could write on Monday’s for me, another mother, Theresa, wrote me asking if she could take on Wednesday’s.

Thank you so much, Theresa!! And thanks also for the comments about missing me writing too!

I’m still here on Fridays, and maybe on Tuesdays once Sonbeams gets settled and going.

After reading her post, I feel she’ll be another welcomed addition to HIOH - praying you’re blessed - here’s Theresa….

Proverbs 23

As I read Proverbs 23, two very important verses stood out to me that I think all mothers, parents for that matter, should take heart in.

Each day we work hard to instill biblical values, a love for the Lord and His word into our children. There are some days that the joys may well outweigh the struggles and challenges. However, there are certainly those off days where the opposite is true. These are the days when our hope needs to be renewed and restored.

Verses 24-25 say:

“The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice: and he that begetteth a wise child shall have joy of him.

Thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bare thee shall rejoice.”

These verses state that righteous and wise children will bring us joy. This means that unrighteous and unwise children will bring us sorrow. Therefore, all the work we do as mothers and fathers is to train up righteous and wise children.

We constantly have to look beyond today’s challenges, to the hope of the future and what our work today is going to accomplish in our children some day.

Training our children to be wise is not easy. It is hard work. It takes lots of consistency, lots of love and lots of training. This requires us to be interacting with our children and talking about the Lord and His ways.

It requires us to pray for our children that they will be wise. Now that it is wisdom, not perfection that we are after. Even Jesus as a young boy grew in wisdom and in stature.

These verses give me hope that my desire for righteous, godly, wise children is in line with scripture and that the sorrows of today’s toil just may be the joys of the future – rejoicing in the fact that my children are following the Lord. May the Lord grant it to be so.

Mrs. Theresa Gould is Robert’ s wife of 14 years and mother to seven children, all of whom are homeschooled. Mrs. Gould and her family reside in a Northwest suburb of Chicago. She and her family love walks, reading books and working together. They own two home based businesses – Faith and Family Books, which is an online bookstore and blog and then they have RobnT Business Solutions, which is offering small businesses back end support with their administrative tasks, research, writing and a plethora of other services.

Happy Monday to you ladies! Today we begin a series on character qualities. As I’ve focused on areas around the house on Monday’s - whether it be Messy Monday’s or our Meal Series - this series will assist in a BIG mess.

Lack of character in Christians lives leads to laziness, disheartened spirits, lack of respect of people and our possessions even.

As we walk through different character traits, ask the Lord to reveal to you areas that might be lacking in your life, and to teach you that quality!

This has been something the Lord laid on my heart as I’ve really tried to figure out what I’m doing wrong sometimes.

Why can’t I keep my house clean, why do my children sometimes act up so unlike themselves, why do things never get done or finished?

Then I hear His voice speaking in truth to me - I’m lacking character in some areas. The first one being Discipline! It’s hard for me to (for example) get off the computer and clean up the kitchen at night.

But if my children see that I’m always absorbed into just things I like and neglecting the rest, they in turn will do the same thing. As my DH pointed out, they don’t realize all that HIOH is, they just see Mommy sitting at the computer.

As most of you know, I have Heaven In Our Homes website, blog, recipe blog, and also Sonbeams about to begin. It’s all stuff I enjoy and love, but I also have to remind myself sometimes that I’m not called to be a work at home mom first, but a MOM.

The Lord wonderfully showed me that until I learn to discipline myself, nothing will run smoothly, and I’m also doing an injustice to my children. If I lack discipline, how can they learn?

So, the Lord opened the doors for assistance here on Heaven In Our Homes blog!

Now I can devote a little more time to my disciplining myself. Discipline in working with my little ones, loving my DH, cleaning my house, and even work a little more behind the scenes on the website - as well as getting Sonbeams up and running!

Sometimes we have to receive help, and sometimes the Lord closes a door for a season. As I feel Heaven In Our Homes is His desire for me, I can not close it down. But gratefully accept other Christian women sharing their wisdom and advice!

Today I introduce Terri to you.

Terri is a fellow sister in Christ, wife, mother of 6, and grandmother of 9! (The Lord knew I wanted older women to help teach here fulfilling Titus 2!!) She lives on a 5 acre piece of land in Washington State - I loved seeing the pictures of her garden! One day that’ll be me!

She has a home sewing business for women’s underpinnings and aprons (I’ve already decided her Old Fashioned apron is on my Christmas list!).

She has graciously offered to help me here on HIOH, so without any more delay - here’s Terri!

Discipline?
Lets take a look at this word, it is the first word in a series…for Christians.

