Mandi Ehman's Blog, page 120
April 22, 2013
Make a DIY Mother’s Day Gift Basket in Less Than 30 Minutes!
The following guest post is from Stacy of A Delightful Home:
source: A Delightful Home
Every mother wants to feel special.
One of my favorite ways to communicate love and care is through handmade gifts.
Before you run away, thinking there’s no time to make something, let me assure you that the following DIY body care set is so quick and easy to put together, you’ll be done in less than 30 minutes!
This gift set is designed to pamper and relax (hence the lavender). The combination of a sugar scrub, bath soak and body oil will help mom feel rejuvenated and peaceful.
Add a box of herbal tea and a some chocolate to make this gift extra special.
Here’s what to do:
For the quickest method, follow these steps in order.
Lavender Body Oil
source: A Delightful Home
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon dried lavender buds
1/2 cup sweet almond oil (or safflower oil)
5 drops lavender essential oil
Directions:
Place lavender and oil in heavy pan and stir to combine. Heat over low heat until the oil is warm. Don’t let it come to a boil. Once the oil is warm. Remove from heat and leave to cool.
While the oil is cooling, make the sugar scrub; you will strain the lavender buds out and add the essential oil at the end.
(If you are not prone to distraction, like me, you can mix up the scrub while the oil is warming. If you do, just be sure to watch the oil so it doesn’t boil.)
Lavender Body Scrub
source: A Delightful Home
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon dried lavender buds
3/4 white sugar
1/4 cup salt
1/3 plus 2 tablespoons oil (safflower, sweet almond, or olive oil)
5 drops lavender essential oil
or try a combination of lavender and lemon (3 drops each)
or 3 drops lavender and 2 drops chamomile
Directions:
In a bowl mix together the sugar and salt. Sprinkle in the lavender buds and stir to combine.
(If making the bath bags as well, add the lavender buds and salt to the bath bags now to save time; 1/8 cup of lavender buds and 1 tablespoon of salt into each bag.)
Add the oil and stir again. If the scrub seems too dry, add a little more oil. Scrub should hold together but not be overly runny.
Add the essential oil and stir to distribute. Spoon into a jar with a tight fitting lid. This will fit perfectly in a half-pint, wide mouth mason jar. Add a label (here are some free labels).
On your label, note that sugar scrub should not be used on broken skin or skin that is sunburned or wind burned.
Lavender Salt Bath Bags
source: A Delightful Home
These lavender salt bath bags provide are perfect for hard working moms; the lavender relaxes while the salt softens skin and soothes tired muscles.
Ingredients:
1/4 cup dried lavender buds
2 tablespoons salt (Epsom salt, sea salt or table salt)
2 small cotton or muslin drawstring bags or two squares of cloth and elastic bands
Optional extra: add 1 tablespoon ground oats and/or 1 teaspoon grated soap in each bag
Directions:
If you have not done so already, spoon 1/8 cup of lavender buds and 1 tablespoon of salt into each bag. Add any optional extras now.
Tighten the drawstring on the bags and set aside.
If you do not have cotton bags, cut out a square of muslin or cotton fabric and place herbs and salt in the center. Fold up the sides and secure with a rubber band. (If you are having trouble picturing this, see this post: How to make bath bags)
Put it all together.
The lavender and oil you heated for the body oil should be cool. Strain the lavender out by pouring the oil into a measuring cup or bowl with a strainer placed over the top (or spread muslin over the measuring cup and secure with a rubber band).
Pour into a bottle and add the essential oil. Place lid on bottle and shake to combine. Add a label. Let the recipient know that body oil is intended for use after the bath or scrub.
Place all of your items in a pretty basket or gift bag, add any extras (such as chocolate, tea, a wash cloth or loofah), write a heartfelt note, and you are on your way to making someone feel very special!
Want to learn more about making all-natural body scrubs? Check out my eBook, Simple Scrubs to Make and Give. Use coupon code LYW to get 20% off until May 17.
What are your favorite quick and easy homemade gifts?
Stacy blogs at A Delightful Home where she shares tips for living a healthy life and creating a peaceful, happy haven for your family. She is the wife of a preacher and homeschool mom to three children.
