Fall is one of my favorite times of the year. I love the falling leaves and their vibrant colors. I also like the idea of being nice and cozy in a warm blanket, cuddled up with a good book or doing come crochet while enjoying a hot cup of coffee. I finally found a way to bring my love of fall all together in one place. What's better than a custom designed coffee mug with a cozy looking mug rug to go with it?
My family and I recently started designing and printing mugs. My husband and daughter are both amazing artists. Couple that with our love of mugs and voila! You have a mug printing business that brings it all together. You can see our designs here. If you don't see what you are after, feel free to send us a message. We are always up for new ideas!
With Christmas just around the corner, I wanted to create mug packages for gift sets. I came across these adorable mug rugs from Annie's Craft Store and just had to give them a try! These Rustic Mug Rugs make the perfect addition to any mug gift set. Don't you agree?
I decided to make a sample of each of the 6 patterns. I sized them down by using a smaller hook size and a weight 3 cotton yarn because I wanted a smaller size to go with my package. The finished size of these is roughly 4 1/2 inches wide and 5 1/2 inches long, excluding the fringe. I also cut the fringe about 1 inch shorter to compensate for the smaller size of the rug. 
They are super soft, very flexible, and have such a nice texture. I love all of the variety! If you are looking for a unique gift for a loved one this holiday season or enjoy a little treat for yourself, please visit our online shop and choose your package.
Be sure you stop by my YouTube channel to get a closer look at our Winter Spice Mug Set!
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As a stay at home/work from home mom who also homeschools you would think that means we get plenty of family time. Sometimes I think the opposite is just as true. We are in the same house (or wherever we go) basically 24/7, which means we tend to *think* we have more than enough family time. But in truth, we have to put in a special effort to have "real" quality family time. Just because we are together physically doesn't mean that we are fully interacting and enjoying our time together.
My husband and I have worked hard to ensure we get quality family time as often as we can. One thing we do is eat our main meal together every night. Yes, there are a few times when our schedules conflict a little and we have to eat in shifts. But for the most part, we all sit around the dinner table, phones aside, and enjoy each others company over a home cooked meal. It may only last about 30 minutes, but that's still 30 minutes of focused time together.
We also like to have a family movie/game night every Friday night as we have our dinner. As the kids get older, this is a bit harder to do because they sometimes get together with their friends. I consider it growing pains. This whole "letting go" part of parenting isn't my favorite. It's just one more reason to cherish each family game/movie night we get even more.
Other than meals and family nights, we try to go out hiking, to the zoo, or some other fun outing as often as we can. Sometimes we have another family join us, sometimes it's just us. But it's always a great way to get out doors and spend some more quality time together while doing something we all enjoy.
No matter what your schedule is like, whether you work from home or away from home, have little kids or teenagers, being intentional about quality family time is something you will never regret. After all, our time with our loved ones is so short so let's make the most of it!
If you want to be with a group of moms who work together to find balance among the chaos of daily life, head on over to my free group!
Join our HomeGrown Homestead community—a place where we learn, grow, and share our homesteading journey together, fostering a bond of shared wisdom and experience. (everyone is welcome!)
Step into Lavender & Coffee: A Sip of Serenity, a haven for moms seeking support and community on their journey to fulfilling their roles as wives and mothers with grace and purpose.(for moms only)
As a mom I often find myself with way too much on my plate. There's always something else to get done, somewhere else to go. I'd love to tell you that I have it all figured out. That I know exactly how to fit it all in and feel accomplished at the end of the day. But the truth is, I don't have it all together. There are days I struggle to fit it all in. Sadly, one thing I tend to let slide is my personal time with God. Time spent alone reading the Bible, praying and meditating on what it says and what it means to me.
One solution I have found is to join a group of like-minded ladies who go through a study together. I participate in one that posts a study for the week on Mondays, a reflection of the passage on Wednesdays, and application questions on Fridays. This not only gives me a focus, but also helps keep me accountable so that I keep up with the study better than I would if I were to attempt it on my own.
I also like to take notes and use a color code in my Bible. I found a great journaling edition that has wide margins on the side where you can take notes or even add a drawing that relates to the passage. I have found that this helps me have a better understanding of what I'm reading and also allows me to see at a glance what a particular passage is about.
The fact is, my days and weeks go so much smoother when I remember to schedule in my personal time with God. Times when I feel things just aren't "going my way" I often stop and realize that I haven't put in the time I needed to. My priorities are all out of whack and I have to realign them. I usually start with being more intentional about my time with God first, then all of the other areas seem to fall into place as they should.
Knowing this, why do I so often let it go? Satan wants us to feel as if we just don't have time for it. The reality is, we don't have time NOT to do it. It always amazes me how much more time I find in my schedule once I get my priorities straight and make time for the things that are important to me first.
I'd love to hear how you find time for God in your daily schedules. Do you have a favorite study?
If you would like to be with a group of moms who support each other are finding balance in their lives, join my facebook group.
Join our HomeGrown Homestead community—a place where we learn, grow, and share our homesteading journey together, fostering a bond of shared wisdom and experience. (everyone is welcome!)
Step into Lavender & Coffee: A Sip of Serenity, a haven for moms seeking support and community on their journey to fulfilling their roles as wives and mothers with grace and purpose.(for moms only)
When my daughter was just 5 years old, she was diagnosed with hyperoxaluria. Hyper oxa what?? Before I get into exactly what this is let me give you a little background story.