The Dictionary says; …training of mind or subjection to rule, order or control.

The Bible Concordance says; Job 36:10 is the only scripture with this word in it and it means…Chastisement, warning, instruction or correction.

“He openeth also their ear to discipline, and commandeth that they return from iniquity.”

We all have to discipline ourselves to be wives and mothers, many of those ways we just do and don’t even think about them.

As mothers or Grandmothers, one washes dishes, puts them away, wipes childrens noses, cleans the bathroom, does the laundry,, etc., We just do these things and do not even think about it most of the time.

If one does not have discipline, they just might sit in the chair and look at their messy house, runny noses, and other such, and not do a thing… Because of our self discipline, we do them.

Discipline is a choice. One chooses to do those things that need to be done. As we choose to train our children, be submissive to our husbands and our Heavenly Father, we acquire more self discipline.

If we do not discipline ourselves to train our children, imagine what their marriages, jobs and/or house would be like?

Discipline is an essential part of our lives as Christian Mothers/Grandmothers, it spills over into all of our lives.

We feel secure when things are in order because of the self discipline we used that day.

It helps to draw us closer to our Heavenly Father, because of self discipline in prayer, obedience and reading our Bibles.

Let’s all think on the self discipline we use every day as we serve our families and our Heavenly Father, and try to acquire more in one area of our lives that is lacking.

My love to you mothers and grandmothers….
Terri

You can view Terri’s new blog at: http://www.froccsfrillsfurbiloesandmore.blogspot.com/, pictures are also there of some of her work.

We have saved approximately $150 PER PERSON a year in our home the past 5 years simply by doing one thing - we bought a hair cutting system and I cut their hair! This year we’ll save around $550 on my husband, two sons, and daughter (which doesn’t need a haircut as often).

I never really thought about how much money we’ve saved over the years on this one thing, but my DH brought it up the other week.

$825 is more than one extra mortgage payment a year. We’re really trying to get our house paid off early to be completely debt free. Instead of one large extra payment, we pay a little extra each month.

If you’re really curious about this, find a financial website and locate their amortization schedule. Follow the steps and see the years and extra interest fall away by adding in extra payments or extra principal each month.

Still not sure? Mr. Slone from our Finances 101 series on Money Matters is a financial consultant and is always eager to help new clients. He can also offer tips on how you personally can become debt free sooner.

As far as what to purchase in hair tools, I personally would suggest NOT investing in the most basic model. We’ve done that twice, and they just don’t measure up. Either they don’t last long, they pull hair, or the blades don’t even touch!

Of course, you don’t have to pay big bucks either. I’d look in the $30 to $40 range. It seems like a lot, but it’d only take 3 or 4 cuts to pay for itself.

I also wanted a nicer pair of scissors, which I bought in the health/ beauty section at WalMart. Just any pair of scissors won’t do - you need a crisp cut.

So every 3 or 4 weeks, we begin our family haircuts. I’m still no where near as fast as the salon, but then again I was there almost an hour last time I went.

Yes, I still go to the salon. We tried letting DH cut my hair - and he did a good job, it would just take an hour PLUS to get it cut and straight. He would get frustrated, and I’d get frustrated - we decided it was worth paying the sale price 2 times a year for me to get mine done there.

I’ve been paying close attention to the stylist when I do go, watching them cut others hair, especially the men’s - since that’s what I do most of.

I used to just buzz the bottom (1/2″ blade shield) and scissor cut the rest. After one of my last visits, I noticed they used the buzzer on the sides and top too - cutting along the comb as they pulled it out.

I tried this, and it’s SO much faster and much more accurate. (My scissors have too much oil or something and keep getting unscrewed. I don’t realize it until I can see the hair isn’t cutting straight.)

With my daughter’s hair, I’ve learned to hold her hair out on a slight angle, then cut UP into the edge of the comb. A straight cut across leaves her hair looking jagged, but if I cut up into the ends instead, it slightly turns under and looks much softer.

**I’d like to go ahead and share with you HIOH’s new news! Beginning this upcoming Monday, we’ll begin a new series on Character in our Lives. The ‘news’ is that we’re welcoming a new writer, Mrs. Terri .

Mrs. Terri is a mother AND a grandmother, and I believe the Lord has brought her here for a purpose. One of my beginning visions with HIOH was to have someone a little older than myself - and with more experience - to teach other young moms and myself what they have learned - fulfilling God’s calling in Titus 2.

Plan on coming back to meet her and begin our series!

Blessings - Candace

“By mercy and truth iniquity is purged; and by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil.”

Iniquity is doing things my own way, serving myself and my desires, pride, SIN!

