Hearts at Home Conference

Yesterday I was blessed with the opportunity to attend the Hearts at Home National Conference in Normal, IL with one of my best friends, Katrina.  Yes, there is a Normal, IL.  (But we're convinced there are strange things happening there.  Long story short, the GPS was having issues and we found out ours wasn't the only one.)

Hearts-at-Home is a wonderful ministry.  They provide encouragement to women of all ages in all stages of motherhood. Hearts at Home’s mission is to encourage, educate, and equip every mom in every season of motherhood using Christian values to strengthen families.

Katrina and I left her house at 4:00 a.m. Saturday morning.  You read that right, 4 a.m.  We knew it would take us about 3 1/2 hours to get to the conference.  Then we needed to check-in, figure out where we were going and find a good seat before the opening speakers.

 We were greeted with a beautiful sunrise.

One of the opening speakers were Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar.  I'll admit, I was excited to see them, with the hopes of meeting them before we left.  They gave their testimony and told us about how God is working in their lives.  We also heard from Jill Savage; speaker, author and CEO of Hearts at home.  And the emcee of this year's conference was Brenda Paccamonti, she is the Executive Director of Resources for Hearts at Home and was hilarious!

Our first workshop was also with the Duggars.  They gave us some practical parenting and marriage tips.  Some things I took away from them are: get God's word into the hearts of your children, teach them how to love God and love others.  I also learned the effectiveness of speaking in a soft, sing-songy voice.  You check out more on the Duggars at their website duggarfamily.com

Our next workshop was with Marla "flylady" Cilley.  Hmmm....how to describe the flylady.  She loves organization and teaching others how to regain control of your house and home.  Some things I took away from her are:  to have a before bed routine to get a jump start on your next day.  She emphasized that keeping your stuff is a lack of faith in God to provide for you.  And to bless someone else with your things that you no longer need.   You can get a lot of tips from her on flylady.net

After the flylady we heard from Marianne Miller.  She is Crown Financial Ministries Counselor, a Certified Parenting Instructor, and a She Speaks graduate.  Yesterday she gave us some tips on Raising Grateful Kids.  We learned a lot of tips on teaching our kids contentment, that we are not our stuff and we need to help our kids find their identity in Christ.  We also learned how to teach our children financial discernment with too many tips to mention.  Read more info here mariannemiller.com

By this time our brains were tired and fried.  So we decided to take a break and skip the last workshop.  We took a walk to stretch our legs and check out the books that were for sale.  I did find a really nice Prayer Journal that I bought.  We took some time to chat with some other moms we ran into then went to find some seats for the final session.

 Katrina waiting for the final session.  By this time we were tired, hot, sweaty and our brain's were fried.

To end the day we had a really good session with Dr. Juli Slattery, from Focus on the Family  She taught us that in order to survive motherhood we need to have wisdom. And the best place to gain wisdom is from God.  Three ways to get it are to: Desire it- make it a priority. Regonize where it comes from- a good place to start is to read the 31 chapters of Proverbs. And to Sit daily at the doorsteps of wisdom- get on your knees, ask specifically for what you need and make sure you listen.  Take a peek at focusonthefamily.com

Of all the speakers we listened too.  I came away from Juli's speech the most moved.  I know that I can not be a great mother to the children God has blessed us with alone.  I need God's help, guidance and wisdom.  I know that He also puts amazing people in my life to give me advice, friendship and love.  

I am so happy that God put things in motion for me to be able to go to such an amazing event.  Katrina and I are already making plans to go to next year's conference.  I know we will be recruiting other mom's to go with us.

Katrina and I before getting back in the car for our long ride home.

Until next time~

Anita

Homemade Laundry Soap

As you know I have several items on my goals list this year.  I’ve recently decided that I would like to add one more thing; get back to a simpler more frugal lifestyle.  That can mean something different to everyone.  What that means to me is this: eat more whole homemade foods, make as many things at home as possible and just save the family money any way that I can.  With that being said here is what Coobs (Kennedy) and I made today.

Homemade Laundry Soap
 
I first saw the recipe on Diary of a Stay at Home Mom’s website and then again on Aubut Family website.  The two recipes are almost exactly the same except one used 3 bars of soap in the recipe and the other only uses 1.  So I decided to meet in the middle and use 2.

4 lb. 12 oz. box of Borax
4 lb. box Arm & Hammer Baking Soda
3 lb. 7 oz. box Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda
2 bars of Fels-Naptha soap (or Zote)
3 lb. container of Oxy Clean, or two of the smaller ones, to make about 3lbs
1 container Purex Fabric Softener Crystals

Start out by turning your bars of soap into a powder.  One website used a cheese grater and another said to microwave it for 4 minutes it will foam up like a marshmallow.  Let it cool down completely and it will turn into a powdery substance when you break it apart.

I wasn’t too sure about either method so I went with the microwave one.  I put both bars in for 3 minutes.  I should have taken the wrappers off completely, oops.  What happened was one bar didn’t foam up all the way, which worked out in the end.  The puffed up parts didn’t crumble like I thought they would.  We couldn’t get the soap to break down to a powder. 

So I used a cheese grater on the rest which I liked better anyways.  I ran it on the finest side of my 4 side cheese grater and it turned into a nice powder.    I will definitely be using the cheese grater from now on.

Now for the huge container I would need to mix it up in.  We had an extra empty plastic kitty litter pail leftover so I scrubbed it out really well then dried it with a clean towel.

Kennedy helped me pour all the ingredients in and mix them up.   We poured in a little of each at a time until everything was in.  I did have to tip the container to the side a few times to get the stuff on the bottom mixed up well.

Store and use however you like.  Use 1 to 2 tablespoons per load.

Right now the house smells amazing from mixing everything together.