I find it absolutely ridiculous that I (more than often) have to tell these boys to sit there, eat their breakfast without talking to one another, touching one another, looking at one another. What should take 15 minutes (or less) usually turns into 30 minutes or more of pure torture.

Does it get better? Will they even like each other as adults?!? I surely hope so. But I often wonder…

At least twice a year, we scour the Samaritan’s Purse catalog and pick something that we want to donate money for. I like to do something related to a trade. We’ve put money toward buying a goat, we’ve bought baby chickens. We paid for clean water. It varies each time that we pick but I show them the catalog and we look for what we want to donate for as a family. Its one of my favorite things to do with them because I know it shows them that we can help, even in small ways. It shows them that by providing someone in need with supplies to eventually provide from themselves and create a business or trade of their own is not charity. It is changing a family’s life forever.

At Blissdom, I had the opportunity to meet Kelly who works with a wonderful movement called Heart of Haiti.

Heart of Haiti is a line of merchandise carried exclusively on the Macy’s website. This initiative was started by artist and social entrepreneur Willa Shalit along with the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund and Macy’s. The goal of Heart of Haiti is to provide Haitians in need with “trade, not aid” to improve their standard of living. The beautiful part of this project is that it is an initiative that is working to offer Haitians, still struggling to recover from the devastating earthquake, a job. A way to earn a living, feed their family and pay to send their children to school (because Haitian children are not offered a free education).

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere with limited options for its citizens. Despite all of this, Haitians have fought back; they are slowly rebuilding their country after the earthquake. Heart for Haiti provides local artisans (you can read some of their stories here) with a way to help their country rebuild and to improve their standard of living. Heart of Haiti has employed 750 Haitian artists which has in turn reached 8,500 people to date! Even better, the products in the Heart for Haiti line are all made of mostly recycled materials from within Haiti. Social good + environmental good=win-win product in my book!

Heart of Haiti is carried exclusively through Macy’s. The items in this line are beautiful, handmade, one-of-a kind and…well gorgeous.

I am obsessed with owls at this point in my life and I have fallen in love with this little guy.  At 10.99, he’ll be an adorable addition to my desk at work!

This wood server set is exquisite, just exquisite.  The craftsmanship is phenomenal.

There are also beautiful pendants that would make wonderful graduation gifts.

Heart of Haiti sent me a gorgeous necklace so I could see just how beautiful these handcrafted pieces are.

My necklace is a work of art. The pendant is made of a hard metal that won’t bend during wearing. I love the red rope that it came on and that I can change it out to match whatever I’m wearing (I can see it on a ribbon or a heavy silver chain as well. As you can see, its pretty large (it fills the palm of my hand which is small yes, but not tiny) so it’ll definitely be a statement to whatever outfit I’m wearing!

If you haven’t found the perfect Mother’s Day gift yet, I hope you’ll check out the Heart of Haiti line. Some of these products can be found in the store but they are all available online. Mother’s Day, a birthday, an anniversary, a teacher gift. The items in the Heart of Haiti line are simply beautiful, hand-crafted, and offer you a chance to put your money to work on the ground in country in desperate need. It’s a win-win situation for everyone!

Note: I was provided with a beautiful pendant from Heart of Haiti so that is technically a form of compensation and I have to disclose it. As always, my opinions are all my own and I would tell you if I didn’t like what I had received. Y’all know that I like to share products with social good causes on my blog so any chance I have to do just that, I will. Thanks to Kelly with Everywhere and Heart of Haiti for the gorgeous necklace.

It’s been a week or two but I’ve tried to stay diligent on cooking more from scratch again.  I thought I’d do a few updates on what we’ve been eating and how this domestic diva thing is going.

Refrigerator bread–the last bit of the dough will be eaten tonight so I’ll mix up some more.  This has been great for ball game nights where we cook and eat after we get home.  I put it on to rise before we leave and then pop it in the oven while we cook. It’s usually done about the same time as supper.

Meatballs–I fell in love with the Pioneer Woman’s meatballs recipe long ago.  They take time to make but are SO good.  We ate them last weekend so I doubled the recipe.  That gave me 80 meatballs.  I did the browning stage and then cooled and froze them.  That’s 2-3 meals for us.

Granola–its been gone.  In like 3 days, they ate it all.  I need to make more tonight (no baseball game!)

Homemade pizza–one of my favorite things to make.  I use this crust recipe that doesn’t require a rise time but substitute olive oil for the vegetable oil. I make my own pizza sauce and freeze it (if there are leftovers).

Freezer jam–family friends are selling strawberries locally this year so I picked a gallon last weekend.  We had strawberry shortcake that night, snacked on some and still made 8 containers of freezer jam.  I am hoping to get another gallon today or tomorrow to freeze for winter time.  The season is almost over here.

A few other things I have or need to be doing:

Tea–so much cheaper than soda and better for us I think!  We have decided to cut the sugar in our’s by a third (we’re southern, okay…We have sweet tea in our veins!) and so far, so good.

Onions–Hunter purchased some Vidalia onions (local in that we live in Georgia) recently and I need to slice, dice and freeze before they go bad.

Squash–I need to make the Rhett some.  He’s one now and eating more solids but he’s not tried yellow squash.  My dad has some ready now so we need to try it (and eat more ourselves).

