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Having Peace Knowing God is in Control Can be a Result of Cultivating Faith and Trust in God. Here are 5 Simple and Practical Steps That Can Help You Find Peace in Your Chaotic Life as a Busy Mom

Happy Monday!

We have been on this crazy journey the last month and there is so much peace knowing and trusting in God's plan.  I know you can find this incredible peace as well even as a busy overwhelmed mom.

Here are 5 simple and practical tips that can help you have more peace Trusting God and knowing He is in control.

1. Spend time in quiet reflection, prayer, or meditation to connect with God and seek His guidance every single day. There sure is a difference in a day that starts out in prayer and being with the Lord and one that is rushed and out of control because it didn’t start with Him.  This can help you build a deeper relationship with God and develop a sense of peace and trust in His plan.
2. Reading and studying the Bible can help you understand God's character, His promises, and His plan for your life. This can help you develop a greater sense of trust and peace in God's control.
3. Practice gratitude can be life changing. Focus on the blessings in your life and express gratitude for them. This can help shift your perspective to a more positive one, and help you trust that God is in control and working for your good.
4. Let go of worry and anxiety which can be hard: Worry and anxiety can be a barrier to trusting in God's control. Practice mindfulness, and when you feel anxious, focus on surrendering your worries to God and trusting that He will take care of you.  I heard someone say that worrying is worshiping the problem~isn’t that the truth!
5. And Last, serning others is so important. Serving others can help you shift your focus away from yourself and onto helping others. This can help you develop a deeper sense of purpose and peace, and help you trust that God is using you to make a positive impact in the world.

Remember that developing peace and trust in God's control is a lifelong journey, and it may take time and practice. Keep seeking God's guidance and working to strengthen your faith and trust in Him.

I love hearing from you!

Website:

Claimingsimplicity.com

Join our Community of Christian Moms ->

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Email -> monica@claimingsimplicity.com

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xoxo,

Monica

 

5 Ways to Save Money and Simplify This Easter. Easy Tips for a Budget Friendly Celebreation as a Busy Overwhelmed Mom

Hello

Easter and Holidays can get expensive if you let them, but I have some money saving tips and tricks to reduce expenses, so you can cut costs without sacrificing the fun.  You can have an elegant budget friendly celebration without breaking the bank! 

We usually host most holidays and it usually includes about 20-30 people, so not too crazy, but it does cost quite a bit of money and takes time to prepare all the food for that amount of people.  If we aren’t careful we could easily overspend and can have a ridiculous amount of food that could go to waste, so you really need to think about the main portion of the meal first. 

Make sure and ask for help.  Many times each family will bring a dish to share, so that is another way to help with the cost to save money and also give you less to prepare, so that you have more time. You want to enjoy your time with family, so the less you have to do, the better!

Plan ahead!  Start planning early and create a budget for expenses.  This will help you avoid overspending and impulse purchases.  Ideally, you would put this in the budget at the beginning of the year, but if this was missed, try to look at future holidays and put them in the budget now, so it doesn’t sneak up on you. If you have the items for your meal, you can watch for sales on those items and try to do your shopping at least a few weeks prior to the holiday because many times as you get closer to it, more people are shopping and sometimes they run out of items and also, you can watch for sales.

Next, reduce decorations or DIY decor because most people won't even notice and you could spend alot of time and money on something that really isn’t necessary.  If you feel that you need to decorate, try to find something after the holiday to get on clearance that you can use year after year.  I used to decorate as a young mom because I thought I had to, but now I realize what a waste of money and time it is and I would rather put my money towards something more meaningful.  Now if you enjoy decorating, then plan your budget accordingly….it just isn’t something I value.  I think of how many kids could be fed with that amount or what I could do for those in need with that money, but we all have different values and that is ok!

Reduce gift giving.  Think about what this celebration is about.  It is not about gifts or the Easter Bunny-it is all about Jesus, so keep the focus there.  Some simple gift ideas would be some Christian books about Easter or something they may need. 

With the seasons changing here, I do like to get an outfit for each kid as many times they grow out of their summer clothes from the season before, but I tend to stay away from too much candy.  We do a small easter basket each year, but we have reused the same Easter baskets since they were young. 

We do a large Easter Egg Hunt for all the kids, grandkids and cousins.  I have small eggs that I fill for the younger kids and larger eggs for the older kids and that seems to work really well here and then we just reuse the eggs year to year.  Also, you don’t have to get expensive candy.  The kids just have so much fun finding the eggs!  Our focus is more on our relationships with family than material items, so think about that this holiday season as well.

