Hope you all had a great Easter!!

We sure did.  It was a different Easter than we normally have but great.

We did do our annual Easter Egg Hunt with Melissa and Family.  This year we did it at a park instead of one of our yards.

The kids collected tons of eggs, hidden by the Daddy bunnies.

   


That night Allie,my Dad, and two friends came into town.  So nice to have my big girl home it has been 3 months.  The next day, all of the kids colored eggs.  It was so much fun to watch a 16,18 and two 20 year old kids have so much fun coloring eggs. 







The next morning before church at 7:30am we went down to see what the Easter bunny had brought. 

I held the camera.  No way your going to catch me on camera at that time of the morning.  After that we went to church for a great Easter service.  Lots of praise and a good message.


This morning we had to say goodbye to my Dad and the kids left after lunch.  Dad left at 6:00am and these were the only kids that stayed awake long enough for a picture.  Jacob was so enthusiastic.  Nice face!  This was our Easter, post a few words about yours.  I would love to hear.
Jeannie

DIY All Purpose Citrus Cleaner

I love making my own household cleaners and I just found this one over at The Prairie Homestead.com .

I love the ingredients in this one.

And I love how easy it is to make.

DIY All-Purpose Citrus Cleaner

You will need:

• 1 or 2 quart sized mason jars
• A spray bottle (a repurposed one is just fine!)
• White vinegar (around 1-2 quarts)
• Orange, grapefruit, lemon, or lime peels (any combination of these will work, too)
• 3 -4 drops of lemon, grapefruit, or orange essential oil (optional)

I want you to go on over to her site and check out how to make it.  That is why I left the directions off.  It just looks so easy. 
I have some oranges so as we use them I am going to save the peels and then I will let you know how it goes. 
Happy Cleaning!!
Jeannie

Summer with your Kids

 

School is going to let out for the summer soon. Are you dreading each day? Wondering what in the world you are going to do with your children home.

These thoughts take me back about 5 years to a day about this time of year. A great friend of mine (fairly new at the time), said "I can't wait for summer to start I get my kids back at home with me!". She loves to have her kids with her, she looks forward to that time. I thought at first "what is wrong with this woman?", but God spoke to me that day and reminded me of how much I loved being with them when they were tiny. From that point on, I worked on looking forward to them coming home, summer break and all of the days they had off. Don't get me wrong, about August 15th or so, both they and I are ready to go back to our old routine , but we have had our bonding time together and enjoyed each other.

The thing to focus on here is that it was just a little change in attitude on my part that altered our summers and our time together forever. I had decided that I was going to make the best of these days ahead for the sake of our relationship. I wanted to build those relationships.

There are so many great things to do in the summer, beaches, gardening, parks and water fun. Teach your children how to have fun and how to relax with a good book.

Summer can be a time when you teach them anything and everything, you finally have the time. The school year is so rushed and busy we don't have time to teach them about life and relationships.

My two older children are in Jr. High and High School and I am realizing how few years I have left with them under my wing. I am so thankful for my friend's great attitude and to God for showing me, early enough, to just relax and enjoy my children when I get them.

P.S. Something we are finding successful is for the kids to earn screen time. What I mean is, to earn the right to watch T.V., play video games or use the computer. I am using school and Bible work. They get minute for minute. If they do 30 minutes of work they have earned 30 minutes of screen time of their choice. I have them get this done first thing in the morning before they do anything else.

Kids have so much structure at school that when they are just given a loose schedule, they don't know what to do with themselves. Try to keep some structure and I think you will find that you and your children will be happier.

P.P.S. (is that how you do that) I wrote this several years ago I now have one in college and the other three are homeschooling with me now. God really did change my heart and my attitude.

Jeannie

Completely Homemade Chocolate Cake

A couple of weeks ago I was in the mood for Chocolate cake.  I didn’t have a mix or frosting, so I started digging through my cook books.  I told you a while back that one of the ways that I store recipes, is in a photo album that my mom gave to my for a Christmas gift one year.  I found this recipe in that photo album. 
Wacky Chocolate Cake
I don’t know where my mom got it but, it is so easy and so good.

I mix together the dry ingredients first.
3 cups Regular Flour
2 cups Sugar
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
6 tablespoons Cocoa

Next I added in:
2 cups Cold Water
3/4 Cup Vegetable Oil
2 Tablespoons +2 teaspoons Vinegar

Whirl them together for 1 minute.  Fold into a 9x13 ungreased pan and bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 min. 

