# Homemaker Portrait | Heather Love

An episode of [The Art of Home: A Podcast for Homemakers](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1557993655), 6 Sep 2023, 1 h 03 min.

Audio: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1587457/episodes/13527792-homemaker-portrait-heather-love.mp3

Send me a text about this episode! Join me for this In-the-Trenches Homemaker Portrait of Heather Love of @thesimplelove_ . Heather has been keeping a home for over a decade and she stays extra busy these days caring for and homeschooling her 3 young children. She has a passion for wellness and the healing power of food. Right now she is mostly fleshing out that passion in her daily homemaking, but she occasionally shares insights and practical ideas on her blog and YouTube channel. We talk a good bit about living within your limits and resisting the pull of perfectionism in homemaking. Wherever you are in your homemaking journey, I know you will enjoy Heather's story of home. IN THIS EPISODE Connect with Heather: • Instagram| @thesimplelove_ • Website | thesimplelove.com • YouTube | TheSimpleLove All other links and resources will be available in this week's free newsletter. Click the link below to subscribe. *For future reference, check newsletter archive HOMEMAKING RESOURCES Free Weekly Newsletter, Homemaker Happy Mail Newsletter Archive Free Audio Version and Study Guide for JR Miller's "Homemaking" • Listen to the Audio of the book in our 2023 Summer Reading Series • Get Your Free Study Guide SUPPORT & CONNECT WITH US Leave Us A Review • Love The Podcast (works on any device) Stay In Touch with The Art of Home Podcast • Leave Us a Voicemail • Instagram | Facebook | Website | Email Follow The Art of Home on Your Listening App • Follow The Podcast (works on any device) Support The Art of Home (detailed instructions for sharing, reviewing and tipping) Support the show HOMEMAKING RESOURCES • Homemaker's Journal, AoH Seasonal Magazine • Private Facebook Group, Homemaker Forum • JR Miller's Homemaking Study Guide SUPPORT & CONNECT • Review | Love The Podcast • Contact | Text/Voicemail-use the link at top of description | Website | Email • Follow | Follow The Podcast • Support | theartofhomepodcast.com/support DISCLOSURE • **Buy | as an Amazon affiliate, AoH receives a small commission at no extra cost to you when you use our links to purchase items we recommend • AI Content | Portions of this episode’s copy and/or show notes may have been drafted with the assistance of AI and then reviewed and edited by a human, Allison Weeks.

## Transcript

[0:03] Allison Weeks: Hello, homemakers, and welcome to the Art of Home podcast, where we are exploring how Homemakers cultivate a place to belong.
[0:10] Allison Weeks: I'm your host, allison Weeks.
[0:11] Allison Weeks: I'm a wife, I'm a mom to four grown kids and a granny to one little boy, and I've been practicing the Art of Home for over 31 years now.
[0:20] Allison Weeks: If you're new to the show, welcome.
[0:22] Allison Weeks: I'm so glad that you found us.
[0:24] Allison Weeks: We are going to be giving you a Homemaker portrait today, which is what we normally do.
[0:29] Allison Weeks: We also do some deep dives that are topical episodes here on the Art of Home, but for the rest of this year we will just be doing Homemaker portraits, and all of the portraits from this point on are of listeners, just like you.
[0:43] Allison Weeks: We'll be opening up applications again for listeners to apply in November, maybe late October, so make sure that you keep an eye out for that.
[0:54] Allison Weeks: I will announce it probably on Instagram and I will definitely announce it in the newsletter that goes out every Friday during our regular seasons.
[1:03] Allison Weeks: So if you're not subscribed to the newsletter, this would be a great reason to subscribe.
[1:08] Allison Weeks: It's totally free and it arrives in your inbox every Friday morning.
[1:13] Allison Weeks: We call it Homemaker Happy Mail and that's the idea.
[1:16] Allison Weeks: It's to put a smile on your face and help you finish your Homemaking Week well, with some encouragement and some inspiration, some tips and some ideas, even some thoughts and some devotions occasionally.
[1:30] Allison Weeks: We will always put the links and the resources shared from our guests in that newsletter.
[1:37] Allison Weeks: So if you're looking for something that you think might be in the show notes and it's not there, it's probably going to be in the newsletter.
[1:43] Allison Weeks: So that's all the many reasons why it's a good idea to sign up for that.
[1:47] Allison Weeks: If you have not yet, just go to theartofhomepodcastcom slash, subscribe, and you can also see some of our past newsletters in the archive, which you can navigate to from that page as well.
[2:00] Allison Weeks: Today's episode is episode four in our season of six episodes, so we're winding it down.
[2:06] Allison Weeks: After this week we only have two more and then we'll take a couple of weeks off and come back for an extra long fall season.
[2:14] Allison Weeks: We're going to get a couple of bonus episodes, so it'll be an eight episode season next time, and that's because I wanted to make sure that I got as many of the portraits in as I could before it was time to do our holiday series that we do every year around Christmas time.
[2:32] Allison Weeks: So you have that to look forward to.
[2:35] Allison Weeks: The subject for today's Homemaker Portrait is in the trenches Homemaker Heather Love.
[2:40] Allison Weeks: Now, this is an in-person interview because Heather and I have a mutual acquaintance and that's how she discovered the show.
[2:48] Allison Weeks: But our paths had not crossed and we had not met face to face until she came to my house for her interview.
[2:55] Allison Weeks: So that was a real treat to get to know her and to get to hear her story of taking care of three very busy little children.
[3:04] Allison Weeks: And she's in her second year of homeschooling, so she's learning how to navigate those waters and all the changes that that brings to their daily rhythms.
[3:12] Allison Weeks: And Heather has a passion for health and using food to heal the body and she has a blog and a YouTube channel that she's able to give a little bit of time to explore those things and provide resources for other moms.
[3:27] Allison Weeks: But she does say that her primary focus right now is her children.
[3:31] Allison Weeks: Maybe down the road, god will bring opportunities for her to explore the health and wellness side in the blog and YouTube channel more, but right now her focus is at home.
[3:41] Allison Weeks: Whether you're a new listener or you've been listening for a while, I just want to thank you for trusting me with some of your time today, whatever you are applying your hands to, as you listen and take us along.
[3:52] Allison Weeks: I know you will enjoy Heather's story of home.
[3:55] Allison Weeks: Okay, welcome to the art of home.
[4:00] Allison Weeks: I am here with my new friend, heather Love.
[4:03] Allison Weeks: We have a mutual acquaintance but we have not met actually face to face until today.
[4:07] Allison Weeks: So I'm going to welcome Heather to the podcast here and we're going to go into her homemaker story and get the background on that.
[4:15] Allison Weeks: But before we do, heather, why don't you just introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about who you are today?
[4:21] Heather Love: Yes, thank you for having me.
[4:22] Heather Love: I'm Heather Love and I am a mom of three little ones Asher is six, judah is almost four and Poppy just turned one.
[4:31] Heather Love: I am also homeschooling, so it's just a lot of little kids at home nonstop.
[4:41] Allison Weeks: I didn't know that you were homeschooling.
[4:42] Allison Weeks: Okay, we're going to talk about that.
[4:45] Heather Love: So I'm definitely in the trenches, like your trenches homemaker.
[4:48] Allison Weeks: Uh-huh.
[4:49] Allison Weeks: Yep yep, absolutely.
[4:51] Allison Weeks: How long have you been?
[4:53] Heather Love: married A little over 10 years.
[4:54] Heather Love: 10 years.
[4:55] Heather Love: Congratulations.
[4:56] Heather Love: Thank you.
[4:57] Allison Weeks: Okay, anything else?
[4:58] Allison Weeks: Little's, three little's and homeschooling.
[5:01] Allison Weeks: I think that's enough.
[5:02] Allison Weeks: I think that's enough to keep you busy.
[5:05] Allison Weeks: Okay, let's go back to the beginning.
[5:07] Allison Weeks: Actually, let me just say how much I love your daughter's name.
[5:11] Heather Love: That's the best name, Poppy.
[5:13] Heather Love: We love it.
[5:14] Heather Love: Okay, can you?
[5:14] Allison Weeks: tell me, where did that name come from?
[5:16] Heather Love: Yeah, it's kind of a funny story, just with all of our kids' names.
[5:20] Heather Love: We kind of went back and forth Like I would have a list, okay, let's see if Jordan likes any of these, you know, and we'd go off.
[5:25] Heather Love: And so when I she's our first girl, so so excited for a girl name, and then my name's Heather, you know, and it's kind of more floral, so I was more so attracted to the floral names and I had Poppy on my list, I was like there's no way Jordan's going to like that, I just know it.
[5:41] Heather Love: But he was like it's kind of a cute, you know spunky name, like really, like there's a chance.
[5:47] Heather Love: And then he recently realized that he has a lot of like background from coming from England and it's more, it's a popular name in England.
[5:57] Heather Love: And then we just started discovering all these things, like with his name being Jordan.
[6:02] Heather Love: It's funny because, like our boys' names are Asher and Judah, you know which kind of compliments the Jordan River.
[6:08] Heather Love: And then we learned that the Poppy flower grows along the Jordan River and so there's just all these little things that were coming in.
[6:15] Heather Love: We were like okay you know what this?
