Claiming Simplicity | Simple Life, Natural Wellness, Holistic Health, High Ticket Affiliate Marketing, Non Toxic

Eating Traditional Nutrient Dense Foods Like Our Ancestors Did to Help You Heal Your Body and Improve Metabolic Health

Hey Friend

It is starting to warm up here at the time of this recording, but even though it has been cold, I have had so much incredible time with friends crafting for 4 days and then another weekend time with friends that I don’t see very often and another weekend at a Womens leadership retreat, we have been ice fishing and my family has caught a bunch of fish, so even when it is cold, we still gather and have quality time with people we love-even though it may not be outside!

 

Today I want to talk about the simple foods we eat.  I no longer eat for what my body looks like, but for my metabolic health and to heal my body from the inside out.  I have talked on here about how over the years up until 3 years ago,  I have tried every diet there was including keto, paleo, vegan, and the list goes on and on, but when I had an abnormal EKG after doing Keto and then getting my body age, I realized that I needed to quit worrying about weight and worry more about health, so after doing alot of research,i realized that  auto-immune disorders and our health problems come down to mostly what we eat.  I knew that even though our soil is so depleted that we won’t benefit from all the nutrients our ancestors did, if we get closer to a nourishing ancestral diet with nutrient dense foods, we will be much healthier.

 

I had some testing done and I found out I had food allergies to milk, wheat, tomatoes, tuna, kidney beans, kale, and 10 other items, so when I started cooking from scratch with whole food ingredients, I noticed a huge difference in my gut health. I can’t wait to retest and see how many of these food allergies are gone.  Since switching so much of what we eat, my family has become even healthier and it has saved thousands of dollars making it ourselves and growing the food.  We buy organic whenever possible if we aren’t growing it as we are more aware of pesticides and also our gut health has improved immensly. 

 

My list of nutrient-dense foods that we typically eat daily does not include a bunch of random super-foods that are expensive and hard to find. My diet has shifted to eating more Traditional Foods….or as I like to call it, following an Ancestral or Primal diet. Eating the way my ancestors have eaten for thousands of years. 

Traditional foods are the types of nutrient dense foods I now focus on for our whole family.

 

These foods are for anyone, at any stage in life. They’re rich in nutrients that your body needs to thrive.

 

Nutrient Dense foods we eat every day

 

Eggs from our chickens

Raw Cheese

Fermented Veggies

Fruit

Raw Milk

Butter

Animal Protein

 

It sure makes a difference in how we feel.  We still eat our fruit and veggie tablets daily, but that is because we couldn’t possibly get 30 different kinds of fruits and vegetables every day and those have kept our whole family free from sickness for over 3 years now.  I will put the link below if you are interested!

When you nourish your body with the right foods, you will feel  AND LOOK  your best!!!

If you want to be part of our community of like minded women that want to learn more about making simple traditional nutrient dense foods, join our group-the link is below in the description!!

 

And if you are enjoying this podcast, please share it with a friend and as always, feel free to send me an emaili with any questions or things you would like to simplify~I seriously LOVE hearing from you!

 

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/ 

Fruits & Veggies -> https://www.monicabaker.juiceplus.com/

God Bless!

Monica

 

3 Simple Ways You Can Save Money on Groceries in 2023 with Rising Prices of Food. Reduce Expenses All While Keeping Your Meals Simple, Thrifty and Healthy

Hello Friend

It was really amazing how little I spent on food last month with our no spend challenge and I thought there is no reason we can’t eat like this all year because we wasted so much less.  I honestly don’t like cooking anything that is putsy or takes alot of time, so my goal is to have simple, thrifty, and healthy meals!

