And the Winner Is....

Congratulations,

Emily Kellett!!

You are the winner of last week's Flexi Clip Giveaway!!

 You can contact Paula at:  lrpaulamiller@yahoo.com to select your FREE Flexi Clip!

You can go here to see all of the styles and colors they have!  Have fun shopping!!

I hope you love yours as much as I love mine.

Thank you so much to all that entered our giveaway!!

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10 Things I Never Buy at the Store

**Sorry for the lack of pictures!  I couldn't get them to work for this post for some reason...I have NO idea why...???***

There are a few things I don't ever buy at the store anymore.  Why buy them when you can make them and save yourself the money??  And then you consider the health benefits...you can't beat it!! 

1. Laundry Detergent & Dryer Sheets
   I can't even begin to tell you how much this has helped us with our "skin issues"!!  And I don't have to worry about "extras" that are added by the commercial companies or those synthetic fragrances - which is probably what was causing our skin problems to begin with!  And, did I mention that I only spend about $12.00 - $15.00 a year on laundry detergent??  For a family of 6, I'd say that's pretty good! 
2. Fabric Softener
3. Deodorant 
   I was having the worst problems with deodorants breaking out my underarms!  As I said, we have sensitive skin over here...I was miserable!  I had bleeding, oozing sores cause by a certain deodorant that I had been wearing for nearly 12 years...I guess it was finally catching up with me.  When I started making my own deodorant, the problem went away!  I'll never go back to the other stuff.  I always make it now, or buy the unscented, all natural, Arm & Hammer stuff
4. Dish-washing Detergent {for dish washers}
5. Salad Dressing ~ I always thought I was being "healthy" by feeding my children fresh veggies with ranch every day....until I read the ingredients on the back of the ranch container....  So, I found a recipe and tweaked it to fit my taste and now we don't have to worry any MSG or preservatives in our veggies!  {This is not hard and it costs less than store bought bottles of dressing not to mention you can do more with it ~ like season meats and potatoes!!}
   • Italian 
   • Ranch
6. Bread ~ I've been praying for a wheat grinder for several years now, and God answered that prayer!  The wonderful ladies at our church gave me a Kitchen Mill for my birthday this year and now I have a new goal - make all the breads and goodies for my family!  I'm very excited about this new adventure and I plan on sharing lots of my favorite recipes and even some failures with you!
7. Cream of Chicken Soup ~ Once again, if you read ingredients you will find MSG and added preservatives in creamed soups.  It gets very frustrating, but when I tried making my own, I discovered that it really wasn't very hard at all.  And, it freezes nicely too!!  Like me,I think you'll find that eating naturally isn't that hard when you change little things at a time. 
8. Jam ~ These are so much fun to make with your kids!  Picking berries and fruits and then making jams is the highlights of our summers!  We love to mix fruits and come up with our own favorite flavors.  This summer we mixed black berries and blue berries - try writing that on the top of a canning lid!!  ;)  We also made strawberry, peach and we're planning on making apple jam/butter here in the next few weeks.  One of my favorite things about making jam myself is that it doesn't have any high fructose corn syrup as the store brands do, and it costs half as much!! 
9. Pickles ~ We love to make our own pickles too!  They are soo good for you and make great snacks!  We make spicy ones, Bread & Butter, Lime and Cinnamon pickles.  Can't have too many.  If you get tired of one kind you can always try another for a while!  Stay tuned to Hidden Treasures for a few recipes and tutorials on how to make your own pickles at home!!
10. Apple Sauce ~ I used to buy the small, individual container of apple sauce for my children.  I thought it was so convenient and it was way cheaper than baby food when they were babies.  I was careful not to get the kind with added or fake sugars, but it was still very expensive!  I discovered that making it myself is very satisfying and much cheaper.  I love to know that I have 12 quarts of apple sauce in my basement - plenty to last the winter and NO SUGAR in any of it!  Healthy snacks = healthy kids!!  I'll post an Apple Sauce Tutorial as soon as I can too!  {My kids love the fall...}
11. Sauerkraut~ this is a first for me, but I'm very excited about it.  I love sour kraut, even though I may be the minority around here, I plan on making myself a few pints anyway!!  Now my favorite husband won't have to fuss about my spending all the grocery money on things "no one in the world" likes!!  :D
12.  Paper Towels ~ I hate to spend all of my grocery budget on things like toilet paper and garbage bags, so I try to cut as much of that out as I can by cutting up old towels to use as paper towels.  I can always wash them and use them again - no running back out to the stores to buy more every week!! 

