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Join Adventures in Odyssey this summer to discover how fun it can be to serve others!

Adventures in Odyssey, the beloved audio series from Focus on the Family, has encouraged kids toward a stronger faith for 25 years. Whit, Connie, Eugene, and the other loveable characters from Odyssey have shared countless adventures with kids across the world in the classic audio dramas, books, videos, and devotionals, fulfilling the AIO promise to help kids discover, imagine, and grow.

This summer, Adventures in Odyssey is joining with Christian bookstores across the country, inviting kids to participate in a Summer of Service. They’re promoting the biblical message, “When you serve, everybody wins,” encouraging kids to serve their families, their communities, and their world. Whether it’s baking cookies for an elderly neighbor or putting together a care package for missionaries overseas, kids will discover that serving can be a blast!

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Why serve?

Our culture puts an extravagant amount of energy into raising kids who will grow up to feel good about themselves. In schools, clubs, homes, and even at church, adults have made a decided effort to bolster children’s “self-esteem” –not by actually encouraging kids do something that’s worthwhile, but by simply telling them they are important and valuable.

At the turn of the century, researchers predicted that the next generation would respond to these efforts of raising self-esteem by being filled with optimism and civic duty. Unfortunately, recent research shows the opposite. Kids coming of age today are more self-centered, disrespectful of authority, and depressed than ever before.

In a very real way, then, the best path toward building selfless, confident children is to help and encourage them toward a growing and thriving faith in God. And that includes obedience to what God teaches—not because it makes kids feel good, although it often does—but because they’re following God’s instructions to love Him and serve others. That builds a faith they can count on and carry with them into adulthood—which is the greatest gift any parent can bestow on their child.

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How the A.C.T.S. (A Call to Service) challenge and contest works:

Kids who join A.C.T.S. can pick up a service log and collect fun character stickers for hours served at participating bookstores throughout the summer, or download a serving log online at whitsend.org.  At the end of the summer, kids can record and upload a short video telling how they serve and why they’d like to become an Adventures in Odyssey Ambassador.

A hundred winners will get the brand new AIO Album, and after online voting, two grand prize winners (one boy and one girl) will get to travel on an exciting Good-Goers Mission Based Adventure trip to another country with a parent!  The out-of-country destination will be announced on a live podcast May 22—hosted by AIO actors Katie Leigh (Connie) and Chris Anthony (Chris)—which you can watch at whitsend.org/acts. You don’t want to miss it!

 Download this PDF file to get some awesome Service Project ideas!

As is often the case for me, a recipe first jumps out at me from a photo on Pinterest and this yummy pie did exactly that.  It led me to a recipe called Mamaw Pie over at I Should Be Mopping the Floor.  I could tell, right away, that Kristi and I have the same love of cooking and the photos on her blog just sort of sucked me into this dazed pinning frenzy, which delayed my preparing this recipe for a day or two.  As always, I put my own spin on things, using ingredients my family enjoys or that I had on hand, but Kristi’s Mamaw is my hero and most definitely the inspiration for this new special occasion family recipe.  Enjoy!

As you can see, this recipe has been well loved and used. Now, that I have it here on the blog, I probably won’t pull it out, again, but I will definitely save it and put it back in the recipe box, stains, tears and all. Someday, when my grandkids pull it out and ask their moms about it, the girls can tell them all about their Great Grandma and Grandma looking through magazines for recipes and making fabulous family suppers.

I got a great deal on round steak by shopping very early in the morning, last week.  The manager’s specials for meat whose “best if used by” dates will expire in a couple of days, are usually snapped up quickly, so I have to be one of the first to arrive to get the savings. I was able to get two, thin-cut, top-round steaks for a real bargain.  One was just a little over 2 lbs for $4.97 and the other was a little under 2 lbs for $4.53!  With some fresh bell peppers, onions, garlic and canned tomatoes, those steaks stretched to feed our family, plus guests, through several delicious meals.  Gotta love stretching the grocery budget in such a tasty way!

