What does it mean to be a homemaker who glorifies God within her home? How can we view our homemaking as a ministry? We are going back to the Gospel in this episode so that we can cast a Gospel-vision for our homes.

Today's episode comes from the first session of the Homemaking Ministries Online Conference. Join me today as I share how we can view our homemaking as a ministry, some key things to remember, and a thorough walk through of the Gospel and how we can live it out in our homes!

Join me today as we discuss what it means to live out a Gospel-Centered home:

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In This Episode, You Will Learn:

What the Gospel is AND

What our response should daily be to the Gospel

About how our ministry as homemakers first begins with the Gospel

What it means to have a ministry from within our homes

[Tweet "Let Christ be your joy, your comfort, and your source of rest."]

Links & Resources Mentioned in This Episode

What is the Gospel? by Greg Gilbert

Glimpses of Grace by Gloria Furman

Episode #12: What does it really mean to manage a Gospel-Centered home?

Homemaking Foundations Podcast on iTunes

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[Tweet "We are to delight in God's Word and treasure the Gospel. So when you feel overwhelmed, stressed out, anxious, or burnt out, go back to the Gospel."]

Book of the Week:

A Gospel Primer by Milton Vincent

A Gospel Primer is an excellent book that helps you to further understand the Gospel and really learn to cherish it. The tagline for the book is: Learning to see the glories of God's Love! I highly recommend the other book I talked about in this episode, What is the Gospel? by Greg Gilbert. But that was already my book of the week recommendation in episode #12! This book is available on Amazon for Kindle or in paperback. Or you can get it for free as an audiobook when you sign up for a free 30 day trial of Audible. Jason and I have been audible members now for about a year and half I think and we love it! We get two audiobooks a month and this one would be an excellent one to listen through as an audiobook.

Thanks for Listening!

Is it a waste of money to decorate your home? Or a wise investment? What does it mean to be motivated by pride in our homes? Or to desire to serve our family?

In today's episode, we will take a look at the question of how we can glorify God from within our homes through our decorating, how we set the atmosphere, Bible memorization, and more! I'm really excited about this episode as we dive into some different ways we can create a Gospel-centered home.

Walk with me through what it means to decorate (or no decorate) with the Gospel in mind.We will cover different ways you can set the atmosphere in your home, using Scripture to decorate, setting good patterns and habits within your home (starting with YOU), and more!

So let's dive in!

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In This Episode, You Will Learn:

To recognize when we are motivated by pride within our homes

How to set priorities for our decorating

When it's wise (or unwise) to spend resources on decorating/creating an atmosphere

My 3 desires/goals in decorating my home

And 4 ways that we can decorate and set the tone on our homes for God's glory

[Tweet "I want to share God’s word with those coming into our house by how our home feels; not stuffy and perfect, but rather comfortable and loving."]

Links & Resources Mentioned in This Episode

The second annual Homemaking Ministries Online Conference 2015

12 video sessions on various aspects of homemaking

Beautifully designed home management binder

Exclusive printable conference notebook

Register HERE

Glimpses of Grace by Gloria Furman

Homemaking Foundations Podcast on iTunes

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Book of the Week:

Glimpses of Grace: Treasuring the Gospel in Your Home by Gloria Furman

Gloria is one of my all time favorite authors and her two books: Glimpses of Grace and Treasuring Christ When Your Hands Are Full are both in my top 10 books of all time. Gloria writes from within the reality of homemaking. What it actually looks like when you are burnt out and exhausted from caring for your home each day. But she also has such a powerful way of bringing everything back to the Gospel and how we need to view our home within the scope of eternity. A very powerful book that I highly recommend all women read! You can check it out on Amazon as a print book or on Kindle.

Thanks for Listening!

This week I want to talk about money! Our budget is something that we have been really trying to work on in this season we are in. We have some really big financial goals for 2016 and getting our budget under control is the first step.

