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Simple & Quick Healthy Lunches and Snacks for Busy Moms with Kids in Many Activities

Hello!

 

I wanted to bring up some simple meals and snacks to send with your kids! If I don’t send nutritious snacks and drinks with the girls, they will end up going to a gas station and spending money they don’t need to on junk food, so I like to prepare as much as possible.

 

Something we always have on hand and the kids like is cheese sticks and summer sausage or beef sticks.  Anything Made with eggs and boiled eggs are another one we always have around since we have chickens!  We make our venison sausage every year at deer hunting and they enjoy it and it is a great snack!  Sometimes I will make sourdough crackers, although they only last a day in our house and I haven’t figured out a longer storage solution where they stay nice and crisp for a longer period of time, so if you have any tricks with that, send me an email.  But really…., they probably wouldn’t last that long anyway…they gobble them up quick!

 

We have an abundance of plums and apples on our apple trees right now, so apples and peanut butter is another good snack.  I also like to buy cuties/clementines to keep on hand because they seem to last a little longer than berries.  Frozen grapes are another fabulous snack that my kids love!  Any kind of fruit, but these seem to be our go to that last the longest.  Watermelon is a cheaper fruit and stored correctly can last for a few weeks!  We really try to eat seasonally if at all possible, so this time of the year, we tend to have more fruit and less during the winter here.  

 

We love to make sourdough bread and bagels, and that is a great thing to pack for lunches with ham or turkey and cheese.  I try to stay away from things they have to heat up, but it has been very handy to have little thermoses if they want to take soup, chilli, or hotdishes because it stays warm for quite some time.

Breakfast muffins and sweet breads are super easy to make in big batches and keep in the freezer and  yogurt, berries and granola are some other favorites that my kids enjoy and simple to pack.

 

We also can at least 150 quarts of pickles, so that is a super snack that travels well and everyone loves!  Olives are another good food to add.

 

I could talk about this all day, but you really just need to prepare if you want to save money because otherwise you will spend money on expensive convenience snacks that are unhealthy and cost you so much more!  If you want more recipes, I have just added the blog on my website and will be adding more and more simple recipes for you to help you save money that are nutritious so you feel confident giving your family quality foods at a low price.  Go to claimingsimplicity.com and check it out!  I will be adding more recipes soon that you can use with your garden produce!  

Website:

Claimingsimplicity.com

 

Join our Community of Christian Moms ->

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Email -> monica@claimingsimplicity.com

 

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See ya next week!
Monica

Keeping Life Simple and as Minimal as Possible Means Surrounding Yourself with Other Homesteaders and Building Community With Other Like Minded People

Hello and Happy Labor Day

Today I  want to discuss how important community is as we have been so amazed by the neighbors within a few miles of our home.  Everyone helps everyone and it has been such a blessing in so many ways.  The weird thing is that we only moved  5 miles, but we have been surrounded with the most helpful people we call friends as they have helped us navigate so many things with adding 23 pigs and helping us get ready for our 4 dexters coming in about a month to helping us casterate piglets for the first time.  We have had a huge learning curve on our farm as we have had chickens and goats for a long time, but this will be the first time with pigs and cows.  So far it has been a fun experience with the pigs and we are really looking forward to the cows!!!!!  

 

There are so many things to learn and it has been so fascinating what we are learning along the way!  For us, we have worked on pens and fencing probably the last four weeks because as we needed more pens, we needed to make more space as the piglets get weened, another one will be having piglets anytime, so we had to move the boar out of that pen and then the boar cant be alone, so we put our American Guinea/Idaho Pasture Pigs in with him as they have most of our garden for next year rooted up.  It is a great time for the pigs to be in the woods right now because there are so many acorns falling from the oak trees and they are in heaven with all the vegetation.  It has been a process, but we are sure enjoying it!

 

With our cows coming next month, we had hay to cut and a neighbor borrowed us their machinery and we were able to buy a semi load of round bales from them as well as we will need a bunch for the winter because we never know how long that will be here!  

