Finding Joy in Your Home

Do you ever wonder what God's Will for your life is? Join myself and Jen Wilkin as we discuss how we can know God's Will, how to study the attributes of God, and why that's important! Listen in here:

Listen to the Podcast:

We also recorded this blog post as an audio podcast. If you want to listen in instead of reading, click play below or do a combination of both 

And don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast in iTunes.

Right click here and save-as to download this episode to your computer.

Links & Resources: 

In His Image by Jen Wilkin

None Like Him by Jen Wilkin

Women of the Word by Jen Wilkin

 Video and audio resources from Jen at her church

JenWilkin.net

God of Creation – Jen’s new Bible study through Genesis 

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I got to interview Crystal Paine earlier this month all about her grocery budget challenge (link to session 133). She is challenging herself to stick to $70 a week for her family of 5. After I got off the phone with her, I started talking to Jason about the challenge and we both agreed that we NEED to do this for our family! So listen in to how we are doing it: 

Listen to the Podcast:

We also recorded this blog post as an audio podcast. If you want to listen in instead of reading, click play below or do a combination of both 

And don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast in iTunes.

Right click here and save-as to download this episode to your computer.

Our Grocery Budget Challenge for June:

Jason and I have really been needing to work on our grocery budget. We needed to sit down and take a look at what we've been spending and then come up with a budget to try to stick to! So we've been excited to undertake this challenge...but it's been tough! 

While I think it is so neat that Crystal is doing $70 per week for a family of 5, it's just not feasible for us to cut down that far. But part of this, is because we are trying increase the health of our food. So while we want to be wise stewards of our money and we want to cut down on our spending so we can save and give more - the ultimate goal for us is not to get our grocery budget to the lowest possible. 

The quality of our food is very very important to us. So we could fit our grocery budget down or keep pairing down if we sacrificed on the good quality but that's not the goal. I want to increase the health of our food while at the same time trying to be frugal about it. So I'm going to be sharing how we are cutting costs while not sacrificing our health. 

American's are spending less and less on food...and that might not be a good thing.

"Here's the story. Thirty years ago, the average household spent about 17% of its income on food. Today it spends about 11%. It's a global trend: Food is getting cheaper relative to incomes everywhere with rising incomes. But there's also a distinctly American thing going on here. We spend less of our cash on food than any other country -- "half as much as households in France," according to Dorothy Gambrell." - Cheap Eats

A chart on their website shows that American's are spending just 7% of our household budget on food, the lowest of any industrialized country. The UK is 9%, Canada 10%, and all the way up to Egypt which spends 44% of their household budget on food. 

In 1900, a whopping 43% of a family's annual income was spent on FOOD (source). By 1950 this dropped to 30% as processed and cheaper foods became more widely available. And as more women moved into the workplace and home cooked meals as home started to become less and less. This same study shows that the number had fallen drastically to just 13% in 2003. 

First things first: Setting a budget

I would begin by adding up your last three months worth of grocery spending AND eating out. The number might be shocking if you haven't been following it! I know that our worst months are when we eat out without really tracking it...that number really climbs as a family of 7! 

Then Jason and I just kind of low balled what we thought we could try for in June. We seriously just picked a number and said "Let's try it!" It would be great if we could shave off a few hundred dollars (especially in eating out)! 

And then we decided to look up the USDA Food Chart to see how our number stacks up against their plans. So I wrote down each family member and their ages and what we should spend. And our made up budget landed exactly right on with the "thrifty" plan. Now that we are a few weeks into our challenge, I think we will probably end up closer to the low-cost plan...

Do you ever feel like your days are on repeat? Are you exhausted just thinking about tomorrow? Do you feel like you are on the hamster wheel of little kids? Or a chronic illness? Or just having a hard time finding a little joy in your day? Today we are covering all of that and more! Listen in: 

Listen to the Podcast:

We also recorded this blog post as an audio podcast. If you want to listen in instead of reading, click play below or do a combination of both 

And don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast in iTunes.

Right click here and save-as to download this episode to your computer.

Encouragement for you mama! 

I came across this question recently in a homeschool group I'm apart of. This gal was just posting the question to the group and got some great responses from it. But when I glanced and saw this question, it tugged at my heart. It might be because I can deeply identify with her, it might be because of the twins, and it's probably because I hear moms/women express this all the time. Here's what she asked: 

"I have twin 4 year old twins and a 1 year old. Mommas, I'm exhausted! Each day feels like a repeat of the day before. Each day feels like a struggle to stay calm and release the desire to go hide for a bit. Is this just this phase of life with little ones or is it just me? Does anyone have any encouragement (or empathy) or suggestions, like a chapter of the Bible you dive into during hard seasons of life? Thanks!"   

Here's what we cover in today's episode: 

You are NOT alone in these feelings. 

Yes, this is part of this season of littles. It is physically exhausting and that's okay! 

To break the monotony, trying adding one new thing to the schedule to break things up! 