I am not naturally good at handling money. I hate dealing with budgets, and spreadsheets, and paying bills. It is probably my #1 thing that I struggle with in my home. But I do know, that in the seasons when we are on top of our money and budget down to the dollar, those are the months that we really are in control of our money!

We've slowly come to see that we really do need to budget every single dollar that comes in and goes out in order to really know where our money is going. It's amazing how fast eating out and buying random things at Target can add up month after month.

So tune this week while we discuss what it means to be in charge of our finances, budgeting, and how this affects our homemaking over all! Let's go ahead and dive in:

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In This Episode, You Will Learn:

The 7 baby steps to financial freedom (from Dave Ramsey)

The steps we are using this year to budget better and save money!

The best budgeting software (for personal use and for your business)

My favorite meal planning websites

And other resources to help you feel in control of your finances!

[Tweet "If you want to travel the road to financial freedom, you must first start with a road map."]

Links & Resources Mentioned in This Episode

Dave Ramsey's 7 Baby Steps

Financial Peace University

Mint.com - Budgeting Software

Fresh Books - A replacement for Quicken and QuickBooks (We use this for our online business)

Build a Menu - My favorite meal planning website!!

Use coupon code: SaveMeMoney to get your first month for just $4!!

Dave Ramsey Podcast Show

Living Well Spending Less book

The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey

Homemaking Foundations Podcast on iTunes

Sign up for my weekly podcast emails

Book of the Week:

The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey

We read this book through several years ago and plan to do so again. This is the book where Dave Ramsey really lays out a strong foundation on how to view money, how to budget, how to save, and most importantly, how to pay off debt! He goes over the 10 biggest money myths and how to pay off debt quickly with the debt snowball! So to check it out, find it on Amazon or a link to it in the shownotes.

 

Thanks for Listening!

The things in life that are worth pursuing – your faith, a Christ-Centered marriage, faithful parenting, homemaking, and the other things that really matter – take hard work, determination, and lots of self-discipline. In this episode we discuss the art of self discipline, why it's so important, and how we can cultivate it within our own lives.

Discipline is perhaps my greatest struggle when it comes to being an efficient homemaker and Christ-follower. I deeply lack self-discipline and it comes back to bite me again and again. The largest lesson I’ve had to learn in my life, is how to be self-disciplined so I can effectively and efficiently run my household. - And I'm continually learning this lesson.

In last week's episode we talked about how to dream and set goals for your life and homemaking. And then we took those goals and broke them down step by step to make realistic actionable goals. And this is all fine and well, but what do we do once these goals and dreams are written down on paper? What do we do with our daily and weekly routines and schedules? Getting them written down is the first step, but where do we go from there? Let's dive into today's episode to find out!

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In This Episode, You Will Learn:

The importance of self-discipline

What our first step in cultivating self discipline must be

How this relates to gaining control of your home

How to build an effective morning routine

The key to forming lasting habits within your life and homemaking

[Tweet "In an effort to seek self-discipline, your journey must first begin at the feet of Jesus."]

Links & Resources Mentioned in This Episode

Hf #14: Dreaming & Planning in Your Homemaking

Say Goodbye to Survival Mode by Crystal Paine

Freezer meals:

Freezer Waffles - I make these all the time! So nice to have these in the freezer for busy Sunday mornings!

Freezer friendly breakfast burritos - I make these as a quick breakfast for Jason

8 make ahead breakfast ideas

Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life by Donald Whitney

Free 30 Day Trial of Audible (2 free audiobooks included!)

Homemaking Foundations Podcast on iTunes

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Book of the Week

Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life by Donald Whitney

I've mentioned this book before on the podcast I believe, and I highly recommend it! I consider Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life a foundational book that all believer’s should read.