[6:16] Heather Love: Name is perfect.
[6:17] Heather Love: I love that.
[6:18] Allison Weeks: Oh, that's really cool.
[6:20] Heather Love: Oh, that's so cool and I love the Jordan River.
[6:22] Allison Weeks: And, oh, that's awesome.
[6:23] Allison Weeks: So is Jordan?
[6:24] Allison Weeks: He's British or he just has ancestry?
[6:27] Heather Love: Oh, like we took a 23 and me, and for a while he thought he was Russian because it's like I think his great grandparents loved the Russian stuff.
[6:35] Heather Love: And so he just started realizing, oh, I'm not Russian at all, I'm actually primarily British and like Irish.
[6:40] Heather Love: So yeah new discoveries, that's so cool.
[6:44] Allison Weeks: Yeah, for a little bit my husband, I forgot what it was, something odd.
[6:47] Allison Weeks: And then I guess they get more.
[6:49] Allison Weeks: They get more information the more people do the testing and it just kept narrow.
[6:55] Allison Weeks: I mean we already knew this, but it kept narrowing and narrowing down more and more and more to like totally Scottish, okay yeah, and if you saw, his beard is white now, but it used to be completely red.
[7:07] Allison Weeks: So his beard was red but his hair wasn't red, but he's kind of gingery, like you can tell.
[7:12] Allison Weeks: His coloring is sort of gingery.
[7:15] Heather Love: Anyway, like it's so fun to see all those little details that come into play, yeah, I love it, so that's such a cool name story.
[7:22] Heather Love: It's so great.
[7:25] Allison Weeks: It'll be interesting to see how she grows into her name, Like what she she's already a character.
[7:31] Heather Love: So, yes, I am intrigued as well.
[7:34] Allison Weeks: Okay, all right, let's go back to the beginning of your story.
[7:37] Allison Weeks: So when did you first become a homemaker, and when you did, did you have any skills?
[7:41] Heather Love: I would say it started when I had my first.
[7:44] Heather Love: I was staying home with him.
[7:47] Heather Love: I had a job at the time, but it was very part time, sporadic type job, so I was primarily home with him and as I started having more kids, it became okay, no, I'm, I'm staying home with these kids.
[7:58] Heather Love: So that's when it started, and I would say I brought cooking and health into it.
[8:04] Heather Love: I've always enjoyed cooking.
[8:06] Heather Love: I grew up with a family who enjoyed to cook.
[8:09] Heather Love: Uncle and aunt were just really amazing chefs, and so they would bring me over to their house and show me how to make, like, homemade sourdough bread, and I just loved it.
[8:19] Heather Love: And then, yeah, my mom she was it stay at home mom and taught me how to cook, and so I developed that skill and health.
[8:28] Heather Love: Yeah, I don't know, I just I think my mom was into health too and I kind of just ran with that as well to get to the next level.
[8:35] Heather Love: Yeah, but yeah, so I studied that and, yeah, I would say I brought that into it.
[8:43] Allison Weeks: Okay, what were you seriously lacking in?
[8:46] Heather Love: What was something that you had a big learning curve for Lots of things Okay, the so many things but I would say, since I recently started homeschooling, that has been really challenging for me.
[8:59] Heather Love: I'm not a natural teacher at all.
[9:01] Heather Love: I'm very.
[9:03] Heather Love: I can be scatterbrained and like free spirited, and so I am completely learning how to prep and plan and have schedules and calendars and all that, and it doesn't come naturally to me.
[9:15] Heather Love: Organizing does not come naturally to me.
[9:17] Heather Love: I'm more like artsy type brain, you know, yeah, and but yeah, god has definitely been teaching me that and it's cool to see how that's developing and I'm just like, okay, I could not do this without God, but he is completely showing me and I'm loving it as well.
[9:32] Heather Love: So it's that has been, yes, a very big learning curve.
[9:36] Heather Love: So this is your first year, or I'm going into my second year of school.
[9:41] Heather Love: You're second year, okay, just taking it year by year.
[9:44] Allison Weeks: So you know it goes.
[9:45] Allison Weeks: That's a good way to do it.
[9:46] Allison Weeks: Yeah, yeah Cool.
[9:48] Allison Weeks: And so your kids are.
[9:50] Allison Weeks: I know you already told me they're ages, but so remind me again, do we have a preschooler?
[9:55] Heather Love: Yeah, so Asher would be going into, is going into first grade, first grade and then Judah Pre-K Pre-K Okay, just a baby, yeah, well, who is making it challenging?
[10:04] Heather Love: For sure, yes, definitely.
[10:07] Allison Weeks: You had lots of Play-Doh, lots of you know extra little.
[10:09] Allison Weeks: Here you play with this over here.
[10:11] Allison Weeks: Yes, While we do this, lots of distraction.
[10:13] Allison Weeks: Yes, yeah, we did.
[10:14] Allison Weeks: We homeschooled for eight years.
[10:16] Heather Love: Okay.
[10:17] Allison Weeks: And then, the first year that we did it, my youngest was, oh gosh, probably about the same age as your daughter.
[10:26] Allison Weeks: Okay yeah, he was like 16 or 18 months or something like that?
[10:30] Allison Weeks: Or how old is your daughter?
[10:31] Allison Weeks: 13 months, 13 months, okay.
[10:32] Allison Weeks: So he was a little bit older, but still super child, and I had a preschooler.
[10:36] Allison Weeks: So I had two who were in grade school and then I had a preschooler and then a baby.
[10:41] Allison Weeks: So it was that first year was rough.
[10:43] Allison Weeks: Yes, yes.
[10:45] Heather Love: It was rough for me as well.
[10:47] Allison Weeks: So how are you doing like because you said you're more of a free spirit.
[10:51] Allison Weeks: Did you approach your homemaking?
[10:52] Allison Weeks: Do you approach your homemaking as a free spirit?
[10:54] Allison Weeks: And did this transition into homeschooling also have kind of forced you to be more structured in all the things?
[11:01] Heather Love: Yes, I was with my first, when I just had one baby, I could completely be free spirited.
[11:08] Heather Love: He did everything with us.
[11:09] Heather Love: He would stay up late with us Like there was no schedule or anything.
[11:12] Heather Love: And I was like I am not a mom who makes schedules, because I don't want to be tied down to schedules, and so I like take it too far to the other end.
[11:20] Heather Love: But when I started having a second third, I was like, oh my gosh, I need schedules for my sanity.
[11:24] Heather Love: You guys have to go to bed together, you have to, like, take a nap together.
[11:28] Heather Love: I cannot do this, I am losing it.
[11:30] Heather Love: So that kind of started the schedules.
[11:32] Heather Love: And then, yes, with the homeschooling, I was like, oh no, I need this too, a whole new level.
[11:39] Heather Love: Now that I didn't realize that I needed.
[11:42] Allison Weeks: So it's been a learning curve, yeah, and it will still be continue to be a learning curve.
[11:47] Allison Weeks: Adaptability and flexibility, I think, are the signs of a good homemaker, because you just have to be flexible and you have to be willing to adapt and change as your seasons change, as circumstances and life situations change.
[12:06] Allison Weeks: So that's what I've learned, all right, so who or what has had the biggest or just a big influence on your homemaking, would you say?
[12:16] Heather Love: I would say my mom.
[12:17] Heather Love: I was at home a lot with my mom growing up and, yeah, she was a complete homemaker.
[12:21] Heather Love: She cooked all the time for us.
[12:24] Heather Love: When above and beyond.
[12:26] Heather Love: So where I'm like you expect it.
[12:29] Heather Love: When you leave you're like wait, what, how do I take care of myself?
[12:31] Heather Love: Now?
[12:31] Heather Love: My mom took a little too good care of me and now I need to go learn.
[12:35] Heather Love: So she was a big influence and, yeah, she homeschooled us.
[12:40] Heather Love: I was only homeschooled for a couple of years in middle school I'm the oldest and so the younger ones were homeschooled longer but I kind of she inspired me along the way to I can do these things like my mom did it.
[12:53] Heather Love: So she played a big role in that.
[12:56] Allison Weeks: That's good.
[12:56] Allison Weeks: That's a real blessing that you had that.
[12:58] Allison Weeks: Well, let's talk a little bit about expectations.
[13:01] Allison Weeks: So what were some things that surprised you about homemaking?
[13:05] Allison Weeks: Either good or bad, something you didn't expect.
[13:08] Heather Love: So much harder than I ever anticipated.
[13:10] Heather Love: Just kids in general, just how they are nonstop, I don't know.
[13:17] Heather Love: It's like I expected there to be more breaks or something and you kind of have to create that.
[13:21] Heather Love: But yeah, I had to let go of all my expectations and realize, okay, it's like one day at a time and it's fun, it's learning how to do it is so much fun.
[13:32] Heather Love: But just yeah, Surrendering everything was hard for me for sure.
[13:41] Allison Weeks: And you had two boys in a row too, and that's a lot of noise and action, and I mean girls can be that way too, but I don't know.
[13:49] Allison Weeks: There's just something about boys, man.
[13:51] Allison Weeks: They demand a lot of attention and energy.
[13:54] Heather Love: That's what I hear from others and I'm just like, yes, it is nonstop chaos.
