Managing the Home Budget

Budgeting is a big part of homesteading. Here’s a great budgeting tool to help you manage your home budget. Silicon Valley Blogger gives us an in-depth review of YNAB (You Need A Budget) Personal Budget Software With Freebies, Bonus Tools software program posted at The Digerati Life.

Sometimes a child’s idea of money is shallow, thinking all you have to do is get out your debit card or write a check. The Smarter Wallet presents great tips and ideas for Kids and Money: Answering Your Children’s Money Questions posted at The Smarter Wallet.

Making a Beautiful Home

Setting A Proper Table makes your home beautiful, and is so easy. Miss Jocelyn shows us how at Growing in Grace Magazine, Think Pink.

We don’t watch television much if at all anymore, but one of our favourite programs used to be the ABC show Extreme Makeover:Home Edition. It is an ultimate “Make a Home Beautiful” program! We watched it last night, hoping to see some friends of ours who were invited to share their story about a drunk driver who took their fahter/husband away from them a year ago, May 2008. It didn’t air last night, but it will air next week. You can find the info about it at A Pondering Heart, Watch Extreme Makeover Home Edition….

Crafty-Goodness

HowToMe has a very fun, very interesting step-by-step article on How To Decorate Paper with Bubbles posted at HowToMe. This looks like a fun project to do with our children!

Miss Amanda has a contest for you to enter towin for a WeFitFamily $25 PhotoFiddle Giveaway. What is PhotoFiddle? I wondered the same thing! “Photofiddle.com allows users to create art from photos with free online photo effects software. Photofiddle will transform any picture into art with over 50 photo art styles to choose. Select from oil painting, Warhol pop art, watercolor painting, modern art, abstract art, Leroy neiman art style, Lichtenstein art style, outline sketches, color pencil sketches, photo collages, impasto art, film strip photo collages and more. Have us add a photographic tint like a sepia tint, blue tint, red tint, or green tint to any photograph. If you prefer have Photofiddle can put your photo to canvas.” Check out the contest, posted at The Daily Planet.

Homemade Goodness

Lizzie is making her own soap and shows us an easy & pretty painless way to rebatch soap in Rebatching Soap~Tutorial posted at A Dusty Frame.

I’ve got to try the Homemade Laundry Detergent Rocks! posted by Lynnae at Bargaineering. She also included a recipe for a Simple Homemade Bathtub Cleaner.

Hannah presents Natural Cleaners for Your Home posted at Reflections Of A Face.

Man’s Best Friend

Ralph Sparkson tells us the touching story of his dogs in Why I Love My Dog posted at I Love My Dog.

Shannon has a neat story about the surprise they found in their yard in Bunnies!!!! posted at Mountaineer Country.

The Dixon Littles were thrilled to welcome some new friends to their home a few weeks ago. See the photos of their bunny tails… at A City on A Hill.

In the Garden

Belle tells us what is going on in pictures in This Year’s Garden so far……….. posted at Homesteaderbelle’s Blog.

Cilla has a different idea for seed starters with Toilet Roll Seed Pots posted at Busy At Home. We also used this method this year. You can read about and see our photos in Planting Spring Seeds.

Yumm Homemade from the Kitchen!

Sherry presents Great Grandma’s Sugar Cookies – Shhhh! posted at Lamp Unto My Feet.

Make it from Scratch delights the senses and warms the belly with her Homemade Chicken Pot Pie recipe posted at Make It From Scratch.

Miss Rachel shows us her special family recipe, Homemade Tortillas? posted at A City On A Hill. This is the recipe that makes wonderful tortillas that she and her family enjoys so much! It’s a wonderfully easy one to follow and one that is well worth the hassle of making homemade tortillas instead of store-bought ones.

Rani presents a very simple recipe for Strawberry Gelatin posted at Christ’s Bridge.

Be sure to get the link and code to Get A FREE Issue of Home School Digest for yourself and help out Gleaning the Harvest families in the process.

I hope you have enjoyed this edition of The Homesteading Carnival! Be sure to visit all of the sites and look for next week’s carnival to be hosted at the THC site, The Homesteading Carnival. You can submit your articles easily by using the BlogCarnival submission form.

Be blessed this week!

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Politics

The issue with the CPSIA is politics I have been hearing and reading about for a couple of months. Please click on the teddy bear icon to find out why this affects you too. If you are a home schooler, this could possibly affect the books that are available to you!

If you have been worried about the C.P.S.I.A., (and rightfully so!) Tracey has an important poem for you to read entitled, I’m Dumpster Diving posted at “Glue on her fingers, dirt on her toes, she makes laughter wherever she goes”.

Home Keeping: Home Schooling

Oh goodness, the age-old question: Kris presents How Do You Do It All? posted at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. Kris has a great question she said she asks herself, and honetsly, I have felt the same way. I still hate the question though! lol

Robin, of Heart of Wisdom, shows us a peek into her home in her article, Organizing Our Homeschool Area. Check out the ideas she has for organizing and using the space you have for your home school at Heart at Home.