As you can see, nothing by looking at it is wacky.  I think it gets it’s name from the unusual way it is made.  NO Eggs?, Don’t grease the pan?  So, Wacky!!
The frosting is a regular butter frosting that I found in my Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook. This is my favorite Cookbook.  It has everything in it.
3/4 Cup Butter, softened
8 1/2 Cups Powdered Sugar
1/2 Cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1/4 Cup Milk
2 Teaspoons Vanilla
Beat this altogether and have a little milk on hand in case it is to heavy.  You want it to be kind of light and fluffy.  By the way this makes a ton of frosting.  You can either store it for later or cut it in half.
Hope that you enjoy this Cake as much as we did.  Oh yah!  It’s gone!  I can only make this every once and a while or I will be as big as a house.  So Good.
Jeannie

On American Motherhood

I found this speech from Theodore Roosevelt the other day when I was looking for material for my son’s schooling.  As I read it I knew that I needed to share this.  He puts, the way that I feel about Motherhood and what I feel is the problem with our society today, so well.  It's just amazing, this was written in 1905.  It is a little long but so worth reading.
Head over here to read.
Enjoy!!

Jeannie

An Internet Surfing Accessory

As I was writing a post the other day I was about to put a link into the post to a scripture verse, which I forgot to do, because I was thinking about…

What a great internet surfing accessory- The Bible.

So many of us look around at the inspirational blogs and run across a post that has a reference to God’s word.  Many times the person who posted will put a link or will even write out the verse they are speaking about.  I want to remind you of how God works.  You all know this but I’ll say it anyway.  God teaches us through things that we run across in our daily life, a song, a radio program and also a blog posting.  So, if a post or verse really jump out or speak to us then what a better time to pull out you Bible and see what else God has to say to you.



You may not need it every time you poke around the web, but you just never know and if you have it handy you are more likely to grab it and surf the Bible as well.  This is just a tip on making you internet time purposeful and meaningful.





Happy Blog Hopping!!

Jeannie

What do you Put on your Face in the Morning?

I have been reading in I Peter this month.  Today I was in chapter 3, it was about wives submitting to their husbands and I won’t get into all of that today but after that part it talked about not adorning yourself with braids and gold jewelry.  Does that mean I can’t wear jewelry? No!  What it says is that we can’t have our beauty come from our adornments. 


A woman with eyes that sparkle with the love of Jesus, cheeks that glow from being madly in love with your husband and smiles that send messages of love to your children.  Those are the adornments that make us beautiful. 
If your face is unable to display any of those things, turn your heart towards Jesus and ask Him to clothe you with the character necessary to possess such lovely adornments.
Ladies, those last two paragraphs are straight from the Lord to you.  All of that came to me this morning and I just knew I needed to share it with you.  I hope it blesses you on this possible bad hair day. 
Ask anyone what they remember most about their favorite Grandma and I tell you, it won’t be her earrings or her lipstick. 
Thank you Lord for that reminder. 

Jeannie

Homemade All-Purpose Cleaner

This is my all time favorite household cleaner.  I use it for everything.  It is especially great on Carpet stains.  The main thing I use it for is my kitchen cleaner.  Between the alcohol and the tea tree oil you have a great disinfectant.
  plus   
I am currently out of the Castile soap.
This is the recipe:
1 cup Castile soap with Tea tree oil
1/4 cup of Rubbing Alcohol
1 teaspoon Baking soda
Fill the remainder of the spray bottle (32 oz.) with water.  Fill very slowly or you will end up with tons of bubbles.
Once you have add the Water, put the top on the bottle and then gently shake until baking soda is dissolved, check the bottom.

Jeannie

Confident Mom Organizing Planner Review

I just ran across this planner recently.  It is a great weekly planner that helps you to remember to get each and every thing done in your home and yet is not overwhelming.  Below you can view an example of the planner.

http://www.theconfidentmom.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Page1-Weekly-Household-Planner-2012.pdf

She has thought of everything.  She has a check off for daily tasks to help you get it all done and to help you see it all done and feel accomplished.
Some of the features are:

• A daily quiet time with scripture references to get you through the Bible in one year.
• A place to put “What’s for Dinner”
• A place for notes
• Weekly inspiration
• and More…

Check out the PDF above and take a look.
Jeannie

The Best Banana Bread

This really is the best Banana Bread.  It is slightly crunchy on outside and soft and sweet on the inside.