 

When we got our pigs, another neighbor had borrowed us their trailer to haul them and that was so helpful as well.  We have such incredible neighbors and we are able to pay back with heavy equipment work and my husband will be able to fix their equipment in the winter.

All this to say, reach out to those around you because it is so important to build community where you are at.  We are all in this together.  Reach out to others and see what you can help with and learn as much as you can from those that have gone before you.  

 

It is so nice that we can learn from you tube, but there is so much more power in surrounding yourself with those right in your own community.

 

I’m so excited to share that I will be having our first Monthly Women’s Homesteading gathering next month, so if you are in central Minnesota, we would love to have you join us.  DM me for the details or send me an email at monica@claimingsimplicity.com

https://fb.me/e/1dkvlPWsw

Have an awesome week friend!  Talk to ya next week!

Monica

 

How to Build a Small Farm as Homesteading Beginners When You Work Outside the Home and Time is Limited

Hello

I know you are busy and overwhelmed as a beginning homesteader working outside the home, but I want to help you to get started with less stress so you can enjoy the process of building your own homestead!

 

It can be exhausting thinking about all the things you want to do and could do, so I always suggest, start slow because there are so many things you can learn as you are trying to become somewhat self-sufficient!

 

One of the simplest things you can do is plant some fruit trees or bushes.  At our home we just sold, that is something we wish we would have done sooner.  We planted several different kinds of apple trees and were just enjoying the fruit the last couple years!  There are so many things you can do with apples, but I suggest you research what grows best in your area.  We have a long cold winter here in Minnesota, so we aren’t able to grow any kind of citrus trees here unfortunately, but we do use apples for many different things and the apples we arent able to use, the pigs, goats and chickens go nuts over!!!!  Luckily we have several apple trees and plum trees to the farm we moved to.  Another thing that I planted last weekend was rhubarb, it won’t be ready for a few years, but we use rhubarb for jams, jellies, pies, desserts and many other things and we like to freeze it so we have it all year long, so I wanted to get that going.  I have some strawberry and raspberry shoots I will be getting from a friend, so we are going to get those planted as well this Fall.  The nice thing about getting these fruits planted is that it is something you can do now and it doesn’t take much time, but then don’t have to do anything with them until the future, so find some time to get things like these planted!

If you have a small space or don’t have land, another activity you can do is learn how to preserve food just from either going to farmers markets and purchasing produce, or finding bulk items and learning different ways to make it. You don’t have to do a large amount if you don’t have the space to store it, but it is so good to figure out these methods!  Learning skills is something that you can easily do in your extra spare time and you don’t need acreage to do this, so if you are wanting to eventually move to the country, learn all you can while you are waiting.  You can learn how to make sourdough and cook from scratch with little time because I know you are busy!

Don’t complicate the process!  Sometimes we wait for things to be perfect, but like I said before, they most likely will never be perfect!  I like to simplify everything I do, so right now I am trying to make our pig pens, goat area and fencing as simple as I can for watering and feeding because I don’t have alot of extra time these days!  I have had to switch this around several times because we keep moving fencing to rotate them, so this is a process as we have never had this many animals and it is ever changing!

I hope these give you a few ideas to get started now even as you are just beginning no matter what your living situation is!

 

Website:

Claimingsimplicity.com

Join our Community of Christian Moms ->

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Email -> monica@claimingsimplicity.com

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:) Monica

 

Perfection and the Pursuit of Homesteading as a Busy Overwhelmed Mom

Hello

Let’s explore how the pursuit of perfection influences the homesteading lifestyle, and how the ideals of self-sufficiency and simplicity intersect with the human desire for perfection.

