1. Loving God
2. Loving everyone else
3. God's Word
4. My husband's arms around me
5. My children's laughter
6. Living simply
7. A quiet house
8. Creating something just for the sake of doing so
9. Creating something useful
10. Giving something handmade with love
11. Coffee in the morning like my grandma used to make it
12. Tea in the afternoon
13. Popsicles in the summer
14. Hot chocolate in the winter
15. The sound of a newborn cry
16. A baby nestled under my chin
17. Going for a walk
18. Feeding the ducks
19. Talking with my mama
20. Memories of my grandparents
21. Serving my family
22. Sweet iced tea
23. Hearing my son play his guitar
24. A family working together for one cause
25. Reading the Bible with my family
26. Hearing my 5 year old quote scripture
27. Hearing my daughter sing
28. My children piled in bed all around me
29. The sound of rain
30. A home filled with the things I love and use, and nothing else
31. Late night talks with my teenager
32. Comfortable shoes
33. Layers of old fashioned friendship bracelets
34. A clean kitchen
35. Movie night
36. Fresh food from my own garden
37. Reading poetry to my children
38. Camping under the stars
39. Leaves falling
40. Flowers blooming
41. Love notes from my children
42. Learning with my children
43. Emails from friends
44. Family get togethers
45. Movies that make you cry
46. The smell of homemade bread
47. A loyal and loving dog
48. Reading classic favorites to my children
49. The little old ladies at church
50. Going to the lake
......to be continued......
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
Friday, June 6, 2014
Finding the Simple in Simplicity
It's been a little bit since I've found myself here. I guess you could say I've been working on finding my way for a bit. I don't plan to ever be a blog for profit blogger, though I see nothing wrong with that. And I also don't intend to apologize for when more important things take me away from here for extended periods of time. But I do enjoy blogging, when I feel led to, and when I have time for it.
Over the last several months, I've found a longing desire to truly seek out the simple life. For a little bit I thought that couldn't be had from where I'm sitting. I thought it meant I had to have a home in the country, but it doesn't mean that at all. God has planted my family where we're at for a reason, and if He is calling me to simplify my life, so that I can focus more on Him and His desires for my life, then I can do it from wherever I'm at right now.
Life has grown too complicated. There's more stuff and less happiness. More screen time, and less face to face real interactions. More doing, and less being. People are so caught up in their busy lives, that they have lost their focus on what God truly wants from them.
Slowly but surely over the past months, God has been calling our family to deny ourselves and to take up our cross and follow Him. Does that mean that we're going to get rid of all our belongings and live out of backpacks while we reach the lost. Not at all! But for us, for me, it means it's time to let go of these earthly things that hold my family and I back from doing what God truly wants of us.
It's time for me to step out of my comfort zone and start letting go of not just physical clutter, but mental clutter. My dear friend over at Country Hick Homestead, summarized Five Rules for her family to live by. And I've come up with my own list as well.
That's where I'm at right now. I'm working at taking some steps in that direction to put these rules in my life into action..... Over the next 21 days, my family and I are hoping to drastically reduce what we have in our home by half or more. We are having a do or die yard sale on June 28, which means, if it doesn't sell, it goes to charity.
Also through the month of June, our family will be finishing up some prior commitments of "busyness", and in July, we will begin to slow down and find out what it means to savor each moment. July is going to be a month of starting over with a new way of living. A slower, more intentional way of living and doing so with less stuff. I am so anxious and ready to make these changes for our family, so that we can spend our time focused on Jesus, and His will for our lives!
So, what does that mean for blogging? I don't plan to make any commitments of blogging daily or anything, but I will be hopefully sharing the changes that are going on here as I have time. A time of transformation for our family. For years, I have held the blog name of Blessed Simplicity. I think it's time to seek that lifestyle out, and stop just talking about it!
Over the last several months, I've found a longing desire to truly seek out the simple life. For a little bit I thought that couldn't be had from where I'm sitting. I thought it meant I had to have a home in the country, but it doesn't mean that at all. God has planted my family where we're at for a reason, and if He is calling me to simplify my life, so that I can focus more on Him and His desires for my life, then I can do it from wherever I'm at right now.
Life has grown too complicated. There's more stuff and less happiness. More screen time, and less face to face real interactions. More doing, and less being. People are so caught up in their busy lives, that they have lost their focus on what God truly wants from them.
