mamakay

managing a household of 10 by the grace of God

Spiritual/Personal Growth Books

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Why do you read? There are so many different reasons: to learn, to be entertained, to stretch your mind, to be inspired, to share in an experience with others or to experience life from a different perspective just to name a few. It depends on the day and the season of life what kind of book I pick up. More often than not I choose a book that will inspire me as I live my life. I want to live intentionally and as a good steward of this life God has given me. I have found so many mentors through books. They have shaped me and challenged me and helped me become the person I am today. There is a never ending supply of books coming out everyday. It is so hard to know what will be good.

I have found that a book will show up on my radar and I will start hearing about it from many different places and when the time is just right I will feel compelled to read it. When I pay attention and take the time I am always blessed by these books. Sometimes I get overwhelmed by all the books being promoted on social media but it is such an amazing time that authors can share their hard work with us so easily.

Over the next few days I will be sharing my favorite books in the spiritual/personal growth category and telling you the impact they have had on my life. I hope you will share your favorite books with me. It is such a wonderful way to get to know someone by sharing what inspires each of us. There will be links to the books on Amazon but so many of these books can be found at the library, at used bookstores and lots of other places. (Do you know about the Library Extension you can use on Chrome? It will check your favorite library to see if it is available as an ebook or paper copy right on your favorite online bookseller websites. I love it. Click here to check it out: Library Extension)

I think I will go read a book! See you tomorrow!

MamaKay

 

31 Days of ….. Books!

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I’m so excited to take on the 31 days of blogging challenge for the month of October! A couple of months ago on Facebook there was a challenge to share 1 book everyday for 7 days and it was so hard for me to pick just 7! When I was encouraged to pick a topic that I could write about for 31 days I knew it just had to be about books!

I have loved reading from a very early age. Some of my earliest memories are of my mom reading The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe to us all curled up on her bed under the blankets one cold winter.  My best friend’s mom gave me Little House in the Big Woods and I have spent my whole life adoring Laura and her adventures and wondering how Ma did it all with such a calm and cheerful spirit! One year we went on a road trip and my parent’s took me to the bookstore to pick a book to bring and I chose Anne of Green Gables. I remember the Book Mobile coming to our neighborhood and I would check out books like Dr. Dollittle and Where the Red Fern Grows. I would use the little light bulb from my nightlight to read well after bedtime.

When I was in college I had a little trouble picking a major at first. I started with Business, changed to Social Work and eventually graduated with an English Lit major which has served me well.

Over the years my reading has ebbed and flowed as seasons have changed. My goal every day is to read my Bible, something inspiring, something practical and a story as well as read to my children every day. Somedays it happens, somedays it doesn’t but I keep plodding along. A day doesn’t go by that I don’t read something.

Over the course of this month I hope to share with you some of the books that have impacted my life the most. I will be covering 5 categories:

  1. Spiritual/Personal Growth
  2. Our Favorite Read Alouds
  3. Our Favorite Picture Books
  4. Classic Fiction
  5. Cookbooks

I hope you will join me and keep me accountable for writing every day!

MamaKay

Instant Pot Applesauce

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We had an abundant harvest of apples this year. Our young orchard (planted 7 years ago) produced the best apples we have ever had in addition to our more mature tree. Every year I can as much applesauce as I can depending on the harvest. I think it is safe to say that this year’s harvest exceeds every year since we have been here. Our family loves applesauce and can easily finish a quart off in one meal. I have learned some tricks to make this an easier process over the years and this year decided to engage my instant pot (and my mother-in-laws’) to speed up the process even more!

Our first batch was quite a mess as I worked to figure out the best way to use the Instant Pot. I literally had applesauce spraying out the vent when I released the pressure! OOPS! Don’t do it that way!

You should know I like my applesauce super simple. It truly is pureed cooked apples. So this post is more about technique than a recipe. I love to use a combination of varieties of apples for the best flavor. Our trees are mostly McIntosh which are wonderful for applesauce. I usually add in some golden varieties and some Jonagolds.

There are two different approaches I like to use. You can do it either on the stove or in the Instant Pot.

Stove method:

We chop the apples into 1-2″ chunks removing any bad spots as we go. Cut enough to fill up a big pot and add 1 cup of water. Simmer on the stove, stirring occasionally until the apples are soft. This takes about two hours.

 

 

Instant Pot Version:

Add 1/2 cup of water to the instant pot and fill the pot with cut apples to just below the max line. Close the lid and vent and set to steam for 2 minutes. After it finishes cooking let the pressure release naturally for 20 minutes. (My 8 quart pot took about 40 minutes to come to pressure, cook and release using this method.) Besides the quicker cooking, I love that I don’t have to worry about the apples scorching in the instant pot!