I hope you enjoy this simple, easy recipe, as much as we do.  The crock pot lets you just start it and forget it, while reaping the flavorful rewards of the slow-cooking the meat until it is, literally, fork-tender.  This time, I served it over wide egg-noodles, but have served it over brown rice, with the same tasty exclamations of delight.  I think it would be good over quinoa, too.  Just be sure you have already trained your family to enjoy the texture of quinoa and cook it in chicken or beef stock, to ramp up the flavor.

I received a Journal 10 to evaluate it in my own home and collect information for this review.  No monetary compensation was received and a positive review was not required.  As with all Busy-at-Home reviews, the views and opinions expressed are wholly my own and based on my personal experience with the product.

I am probably the worst recorder of events and life, EVER.  Seriously.  I HAD baby books for all our children, but with the exception of the first few pages of the first child’s book, most of them are void of any recorded information.  I did stuff cards and a few photos into each of them, but even those are just loose inside the pages.  I have started about nine thousand, four-hundred and eighty-seven journals over the course of my life and even my photo albums testify to my ineptitude as a chronicler of life events.  I’m just no good at it, though I always have the best of intentions.  I’m too distracted and engrossed in the life that is happening to remember to write down the life that has already happened.  *sigh*

My 2013-2023 Journal 10

“Mom, what was my first word?”  ”Ummmm……mama?”  ”Mom, when did I take my first step?  …lose my first tooth?”  ”Call Aunt Debi.”  (My sister is NOT a failed chronicler.  She still has calendars from the Reagan era and actually can tell my kids when they lost their first tooth.  :)  She rocks!)  Does it count if I remembered to tell them all to call my sister, who I knew would write it down, when great moments in life history occurred?  Ok, probably not.  *sigh, again*

I’m not sure what my mental block to journaling and recording events has been, but I think that Journal 10 may have a solution for me, and for any of you who are like me.  (Please, tell me that some of you are like me.  Don’t leave me hanging out here, on this extremely scatter-brained cliff, by myself.  :) )  Journal 10 makes keeping records and recording important moments, less intimidating.  Plus, with ten years of entries, all in one journal, what a hoot it will be to look back and see a full decade of meaningful moments recorded in your own handwriting.  That’s right, ten years, in one book!  Which means, you don’t look like a dork only writing one sentence on a huge blank page.  There’s only one page for ten-years-worth of June 22′s or November 13′s.  One or two sentences in, each year, is all there is room for.  I can DO this!  The journal is well-made, leather bound and has a ribbon bookmark attached.

10 years of spaces for each date. One or two sentences of what happened, or how you were blessed, and then it’s on with life, but that journal will become a treasure of memories and thoughts for you, and for your family!

GIVEAWAY: I’m excited because Journal 10 is making one of these great memory-keepers available to Busy-at-Home readers through a fun giveaway!  So, be sure to enter for your chance to win.

In a comment on this post, tell me whether you are an epic chronicler or a failed recorder of history, like me.  Also, tell me your favorite thing about the Journal 10.  After you comment, register your entry with the Rafflecopter form.  Good luck!

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This post has been compensated as part of  Central Garden and Pet’s, Pennington Smart Feed Blogger Program.  A positive review was not required and use and testing of this product were done in my home garden, according to my own criteria and specifications.  As with all Busy-at-Home reviews, the views and opinions expressed are wholly my own and based on my personal experience with the product.

This is just a sneak peek at the garden project that is developing in my back yard. As you can see from the first picture, it was completely neglected, last summer. Thankfully, I have been blessed with the time and resources to begin the building process and as that second picture attests, I am making progress. Can’t wait to show you the finished product, in an upcoming post!