1.  Make a meal plan for the week using what you have in your refrigerator, pantry and freezer.  Only buy what you need for those meals. Look at your schedule and see what is going on for the week.  If you are buying in bulk, make sure you are rotating the items so they get used up and you are only buying foods you really like and use alot.  The most expensive food is the food you don’t eat, so try to buy only what you are going to use that week.
2. Skip the unhealthy snacks because their cost adds up really fast.  If you want snacks, find new recipes that you can make from scratch because they will be so much healthier and most likely much better tasting as well.  Many times these items are super simple to make yourself and are quick snacks to make homemade.  This tip alone could save you hundreds of dollars each month.  Some really easy swaps are homemade yogurt and homemade granola, muffins, chips, dips, crackers and cheese-its, bars & cookies (which I think are so much tastier) and the list goes on and on-just remember to keep it to simple snack recipes so that you are likely to make them again because they are quick.
3. Swap out homemade items for staple pantry items you can make yourself quickly.  This will save you ALOT money.  When you start making your own condensed soups,dry mixes ect and see how simple it is, there won’t be a need to spend a larger amount of money on convenience items because you know how easy it is and also, you will know the ingredients you are using and it will taste so much better!!

 

Saving money and learning how to make your own foods is an important skill to have as we continue to see grocery prices rise.  It is just an extra benefit to being able to have better tasting food that is healthier for you without all the additives and preservatives in the store bought  food.

 

I am compiling a list of my favorite recipes that I like to use to swap out the expensive food/mixes  from the store, so if you want to get on the wait list, just send me an email and say wait list!

 

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/ 

 

Have a fantastic day! 

Monica

 

Do You Want to Slow Down and Have a Simpler Life? 3 Steps to Begin Your Simple Living Journey That You Can Start Right Now No Matter How Busy You Are

Welcome to another week of Claiming Simplicity

Are you wanting to pursue more simplicity in your life?  Many years ago, I realized  I wanted to spend my days with more meaning and not consuming and competing.

 

Pursuing a simplified life can be just as exhausting at times as pursuing the fast one because it doesn’t just happen on its own.  You still have to manage balancing family life, work life, and personal life—while trying to maintain a slower life.  You may have to learn new skills from budgeting differently to learning how to cook from scratch or preserving food and there is a learning curve if you don’t know how to do these things. It is so very rewarding though!

In my current season, serving my husband, children and grandchildren calls for most of my energy, so my business is often secondary. There’s a lot of No in my vocabulary right now because we say yes to better things, but with each new season, that will always be changing.  

I have 2 daughters still at home that homeschool and are in sports year round, so that takes much of my focus because I know that season will be over in 6 years and I want them to know they are my priority right now.  I also work my businesses early in the morning and free hours that we are not running with kids.  Kids are only young for so long and I don’t want to miss it.  I don’t want you to miss out either!

So what are you doing to make a change?  If you don’t make a plan and start, you will be exactly where you were last year!  Please please please make a plan to learn something new and begin to move forward so when you look at your goals for this year, you can look back and be proud of yourself!

I want to give you some skills because this is what my brand is all about!  

1. Decide what a slower life and simpler living looks like to you.  How many hours will you spend at a job?  Will you raise your own food or preserve your own food? Do you want to get some animals to become more self-sufficient?  Do you want to spend more quality time with your family? Do you want to live on less money and stop over consuming?  This is the most important step because living a simple life looks very different for each person and if you don’t know what it looks like to you, you will never be able to attain this lifestyle.
2. Research and application.  Like I always say….it is not a race, so you have to start slow so that you do not get overwhelmed.  This is an amazing journey and it doesn’t happen instantly~there are skills to learn, research, and testing as to what works and you need to figure out what you enjoy.  It is definitely a different lifestyle than than the fast pace the main stream is used to and there is a totally different mindset when you live this enjoyable life.  You don’t feel the need to have everything the next person has and it is so much easier to go without things and not feel bad about it.  There is so much support as simple living is becoming more popular and you will notice that more people want to save money and learn how to be more frugal.  There are so many more resources than there ever used to be!
3. Work on getting out of debt because it will be hard to live slower and enjoy the things you value if you have alot of debt.  First, stop buying unnecessary items and think about each purchase.  Do you really need it or is there a different option that is cheaper?  You also need to know why you want to get out of debt.  Start by seeing if there is anything you have that you don’t really need and that you can sell.  Can you have a cheaper vehicle so you don’t have a payment?  Do you need the camper you have if you owe money on it?  Think about all the extra snowmobiles, boats or items that you could do without or go a cheaper route.  After that, start with your smallest bill to largest debt amount and pay extra on the smallest amount until it is paid off and then go to the next debt tacking on the amount from the debt you paid off until all debt is paid.

