Simplifying Bible Reading

October 30, 2012 By 9 Comments

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Bible reading and study is something I have struggled on and off with for years.  Like most folks who aim to be influenced by the Bible, there can be a mix of desire and guilt; desire for it, but guilt that you could do more.  Since having 4 children, it has become even harder to get quiet, focused time that doesn’t involve sleep.  In this season, two things have really helped me.

  1. Freedom from Guilt - In another time in my life (when I was single), I had lofty goals for Bible study and I felt the self-imposed checklist on me all the time.  And since my personality tends toward all or nothing anyway, if I didn’t have an uninterrupted hour to devote to Bible study and prayer and journaling, I felt like it wasn’t worth it, so I just didn’t do it.  I would go to Women’s Bible Studies at church and feel embarrassed that I hadn’t finished the daily study for that week and I was tempted to not even go at all.  Now I feel more freedom, knowing that one day I will get back to longer periods of focused study in the Bible, but in this season, I need to just put myself in contact with anything of the Lord that I can get.  Sometimes that does involve intense study and sometimes it’s just worship music that leads my heart to Him.
  2. Bible.is – I have tried to surround myself with the things of the Lord that I encounter throughout my day like good worship music, encouraging conversations with friends, prayer as I go, listening to sermons while I do chores, and praying out loud with my children.  Even with all that, I want to be studying and reading the Scripture more.  I have never loved audio Bible programs.  I tend to lose focus easily while listening.  But Bible.is is a little different.  It is a dramatized version of the Bible, but it’s not too cheesy.  It uses different voices for different people and includes contextual background noise for the story.  Dee and I try to listen to a chapter every morning before he leaves for work and spend a little time praying together for the day.  It has become such a sweet time for us and great time in the Scriptures.
    • It’s free.
    • You can access it online or as an app for Android or Iphone.
    • It includes different versions and languages.
 If you read the Bible, what do you use to simplify things?

 

21 Days to a More Disciplined Life E-Book Review

October 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment

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Are you looking for a simple way to add more discipline to your life?  Crystal Paine, AKA “Money Saving Mom”, has just released her newest e-book, “21 Days to a More Disciplined Life”.  We were recently given a free copy of the e-book to review.

Most of us, no matter how disciplined we are, can find one or two areas of our life that we are struggling with.  I know I can find even more than that!   One thing I absolutely love about this e-book is that Crystal doesn’t encourage you to change your whole life in 21 days.  She encourages you to change a little at a time.

“I need to commit to change myself from the inside out, one step at a time, one day at a time, for 21 days straight. If I can methodically go through the next 21 days and focus on creating one or two new habits in discipline, I can start changing my life.”

Crystal walks you through 21 days of small steps and changes to create new habits.  If after 21 days, you want to change an additional habit or two, she recommends you start again.  Each day only takes a couple of minutes to read and includes a practical application that should not take you more than a few minutes to implement.  By making small changes each day, she helps you work closer and closer to your goal.

If you want to do more than change one or two small things while going through your 21 days, she also includes a Mega Project Assignment each day.  Do you have a big project you’ve been wanting to work on but haven’t gotten to it because it seems too overwhelming?  With the help of this e-book and the printables located at the end of it, you can tackle that Mega Project and complete it over the next 21 days.

Through October 26 Crystal is offering this book for only $0.99!  After that the price will increase to $4.99, so if you are interested, definitely don’t delay!

Click on over to get your copy today!

Simplifying Mornings–Breakfast Cup Recipes

October 17, 2012 By 4 Comments

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As I posted last week, breakfast cups have become an easy addition to simplifying our school morning breakfasts.  They freeze great, so all we have to do is take out whatever we need the night before, put them in the refridgerator, and reheat them in the morning.  They can be reheated in the oven or microwave.  We prefer to use the oven.

Now for the recipes!