Make a DIY Mother’s Day Gift Basket in Less Than 30 Minutes! is a post from Life Your Way
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April 20, 2013
Weekend Reading: April 20, 2013
source: mandiehman on Instagram
It’s true — at three-and-a-half years old, I still call her Baby Girl and “the baby”, and a friend recently reminded me (as if the thought is ever far from my mind) that she will only be the baby for a few more months!
The rest of our babies were so close together (17-24 months) that no one ever really settled into the role of baby of the family, and I’m not sure exactly how this transition is going to go — for her OR me! It would probably help if we got her moved out of the nursery and into the big girls’ room, huh?
Our weekly newsletter is currently on hold as I muddle through the first trimester, but be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss future issues!
Here are some of my favorite posts from this week. As always, check out what I’m reading to see the other posts that make me stop and think. You’ll find new posts all week long!
Food {Eat Well, Spend Less}
How My Cooking & Grocery Shopping Habits Have Changed | Denver Bargains
Brace Yourselves…the 2012 Food Budget May Shock You! | Kitchen Stewardship
12 Ways to Help You Eat Well and Spend Less | Simple Bites
Eating Better on a Budget | Life As Mom
Eat Well and Spend Less… Two Years Later | Keeping the Kingdom First
Family {Real-Life Learning}
My Best Dozen Pieces of Homeschooling Advice | Simple Homeschool
Eighth Grader Designs Standardized Test That Slams Standardized Tests | Washington Post
5 Reasons to Cook with Kids and Dealing with Messy Moments | Good Life Eats
And I’m so, so proud of this post that Emily wrote. It’s such an important read: The Kermit Gosnell Case: Why This Is About So Much More Than Abortion.
Have a great weekend!
Mandi Ehman is the founder and publisher behind Life Your Way and the co-author of All in Good Time, as well as a wife and the homeschooling mom to four beautiful girls. She lives with her family on a little slice of heaven in wild, wonderful West Virginia and loves coffee, chocolate, easy meals, beautiful things and minimalist spaces.
Weekend Reading: April 20, 2013 is a post from Life Your Way
© 2010-2013 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved - This feed is provided for the convenience of Life Your Way subscribers. Any reproduction of the content within this feed is strictly prohibited. If you are reading this content elsewhere, please send an email to contact@yourway.net to let us know. Thanks.
April 19, 2013
Is Back & Neck Pain Just Part of Working at the Computer?
This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of American Osteopathic Association for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.
Even though I work at home, the thing I have in common with the majority of office workers is pain from working on the computer all the time. The truth is I don’t have the best posture anyway, and years of working on a laptop while sitting on the couch or on my bed have made it worse and led to chronic back and shoulder pain, as well as tension headache.
I keep thinking I need to do something differently — focus on proper posture, sit in a better seat, get up and stretch more often — but I’m not great at any of those, and I have been putting off making actual changes.
Because chronic pain affects more than 100 million Americans, the American Osteopathic Association is currently running a Break Through Your Pain campaign to help office workers in America discover the cause of their pain as well as ways to heal and prevent it.
If you’re experiencing office worker-itis like me, visit the site for:
“At Your Desk” Makeover Tips (like keeping your feet flat on the floor)
Five Habits to Stop and Five Habits to Start
A Break Through Your Pain Pledge to Yourself
Tips for Talking to Your Physician About Your Pain
Living with Pain? Quiz
Do your friends a favor and share the above infograph on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest so they can find relief as well!
If you’re living with chronic pain, I’d love to hear from you as well. Share your personal story and tell us what you’re doing to overcome it!
Is Back & Neck Pain Just Part of Working at the Computer? is a post from Life Your Way
© 2010-2013 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved - This feed is provided for the convenience of Work Your Way subscribers. Any reproduction of the content within this feed is strictly prohibited. If you are reading this content elsewhere, please send an email to contact@yourway.net to let us know. Thanks.
Interview Your Child with These Fun Prompts
The following post is from Kacey of Well-Rounded Home:
source: Istockphoto
My oldest two boys are now five and three, and I have to say I’m really enjoy these ages. As their vocabulary has expanded, we now find them voicing their thoughts and opinions about everything–favorite colors, games they want to play after school, what they learned in church, funny sayings, what they want to be when they grow up, etc. Not only that, but when they’re together and out of sight of mom and dad, they always strike up the funniest conversations.