I actually stumbled upon this book in a thrift store one day. And while I’m not one to just pick up any random book that calls itself “christian” because I think you could end up with some very bad (or false) teaching by doing that – I was familiar with and really respected many of the pastors who gave endorsements on the back cover. So on a $2.00 whim I decided to get it and try it out (even though it looked really boring from the cover) and fell in love with it right away. I am now on my second time reading through it and I know it won’t be my last. It covers all the spiritual disciplines that we should be practicing such as prayer, Bible reading time, Scripture memorization, serving, giving, and more! It's a perfect blend of theology and practical advice for actually practicing these disciplines.

And for the last few months, Jason and I have been picking an audio book that we listen to “together”. He listens to it on his rather long commute to work and I listen to it in the nooks and crannies of my day – making breakfast, folding laundry, driving, etc.  – and we discuss the books together. Over the summer,

I have found that in my homemaking, I need to have a clear vision and defined goals in order to actually accomplish the things that I want to and to design the kind of household and life that we want. In earlier episodes we talked about setting priorities in your home and how to create realistic routines.

Today I want to take these concepts one step further and take a look at what it means to cast a vision for our homemaking and to set larger goals for our lives, our homes, and our families that go beyond the basic cooking, cleaning, and managing your home. We are going to be taking a look at setting goals within our homes and dreaming big!

I’ve found that when I wake up, without goals or a direction for my day and week, I bounce around the house not really accomplishing anything. But when I’m working solidly on the computer from 1-4 everyday during my older twin’s nap time and have a routine and schedule in place for my day, I know I have to get cleaning and cooking done at specific times. I know that from 10 – 12, I’m working on various projects around the house: folding and putting away laundry, doing dishes, organizing the twin’s room, cleaning out my fridge, etc.

Having clear goals, objectives, and things I want to accomplish in my homemaking, broken down by life, yearly, monthly, weekly, and daily goals, helps me to stay on track in my life and in my homemaking so I can make a real impact from within my home.

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In This Episode, You Will Learn:

What it means to DREAM in your homemaking

How to set goals for your life and homemaking

What it means to set realistic goals while also dreaming big

How to develop a plan of action for those goals and dreams

And resources for learning more!

[Tweet "Set goals that will stretch you and force you to grow, but that are actually attainable."]

Links & Resources Mentioned in This Episode

Follow me on Instagram

Episode #7: Determining How You Should Spend Your Time as a Homemaker

Episode #8: Creating Realistic Routines for the Busy Homemaker

My Fall 2015 Reading Goals

Free Printable Goal Planning Sheets from Money Saving Mom

Say Goodbye to Survival Mode by Crystal Paine

More resources on goal planning by Money Saving Mom:

How to Develop a Routine that Works (and stick with it)

My New Morning Routine

Free customizable morning, afternoon, and evening routine cards

Homemaking Foundations Podcast on iTunes

Sign up for my weekly podcast emails

Book of the Week:

Living Well Spending Less by Ruth Soukup

I am listening through this book right now as an audiobook. It's one of the books on my to-read list for the Fall and we had an extra Aubible credit so I decided it was time to take the plunge and go through this book. Jason and I are really trying to work on our finances right now, cut things out that are unnecessary and get on top of a good budget. And this book has come at the perfect timing.

I'm only about half way through it but I'm loving it. Ruth shares her own personal story about driving her family into debt and almost ruining her marriage by her spending habits. And by God's Grace, my family has not dealt with that, but I am definitely more of a spender than I am a saver so I can identify a lot with what Ruth shares.

As a Christian, Ruth does a wonderful time of sharing about how our worth comes from God and not from the things we have. I've been so encouraged and motivated in my own house to get rid of excess stuff and really stick to a strict budget. I know you will be blessed by this book as well if you want to work on your finances.

Homemaking - and our roles within the home - change from season to season and vary greatly depending on what stage of life we are in. Jennifer is joining us today to talk about having a vision for our homemaking and how our homemaking will look different depending on where we are at in life.

Jennifer has 11 children and knows what it means to be busy. She is also a loving wife and devoted homemaker. She blogs over at The Focused Homemaker and she is with us in this week's episode to give us a little glimpse into her daily life. She also gives some really encouraging wisdom from her 20+ years of experience as a homemaker.