Spring is finally glorious, in southeast Nebraska!  Really!  The sun has replaced the gloomy clouds and the cool, rainy weather has given way to warm, green and wonderful.  I am in full-tilt gardening mode, at this moment, and couldn’t be more excited!  As you recall, last summer, David took ill and everything was dropped in order to focus on his healthcare.  That means the garden I dreamed of building and working, sort of fell by the wayside and though I did harvest several batches of wonderful heirloom tomatoes, nothing else happened and most certainly, nothing else grew.  My vision for what the garden COULD BE was definitely much different than what it actually became.  So, as I ventured to the backyard, this past weekend, I was met with the remnants of all my good intentions, but poor practice.  I’m going to have several posts in the next few days about my garden progress and how it’s shaping up, but today, I HAVE to get my tomato plants in the ground, so I’m focusing on sharing some tomato planting tips with you.  Be kind.  :)  I rarely do videos and I am a gardening-mess in this one, but I think I do share a couple of points that I hope will be useful as you get going with your own garden.

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I used Pennington‘s new Smart Feed Sprayer System to water and fertilize my tomatoes, as I worked, today.  It was my first time using the product and I really liked how easy it was to use.  I attached the sprayer to my garden hose, loaded the 20-20-20 (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium) Tomato and Vegetable tablet into the sprayer and fed my gorgeous tomato plants, as I watered them.  I purchased my Smart Feed System at our local Walmart, but it can be found in several national retail chains. Pennington, is known for exceptional lawn and garden care products, and I feel like their launch of the Pennington Smart Feed Sprayer System will revolutionize the way home gardeners take care of their gardens, lawn and shrubs.  It was so simple, no mixing or measuring and I’m excited to see the strong, healthy results in my plants.  Today, I used the Tomato and Vegetable tablets, but Pennington Smart Feed All Purpose tablets and Pennington Smart Feed Flowers and Blooms tablets, specially formulated for their specific tasks, are also available.  After my experience, today, I’m sure I’ll be using them all, this summer.

Pennington Smart Feed Sprayer System and canisters of All Purpose and Tomato/Vegetable Fertilizer tablets. I found mine in the garden department at Walmart.

I’ll be back soon with new gardening posts, but in the meantime, remember these important tips for growing tomatoes:

1. Start seed early, to get a good start on hearty plants.  I used heirloom seeds and started them in the house at the end of January.  My plants are enormous, now and already setting on blooms.  This is especially cool, because our early spring weather was not conducive to gardening.  It was too cold and too wet.  Having the plants already started and strong, in the house, means that now that weather is warm, I will have tomatoes on schedule, or maybe even a little early.
2. Use heirloom seeds.  This prevents delicious varieties of fruits and vegetables from becoming extinct, ensures you know exactly what you’re getting when you harvest fruits and vegetables,  and you can save the seeds from your produce, to replant next year, instead of buying more.
3. When planting, bury at least 1/4 of the tomato plant’s main stem, under the soil.  you’ll need to pinch off those bottom branches, so you have just bear stem.  New roots will grow up and down the length of that extra stem length, that is underground.  A stronger root system means stronger healthier plants, as they can absorb even more water and nutrients from the soil, as well as provide a more solid foundation that protects them from wind.
4. Be sure to pinch off and leaves or branches, at the base of your tomato plant, that touch the ground, once you’ve finished planting.  Blights and foliar diseases are more common when those leaves come in contact with the soil.
5. For the same reason, water tomatoes at the base of the plant, near the roots, instead of showering the leaves with water.
6. Determinate plants will produce tomatoes throughout the entire growing season, however they are not neat, compact little bushes.  Typically, indeterminate tomatoes are vines and a trellis or caging system will be necessary for the healthiest plants.
7. Use a fertilizer you trust, with a good mix of nutrients for tomatoes.  Pennington Smart Feed Tomato and Vegetable tablets were the perfect nutrient for my tomatoes, as I wait for my next batch of compost to be ready to use.

GIVEAWAY:  Pennington is generously sponsoring a $50 American Express Gift Card Giveaway to help a Busy-at-Home reader get their own good start on a garden for their family.   You must be 18 or older and a resident of the U.S. to enter.  Winner will be selected in a random drawing, from all entries submitted.  The contest is being administered by Busy-at-Home and prize fulfillment is through a third-party affiliate of Pennington.

Mandatory Entry:  Entry is simple!  In a comment on this post, share your very best gardening or lawn tip and what you’ll be growing at home, this summer.  That’s it!  Register your entry on the Rafflecopter form, below and good luck!