Blackberries have bloomed and by mid-June, it’ll be picking time!  We missed it last year so needless to say, I am excited to pick berries!  Blueberries will be in a little sooner and I plan to pick some of those as well.  Hunter and the kids really like them.

I think that’s about it for right now.  My stockpile is a little too low on basics for my comfort so I’m trying to get things stocked back up.  My pantry is so much smaller than the old house so I’m having to be a little more clever.  I swear if one more can falls on my toes, I will lose my mind.  I will.

My kitchen is a complete disaster right now. I’m avoiding it by sitting in the living drinking coffee and not thinking about the fact that I have dishes stacked up everywhere from my afternoon of cooking.

So far, here’s what I accomplished:

• 1 loaf of bread that we’re eating (yum-love this recipe)
• 1 batch of refrigerator bread (from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day)
• 4 bags of pinto beans frozen for later meals plus dinner last night (*NOTE! The hot Rotel is seriously HOT.)
• Double batch of chocolate chip cookie dough made, 1/2 cooked, 1/2 frozen for later (best cookies ever)
• 1 batch of homemade granola made (Even Hunter likes it!  He eats it as cereal.)

Those links will take you to the recipes that I use repeatedly.  Tried and true.

For the pintos, there’s no recipe so to speak but here’s what I did for this batch:

• 1 pound of dried pinto beans (You can cook smaller amounts.)
• 1 can of Rotel (This time, I used only a 1/2 can of the hot Rotel and it still came out hotter than I expected.)
• 1 tsp of salt
• Pepper to taste

I rinsed, sorted and then soaked the beans overnight. The next morning I put them in the crockpot and added the Rotel, salt and pepper. Rotel is great for pinto beans.  It gives them flavor and its a quick add in. Because my crock pot is dying, I cooked them on high for 8 hours. If you have a crock pot that is working properly, you can usually cook them for 4-6 hours on low and they’ll be done with the soak.

Once they were cooked, I scooped out 2 cup portions into freezer bags, added some of the juice to the top and froze them. We’ll toss them in a pot or the microwave for beans during the week and I don’t have to buy canned (plus these taste way better!)

I’m hoping to get a few more things done this weekend. I’ll let you know how it goes. For now, I suppose I should go start on the kitchen and feed these children before our ball game.

I haven’t been cooking as much honestly.  There are a lot of reasons I guess.  I’m tired.  Busy. Kids are running around off the hook. The baby is crying.  Hunter is busy and I’m flying solo some evenings. Its gorgeous outside and I’d rather do anything than cook some nights. There aren’t any good excuses, just excuses.

I haven’t been using coupons.  It just seems like most of the coupons I’ve been getting in the paper are for products I don’t need or want. And printing them off the computer uses a ton of ink! I’d also been forgetting to take them with me when we go (and we’ve been going as a family). So, I’ve taken a few weeks off from couponing and buying the paper.

I definitely haven’t cloth diapered (the first baby that I haven’t done it with, part-time) but I’m thinking about it for evenings and weekends. Thinking about it.

I haven’t baked bread regularly. I went from baking bread 2-3 times a week to nothing. And I haven’t wanted to.

There are no flowers, no garden beds prepped, no cute projects.

We don’t even have a clothes line (though we did buy supplies last weekend to put up one).

I feel like I’m just subsisting. Just getting by. I get buried in housework and running around to ball game. In getting the kids to school (on time) and not forgetting all of their activities and school projects. My work has picked up so I’m busier than ever with it and side projects.

Last week, I sewed basket liners for new Easter baskets for the boys.  I wanted really nice ones like the ones from Pottery Barn but I just couldn’t, in my right mind, pay $60 each (after basket, liner and embroidery) for Easter baskets. Ridiculous. So I bought 3 simple baskets at Hobby Lobby for half-off (3.99 each) and used burlap Hunter had leftover from a tree job (free!) to sew 3 liners that turned out beautifully. I’ll post pictures soon.

I also sewed a crayon apron for my cousin’s little girl that turned out to be adorable. Of course, I took no pictures of it before I gave it to her (bad blogger).

I think it was the sewing that’s put the bug back in my ear. I am missing my old habits and routines. So last night, I made my own laundry soap.  Just a small batch but I like it. And it felt good to make my own again.

And I put beans in water to soak overnight. They’re in the crock pot now. I’m cooking a large pot so I can freeze them for later meals during this busy season when eating out or eating lazy food is so tempting.

I also baked a loaf of bread and plan to mix up a batch of refrigerator dough tonight. The house smells wonderful right now.

This weekend, I’m hoping to get the clothes line put up and figure out how we can re-purpose something into some 4 x 4 boxes for green bean tepees. And cook or prep a few more things that I can freeze for later on.

By the end of summer, I’d like to have chickens again as our girls are all gone.  Chickens and a mobile coop.  How fun would that be?

I’m just hoping to get back to my normal.  And really, to slow down our spending. Convenience isn’t cheap. Now that we’ve moved and settled into this house, we’re hoping to create more stability for ourselves by increasing our savings from nearly nothing to something. haha!

“Homesteading” seems like such an old-fashioned, hippie like work but these old domestic tasks are just that…homesteading. I’m not sure why I am hesitant to use it but I am. Lowering our impacts, decreasing our spending, improving our way of life and making healthier choices.  Those are my goals right now.  The Domestic Diva is checking back in.

What are you working on in your life right now?