While I’d like to think I’ll always remember these moments, my guess is over the years, my memory will start to fade. That’s why I love the idea of interviewing kids because it’s a fantastic way to etch into memory some of their thoughts and conversations we find so adorable.
To make it easy for you, this From the Mouth of… printable includes eight questions you can ask your child. As you do this each year, it’ll be fun (and maybe even entertaining) to look back and see how their signature and responses change over time. While older kids may begrudgingly participate, I think even they’ll enjoy looking back on their interviews when their older.
Click here to download or print the child interview printable.
P.S. Be sure to read Jennifer’s tips for practicing the art of active listening with your kids as well!
If you’ve interviewed your kids before, what are some of your favorite questions to ask? What are other ways do you like to capture your kids’ early years?
With three little busy bodies to care for, Kacey is on a mission to take motherhood to the next level. Her blog, Well-Rounded Home, is filled encouraging words and inspiration for moms in the trenches with taking care of home and wrangling kids. She’s a die-hard Texas girl who loves her sweet tea and the word y’all. By day, she’s the marketing and client services guru for a small real estate investment firm.
Interview Your Child with These Fun Prompts is a post from Life Your Way
© 2010-2013 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved - This feed is provided for the convenience of Family Your Way subscribers. Any reproduction of the content within this feed is strictly prohibited. If you are reading this content elsewhere, please send an email to contact@yourway.net to let us know. Thanks.
6 Ways to Introduce Kids to Photography
The following post is from Krystal of Krystal Griffin Photography:
source: Krystal
It is said that at their youngest ages a large percentage of children see themselves as artist. It’s only as they grow older that they begin to doubt themselves and lose their youthful delight in creativity, also losing their identity as an artist. Photography is a fantastic medium to help our children pursue and retain an interest in the creative arts.
Let me provide six steps to get your kids started with photography.
1. Give them a little information and secure straps.
Whether the camera you allow your children to use is the only one you own, a hand-me-down or your older camera you will certainly want to protect it. A short conversation with your children about the danger of dropping, forceful banging and water would be a great place to start – even before they are allowed to touch it. Once you have covered camera safety, make some adjustments to your straps. If it’s a wrist strap you might put a knot in it to fit your child’s wrist. A DSLR strap adjusted to its shortest length should the keep it on your child’s chest rather than perilously swinging at their waist.
2. Start simple.
When it’s time to switch the camera on and show them how to use it, start with teaching just a few bits of information. The On/Off switch, shutter release and reviewing images might be where you start. You want to keep the fun in it, not overwhelm them. I have found that teaching three or four pieces of information is enough for my elementary aged kids. Then, I set them off to have fun.
source: Krystal
On a family nature walk my 7 year old spotted two small fawns and attempted to capure them with my started DSLR on manual.
3. Layer the information.
While teaching three or four bits of information is a good place to start, you certainly don’t want to stop there. This is where layering information comes in. Let’s say they know how to turn the camera on, review images, and be still while squeezing the shutter. Next, you might show them how to choose a focus point, shoot from an angle that has the best light and delete their unwanted images. Just keep refreshing and layering information each time they get a chance to use the camera.
source: Krystal
Upon review his image he and his siblings noticed that the fawns weren’t in focus.
4. Allow freedom.
Once they are off and running (not literally, of course!) with the camera, try to give them as much freedom as you can. Let them fill the memory card right up! We are in the digital age, after all, it isn’t as though you must print all the images they take. Although you might have to teach them how to cull through their images, only saving the best ones. The freedom you give them will help them retain the joy as well allowing them to find their own creative voice.
source: Krystal
On his second, try he quietly sneaks up a little closer while we wait.
5. Offer a Goal.
At times it may be overwhelming for them to get started, and they may be looking to you for direction on a subject to photograph. This is the time to offer a goal to get them started. If you are on a nature walk, you might ask them to find three wild animals. Stuck in the house, they could photograph only yellow (or some other color) things. It could be anything and before you know it, they will have no problem finding things to photograph on their own.
source: Krystal
Ah, success! “Yes! I got it!” is what I hear as he quietly walked over to us. This experience fueled his desire to pursue photography.
6. Spend time enjoying good photography.
One way to help your children recognize quality photography is to spend time enjoying it with them. There is a plethora of places to find good photography on-line and in the library. Just flipping through a book, magazine or web-site will help them to recognize a quality image when they see it. You might ask them why they like an image or point out what you like. Both of you may find patterns to which photographs are favorites. This kind of “study” will inherently help them to know what to look for in creating their own images.