   Join our Community of Christian Moms ->

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

   Email -> monica@claimingsimplicity.com

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

   Blessings! Monica

 

Learn to Save Money, Live Intentionally and Escape the Trap of Overconsumption to Find Freedom in Frugality and the No Spend Challenge Recap

Hello

I do this no spend challenge and freezer and pantry clean out every January, but it was really fun to do with other people this year!  It is such a great way to begin the new year with new habits and many of those habits stay throughout the year.  Being intentional about every single purchase is so good to be aware of.  I value time, flexibility and  freedom over consumerism and material items and  I love teaching you to live a simpler,  more natural and meaningful life so you can enjoy this incredible life God gave us.  I think excessive consumption keeps people from financial security and builds kingdoms of clutter in our houses, schedules, bank statements and environment.  I want you to buy less of what doesn’t matter so you can afford more of what does!  I love helping people escape the trap of overconsumption to find freedom in frugality!

 

What I hope you find is your own full life and it probably won’t look like mine, but you can start designing your own version of financial freedom and you may find you enjoy the pursuit of it! 

 

We had some great things happen in the group!  My favorite are more family time with homecooked meals and teaching kids the importance of spending less, trips to the library for the first time, fishing with family, family hiking, decluttering and just being aware of every single purchase and only buying essentials.  When we live more intentionally, our lives become more significant in so many ways!  When you live for treasure in heaven instead of treasures on earth, you have more time to enjoy the life you have and that is why I encourage people to simplify their lives to live better.

 

Money spent on groceries was very minimal and most members had to get a little creative when trying to use up pantry items and cleaning out the freezer.

 

When you do a shopping ban or challenge like this you need to figure out what you value. Vision what a values- aligned life looks like.  I talk about this in episode 2 of the Claiming Simplicity Podcast.  Value vs. Time Assessment.  What motivates you?  Does spending more time with family motivate you to spend less money?  Do you want to stop trading hours for dollars?  Do you want to be able to give insane amounts of money to people in need?  Do you want to travel whenever you want to and have time freedom and flexability to do it whenever you want to?  You have to have a reason that gets you excited to do this!

 

You also need to  know what your challenges and excuses are.  Most times these are just limiting mindsets.  Change your mindset and you will change your outlook.  You might think you are broke, but once you make a budget, you might find that you just overspend.  Whatever you think is keeping you from paying off your debt, there is someone else in a situation like yours that has accomplished the same goal because of their mindset.  There is alot of scientific studies to prove that mindset significantly implacts the way you make short and long term decisions, so here are some things you can do to improve your limiting mindset.  Surround yourself with abundance thinkers and practice gratitude.  You are capable of saving more than you can even imagine. Make a goal for yourself and plan to reach it!

 

You can do a challenge like this any month of the year and I encourage you to try it if you haven’t already. I am super proud of the members of our No spend challenge because most have never tried it before and for the ones that were active, they had success! 

Join our Community of Christian Moms ->

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

Email -> monica@claimingsimplicity.com

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

 

Enjoy your week and God Bless!

Monica

 

How I Only Spent $73 for 1 Month of Groceries for a Family of 4 During the January No Spend Challenge. Reducing Your Grocery Budget is Much Easier When You Raise Alot of Your Own Food.

Hey Friend!

I was pretty excited to only spend $73 on groceries last month-especially with the food prices right now!

I am so grateful that my family hunts and fishes,  we grow and preserve our own food, and have chickens for meat and fresh eggs_especially with the price of eggs right now! I used to advise people to eat eggs for an evening meal at least once per week to save money, but now they aren’t going to save a whole lot on that!!  