Add in something for YOU: You do need a few minutes to yourself!! We give and give and give. Don't be afraid to stop and refuel yourself every once in a while. 

God doesn't promise us an easy and care free life. Life is hard, and life with littles is exhausting and physically demanding. But we are called to serve. So when you are feeling burnt out and overwhelmed, make sure you are digging into that relationship with God as best you can. Schedule a once a month coffee date with your Bible, etc. 

Leave the Bible around the house, don't neglect that all important relationship. 

Remember: you are doing a very important task. BUT we have to be careful that we don't make an idol out of it. 

Links & Resources:

Finding Joy in Your Home Free eCourse 

Defending Your Choice as a Homemaker

Practical Ways to Set the Atmosphere in Your Home

Are you Delighting in God and Your Family Today?

This is our second year running our Christian reading challenge for women and our Christian reading challenge for men. And with it, we often get the question about reading fantasy, media choices, and how to approach this as Christians. That's what we are chatting about today! 

Listen to the Podcast:

We also recorded this blog post as an audio podcast. If you want to listen in instead of reading, click play below or do a combination of both 

And don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast in iTunes.

Right click here and save-as to download this episode to your computer.

How we approach reading fiction 

Jason and I love reading fiction! And among our very favorite fiction reading are fantasy novels. So the very first thing we need to cover: is it Biblical to read fiction?

Jesus taught primarily through stories. There is something about hearing or reading a story that helps you connect with it better, learn it, and remember it. Stories tug at our heart strings, stories have a way of drilling in a point and making it come alive. We can learn through stories, weep with stories, and come to know God more through stories. 

"I’ve found that most people who tell me that fiction is a waste of time are folks who seem to hold to a kind of sola cerebra vision of the Christian life that just doesn’t square with the Bible. The Bible doesn’t simply address man as a cognitive process but as a complex image-bearer who recognizes truth not only through categorizing syllogisms but through imagination, beauty, wonder, awe. Fiction helps to shape and hone what Russell Kirk called the moral imagination. My friend David Mills, now executive editor at First Things, wrote a brilliant article in Touchstoneseveral years ago about the role of stories in shaping the moral imagination of children. As he pointed out, moral instruction is not simply about knowing factually what’s right and wrong (though that’s part of it); it’s about learning to feel affection toward certain virtues and revulsion toward others. A child learns to sympathize with the heroism of Jack the Giant Killer, to be repelled by the cruelty of Cinderella’s sisters and so on.

When you think about it, that’s how the Scriptures often work. The Proverbs, for instance, paint a vivid picture of the revolting tragedy of adultery (Proverbs 7). Jesus doesn’t simply speak about God’s forgiveness in the abstract. He tells a story, the prodigal son, designed to shock (a son who would spurn his inheritance) and to elicit sympathy and identification. The apostles do the same thing. They employ literary, visual language meant to appeal not just to the intellect but to the conscience through the imagination. Think of the Apostle Paul’s language of “laboring until Christ is formed in you,” or his use of literary themes in the OT (“fruit of the Spirit,” and so on)." - Fiction and Literature: An Interview with Russell Moore

We also know that reading out loud to our kids is one of the most beneficial things we can ever do with them. If you haven't already, go get Read Aloud Family by Sarah MacKenzie right now. 

"Fiction and poetry provide authors a unique way to glorify Christ that more overtly intellectual genres, like theology, simply can't. These genres that aim directly for the heart and soul—rather than aiming at the heart through the mind—do not argue for belief, they show what it looks like and make you feel it. Theology, devotionals, and other books in the “Christian Living” section of the bookstore talk about belief explicitly. Their goal is to explain truth as clearly as possible. Fiction and poetry, on the other hand, tell the truth, but tell it slant. They offer an author a way to give his beliefs flesh and blood by enacting them in the confusion of the real world. In fiction, belief is not what you look at, but what you look through.

On her blog Crystal Paine has been doing an awesome challenge that has been so encouraging to me personally! She's doing a $70 a week grocery budget challenge for their family of 5...and it's even inspired a big grocery budget challenge for our family from talking to her (info on this coming soon)! 

If you are wanting to work on your grocery budget, meal planning, or anything of the sort, you have to listen in to this encouraging episode!! 

Listen to the Podcast:

We also recorded this blog post as an audio podcast. If you want to listen in instead of reading, click play below or do a combination of both 

And don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast in iTunes.

Right click here and save-as to download this episode to your computer.

Links & Resources: 

Follow Crystal's $70 a week grocery budget challenge here

Crystal's Blog: Money Saving Mom

Follow Crystal on Instagram for tons of deals and to follow her challenge

Follow Crystal on Facebook for her live videos!

Get a personalized song from Songfinch!  

I am really excited to share with you the sponsor of today’s podcast episode: Songfinch! Songfinch is a personalized gifting company that brings stories, feelings and memories to life through one-of-a-kind songs. With personalized songs starting at $99 and delivered within 7 days, their community of professional songwriters will handcraft the best gift you can give.

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