The recipe calls for Sour Cream but I was out once and used plain Yogurt and it worked fine.  Just to give you a lower fat option. 

I use fresh off the counter bananas or some out of the freezer.  Either works fine.  I always throw browning bananas into the freezer for later.  Also, if you peel the bananas and place them in a ziplock bag they are great for smoothies.  Just pop them in the blender frozen.

They are cooling.  I do have a funny story.  I didn’t think it was at the time,but now it is.  We all nibbled off of the half loaf up there and them I put the other in foil to give to friends.  I went up stairs.  When I came back the half loaf was gone.  I do have a teen age boy but even he doesn’t eat that fast.  Our stinkin’ dog Max got up there and ate it.  We were so mad.  His did the same thing with a roast in the crock pot a few days later.  Yeah, the kennel came back out and he is in there when we leave now. 

1 1/2 cups Sugar
1/2 cup Butter
2 Eggs
4 Tablespoons Sour Cream or Plain Yogurt
1 1/2 cups Flour
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Vanilla
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 cup Bananas (2-3)
1/2 Chocolate Chips (optional, but totally necessary in our house.)
Mix all ingredients together in this order and then bake in a well greased bread pan at 350 degrees for 55-60 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.  The bread does turn a dark brown color.  You are not burning it unless you let it cook after the inside is done.
I warn you if you make it, make sure you put some aside or you won’t get any.  Enjoy!!

Jeannie

I didn’t think I would ever do this again.

We belong to a small homeschool group at our church and we do projects with our kids.  This last week it was sewing which is not my thing.  But my kids loved it.  I told them we had and sewing machine and they were so shocked, because they had never seen it.  So, I broke it out and we spent an afternoon sewing pillows of all sizes. 


Here are two of Isabella’s smaller pillows.  Made just for her American Girl dolls. She even sewed a button onto the front of one.

And Jacob stuffing his fire pillow.  He was so excited about this fabric.  Just a hint, which many of you have probably figured out, I bought regular pillows for $2.50 each instead of spending almost $6.00 for a bag of stuffing at Wal-Mart.  I did feel a little destructive (tearing up perfectly good pillows) but I was pretty proud of my savvy thinking.

Here I am with bat boy hand sewing of all things.  You know it wasn’t that bad.  We may even do it again soon.
Jeannie

Taking Care of Yourself- Part 5

Sorry that I have gotten side-tracked.  I have my Homemade moisturizer for you today. 
 
Here are all of the ingredients that I use.  You will see that most of them were also in the eye cream.
This recipe makes 2- 8 oz. bottles.
1 Tablespoon Stearic acid (this is a natural product from plants)
1 Tablespoon +1 teas. Emulsifying Wax
1 1/4 cup Distilled water ( I use my Brita Filter)
5 Tablespoons Jojoba oil
3 Tablespoons Shea Butter
1 Tablespoon Camellia oil (you can combine the amounts of sunflower and camellia and only use one or the other)
1 teaspoon Sunflower oil
2 1/2 teaspoons Glycerin
2 teaspoons of Preservative (refer to the eye cream recipe for the type of preservative and a note)
Follow all of the directions below.

This is the equipment that I use.  As you can see you should have most of these things in your kitchen.  If you don’t have a hand blender, you can use a regular blender.

Whoops forgot this one.  But I am sure you have one.  I use this to melt the Shea Butter.

I melt the Emulsifying Wax and Stearic Acid with the Water in this container in the Microwave.  I also blend all of the ingredients together in here, pour the oils into the water mixture once the waxes are melted.  Add the Glycerin and the Preservative last.  Then blend for 30-60 seconds.  

These are my clean and sterilized containers.

You can add fragrance oils if you would like.  Some skin is sensitive to fragrance, be careful.  There are natural scents and fragrance oils.

Here is the final product.  The lotion is very liquidy at first once it cools completely and sets up it will thicken.  Shake a few times as it cools and thickens. Enjoy!!
Jeannie

100th Post

Thank you everyone for coming over and reading what 2 Better Than 1, has to say.  This is our 100th post.  I am so excited that we have made it this long.  I know that it is because of the encouraging comments that we have received from all of you.  I have also been encouraged by other bloggers and what they have posted.  I don’t know who came up with blogging but it sure is fun and encouraging.  All things in moderation though right.