Kyleigha had a bit of a rough start in life, you can read a little more about it here. When she was in kindergarten, it wasn’t uncommon for me to get a phone call saying she wasn’t feeling well or that she had a high temperature. We were constantly going to the doctor and trying to figure things out. I finally got them to refer us to Children’s Hospital to see a specialist. At the age of 5 she was diagnosed with Hyperoxaluria. Not only was this a huge word I had never even heard before, it was also something that not many people even knew about. The doctor (who was amazing!) felt we could handle things by watching her diet instead of using medication so she sent us to a dietician. This was huge for us! So, off to the dietician we went. Guess what? Even she couldn’t help us. Yep, that’s right. She didn’t know enough about it and was basically no help at all.
Once again, this momma bear had to take matters into her own hands. It was time to do some more research.
What exactly Hyperoxaluria is…
According to Wikepedia, Hyperoxaluria is an excessive urinary excretion of oxalate. Individuals with hyperoxaluria often have calcium oxalate kidney stones.
The short of it is this: have a low sodium, low oxalate diet to help prevent kidney stones from forming.
We don’t know if Kyleigha ever had kidney stones. What we do know is that she often had blood in her urine and had “tummy” aches. Either way, because of this condition, we had to watch her diet. We were told that she should have no more than 140mg of sodium per serving. Now, if you have ever read labels on the shelf, you know that this is near impossible to do.
Grocery shopping and meal planning just got hard
I had to fight back the tears every time I shopped. How was I supposed to take on these new dietary needs when no-one could help me?
What did all of this mean? It meant that I had to make pretty much everything from scratch. At the time, I had a 2, 5, and 7 yr old. You can imagine how much busier this made life. I decided to learn to can foods so that we could have good food ready to go. I purchased a heavy duty canner that I knew would be safe for meat. And, lemme tell ya, home canned chicken is about as good as it gets!
Foods high in oxalate
What exactly are foods high in oxalate?
These are foods such as: (if you do a quick search you are bound to see a few variances)
- Beans
- Beer
- Beets
- Berries
- Chocolate
- Cocoa Powder
- Coffee
- Cranberries
- Dark green vegetables, such as spinach
- Nuts
- Okra
- Oranges
- Rhubarb
- Soda (cola)
- Soy beans
- Soy milk
- Spinach
- Sweet potatoes
- Tea (black)
- Tofu
- Wheat bran
How we do low-sodium
We have also found that when we use pink himalayan salt, it doesn’t affect her as badly. It has a lower sodium content than regular table salt. Table salt may have about 2300 mg of sodium per tsp, sea salt has about 2000 mg of sodium per tsp, while pink himalayan salt has only about 1700 mg per tsp. That’s a pretty big difference when you are on a low-sodium diet!
Learning to do it on her own
By the time Kyleigha was 8 years old, she had already been on her special diet for 3 years so I decided to hand over some of the responsibilities to her. If this was something she was going to be dealing with her whole life, I wanted her to know how to read and understand her body.
Fast forward a few years, we went to the specialist for a regular checkup. Things looked so good that she was told she didn’t have to go back for another 2 years. When she first got the diagnosis, she had to go in every 6 months, then every year. So this meant that we were on the right track. Hooray for being able to control this all by watching her diet!
Join my facebook group where we focus on special dietary needs, homeschool, and being a well-balanced mom here.
Join our HomeGrown Homestead community—a place where we learn, grow, and share our homesteading journey together, fostering a bond of shared wisdom and experience. (everyone is welcome!)
Step into Lavender & Coffee: A Sip of Serenity, a haven for moms seeking support and community on their journey to fulfilling their roles as wives and mothers with grace and purpose.(for moms only)
If you have read many of my blogs, you know that in my family of 5, 3 of us have special dietary needs. That often makes it super hard to find a meal that we can all enjoy and isn't a ton of extra time and work for me in the kitchen. If you think gluten, sugar, and dairy free are hard to work with, try adding no pork and no eggs to the list. Goodbye breakfast ideas...or maybe not!
We often like to have breakfast for dinner. It's a favorite in my house. I usually serve it with fruit or a smoothie so that we get in some of those extra nutrients. However, I had been holding off on it due to some of our newfound dietary needs. Just how do you make a breakfast with no pork (hello, bacon!...and sausage) and no eggs?? Oh, and did I mention that the no dairy also means no butter? That's unheard of, right? Wrong!!
That's when I came across this recipe and tweaked it a bit to suit our families needs.
Gluten-Free Pancakes (no egg, no dairy)
Ingredients
- 1 cup gluten-free 1 for 1 flour
- 1 Tbs ground flaxseed (flax meal)
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp himalayan salt (or sea salt)
- 2 Tbs pure maple syrup (can also use honey)
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/4 cup buttermilk (see note)
- 1 cup almond milk
Instructions
- Grease griddle and preheat (see notes for suggestion).
- In mixing bowl, combine flour, flax meal, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. You can sift if you want it more fine. I skip this step because it seems to work fine to just mix it.
- In another bowl, combine maple syrup, vanilla, buttermilk (see note), and almond milk. Slowly mix in half of the liquid into the dry ingredients. Stir continually as you add the rest, 1/4 cup at a time. This helps keep it from being too runny. Mix until all the lumps are out of the batter.
- Place about 1/4 cup of mix onto prepared hot griddle.
- Cook for 1-2 minutes, or until they start to bubble around the edges. Flip and cook the other side for an additional 1-2 minutes. Remove and serve.
To make buttermilk, add 1 TBS of lemon juice to 1 cup of almond milk. Let stand for 5 min.
Here's the cast iron griddle I have used for years and it's been great!
Join our HomeGrown Homestead community—a place where we learn, grow, and share our homesteading journey together, fostering a bond of shared wisdom and experience. (everyone is welcome!)
Step into Lavender & Coffee: A Sip of Serenity, a haven for moms seeking support and community on their journey to fulfilling their roles as wives and mothers with grace and purpose.(for moms only)
