Finding Joy in Your Home

In today's episode, Jami interviews Jill Winger of The Prairie Homestead all about growing community and her upcoming book, Old-Fashioned on Purpose. Listen in! Listen to the Podcast: You can find all the links and notes for this episode below! Right click here and save-as to download this episode to your computer. Links & Resources: Join our private community to chat about this podcast episode: FindingJoyCommunity.com Jill can be found over at her amazing website www.theprairiehomestead.com and on instagram @jill.winger Her excellent podcast can be found at podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/old-fashioned-on-purpose/id1475835329 Our Sponsor: Head to airdoctorpro.com and use promo code HOME and, depending on the model, you'll receive UP TO 40% off.

In today's episode, Jami interviews Brettnay Brazzell of No Higher Calling all about hymns and the value of teaching them to your children. Listen in! Listen to the Podcast: You can find all the links and notes for this episode below! Right click here and save-as to download this episode to your computer. Links & Resources: Join our private community to chat about this podcast episode: FindingJoyCommunity.com Brettnay can be found over on instagram at https://www.instagram.com/nohighercalling Her excellent podcast can be found at https://nohighercalling.org/no-higher-calling-podcast/ Our Sponsor: Treat yourself to the best shapewear on the market and save 20% Off! Use our exclusive link to get 20% off - honeylove.com/HOME. Our Sponsor: Get 20% OFF any AquaTru water purifier when you go to AquaTru.com and use code "HOME".

In today's episode, Jami answers lots of your questions about meal planning. Listen in! Listen to the Podcast: You can find all the links and notes for this episode below! Right click here and save-as to download this episode to your computer. Links & Resources: Join our private community to chat about this podcast episode: FindingJoyCommunity.com Our Sponsor: Go to https://www.magicmind.co/home and get up to 56% off your subscription for the next 10 days with my code HOME! Our Sponsor: Go to HelloFresh.com/homemaking16 and use code homemaking16 for 16 free meals plus free shipping!

In today's episode, Jami is going to share her fun plan for making a year's worth of meal plans and how to do it simply! She shares 5 steps she's using to create these plans. Listen in! Listen to the Podcast: You can find all the links and notes for this episode below! Right click here and save-as to download this episode to your computer. My Goal: I am really excited about this. Over the next month and a half, my goal is to make a year's worth of meal plans so that I can put my meal planning on autopilot. But I'm not actually making 52 weeks of meal plans. I am going to make rotating, seasonal meal plans. I will take each season, broken down into 3 months and create one 4-week meal plan for that season. So summer will have the summer meal plan which consists of 4 weeks of meals, without a ton of repetition in meals. So June, I'll pull out my summer meal plan and go. July hits and the 4 weeks start over and then again in August. Once September hits, it's time to pull out the Fall meal plan. I'm planning on adding in some easy changes for when your week gets off built right into the meal plan, but in this simple way, I'm going to not only be able to develop a year's worth of meal plans very easily, but also do it seasonally. How I'm going to do it: Figure out some seasonal guidelines. Things like: more ice cream recipes and fresh produce in the summer, pumpkin, gourds, and squashes in the Fall, soups and comfort food in the winter, and so forth I also want to plan around things like: There's more time for baking in the fall & winter and lots of fun holidays to do so, I don't want to heat the summer up as much from the oven, so more easy crockpot, bbq, and simple recipes. Pantry Put together my first 4-week meal plan, and then spend 2 months adjusting it. This is where I think the simple part of this will come in. I can spend the time up front to make my first meal plan and then spend a month or two tweaking it. As I pull it out again for the next month, I'll be able to adjust it and take notes! Put together an individual binder per season. I will have the full meal plan, a calendar view, all the recipes, prep ahead instructions, and grocery list in each binder. This will also allow me to stick other seasonal recipes I come across or want to try into the binder that's easy to pull out when we need it. I'm going to aim for a simple version first. As I play with it, I can perfect it and even add to it if I want. What I don't want to happen is that I make this incredible meal plan that there is no way I can follow. I'm doing the pre-work right now in June. I'm gathering recipes, starting to think through season changes, and getting the printables all created and ready to go. July 5th is when I'm starting. I'm committing to 20-30 minutes per day to get my first meal plan totally created and in progress. I don't have hours a day to commit to this right now. So I'm going to just steal a few minutes each day to work on it and I hope you join us!! Links & Resources: Join our private community to chat about this podcast episode: FindingJoyCommunity.com Our Sponsor: For 50% off your first Care/of order, go to TakeCareOf.com and enter code home50. Our Sponsor: Go to GreenChef.com/homemaking60 and use code homemaking60 to get 60% off plus free shipping.