How do you encourage your children’s photography (or other art)?
Krystal is a stay-at-home mom of four children, ages 4-9, whom she homeschools. She is acutely aware of how fast her children are changing and is passionate about keeping family memories alive through photographs. Now and then she gets to help other families’ bottle up their own memories at Krystal Griffin Photography.
6 Ways to Introduce Kids to Photography is a post from Life Your Way
© 2010-2013 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved - This feed is provided for the convenience of Tech Your Way subscribers. Any reproduction of the content within this feed is strictly prohibited. If you are reading this content elsewhere, please send an email to contact@yourway.net to let us know. Thanks.
April 18, 2013
Preparing for a Road Trip with 4 Kids & a Dog
source: Mandi Ehman
We’re heading down to Florida soon to visit my parents (who recently relocated there from Maryland) and to attend the famed Disney Social Media Moms conference at Disney World, and we’re all over-the-top excited as we count down the days until we leave.
As excited as we are, though, I’m more than a little nervous about the 16-18 hour drive to get there, especially since we’ll have our 10-month-old Husky puppy with us and are planning to drive straight through!
The truth is I haven’t spent much time worrying about what to pack (we just need some clothes and basic toiletries since we’ll be at my parents’ house for the majority of our trip and have plenty of access to stores for anything we might forget!), but I’ve spent a lot of time planning out our road trip activities.
Our Road Trip Strategy
Our family spends a lot of time on the road anyway, regularly driving 1-2 hours to various destinations around our home, so our girls are good travelers. But our previous Florida road trips have taught us that there’s a big difference between a 6-hour drive and a 12-hour drive. And this one? Well, it will be our longest by far since my parents now live 2 hours south of my grandmother.
In the past, we’ve tried driving through the night, but that just left us exhausted. We’ve stopped overnight midway, but that just extends the misery into two days instead of one. And we’ve driven with exhausted-but-won’t-sleep toddlers screaming during the last stretch of the night, which we’d like to avoid!
Our plan this time is to stick with our favorite strategy — head to bed early the night before and then get on the road by 4-o’dark in the morning. That means we’ll need to be packed beforehand and we’ll load four sleepy girls into the car, but it should make for a relatively mellow start to the day and — hopefully — lead to plenty of sleeping in the car, something our girls have gotten pretty good at thanks to weekly trips to visit their “MooMoo” (Sean’s mom) and the hour-and-a-half drive home at night!
We’ll plan to stop as needed for bathroom breaks and playtime for the puppy, but our goal is to use that time wisely so that we don’t make the drive any longer than it has to be.
Activities + More
While I’m a big fan of boredom in childhood in general, my goal for this trip is to keep them entertained, well fed and busy. We don’t do movies in the car (because I know it could easily become a crutch for even our shorter drives, and it’s not a door I want to open!), but we’ll have plenty of activities, crafts and audiobooks. I thought I’d give you a peek into the bags I have packed for the girls. They know about some of this stuff, which my mom sent them for the trip, but a lot of it will be a surprise, which I’m hoping will up the entertainment factor.
Audiobooks
We have several Audible-ready devices, including an iPad, iPod and an old iPhone that we use as an MP3 player. These devices have games on them too, but the girls will be limited to playing at certain times of the drive (I’m thinking after every meal just so they know and won’t keep asking!). However, I plan to let each of them pick out a new Audible audiobook the night before we leave because I know that will keep the older girls engaged for many, many hours.
Backpacks
We packed a backpack for each of the girls with the fun stuff my mom sent and a few extra surprises:
cookie sheet for coloring, playing, eating, etc.
coloring book & crayons
blank notebook
headphones for audiobooks
finger puppets
cars
small toys
puzzle game
As you can see, I took pretty much everything out of its packaging because I know how quickly trash can build up in the car. I’m also thinking about offering the big girls an extra incentive to keep things neat and put away in their backpacks so that we can avoid a total disaster (and the dog chewing up things she shouldn’t!).
Special Surprises
source: Mandi Ehman
I also packed a bag full of special surprises to hand out throughout the trip. I haven’t decided exactly how we’ll divide up the surprises, but we’ll probably wait until after breakfast for the first one and plan on one every hour from there.