I was so encouraged recording this episode with her and I love the advice she gives on knowing what season you are in and adjusting your homemaking to match that season. Let's dive in!

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In This Episode, You Will Learn:

What it means to be focused as a homemaker

How homemaking changes from season to season

Encouragement for the young mom who is stuck in the trenches and feels like her house is out of control

Homemaking routines that help you get back control of your home

A day in the life of a mom of 11 kids!

And how the Gospel impacts her daily life as a homemaker

[Tweet "No two homemakers will look the same. We are all walking in different seasons and on different paths. "]

Links & Resources Mentioned in This Episode

Jennifer Ross from The Focused Homemaker

Episode #12: What Does it Really Mean to Manage a Gospel-Centered Home?

Joyful Aprons

Homemaking 101 & 201 DVD's - Family Vision Films

Use coupon code: youngwife to get 25% OFF the homemaking DVD's through October 15th!

Homemaking Foundations Podcast on iTunes

Sign up for my weekly podcast emails

Resource of the Week:

Homemaking 101 & 201 DVD's

If you need some practical, hand's on experience in homemaking, then these DVD's are perfect for you! Jennifer walks you through all aspects of running a household in these beautifully made DVD's.

Homemaking 101 will show young wives and mothers with small children how to efficiently and joyfully manage their homes, offer heavy doses of encouragement and give vision for being a keeper at home. Great for gifts for newly married brides or new moms! It covers cleaning, cooking, budgeting, bill paying, child training, scheduling, blessing your husband, organizing, and so much more!

Homemaking 201 encourages the Christian wife to view her home and service to her family as a ministry. Teaching in such areas as home maintenance, saving money by making homemade products, ministering to family, preparing for guests, organization, chores and projects for children, yard work, learning how to adjust any apron for the perfect fit, easy recipes, and creating a homemaking binder.

BONUS for Homemaking Foundation's Listeners: Now through October 15th you can get 25% OFF the Dvd's!! You can get both DVD's for under $20 with coupon code: youngwife. These would make fantastic presents for other homemaker's in your life!

Thanks for Listening!

What does it mean to live out a Gospel-Centered home? How we define the Gospel - and live it out in our homes - can have a profound impact. But it takes intentional thought and purpose in our homemaking to focus on Gospel-Centered living within our home. From our marriages, to our kids, to our day-to-day activities - the Gospel impacts our lives fully and has the power to transform even the most mundane of tasks. That's what today's episode is focused on.

Having a Gospel-Centered home means purposefully and intentionally creating the goals, activities, and atmosphere in the home to be firmly centered on the Gospel. But this gets more specific than just running a Christian household.

It means intentionally focusing on the GOSPEL of Christ in all aspects of our lives: in parenting our children, in our relationship with our husbands, how we spend our time the priorities we make throughout the day, and how we use those small pockets of extra time. Let's dive in!

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In This Episode, You Will Learn:

A clear definition of the Gospel

The Romans Road to Salvation

How the Gospel then has a powerful impact on our home

4 Ways that the Gospel impacts our Households

My favorite Gospel-Centered resources and more!

[Tweet "Gospel-Centered living starts with a thorough understanding of the Gospel, daily living it out, and a firm vision of Eternity. "]

Links & Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

What is the Gospel? by Greg Gilbert

Treasuring Christ When Your Hands Are Full by Gloria Furman

Glimpses of Grace by Gloria Furman

A Gospel Primer by Milten Vincent

The Faithful Parent by Martha Peace and Stuart Scott

A Heart for Hospitality eCourse (Get $10 OFF the course for a limited time)

Homemaking Foundations Podcast on iTunes

Sign up for my weekly podcast emails

Book of the week:

What is the Gospel - Greg Gilbert

This is a quick, short book and won't take you very long to read. But I highly recommend that everyone - even the seasoned Christian, get this book and read through it as a family. Jason and I are both reading it now and when our boys get older, we plan on reading it together as a family. I think we throw the term "Gospel" around so often, that we become numb to the meaning of it. And yet, the Gospel should be our primary focus in our homes. We need to teach it to our kids, hide it in our hearts, and have it open for display to those who come into our homes.