[13:58] Heather Love: I'm glad I got that girl, because if I had three boys right now I don't know.
[14:05] Allison Weeks: Was there a particular expectation you had to let go of?
[14:08] Allison Weeks: Like just put in the ground and bury?
[14:11] Heather Love: I'm just kind of a control freak.
[14:13] Heather Love: I can definitely be that way.
[14:14] Heather Love: I like things to go a certain way and I think I'm in control of that.
[14:17] Heather Love: So I think just letting go of my control was really hard, or is really hard still, you know, working on that and but that when I let go of that like feel like God fills me up so much more than I can ever do.
[14:33] Allison Weeks: So yeah, yes, yeah Well, how about when the littles started coming along?
[14:41] Allison Weeks: How did that challenge?
[14:43] Allison Weeks: Well, you've already kind of alluded to how it challenged your home making.
[14:47] Allison Weeks: Just the noise and the constant it never stops of raising kids.
[14:52] Allison Weeks: But how did it enhance your experience at home and your home making?
[14:56] Heather Love: I love creating.
[14:56] Heather Love: I think it's kind of that art driven mind that I have, and so I feel like I'm creating this home and this environment and that was so much fun.
[15:05] Heather Love: I can create a good day or a bad day based off of my thoughts and my actions and all and so, yes, and especially when they're younger like as they grow older, I know that will start to change.
[15:17] Heather Love: They'll be making like their own decisions and everything, but right now it just feels like a fun, creative.
[15:23] Heather Love: I'm kind of leading the boat and I've really enjoyed that.
[15:27] Heather Love: That's great.
[15:29] Allison Weeks: So you were, because you said you were an art major or a graphic art.
[15:32] Heather Love: Yes, yes, graphic design, yes, art.
[15:35] Allison Weeks: Yeah.
[15:35] Allison Weeks: So are you like a artsy, craftsy mom with your boys, do you like?
[15:41] Allison Weeks: Are they like no mom, we're not into crafts.
[15:43] Heather Love: You know it's interesting, my love for art is more like photography and media type of art, but I also love drawing and painting and all that.
[15:53] Heather Love: But the hands on I get a little frustrated with.
[15:57] Heather Love: I think it's probably my perfectionism.
[15:59] Heather Love: I'm just like if I can't get this easily and all, then I'm done with it.
[16:03] Heather Love: So yeah, but I definitely would say like we start the day off every morning our homeschool, we go outside because I love being out in nature and the sunshine and all.
[16:13] Heather Love: I think it's so healthy in so many ways.
[16:15] Heather Love: But we start off with a Bible story and they draw as I'm reading out of their kids Bible and so I bring a lot of like coloring and drawing and just kind of being creative to them and they love that and I love that.
[16:29] Heather Love: So I would say in that way I kind of bring art into it.
[16:33] Allison Weeks: How do you bring art into your actual home environment that you're creating?
[16:39] Heather Love: I would say cooking, cooking is an art.
[16:41] Heather Love: I'll often grab them and I'm like hey, cook this with me.
[16:44] Heather Love: Sometimes they want to, sometimes they don't.
[16:46] Heather Love: We just kind of see what the day is looking like.
[16:48] Heather Love: So, yes, cooking being an art and just, I don't know, just being creative throughout the day, I think creativity is an art.
[16:56] Heather Love: It's just kind of odds and ends, yeah.
[17:00] Allison Weeks: So how do you invite your boys they're still little, so they're learning how to do chores and things like that but how do you invite them into the home making and to taking ownership in the home with you?
[17:12] Heather Love: Yeah, well, we have a short chart.
[17:13] Heather Love: So they started doing that and that's been great because they're helping me out and I'm teaching them.
[17:20] Heather Love: You know you need to work for these goals that you have.
[17:25] Heather Love: They'll pick out a big toy.
[17:26] Heather Love: They'll save up together their money and so that's pretty cute and it usually takes them like a couple months to get to the toy that they wanted, because it's usually a pretty big toy.
[17:34] Heather Love: But I love the lessons that it brings up.
[17:38] Heather Love: Okay, we're gonna work and then we get these rewards.
[17:40] Heather Love: And then also with cooking, like you know, if you want to eat good food or nutritious food, you've got to.
[17:45] Heather Love: You need to get it and then you need to prepare it and cook it.
[17:48] Heather Love: And yeah, I think that's bringing lessons in.
[17:52] Heather Love: And then they also, like they saw me give birth at home and so you know just more of they're watching everything I do, which is pressure, for sure, and I'm showing them.
[18:03] Heather Love: Like mom definitely makes mistakes, but I want them to see these life lessons and hopefully take that with them.
[18:10] Allison Weeks: Oh, that's awesome.
[18:10] Allison Weeks: Yeah, I know you just did a podcast about your home birth experience and we'll link that in the show notes, but so they were there, they got to witness that.
[18:19] Allison Weeks: Yeah, so this was.
[18:21] Heather Love: Poppy's birth.
[18:21] Heather Love: This was Poppy's birth, Okay, yes the three year old.
[18:24] Heather Love: he was, you know, kind of all over the place.
[18:26] Heather Love: My mother-in-law was there to watch him so he would see some of my contractions, but really, when it became more they went upstairs and played.
[18:32] Heather Love: But Asher, my older one, oh my goodness, he was so excited.
[18:36] Heather Love: He was like involved in everything to where at one point they did have to take him out because he was just like running around singing and like distracting me from focusing on what I was doing.
[18:47] Heather Love: But it was so cute.
[18:49] Heather Love: I mean, he was just like, and I prepared him like okay, you know this is a painful process, but like it's natural and this is what is supposed to happen.
[18:57] Heather Love: So if it looks like mom's in pain, it's okay.
[19:00] Heather Love: And so he was very aware of that because I wasn't sure how he was going to act, Like is he going to be scared or not?
[19:06] Heather Love: He was not scared.
[19:07] Heather Love: He was like sitting on the bed next to me, like singing and dancing, and you can.
[19:11] Heather Love: There's a whole video of it where you can see him, because I posted it on YouTube.
[19:15] Heather Love: But he's just so excited and it was really sweet to see.
[19:17] Heather Love: And then at one point he gets a chair and he puts it right in front of the door, like don't go in there, we're protecting mom and the baby, right?
[19:24] Allison Weeks: now.
[19:25] Heather Love: It was super cute.
[19:26] Allison Weeks: Oh, that's so cute.
[19:27] Allison Weeks: Oh, my gosh, I love that.
[19:29] Allison Weeks: Well, okay, let's talk about priorities.
[19:31] Allison Weeks: What are some practical steps that you take to help you set and keep your priorities and keep them in the right order?
[19:39] Heather Love: Yes, this is something that I have really struggled with priorities, I guess that free spirit of mine, yeah, just kind of staying on track.
[19:48] Heather Love: But I recently I ordered a calendar and it was a very beautiful one, has my name, flowers on it, everything.
[19:56] Heather Love: I was like, okay, I'm gonna do this right, I'm gonna make it pretty, because that's going to inspire me to actually do it, and it has really helped actually, just that I was keeping stuff on my phone and I still keep stuff on my phone, but just, for whatever reason, having that hands-on calendar has really helped me.
[20:12] Heather Love: It's a homeschool calendar as well.
[20:15] Heather Love: You can really customize this one, and so I write down the lessons I'm working on with the boys for that day, and then there's a priorities tab, there's a dinners tab, and so that has really kept my focus.
[20:28] Allison Weeks: So it's not like a wall calendar, it's like a planner.
[20:30] Heather Love: Yes, it's a planner, I'm sorry, with a calendar in it.
[20:33] Allison Weeks: Yeah, no, maybe you can share the link to.
[20:37] Allison Weeks: Yeah, I can do that when that came from, and we can Do you know what the?
[20:41] Heather Love: brand is off hand, off the top of my head, no, but I will give that to you.
[20:46] Allison Weeks: Yeah, we'll get the link from you for that.
[20:48] Allison Weeks: Yeah, that's so helpful.
[20:49] Allison Weeks: I do go back and forth between just wanting to have the convenience of having everything on my phone because I always have my phone with me Right same Versus the need for me, because I am a visual learner and very tactile, and so something about writing it down and being able to see it on the paper.
[21:10] Heather Love: Yes, it made a difference.
[21:11] Heather Love: I fought it for a long time because I've tried calendars and planners in the past and I do it for like two days and I don't stick with it.
[21:17] Heather Love: I think it was the combination of it being so customizable Did I say that correctly?
[21:23] Heather Love: Yeah, and it having different tabs that like it has my kids' names on it in those tabs and it has, like I got to plan it, and so I think that made a really big difference and just that it's pretty kind of draws me to it.
[21:39] Allison Weeks: So it has tabs for your kids.
[21:41] Allison Weeks: What are those sections about?
[21:43] Allison Weeks: Is that for planning their lessons?
[21:44] Heather Love: It's just in a planner.
[21:45] Heather Love: Yeah, I chose the homeschool version.
[21:46] Heather Love: There's many different versions, but they have a homeschool version and so you can put your kids in there, you can put subjects they're working on, and so that yeah.
[21:55] Allison Weeks: I imagine, even if you weren't homeschooling, that would still be really valuable to have a section that's true for each kid.