Most of all- keep it simple! Holidays are to enjoy time with people you love and not about perfection, so simplicity is key to reducing overwhelm.

 

Website:

Claimingsimplicity.com

Join our Community of Christian Moms ->

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Email -> monica@claimingsimplicity.com

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Monica

 

5 Tips to Help You Reduce Your Food Expenses. You Can Save Money Growing Your Own Food This Year Even as a Beginning Gardener Living in the City or in the Country

Hey there! 

This has been an interesting week and I decided I will go back to 1 episode per week unless I have some extra time each week to put out 2 probably for the next few months anyway. 

If you haven’t listened in the last few weeks, God put it on my heart last month to put our house up for sale which makes no sense to us at all, so knowing that we need to be obedient, within a few weeks, we put our home up for sale and it sold within a couple days.  I am a planner and at this time we don’t know where we are going to live because there is nothing available that we are looking for and we want to make sure we stay debt free and if we build, it probably won’t be done this year because most of the builders around here are already booked up, so we are trusting that God will make it obvious as He already has His plan for us and God’s plan is always perfect.

It has been 2 weeks now and waiting is so so hard sometimes.  We do have a couple options, but God is saying to have patience and wait.  We did rent 2 storage units, bought a 24’ enclosed trailer and plan to have a storage container delivered to our cabin because we have lived on our 10 acres  for 10 years and have accumulated many items-especially having a little homestead.  Our goats will go to our son and daughter in laws house and the chickens will be split up to a variety of places, so we are planning as much as we can at this time, but moving from this home will be very hard because we have put so much work into our place to make it just how we want it and we will most likely be starting from scratch again.  I will keep you all up on this journey because I believe God has something for us that He wants the whole world to know about and I can’t wait to share it with you when I know more!

Today I want to talk to you about 5 tips to help you reduce your grocery bill by growing your own vegetable garden as a beginner gardener.  If you have never planted a garden and you don’t know how to save seeds, you can still save money growing your own vegetables this year!  Listen to episode 25 to learn more about seeds if you would like to save even more!  Depending on where you are in the country, you might still be able to start seeds if you want to!

First, figure out where you are planning to have your garden and how much space you will have.  If you are growing food in pots, then you will be a little limited as to what you can grow.If you have space, I recommend starting raspberry bushes or strawberry plants, because  they will grow and you will yield more each year.  Many people are happy to give away shoots from their raspberry plants and runners from their strawberry plants in the spring, so ask around or look on craigslist or marketplace so you don’t have to spend money.  You won’t get much fruit the first year, but the second year you should be very pleased!  If you have some extra money, plant a few fruit trees as well for your future.

 

Second, many times you can go to smaller greenhouses and they have smaller plants, but their prices for 1 plant is usually cheaper than buying whatever it produces at the store and each plant will produce multiple vegetables.  Right now I’m thinking about peppers.  It cost me almost $2 just for 1 pepper the other day in the store, but you can usually find pepper plants for less than that and it will produce several peppers.  Just to compare-when you buy a packet of seeds, it is usually less than $2 as well and then each seed is a plant that produces several peppers, so you can see how planting seeds is even cheaper than buying a plant that is already started, but it is much more convenient to buy the plants than start seeds, so whatever works best for you-you will save so much money planting them yourself as long as you take care of them!

Third, you will be able to save money because you can preserve food for most of the year and then you won’t have to buy food in the off season because that can really get expensive when you buy food when it is out of season-here anyway when we can really only grow food about 4 months of the year.  The bonus to learning how to can and preserve food is that it tastes amazing,knowing you grew it and that you can do it, and the huge amount of money you will save!  You can do this - I want to help you start growing your own food because not only is it more nutritious, but it also gives you a sense of accomplishment.  I can’t even tell you how much you will enjoy this process!

Fourth, If you are not able to grow your own food, you can buy from a farmers market or look for people giving produce away.  Many people grow more food than they need and so they are many times looking for people to give it away to, so keep your ears open and  learn to preserve the food so that when you are able to grow your own food, you know what to do with it.  Just preserving food for the year will also save money even if you can’t grow it yourself right now and that is a huge step forward in your journey.

Fifth, have fun with it and don’t get discouraged.  If you are a beginner gardener and some of of your produce doesn’t do well, use that information as a learning experience for the next year.  We all have different soils and weather, and each year seems to be a little different, so don’t get frustrated.  I have been gardening for quite a few years, but I still learn new information each and every year and there are so many different ways to grow food, so if something doesn’t work one year, try something else the next year.  