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I am a member of the Collective Bias®  Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias®, Odwalla, and Champions for Kids #cbias #SocialFabric  A positive review was not required and as with all Busy-at-Home reviews, the views and opinions expressed are wholly my own and based on my personal experience with the product. Neither Collective Bias, Odwalla, nor Champions for Kids are affiliated in any way with the giveaway. The giveaway is sponsored and administered by Busy-at-Home.

Well, by now, you and I have had many conversations about Champions for Kids.  We’ve walked through the excitement of several Simple Service Projects, so I know you’ll understand when I get really enthusiastic about the CFK Simple Service Project for May and ask you to get involved in your own hometown.  This one is BIG and you have the power to make such an impact!  CFK’s partner for May is Odwalla, who makes nutritious snack bars and fruit juice smoothies, which makes them a perfect fit for this month’s important project.

I was able to pick up Odwalla nutrition bars in 6-pack boxes and even more flavors were available, as singles.  They will make a good nutritious snacking option in the bags, alongside the main dish recipe ingredient items that I am also donating.  I found them in the produce department in my Walmart.

Childhood hunger is REAL in the United States.  We are used to thinking of it being a problem in third world countries, but it’s somehow harder to accept that children in our own country, our states, and even our own communities, could be going hungry.  We’re always sure we would see it — that, somehow, we would know.  Sadly, that perception is way off.  More and more people in the United States are without work, struggling to find a job and to provide for their families.  Whatever the circumstance that causes it, more than 16 million children in the United States, (that’s 1 in 5 kids), live in households that struggle to put food on the table.  Around 22% of kids under 18, in America, live in poverty;  and for many American children and their families, one of the most difficult “hunger seasons” is about to begin, for them.  Right now, about 9.8 million children receive free or reduced price lunches, at school.  10.6 million more are eligible, but go without.  When school lets out for the summer, those children will lose access to the school breakfasts, lunches and after-school snacks they receive during the regular school year. Only 1 out of 6 children who receive free or reduced-price meals, during the school year, continue to receive meals during the summer months. Low-income families face even more challenges, during the summer, as they find themselves needing to stretch their food budgets to provide additional meals, throughout the day, for their children who are now at home, instead of school.

Three of my favorite little faces in the world and another reason this project is important to me. We are blessed to not have to worry about putting food on the table, but that hasn’t always been the case. Once we were finally able to provide for our family on our own, it was important to me to teach our children, and now, our beautiful grandchildren, to be generous and serve others with great love and compassion. Modeling service and generosity is the best ways to teach those traits!

Don’t fool yourself into thinking you would necessarily see it, or that it would be obvious.  It’s a tough, and often embarrassing thing to admit you can’t afford food for your family.  Both adults and kids are often very good at hiding their struggle, because they mistakenly feel ashamed about their situation.  Look at that statistic, again.  1 in 5 kids in the United States live in households that struggle to put food on the table.  How many kids do you know?  If you lined them all up, statistically, with every fifth child, you would be looking into the face of someone hungry — someone who’s life YOU have the power to improve.

Blue Valley Community Action Food Pantry – This is where we make our donations. For the privacy of those utilizing food pantry services, we aren’t able to take photos inside. It’s a great organization with branches that serve in multiple locations in southeast Nebraska.

And THAT is why I love Champions for Kids.  They aren’t looking for a grandiose gesture or contribution to, singlehandedly, solve the whole problem.  What they understand is that the small, meaningful efforts of multiplied individuals, has the power to change the lives of many thousands and millions of children, all across our country.  Each of us, individually doing what is within our means, in our own communities, and spreading the word to encourage others to also do what they can, could literally feed a nation of hungry children.  The individual contributions of millions have already provided resources and food for children in need across America, through Champions for Kids Simple Service projects.  This month’s project has me inspired to keep the ball rolling in my community, by donating healthy snacks and meal ingredients to our local food pantry, as school is coming to a close, for summer.