[22:00] Allison Weeks: Yes, we know if you're writing down, like when their school papers are due, or when their events are or when their doctor's appointments are, or whatever Exactly.
[22:08] Heather Love: To keep up with each one.
[22:09] Allison Weeks: Yes, that's cool.
[22:10] Allison Weeks: That sounds like a really great resource.
[22:12] Allison Weeks: Well, okay, I am interested to hear your answer to this question because you have a presence on social media and I just would like to know how do you maintain a healthy relationship with media for yourself?
[22:28] Allison Weeks: And then also, what's your approach currently and maybe looking forward for your kids?
[22:33] Heather Love: Yes, so in my twenties I struggled with this so much I would say I did not have a healthy relationship with social media.
[22:40] Heather Love: That's kind of when it started and became big, and that was a big struggle.
[22:46] Heather Love: I found myself on it way too often.
[22:47] Heather Love: I would end up comparing myself to everyone.
[22:50] Heather Love: It was just not healthy and so I knew I had to kind of figure that out and especially with kids, like first off, you don't have time to do that and then you don't want that to be your priority or time.
[23:02] Heather Love: So figuring that out.
[23:04] Heather Love: But I think what has helped me is just really knowing what it is, knowing the negative effects that can come out of it, because there are many.
[23:13] Heather Love: There are positives as well, but there are also many negatives, and so just knowing what it is has helped me kind of keep that focus.
[23:21] Heather Love: And then I also created a rule for myself that, ok, if you're getting on, say, instagram, you can look at five photos and no more.
[23:29] Heather Love: Oh, and that was just a little rule I created for myself and that's helped me a lot.
[23:33] Heather Love: And I'm very what's the word?
[23:36] Heather Love: If I create a rule for myself, I'm very adamant, what's the right word, I stick to it, yeah, and so that's just really helped me.
[23:44] Heather Love: I'm like OK, I'm done.
[23:45] Heather Love: Wow, I did my five photos.
[23:46] Heather Love: That's some good discipline right there.
[23:48] Heather Love: I'm disciplined.
[23:49] Heather Love: That's the word I was probably looking for, ok.
[23:52] Heather Love: I'm very self-disciplined, great.
[23:54] Heather Love: And then with my kids, I mean they're not to social media yet, thankfully, but I know we'll get there in the future.
[24:00] Heather Love: But I do have.
[24:02] Heather Love: You know, I allow screen time and TV and all that.
[24:06] Heather Love: But then I say, ok, these are some negative things that come from it.
[24:09] Heather Love: It's not healthy for your brain development, it's not healthy for your eyes.
[24:13] Heather Love: All the blue light so we can enjoy these things and obviously it's becoming a very big part of kids' lives today and they need those skills.
[24:22] Heather Love: So I want them to have that.
[24:24] Heather Love: But we need to know our limits and learn self-control.
[24:28] Heather Love: And so just trying to teach that, and I'm creating those limits right now, but I'm hoping that by explaining the negative effects of it, that over time they will develop that self-discipline as well.
[24:39] Allison Weeks: So we'll see.
[24:40] Allison Weeks: Yeah, that's good.
[24:41] Allison Weeks: How do you manage?
[24:42] Allison Weeks: Because you have a YouTube channel and I know we talked before about how this is kind of more of a little side passion project that you're hoping to grow into something else later on, but your focus right now is on your kids and your family.
[24:58] Allison Weeks: But how do you manage, like responding to comments and all that kind of stuff, sort of the marketing side of your passion project?
[25:05] Allison Weeks: Because sometimes I find if I'm going to respond to DMs or I can get sucked into the DM squirrel.
[25:11] Heather Love: You can get sucked in so fast and it's like you want to finish what you started.
[25:15] Heather Love: I know I'm very much like that and so.
[25:17] Heather Love: But sometimes finishing what you started can take hours and hours and then you're missing what you really need to get done in that moment.
[25:23] Heather Love: Again, the calendar has helped me sort of.
[25:27] Heather Love: Okay, at the beginning of each month in this calendar it says, okay, what's your month goal?
[25:32] Heather Love: And I can write those down and then I can take that back to okay, here's my week goal.
[25:36] Heather Love: And I'm able to just write in all these notes of like, okay, this week you wanna accomplish this one thing with because right now it's very small what I'm accomplishing, because my kids are my focus and I don't want to lose that focus.
[25:47] Heather Love: But if I have those one or two goals, I'm actually able to finish them, like when they go to sleep or if they're taking a nap or alls and ends times, and then I feel like, ooh, I accomplished that and it feels good and I'm able to like grow from that.
[26:02] Heather Love: But yes, if I'm not setting those goals and sticking to what I planned, then I can definitely get on that, yeah, that rapid trail and get sucked in, and that's not what I want, Right, right.
[26:16] Allison Weeks: Okay, well, let's talk about some other temptations and challenges in home making.
[26:22] Allison Weeks: Which of these things, these three things, would you say that you've struggled with the most, and what's God teaching you through that A comparison with other women?
[26:32] Allison Weeks: B I'm just a homemaker.
[26:34] Allison Weeks: I don't get paid for this, it's not a real job.
[26:36] Allison Weeks: Or C superwoman, I'm trying to do all the things.
[26:39] Heather Love: Definitely superwoman, okay, and I actually on my about me, I kinda talk about that.
[26:45] Heather Love: I just I have big goals and dreams.
[26:48] Heather Love: I'm very driven Type A personality and I want to accomplish everything and for some reason I've thought multiple times that I can.
[26:56] Heather Love: If I work hard enough, I can do everything.
[27:01] Heather Love: Like I'll prove people wrong, I can do it.
[27:03] Heather Love: It's so silly.
[27:06] Allison Weeks: Oh my gosh, I was just wondering did you watch Parks and Rec ever?
[27:08] Allison Weeks: No, oh, okay, that's probably gonna.
[27:11] Allison Weeks: You won't get the reference but, there's a character in the we're.
[27:14] Allison Weeks: We are watching it for the first time.
[27:15] Allison Weeks: It's an older show and there's a character the main character, leslie Note and there's an episode we just watched it last night and she's literally trying to do all the things and she just epically fails like at everything because she just dropped all kinds of balls everywhere.
[27:29] Allison Weeks: So anyway, yeah, yeah yeah, Yep, that's me.
[27:34] Heather Love: My husband has called me Wreck-It Ralph a few times.
[27:36] Heather Love: Oh, Because I will drop all the balls.
[27:40] Heather Love: Um, like I'm going to fail.
[27:42] Heather Love: Obviously I am not superwoman and I cannot accomplish everything.
[27:46] Heather Love: Like it's okay to have these big goals and dreams and but you're not perfect.
[27:52] Heather Love: And so, knowing that and God has definitely humbled me over the years like okay, calm down, you can't do everything.
[28:00] Heather Love: Um, but yeah, just knowing that I'm going to fail nonstop, has been like oh well, that's a relief.
[28:06] Heather Love: Like, okay, I don't have to do everything.
[28:08] Heather Love: And the more I'm just realized that I'm more empty I can't do it all than he has filled my cup.
[28:15] Heather Love: Like, oh, but I actually can help you a lot, but you're going to have to realize that you can't do it by yourself.
[28:21] Allison Weeks: So that's actually been really like oh, such a relief yeah, it is a relief when we let go of trying to do all everything.
[28:27] Allison Weeks: Yeah, yeah, that's great.
[28:28] Allison Weeks: Well, what about any particular special challenges?
[28:33] Allison Weeks: Have you faced any special challenges in your home making journey?
[28:36] Heather Love: I would say after each baby I definitely have struggled with anxiety and gut health and just fatigue, and I'm not sure if that's because of each pregnancy.
[28:50] Heather Love: I think it's a combination of just wearing myself out because I do have a tendency to do that thinking I can keep going and going, and then it catches up and then I oh my gosh, no, I can't doing that.
[29:03] Heather Love: So realizing that I need more self care and breaks and all of that, but just everything I mean having babies back to back.
[29:12] Heather Love: I've been pregnant or breastfeeding for what seven years now.
[29:15] Heather Love: So it's just.
[29:16] Heather Love: It definitely takes a toll on the body and the mind and everything, and so that's been a struggle over the years, on and off of just okay, I need to heal my gut, I need to heal my mind, and once I start doing that I can do a lot of what I'm wanting to do.
[29:35] Heather Love: But I have to really have that self care and be aware of that and kind of okay, you know, at the end of the day, instead of trying to get more things done, go take a hot bath like learn how to relax and slow down, because I really enjoy doing things like I'm a doer and I enjoy it and I think God made me that way.
[29:55] Heather Love: but I have to learn how to recover.
[29:59] Allison Weeks: Yeah, yeah, well, giving the space for your body to recover, because seven years of birthing and nursing, that is a huge, that's very taxing.
[30:11] Heather Love: You're asking your body to do a lot there and then to just pile more and not give it time to rest.
[30:16] Allison Weeks: So let's I think this might be a good place to talk about sort of your passion project and you know what it is that how you brought your love for health and photography, art together for your blog and just share a little bit about that and maybe how it helped get you through, like the pregnancy, recovering from the pregnancy, and what you've learned and what you would like other women to learn and be encouraged by.