As you probably already know, I like to keep everything streamlined and simple, so I know you do not need to complicate gardening either.  Start small so you don’t overwhelm yourself! Get a few plants that you want to try and get started!  Feel free to send me an email if you have any questions and I would be happy to help in any way I can! I will keep you updated on my new garden this year as it will be a new adventure for me with new territory starting from scratch with clay and rocks, so I don’t know what will grow this year and what won’t, but I am going to give it a try!

 

If you haven’t already,  go to claimingsimplicity.com and sign up to get my recipes and simplifying tips that I will be sending out!

 

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/

 

Have a super week!

Monica

Are You a Stressed Out Mom Wearing the Busyness Badge of Honor, but Would Enjoy Simple Living and a More Intentional Life with Less Stress? 3 Tips to Break Free of Busy

Hey Friend

I love to be doing something as I am very active and mutlitpassionate, so I really have to intentionally makes choices as to what takes up my time.  I see you trying to do it all and feeling proud of yourself for getting so many things done, but sometimes it is like a busy badge of honor and can be very harmful to your health and relationships all around you and you can really only sustain this for a short time before you hit burnout.  You want to have meaning and purpose in your life, but your busyness is taking that away from you.

I was at a christian leadership conference last month and Ally Worthington, who is  a speaker, author, business coach, and podcaster was there and she has a book called Breaking Busy and even though I have not read it, it might be a place to start for you.  I took a few of my tips from her, but most of what I want to teach you today is how I TRY to live each and every day.

We each have a different level of limits and you need to be aware of your limits or you will get burnt out quickly.  Don’t ever compare yourself to someone else and what they are doing.  They may be in a different season than you and oh my gosh do we have alot of seasons throughout our lives as moms! I mean seriously…having teenagers that can take care of themselves is way different than having babies and toddlers that need help with all their daily needs. 

At our conference Ally talked about making the right list-don’t make a to do list, make a DONT DO list.  I love this so much, because so many times we are thinking of all that we need to do, but if we eliminate the things we don’t like to do, then we will have less stress.  If you want your life to be about what you are meant to do, then you need to stop doing what you think you SHOULD be doing.  

Ally said to ask yourself these 2 questions. First, What is sucking the life out of you right now? And Second, Does this activity get you closer to reaching your goals?

Ask these 2 questions for every single activity you are doing right now.  After analyzing all your activities, write down every activity that  you are saying yes to that you think you “should” be doing, but in reality should be on your DON’T DO list!  Get that list started!

Something I used to do was volunteer at my kid’s school.  Sometimes when you work from home, you feel like you should do that, but honestly, that was exhausting for me and I didn’t enjoy it at all!  Every once in a while was fine, but I did not enjoy it on a regular basis, so that is something I would have put on my DON’T DO list years ago.  

Another tip for future things that come up to protect your time and happiness after you have your don’t do list is the 10-10-10 analysis where you ask yourself when making a decision, how will you feel about the decision 10 minutes from now, 10months from now, and in 10 years.

And my favorite tip from Ally was to say, thank you for thinking of me, but unfortunately in this season of my life, I’m over capacity, but thanks for asking me!  Isn’t that awesome?

Right now I live my life so intentionally that I don’t have alot of things I would take off my plate, but if you are feeling stressed out trying to do too many things, the don’t do list would be a fabulous place to start for you!  Everyday decisions  and daily habits will  break the busyness patterns if you simply start small.

 

Website:

Claimingsimplicity.com

Join our Community of Christian Moms ->

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Email -> monica@claimingsimplicity.com

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

 

Love ya! 

Monica

Large Mason Jars Can Be Expensive for Preserving Food. How to Find Jars so You Can Save Money when You Start Canning Your Own Food or Making Your Own Kombucha

Hey there! 

 

I know you are probably thinking about just growing seeds right now or possibly even planting your garden depending on where you are in the world, but I just wanted to give you this tip to save money so you can get started preserving your own food on a lower budget.  

Over the years, I have gathered a large amount of canning jars, but when I first started preserving food, I couldn’t afford to buy jars.  Thankfully I knew several people who canned in the past and they were happy to get rid of their jars as they didn’t preserve their food anymore, I would find them at garage sales and thrift stores too, but you have to make sure to feel the glass rim to make sure there aren’t any chips or they may not seal. 