Sausage, Egg, and Mushroom Breakfast Cups

15 eggs
2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup of diced mushrooms
1 cup of cooked breakfast sausage, crumbled
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of black pepper

Combine all ingredients into a bowl and mix well.  Fill muffin cups almost to the top.  Cook at 350 degrees for approximately 30 minutes until the tops are browned.  Makes approximately 18 breakfast cups.

These can be made with any vegetables of your choice, as well as more or less cheese, sausage, or veggies depending on your preference.

Pancake Breakfast Cups

You can use your favorite pancake recipe for these, Bisquick, or follow my recipe below.

2 cups of flour
2 tablespoons of sugar
4 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
2 eggs
1 3/4 cups of milk
1/4 cup of melted butter

Combine the above ingredients together mixing the dry ingredients first. After all of the ingredients have been combined well, add:

1 cup of sausage crumbles
OR
3/4 cups of chocolate chips

Pour into greased muffin cups almost filling the cup and cook at 350 degrees for approximately 15 minutes until slightly browned on top. Serve warm with or without syrup, depending on how sweet you like things! Makes approximately 14 muffin cups.

My husband and I both preferred the texture of these better than regular pancakes, and they were so much easier to make as I didn’t have to turn them one by one.

I use individual muffin cups for these recipes as I can fit more in my small oven at once, but muffin tins work just as well.  As long as they are greased well, there is no need to use liners unless you just prefer to use them.

I hope you enjoy these recipes as much as we have and that they help simplify your mornings.  Let me know if you have any questions about the recipes or variations that you think we should try!

Simplifying Our Mornings, Breakfast Cups

October 12, 2012 By 3 Comments

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Besides getting everyone dressed in the mornings, our other biggest time commitment is breakfast.  We need to get something on the table quickly every morning, and I have enough other things to take care of that I don’t have the time to make a hot breakfast on school mornings.

I recently made and froze a variety of breakfast cups that taste awesome and make breakfast on school mornings just as quick as pouring a bowl of granola!

I’ve made sausage, egg, mushroom, and cheese breakfast cups…

…pancake and sausage breakfast cups…

…and since I have a sweet tooth, pancake and chocolate chip cups.

My husband and I both thought the pancake cups tasted better than making regular pancakes, and they were also much more efficient as I didn’t have to stand over a hot griddle turning a whole batch.  I’ll be sharing my recipes soon for these.

**UPDATE:  The recipes can be found HERE.

Do you have any other quick breakfast ideas to simplify our mornings?

Simplifying Our Mornings Pt. 1

October 10, 2012 By 3 Comments

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When Vera started 1st Grade in September our mornings had to get started 30 minutes earlier than in the past.  I didn’t want to have to wake the kids up any earlier than necessary, so I evaluated how we were doing things and tried to make things more efficient.

Like Stacey mentioned yesterday, the kids and I prepare their clothes a week at a time and put them in organizers in their closet.

I thought that this was already pretty efficient, but this school year we have even taken that a step further.  In the morning instead of having the kids open their closet to take out their clothes, we pull everything out the night before.  Our 3 little ones in preschool and kindergarten also have to take an extra change of clothes (which makes for even more laundry each day…AAHHH!!!), so this includes preparing their backpacks with a clean set of clothes.

By knowing that we have prepared their clothes and backpacks the night before, we are able to eliminate more stress from our mornings so that things flow smoothly and quickly enabling our kids to get as much sleep as possible before the school day starts.

How do you simplify your mornings to help you get out the door in time with as little stress as possible?

Simplifying Life By Admitting I Can’t Do It All

October 4, 2012 By 2 Comments

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As Michelle has mentioned, this season has been a challenging transition for both of us.  I’ve mentioned it as well sharing about our new events and my attempt at a new schedule.  But, pretty much right after I posted my new schedule, I started feeling really overwhelmed with…well, everything.  I couldn’t keep up with cooking or cleaning or blogging.  And I just felt like a failure as a parent.  I read some of your comments encouraging me to rest and I talked to friends and family about how I was feeling.  Almost everyone affirmed, I am trying to do a lot.  I have a lot of demands with 3 little ones practically all the same age.  And I am with them almost all the time.