[30:40] Heather Love: Yeah, I definitely find food to be very healing.
[30:43] Heather Love: I think we have a lot of processed food today that can really.
[30:46] Heather Love: It just doesn't help our body, and then we have foods that can really strengthen us, heal us, and so I wanted a lot of the blog.
[30:55] Heather Love: Is me going through my own gut struggles, finding things that have healed me and then hoping to encourage other women if they're going through a similar thing.
[31:06] Heather Love: Hey, this has really helped me.
[31:09] Heather Love: I'm hoping to be an encouragement that it can help you as well, because, oh my gosh, it's been hard at times.
[31:16] Heather Love: Feeling like this is my forever.
[31:19] Heather Love: You know that all or nothing type thinking oh, yeah, like with your diet, you mean yeah, like.
[31:25] Heather Love: There's been times where I've had to cut out certain foods like gluten, dairy eggs, because they're causing me more harm in that moment, but then I've always been able to bring them back in.
[31:35] Heather Love: Yeah, it's just and this is something I'm still learning and all but just the gut connection with the brain and it can get damaged over time.
[31:47] Allison Weeks: Right.
[31:48] Heather Love: For a variety of reasons, and so just finding healing and certain foods like bone broth and quality fat foods and just bringing, yeah, more peace to my gut and my body and my mind, it's been something that I've been working on and then hoping to like create recipes that other women can be like.
[32:09] Heather Love: Oh, I don't have to think about this, I can go here, I can find nourishing foods for myself and for my family and I will improve as well.
[32:19] Allison Weeks: Yeah.
[32:19] Heather Love: Yeah.
[32:20] Allison Weeks: So your blog is mostly recipes, would you say.
[32:24] Heather Love: I would say it's mostly recipes.
[32:26] Heather Love: Okay, yes, and then it's you know, little hacks or tips like traveling.
[32:31] Heather Love: We love to travel and we often travel with all of our kids.
[32:34] Heather Love: We'll go on road trips and all, and so it's all posts.
[32:38] Heather Love: You know, healthy hacks while traveling with kids and how to incorporate that, and so I'm just hoping to like simplify health, because it can be overwhelming and there's a lot of information out there.
[32:49] Allison Weeks: Yeah, and it's always changing, yes, you know, and it's hard to distinguish between what's going to be helpful and what's just like a passing fad, or what's like the new, latest, you know, hot reel on TikTok or whatever, that is very challenging and I and it's been challenging for me as well because I can quickly be like well, they're finding this out.
[33:10] Heather Love: Maybe this is the best new thing.
[33:12] Allison Weeks: You know, and so like.
[33:14] Heather Love: I struggle with that as well, but at first off, it's different for everyone, so what works for one person is not going to work for everyone.
[33:20] Heather Love: I think it's a lot of listening to your body, just slowing down and going back to the basics.
[33:27] Allison Weeks: Yeah, so did you.
[33:28] Allison Weeks: You said you were certified at what was your nutrition coach Nutrition nutrition coaching.
[33:32] Allison Weeks: Okay, yes, so you have some knowledge and some background in this and your own personal experience.
[33:38] Allison Weeks: You were having some gut issues yeah With like IVS and stuff.
[33:43] Heather Love: Yes, I've struggled with it after each baby and so I don't know if it's partly yeah, I think it's partly the the toll of having babies and then nursing and then going nonstop and just yeah, Well, your hormones are all all of it during those times.
[33:57] Allison Weeks: So, yeah, I think we we have a long way to go in growing and our knowledge and understanding of those kinds of things.
[34:04] Heather Love: Right.
[34:04] Allison Weeks: So that's really cool.
[34:05] Allison Weeks: That sounds like it's a good resource for people, and you have a YouTube channel.
[34:08] Allison Weeks: I do, okay, so, but you're not posting a ton on any of these, because your primary focus is your kiddos.
[34:15] Heather Love: Yes, I try to stay consistent with it but like it.
[34:18] Heather Love: If I could just do it whenever, I would say I'd be posting once a week, and it's more like once a month right now, which is still a lot.
[34:27] Allison Weeks: That's still really awesome, so something Okay, well, we'll make sure that we link everything in the notes and we'll remind everybody at the end where they can find you online.
[34:37] Allison Weeks: But let's keep going and let's talk about hospitality.
[34:40] Allison Weeks: Okay, what is a practical way that you show hospitality both to your immediate family and then to other people outside of that?
[34:50] Heather Love: Yeah, well, we love having people over, I love hosting, I love cooking so much.
[34:55] Heather Love: I love just creating a food, making it look pretty and then presenting it to friends or family and just seeing their faces light up.
[35:03] Heather Love: It's just fun.
[35:04] Heather Love: So, and we're in a community group and so we like having community group group over and people within the church and yeah, I think that's a great way to or I think that's one of the ways we show hospitality and then just showing our kids that like having people over, bringing them into your home.
[35:22] Heather Love: It doesn't have to look perfect, especially with kids, it's like usually, you know we try to clean up and all, but there are definitely toys and all everywhere.
[35:30] Heather Love: But you know showing them we're not perfect, we're just having you over.
[35:35] Heather Love: We want to have good conversations and good food.
[35:38] Heather Love: Are there other little?
[35:39] Allison Weeks: kids in your community group?
[35:41] Allison Weeks: Oh yes, there's a lot of kids.
[35:44] Heather Love: So that's a bit crazy.
[35:44] Heather Love: Right now we will do a lot of like girls nights out or guys will go get coffee stuff like that, to just not always have the kids involved, because they're fun but it's distracting, it is.
[35:56] Allison Weeks: Yeah, it's hard to get into really any deep conversations.
[35:59] Allison Weeks: Yes, yes, when you're, you got one eye over here and you're trying to have eye contact with the person you're talking with, but you just constantly keep looking over there, like what is this one doing?
[36:08] Heather Love: What is this one doing?
[36:09] Heather Love: I don't know, and that's why we will.
[36:11] Heather Love: We'll have a mix of like the whole group together where we have kids, but then we'll have them going off so that we can have those better conversations.
[36:19] Heather Love: Yeah.
[36:19] Allison Weeks: Yeah, and there's value in all of it.
[36:22] Allison Weeks: Yeah, there's value in in those meetings where it's chaos and it's all the families and all the kids and it's still, it's still community and we still need that.
[36:31] Allison Weeks: So, yeah, okay, we're going to go and move on to the rapid fire section.
[36:35] Allison Weeks: All right, I'm going to ask you some questions and you can tell me in a short answer or you can tell me a story if you would like.
[36:40] Allison Weeks: So what is your biggest homemaking fail so far?
[36:43] Heather Love: Searching for perfection and then failing at that because I am not perfect.
[36:49] Allison Weeks: Mm-hmm, yep, how about a recent homemaking win?
[36:54] Heather Love: I kind of mentioned this earlier, but the Bible stories in the mornings with my kids that has felt like a big win.
[37:00] Heather Love: It just it's worked.
[37:01] Heather Love: I was like I'm going to give this a try.
[37:02] Heather Love: I want to incorporate these Bible lessons into their day, not only for them but also for me, like I'm reading a kid's Bible and I feel like I'm getting so much more out of it than them.
[37:14] Heather Love: Yep, but they're getting it too Like we had some family over recently and my aunt was saying, wow, judah, who's my three year olds?
[37:22] Heather Love: She was like he kept talking about Jesus to me just nonstop.
[37:25] Heather Love: It was like, oh, that's cute.
[37:26] Heather Love: So these things are sticking.
[37:28] Heather Love: Yes, that's awesome.
[37:30] Allison Weeks: Yeah.
[37:30] Heather Love: That has.
[37:31] Heather Love: That's been really fun.
[37:32] Heather Love: It's like my priority of the day.
[37:34] Heather Love: We start the day off with that and it only takes like 10 minutes and we're basically watching the sunrise together, they're drawing together, and then we're reading this story and I just love it.
[37:45] Allison Weeks: That's so fun.
[37:46] Allison Weeks: Yeah, I would say, some of the deepest lessons that I learned were in those little Bible times with my kids and the kid Bible and there's something about just the cause.
[37:58] Allison Weeks: The gospel is very simple and you know, in its essence the gospel is simple and when we pare it down to a simple gospel presentation in a children's Bible, sometimes God, just like like, hits you over the head with that.
[38:13] Heather Love: Yeah, like you were missing this.
[38:14] Heather Love: Oh, this is so simple.
[38:16] Heather Love: Exactly.
[38:19] Allison Weeks: Well, what about a home making product or resource that you are loving right now?
[38:26] Heather Love: Yeah, so it kind of ties into the gut health, because I'm going through a like a dairy detox and I love dairy and I think there's a lot of nutrients in it.
[38:34] Heather Love: But this is just for this time, healing my gut.
[38:36] Heather Love: That's what I'm doing.
[38:38] Heather Love: And so I'm drinking a lot of almond milk and I have this appliance it's called an almond cow and it is so awesome.
[38:45] Heather Love: I have seen this thing.
[38:47] Allison Weeks: Okay, okay, tell me, how does it work.