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Peanut Butter Honey Oatmeal

Peanut Butter Honey Oatmeal is one of our new favorites!!  It's so easy and filling and filled with healthy proteins!  You really can't beat it.  Let's just say, I was running low on groceries and decided to try something "new"...and here you have it!!  A new favorite!! LOVE when that happens!

All we do:

Follow the directions on the back of your Oats....pretty easy!!

 

Add some peanut butter, honey and maybe some bananas and/or chocolate chips...

Mix around until well blended....

I added a few more chocolate chips to the top of ours because sometimes it's nice to be a cool mom.  {hope they don't get too used to it!!}  And because I used organic, dark chocolate chips, so I really didn't feel too bad about it. 

Seriously!!  You really can't get much easier than that!

~ An easy start to a fabulous day. ~ 

Any day that starts out with chocolate is a fabulous day!

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Flexi Clip Giveaway!!

 I'm so excited to announce that my friend, Paula from Whole Intentions is also a consultant with Lilla Rose and she's been kind enough to give me a FREE Flexi Clip to try and one to give away!!

I'm a girly girl!  I love to feel like a princess and wear beautiful things!  As Christians, I feel it's important to look our best, fit the part, after all we are daughters of THE King, are we not??  

That being said, I'm going to tell you a little secret, I'm not really all that great at fixing hair...another reason I wanted mostly sons rather than daughters.  {For those of you who don't know, I have 3 daughters and only 1 son.  God most certainly does have a since of humor!!} 

Not only were these flexi clips super easy to use; they were also beautiful, and they made me feel special too!  It really is fun and exciting to wear things that are pretty and feminine.  

 I love this one because it's simple and feminine at the same time.  It's also matches just about any outfit any of us have since it's a plain silver.  You can get more colorful flexies though if you'd rather have more color or chose one to match a certain outfit.

To be completely honest, I didn't get to wear it for a few days.  As I said I have daughters.  After they'd all tried and approved this lovely little clip...I finally got my chance...finally...  

 My husband took this picture for me ~ these flexi clips really are so much better than those plastic claws or ink pens...and yes, I've been know to "pen" my hair up with ink pens.

I love anything that saves me time and makes life easier.  The fact that they were so elegant was a fantastic bonus!!  <---this is why I'm super excited to announce that we're giving one away!  Right here!  Right now!!  

Visit Paula at her Lilla Rose website to see more Flexi Clips.

We ordered a medium size flexi and it worked great for us for the most part.  My oldest daughter and I love it.  It's a bit too big for my second daughter who's hair is shorter and much thinner.  It's a bit too small for my youngest as her hair is very long and super thick....grown adults drool over it every where we go...and she's only 5!!  

Anyway, back to the flexi...there are several sizes to chose from {mini, extra small, small, medium - the size we have, large, extra large, and mega}.  You can watch this video for help with deciding what size is best for you.    They also have hair clips, hair sticks and O-rings.  

I was a bit sceptical about these clips at first.  I was afraid that they'd pull.  I do hate when a single strand of hair pulls.  But they don't.  They don't pull at all.  It's wonderful!

I was also afraid that they would be heavy.  My hair tends to be heavy and sometimes when I put it all up, I get a head ache, but that didn't happen either.  I didn't feel any pain or pulling.  It didn't weigh any more than it ever did before.  I really did like them!!

So, here's your chance to win your own FREE Flexi Clip!!  {Or maybe a FREE Christams gift for a friend??}

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thank you so much for participating!!  We are so glad to have you all here at Hidden Treasures!  I do hope you'll take the time to share this giveaway and our other posts with your friends!!  

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School Year Goals/2012

We've had a change in plans.  

...AGAIN....

We were considering going back to the homeschooling thing...but my husband is a firm believer in the Christian school and I, well, I personally, am torn between the two.  I was home schooled but eventually graduated from a Christian school.  There are advantages and disadvantages to both.  It is my opinion that each of us must find what God wants for our own individual families and then go with it.  

As I said, I've been caught in the middle - torn between the two.  My husband, however never had any doubts that we should send our children to the Christian school.  And, since God provided us with a bigger house {something we desperately needed} that just happens to be adjoining the property of that Christian school, we enrolled our children - ALL of them!!  I no longer have any babies at home with me, which is quite sad...or at least I thought it was going to be until...

 First Day of School!

I was asked to help teach in the preschool this year.  {Kinda a culture shock of sorts for me since I used to teach High School before my oldest was born!!}  BUT, it's turned out fabulously!!  We don't have to spend any money on gas and I'm right there in the same building as my two youngest children.  I get to see them several times throughout the day for little free-be hugs and kisses.  The other kids in their class even seem to get excited to see me in the hall now too!  It's too cute!!  