I started gathering my jars before the pandemic, so it was a little easier then, but when I started making kombucha last year, I needed large gallon glass jars and I got all of those jars for free and if you are looking for gallon jars, you could get as many as you want for free.  At first, I went and bought a gallon jar of pickles from the store because that was actually cheaper than ordering a plain jar-of course my family couldn’t eat those pickles because they have been so spoiled with our homemade crispy dill pickles, but the chickens enjoyed them!  My husband then found many jars from restaurants that were super happy to have someone take them off their hands, so if you are looking for jars, start there and you may find more than you dreamed of. 

If you know anyone that  buys Aldi alfredo or spaghetti sauce, those jars have measurement on the outside of them, so even though I don’t use them to preserve food, they do come in handy when making my own sour cream, mayonnaise and items like that.

Another things I like to do in the off season is get my lids.  There is no reason why you have to wait until canning season to get your lids because most stores do supply them year round.  It will be less likely that you have any shortage and when you want to can, you will hopefully have everything you need already ready! 

I have not tried the reusable lids, but I have heard that people are enjoying them as well, so if you have the extra money and are just getting started, you may want to invest in them as it could also save you hundreds of dollars over the years and reduce expenses in the long run…..depending on how much you preserve.

If you know anyone else that wants to learn how to save money, reduce expenses, and grow their own food, please share this podcast with them!  Thanks for being here and if there are any specific topics you want to learn about, please go to my website at claimingsimplicity.com and send me a message!  I would love to hear from you!

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/

 

Blessings friend!  See ya next time!

Monica

Do You Want a Calmer Home? 3 Areas of Your Home to Simplify Quickly to Feel More Peaceful and Enjoy Less Stress

Hey there

I’m guessing that you most likely have chaos in so many areas of your life, so I want to give you simple tips you can quickly add more peace and less stress into your life.  We are all so busy and I know you don’t need another thing to do, but I do want you to think about how easy a few of these things are to do to simplify and have a calmer home.

 I do think having too much stuff can weigh you down mentally, so I want to give you a few tips if you struggle keeping your house stress free as much as possible.

First…..the Kitchen area Because this ends up being a drop off location for so many things, one of the simplest habits you can incoorporate is to get in the habit of tossing the mail that you do not need as you bring it in the door and make an area for the items that you need to do something with. When I grab the mail, I look through it and throw the junk mail in the garbage immediately and then put the other where it needs to go. If you are like me-out of sight, out of mind, so I have a cute basket on the wall of the items I need to do something with, so that I do not forget to do them.  Also, make sure your dishes are done daily and keep your counters as clean as possible. Look at fridge-can you simplify?  Are you wasting alot of food because it is so full?  Put all the food that is going to expire into the front of the fridge and start making meals from those items. 

Last-Living Room: Especially if this is where people enter-less looks so much cleaner. Look at everything that is in this room. Can you relocate some of these things in a different area.  Basket works really well to put items in at the end of the day.  Can you clean up this area in a few minutes before going to bed and if not, you may want to eliminate some of the items

I don’t want to give you too much to start out with because I know you are a busy mom, so tackle these 3 first and you will be on your way to a more calmer home!

Website:

Claimingsimplicity.com

Join our Community of Christian Moms ->

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Email -> monica@claimingsimplicity.com

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

 

See ya next time!

Monica

 

Simplify Your Life, Live With Less Stress and Enjoy Moments With Your Family and Friends Because You Never Get Your Time Back. Some of the Best Quality Time Nobody Talks About Because of Slow Living.

Hey Friend

We had another incredible 3 day weekend with grandkids and kids last weekend and even though the weekend ended up being very cold, we still had plenty of quality time spent together.   It just amazes me how fast all the kids grow and I am so glad they all have a good time playing together! I am so so grateful for all the time we are all able to spend together.

This got me thinking about winter here.  I don’t know where you live, but in MN, we have 4 very different seasons and there is something I love about each one of them!  I sometimes wish winter was shorter, but it wasn’t too bad here this year with the really freezing temps, so that was nice.  I enjoy the snow, but I like to be able to go out and enjoy snow shoeing, ice skating,  ice fishing and all the winter activities we can do, so the -50 below with windchill really doesn’t appeal to me!

Some of the things people in colder climates don’t talk about when they have more time indoors are cozy time by the fire watching movies, game nights with friends, being able to do more puzzles, quality time together baking and warming up the house, more time for reading, crafting and indoor hobbies as well as all the outdoor hobbies when it is nice that I talked about earlier.  None of these things take much money, but will give you a lifetime of memories.