[38:50] Heather Love: It makes making nut milk or coconut milk so, so easy and it's so easy to clean and you basically just put the nuts in, throw in some dates, vanilla, and you put the machine together, push a button and it makes it for you and it comes out like so milky and creamy and delicious and it lasts in the fridge like four ish days, something like that, and just it's so easy.
[39:09] Heather Love: I mean, I literally used to make nut milk, like you know, squeezing it with the milk with the nut bag or the nut bag.
[39:16] Allison Weeks: Yes, yes.
[39:18] Heather Love: Or then I'd end up buying it from the store, but there's a lot of fillers in the store bought one and gums and all that.
[39:22] Heather Love: So I didn't really like that, and it also just doesn't taste as good as the homemade version.
[39:27] Heather Love: So I love that machine so much.
[39:29] Heather Love: Okay, I have a question.
[39:31] Allison Weeks: What happens to the fiber?
[39:32] Allison Weeks: You know cause it's pressing, it's extracting the milk from the nut.
[39:37] Heather Love: But in the machine it's not really pressing it, it's so you put the nuts in like this little cylinder thing, and then you put the water on the bottom.
[39:45] Allison Weeks: Okay.
[39:47] Heather Love: And then, yeah, you push the button.
[39:48] Heather Love: That's the funnest part, my kids love it.
[39:50] Heather Love: And so when you open it, the cylinder with the nuts is still attached, and if you take that cylinder off, you see all the like mushy stuff inside, but then in the big like liquid basin it's just the milk.
[40:01] Allison Weeks: So it's mixed, the water that you had in the bottom with whatever it's pressing.
[40:06] Allison Weeks: I don't even know how that works.
[40:07] Allison Weeks: But okay, so you're not really left with like pulp.
[40:12] Heather Love: You have, but it's just in that small cylinder and I just ended up dumping it out.
[40:15] Heather Love: You can add it to like oatmeal or whatever.
[40:17] Allison Weeks: Oh that was yeah.
[40:18] Allison Weeks: I was wondering can you re, can you use?
[40:19] Heather Love: it for something.
[40:20] Heather Love: You can reuse it.
[40:21] Heather Love: Yeah, okay, you could.
[40:22] Heather Love: You can make it like a topper.
[40:23] Allison Weeks: Yeah, Would it be almost almost kind of like an almond flour?
[40:27] Heather Love: sort of it's really wet, so it doesn't come out like an almond flour, but it comes out like a.
[40:31] Heather Love: I wonder if you could dry it out.
[40:33] Heather Love: You could maybe put it on top of your smoothies or.
[40:36] Allison Weeks: I'm not sure Interesting so you.
[40:38] Allison Weeks: You said it also does coconut milk.
[40:39] Allison Weeks: Yeah.
[40:40] Heather Love: Coconut.
[40:40] Heather Love: What do you put?
[40:41] Heather Love: What do you?
[40:43] Allison Weeks: you put like coconut shreds Okay, yeah, like unsweetened coconut.
[40:47] Allison Weeks: Dried coconut shreds, yeah, okay.
[40:51] Heather Love: I have a bunch of those actually, cause I used to make a lot of granola and Okay, and the coconut milk is so good too.
[40:55] Heather Love: And you sweeten it with dates.
[40:56] Heather Love: Okay, you put the dates in with the nuts, like in that little cylinder.
[41:01] Allison Weeks: You can just put them in.
[41:02] Heather Love: Yes.
[41:03] Allison Weeks: Just pit the dates and just put the whole thing in there.
[41:05] Heather Love: Yes, it is so easy you add a pinch of salt and then in the bottom you put water and it like a splash of vanilla and it's seriously good.
[41:14] Allison Weeks: You're selling me on this nut, on this nut cow thing, because You're going to have to go buy it.
[41:18] Allison Weeks: It's worth it.
[41:19] Heather Love: It's.
[41:19] Heather Love: It's a little pricey, it's not outrageous, but it's.
[41:21] Heather Love: You know it's a little pricey, it is worth it.
[41:24] Allison Weeks: Well, but it's pricey to buy the good quality almond milk and coconut milk yeah.
[41:28] Allison Weeks: Because and I buy it all the time, because I use, I make dairy free ice cream and I make my smoothies every morning with almond milk.
[41:36] Allison Weeks: Okay, yeah, I think I would definitely get used out of that.
[41:39] Heather Love: Yeah, and some people are really allergic to dairy and so they yeah, they have to find an alternative, and so if you're making or needing that stuff all the time, it is worth it.
[41:47] Allison Weeks: I used to be able.
[41:47] Allison Weeks: I'm not allergic, but I'm 50.
[41:50] Allison Weeks: I just can't.
[41:54] Allison Weeks: I love dairy and I just can't do it anymore.
[41:56] Heather Love: Yeah, I love dairy too.
[41:57] Heather Love: Really, I can do the hard cheeses?
[41:58] Allison Weeks: Okay, I can do.
[41:59] Allison Weeks: The hard cheeses, yeah, but my ice cream days and milk days are over.
[42:06] Allison Weeks: Oh, no, can't do it anymore.
[42:08] Allison Weeks: It's so sad, but it's.
[42:10] Allison Weeks: I found some really good alternatives.
[42:12] Heather Love: Yeah, actually I make really good coconut milk ice cream.
[42:14] Allison Weeks: Okay, that sounds really good Really good, so okay, so we got your product.
[42:19] Allison Weeks: How about a hack or a tip that you love?
[42:24] Heather Love: I would say and I just kind of discovered this with my third kid I wish I had done this with my first I started putting little baskets in each room with toys in it, and so I can take the kids into each room, Like if I'm putting my makeup on.
[42:38] Heather Love: I take them in the bathroom with me, you know, because they're so little.
[42:41] Allison Weeks: Yes.
[42:42] Heather Love: I mean, the oldest is fine and my almost four year old is pretty good now too.
[42:45] Heather Love: But you know, when they're toddlers or younger, they just kind of they need to be with you nonstop so that they don't get hurt.
[42:50] Heather Love: And so I just take them from room to room and there's a basket of toys.
[42:54] Heather Love: And that has helped me so much, because they were always trying to get away or like, destroy all of my things and then I'd be stressed out and like, oh, and now they just yeah, the toys really help.
[43:05] Allison Weeks: That's so smart, really good idea.
[43:07] Heather Love: It took me to having a third kid.
[43:11] Allison Weeks: Well, but C necessity is the mother of invention because, you're like man, I got three that I have to know where yeah, you know you can't be messing around when you got three kids.
[43:19] Allison Weeks: So that little basket of toys, like say, it's in the bathroom and it stays in the bathroom.
[43:26] Heather Love: Yes, and then you have the little one, like in the bedroom and in the living room, and simple toys.
[43:31] Allison Weeks: That's cool, though, because then that's it's like new, because they only see it when they're in that room.
[43:35] Heather Love: Yes, and they I will kind of evolve the toys based off their age, Like start taking some out and putting new ones in and stuff.
[43:41] Heather Love: But yeah, that has really been a game changer for me Very good tip, good idea.
[43:46] Allison Weeks: I like that a lot.
[43:47] Allison Weeks: All right, so let's talk.
[43:49] Allison Weeks: Oh wait, no, I have another question.
[43:50] Allison Weeks: I keep forgetting.
[43:51] Allison Weeks: I just added this one what is your signature dish?
[43:56] Heather Love: This makes me laugh, because, being so into health, I can never and food, I can never answer this question.
[44:01] Heather Love: So then I started asking my husband and he was like I don't know how to answer this question either Like, why do I not have a signature dish?
[44:08] Heather Love: This is a problem, I think, because I love creating and trying new things so much that like that's a lot of the joy.
[44:17] Heather Love: I'm always trying new things and like trying to make them a little bit better, and all so.
[44:20] Heather Love: Then I asked my kids they're like pancakes.
[44:23] Heather Love: I make pancakes for them almost every morning because they love pancakes and I want them to be healthy, so I'll make.
[44:30] Heather Love: I make a dry mix at home that will last me a month.
[44:34] Heather Love: I keep it in the freezer, and so about once a week, sometimes twice a week, depending on how many pancakes they go through.
[44:40] Heather Love: I'm just adding, you know, like if you go to the store and you get a dry pancake mix, you just add like eggs and milk.
[44:46] Heather Love: I basically make that at home and so then I can add like collagen to it and some really healthy ingredients to help strengthen their gut and get a lot of nutrients in there.
[44:56] Heather Love: Sometimes I'll add superfoods and whatnot, so they just love these pancakes.
[45:00] Heather Love: So that's my signature dish.
[45:03] Allison Weeks: I love that.
[45:03] Allison Weeks: Healthy pancakes?
[45:04] Allison Weeks: Yes, so is it is the mix bait.
[45:08] Allison Weeks: What's the flour Is it?
[45:09] Allison Weeks: Is it gluten-filled or gluten-free?
[45:11] Heather Love: or I'll kind of switch it based on what I want to experiment with or try and you can.
[45:17] Heather Love: It's fun that you can really change that out.
[45:20] Heather Love: So I use a lot of iron corn flour.
[45:22] Heather Love: I find it to be a really quality, healthy flour that has not been GMO'd and hybridized and changed over the years.
[45:30] Heather Love: It's very low in gluten.