I love this verse - By mercy (God’s mercy) and truth (God’s truth, the Bible), my sin (my pride, my ‘do things my way’) is purged, is cleansed.

How will I ever know when I’m doing wrong if not for the Lord burdening my heart?

How does the Lord burden my heart? By speaking to me through His Word.

So… it only makes since that if I want to follow Him and be cleansed from my wrong doings, that I must hear His Word and His truths.

Here’s an example:
I find it strange how I get questioned so often about the lack of television we watch (we do have a TV and watch a few things, but I screen pretty much every little detail down to bad attitudes, disrespect, and disobedience). It’s like I’m weird because we don’t watch a lot of TV, or even read certain children’s books.

How can I expect my children to learn which behaviours are good, if I allow them to learn from characters on TV, or in books that model wrong behaviours?

In the same sense, how can I train my heart to seek after and follow the Lord if I’m filling my heart and training my mind to accept wrong behaviours?

If I’m going to read a book, it’s going to be a book that inspires me to become more of who God wants me to be. If I listen to music, it’s going to be music that glorifies Him - why not get a head start on Heaven’s eternal praises!!

Within the past year, before I began HIOH blog, I had a habit of eating my bedtime bowl of cereal while watching King of Queens. The Lord brought it to my attention that even though I wasn’t saying the words that they constantly say on that show - they were coming to my mind more often.

Although I wasn’t doing what they did, my heart was being trained to accept that talking - talking which wasn’t glorifying to the Lord, and the strictest standard - it wouldn’t come out of His mouth.

There are always going to be areas that He shows me where my ‘iniquity’ - what I want - is drawing me away from Him. But His mercy and truth are life changing!

His mercy still allows Him to love me, and to want to teach me. His Word gives His life as the example by which I’m to follow.

I’m to walk, talk, and live my life for God’s glory, not for my pleasure. My life in a since is “mine”, but only in a human sense.

My life was created by the Almighty God, and while He gives me a choice, I was created to love and serve Him with it.

When I have the fear of the Lord, a pure knowledge of Who He is and a reverence and respect for Him, then this verse says I’ll depart from evil.

When I truly have God as my focus, how can I serve Him today, little things/ iniquities grow dim.

Who cares if I don’t watch TV, that’s just time I couldn’t get back and is investing in nothing anyway. Yes, there are some positive things to watch, I’m just referring to a general view of turning on the TV and watching whatever might be on.

Unless you have different channels than my rabbit ears pick up, there’s not too much out there for Christians to watch anyway - anything much that glorifies Him and draws us closer to Him.

To have this fear of the Lord, we have to learn Who He is - and we can’t learn that unless we take the time and effort to read our Bibles, listen to sermons, fellowship with other believers, even read encouraging Christian blogs!

I’m not really intending to preach about TV, but simply point out and ask you to think about how you’re ‘training’ your mind and heart. Does truth rule our thoughts and actions, or our iniquity?

And one last example this past week with my oldest, recently turned 4 year old. We were sitting down to eat lunch when I said it was time to pray to God.

“Andrew” said “I’m going to pray to my taco”. Training in truth/ fear of the Lord begins!

As carefully as I could, I explained that we don’t pray to anyone or anything except God, He’s the only true God.

Tacos are real, they can’t hear us. The Bible calls things that aren’t real idols, and we aren’t to pray to idols.

(I personally like to share as much as the Bible truth as I can with them, instead of making sin ‘lighter’ than God really shows it is.)

Well, this broke my little fellas heart. His lips started quivering, and I tried to talk as quickly as I could that God wasn’t mad, that he didn’t know he was doing wrong - that’s why Mommy was telling him, so he WOULD know and not do it again.

Poor little “Andrew”, he burst out into tears. As much as I wanted to comfort him and make it go away, he learned a lesson that day.

When he calmed down, I shared with them all the story about when Moses went up on the mountain and Aaron and the Israelites made the golden calf. When they made it, it was an idol, and they devoted their time and attention to it.

It was real, and couldn’t hear or see them. Same as the taco - but GOD is real! He hears when we pray to Him, and that pleases Him.

“Andrew” had the fear of the Lord that day, and the truth from God’s Word spoke very clearly to his heart. I don’t believe this is a lesson that he’ll have to face again for a long time.

At times it’s easy to assume that our children don’t understand fully, but how can they understand God and His Word if they never hear it, or never have it applied to their lives?

This is a major part/ influence on the way I’ve decided to homeschool my children - not with the main focus on academics, but on God and His Word.