To keep my children excited about learning, we've they've set themselves some goals for this year.  I sat down with them and asked them what they'd like to know or have accomplished by the end of the year.  I must say, I'm pretty impressed with the goals they've set for themselves.  We've been able to work toward these goals and we've even gained some ground in the 3 short weeks since school has started!! 

Oldest Daughter's Goals (4th Grade):

• To know all of her multiplication tables off the top of her head by the end of the year.  She's already almost half way there!!!
• To get a 100% on at least one math test.  ;)
• To learn/memorize as many *important* spelling words as possible.  She's showing dyslexic tendencies and spelling is a major problem for her, so we made this a goal she could reach.
• To improve in sentence structure and story writing.  She has a hard time getting her ideas from her brain to her paper.  She can do it orally without a problem, so we're going to work on her writing skills a bit.
• To read 10 "fun" books by the end of the year.
• BIBLE QUIZZING!!!  I'm so excited that she can now be a part of this wonderful experience and learn as much of the Bible as she can!  
• To improve her art skills - she's very creative and can draw WAY better than her old mother any day!!!  
• To complete level 2 in her piano books.
• To complete 2 karate classes

Sounds like a great list to me!!!  I'm so excited for her!!

Daughter #2 (3rd Grade):

• To keep a 95% average in spelling   She can definitely do this, just has a hard time staying motivated
• To read 2 -3 "BIG" books every month  Loves to read!!
  
• Learn to type - something she's been interested in for a while now, so why not??  Maybe she'll have her own blog someday??
• Memorize her multiplication tables
• Complete level 2 in her piano books - loves the piano!!
• To learn Karate - which is kinda funny because she's so scrawny and feminine - not at all muscular like her older sister!!

There you have it!!  Our goals for the new school year!!

 New Books that God recently provided us with!

~ The younger kids have planned to play and read by the end of the year; and Jenna would like to count to some number I've never heard of... perhaps *I* should go back to kindergarten! ~

What are your goals for this school year?  I'd love to hear them!  Feel free to leave comments below on on my Facebook wall!!

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Making Simple Sauerkraut

Making sauerkraut and other lacto-ferminted foods is something I've never done, but always wanted to know more about it all, so when my friend Paula from Whole Intentions, said she knew how and was willing to write up a guest post for all of us here at Hidden Treasures, I was more than thrilled!!  {I even went out yesterday and bought myself a few organic cabbages so I could try my hand at this too.}

Paula Writes....

 

If you had asked me five years ago if I'd ever eaten sauerkraut, I would have wrinkled my nose and said, "NEVER!" And if I'd never eaten it, you could bet your boots I'd never made it!

My first recollection of sauerkraut was as a young teenager visiting a friend's house. We walked in the front door and were assailed by a smell that could make your eyes water. When I asked her what it was she shrugged, "Mom's making sauerkraut."

For the next 20 years I steered clear of sauerkraut like it was the plague. (Gasp! Did I just say 20 years!)

Up until a few years ago, I never thought I'd give it another look. Yet here I am, bringing you a recipe and secretly planning several paragraphs of well-written research to convince you to try it for yourself. :) If the information I discovered could change my mind, surely it has the chance of changing yours. Right?

So without further ado, I'll begin my compelling and persuasive argument. . . ;)

How Does Your Garden Grow??

My family has had a very busy summer.  We moved to a new house, did a few repairs and re-modeling projects and a bunch of other things.  In fact we've been so busy I wasn't sure if I was coming or going on some days. 

Because we moved half way through the summer, so I had to leave my spring garden behind and plant a "fall garden".

Here are some pics.....

Watermelon...we may not have time left in the season, but my kids couldn't possibly imagine a garden without it and we did have some seeds left, so we planted them.  Should have plenty of watermelon if the weather holds out.  :)

Scarlett Runner Beans ~ this is my first time planting pole beans instead of bush beans.  So far we have TONS of beautiful red flowers!!

Pickling Cucumbers ~ we've made 4 quarts of Spicy Pickles, and we plan to add Bread & Butter, Lime and Cinnamon to that list. 

Tomatoes ~ TONS of them!!  

We've made some spaghetti sauce, but we need more - and some salsa too!!

My poor Pepper plants had a hard time this year, but they have given us just what we've needed!!

Zucchini!!

Good in soups, breads, fritters, and cookies {anything really!}!!

We have also planted sweet peas, broccoli, brussels sprouts and kale!!  They're pretty small yet and no much to look at though!  :) 

I'll be posting more recipes very soon!!

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