Do you strive for perfection in various aspects of life? I think of how perfection may stall you in your pursuit of homesteading.  Most things here on our little farm are not perfect…in fact I don’t know of anything that is, but if I was waiting for perfection, most things may not get done.  Here is an example from this last week.  We got 21 pigs 2 days after I went to look at a couple piglets!!!!  The neighbors down the road had to sell all their Kune Kune pigs because he was waiting on a transplant any day, so we looked at them on Friday and Saturday we were fencing and making pens because 3 of the sows had piglets and they each needed their own pens.  We used wood around our place to make pens, cut 5 gallon pails off for their feed and watering dishes and made it work so that we could move them over to our farm on Sunday!  We do really well on improvising so that we don’t have to spend alot of money, but that means things are not perfect!

Social media and modern culture contribute to the pressure of presenting a perfect life-I mean if I would have taken a picture today, I was filthy from working on animal pens and there was nothing pretty about it, so when I see these beautiful pictures on instagram with beautiful women in dresses in the garden or barnyard, I realize that it isn’t realistic for most people.

There is such an appeal of a simpler, self-sufficient lifestyle in today's fast-paced world, but you do not have to wait until you know everything.  It is good to start small and add, but you will learn as you go and you will never know everything.  There are so many things to learn when you homestead and it seems there are a hundred ways to do each thing because everyone does things differently!

There are so many benefits of homesteading, such as reconnecting with nature, sustainable living, and community building and I encourage you to just get started!

With homesteading, you will have setbacks, failures, and the unpredictable nature of farming and living off the land, so you will have to let go of the need for perfection.  I promise, you will find joy in the journey if you do!

Remember that the pursuit of perfection is a journey, but it is usually unrealistic with homesteading, so don’t let it steal your joy. Embracing imperfections and finding beauty in the process can lead to a more fulfilling and meaningful experience, both on the homestead and in life.

Website:

Claimingsimplicity.com

Join our Community of Christian Moms ->

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Email -> monica@claimingsimplicity.com

Instagram -> https://www.instagram.com/claimingsimplicity/

You Tube -> https://www.youtube.com/@claimingsimplicity/ 

 

xoxo,

Monica

 

 

Slow Down or You May Get Exhausted or Burnt Out Because You Should Enjoy Life and The Things You Really Value and Most Things Can Wait

Hello

I want you to think about your life right now.  Do you feel like you are going 100 miles per hour at all times?  If so, you need to slow down!  My body was in exhaustion mode for about 3 weeks and I felt like I couldn’t add one more thing or I would crash, but I knew it was God’s way of telling me to step back and take a look at what I value and what is important. 

 

This is not normally how I live as we have designed our life with putting our time and energy on the things we value most, so we had to evaluate what was really important-getting our house finished at a crazy pace or slow down and make time for more enjoyable moments.  Getting our eyes off what is truely important will make us more vulnerable to Satan’s attack and I knew that I was getting up and working right away in the morning without spending my quiet time with God every day and that really got me off track!  I’m happy to say that after I got back into my normal routine, everything just started falling back into place.  

 

So first, step back to see where you have the most chaos.

 

Next, see what you can eliminate

 

Last, practice living in the present and enjoying it.

See ya next week!

Monica

Website:

Claimingsimplicity.com

Join our Community of Christian Moms ->

https://www.facebook.com/groups/claimingsimplicity/

Email -> monica@claimingsimplicity.com

Instagram -> https://www.instagram.com/claimingsimplicity/

You Tube -> https://www.youtube.com/@claimingsimplicity/ 

 

 

Steps to Declutter Your House to Have More Peace and Less Stress as a Busy Overwhelmed Homestead Mom

Hello

Another lessoned learned the last month is too much stuff is pure chaos.  All areas of my life feel unorganized when I had stuff everywhere-I almost forget a few appointments, I had a doctor bill that got lost in the mess and I got a letter last week saying this is your last notice-what?  I take pride on never being late on any bill as most are set up automatically, but that could have cost me extra money if I would have missed it, but I’m sure the address change had something to do with it as well. I ended up buying duplicate items because I had no idea where something was, so clutter can also cost you quite a bit of money, so if you want to save money, learn to live with less stuff! 