This method is what I’m putting together in Sonbeams - Raising Up Sonbeams For Him!

The Lord has also shown me that He has a little different direction for Sonbeams than I originally thought. But of course, His plan is best!

In order to reduce my costs, and your expenses by printing and mailing out these preschool guides, He’s led my thoughts to have an interactive blog instead.

Here you can come weekly to receive the next week’s lesson guides including letters, numbers, colors and shapes, scripture verses, sign language, and activities. I’ll provide pictures of how I make our school stuff (much cheaper than buying everything!), and give step by step instructions.

Plus, with the blog option, you can leave comments and ask questions for others to share too!

I wanted to have a way to share from my experiences as a former preschool teacher, and also a former nanny - things that I’ve used and seen work! But as a stay at home mom now, wanted to have something that other stay at home moms could afford - I know money is tight!

So - with the Lord’s leading - I’ll be beginning a new blog open by subscription only, for Sonbeams in the next few weeks - just in time for the school year. Instead of the $30 listed on the website, the subscription will be $20 for 26 weeks.

An extra perk - if you refer 10 friends and they join (giving me your name of course), then you will get $10 back! 20 referrals and a complete refund for you!!

For more information on Sonbeams, email Sonbeams@heaveninourhomes.com, or join automatically by sending your $20 payment via PayPal to the same address.

By fearing the Lord from an early age, our children will be spared much heartache from the sins of the world. This is so important!!

As hard as that lesson was for me to watch this past week in our home, it was such a blessing to see the Lord’s wisdom soak in “Andrew’s” little heart!

Today we’re wrapping up our meal series, and I really hope you’ve learned a few tips along the way as I have!

My desire in this series was to have our meal times better planned out - resulting in less stress time come eating time and thus being more calm and ‘heavenly’.

Our topic today is freezing - something I recently became interested in. If you remember back to a Fantastic Friday a while back, I shared on large freezers - the questions and answers from our search for the perfect deep freezer.

But before I dive into freezing info, I received an email this past week from Menus4Moms that goes perfectly with our meal series! PLUS - it’s FREE and saves you money!!

How would you like to save hours in the kitchen? What if you could also save hundreds of dollars while doing it?

Menu planning can help you do both - we touched on that on one of our first meal series posts!

Making a GREAT menu plan is more than just making a list of meals for the week, and the moms at Menus4Moms know the secret to making a GREAT menu plan each week.

They have put together a FREE e-course called “Menu Planning for Busy Moms” that explains how to save time and money with menu planning. (Check it out at the link below AFTER you finish today’s post - you don’t want to miss out on some of this info!)

These moms have planned hundreds of menus over the years and their free menu planning e-course teaches you how effective menu planning can help you save in this uncertain economy.

You can register for their free e-course “Menu Planning for Busy Moms“, or by clicking the button on left side of the blog. I know I was so excited to download it and can’t wait to get through it!! It’s free, so what could you lose?!

Alright, I just didn’t want to forget that - now to freezing!

Just covering the basics since there’s SO much to learn and know about freezing foods - here’s the first few things I’ve learned.

*ALWAYS try to get as much air as possible out of packaging before freezing. It’s the air that allows moisture to be pulled out of foods - which leads to ice forming on it, thus freezer burn.

*The benefits of a manual defrost freezer is that food always stays a constant 0 degrees, unlike self defrosting, which the temps vary from 10 to 25 degrees. This allows the food to thaw ever so slightly, causing more moisture to form as it defrost and refreeze. Food will ruin much more quickly in a self defrosting freezer.

*To freeze meats, do NOT freeze in vacuum sealed packages from the store. The air leaves the meat unprotected again. Open, and wrap either in foil or freezer paper. When using foil, either wrap again in paper, or use hose to protect the foil from getting torn in the freezer when scraped against other hard, frozen food.

Tips from Joy of Cooking cookbook:
*Neither overload your freezer or add more than 3 lbs. for each cu. ft. of freezer space during any 24 hour period.

Adding too much unfrozen food will raise the temp inside the freezer, and then all the food already frozen could be damaged.

*Until new items are frozen, keep them against the freezer plates or walls of the freezer.

*When freezing breads or baked items, place these ON other frozen packages away from walls. They attract moisture to them.

*One tip I wouldn’t have thought about for when the power goes out: Call a local dealer or ice cream company for a source of dry ice. When placed inside of a closed freezer, a 50 lb. block will prevent thawing for 2 or 3 days!

Any food that retains ice crystals is safe, but meats more than 50 degrees must be cooked and used at once.

There are 22/23 pages of WONDERFUL tips on freezing various foods in this cookbook - very thorough indeed!