More of the items for my donation. I’m excited to provide the ingredients for one of our family’s favorite main dish recipes along with the other items. Be sure to check with your local food pantry. We are very fortunate, as ours has refrigeration available for meat and produce donations, too.

Having worked with our local food pantry on several projects, one of the things that the director shared with me, that has always stuck, is that people will often come in to select food for their families, but not be familiar with some of the available ingredients or how to use them.  Whenever I take food donations there, now, I always “package” them in a sort of family pack.  Instead of selecting random ingredients to donate and put out on the shelves, I include recipes and all the necessary ingredients to prepare them.  These pre-bagged contributions are set aside and provided as a complete package to a family who comes in for assistance.  It ensures that they won’t have to shop for any extras to be able to successfully prepare a nutritious meal or dish for their family.  You can work with Champions for Kids and Odwalla to be part of the solution, in your hometown, too.  Take a look at my shop album and get inspired with some ideas for contributions to your own local food pantry.  Then get out there and do it.  It’s a small effort with HUGE impact and I know Busy-at-Home readers are creative, loving people who will rock this project!  I can’t wait to see what you do!  And CFK wants to thank you, too, so be sure to tell them about your project, using this link.

Three “family bags” ready to go – packed full of ingredients, snacks and recipes. The Walmart totes are only $1 and are the perfect way to include something else useful and reusable.

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GIVEAWAY: Leave a comment, on this post, telling me what you plan to do to help fight childhood hunger in your community, this summer.   Once you’ve submitted your comment, then use the Rafflecopter form, below, to register your entry in the drawing to win a $25 Walmart Gift Card!

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On May 12, the finalists will be reduced to five, based on YOUR votes for our recipes.  I would so appreciate you taking the time to cast your vote for Chocolate Cake, Busy-at-Home and I can’t thank you enough!  When you click the link, to vote, be sure to LIKE Pompeian, so you can cast a vote.  Then at the bottom of the age, you’ll see the link to check out the 15 finalists.  Clicking that will show a page with all 15 recipes.  Please choose the radio button for Chocolate Cake, Busy-at-Home and hit the submit button.  Then you will be able to enter the giveaway!

Why would I be so excited about a recipe contest?  It may seem sort of silly to you, but to me, it would be one of the most exciting things to happen for my blog.  The prize is an all-expense paid trip to BlogHer Food ’13,  the ultimate food blogger’s educational and networking conference!  What a fantastic blessing it would be for growing my blog and learning even more that I’d be able to share with all of you.  So, yeah…I’m just a little excited.  :)  Thanks in advance for being such awesome fans and followers and for taking the time to cast your vote!  Busy-at-Home readers are THE best!  :)

And in case you missed it in the last post, here’s the cake recipe, again.  It really IS the Best Chocolate Cake!

I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community. This content has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias® and Kraft Foods. The recipe is my own original creation. A positive review was not required, and as with all Busy-at-Home reviews, the views and opinions expressed are wholly my own and based on my personal experience with the product.

Something about cold weather inspires me to make casseroles, even if the cold weather is long after the beginning of spring.  We are waiting for the last remnants of winter to give up and let go, here in southeast Nebraska, and without a doubt, we’ve had some perfect casserole weather.  So, when I had the opportunity to create a recipe using Kraft Fresh Take, you know I didn’t bread something with the Southwest Three Cheese kit, I selected.  I went, just slightly, outside the box.  Kraft Fresh Take is a meal kit that provides you with a fresh take for your usual weeknight suppers. The cheese and breadcrumb mix provides a flavor-punch that dresses up many of the recipes you already use, making them something new and special.  They are easy to find in the cheese aisle at your local grocery store.

There are so many wonderfully flavorful varieties of Kraft Fresh Take to choose from that you’ll be able to find something to complement any recipe.