My first week of the challenge, I ended up spending $30 because I hadn’t been grocery shopping for a few weeks and I need to buy some extra fruit as we were running low and in our area of the country, we aren’t able to grow fresh fruit for months due to below freezing temps, so that seems to be our biggest expense because I like to buy organic as much as possible and I don’t can very much fruit because we like fresh fruit. I do freeze some fruits, but my frozen apples are gone, but we do still have strawberries.  The rest of the week, we ate egg meals for breakfast because I was running low on milk, venison, potatoes and corn, I made a large pot of chicken wild rice soup because I had most of the supplies on hand and we make our own broth, we had a potato, burger and cheese hash, tacos, roast,potatoes, green beans.

The second week I made a huge pan of hash to last us most of the week.  That is shredded hashbrowns, pork sausage, and eggs-sometimes I put peppers in this, but we didn’t have those on hand.  I like to make alot because we like heating it up during the week for breakfast or lunch.  I always make large batches of everything whenever I cook  because then I have to cook alot less often. Our breakfast  can be something as simple as yogurt, smoothies, sourdough dishes, eggs, oatmeal and then we can use leftovers for lunches so I only concentrate on a quick dinner meal. 

I have not had enough ingredients to make double the meals to freeze like I usually do, but I’m sure I will get back to that when I am done trying to eat mostly out of the pantry and freezer.  I had alot of cubed zucchini in the freezer and made some zuchinni lasagna with our canned spaghetti sauce, burger and cheese that we had-it is one of our favorite meals-so much flavor and it is really quick to make. I also made some chicken tacos with chicken in the freezer, venison sloppy joes and french fries, sourdough pizza crust pizza, and chilli.  Of course we always have sourdough bread and treats throughout the week as well! So week 2 I only spent $26 because we still had fruit from the week before, but we did have to buy some raw milk to make our greek yogurt and also to have on hand as we ran out the first week along with a few other items..

The 3rd week I spent nothing and we had stroganoff with our homemade sour cream,and venison, one meal was chicken, potatoes, and corn, another was chicken fettuccine with our homemade noodles and homegrown chickens, venison burgers and our homemade french fries we freeze in the fall with the potato crop, , potato soup, omlets and spaghetti squash spaghetti and meatballs, canned pickles, and sourdough garlic bread.  I’m being very intentional about what I buy at the store and I am not buying any extra food to stock the cupboards like I normally do when it is on sale.  

And week 4. I only spent $17. Sourdough pizza, sourdough skillet, eggbake, roast and potatoes, burrito bowls, chicken and sweet potatoes, and fish and french fries. We also ate similar breakfasts to the weeks above and usually leftovers for lunches. The biggest expense we have saved on was not buying snacks and making them all homemade because my kids found some recipes using ingredients we already had, so that was another win from our challenge.

Even though I have only been buying the few items for the meals we need week by week, I have not felt deprived at all.  It is so nice to have so many nutrient dense foods from our garden,chickens, hunting, and fishing. We will eventually need to buy more groceries just for the simple fact that our pantry staples like flour, sugar, olive oil and spices will eventually be getting low, but I’m actually encouraged to see how long I can actually go without spending more than 120-150/month.  Could I do this most of the year? Possibly!I am going to try!  And you possibly could too!  I know months that we have Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, we wouldn’t be able to since we probably spend a few hundred each holiday for over 25 people, but most other months~especially in the summer and Fall when our garden is producing, we definitely could spend less.  If you need help with this, let me know-send me your ingredients and I can help you get creative with your meals!

Join our Community of Christian Moms ->

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

Email -> monica@claimingsimplicity.com

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

Monica

Are You Listening to God or Are You Just Trying to Do Everything on Your Own? I Wrestled With God About Growing My Online Business With Social Media and He Made it Clear

I am so glad you are here!

 

I am going into this 2nd year of podcasting and I just want to say that I never in my life ever had a dream to podcast, I’m not a natural speaker, and I didn’t think I had anything to talk about, but God…..  He had plans, and if you are listening, you must want to live a simpler life because the podcast has grown to the top 2.5% globally, so that is exciting! This podcast is All God!