[45:31] Heather Love: I'll sometimes use sprouted spelt but yeah, for a gluten-free version, almond flour, I'd say I use that one a lot.
[45:41] Heather Love: I've used rice flour, coconut flour you can really coconut flour.
[45:46] Heather Love: You cannot do a one-to-one ratio.
[45:48] Heather Love: So that is a super absorb, right, right, just a little bit goes along, yeah.
[45:52] Allison Weeks: Yeah, I have two kids with celiac disease.
[45:55] Heather Love: Okay.
[45:55] Allison Weeks: So we've done all the alternative flours in all the ways.
[45:59] Allison Weeks: Yes, yes, have you tried cassava flour?
[46:04] Heather Love: You know I have, for some reason, I have not really baked with that.
[46:06] Heather Love: I need to start experimenting with that one.
[46:08] Allison Weeks: It's a good.
[46:09] Allison Weeks: It's a little more pricey, but I'm now I'm seeing more and more off-breed Like there used to be, basically like one brand auto's that you could find and it was really expensive, and they've come down in their price.
[46:21] Allison Weeks: And then there's more, you know, like generic, I guess, or store brands, and more options for that so it's a good one-to-one flour Weet to.
[46:30] Allison Weeks: You know, wheat to cassava is generally one-to-one in most recipes.
[46:35] Allison Weeks: Awesome, that makes it easier.
[46:38] Heather Love: We love.
[46:38] Heather Love: Oh sorry, go ahead.
[46:39] Allison Weeks: No, I was just gonna say, and I like to use it for, like, if I'm going to bread something and fry it in a little bit of oil, it doesn't burn.
[46:47] Allison Weeks: Like, almond flour will burn, okay, because it's not nuts, yes, because the nuts generally will burn, yeah, if I try to fry anything.
[46:53] Allison Weeks: So, anyway, what were you going to say?
[46:56] Heather Love: Yeah, I was just saying like we love that brand siete, so we'll get like the almond flour, cassava flour, tortillas and their chips and yeah, and so I need to start playing with that and baking with it.
[47:07] Heather Love: Yeah, that's good to know it's a one-to-one ratio.
[47:09] Allison Weeks: I really like using it.
[47:11] Allison Weeks: It's and I haven't done it a ton, but I've just recently started using it a lot more and it's a very it's a very friendly wheat alternative Awesome Flour, so okay.
[47:19] Allison Weeks: Well, maybe can you share, like, your basic pancake mix recipe with us?
[47:24] Allison Weeks: Yes, okay, right now.
[47:26] Allison Weeks: No, you can send it to me and I will.
[47:28] Allison Weeks: I will put it in the newsletter that's going to come out after you share that and it's on my blog as well.
[47:33] Heather Love: Oh, awesome.
[47:34] Heather Love: Okay, I'll share all that We'll do.
[47:35] Allison Weeks: We'll do all of the links and all that.
[47:37] Allison Weeks: But yeah, we'll have that in the newsletter.
[47:38] Allison Weeks: Okay, let's talk about the art of home.
[47:40] Allison Weeks: We've talked already a little bit about art and you know I did kind of ask you this question earlier.
[47:47] Allison Weeks: But just in general, how do you see homemaking as an art?
[47:51] Allison Weeks: And specifically, this is like a lot of mundane work, especially with little kids when?
[47:56] Allison Weeks: Where?
[47:57] Allison Weeks: Where do you find beauty in that?
[47:58] Allison Weeks: What is beautiful about homemaking to you?
[48:01] Heather Love: Yeah, it's such an art.
[48:02] Heather Love: I love that you created this podcast, I think, to me I look at it as you have to be so creative to get through the day, Otherwise it will consume you and I often feel like I'm juggling so many things and so if I'm not being creative and trying to find ways around that, then that's when I find it really challenging.
[48:25] Heather Love: But that creative creativity is so much fun and there's so much beauty in art and being able to create something of your own and being flexible.
[48:35] Heather Love: So that's where I see a lot of the art in it.
[48:37] Allison Weeks: I really like that, the creativity it's, it's life giving to me.
[48:41] Allison Weeks: It is, you know it and if I, but a lot of times I resist doing it, you know, because it feels like I just did that, like I just did the laundry, or I just did this thing or that thing and I just don't want to, you know, approach this with a joyful attitude or be creative about it or think creatively about my work here.
[49:05] Allison Weeks: Not always, but some days I do feel like that and I sort of dig in my heels.
[49:08] Allison Weeks: But then, once I do it and and I just do the thing and I think about ways I can creatively keep my home, I don't know it is to me it's very life giving.
[49:21] Heather Love: Yes, so yeah it.
[49:22] Heather Love: Yeah because it can feel very mundane, like this is never ending.
[49:26] Heather Love: I'm going to be doing the same thing forever.
[49:28] Heather Love: You're like how is this creating anything in the world?
[49:34] Heather Love: You know, I know, I know.
[49:35] Heather Love: But I think we build things up so big in our head and it's often the little things that are actually make the biggest difference.
[49:42] Allison Weeks: Oh, absolutely, absolutely.
[49:44] Allison Weeks: So.
[49:45] Allison Weeks: What's something that you're thankful for about homemaking?
[49:52] Heather Love: I think that I get to create an environment for my kids Like I can I kind of mentioned this earlier like I can create a joyful day and experience for my kids.
[50:04] Heather Love: Or I can just be in a mood and grumpy, yeah, that I'm doing the laundry nonstop and then I'm giving that to my kids and I don't want them having that on them or thinking that's just what life is, and so and that's definitely a big struggle sometimes because I am exhausted and I just want to give into that mood and just like, run away and eat chocolate where no one can find me.
[50:28] Heather Love: It's only one.
[50:32] Heather Love: It's not much to ask, I know, but I am so thankful for these kids and that I can be home with them and that I can be a big influence in their life, and I know that they're going to take that with them when they're older, like because I've taken so much of what my mom did as a kid and so like, okay, I need to change my perspective and attitude and create a good environment for them.
[50:57] Allison Weeks: Yeah, it is a real privilege and an honor that we get to do that, that we set the tone, yes, you know, not just for our kids, but for our husbands and ourselves.
[51:06] Allison Weeks: I mean completely, we are the environment creators in the tone setters for the home, and it's it's a responsibility and it's a privilege.
[51:17] Allison Weeks: I don't want to look at it as a burden.
[51:19] Allison Weeks: Right, right, yeah, I want to be grateful for that responsibility and I got entrusted that to me.
[51:24] Allison Weeks: Yeah, and I want to honor him by doing doing my best with that.
[51:29] Allison Weeks: So, really good, I like that.
[51:31] Allison Weeks: Okay, let's end our time talking to some other women.
[51:36] Allison Weeks: We're going to talk to the younger women and the older women.
[51:39] Allison Weeks: So, to the older women, what would you say that you would want them to know about your experience as a homemaker?
[51:45] Allison Weeks: What's something that they could do to step in and you know, just, minister to you, help you, encourage you, what would you like them to know and how would you like them to help?
[51:56] Heather Love: Yeah, I am the epitome of the millennials.
[52:01] Heather Love: I'm in that generation and good and bad from that right, like every generation.
[52:07] Heather Love: Yeah.
[52:08] Heather Love: But just I love being able to talk to older women about my struggles and, you know, times of anxiety or stress and just having them listen and because they've been there and it seems like some of these struggles are really prevalent these days.
[52:26] Heather Love: Just talking with other moms my age and it just seems like a lot of moms are struggling with feeling like they need to do it all and accomplish everything and post it on social media and have that perfection and yeah, it's such a lie.
[52:41] Heather Love: So, yeah, being able to talk through that with older women and just find that peace and encouragement that's needed.
[52:50] Allison Weeks: Yeah, I'm a.
[52:51] Allison Weeks: I don't envy your generation and the let's see who's below you.
[52:57] Allison Weeks: That's Gen Z, right?
[52:58] Allison Weeks: I think so yeah, yeah, actually, most of my kids are Gen Z, but anyway, I don't envy you because, like you said, in your 20s was really when social media kind of blew up.
[53:08] Allison Weeks: And that's some very formative time, young adult years right there to have to deal with that because, especially being an art minded person, it's, it's enticing, because it's pretty.
[53:21] Heather Love: It's so pretty and you want to create that pretty image.
[53:23] Heather Love: Yeah, and yeah, I've had these conversations with my husband of like why do you just want to create beauty?
[53:28] Heather Love: Like show them real life, and I'm like I don't want to see everyone else's.
[53:31] Heather Love: You know like I want to be, I want to be able to talk about it and be encouraged through that and all.
[53:36] Heather Love: But I want to go and, like find beauty.
[53:39] Allison Weeks: You go there to find beauty, and so you don't want to be seeing garbage and you don't want to promote that either.
[53:45] Heather Love: Yeah, and so it's like this odd thing of like and I can find that beauty as encouragement Also like, okay, this is a goal of mine.
[53:52] Heather Love: Like, obviously it's not a path of perfection, but you know, goals are good, Sometimes they make change that is needed.
[54:00] Heather Love: And so, yeah, it's just been an odd struggle of finding what that looks like.
[54:04] Heather Love: Yeah, yeah.