I think you and your family will love the hearty Southwest Chicken Meatball Casserole, I created.  It’s the ultimate comfort food with just a bit of a Southwest kick.  I used pasta, but it would definitely work just as well with rice, or even quinoa.  And if you are inspired to make it, or to use Kraft Fresh Take to dress up one of your own family recipes, be sure to watch for immediately redeemable coupons on specially marked packages of chicken.  You’ll save $1.00 off the chicken when you buy Kraft Fresh Take.  Plus, the Kraft Fresh Take Tour Bus may be coming to a store near you, with loads of ideas and recipes for using these simple meal kits.  Check here to see if they will be coming to your town.  Now, here’s that casserole recipe I promised.  Enjoy!

I received a bottle of Pompeian Grape Seed Oil in order to test it in my own kitchen and gather information for this post.  My recipes, below, are entered in a contest and I could win an all-expense paid trip to BlogHer Food ’13.  No monetary compensation was received for this post and a positive review was not required.  As with all Busy-at-Home reviews, the views and opinions expressed are wholly my own.

I’ve apparently been living under a rock somewhere, with no access to the most vital outside information.  How could I have missed this?  Do you know about grape seed oil?  I’m ashamed to admit, until last week, I had never heard of it.  So, I did a little online investigating and was shocked to see that, apparently, EVERYONE except me already knows about it and is excited about the potential health benefits, as well as using it to replace butter in their favorite recipes.

Pompeian Grape Seed Oil – I substituted this for butter in two of my recipes, one savory, one sweet. The results were quite surprising.

Grape seed oil is made by pressing the discarded seeds of grapes, left after wine making.  Some of the articles I read, suggest that grape seed oil has some pretty impressive health benefits since it is rich in Vitamin E, flavonoids, Vitamin C, antioxidants and beta carotene.  It may be helpful in regulating blood sugar and protecting the body from health problems caused by free radicals.  Because grape seed oil can suppress the production of histamine, there are even studies being conducted to see if it might be helpful in reducing the effects of allergies and asthma.  It is also used in many skin care products, since it has astringent properties that help to tighten skin.  Some people have found it helpful in treating acne and that it may protect skin from the sun.  It’s easily absorbed by the skin, since it is so light and many believe it is particularly good for skin around the eyes.

When it comes to cooking, I had no difficulty discerning grape seed oil’s benefits, on my own.  It’s a very light oil and I found that whether I was making sweet or savory dishes, the oil did not overpower or change the flavor in my recipes, at all.  It has a very high smoke point, higher than butter or olive oil, and that means it may also work as an alternative to butter for frying, stir frying and even deep-fat frying.  I haven’t had a chance to use it in any dressings or vinaigrettes, yet, but because it is such a light oil, without any overpowering flavors to compete with other ingredients, I think it would be a delicious complement in most salad dressing recipes.

I’m not going to lie.  When it comes to replacing butter in my recipes, I’m a hard sell.  I love what butter does for flavor and texture, when I’m cooking or baking.  And if you’ve been around the blog for very long, you know that from my recipes.  So, to really put Pompeian Grape Seed Oil to the test, I decided it was not going to be enough to try it in just one recipe.  I wanted to replace butter in both a savory and a sweet recipe, to see the results.  My two recipes that I believe are most dependent on the butter for the reasons, mentioned above, are Chocolate Butter Cake and my Better than Cream of Chicken Sauce.  I altered both recipes to substitute grape seed oil for the butter.  No one was more surprised than me!  Texture and flavor were virtually unchanged in both recipes.  The cake was not quite as moist as when we make it with butter, but the flavor was spot on and the whole family loved it.  There was no detectable difference in the sauce.  It was absolutely perfect.  I think you will love BOTH these recipes; and when it comes to savings, ounce for ounce, grape seed oil is slightly less expensive than butter.  Money savings AND good for both baking and stove-top cooking –it’s hard to argue with success!  Enjoy!

TIP: When substituting oils for butter, in baking, I use a ratio of ¾:1.  For example, if your recipe calls for 1 cup of softened butter, substitute 3/4 cup of oil.  Otherwise your baked goods may be too “soupy” and not set up correctly.  For stove top cooking, I use a 1:1 ratio (equal amounts of oil substituted for butter).

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This post is linked up with Tasty Tuesday and the Make, Bake, Create Party #5.