 

When I first started, it was because over the years, many people would say that they wish they could work their job around their life and I wanted to teach you that, so you could spend  time with what was most important to you-see episode 2 on building a balanced life plan. But as the podcast evolved, I realized that most of people didn’t have the skills to live simpler and natural life, so now I am actually teaching you more simple homesteading skills, cooking from scratch with real food, sourdough, raising animals, preserving food, gardening, natural living, saving money and reducing expenses, so you can enjoy a slower life.  Everything I do is simple, so no matter how busy you are, you can incorporate this into your life and hopefully you can begin living your dream life soon.

 

So naturally as I was planning for this 2nd year, I thought since I didn’t do any advertising and very little on social media that I should start doing more of that to grow our business even more. I teach people to simplify and put down social so they have intentional time doing what they value and so I really struggled with the thought of being on social more.  I’m rarely on social and if I post something, I don’t sit and scroll, I do it because I feel like I have to and so as I have been praying about this for months because it is exhausting to me to have to post everything and then have to reply to all the comments, ect!  God has really been speaking to me and telling me to lay it down completely and that it is through Him these businesses will grow in His timing, not an algorithm that is controlled by someone else-He is the everlasting algorithm!  He keeps reminding me of philippians 4:13 -that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me and so can you!!  If you aren’t familiar with this verse-it is a great reminder to persevere and be content in any situation-not on your own, but through Christ who will give you strength.  

 

As of February, I am deleting my Instagram and Facebook from my phone again and I will go on my Private Claiming Simplicity Group from my computer and I plan to start actively sharing content to help you put some of my simple practices into your life. I will give this group a year and then reevaluate and see how that feels!  I would love for you to join me-the link is below in the description.  Come and join our community with  other busy moms who love Jesus, want to slow down and live a more meaningful and intentional  life.

 

One of my biggest problems I had with social media, is that I really really  enjoy my life and I didn’t want anyone to feel insecure, inadequate or jealous because comparison is a struggle for many and that is one of the many reasons we have more mental health problems than ever and I don’t want to contribute to that and I don’t like the focus on me.   I also don’t want to waste my memories with trying to make posts and capturing all we do when I can be just enjoying every intentional moment with family and friends.

 

I do love hearing from you, so if our community is not for you, please rate and review the podcast and always feel free to reach me by email listed below!

Join our Community of Christian Moms ->

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

Email -> monica@claimingsimplicity.com

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

 

Thanks for listening and remember-listen to God and He will lead you!!  

Monica

20 Simple Ways to Become More Sustainable and Eco Friendly in 2023

Hello

There are so many easy ways you can become more sustainable and many of them you can implement immediately and they are frugal as well!  Just as we talked about homesteading last week and going slow to avoid overwhelm, I suggest you start making small daily changes and habits to start out with becoming more green or eco friendly as well so that you become more sustainable and envirnonmentally responsible.  

1.Grow your own fruit and vegetable garden.

2. Plant fruit trees
3. Use non toxic weed killers and fertilizers
4. Make a compost pile
5. Only water early in the morning or in the evening to prevent evaporation and have  an automatic shut off
6. Recycle materials you can recycle
7. Make your own laundry soap
8. Switch to wool dryer balls
9. Use reusable ziplock bags
10. Make your own All purpose cleaners
11. Use reusable cloth towels instead of paper towels.
12. Cook from scratch
13. Remove teflon pans
14. Use towels more than once
15. Use non toxic body wash/shampoo/conditioners or make your own

16.Only use natural non toxic facial creams or make your own

17.Buy used clothes

18.Condense your wardrobe

19. Make your own baby wipes and lotions

20 Keep it simple!

 

We can all do our part to become more sustainable, as you run out of products you have, just replace them with more non toxic.  I do have recipes for my favorite non toxic products, so just shoot me an email and I will send those to you.  Email is in the description below.  We would love to have you join our community and the link is below!

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/

 

May you be blessed this week friend!