From Betty Crocker’s Cookbook (50 years of Trust):
This cookbook gives a brief overview of how to freeze/ thaw certain foods, but what I liked best is the part where it tells you if you can freeze certain foods - and if so, then for how long.

For instance:
Breads can be frozen 2 to 3 months

Cookies - baked/ unfrosted - no longer than 12 months

Cheese - it depends:
Cottage and ricotta - not recommended
Cream - no longer than 2 months
Hard - 2 to 4 months

Buttermilk - not recommended (I never would’ve known!)
Milk - no longer than 1 month

Butter - no longer than 2 months (again, would’ve left in there forever!)

Meat:
Uncooked chops - 4 to 6 months
Ground - 3 to 4 months
Roasts and steaks - 2 to 3 months

Bacon - no longer than 1 month (umm… mine’s been in there for several already…)

Hot dogs - (Yes, we have those in our freezer for ‘out of food’ nights) - 1 to 2 months

Uncooked poultry:
Whole - no longer than 12 months
Cut up - no longer than 9 months
Cooked - 4 months

Again, just an overview of what they tell you. I have pie crusts that have been in my freezer for probably over a year, but just read these only last 2 to 4 months!

You can be frugal and save TONS using your freezer, but use it wisely or you’ll waste money by throwing out food that has spoiled.

A few things that I cook and freeze for future use would be:

Lasagna
I cook my noodles, brown my turkey meat and add to sauce (for quick store bought options, we prefer Barilla) on stove - then assemble my lasagna.

I’ve tried this both ways - cooking it thoroughly and leaving it uncooked. Honestly, I don’t recall a huge difference in taste, but it took FOREVER to cook the ‘uncooked’ one.

I know make up one large pan to eat that night, another large pan for a future dinner, and ALSO cook up several small loaf pans for my DH to take to work. Cook with foil on top for first 45 minutes (for large pan), then remove foil for an extra 10 to 15 minutes until cheese is browned slightly.

The whole process is a little time consuming, but I’d rather get extra meals out of it than have to make that mess and take the extra time later to prepare from scratch again. I calculated that I get 2 large lasagnas for the cost of 1 large Stouffer’s one.

I don’t uncook, I cook until brown and bubbly, and then reheat with foil on top. This warms the food through, but doesn’t brown the top anymore.

Meats
We usually try to buy our ground turkey in the large, bulk containers. When we open to use for tacos, for example, I brown the entire package. If time allows, I might go ahead and cook up something else with the rest of the meat, but it’s such a time saver down the road to place it in quart or gallon size freezer bags and freeze.

Then when we cook lasagna, for example, I just drop the cooked, frozen meat into the saucepan to cook with the sauce before putting it all together.

I save the time of cooking, plus have one less dirty dish to wash!

Banana Bread/ Muffins
Great to make up several loaves and/ or muffins to pull out as needed for quick breakfast ideas! Don’t freeze a larger loaf than you can eat in a day or two though - since you have to thaw the whole thing.

Apple Cobblers
Sorry I have yet to get a good written down recipe for this. My aunt is a wonderful cook, and the ‘thing’ about wonderful cooks is that they don’t use a recipe.

The first time I made her ‘little of this, little of that’ cobbler recipe, it was out of this world! Since then, I can’t seem to get anything right.

But for those of you wondering, you can freeze cobblers! I don’t cook mine until really brown, but just slightly browned on top. This way when I reheat in the oven to eat, I can cook covered with foil to warm up the middle, then remove it to get a crispy, crunchy crust.

Extras - I had bought up some Ritz crackers last year at Walgreens when the deal plus coupon made then extremely cheap - only to realize the date on them was nearing expiration. Hating to lose boxes and boxes of crackers, I stuck them in the freezer - since I’d lose them anyway.

Much to my surprise, when I pulled them out to make my baked chicken (on recipe blog), they were still fresh and crisp! Who would’ve thunk it - ha!

I’ve also frozen extra meat sauce, extra noodles I’ve cooked, and even the brown sugar topping from my sweet potato recipe (also found on the recipe blog)! It’s SO nice to have these prepared already when I’m cooking later on.

If any of you have any great meals that you make ahead and freeze, we’d be extremely grateful if you’d share them with us! I’m just beginning my freezing quest - and am so excited about learning more ways to utilize my freezer!

Now, remember to check out that FREE menu planner ecourse!

**Please note - for those of you that click through the links on the side, Families Against Feminism - the Crawford family ministry, has changed addresses. Their new button, Cedar Generation, is on the left hand side.**