[54:06] Allison Weeks: So I think, just speaking from someone who's a generation ahead of you, I think that older women, particularly the ones who are a generation ahead of me, they look at millennials and they feel like you guys, because you're doing all the things that looks like it on the surface, you're intimidating to them.
[54:28] Allison Weeks: Hmm.
[54:28] Allison Weeks: Interesting and they're just like oh, I have nothing to offer her, because she just really seems to have it all together.
[54:34] Heather Love: Oh no, we have nothing together.
[54:39] Allison Weeks: So what you're telling me is to encourage these ladies, that you want their input and you want their help.
[54:47] Allison Weeks: Yes, yes, evaluate.
[54:49] Heather Love: Absolutely, that's so funny.
[54:52] Heather Love: I always want to clarify that because.
[54:53] Allison Weeks: I get that a lot actually from the older ladies.
[54:56] Allison Weeks: When I ask them to be on the show, they're like oh, I don't have anything to offer really.
[55:01] Heather Love: Wow.
[55:02] Allison Weeks: These young women today, they just do it all.
[55:04] Heather Love: Yeah, they know how to do it.
[55:06] Heather Love: That is not true, okay.
[55:08] Heather Love: We know how to make it look pretty, and that's it.
[55:12] Allison Weeks: We do.
[55:12] Allison Weeks: Yes, yes, yes, okay.
[55:15] Allison Weeks: So how about the younger women that are coming behind you?
[55:19] Allison Weeks: What would you say to them?
[55:20] Allison Weeks: To encourage them, to challenge them, to warn them, whatever?
[55:25] Allison Weeks: Yeah, what's your word?
[55:26] Heather Love: Yeah, it'll be interesting what kind of in their generation drives them, because I'm kind of speaking more from a millennial, I feel like, but you're going to make mistakes and it's completely fine to not have it all together.
[55:41] Heather Love: I know, if I humble myself to God, he will provide where I am lacking, and that's just been such a huge lesson for me over the last couple of years.
[55:49] Heather Love: Trying to do it all, he's like, oh man, yeah, you can't.
[55:52] Heather Love: And the more I go to Him, the more he does provide.
[55:57] Heather Love: I feel like that's been a big word for me lately.
[55:59] Heather Love: Providing, yeah, he's providing where I am lacking.
[56:02] Heather Love: And it's like, oh, I can breathe.
[56:03] Heather Love: And yeah, he ends up providing more than I can even imagine.
[56:06] Heather Love: So, yeah, I guess, just realizing that you are human and you don't have to have it all together you never will, and that is completely okay you are still creating beauty and encouragement to your kids and showing them that you don't have it all together.
[56:21] Heather Love: Yeah, it is really good for your kids to see that, to show them that you need the Lord too.
[56:28] Allison Weeks: Right, right, it's such a good thing, the more I'm like, oh, I tell my kids, oh, I'm so sorry.
[56:33] Heather Love: I messed up this way, then it's so sweet, like a couple of days later they'll do something and they're like I'm sorry, I made a mistake.
[56:39] Heather Love: It's just so cute.
[56:42] Heather Love: I love that.
[56:43] Heather Love: Yeah, that's good training.
[56:45] Heather Love: It's really good, okay well before we say goodbye.
[56:50] Allison Weeks: where can everybody find you online?
[56:51] Allison Weeks: The simplelovecom.
[56:52] Allison Weeks: Okay, kind of ties up with the kind of ties in our last name is love.
[57:02] Heather Love: The simplelovecom and I have all of my social on there, all your social connections.
[57:06] Allison Weeks: Instagram is the simplelove underscore, but yes, it's all on there Can you connect to your YouTube channel.
[57:11] Heather Love: What's your YouTube called?
[57:13] Allison Weeks: The simplelove?
[57:14] Allison Weeks: No, it's, I need to check.
[57:19] Heather Love: It should be the simplelove, because I think to have a job, I think to have a job, I think to have a direct name, you have to have 10,000 followers.
[57:26] Heather Love: Oh, okay, Like just made that, or I'm right under.
[57:29] Heather Love: So I tried putting it in and I'm not sure if it's completed yet, but it's all tied in on my website.
[57:35] Allison Weeks: Yes, Okay, so go to the website thesimplelovecom and you can find all the other places to find Heather over there.
[57:41] Allison Weeks: Yes, and we'll link that to you in the show notes.
[57:43] Allison Weeks: Okay, well, thank you for being here today.
[57:45] Allison Weeks: It was really fun to get to hear your story and get to know you better.
[57:48] Allison Weeks: I really appreciate you giving me your time.
[57:50] Allison Weeks: Thank you so much for having me.
[57:51] Heather Love: You're welcome, okay.
[57:54] Allison Weeks: Thank you for listening to this Homemaker Portrait of Heather Love.
[57:57] Allison Weeks: I hope you have found some encouragement and some inspiration today from Heather's story.
[58:02] Allison Weeks: If you've been listening to the show for a while, you know that when Heather started talking about living within her limits and stopping the chase after perfectionism, you know that she was speaking my language.
[58:14] Allison Weeks: Those are topics I talk about a lot understanding our limits, understanding that we have to go to the Lord to have the strength that we need to get through all that's required of us each day, and that it's only in our weakness that we can really be strong, because then we're working out of his strength.
[58:32] Allison Weeks: So I love that she kept bringing that topic up over and over again, whether she was talking about actually doing her homemaking or managing social media exposure for herself or media in general for her kids.
[58:45] Allison Weeks: I love in that part of the conversation where she said she was trying to teach her boys to know their limits and to learn self-control and hope.
[58:54] Allison Weeks: She was hoping that by explaining the negative effects to them, that they would learn to develop the self-discipline and self-control themselves by balancing yes, we're going to allow some exposure, because that's part of the world that we live in, but also helping them to balance that exposure with understanding some of the negative effects that media might have on them, both physiologically and mentally.
[59:18] Allison Weeks: That's empowering others and empowering your children to make wise decisions on their own as they get older.
[59:24] Allison Weeks: And I thought that was really smart and I love when she said sometimes finishing what you started can take hours and hours and you're missing what you really need to get done in that moment.
[59:34] Allison Weeks: Perfectionism can tend to hold us hostage because it tells us, well, you started this and you better finish it, and you better finish it perfectly, whereas discernment from the Lord and from the Holy Spirit will tell us okay, there's time to do this on the project today, and then we're going to set this aside for later, so that you can be present in what I want you to be present for right now, with your child, or with your husband, or with your neighbor, or with your pile of dirty dishes, whatever that thing is.
[1:00:02] Allison Weeks: So don't allow the perfectionism and feeling like you have to finish what you started right now to rule and dictate your day.
[1:00:10] Allison Weeks: You have to follow the prompting of the Holy Spirit and hold your plans loosely.
[1:00:15] Allison Weeks: What about you?
[1:00:16] Allison Weeks: How do you handle the temptation towards perfectionism and the temptation to not live within your limits.
[1:00:23] Allison Weeks: I would love to hear from you.
[1:00:24] Allison Weeks: We can have a conversation in a couple of different ways.
[1:00:27] Allison Weeks: You can go to our contact page, theartofhomepodcastcom slash contact, and over there on that page, you can send me an email or you can leave me a voicemail.
[1:00:40] Allison Weeks: It's pretty simple.
[1:00:42] Allison Weeks: You just need a device and an internet connection.
[1:00:45] Allison Weeks: You can also send me a DM on Instagram.
[1:00:48] Allison Weeks: You can find me there at theartofhomepodcast.
[1:00:52] Allison Weeks: If you have found some value in today's episode, you can give the show some love and support in one of the following ways.
[1:00:59] Allison Weeks: First of all, share this episode, or really any of our episodes, with a homemaker that you know who could use some encouragement in her practice of the art of home.
[1:01:08] Allison Weeks: Secondly, you can leave us a rating and a review on your listening app of choice.
[1:01:13] Allison Weeks: And finally, if you are so moved, you can leave us a tip in our virtual tip jar Buy Me a Coffee.
[1:01:20] Allison Weeks: Tips are given in $5 increments.
[1:01:22] Allison Weeks: You can give one, two, three or as many coffees as you would like.
[1:01:26] Allison Weeks: Please go to buymeacoffeecom slash theartofhome.
[1:01:31] Allison Weeks: And if you need a little bit more instruction on how to do all those three things, we do have more info over on the support page on the website.
[1:01:38] Allison Weeks: It kind of walks you through step by step how to leave a review and how to share, so you can go to theartofhomepodcastcom slash support for that extra info.
[1:01:48] Allison Weeks: Don't forget to sign up for the newsletter Homemaker Happy Mail.
[1:01:50] Allison Weeks: It goes out first thing Friday morning and it will have all of Heather's links, contact information, the things that she shared with us, her favorites, her hints and tips and tricks and her pancake recipe.
[1:02:02] Allison Weeks: So you want to make sure that you get signed up for that if you haven't already.
[1:02:06] Allison Weeks: Well, that's it for this week's episode of the Art of Home.
[1:02:09] Allison Weeks: I will be back next week with another Homemaker portrait of a listener, just like you.
[1:02:15] Allison Weeks: Until that time, keep practicing your art of making a home.

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