 

 

 

 

 

Once the apples are soft we feed them through my food mill that separates the peels and seeds from the applesauce. The boys love helping with this job!

If you do not have a food mill before cooking the apples peel and core them. Then after they are doing cooking use an immersion blender to blend until smooth.

Then scoop the applesauce into one quart jars, put canning lids and rings on them and process them in the canner filled with boiling water for 20 minutes to preserve them for the coming year.

Please let me know if you have any questions! I would be glad to help!

Enjoy!

MamaKay

ThredUp vs. Stitch Fix

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I have been using Stitch Fix for the last couple of years. I have been very pleased with my last few boxes of clothes and I feel like the stylists there really understand what I like and know what pieces I have in my closet and send me clothes that coordinate with what they have sent me before as well as the clothes in the box. The biggest downfall for me is the price is much higher than I normally I pay for clothes.

We frequently shop second hand clothes for our family so after seeing many people using ThredUp online I started being interested in trying them. I recently saw they started offering the Goodie box and I was sold on giving it a try. (The Goodie box is a set of 10 pieces of clothing picked out by a stylist and sent to you. You pay a $10 deposit that applies to the clothing you keep. Shipping and returns are free. You just pay for what you keep.)

I received a pair of jeans, a faux leather jacket, 3 cardigans and 5 tops. The jacket and one of the tops did not fit me. (My 13 year old daughter loves the jacket so she is keeping that.) The jeans are too long but I could hem them if I decide to keep them.

The clothes from ThredUp are definitely cheaper in price but good name brands. Each of the pieces ranged in price from $17 to $36. If I keep $75 worth of items I will receive a $10 shopping credit to use on future purchases and according to their invoice I would save an estimated $691 compared to retail.

Here are pictures of the pieces I received:

Overall, I feel like it is a pretty random selection of clothing but maybe they are trying to figure out what I like. ThredUp is definitely cheaper than Stitch Fix. I love having clothes sent to me instead of having to go shopping myself. I think that Stitch Fix has sent clothes that much more closely fit my style .

Please let me know in the comments which pieces you think I should keep! I can’t wait to hear your feedback!

MamaKay

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September: the New (Old) January

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Fall is by far my favorite season! I love the cooling of the air, the shortening of the days, and the invitation to prepare for winter by preserving the harvest (even if its not from my own garden). It is the time of returning to routines and the home is central to it all. Warm meals and baking are welcomed after so many hot months where the kitchen seems unappealing. School begins and the rhythms of life become more predictable.

Each season brings a time for reflection for me. What is working in our lives? What isn’t working? What can we do differently? How do we want to spend our time during this season? I try to take some time to really think through these things. The last 2 years I have been able to get away for a couple days and it has been such a blessing to have the time and space to consider our lives. We have made some huge changes this past year and having some space really helped me have some clarity.

This year I also started making a wall calendar on a half sheet of poster board for the family for the season. It has been amazing to me how much it has helped us be intentional about our time. Seeing our schedule a little zoomed out has helped us so much as we make our plans.

I have been thinking about how much September seems like new year. It is a time for making plans, lists and preparations for the coming time. And then it hit me as I looked at the calendar. Rosh Hashanah was this week. In the Jewish calendar, September has been the new year all along.

So Happy New Year! May God bless you in this coming year!

MamaKay

 

What I Learned This Summer 2018

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I am linking up with Emily P. Freeman for her quarterly what I learned series.  I always love taking some time to reflect on the season as it is winding down and this provides a great opportunity!

  1. Hawaiian Roll Deli Sandwiches are awesome for large family road trips! I used this post to get me started.
  2. Exploring Montana is AWESOME! I feel so blessed to be able to enjoy so much of God’s beautiful creation right from my own state.
  3. Adventures don’t have to be a big a deal. We just had to decide to do it! Most of our adventures only took an afternoon.
  4. Aimee Kollmansberger encouraged me to surrender my thoughts on how my home should be and grateful for how it is right now!
  5. Painting and rearranging a room can make a huge difference in how I feel about a space. What was once supposed to be a playroom but became a junk heap is now a beautiful home office for me and school area for my littles.
  6. Small changes can make such a big difference with just a little creativity. My favorite additions were a new cabinet in the kitchen, a sling bookcase in the school room and a coat tree rack made into a towel tree in the bathroom.
  7. My littles need more of my attention. I am so happy that in this season of such changes I get to go back in some ways and just mother my 2 younger ones for a good part of the day.

How about you? What did you learn this summer?

MamaKay

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