Slowly but surely over the past months, God has been calling our family to deny ourselves and to take up our cross and follow Him. Does that mean that we're going to get rid of all our belongings and live out of backpacks while we reach the lost. Not at all! But for us, for me, it means it's time to let go of these earthly things that hold my family and I back from doing what God truly wants of us.
It's time for me to step out of my comfort zone and start letting go of not just physical clutter, but mental clutter. My dear friend over at Country Hick Homestead, summarized Five Rules for her family to live by. And I've come up with my own list as well.
Love Jesus, and share Him freely with all who will listen....
Love others unconditionally......
Serve others in whatever way you can......
Give More, spend less.......
Live, speak, and eat minimally, simply, and wholly
That's where I'm at right now. I'm working at taking some steps in that direction to put these rules in my life into action..... Over the next 21 days, my family and I are hoping to drastically reduce what we have in our home by half or more. We are having a do or die yard sale on June 28, which means, if it doesn't sell, it goes to charity.
Also through the month of June, our family will be finishing up some prior commitments of "busyness", and in July, we will begin to slow down and find out what it means to savor each moment. July is going to be a month of starting over with a new way of living. A slower, more intentional way of living and doing so with less stuff. I am so anxious and ready to make these changes for our family, so that we can spend our time focused on Jesus, and His will for our lives!
So, what does that mean for blogging? I don't plan to make any commitments of blogging daily or anything, but I will be hopefully sharing the changes that are going on here as I have time. A time of transformation for our family. For years, I have held the blog name of Blessed Simplicity. I think it's time to seek that lifestyle out, and stop just talking about it!
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Three Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies
My mom used to make these cookies when I was a kid that we all loved, and they were super easy with only three ingredients. The only thing was the ingredients weren't exactly what you would call healthy :)
The three ingredients were peanut butter, eggs, and splenda....now I'm not the kind of kid to contradict my mother, but since I'm fairly certain she doesn't read my blog..(if you do, I love you mama)....she thought they were healthy because she used splenda, while at the same time using sweetened peanut butter. Neither of which are exactly the best thing for you, so I decided to try to THM-ify them, and the results are delicioso!
So, here's my Trim Healthy Mama version of these yummy, and super easy cookies!
Ingredients-
-1 cup of all natural sugar free peanut butter
-5 teaspoons of Truvia (plus a little dash of nunaturals stevia if you want them extra sweet...I liked them with just the Truvia.)
-2 eggs
You can also add a splash of vanilla if you want, but that would make them no longer 3 ingredient cookies, and 4 ingredient cookies sounds so much more complicated :P
Mix all your ingredients up in a bowl...I used my electric mixer to make it go a little quicker. Spoon them out onto a cookie sheet covered in parchment paper. I have a little cookie scoop that makes them just the right size, and easier to spoon out, but a couple of regular ole' spoons works great too. With a wet finger or a wet fork, or if you want a fork dipped in some truvia for a little extra sweetness, pat your cookies down. Bake in the oven at 350* for about 10-12 minutes, and voila...super easy, super tasty cookies!
Blessings,
sara
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Tuesday, August 13, 2013
The Shrinker Latte
All the power of Oolong tea in a icy cold drink....starbucks...Move over!!!
Here's the recipe....
-Steep 2 tea bags of oolong tea in 8 oz of boiling water until it's a comfortable enough temperature to handle....about 20-30 minutes.
-Put it in your blender and add about 2-3 shakes of cinnamon and 1-2 shakes of cayenne pepper, or more to your taste
-Add 8 oz of unsweetened almond milk, one scoop of whey protein powder, a dash of vanilla, a couple dashes of sea salt.
-Add sweetener. I used 3 tsp of truvia and a couple dashes of nunaturals stevia.
-Add one to one and a half trays of ice, and turn the blender on.
-With the blender running, add 1/4 tsp of glucomannan. Run for about 30 seconds, turn off for about 30 seconds and then run again for another 30 seconds to a minute.
-Pour into a big ole quart jar, top with some fat free Reddi Whip, and sprinkle some cinnamon on top, and enjoy the awesomeness!
This would be a FP, but alternately you could add cream if you wanted it as an S.
Lifestyle Learning and Goals for my children and I
Ok, I think I've found it....what I'm wanting school to look like for us on a daily basis. I've been trying to define that very thing for months without success...I've tried something only to have that aching feeling that this is not what it's about for us. I allowed myself to get so caught up in what our homeschool *should* look like, that I hardly considered what I felt was right.