In today's episode, Jami is sharing 3 seasons of waiting that her family has walked through, and what God has taught them along the way. Listen in! Listen to the Podcast: You can find all the links and notes for this episode below! Right click here and save-as to download this episode to your computer. When my mom died, it took 6 months to get her toxicology reports back. In this season of grief and not understanding, I had to turn to the Lord again and again in my grief, in my anger, and in my utter inability to fix any of it. "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:6-7) When we tried to sell our house, the market was raging hot, it crashed the week we listed our house and took 12 months to sell. In a season of financial struggle, we learned a lot about trusting the Lord and thanking him for every single dollar that comes in. "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?[g] 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." - Matthew 6:25-33 When we desired another baby and it took 12 months to conceive, we had to come really to grips with the fact that we are NOT in control of our fertility in any way, shape, or manner and that we can choose peace and contentment no matter what. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight." (Proverbs 3:5-6) Now, we find ourselves in a season of waiting once again. We are ready and excited for the next step of building our homestead. We feel a certain amount of excitement and impatience since it feels like our kids are growing so old, so fast. But God has said not yet. He is asking us to be patient and to trust him. And so once again, we find ourselves in this season of waiting on the Lord, trusting in Him. And these seasons of waiting have taught me many things: To plan well, to be a wise steward of what God has given us, and then sit back and be totally content with how God leads. When he opens a door you will know, when he closes a door, you can praise Him. When everything feels impossible to line up, if it's God's will, it will line up. We well and truly can trust in all of the Bible verses urging us to trust in the Lord. It's often in the waiting that God is refining us, molding us, and shaping us. Before we had kids, before I had lost my mom, and before I had really encountered very many hard things as an adult, I struggled greatly with anxiety. Now, I can hardly fathom why I struggled with it so much since what I was dealing with and facing then feels so minor to the things I have walked through since. But it was an intense season of anxiety none the less. And through that season, God was teaching me.

In today's episode, Jami answers your questions on all things homeschooling. Listen in! Listen to the Podcast: You can find all the links and notes for this episode below! Right click here and save-as to download this episode to your computer. Questions Answered in the Episode: Q: Teaching how to read: https://amzn.to/3N1QOKn 'DASHIN UINTO LEARNING READERS TGATB READERS Q: Reassurance that when we find a curriculum that continues to work it's okay to stick with it. Sometimes I feel like my kids will miss out on all the other amazing options out there. I get it! With so many terrific options out there, it can really feel overwhelming and hard to choose. What I like to do is add in a lot of quality reading, this way, I know we are still hitting all kinds of amazing things! Q: Curriculum Recommendations for Age 5? MasterBooks, The Good and the Beautiful, And Gather Round. Q: My son ins't in the correct grade level - is that normal? Finishing 1st, going into 3rd. One of the most beautiful things about homeschooling is the ability to tailor the education to your child. Who says that every single subject needs to be taught and mastered at the exact same age? Do adults function like that? Or do we all learn different things at different paces. I use grades as a general guideline to help me moving forward, but only you know your child well enough to know what they need! Q: General Words of wisdom? Starting K this year You've got this! I know it feels so hard and overwhelming. But K-3rd is a LOT of play and reading. Stick to that and you are golden. Also, read some homeschooling books to get a good idea of homeschooling trips and tricks. Q: How homeschool daily routine looks like schooling multiple kids? We try and bunch together subjects as much as possible. The only thing each kid does on their own at their grade level is math, everything else is done as a group. Gather Round or unit studies is a great way to do this. Especially for K-5th, it's easy for everyone to study the same thing at a time. Once 5th and beyond, the kids can much more easily study subjects on their own. 8am: daily worksheets & handwriting during breakfast. 9am: Morning basket time & Biblio Plan & current GR unit, & then math. Done with regular school by noon. Lunch break Afternoon we do other fun, hands on things. We do art lessons twice a week and a music lessons twice a week. This is also free play art time, play outside, work on coding, quilting, or knitting a hat. No electronic, tv time, or playing until 4pm. 4pm until dinner they can then play. Fridays are project Fridays! Q: Do you use a curriculum or make your own? Well now, sorta both since we are creating homesteading units! But mostly, I don't make my own. Q: Do you bind your books that you print off? Yes! I have a binding machine that is amazing. It's saved us thousands of dollars. This year we are trying a new method though in 3 ring notebooks. Links & Resources: Join our private community to chat about this podcast episode: FindingJoyCommunity.com Our Sponsor: Go to AquaTru.com and enter code "HOME" at checkout to get 20% off! Our Sponsor: Go to MagicMind.co/home and get up to 56% off your subscription for the next 10 days with my code HOME.

In today's episode, Jami invites Jason on to the show to discuss all things tech. They each share what they're currently doing to control tech in their lives, and they also go into details on how they handle tech with their kids. Listen in! Listen to the Podcast: You can find all the links and notes for this episode below! Right click here and save-as to download this episode to your computer. Links & Resources: Join our private community to chat about this podcast episode: FindingJoyCommunity.com Our Sponsor: Go to HelloFresh.com/homemaking16 and use code homemaking16 for 16 free meals plus free shipping! Our Sponsor: Get 15% Off at dockatot.com with the code HOME.