Organization

So I'm all about making life at home easier and more organized. Anyone who knows me, knows that I am a list kind of girl. I make sticky notes everywhere I go when I think of things that need to be done. My sister has a gigantic marker board in our front room for school. I have been known to fill her entire board up with lists of things I need to do. So, that being said, I have started selling vinyl labels and chalkboard vinyl Menus and To-Do lists. Here's a link where you can find them on Etsy. For a limited time use coupon code: BUTTONS10 to receive 10% off $10 or more.

 

Have a great weekend

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year to everyone! I pray everyone had a blessed Christmas and New Years spent with family and friends.

So what are my New Years Resolutions, you ask? Well this year I have decided to only set small goals throughout the year for myself. I think the world focuses so much on setting the big resolutions, know good and well that they probably won't be kept. Not saying this is a bad thing, but we all have busy lives and some things just have to get pushed to the side. So here are some of my goals that I would like to work towards.

-Grow closer in my walk with the Lord

-Keeping my blog more up to date to interest my readers (and hopefully gain more followers)

-Make sure I am staying profitable everyday in my down times

-Staying better prepared with doing things such as better meal planning and freezing meals a couple of weeks at a time

-Growing my home business more, while being a stay-at-home daughter, to save up for things in the future

-Keep learning more about aspiring to be a homemaker and homesteading

So, I would love to know what your plans are for 2014!!

~Erin

Christmas Cookies

So with the Christmas season, comes lots and lots of baking. I always love trying new recipes, so this is one of my newest recipe experiments, and... these are amazing!! They taste like a Reese's peanut butter cup cookie. They are super easy to make, and are great to take to your Christmas party or dinner.

*Recipe modification: I make the balls of dough and filling half the size that is says. When I did it the size it said, it just made them massive. Doing them smaller, you can get twice the amount of cookies. :-) 

 

Chocolate Dough
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar (plus extra for dredging)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg plus 1 large egg yolk
Peanut butter filling
3/4 cup peanut butter, crunchy or smooth, your choice
3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
Preheat the oven to 375°F. Lightly grease (or line with parchment) two baking sheets.
To make the dough: In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.  In another medium-sized mixing bowl, beat together the sugars, butter, and peanut butter until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and the egg, beating to combine, then stir in the dry ingredients, blending well.
To make the filling: In a small bowl, stir together the peanut butter and confectioners sugar until smooth.  With floured hands or a teaspoon scoop, roll the filling into 26 one-inch balls.
To shape the cookies: Scoop 1 tablespoon of the dough (a lump about the size of a walnut), make an indentation in the center with your finger and place one of the peanut butter balls into the indentation.
Bring the cookie dough up and over the filling, pressing the edges together cover the center; roll the cookie in the palms of your hand to smooth it out. Repeat with the remaining dough and filling. Roll each rounded cookie in granulated sugar, and place on the prepared baking sheets, leaving about 2 inches between cookies. Grease the bottom of a drinking glass, and use it to flatten each cookie to about 1/2-inch thick. Bake the cookies for 7 to 9 minutes, or until they’re set and you can smell chocolate. Remove them from the oven, and cool on a rack.

Recipe courtesy of  http://www.sixsistersstuff.com

 

*Recipe modification: I make the balls of dough and filling half the size that is says. When I did it the size it said, it just made them massive. Doing them smaller, you can get twice the amount of cookies. :-)

 

Christmas Quickly Approaching

I can hardly believe Christmas will be here in just 6 days!! At the beginning of the year, it seemed this year would never end. Now, I'm wondering where in the world time went. To think that 2014 is just around the corner is almost overwhelming.
This week, we have been running around trying to finish all of our Christmas shopping. You know how that goes, "oh no, I wonder how much shipping I'll have to pay to get it here in time..." I think we all do it. But it's so easy to get caught in the crazy rat race of the holiday season, that we forget what Christmas is all about. It's not about the bows, stockings, or Santa Claus. It's about celebrating the birth of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Instead of spending tons of money on gifts that people don't even need, why not take that money we would have spent, and go spend it for the needy. Buy some warm mittens, hats, or coats and go hand them out on the street. Christmas is not about just keeping the joy of our Saviour to ourselves in our own home. It's about sharing the love of Christ with everyone we meet. We were placed on this earth to share the Gospel.
I challenge you, this Christmas season, to get out of your comfort zone and see what you can do to share the love of Christ.
Here's some ideas of things you could do:
-Give atleast one of your Christmas gifts (that you receive) up to someone who you know that needs it more than yourself.
-Take your money you would have spent on yourself on junk food this month, and buy extra warm coats/hats/gloves and go hand them out on the street where you know homeless people stay
-Make extra Christmas cards with the Gospel on them and pass them out to the first 50 people you see.