Here’s what the surprise bag contains:
activity books for the big girls, dry erase boards for the littles (Target Hot Spot)
giant pens (Easter clearance)
princess tattoos with a tiny sponge for applying them (Target Hot Spot)
glow stick bracelets for after dark (Target Hot Spot)
Melissa & Doug fashion sticker pages
princess play packs with crayons and stickers (Target Hot Spot)
stretchy bunnies (Easter clearance)
4 snacks: Kashi Strawberry Bars, Annie’s Fruit Snacks, Clif Kids Zbars, GoGo Squeeze Applesauce
I also have a similar-but-different bag packed for the trip home with some more dollar toys, snacks and activities.
One tip: I read that the Melissa & Doug stickers sometimes tear when removing them from the pages, so I took a few minutes the other night to remove the white background around the stickers so that the stickers will hopefully peel right off the backing. This is a trick we always use when giving toddlers and preschoolers stickers, since it can be frustrating for tiny fingers to try to peel those off.
Mile Marker Tracker
I also plan to do a simplified version of Tricia’s great vacation trip tracker. My plan is to attach a piece of velcro to the ceiling of the van and add mile marker lines for every 100 miles so that we can move a toy car along the strip to show the girls how many miles we’ve gone and how many we have left.
At this point, I’m cautiously optimistic about this being a fun experience for our family. I hope so, at least, since we’ll like be making this trip many, many more times in the coming years!
What is your best road trip advice? What’s the farthest you’ve ever driven with kids?
Mandi Ehman is the founder and publisher behind Life Your Way and the co-author of All in Good Time, as well as a wife and the homeschooling mom to four beautiful girls. She lives with her family on a little slice of heaven in wild, wonderful West Virginia and loves coffee, chocolate, easy meals, beautiful things and minimalist spaces.
Preparing for a Road Trip with 4 Kids & a Dog is a post from Life Your Way
© 2010-2013 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved - This feed is provided for the convenience of Family Your Way subscribers. Any reproduction of the content within this feed is strictly prohibited. If you are reading this content elsewhere, please send an email to contact@yourway.net to let us know. Thanks.
Ten-Minute Taco Pizza
The following post is from Shaina of Food for My Family and Olmanson Photography:
source: Shaina Olmanson | FoodforMyFamily.com
I do not have it all together, especially when it comes to managing life. I think this is common for families, especially working families or families with several children. (Four is several, right?) We often feel in control, the schedules align, the pieces fall into place. Then there are times when we’re getting through the day, where simple survival is the end goal.
Food is hard during those times. Sometimes I turn to a handful of trusted local restaurants, ones where I know the menu and the food, know what to order for the kids and that everyone will eat peacefully, but there are also times when even the trip out to those isn’t an option. Those times where I am left staring into the refrigerator and wondering: What in the world am I going to feed them?
This is one such meal. It is a conglomerate of leftovers, pantry items, of nontraditional ingredients blending together into something everyone in my house is comfortable with. It’s easy to adjust according to what you might have on hand, and I’ve learned to just keep some of these things stocked in the back rows of my cupboards (pantry, if you have one) waiting for the day when the grocery shopping was put off, homework was forgotten, the pipes broke, lightning struck the backyard.
source: Shaina Olmanson | FoodforMyFamily.com
It’s simple pizza, made on flatbread – I had pitas, but naan or even flour tortillas would also work. It’s covered in a mix of canned items that I uncovered in desperation, and then a bit of the last bit of fresh left in the house. I serve it with plain Greek yogurt or sour cream both, depending on which one has a tad bit left in the bottom of the container. Most importantly, however, is that it is good, satisfying, and a meal. A legitimate meal where there was none ten minutes earlier.
Ten-Minute Taco Pizza
#ratingval# from #reviews# reviews
Recipe Type: main
Author: Shaina Olmanson | Food for My Family
Prep time: 3 mins
Cook time: 7 mins
Total time: 10 mins
Serves: 4-6
A simple pizza made largely from pantry ingredients that can be thrown together in just ten minutes
Ingredients
4 6-8″ flour pitas (can substitute naan, flatbread, or flour tortillas)
1/2 cup salsa
1 15-ounce can of pinto or black beans
1 4-ounce jar green chilies, optional
1 4-ounce jar sliced black olives, optional
1/4 cup sliced yellow onion
1 1/2 cups shredded cheese (mozzarella, cheddar, colby jack, etc.)