A year or so ago, I found the blog of mom who's been there, done that in the homeschooling world. She raised 4 wonderful and intellectual children and homeschooled them all the way through. There's so much wisdom to be gleaned from these moms who've scaled the mountain and seen the other side. Unfortunately shortly after I found her blog, and started taking in every bit of wisdom that she had to offer, she decided to close her blogs. I read what I could, and left it at that. But her style of education truly spoke to my heart, and I wanted to know more. But I put it away for a while, and went about my own thing, still feeling a bit unsettled in our day to day of home education.
I was pleased as punch though to run across a sort of archive of her homeschooling posts, and I went through and gobbled them all up. And I found the missing link of what I was looking for. In one of her posts, she speaks of the three things that she requires of her children each day. They were reading, writing, and math. It was implied that they also did chores and Bible study, and spent less time in front of a screen and more time living life and learning, which is so important!
She said for reading they could read whatever they wanted as long as it was good quality writing. She said, they read together and on their own, and all throughout their day.
For writing, they could write whatever they wanted to write, so long as they wrote. Essays, poems, copywork, dictation, journals, letters, etc. She didn't worry about teaching writing style, so long as they wrote. If she saw recurring mistakes, she made it a point to help them fix it.
And for math, they did math according to their own level of understanding.
I love it! The simplicity, the common sense of it!
I propose to find my own way within these guidelines for my own group of eager learners.
So here are my own personal guidelines for our homeschooling experience. I will require six things from my children each day, and they are:
1. Time spent in God's Word-getting to know their Creator personally and in depth. Building godly character. Reading through their Bibles together as a family and on their own.
2. Reading-As was said above, whatever so long as it's quality writing. I'm going to ask the older children to choose 5 different books when they go to the library each week- a biography, a science book, a historical book, a literature or poetry book, and a book of their choice. I won't make them read all of those, but I want them to have the variety to choose from. We will also read daily together as a family. I use meal times and bedtimes as anchors in our day, so we do a little reading during/after each meal and at bedtime.
3. Writing-Again...they can write whatever, so long as they write each day! I will keep a list of ideas for them to choose from if they need them.
4. Arithmetic-We will choose this together as to what will fit them best.
5. Chores-A given. We're a large family, we work together to make our home an enjoyable place to live.
6. Less screen time, more real life learning and living-Self explanatory. I've allowed my children to get far to friendly with gaming and screen time. They need to experience real life, and all the wonderful things it has to offer. I want them to observe nature, build things, create things, and just take it all in. You can't do that when you're staring at a screen all day.
And lastly, a personal goal for myself. I want my children to see that learning never stops. It goes on and on all through adulthood. I want them to see me learning and living and creating, and not just surviving, or spending too much time online. I want to come up with a cottage business we can do together as a family, and that they can help me with, and I want us to grow our own food, and raise animals, and paint and fix up our home together. I want them to see that our lives are worth living, and getting to know God and His great creation should be our highest priority.
Thanks for letting me share my heart and my goals for my children and I. Now it's time to stop talking about and get to it! Be blessed!
A year or so ago, I found the blog of mom who's been there, done that in the homeschooling world. She raised 4 wonderful and intellectual children and homeschooled them all the way through. There's so much wisdom to be gleaned from these moms who've scaled the mountain and seen the other side. Unfortunately shortly after I found her blog, and started taking in every bit of wisdom that she had to offer, she decided to close her blogs. I read what I could, and left it at that. But her style of education truly spoke to my heart, and I wanted to know more. But I put it away for a while, and went about my own thing, still feeling a bit unsettled in our day to day of home education.
I was pleased as punch though to run across a sort of archive of her homeschooling posts, and I went through and gobbled them all up. And I found the missing link of what I was looking for. In one of her posts, she speaks of the three things that she requires of her children each day. They were reading, writing, and math. It was implied that they also did chores and Bible study, and spent less time in front of a screen and more time living life and learning, which is so important!
She said for reading they could read whatever they wanted as long as it was good quality writing. She said, they read together and on their own, and all throughout their day.
For writing, they could write whatever they wanted to write, so long as they wrote. Essays, poems, copywork, dictation, journals, letters, etc. She didn't worry about teaching writing style, so long as they wrote. If she saw recurring mistakes, she made it a point to help them fix it.