I do have to lay out what is on my mind.  I have always felt a nudge from the Lord to write, long before we even knew what internet was (yes I am that old, seriously is 40 that old. Come on.) and yet I often feel torn between doing what I am pretty sure God wants me to do and what I know I have to do.  Be a wife and mother.

 

I don’t know if any of you ever feel this but it has been a constant struggle for me.  I am very proud of this 100th post because in the past I start things and let guilt put a halt to them.  Now I ask you, does guilt come from the Lord.  NO! So, I have been listening to you know who.  I am done listening to him and I am here to stay.  I love to write and know now that I need to use what God has given to me to bring Glory to His name.

Thank you for being a part of this leap of faith and obedience in my life. 

 

God Bless

Jeannie

Monumental- The Movie

I just saw this over at Time-warp Wife and wanted to share it with you.  I can't wait to go and see it.  Hope you all can get out and see it as well.  This goes along with the info I was talking about in my Listen people of God series.  I think this may explain things better than I ever could.

Jeannie

Taking Care of Yourself- Part 4

I have a great tip/recipe for those of you who get a little crazy around the week,week and a half before your period.  I know that a fruit of the spirit is self-control but there are times when hormones are stronger than our constitution. 

A couple of years ago I started to notice that at a certain time of the month, about 1 1/2 weeks before my period, whoever was standing in front of me at the given moment my body decided on, would become my enemy for the next week.  I don’t mean that I just didn’t like them, I was enraged by them. 

I’m the one in the purple,she of course is much cuter than I look at that time, and my poor husband or children were the one on the pink. 

I started to track this horrifying behavior and found it to be consistent.  I talked to my friend  Beth that has done lots of research in the area of women’s bodies and she recommended that I add 2 1/2 teaspoons of ground flax seed meal to my diet daily.  I have been doing this for about a year and that horrible feeling and behavior has been gone. 





However, this month about 3 weeks before my period I ran out of my flax seed meal and the monster (I am not joking) came back.  This is my hypothesis: Jeannie + Flax Seed meal= Happy girl.

I will never go even a day without it.  Apparently, Flax seed has hormones in them that balance things out.  I really don’t care about the science of it all.  I just know that I love this stuff.  Thank you Lord for creating it.  Thank you Beth for suggesting it.  Give it a whirl (literally) I put it in smoothies and in cereal.  I try to eat it at breakfast so that I don’t forget.  It is part of my routine, just like taking my vitamins.  You can find Ground Flax Seed Meal in most grocery stores in the healthy food section or near the flour.  As the commercial says “Happy Period”.



Jeannie

Taking Care of Yourself-Part 3

I want to give you my recipe for eye cream today.  You may wonder why you need an eye cream when you use a moisturizer.  The reason is that your skin under your eyes tends to stay dry, you don’t have any oil glands right in that area.  Also, we get laugh lines there and we don’t want them there. 
The key to less wrinkles is moisture, moisture, moisture.
 
This woman is beautiful and I don’t know her, she is from Microsoft word.  She just had some of those “you know whats” around her eyes.
As we age, and I am talking from 18 on, our skin starts to dry out, or produce less natural oils.  So, we need to put it there.  I even have my 18 year old daughter putting some on at night before bed.  She thinks I am silly, but she will thank me later.
This eye cream contains lots of oils and moisture.  Now you can’t find many of these items in your grocery store so below is a great link to a Christian company that I like to deal with.
http://essentialwholesale.com
Another is http://thesage.com
I have dealt with both and like them. 
Under eye cream
1 1/2 teas. Aloe Butter
1 1/2 teas. Wheat Germ oil
1 teas. Camelina oil or Jojoba oil
1 1/2 teas. Shea Butter
1 Table. Jojoba oil
9 drops of Optiphen (a preservative-this one is very gentle.  Preservatives are necessary or you will be putting mold on your face)
1/4 cup distilled water
9 drops Wheat protein oil
1 Table Emulsifying Wax
4 drops of Vitamin E oil
To make mix all of the oils and melted butters together and set aside.  Then melt Emulsifying Wax in the water in the microwave.  Pour water mixture into oils as you are mixing with a stick blender or a blender.  Last pour in the preservative and blend once more for about 45 seconds.  As soon as you are done pour into the container that you want to keep it in.  Let it cool and then use on your eyes at least at night before bed.  You can use it in the morning as well.
Don’t worry about having all of these ingredients left over.  Next I have a great moisturizer and a scrub for you that will contain many of these. 

Enjoy!!
Jeannie