You need a thorough understanding of the Gospel, it's critical! I highly recommend you check out this short book. You can get the hardcover for $11 currently on Amazon or it looks like they have it in pamphlet form for $2.99 on Amazon! I'm not sure if that's the entire book, but it's worth checking out if finances are tight.

Thanks for Listening!

Do you need a little help with your child training? Do you feel a little overwhelmed with punishments, rewards, and effectively training your children? Today's episode dives into all of that and more! In case you missed it, you can listen to the last episode here: Episode #010: 4 Ways to Reduce Food Waste.

My boys are getting to the age where consistency is so important. But it can be tough day in and day out to follow through and to be consistent with child-training. In this episode, I'm interviewing Sean & Caroline Allen from The Modest Mom on their creative and innovative approach to child training and how ultimately, we can teach our children the Gospel through it.

I'm so excited to bring you this interview with Sean and Caroline and to learn more about their awesome new program Character Badges! Let's dive in:

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In This Episode, You Will Learn:

A grace filled approach that includes rewarding good behavior in addition to punishments to bad behavior

How to focus on different character traits in your children

The key to consistency in parenting

How this approach opens up the discussion of the Gospel within your home

[Tweet "The key to effective child training? Consistency! Read more"]

Links & Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

The Ultimate Healthy Living Bundle

Sean & Caroline Allen from The Modest Mom Blog

Deborah & Co. Modest Clothing Company

Kickstarter campaign for Character Badges

Homemaking Foundations Podcast on iTunes

Sign up for my weekly podcast emails

Thanks for Listening!

Thank you so much for listening in to my podcast. If you want to ask a question (that I will try to answer on the podcast) please leave me a voicemail below so I can feature you on the podcast and so I can cover what you want to hear! (Find out more about submitting a question here)

A sneak peek at today's episode:

Did you know that Americans throw out over 33 million tons of food every year. In fact, over 40% of the food in the United States gets thrown out! What a staggering statistic! In today's episode we are going discussing some simple ways that we can cut down on food waste as homemakers. In case you missed it, you can listen to the last episode here: Episode #009: How to Make a Digital Home Management Binder Using Evernote.

When I think about the millions of people around the world who are starving, these statistics make me so sad! And of course, I'm guilty of food waste as well. When I throw out food because I made too much, or didn't plan out the food I had out very well, then I am wasting valuable resources that God has given me! I try to cut down on throwing things out anyway, but the question Melody asked in today's episode has encouraged me to try even harder and get more creative about not wasting food while still keeping our meals interesting and yummy.

This episode is going to be a little different. Instead of interviewing another blogger, I am going to be answering one of YOUR questions right here on the podcast. If you have a question to ask, scroll down to the bottom and leave me a voicemail and I'll try to answer it on a future episode!

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

In This Episode, You Will Learn:

Statistics on food waste in the United States

How this is a waste of the resources God has given us as homemakers

4 ways we can learn to eliminate food waste

Creative meal planning options for using leftovers

4 meal planning websites to try out

[Tweet "We throw out 33 million+ tons of food every year! This has a powerful impact on my homemaking."]

Links & Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

Homemaking Foundations Podcast on iTunes

The Ugly Truth About Food Waste in America - NPR

Americans Throw Out More Food Than Plastic, Paper, Metal, and Glass - The Washington Post

HF #6: Freezer Cooking & My Homemaking

Recipes mentioned in this episode:

The Best Whole Chicken in the Crockpot recipe from 100 Days of Real Food

Overnight Chicken Stock in the Crockpot from 100 Days of Real Food

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup from 100 Days of Real Food

Meal Planning Services mentioned in this episode:

Build a Menu - Use coupon code: SaveMeMoney to try out your first month for only $4!!

