Homemaking — Page 2

How to Show Hospitality in the Home

June 17, 2015 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy Leave a Comment

I talked before about what hospitality is and why I think everyone should do it. I lightly touched on the how. Now I want to go more in depth about the how of hospitality.

How someone practices hospitality is going to be different for everyone. There isn’t just one way to entertain guests in your home. The first step is to decide what you want to do while your guests are in your home. A sit down dinner? A cook out? A game night? A movie screening? inviting others in to share your hobby? A friendly cornhole, croquet, or volleyball tournament? Those are just a few things you can do when you have guests over. Everyone’s list will be different. Make sure that your family enjoy’s the activity that you are planning. Your guests won’t have a good time if your family isn’t.

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How to Start a Card Ministry

October 17, 2014 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy 8 Comments

*This post contains affiliate links

The purpose of a card ministry is to send cards to people celebrate an event with them, to encourage them, to cheer them up, to make them feel better, and to let them know someone is praying for them.

It is very easy to start a card ministry of your own!

How to Start a Card Ministry

You only need a few things to get your card ministry started.

a greeting card box or bin to put everything in. Not a drawer, stuff will get piled on top of your cards
a calendar – one that you can keep in your box
an assortment of greeting cards – birthday, anniversary, sympathy, Christmas – religious & secular, thinking of you, thank you, etc. It’s nice to stock some cards that are suitable for men, and cards that are blank inside. Handmade cards are really nice, too.
writing paper or note paper for when you want to send a personal note, but don’t have a specific card for the occasion.
envelopes – greeting cards & stationary will come with some, but you will need some for the note paper or handmade cards
pens
stamps – buy the forever stamps so you don’t have to buy extra stamps later. Put these stamps in the card box and don’t raid the box to mail your bills!

You also may want to include these items:

- stickers or maybe a wax seal to embellish the envelopes
  return address labels
- little stickers to include in cards to kids
- Bible verses you have printed on paper
- bookmarks, either store bought or handmade, make sure they are not to heavy, so you don’t have to pay extra postage

An Idea

Here are some cards that I had printed for my card ministry. I used a picture that I had taken myself, and edited it on the computer to put the Bible verse on it. I had these printed for me because I got a good deal on them. It may be cheaper to print something like this yourself, depending on how much the ink for your printer costs. The ones that I send out don’t say Linda’s Lunacy on them. lol You can pick whatever Bible verse you think will be encouraging to someone. Or have a few different verses on cards for different needs.

Once your box is stocked, you’re almost ready to begin.

Now you need names and addresses. I recommend keeping an address book in your box. Start with family, and all your friends, and maybe your kids friends families. If your church has a directory, get an extra copy to keep in your box. Names and address of co-workers, or your kids coaches & teammates, if available are a nice addition, too.

Now you’re ready to start your card ministry!

Birthday cards are the easiest to start with. Add a list of family & friend birthdays to your box to make it even easier.

If you hear of someone that has been sick, it’s easy to grab your box and put a get well card in the mail quickly.

If you haven’t heard from someone in a while, and they come to mind, send them a thinking of you card.

Once you get started sending cards, you’ll find many occasions to send them. Make sure you remember to restock your stamps and cards regularly!

You’ll find that people appreciate the cards very much. And you will have succeeded in encouraging someone and making a difference in their life.

*This post contains affiliate links. If you click the link and make a purchase, I will receive a small commission.

Making a Home – Homemaking Linky

October 14, 2014 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy Leave a Comment

Welcome to this weeks………

Making a Home – Homemaking Linky!

This weeks featured post, the post with the most clicks last week, is……6 Natural Remedies to Prevent Colds and Flu from Lady Lee’s Home.

Cold and flu season will be here soon. If you missed this post last week, make sure to stop by now.

Making a Home – Homemaking Linky

Now it’s your turn! Share your posts about homemaking ideas, recipes, crafts, decorating, cleaning tips, basically anything that has to do with caring for a home and family. The Linky is open all week.

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Tips for Buying a New Stove

April 25, 2014 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy Leave a Comment

After over 15 years of service from my stove, it’s time to buy a new one. There are just too many things to fix on the old one to make it worthwhile. I have used this stove multiple times a day for 15 years. Cooking for up to 9 people at a time, on a daily basis. We also make a good portion of our own snacks and baked goods. That’s a lot of use for a stove.

Before I actually set foot in a store, I did a few things to make sure I got the stove I needed, for a price I was willing to pay.

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5 Tips for an Eco Friendly Home

March 31, 2014 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy Leave a Comment

*Thank you to Direct Energy for sponsoring today’s post, and encouraging me to share tips for a smarter home!

Here are a few tips that I use to make my home an eco friendly home.

Unplug energy sucking devices when they are not in use. Common energy wasters include your computer, printer, DVD player, phone chargers. Unplug these electronics at night or when you are away from home. I am a stickler for unplugging unused electronics. I even extend this to the kitchen. The toaster, blender, food processor, all get unplugged when not in use in my kitchen. The microwave uses a lot of electric just sitting there in between uses, too. I no longer own a microwave, but for those that do, unplug it to save energy. I use power strips for electronic devices and turn off the strip at night. That’s convenient for computers, monitors, and printers or TV’s, dvd players, and video game consoles. The energy savings of turning off the power and the convenience of not having to plug everything in again.