Start decluttering your home if you have not!  I still have a enclosed trailer full of stuff and I don’t even want to unpack it and we still have a storage unit with items in.  I’m waiting until I have the time to organize and put where it needs to go, but now that we have used some of it in the last few months, I’m thinking we might downsize even further!

 

I am finally feeling somewhat better because I am finding a place for items in our home and anything that doesn’t have a place is going to the donation center.  This home is quite a bit bigger….even though we wanted to downsize but this is where God wanted us, it seems to have less storage space because it is a more open concept and not like the farmhouse style we had before, so it has been tricky.  I honestly don’t know how people function with stuff all over, it just mentally drained me.  It is so much easier to have less stuff than to have to take up mental space for many items.  Here are some things I want you to do right now.

 

First, look around your home and see if there is any garbage laying around and toss it.  Train yourself and your family to put garbage away when you get done with it.  It is something that you may consciously have to do for a while until it becomes a habit, but it will make such a difference for you. After that, look around if there are any dishes laying around where they should not be and put them into the kitchen where they belong.  Make sure you are making note of where the problems are happening so you can incorporate new systems to keep the clutter at bay.

 

Another thing you should  think about is every time you purchase an item is if you have a place for it and also what you are we going to get rid of-especially when you  are thrift shopping because honestly, that can become clutter if you don’t keep on top of it!  And if you are like me….you like a good deal!  Remember it isn’t a good deal if it becomes clutter!

 

Plan your week…so much less chaos when you know what is happening and you have a plan.  Take Sunday evening or Monday morning to look through what is going on so you don’t always feel scattered and flying by the seat of your pants! 

 

Implement these first few items to get you on your way to simple living and more peace!!!

 

I can help you make a plan to simplify!  If you want to win a ½ hour coaching call, you could be 1 of 4 people that begin to turn your chaos into calm and I would love to help you on that journey!!!!!

~Monica

Website:

Claimingsimplicity.com

Join our Community of Christian Moms ->

https://www.facebook.com/groups/claimingsimplicity/

Email -> monica@claimingsimplicity.com

Instagram -> https://www.instagram.com/claimingsimplicity/

You Tube -> https://www.youtube.com/@claimingsimplicity/ 

 

Save Money Having Fun No Matter What Stage of Life You are in and There are so Many Activites and Day Trips You Can do for Free for Your Family

Hello

I wanted to talk about having fun because at my parent’s 50th wedding anniversary party a couple weeks ago, my daughters were telling my nephews that they haven’t done anything this summer but work…..and yes, we have worked alot and they have been so much help, but they maybe forgot the many things they did do! They are so used to doing several day trips during the week and going to our cabin more which we didn’t get too much this summer!  We normally do many things and we have had less time with friends this summer and volleyball practice starts every day, so I’m sure that is why they don’t think they have done much, so I was feeling a little Mom quilt knowing how much work we have done so we took a few days to just hang out last week and do what they wanted to do.

You don’t need to spend money on fun activities!  We also like to tube down the river, go to random parks with hiking trails, we hiked the highest point in the county next to us in June, we go to the turtle races, movies in the park, parades, church events and festivities, barn dances, car shows, frisbee golf, pickle ball, strawberry patch, different beaches and county parks, splash pads, picnics, bike riding and we get together with friends and family often with bonfires, game nights and going to the lake just to name a few. 

Our activities look different in the summer than the winter here, they look different at every age group but there are so many many things you can do without spending money and it is such good quality time together. Raise kids that enjoy the simple things in life and teach them that you don’t have to spend money to have fun.

 

We love nature, so most times our adventures aren’t shopping or spending money unless we go to some touristy lake towns to check out the events and little shops.  Save money and live a quality life with simple living.

 

I truely believe teaching your kids that less is more is so important and to enjoy the little things in life.