And for math, they did math according to their own level of understanding.
I love it! The simplicity, the common sense of it!
I propose to find my own way within these guidelines for my own group of eager learners.
So here are my own personal guidelines for our homeschooling experience. I will require six things from my children each day, and they are:
1. Time spent in God's Word-getting to know their Creator personally and in depth. Building godly character. Reading through their Bibles together as a family and on their own.
2. Reading-As was said above, whatever so long as it's quality writing. I'm going to ask the older children to choose 5 different books when they go to the library each week- a biography, a science book, a historical book, a literature or poetry book, and a book of their choice. I won't make them read all of those, but I want them to have the variety to choose from. We will also read daily together as a family. I use meal times and bedtimes as anchors in our day, so we do a little reading during/after each meal and at bedtime.
3. Writing-Again...they can write whatever, so long as they write each day! I will keep a list of ideas for them to choose from if they need them.
4. Arithmetic-We will choose this together as to what will fit them best.
5. Chores-A given. We're a large family, we work together to make our home an enjoyable place to live.
6. Less screen time, more real life learning and living-Self explanatory. I've allowed my children to get far to friendly with gaming and screen time. They need to experience real life, and all the wonderful things it has to offer. I want them to observe nature, build things, create things, and just take it all in. You can't do that when you're staring at a screen all day.
And lastly, a personal goal for myself. I want my children to see that learning never stops. It goes on and on all through adulthood. I want them to see me learning and living and creating, and not just surviving, or spending too much time online. I want to come up with a cottage business we can do together as a family, and that they can help me with, and I want us to grow our own food, and raise animals, and paint and fix up our home together. I want them to see that our lives are worth living, and getting to know God and His great creation should be our highest priority.
Thanks for letting me share my heart and my goals for my children and I. Now it's time to stop talking about and get to it! Be blessed!
Thursday, August 1, 2013
Unit Studies Made Easy Review
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A few weeks ago, I made a feeble attempt at starting school with my kids.....and found after the first few days, that we were quickly floundering under the stress and disorganization of what I was trying to do. I couldn't really figure out what was wrong, but realized, I just wasn't quite ready to start school with a newborn in tow just yet, so we took a step back, and I realized that one of our biggest issues is our struggle with following and sticking with a good routine, and my kids (and mine in some things) lack of knowledge about properly keeping our home as we should. I didn't know what to do with that just yet, but just resigned myself to take it slow, and thought that maybe it would help if we planned a yard sale to get rid of some our clutter. We've spent the last couple of weeks going through and doing quite a bit of decluttering throughout the house, and will be having a big yard sale this coming Saturday.
While working on decluttering, however, I started searching around the internet for some ideas and encouragement regarding homeschooling. I was considering trying another pre-planned unit study, something like KONOS, because I just didn't think I could pull together something myself in any sort of organized fashion....I was doing some research on these types of curriculum, and feeling discouraged, because our track record with these types of units have not gone over well with us in the past. I always feel too tied down, or get overwhelmed with all the projects and crafts. Well, a few nights ago, I stumbled upon a book I had heard of before, but for some reason dismissed. The book was Unit Studies Made Easy by Valerie Bendt....I looked through the previews, and thought, why not...what else do I have to lose.
Boy, was I pleasantly surprised! This large collection is full of so much great wisdom, and I repeatedly found myself physically nodding in agreement, and thinking, that's exactly what I've been wanting to do! She takes my whole thoughts on this method of homeschooling and puts it into a practical easy to do way! She covers so much information in this more than 300 page book!
Some of the things I've found wonderful are:
-Practical tips for pulling together your own unit studies
-She references my two favorite homeschool authors often....Ruth Beechick and Charlotte Mason
-She references my two favorite homeschool authors often....Ruth Beechick and Charlotte Mason
-How to use your library for doing units, including how to find appropriate poetry, art, or music to go along with your unit
-Including Biblical principles in your unit
-The importance of copywork and dictation
-Lots of ideas for unit studies and things to include
-There is a section on teaching reading that I have gotten many ideas from as well
-She talks about the importance of routines, but with flexibility
As far as negatives...the only thing I felt was really missing was I wanted to read more about how she incorporated writing into her units. Though she does give many suggestions!
I'm super excited about our upcoming unit that I've already started planning, and you'll see that it's a bit outside the box for a unit study, but one that I know our family will greatly benefit from!