Once a Month Meals - My favorite site for Freezer Cooking

eMeals.com

PlantoEat.com

4 Essential Habits of Healthy Families free eCourse (Hurry - you only have until 9/6 to sign up for this!)

Sign up for my weekly podcast emails

Pssst: Did you notice a pattern with my recipes above? If you want to find more real food, kid friendly, easy meals, then check out of my very favorite cookbooks: 100 Days of Real Food!

Resource of the week:

4 Essential Habits of Healthy Families free eCourse

This week I want to highlight a free resource that's available for only one week! It's called the 4 Essential Habits of Healthy Families audio course and you can sign up for it for FREE until this Sunday, September 6th! This free audio course takes you through 4 healthy habits that every family should work on. I just got done listening through the course and it was fabulous! It's a quick course, with each session around 30 minutes long and it was so encouraging!! It takes you through the importance of getting enough sleep, staying fit and finding the time to exercise, making meals from scratch, and using natural remedies. And in fact, during the making meals from scratch episode, they mention some ideas for not wasting food!

Welcome back to the eighth episode of my brand new podcast: The Homemaking Foundations Podcast –Where we give you the tools, inspiration, and encouragement you need to craft a Gospel-Centered Home. In case you missed it, you can listen in to the last episode here: Episode #008: Creating Realistic Routines for the Busy Homemaker.

Today I want to share a free tool with you that has become essential in my homemaking: And that's Evernote! If you are not familiar with Evernote, it's a website that allows you to store online Notebooks and notes. But the awesome thing is, it's not just on your computer. You can download the app for your phone or tablet and have the program with you where ever you go. You can start a new note on your computer, pause, and pick it back up on your tablet when you are sitting on the couch. Or look up a quick note or link when you are out on the go on your phone.

There are literally a million things you could do with Evernote, but today I want to share how Evernote has become my online home management binder. I'm going to share the different ways I use it as my digital way to store notes, calenders, schedules, and more for my family (and how my husband uses it also)!

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

In This Episode, You Will Learn:

What Evernote is

How I use it for home management

The specific notebooks and notes that I use to better manage:

Menu planning

House Projects

Anniversaries and Birthdays

Holiday Organization

Organizing my to read and to listen to items

Medical Records

Weekly Meetings for Jason and I

Blogging

And more!

[Tweet "Evernote has become my go-to resource for homemaking. Here's how I use it:"]

Links & Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

Evernote

12 Surprising Ways to Use Evernote by Michael Hyatt

Getting the Most Out of Evernote a podcast by Michael Hyatt

Women of the Word by Jen Wilken

30 day free trial of Audible (to get TWO Free audiobooks!!)

Sign up for my weekly podcast emails

Homemaking Foundations Podcast on iTunes

Book of the Week:

Women of the Word by Jen Wilken

Today's book recommendation has nothing to do with today's topic but it's one that I just got done reading and it's fabulous!! It's called Women of the Word by Jen Wilkin. I had no idea what to expect from this small book but it was really amazing. The tagline for the book is How to study the Bible with both our hearts and our minds. I've read a lot of books on similar topics and unfortunately, the ones written specifically to women tend to be very light and fluffy.

But Jen really cuts to the core of what it means to study the Bible and gives some really great, solid, Biblical teaching on the subject as well as hand's on, practical advice for actually studying the Bible. I love this quote from her in chapter one:

"It might seem that studying the Bible would be something we should know how to do intuitively. After all, if God discloses his will and character there, wouldn't the Holy Spirit just open up its message to our hearts? But this is not the case. Yes, the Holy Spirit opens the Word to us, but not without some effort on our part.

Do you know that the word disciple means 'learner'? As a disciple of Christ, you and I are called to learn, and learning requires effort. It also requires good study methods. We know this to be true of our schooling, but do we know it to be true of following Christ?" Women of the Word pages 22-23

I have the hard copy of the book but you can also find it on Amazon on your Kindle or even as an audio book!