 

Website:

Claimingsimplicity.com

Join our Community of Christian Moms ->

https://www.facebook.com/groups/claimingsimplicity/

Email -> monica@claimingsimplicity.com

Instagram -> https://www.instagram.com/claimingsimplicity/

You Tube -> https://www.youtube.com/@claimingsimplicity/ 

 

Simple Meal Planning is Important for Eating Healthy, Wasting Less Food, and Saving Money

Hello Again!  This is so fun to be with you every day this week!!!! Remember, it is my Birthday week and I am going to give away 4- ½ hour coaching calls because it is the last year that my age will start with a 4!!!!!!   I help women simplify areas of their life they are struggling with…..it might be motherhood, saving money, decluttering, cooking from scratch, or homesteading so you can reduce overwhelm. I like to keep everything simple and I love helping others do the same. All you have to do to enter the giveaway is give a rating and review and send me an email at monica@claimingsimplicity.com and I will announce the winners on the August 28th podcast!!!!!!! 

I have mentioned before how being off of a schedule and living out of a box for a few months has put a major damper on our healthy eating and boy can we tell in so many different areas from gut health, mood and the way we felt to weight gain!  We went from eating most things homemade and from scratch  and always having sourdough and fresh whole foods available with a garden to eating convenience foods from the store  we normally don’t eat! After a few months of my teenagers eating the food they thought they wanted to eat because many of their friends eat that way - like hot pockets and anything they could make quickly in the airfryer -it wasn’t long and they were telling me they are sick of those foods!  Something I never thought I would hear from them!  I mentioned  last week we finally got our kitchen table in our house and the night before we fed our sourdough (which by the way, we hadn’t fed in 3 months) and made 4 sourdough pizza crusts, flat bread, and bagels and they were so delicious!!!!!!  Do you know how many things you can make with just starter, flour and water?  I think we forgot how good real food tastes-I can’t imagine going a lifetime without it!   I have a roast, potatoes and carrots in the crockpot ready for tomorrow along with some sourdough bread and rhubarb crisp and that has been a meal we haven’t had for a while either-yum!  So simple, so healthy, and so good!

 

Something else that is important to eating healthy is only buying foods you can eat before they go bad.  I was just buying groceries here and there without a plan and that not only cost extra money, but many times the food went bad before we got to it.  I heard a statistic that I thought was outrageous that we waste up to 60% of our food!  WHAT??  That is crazy.  I love that our chickens and pigs can use any waste and my worms get some of that as well!

 

Last week, I unpacked my magnetic weekly plan that goes right on the fridge for everyone to see and we won’t have extra food in the fridge this week because I have a plan and will only buy the few ingredients we need.  I plan my meals around what food is on hand as I look into the fridge on Sunday and plan for the week with the food we need to use up which saves on food going to waste and saves money!  It is so much cheaper to make your own yogurt and granola and that is something that is so easy and much tasier!  There are so many items like this you can make yourself that are simple to make, healthier, and will save you money!

Find yourself a good routine with healthy foods-I am back to eating bacon, eggs  in the morning along with my apple cider vinegar since I need to make some more kombucha, and I feel so much better already and am gaining my energy back again.  I also need to add my adrenal cocktails back into my routine because my adrenal glands get depleted very fast and that just helps with my high energy levels, so if you haven’t tried that, let me know and I can send you my recipe!

 

If you want to have more energy and less overwhelm, I suggest you start making some of your food from scratch with trusted ingredients because food affects all areas of your body and you need to be aware of what you are putting in it!  Remember too that simple meals can be healthy meals!

 

Ok, that is all I have today, but I look forward to being with you tomorrow for my birthday!!!!!!!  If you haven’t already, give a rating and review on apple podcasts and send me an email letting me know you did that and I will enter you in the drawing for 4 FREE ½ hour coaching calls to help you simplify your life!  It only takes 30 seconds, but that free ½ call could change your life!

 

Talk to ya tomorrow!

Website:

Claimingsimplicity.com

Join our Community of Christian Moms ->

https://www.facebook.com/groups/claimingsimplicity/

Email -> monica@claimingsimplicity.com

Instagram -> https://www.instagram.com/claimingsimplicity/

You Tube -> https://www.youtube.com/@claimingsimplicity/ 

 

Building a Homestead Takes Time and Everything Doesn’t Need to be Done Right Away So You Can Enjoy the Journey

Hey There! 