If you're looking for a way to put together your own homeschool curriculum so that you can do what you know is best for your family, and save money while doing it, this is a great book! It's the perfect book for a mom who is looking to homeschool her large (or small) family using a relaxed, family oriented, unit study! It's not going to be for moms who need the step by steps of homeschooling completely laid out for you, but there is still so much information to glean from it, that I think anyone can benefit from reading this book!
Blessings,
sara
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Ten Reasons to Love Trim Healthy Mama
I've been trying to put into words to friends and family why it is that I love this new lifestyle change that I've made for my family and I. Trim Healthy Mama, as the books says, is not just a fad, it is a way of life!
So here are my top ten reasons to love Trim Healthy Mama:
1. Chocolate
Never have I seen a diet (for lack of a better word) where you are allowed to eat chocolate in greater amounts than that of a chocolate kiss without being made to feel guilty. I get to enjoy things like skinny chocolate, chocolate nut slab, and (oh my word!) chocolate volcano mudslide muffin in a mug....all without a tinge of guilt!
2. Family friendly
I'm a mom of many, and the one thing I did not want was a diet that made me have to make my family and I separate meals every day. Creating twice the work making my family a delicious meal while I have to sit and eat rabbit food or cardboard is not my idea of enjoyable. And while I generally eat something different for breakfast, lunch, and snacks than my family, (because usually those meals are pretty quick and easy to fix for both of us), I'm able to make one simple meal for dinner, with just an extra side dish of homemade bread, rice, pasta, or potatoes for the ones who are not wanting or needing to lose weight.
3. Homemade
This may not be a favorite of everyone, but one thing I love about this way of eating is it still feeds my need to make all things homemade. And yet if I really need to I can buy things ready made. But I can still make things like homemade dressings, bread, greek yogurt, cottage cheese, sour cream, etc. As well as delicious homemade meals for everyone.
4. Tweak-ability
I have never used the word tweak more than when I started THM. You tweak things to the taste you want, and you can tweak meals to make them THM friendly. You can take a basic recipe such as the chocolate nut slab (pg 372), and add different ingredients for a different flavor, such as almonds and coconut for an almond joy treat, or peanut butter for a Reese's peanut butter treat, etc. While I've made several of the THM recipes in the book, I've managed to take many of our family favorite meals and adjust them in different ways to make them on plan.
5. Chocolate
Oh, wait, I already mentioned this one :p It bears repeating though. How many of us have gone on diets, starving ourselves and feeling miserable, only to hit a certain time of the month or a stressful moment, and crash and burn....and what is the first thing we usually turn to...chocolate. With THM, that's not a problem.
6. Results
I first learned about THM in the weeks just before I had my little one over 2 months ago. After having her, I purchased the book, and started just trying a few things out, while still mostly eating our regular diet, and I still saw amazing results in those 7 weeks. And since really getting on board a few weeks ago, it's even more amazing. It feels almost effortless! Another result is for my nursing baby, I have had an overabundance of good healthy milk for her!
7. Energy
Since starting THM, I can truly say I have never had more energy. In fact I'm struggling with getting enough sleep, not because I have a 2 month old baby, but because I have so much excess energy! In the weeks since starting this plan, I have walked miles without tiring, ran with my kids, and my house has never looked cleaner. (although I do have 5 children, and it regularly turns in to a disaster area) but I have the strength and energy to get up and deal with it, and see to it that I stay on top of the kids for keeping up with their chores.
8. Ease of Use
I won't deny that there is a definite learning curve here. That's why it took me a good solid 7 weeks postpartum to decide to fully devote myself to this way of eating. You have to learn the lingo and all the particulars of the plan, and you have to find your own way with it. What works for one family may not work for yours. But once you find your way, it's extremely simple and doable. And this is coming from a woman who gets extremely overwhelmed when things get complicated.
9. Community
I think one of the biggest helps in the adventure for me, has been the whole THM community. You can join the boards either at their forum or on facebook, and you can get answers, encouragement, and lots of tips and recipes, even from the authors themselves. You can go on there and share a struggle and within moments have a barrage of encouraging words from women who know what you're going through! Not to mention all the great recipes that you can find on pinterest!
10. Did I mention chocolate?
So ya'll can see, I'm a fan. I'm loving this whole new way of life for myself and my family! I hope you can be encouraged to look into it if you are looking for some positive changes!
Blessings,
sara
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