We have had a big day.   Cleaning, baking, rearranging furniture, getting out towels and sheets…

Tonight, our church was honored to host a high school choir from out of state who is touring over the next few days.  We signed up to keep ten boys at our house.  Why ten?  Well…why not?  :)  (The real answer is that we have a big house, and filling it with boys is fun for us!)

I had so much fun baking and getting food ready for this crowd.  I knew they’d be hungry after the concert, so I made a pan of Fudge Brownies, a pan of Butterscotch Bars and a triple batch of Cream Cheese Salsa Dip for them to eat when they got here.  They did not disappoint.  Apparently, singing makes teenage boys hungry.  ;)

Take a look at who is singing with the choir there on the bottom right!
The director invited any young children from the audience to join them for one song.
Justus was the only one of ours brave enough to go up there.

I took a few pics during the day while I was preparing some of the other food for their visit.  I decided to make several batches of muffins for breakfast since we need to get them up and out the door fairly early tomorrow morning.  I’ve got (hopefully) plenty of fruit to go with the muffins.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins, Banana Muffins,
Blueberry Muffins, and Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins

I packed lunches for 16 boys (the ten we hosted plus six more), and found that an assembly line with help from a great friend was a great way to whip out 36 sandwiches.

Once we finished the sandwiches, we kept with the assembly line theme and loaded up big sacks.  The boys will take these on the road with them tomorrow.  (Sandwiches, chips, crackers, applesauce, homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies, a cereal bar, and a bottle of water.)

We’re so thankful for the blessing of hosting these boys.  Oh, and did I mention that I found out this morning that two of them are my cousin’s boys?!  I had no idea they were touring with the group. What an added blessing!

Share how God is working in your life on your blog, then come link up with us here. If you don’t have a blog, be sure to leave a comment letting us know what you’re grateful for!  Please read through the Gratituesday Guidelines so that you understand what kinds of posts you can link up to share here. Posts that are linked but do not fit our Gratituesday theme will be deleted.

If you are linking up a blog post for Gratituesday,
please copy and paste the following sentence into your post! Thanks!

Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!

1) Renae B.: renaejwalker@
2) Corrine D: cmdipisa@
3) Trina: trina147@
4) Mary C.: richter.mary@
5) Brandi: jbrafferty@

Ladies, send me an email, and I’ll forward your information on to Crystal at Money Saving Mom for your prize!

Deanna: Deanna.loves.Damon@
Lisa: brian.lisa.payne@

The winners of the Lilla Rose Flexi Clips are:

Shelli: roadtoranching@
cali: calibrook@
Amber S: sumner@

The winner of the Challenge Butter Package is:

Stacy P: sdp@

If your name is on this list, you are responsible for emailing me so that I can forward your information on for your prize.  Congrats!

Just wanted to remind you that Monday, June 6 is the final day you’ll be able to purchase this package for only $20.  Beginning Tuesday, the price for the package goes up to $30, and that price will only be available through Friday, June 10.

Take advantage of this great deal soon, and download your 10 healthy, kid friendly recipe books right away!

Read more details of this package deal here.

Heavenly Homemakers Ebook Overload!
$51.49
$20.00

Our family has an incredibly busy day planned for Mother’s Day, most of which does not include being together.  (boo)  Between soccer games and a wedding, we’ll be going in different directions.  At least we get to worship together that morning before the craziness starts.  And really, I’m okay with Mother’s Day being just a little too busy to think because Mother’s Day brings mixed feelings for me.  I don’t like thinking too hard that day.  :(

If you’re just now starting to think about Mother’s Day, I’m going to suggest that you hurry up just a little bit to figure out your gift plans.   Feel free to pass this link along to husbands and children and any person who might be so inclined to toss you a gift this weekend.  :)

Deal Moon has many, many gift ideas, all for a discount…and they’ve highlighted their top gift ideas in this easy to click through post.  Here were some  favorites that jumped out at me:

You’ll have to go check out their article to see the rest of their great deals!  Hope everyone has a happy Mother’s Day!

A special thanks to Deal Moon for their sponsorship here at Heavenly Homemakers!

The winners of the Rachel Ramm Fine Art giveaway are:

Snowflakes2Hotcakes: snowflakes2hotcakes@

Jen R.: jenrange@

Ladies, email me with your full name, address and print choice so I can forward your information on to Rachel for your prize!

Be sure to take a look at the wonderful work Rachel Ramm creates.  Her art is beautiful and would make great gifts!

I never pay much attention to new products that claim to make my life easier.  I know I’m weird, but I avoid things like bread machines and fancy cell phones.  They do really make life easier for most, I just don’t want to take the time to figure them out.  I’m happy and content being behind the times!

But, I was just sent this new Eye-Fi, which promised to make my life easier.  AND IT DID.  The Eye-Fi is a fancy memory card for my camera that organizes my photos and videos in folders that are dated.  All pictures are ready and waiting in my computer anytime I need them.