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Hospitality – What & Why

November 20, 2013 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy 1 Comment

What is hospitality?

Websters defines hospitality as the generous and friendly treatment of friends and guests. I love the way that sounds. We should strive to be generous and friendly to all, but especially those visiting our home.

Inviting others into our home to visit or to share a meal is something that I think everyone should do. It’s also something that gets a low priority with our busy lives today. I have been trying to be more deliberate in inviting others to our home. Whether it’s family, our friends, or our kids friends. Whether it’s for a birthday party, a cook out, a holiday meal, or just to hang out.

The first step to practicing hospitality is to decide why you want to practice hospitality.

Do you want to use hospitality as a witnessing tool?

Want to get to know your neighbors better?

Want to see who your kids friends are?

Do play a game (chess, cards, etc.) or have a hobby you want to share with like minded friends?

Knowing why you want to practice hospitality will help define your how.

For example, if you want to get together with a few people to play a card game, that will determine your time, how you set up your house, and the food you will serve. If you want your kids friends to come over, then you will want to have your house, activities, and food kid or teen friendly.

Now you know what hospitality is. You’ve also had a chance to think about why you want to practice hospitality. In the coming weeks I’ll share more about how to practice hospitality in your home. Some of the things I’ll cover are getting your house ready, food, and more.

Is hospitality something you practice in your home? Or something you want to start doing? If you have any questions about hospitality ask them in the comments, and I will try to answer them in future posts.

Paperless Home Organization eBook Review

May 30, 2013 by Linda @ Linda's Lunacy 3 Comments

As part of the Schoolhouse Review Crew, I received the Paperless Home Organization ebook from Simplified Pantry to review. Paperless Home Organization is a how to guide that walks you through creating a digital homemaking binder. Once you have your homemaking binder in place, you can go paperless! I don’t know about you, but after 31 years of marriage, 6 kids, and 22 years of homeschooling (and still counting!), I’m ready to get rid of some paper!

Paperless Home Organization eBook Review

The author, Mystie Winckler, tells you which programs she uses and takes you step by step through signing up, setting up, and filling up your binder. She uses Google Mail, Google Calendar, Evernote and Remember the Milk to organize everything. I was already using Google Mail and Calendar, but she had several tips that I hadn’t heard of before that enable me to make better use of them. The bulk of the book is about setting up and using Evernote and Remember the Milk.

Remember the Milk is where you keep your current to do lists. These can be sorted out, and assigned due dates, or marked not due so it is always on your list. I love that I can have my list on my Gmail page, or on my calendar, over on the right had side, so I can see it no matter what I’m doing. As we all know, a to do list that is seen is more likely to get done. I also have Remember the Milk on my Kindle, so can carry my to do list with me where ever I go. Remember the Milk can also be accessed online, or on your phone. I love that I can set it up to work for me. Since I hadn’t used Remember the Milk before, the authors tutorial was a great help.

Your digital home binder will mostly be stored on Evernote. I had never heard of Evernote before, so I took full advantage of the authors how to’s in this ebook to help me. She not only tells you what to do, she shows you with many screenshots. Seeing what everything should look like, made it so much easier for to to set it up. You can tell that the author has been using this program, and knows what she’s talking about. It would have taken me a very long time to figure out some of the steps that she included in the ebook. Instead of having to figure it all out by myself, I quickly and easily followed her directions and had my binder up and running.

One of the things that the author mentioned was that you could get an Evernote Web Clipper extension for Chrome. Now when I’m online, and I see something I want to save, I can save it right to my notebook. All those great tips and recipes that come across my Facebook feed can be clipped and put into the correct notebook while I’m on Facebook. I don’t have to go open the Evernote program to copy and paste. I was also able to add the Evernote App to my Kindle. So I have access to my digital binder whenever I need it.

Here is a screenshot from my Evernote. You can see on the left, I’m working on my notebooks. I have my Recipe Notebook open, so the middle column shows those notes. And on the right, was the last note I had opened, a recipe I’m planning on making shortly.

You can read a sample of Paperless Home Organization.

Since I have many, many years to catch up on, this is going to take awhile. But I’m motivated, and this system is easy. Thanks to Paperless Home Organization I think I can go paperless!

I also received Simplified Dinners and Simplified Dinners Gluten Free/Dairy Free ebooks.

I read through the Simplified Dinners Gluten Free/Dairy Free ebook. If your just starting out cooking gluten free or dairy free, you’ll find lots of great recipes to get you started. I was a little disappointed that there wasn’t more recipes for baked goods. Overall, though, this is a great recipe ebook. I found a few recipes I want to try.

The Paperless Home Organization ebook sells for $3.99. A must at that price!

The Simplified Dinners and Simplified Dinners Gluten Free/Dairy Free sell for $12.99 each.

Here is a TOS Review Crew exclusive discount: when you enter TOS2013 at checkout, you will receive 30% off! That discount will work on any or all three of the eBooks through June 3rd.

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