Monica

 

Have You Started Planning for Your Homestead Projects for This Year? If You Don’t Have This Done, You are Going to Want to Plan Soon so You Don’t Run Out of Time to Get Projects Done!

Hey Friend!

There are so many many things to do when you homestead, but with a plan, it will seem alot easier to get your projects around your homestead done. 

First, Make a master list of all the things you want to do in the future.  This may be adding some animals, growing a garden or adding to it, building a shed, shelter or shed, fencing, getting a freeze dryer, putting in a wood boiler and the list goes on and one.  This could be a very huge list that you can do over several years-this is not a list you will accomplish this year.

Next, look at your finances and see how much money you have to spend on projects and also how much time you have to devote to something new.  

After you know how much you have to spend and how much time you have, look through your projects and see where you want to start or what you want to get done this year.  Once you break down the projects into smaller chunks, it won't seem so overwhelming.  

This Year we want to make a chicken tractor to raise about 60 meat chickens.  Add more potatoes/squash to our garden as we are almost out of both of them and it is only January!  We also want to add a separate strawberry garden along with some other garden additions.  We also plan to breed our goats in the Fall, so we want to finish the goat shed with a milking stand and get pens ready for babies Spring of 2024!!!  I’m so excited about that!  We will probably add a few more fruit trees and another small insulated shed for more animals and we would possible like to try to raise a few pigs to butcher which we have never done before, so this all seems very doable to us and not overwhelming even though we really have a very short season here to get it all done in!

The biggest key is taking it slow so you don’t overwhelm yourself.  It is not worth being stressed out because you won’t enjoy the journey as much.  I really don’t think there is a destination in homesteading because you can always do something new, so enjoy every minute of it.

As far as harvesting, I want to preserve more ready cooked meals this year, so when we have ballgames and activities, we can have a healthy homegrown meal right out of the jar.  Some of those would be stew and soups that I would like to make more of.

Homesteading does not have to be hard.  Growing your own food doesn’t have to be hard.  Cooking traditional nutrient dense food does not have to be hard.  I am here to tell you that everything I do is simple-I wouldn’t say it is always easy because you will have a learning curve, but it is simple and if I can do it, you can too!

Join our Community of Christian Moms ->

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

Email -> monica@claimingsimplicity.com

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

 

Remember~Rome wasn't built in a day!!!!!!!  

Monica

 

What Does Homesteading Mean and How Can You Begin to Homestead and Live a Simpler Life with Less Stress and Less Overwhelm

Welcome Friend!

I love love love to talk about all things natural, homemade, and living a simplified life, so today, I wanted to talk about what exactly homesteading is because there seems to be so many different ideas.

Homesteading is a lifestyle of self-sufficiency, so homesteading life for each of us can be so very different, so now you know why people have so many different thoughts about it!!  You can live in an apartment, city, or in the middle of nowhere and you can still homestead no matter what your situation is.  You can live a simple life with little money, so if this homesteading lifestyle is something you dream of, why not get started now?

If you live in an apartment or the thought of homesteading overwhelms you, begin your homesteading journey by learning simple ways to prepare and preserve food. If you don’t know where to start, I suggest you start by replacing foods you buy at the store that you can make.  Honestly, if you are worried about homesteading and working full time, the things that I suggest you learn first are super simple and not time consuming at all!  Dry mixes, cream soups, and breads are a fabulous place to start, but honestly the possibilities are endless as to what you can do to become more self-sufficient!! 

 Homesteading can actually save you alot of money when you start switching out homemade food for convenient foods, and it is alot healthier. Something else you can do is try to grow some garden plants indoors - start small and this will give you encouragement to possible someday have a bigger scale garden.  I enjoy gardening, but many years the weeds have taken over, and it wasn’t good, but we do have a simple solution now with a method that automatically waters and I have very little weeds to pull, but I had much trial and error over the years.  Some plants I can grow really well, and some plants I can’t and sometimes it will depend on the year, so please please please do not get discouraged, use it as a learning lesson.  One lesson I learned a few years ago is that we will never use horse poop as fertilizer-we had weeds and thistles take over and it was out of control.

