She Considers... A Garden of the Heart

Shared by our Mom... found in a cookbook of hers that was compiled by members of a former church.
Author Unknown.

Plant your own garden beginning today.

First plant five rows of peas:

    Preparedness

    Promptness

    Perseverance

    Politeness

    Prayer

Next to them plant three rows of squash:

    Squash gossip

    Squash criticism

    Squash indifference

Then five rows of lettuce:

    Let us be faithful

    Let us be unselfish

    Let us be loyal

    Let us be truthful

    Let us love one another

And no garden is complete without turnips:

    Turn up for Church

    Turn up for Sunday School

    Turn up with a smile

    Turn up with determination

Guest Post: A Reader's Christmas Countdown

One of our readers (who happens to be our cousin) has shared another Christmas Countdown idea with us! She found her idea here (with step by step instructions) but this is what she said she did:

1. I made a paper pattern of a stocking shape about 5" high.

2. I folded 8.5"x11" pieces of felt in half and cut two sets from each sheet with the pattern. I got 24 stockings out of 12 sheets of felt in lots of different colors.

3. Before I sewed the sides together I sewed different types of trims across the top; jingle bells, snowflake ribbon, and fuzzy tassels.

4. Then I sewed the two sides together using different decorative stitches; zigzag, edging, etc.

5. I glued little star buttons on each toe in contrasting colors.

6. I used fabric paint to write the numbers on them

7. I hung from a gold cord with clothespins.

8. I wrote 24 fun family activities on little cards and put one in each stocking.

A few ideas:

• fill the birdfeeders
• hang a wreath on the door
• make paper star decorations
• put up the tree
• go caroling with the church group
• read Christmas stories and drink cocoa
• make pinecone birdfeeders for presents
• wrap presents
• learn to play carols on the piano
• go to a concert
• make peanut butter penuche

I thought about putting candy canes or chocolate in them but I know my kids would raid them before the correct day so I am just going to include those treats on some of the days by doling them out myself. :) [Isn't she a SMART Mommy?!?!]

If you haven't started a Christmas Countdown yet but feel inspired... who's to say you can't start now?! Go ahead and do some fun activities with your family to prepare for Christmas and next year start it all over again with all the days of December...

Readers' Responses for November

Here's someone else's idea for designing artwork for the home:

from our post -- Butterfly Artwork

Comments from our readers...

From: April @ The 21st Century Housewife
Your applesauce muffins sound wonderful - I love all the wholesome ingredients. They are perfect for autumn with the nutmeg and cinnamon too. Thank you for sharing them with Let's Do Brunch. I've chosen them as one of my features from last week, and will be linking to this post from my Let's Do Brunch post today. Applesauce Oats & Yogurt Muffins

From: Anonymous
My Elly (4) and i made these this afternoon. i had to double the recipe for my family. yummy!!! i used white flour and vanilla yogurt (what i had on hand). still turned out good! looking forward to eating them for breakfast! Applesauce Oats & Yogurt Muffins

From: Andi Sibley
This is a lot of fun! I decided to try to post a picture of the day on facebook all through November to highlight three things I am thankful for this year. It's going to get harder as the month goes on I am sure, but I enjoy that challenge. God is so good I know I will never run out of things to be thankful for - I just need to look around! Take a Picture-of-the-Day!

Please come see us on Facebook!!! There are many opportunities to comment on there as well as see updates, photos and share more ideas together. We have reached "69 Likes" this month -- let's make it 70 and shoot for 100 in December!!!

And for those of you considering whether or not to Crochet a Really Simple Hat ... here's a little something to inspire you!...

October's Reader Responses

At the end of each month we feature some readers' experiences with trying the ideas from our blog.
Here are a few we received this month!

#1 First Day Favorite (Cheeseburger Soup)

I think they liked it, what do you think?!

#2 Cleaning for a Month (Creating a Decorative Reminder of our Proverbs 31 calling to care for our homes)

She looks well to the ways of her household. Prov. 31:26

#3 You Are Special and You Are Known By Name (hang your child's name on his/her wall)

C-A-R-O-L-I-N-E !!!
[These were leftover from chipboard letters bought ages ago...  after using the actual letter for something else, we painted the remaining square with two coats of colorful craft paint and affixed the chipboard piece to the wall with removable poster tape.]

#4 Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

          Jamie @ Our Hearts and Homes to Share said...
          I just made these....and my fiance promptly ate 3 of them :) Delicious! Thanks for posting it!

#5 Lemon-y Clean Microwave

          Jacinda @ Growing Home said...

I just had to add your blog to my sidebar; you've got so many good tricks up your sleeve! Thanks for all the pointers!

I don't have a microwave, but I boiled some water and let it sit inside my toaster (which was a million times dirtier than your microwave :S). I had a few leftover lemons in the fridge, sliced them up and rubbed the insides all over the metal. I think the acid really helps remove the gunk! Then I washed it out with the warm water...it looks so much better.

Thanks for inspiring me to get 'er done! 

Thank you to all our Readers! Keep the responses coming!

We love to hear from you!

Reader Responses

To all our readers:

We would really love to hear and see how our ideas might be helping you as you take care of your home and family!!! Have you made one of our recipes? Have you tried a cleaning tip? Did you try canning something?

Each month we would like to feature our readers' responses in a post where we share your photos and how it went as you tried out some of the things we have blogged about!

Would you like to be included? Email us your photos and feedback to shewhomakes@gmail.com and we will feature you on our site!

Hoping to hear from you,
Emily and Natalie