After those conversations and remembering encouraging words from my friends and my mom and my husband, I had to admit it.  I can’t do it all.  And I’m not failing as a wife or a mom just because I can’t keep up with this pace.  This is a different season with different needs and challenges.  I want to enjoy my family and my home, not be stressed and overwhelmed and guilty all the time.  I’m a little teary just writing this because I think the Lord is freeing me from this heavy burden of responsibility I have carried to do it all, all the time.

So, these 3 precious little ones have started Preschool 2 days a week at a local church.

They just go for half the day.  But I can’t tell you how amazing 4 hours to myself feels!  Part of my challenge with the tasks that I have on my plate is I very rarely have a long amount of uninterrupted time to do anything.  With cooking and cleaning, I have been trying to do a little (that feels like a lot) every day.  And I basically feel behind all the time.  So I’m going to try to do most of my bulk cooking on one of those days and most of my cleaning on the other day.  Hopefully with this, I can feel the freedom to just play with my kids or sit down and rest during nap time.  Those hours also give me a bit of a mental break from having toddler conversations.  :)  I’ll let you know how it goes.

Have you had to admit you can’t do it all?

 

Simplifying Meals When Daddy Is Gone

October 3, 2012 By 1 Comment

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This first week of October is a tough one for me.  We have teams of almost all women in from the U.S.  I want so badly to spend lots of time with them, but the truth is I’m stuck at home.  My husband is responsible for the teams, which means he’s with them a lot of the times that he’s usually home.  It’s a holiday here, so my kids have an 8 day break.  Because it’s a holiday, our house helper has the 8 days off as well.

  • 8 days,
  • a not-so-present husband,
  • an absent house helper,
  • people I wish I could see but can’t since I don’t drive in China and can’t get anywhere with 5 kids in tow,
  • 4 kids home all day instead of in school plus a baby.

I’ve already shed a few tears this week, and we’re only 2 days into the break!

One of the hardest things for me to manage with Matt gone is meals.  I can’t make elaborate meals because I have to watch the kids.  Even if I can cook the meals, once I finally get everyone down around 8, I don’t want to spend an hour cleaning the kitchen (no dishwasher here).

My main goal with meals…  Make sure they don’t go to bed hungry.  Try to put something healthy on the plate so that I can pretend that they were well nourished.

Daddy’s first night gone, we ate like this:

In front of the TV during an undeclared movie night.  The menu:

  • pepperoni,
  • popcorn or pretzels,
  • raisins,
  • apples with peanut butter.

Remember, I aim really high by making sure they are eating one thing that’s healthy.  That was apples.  No veggies.  Our veggie drawer in the fridge was empty.  Popcorn doesn’t count, does it?

Tough days call for simplicity, and sometimes that means the quickest things I can get on their plates with the easiest clean up.

How do you manage meals on days when you have to keep things simple?

31 Days to Simplifying Life

September 30, 2012 By 3 Comments

Is there anyone else out there who’s lives and schedules have changed so much, that you are having to simplify what happens day to day?  Stacey and I have both gone through major transitions this year with our oldest girls in school and are trying to figure out what our new normal is.  For both of us, we are trying to simplify our day to day so that we can keep up with the essentials and still feel like we have a little time left for ourselves to do the things we enjoy.

We have decided that we are going to join The Nester and hundreds of other bloggers this month for 31 Days.  We are planning to bring you 31 days of posts on simplifying life.

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Simplifying through…

  • simpler meals
  • simpler schedules
  • simpler cleaning
  • a simpler space
  • and more.

We’d love to hear if you are joining in at The Nester, or just planning to follow along and simplify your life as we make some changes to simplify ours!