Amy, of The Hughes Mob, shares a photo blog about how her children are creative and made In His image. Her thoughts, as well as her photos are delightful.

Home Keeping: The Kitchen

This is interesting to me, because whenever a recipe calls for Cream of Chicken Soup, we make our own. My grandmother raved a couple of  Thanksgivings ago after tasting the green bean casserole I used our homemade recipe in. It also makes SUPER! Green Enchiladas. None of that canned stuff for us! HowToMe presents How To Make “Cream of Chicken“. This is so easy!

Here is a recipe that is sure to beat the winter blues and warm you up a bit when you make them! Rani presents Crispy Rice Cookies posted at Christ’s Bridge. They look simple to make and delicious! I can’t wait to show Rachel so we will have them fresh-baked for snack!

Josanne Anthony has posted a very important article about the most important meal of the day! And also one of my favorites! She presents Breakfast Ideas posted at Delightful Domestications.

You will love this Super Simple & Sweet Snowflake Snack from Lady Olivia, Creative Kitchen columnist at Growing in Grace Magazine. How cute! We have to try this! Especially since we have one little guy who REALLY loves to use scissors at this time!

The Economy

Kim presents some very pressing questions and valuable information in her post, Is your families food secure?. With the cost of food rising all over the world and the buzz words “economic crisis” being heard at every turn, this is a very important post for our times. You will find Kim at Homestead Acres.

I was happy to see this article from Chris. A friend of mine lost power in the last electrical storm for four days. During those four days, one of their pipes froze, and then they went without water for ten more days. Youch! This article aptly points out the fact that this may be a stark reality for many of in the near future. Read the Household survival tips: preparing for water emergency posted at Home I Own.

I get so many junk emails about this, I am going to have to check it out! MBB presents MonaVie Acai Berry Juice Scam posted at Money Blue Book Blog.

Home Keeping – Keeping Well

My friend Christina is going through a 90-day cleanse right now. She is over a month into it. If you have ever wondered what a cleanse is or what it does, you will want to read her Detailed Health UPDATE! at The Perils of Parenting & Other Ponderings.

Because it is cold and flu season and because many of my friends have had illness in their homes, I am adding my GOOT Recipe link as well as my Cinnamon Yogurt for Ailments mixture.

If you use OTC Meds, you will want to check this OTC Med Warning to make sure yours is not on it.

Be A Blessing

While we are on the subject, please pray for little Harmony. She is 3mos. old and has been in the hospital for a week on and off of oxygen.

Another friend of mine has a little boy who is my Caleb’s age that they are suspecting has whooping cough. Please keep these little sweeties in your prayers!

Miss Rachel offers a new site for you to read about single moms staying home to teach their children. She asks, “Have You Been To Gleaning The Harvest?“, at A City On A Hill.

In Other News

Stephanie shares a sweet photo of a grand little Surprise! posted at Adventures in the 100 Acre Wood.

Less than a week until the next issue of Growing in Grace Magazine is to be published!! It is our 1st Anniversary Edition! I can’t believe it has been a YEAR!  If you have never checked it out, take time to browse; it’s free online!

Don’t forget the UWE officially starts this week! Read about it at the Ultimate Women’s Expo site!

Well, that is all for this week’s edition of THC. Please join us next week. You will find the schedule linked above. If you would like to host The Homesteadng Carnival on your blog, Email THC. You can also view the Archives on the sidebar of the blog.

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]]> http://jacquedixon.com/?feed=rss2&p=2657 8 http://jacquedixon.com/?p=101 http://jacquedixon.com/?p=101#comments Thu, 08 May 2008 03:50:28 +0000 Jacque http://dixonhomestead.com/Jacque/?p=101

Amanda does our grocery shopping. Every week she goes with a sibling, and this time Jocelyn went, because she wanted to get some food for her 17th birthday party this weekend! I will tell you, Amanda, this girl, she is such a giver. She usually comes home with something special or something we need but it wasn’t on the list, right out of her own pocket sometimes, too. Well, yesterday was no different. Yesterday, she came home with Newman-O’s. We all love Oreos – some of us a little too much – but, these are organic oreos. That must mean they are loads better for you!

So, since they are good for you, we decided that LucyLillie could try some. Just one. and not even a whole one, just the one chocolate side. I think she likes them as much as the rest of us!

This is her first bite:

We kept telling her to show us her cookie, and apparently that meant the cookie that was already in her mouth, because she kept sticking out her tongue!

Amanda took this after asking LL to share a bite with her, but LL would have none of that!

I think she likes that Newman’s O a little bit too much, don’t you? : ))

Giving Amanda a bite of her cookie finally! Her hand is outstretched to Amanda, who is taking the photo.

LucyLillie has two top teeth and two lowers. She looks so much different than she did a month ago! So, now she has four teeth and walks all over!

Ok, I must confess that I did not take these pictures, and I did not upload them. I stole them from Amanda, whose post you can read at The Daily Planet: Crazy Busy… Eating Newman-O’s. I did upload this picture though:

Aren’t they just sweet sisters??

blessings~

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