Are you someone that looks at the positive things around you?  When you start living a simpler life with less, you really do find more joy.  You will end up really appreciating the little things in life, and notice how wonderful it is to be living a slower life with more time. What are you waiting for?  Are you tired of the crazy busy life that sucks the life out of you?  There is so much more for you friend!  I want you to know there is so much freedom when you let go of having to keep up with other people and when you let go of possessions, you will feel so much lighter and alot happier!  

I know people that are always scrambling to get the next best thing and then once they have that, they need more and more because they think that is going to make them feel better.  That may only make you feel better temporarily, but when you simplify, you have more time which you can never get back, you can focus on other people, and not just yourself, and you will be so satisfied!  

I challenge you to look at how you are feeling and what your focus is and see if there are things you can simplify or downsize so you can live your life happier with less stress.  

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/

xoxo,

Monica

 

Why Would You Even Want to Homestead When You Didn’t Grow Up With it? Do You Want to Learn How to Preserve Food, Become More Self-Sufficient, Save Money and Reduce Expenses?

Hey Friend!

Never grew up homesteading, but you want to start?  I grew up on a dairy farm, so that is where I get my work ethic, but I didn’t grow up with a garden, canning or making too many things from scratch!  It wasn’t until after I was married and had a few young kids in my early 20’s when I even had any interest! Much of it came out of necessity at that time.  I wanted to raise my own kids, so I had to find creative ways to save money and that is just what I did!  

 

When my 3 oldest kids were young, I started working for a company doing food taste testing parties and it grew into a full time income in just a few parties a week, so I that was my first experience with growing a business with less hours and it was perfect for me at the time because I was with the kids all day and then I would get my adult time in the evening with a bunch of women!  It was perfect!  Once they got a little older and got into sports, it was alot harder to do parties in the evenings, so I had to go a different route.  

 

Working from home became a passion of mine and I started making things to sell and they just sold word of mouth.  At that time, I didn’t have alot of technical ability……that was over 20 years ago….well, tech is still a struggle for me, but at least now there are so many more resources available online to figure things out, so that has been helpful.  Now you can reach so many more people online that are in your niche which is fantastic!

 

I started in my early 20’s making spaghetti sauce with the help of a neighbor I used to babysit for and I was hooked on canning!  My first few things I canned were green beans and spaghetti sauce and I didn’t grow the vegetables at first.  I would just try new recipes over the years to add to my knowledge.  There were a few years that I didn’t have a garden and I didn’t can and then my father in law borrowed my canner and lost the knob for the top, so I was just water bath canning and didn’t do any pressure cooked items for a while.  At that time, I didn’t consider myself a homesteader, but I was really really good at saving money!  I honestly hadn’t heard the homesteading word even used up until the last few years.  

 

For me, living this lifestyle was about the enjoyment of preserving food, but mostly it was about saving money and having less expenses so I could stay at home with my kids.  If I could stretch my dollar as far as I could, that would feel like success to me.  Not to mention how much better everything tasted when you cook from scratch and make simple homemade meals.  Even if you don’t consider yourself a homesteader you can still learn how to preserve food, grow a garden, and raise animals. (and if you want more info on what homesteading means, you can listen to podcast episode #70)

 

It wasn’t until 2020 that I decided that I wanted to live more self-sufficient and produce as much food as I could on our own so that I wouldn’t have to worry about not finding grocery items at the store and then I realized that so many people have no idea even where to start, so that is why I have been working on creating a course to teach you some very simple skills.

Remember that I keep everything very very simple.  Slow living is the best living.  It has been good for my body and my adrenal glands that get depleted very easy and it has been good for my family to not live the super fast paced life where they don’t even have time to enjoy the simple things in life.  We make time for so many more things now and homesteading has been really fun to teach friends and family so that they can live this lifestyle for years to come.  The bonus is that when the grocery prices started rising so fast, we needed very few items from the store since we had prepared and preserved whatever we could. 

 

I know that you may be thinking that learning to grow and preserve your own food and homesteading is complicated, but let me tell you friend, I don’t have time or patience for anything complicated, so if I can do this, so can you.  You can be a homesteader no matter where you live or what your background is.  Come and join my email list so you can be the first to see when I roll out these simple classes to get you started to saving money!!!!

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/

 

As always, have a great week!