Here’s the deal, and why I love the Eye-Fi so much:  Now that I have it all set up (after following very easy instructions) I can be in the kitchen taking pictures of the latest food I’m making to share on the site, and if I leave my camera on a for a few minutes, the pictures will automatically upload into my computer.

Do you know how much time this saves me?  As a blogger, I upload pictures to my computer all the time.  I LOVE that the Eye-Fi  is now saving me this step!!

So, you can be taking pictures of your kids being adorable in the living room, then your pictures will automatically upload to your computer which is two rooms away in your office, then you can quickly attach them in an email to your aunt without having to do any work.  Or they will automatically be available to you if you are creating a photobook or scrapbook.  The Eye-Fi really is a handy little tool.

In order to use an Eye-Fi, you must have Broadband Internet, your camera needs to be compatible, you have to have Wi-Fi Network 802.11b/g/n2.4Ghz (whatever that is…all I know is that it works with my wireless!), and your computer has to be Windows XP/Vista/7 or Mac OS X 10.5 and up.

Between several other blogs that are featuring this Eye-Fi, you have five chances to win a free one!!  Read the Contest Rules here, then leave a comment on this post letting us know why you should win!  You can also tweet about this contest at hashtag #Eye-Fi.

Feel free to check out this Eye-Fi  to learn more about how it works!

Today is the last day to purchase a $10 Heavenly Homemakers Gift Certificate for only $5!!  Read here for details and don’t miss out on this exciting special!

Outdoor furniture has arrived at Pier 1…that must mean that spring really is coming!  Do you do a lot of outdoor entertaining once the weather allows?  Have you seen all the neat wicker patio furniture at Pier 1…including a lovely wicker coffee table?  Or the very awesome Coco Cove Outdoor Serving Cart?  Or the Rock Point Outdoor Chairs?

And…

Is it just me or are Papasans just really cool?  (Not to mention it sounds really neat just to say “papasan”.)  Papasan.  Papasan.  I can’t stop.

The iconic Pier 1 Papasan has evolved and now they feature an outdoor Papasan, an outdoor double Papasan and wow is me…a Swingasan.  I even saw some great Papasan cushions on clearance for a great deal!

While everything is still brown and dirty-white here in Nebraska…it’s fun to check out all the fun outdoor furniture over at Pier 1 and dream of spring.  Like, if I close my eyes, I can SO picture myself in a hanging Swingasan with my lap-top, writing while the sun beats down on my face (and before a soccer ball smacks me in the forehead).

Much of the outdoor furniture, rugs and wall decor can also be used indoors…which means you’ll get twice the bang for your buck.  I saw some lovely and cheerful rugs that really are screaming “SPRING!” – and some were a great bargain too!

If you’re interested, you can sign up for the Pier 1 Outdoor newsletter and receive a special in-store offer for the weekend of March 18-20…just in time for the official beginning of spring!  And, if you’re a tweeter, you’ll want to join the Pier 1 Tweetups:  Dallas, March 22; Atlanta, April 5; NYC, April 20.

Hang in there with me everyone…spring really is coming!

I am here today to tell you all about why I love LÄRABARs, and it isn’t even because my name is Laura.  Really, I’d love them even if their name wasn’t similar to mine (although my boys might not think they were as cool).

I’m not really one to purchase many pre-made bars and snacks.  I only buy them occasionally to take on road trips and to soccer and basketball games.  Most pre-made bars don’t do much to satisfy any real kind of hunger, not to mention they usually contain ingredients I would normally consider to be compromise ingredients (yes, even in the organic ones).

But LÄRABARs, now that’s a different story.  Some of them contain a total of only TWO ingredients.  My favorite LÄRABAR, as a matter of fact, is the Cashew Cookie bar.  It contains dates and cashews.  That’s IT.  And it tastes divine!!  At most, a few varieties of LÄRABARs contain nine ingredients.  It’s highly impressive that they can make such a delicious bar, with so many different varieties, with so few ingredients.

LÄRABARs are all natural, gluten free, non GMO, Kosher and are free of preservatives, colors and fillers.  With the exception of the few bars that contain high quality chocolate chips, most LÄRABARs are dairy free, sugar and sweetener free, soy free and vegan.

We were sent a wonderful variety box of LÄRABARs and have had so much fun sampling the different kinds.  They’re full of nuts and fruit…what a delicious combination of goodness!

I’m not sure if you follow “The Biggest Loser” on TV or not, but it would appear that LÄRABARs were featured and recommended on the March 8 episode.  Way to go LÄRABAR!

The cost of LÄRABARs is anywhere from $1-$2, depending on where you look.  (I’ve actually spotted some at Wal-mart in the pharmacy section!)  This cost might seem high at first glance.  I’ve gotta say though…have you ever purchased high quality nuts and fruit?  These ingredients cost more than puffed rice and HFCS.  I think the value and quality of LÄRABARs is quite high, making the cost well worth it.  You could pay almost a buck for a candy bar after all.  Why not put that money into something that will fill and nourish you?!  :)

Here’s where you can get your LÄRABAR coupon!!  It’s good for $1 off 2 bars…an excellent deal!

Have you tried LÄRABARs?  Which is your favorite?