I am so excited to be doing this podcast every day this week and I hope to give you many nuggets that you can put into practice.

I am going to give away 4- ½ hour coaching calls because it is the last year that my age will start with a 4!!!!!!  I don’t even think I have talked about my coaching on here, but I help women simplify areas of their life they are struggling with…..it might be motherhood, saving money, decluttering, cooking from scratch, or homesteading.  You know me, I like to keep everything simple and I love helping others do the same. All you have to do to enter the giveaway is give a rating and review and send me an email at monica@claimingsimplicity.com and let me know you left a review and I will announce the winners on the August 28th podcast!!!!!!! 

 

I’m going to bring you back a few months into a very insane few weeks for me. As we closed on our property, we started working right away.  Our first concern was getting the goats some fencing up and get their home situated, get a chicken coop ready so we could get our chickens back so we could have fresh eggs again, and prepare a home in our overgrown fenced in garden area for a couple pigs so they could root up it up so we can plant next spring, but we were unprepared for all the work that needed to be done to the house and it took us over a month to even get furniture in it because it needed so much work.  This is not something we expected as the house was built in 2005, so not even 20 years old!  

After 2 weeks in, I broke down after working from 5am to 10pm every day and I just asked God why He wanted us to move here.  You will see….was the only answer I needed to keep trudging away! 

We had reservations at Family Camp for 10 days that I booked at the beginning of the year and even though I love the quality time so much each year, I was thinking I should cancel so I could keep working feverishly as we were getting our piglets right after those 10 days at camp and we had only been at our new home for 2 weeks.  And then it hit me…..I needed that 10 days of down time!!!!!  So we packed up and had the most wonderful time with friends and family. All of our kids and grandkids were able to come to camp, we celebrated our 1 year old Grandson’s Birthday there and it was a Fabulous time away.

See ya tomorrow!  Monica

Website:

Claimingsimplicity.com

Join our Community of Christian Moms ->

https://www.facebook.com/groups/claimingsimplicity/

Email -> monica@claimingsimplicity.com

Instagram -> https://www.instagram.com/claimingsimplicity/

You Tube -> https://www.youtube.com/@claimingsimplicity/ 

 

 

Simple Living Means Slowing Down When You Need to Even When Homesteading So You Can Keep Your Priorities and Values in Order

Hello!

 

Thanks for all the love and reaching out while I was in the trenches of this move!  I will say that this was one of the hardest moves we have ever made even though we only went 5 miles!  I’m not sure if it is because we are 10 years older, if it is because we had alot more animals and things that go along with that when you have a homestead, or if it is because we had so much work to do on the house before we even moved in!  We are still working on the house and still have a storage unit full of things I’m not sure where we will even put, but we did get our kitchen table into the house yesterday, so we are making progress!!!!!

 

I just want you to know that I really do live this life I talk about.  I had to say no to many things and to doing the podcast as it was just one more thing to do and I had to put my priorities in order and as much as I love podcasting and teaching, I had to keep my values in order as much as possible~and honestly, my body and mind were so tired and exhausted that I could only do so much as I was still running teenagers to their activites and camps and all the other obligations we had!

 

I am super excited to let you know that I have so much to talk about and teach you and I am going to give you 5 podcast episodes of the things that I have learned through this move next week.  I know how you like the short episodes, so that is why I will do an episode each day!!!!

 

I love you so much!  Thanks for listening to this podcast!!!!!!  If you haven’t already, please take 30 seconds to rate and review the podcast and share it with others that want to live a simpler life!

 

Have a super week!

Monica

 

Website:

Claimingsimplicity.com

Join our Community of Christian Moms ->

https://www.facebook.com/groups/claimingsimplicity/

Email -> monica@claimingsimplicity.com

Instagram -> https://www.instagram.com/claimingsimplicity/

You Tube -> https://www.youtube.com/@claimingsimplicity/