Monica

Do You Want to Learn How to Start a Garden and Buy Less Groceries? Simple Tips for Beginner Gardeners by Starting Seeds to Grow Your Own Food to Save Money and Reduce Food Expenses this year.

Welcome Friend

I get so many questions about growing seeds and I am not an expert at all, but I will give you the information I know!  Remember, if you don’t have time to grow your own seeds, you can buy them before you plant your garden from greenhouses that has done that part for you and that is what I did for many many years, but it is a little more expensive.  

I just planted seeds and I know I had so many questions when I first started doing a garden.  Depending on where you live, this may not even apply to you because you may have already planted yours, but if not-this info is for you and if you have, you can always use this info for next year!!!  I don’t start all of my seeds, but tomatoes, peppers, and a few others is what I like to get started before we can bring outside to plant because our season in so short in MN..  It probably wont be ready to plant outside until late may, early June here!

 

First I want to talk about the different seed types.  There are Heirloom seeds which means they have been around at least 50 years.  If you save the heirloom seeds - they are going to be the exact same vegetable you had originally planted.  Next is the hybrid and that just means that the plants have been cross pollinated to have qualities of 2 different plants that have created a better plant.  It is a natural process and they are safe to use, but if you save the seeds from a hybrid, you are not going to get the same plant-you might get qualities from one of the parent plants the following year. 

 

All the seeds are organic, so you don’t have to worry about if it says organic on the package and don’t want to pay more money for that.

 

Also, another myth is you have to look for GMO on package-you do not have to worry about that either.

 

This is only my second year starting seeds, so I am going to teach you what I have done! Look on the seed packet to see when you should plant-it will depend on your zone.  

 

I use seed starting cells and a tray underneath & dome.  It comes all together.

 

Never bring in outdoor soil to start seeds.  If you bring that inside, you will bring in fungus, disease and insects.  As soon as you bring it in, mold and disease will grow and kill your seedlings, so buy seed starting mix.

 

So once you are ready, you will put the dirt in the cells or cups with holes in the bottom, plant the seeds-you can use popsicle sticks to mark plants, and then you will put a small amount of water in the bottom tray (about ¼ full)so the water goes up into the plant-dump what is left of water after about 30 minutes. Once you see the plants are a lighter brown and dry water them, let them be dry for a day or so and then water from the bottom again.  After 10-14 days of plant growing, you will want to fertilize with any water soluble fertilizer (but only use about ¼ of what it calls for)  Do that about once a month (but be careful because you can do more harm if you use too much)  I didn’t even use fertilizer last year and we had a very abundant garden, so im thinking it was because of our chicken and turkey poop fertilizer we had outside.  It probably depends how long you have seeds indoors too.

Honestly, it is a trial every year.  Last year our peppers didn’t grow as well and many people in our area said they had the same problem, so each year ends up a little different, so it you are just starting out growing your own food, don’t give up!  Enjoy this replay and I will be back next week!

 

Website:

Claimingsimplicity.com

Join our Community of Christian Moms ->

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Email -> monica@claimingsimplicity.com

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

 

Happy Planting!

Monica

 

What is Financial Success as a Christian? Take a Look at an Eternal Point of View of Money

Hey Friend!

What is financial success to you?  So many people define financial success as retiring early, a million dollars in the bank, material Items and how much they accumulate, but I believe it should look different as a Christian.  I challenge you to look at this differently.  As Christians, we are eternal beings and I believe that our life should not be measured  by what we accumulate on earth, but by what we give.  

 

Instead of fancy vehicles and focusing on material items, choose to give more to those in need and give all the glory to God.  There are so many opportunities to give- missionaries, and so many many Christian based ministries. Your money is God’s money-keep your hands wide open for what He wants you to do with it.  Once you change away from the world’s view of materialism, you may think about giving in a different way.  When you value your priorities differently, you can change the world with God’s help.  He can do big things through you, so don’t ever doubt that once you change your life, you will see a difference. We are proof that once you change the focus from yourself to others, everything changes.  We have seen God’s hand in so many things more than ever these last 10 years.

 

Don’t ever place your worth in a dollar value.  Look at financial success as God does.  Eternity is forever, but our time on this earth is short.  Make sure you are making the best of it and giving wherever you can.  God sees you and it will not go unnoticed.  Sometimes this means giving of your time if you don’t have the funds because serving is also considered giving.

 

I just wanted to bring this up because I had this conversation with a friend recently and we both thought most people don’t think like this, so this is just something for you to ponder on this lovely day!

 

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God Bless!

Monica