I would love to hear other ideas you might have, or even something your family has done before to help others. Please leave your comments below.

God Bless
Erin

Christmas Baking Ease

So just recently my sister and I threw a baby shower for a very dear friend. The theme was Beatrix Potter, so we made iced sugar cookies shaped as carrots and put them in a cup full of cookie crumbs (to look like dirt). They turned out adorable! Anyway, back to my point. It was fun making them and all, but we had to bake and ice 160 carrot cookies!! Not exactly something that can easily be done in one day. So, we ended up baking them and layered them in a box with wax paper in between and stuck them in the freezer (uniced). Then the day before the shower, we pulled them out to thaw and then promptly spent 3 hours icing them. But, the point is, being able to freeze the baked cookies made life so much easier!
This tip comes in handy even more so during this busy holiday season. Sometimes we make up our fruit bread and freeze it as well. That way you could have all of your baking done way ahead of time. Day of your celebration, just pull it all out to let it thaw and your ready to go. Your guests will think you've been slaving all morning before their arrival. This is such a time-saving tip that will make your life so much easier!!!

Why Modesty??

  So many people I know wonder why I have chosen to dress so differently the past few years. Well, I can give you a brief history of why I have chosen to dress the way I do. Growing up, my parents were always careful about the way my sister and I dressed... or so they thought. When I was little, I had no conviction about making sure I was dressing to please the Lord. I had no problem wearing 2 piece swimsuits, short skirts, or strapless tops. Fast forward until I was about 16 or so. I was still in public high school and I began to realize how the other girls were dressing, and how it was leading to things I understood were not Christ-like. Every once and a while, I would wear a skirt to school (mind you, I still hated skirts at this time) and every time, people would pretty much make fun of me. So, I would revert back to wearing jeans. Fast forward until my senior year. My parents pulled me out of public school to be homeschooled. As I began to run with the homeschool crowd, I started noticing how most of the other families were dressing. I decided I would try to start wearing skirts more often. At the time, I was working at a local sports store. Part of our uniform was khaki shorts or pants. One day I showed up with a modest khaki skirt on, thinking I still looked the part. It so happened my General Manager stopped by. Sometime in the day, he pulled me aside and told me I was not to show back up with a skirt on, because it wasn't a part of my dress code. I did not feel strong enough back then to stand up and tell him I had begun to wear them because of my religious beliefs, so I was a coward and agreed I wouldn't. After that day, I began feeling guilty about backing down so easily, but not guilty enough to wear a skirt back to work. I always had a false belief that dressing modestly meant dressing like I was living in the wrong century, and that you couldn't be stylish and modest at the same time. Boy, was I wrong.
  It was soon after I left that job, that I began to really feel convicted that women just shouldn't wear pants. Ever since then, all I have worn are skirts, and that's been about 3 1/2 years now.
Deuteronomy 22:5 says "The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man..." It took me a while to understand why, but God finally just shoved it onto my heart that it's really hard to dress modestly in pants. You are constantly having to pull them up or pull your shirt down to make sure you aren't exposing skin. Why not dress like a lady and not have to worry as much.
  I'm not saying all this to say women/girls who wear pants are evil, I just wanted to share my story with other girls who might be struggling the same way that I was. If it wouldn't have been for the woman in my life dressing modestly, I may have never changed my thought process.
  I also am not trying to be legalistic with modesty. Not only are we dressing modestly to guard our bodies for ourselves, but we also need to think about guarding the hearts of the men and boys around us. Women and men alike should be careful what we expose ourselves to, because we need to be guarding our heart and thoughts to save ourselves entirely for our future spouse. I hope this might reach girls/women who think dressing modestly is all about the rules, to show them it's not only a physical issue, it's also a matter of the heart.

I Love Fall!!!!

I decided to do a photo shoot with my puppies. And I'm pretty sure they did not enjoy it near as much as I did haha.
Fall is absolutely my most favorite time of year. It means pumpkins, orange everything, pumpkin pie spice, pumpkin Frappuccinos and cappuccinos, wonderful smells of caramel, and getting out your warm fall clothes. Life couldn't get any better than that.






Well we went to a friends house the other night for dinner. Everyone was supposed to bring their favorite type of lasagna. Since lasagna is one of my foods I don't care for at all, I decided to make a dessert Pumpkin Pie Lasagna. Let me tell you what, it was AMAZING!! Here's the recipe, you must try it.