If you live in the city and want to start with animals, find out if you are allowed to have backyard chickens!  They are a really easy way to start with animals and produce your own food.  We have about 25 free range chickens and I almost feel like I need to hide my eggs with the price of them right now!  We just raised our price at the beginning of the year and we are still cheaper than the store- fresh homegrown is the only way to go!  Chickens are such an easy animal to begin with and my favorite thing about them is that we can feed and water them and still go away for the weekend and they are fine.  You don’t have to make a fancy coop either.  Depending on where you live and how harsh your winters are, you do have to take that into consideration though to make sure they are warm enough.   We buy a dozen chicks every Spring or every other spring so that we always have fresh eggs when some of them stop laying.  This year, we are going to get a rooster and try to hatch our own chickens, so I will have to let you know how that goes.  We have had chickens for several years, but this will be our first year trying to hatch our own.  That is the best thing about Homesteading-many learning experiences, but you have the flexibility to do it when it works for you-take it slow and enjoy the journey!  It really is an amazing life!

This is truely an amazing lifestyle and it is so good for our children and grandchildren to learn these skills.  So many people think that it costs alot of money to get started, but it can actually save you money if you start small.  It will also reduce overwhelm if you take it slow.  Learn one skill and then move to the next - and remember that you can keep it very simple like I have!

 

Subscribe to the podcast if you have not already so you don’t miss any episodes and I would really appreciate it if you take a few seconds to rate and review so that I can reach more listeners like you!  Thanks for being here!

 

Monica

 

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/

 

5 Small Attainable Steps to Simplify Your Home and Clear Out the Clutter to Enjoy Peace in Your House and Spend Less Time Cleaning

Hello and Welcome

For me, this is the best time of the year to declutter because I don’t have a whole lot of extra time in the other seasons here in MN.  After spending months cooped up in the house with alot of snow and below zero temperatures, you won’t find me in the house once the sun starts melting the snow in the Spring, and then we are preparing, planting, and caring for the garden and animals in the summer, and Fall is very busy here with harvesting and hunting season starting with bear the first weekend in September and then getting ready for winter, so now is the time I do more of the household projects I want to get done and it is also a time for alot of planning.

 

It can seem overwhelming, but if you do it in small chunks, it will seem much simpler.  Start in an area of your home that will be easier to tackle and just do 15 minutes at a time.  Take a trash bag for trash and a box for things you are going to donate and then a basket for the items that belong in a different area of the house.

 

Now I have done some major overhauls in the past, so I have alot less stuff and it takes much less time, but throughout the year, we do seem to accumulate extra items, so I like to go through and eliminate wherever I can~especially after Christmas.  As I am looking around my living room right now-this is an easy area to get it done quickly because we only have a few pieces of furniture, a shelf with some pictures and the only place I really need to even look it a couple end tables that have some books and newspapers in, so this room can be done within about 5 minutes.  Find a place in your home that will be an easier task so that you can feel accomplished and you will gain momentum.  The reason I like a simplified home is because it is quick to clean and I can spend more time with people I love and things I love to do instead of cleaning.  This alone should encourage you!  

 

Here is a list of 5 small steps you can easily do right away to begin your declutter journey.

1.  Take a garbage bag and pick up any garbage throughout your house and throw it away.
2. Pick up any dishes laying and put them in the sink or dishwasher to be washed.
3. Make sure  all your laundry is put away if it is clean or put in a laundry basket or your laundry room if it needs to be washed.
4. Clean off the kitchen counters-you will feel a difference once this is done and it feels so good!
5. Make sure any coats or shoes are put in a mudroom or entryway and not laying all over the house.

    

   These are just a few places to start in bite size chunks so you can get started with your decluttering journey.  If you just start with one of these 5 steps, you will be further ahead than you were before you started!

   
   

   Remember……Small steps over time can make a big difference, so don’t give up!

    

    

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xoxo,

Monica