Adjusting our Routine with a New Season

September 19, 2012 By 5 Comments

One of the biggest effects of all the transition this Fall is to my daily schedule.  Now I use the word schedule loosely.  Yes, I have a planned hourly schedule for my day, but in reality, it just serves as a guide.  I am not always following the plan hour by hour, but it helps to have already thought through the parts of the day.  It was strange this time around to change Karis’ activities to “SCHOOL”  all day long.  Makes me miss her, but she is loving all the learning and activities and relationships she is getting to experience every day! I go through this kind of planning with significant changes (seasons, new jobs, babies dropping a nap, etc.).  There is more about what that involves here.

Here is my revised version for the Fall.  This is something I am constantly tweaking as I learn what really works and what doesn’t.

 

Here are a few of my challenges and questions I’m dealing with regarding my daily schedule:

  • I want more time with the Lord in reading and prayer (though I also know this season of life lends itself more to prayer throughout the day and playing lots of worship music as I go).
  • By the time I get the twins down for nap in the afternoon, I’m just tired and don’t follow through well with time with Landis or daily cleaning chores.
  • I need more built in time for blogging.

At the end of it all, I need to aim for 2 things – diligence and flexibility.  It may seem like those don’t really go together – that you either aim for one or the other.  Actually, maybe only I think that, which is where I get trapped.  But I need both.

  1. Diligence – The reality is I have a lot to do.  The pace of every day is pretty high and there are not a lot of negotiable things on my to do list if I want a fairly clean house, have food to eat, and stay on our tight budget.  If I hit snooze a couple times in the mornings, that time eats into my time with the Lord and blogging time.  If I don’t stay active during naptime, I can’t find another time to get cleaning chores done.
  2. Flexibility – However, I have 4 kids that have lots of individual needs.  Their needs for comfort, snuggles, teaching, or training and discipline often come  right when I’m trying to accomplish something else.  I want to be attentive and compassionate enough in the middle of all my tasks to stop and care for them.

My daily schedule is a constant work in progress.  How about you?  Do you operate from a master schedule?  What are your challenges in keeping to a routine?

Back 2 School Survival Guide

August 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment

“Smooth Transition from Summer to School !”  Sounds great, doesn’t it?  But what about getting out of summer bedtimes, and getting homework done, packing the lunchboxes, morning and afternoon carpool, expectations, grades, extracurricular activities?  I could go on and on.

Well. Susan, The Confident Mom, has done it again with her Back 2 School Survival Guide.  She has taken all her years of experience in parenting and family coaching and put them onto paper to help moms like me and you make a smooth transition from relaxing summer days and travel to the routine of school days.

Here are a some of the topics she covers in the Back 2 School Survival Guide:

  •       Put your child’s back-to-school anxieties to rest.
  •       Help your child thrive in school and at home by setting up easy-to-follow routines.
  •       Make packing lunches a snap and learn to send lunches that are more likely to be consumed.
  •       Stay on top of activities for the entire family.
  •       Teach your children how to set goals and celebrate their successes.
  •       Discover new ways to have fun together as a family.
  •       Put homework hassles to rest.
  •       Learn that letting your child fail can ultimately lead to their success.
  •       Become a savvy back-to-school shopper.
  •       Get involved in your child’s classroom through volunteerism.
  •       Prepare for the “big K” (Kindergarten).
  •       Provide guidance to help your child deal with bullies.
  •       Help develop a healthy attitude towards others at school (including classmates with disabilities).
  •       Keep your children safe while using the Internet.
It also includes tons of printables including:
  •       Student Planner
  •       Master Family Planner
  •       Routine Checklists
  •       School Information Sheet
  •       Schedule Adjustment Worksheet
  •       Countdown Maze
  •       My Favorites Lunch Planning Worksheet
  •       Grocery Planner
  •       Family Fun Worksheet
  •       Family Meeting Agenda
  •       School Goals Worksheet
  •       Classmate Contact Sheet
  •       Important Dates At-A-Glance Sheet
  •       Lunchbox Notes, Jokes, and Quotes
  •       Note to Teacher Form
You can download all this now in the Back 2 School Survival Guide for just $14.  Click here for more info and to order

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