1 cup shredded lettuce
1 cup diced tomatoes
1/2 cup sour cream or plain Greek yogurt
hot sauce, optional
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 450º F. Place the pitas on a baking sheet. Spread salsa over each pita. Distribute beans, chilies, olives, and onion evenly. Top with shredded cheese.
Bake for 7-8 minutes, or until the cheese is completely melted and golden across the top. Remove from the oven and allow to col slightly before cutting.
Top each pita pizza with lettuce and tomatoes. Serve with sour cream or yogurt and hot sauce.
Short of allowing ice cream or popcorn for dinner, what are your favorite last-minute meal tricks?
Shaina Olmanson is the home cook and photographer behind Food for My Family and the author of Desserts in Jars: 50 Sweet Treats that Shine. She is a contributor to Babble.com’s Family Kitchen Blog and the food channel on Lifetime Moms. Shaina can usually be found cooking, at the computer or behind the camera.
Ten-Minute Taco Pizza is a post from Life Your Way
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Poetry Activities with Children
The following post is from Angie of Many Little Blessings:
source: Jimmie
While poetry can be a wonderful addition to your language arts and reading studies all year long, April is especially perfect since it is National Poetry Month.
If you’re not sure where to start with poetry, one of these activities might be a perfect addition to your day.
Tea Time with Poetry
As described on the Brave Writer website, you and your children can have a special tea time and share favorite poems with each other while enjoying tea and baked goodies. This can become a treasured time to just slow down, enjoy poetry, and have some special time together.
Highly Structured Poetry
No matter what kids try to lead you to believe, they generally love structure. Poems with a lot of structure and rules may help reluctant young poets feel more comfortable writing.
Some common examples to use with children are:
Diamante – These are diamond-shaped poems with a very specific number of words per line as well as rules about the words’ parts of speech. For more information on these rules, read about how to write a diamante poem.
Haiku – A favorite of school children, these poems are often traditionally about nature. These three line poems feature five syllables on the first line, seven syllables on the second line, and five syllables on the third line.
Acrostic – In acrostic poems, the writer picks a word, such as “Spring,” and writes it vertically along the page. They then write a word or a sentence after each letter that starts with that letter. For example, with SPRING, a child might have their first line be, “Shady clouds bring lots of rain.”
Dramatic Readings
My children all enjoyed when I picked an Edgar Allan Poe poem to read aloud dramatically. In fact, they were so caught up in it that they wanted to each have a turn to try it too. My children may easily come by arguing about who gets to do something first, but it is not often that it involves reading a poem. My enthusiasm made all the difference.
Humorous Poems
Children and adults alike enjoy a little bit of levity. Sharing humorous poems can be a way to show children that poetry can be fun. Don’t limit yourself to only poems written for children. Two poems that I find most amusing are William Carlos Williams’ This is Just to Say, which can also be a fabulous springboard for children to try to write their own similar poem, and the haiku “Haikus are easy / But sometimes they don’t make sense / Refrigerator,” which also just begs children to come up with their own humorous haiku.
What is your favorite poem?
Angie, a domestically-challenged writer and artist, is a homeschooling mom to three children. She writes about everything that happens in their lives between all the loads of laundry at Many Little Blessings. She is also the founder of The Homeschool Classroom, Catholic Mothers Online, and Just a Tiny Owl.
Poetry Activities with Children is a post from Life Your Way
© 2010-2013 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved - This feed is provided for the convenience of Family Your Way subscribers. Any reproduction of the content within this feed is strictly prohibited. If you are reading this content elsewhere, please send an email to contact@yourway.net to let us know. Thanks.
Free Kindle Books {4/18/13}
One of the most popular features of our sister site, Jungle Deals & Steals, are our free Kindle book lists. With 15-20 free ebooks every day, these are a great way to load up your Kindle without breaking the bank, and Kindle books can also be read on smartphones, computers and tablets with the Kindle app from Amazon.
Here’s a quick list of some of the freebies that are currently available, but be sure to head over to Jungle Deals & Steals for new freebies today…or subscribe to our daily freebies email so you don’t miss a single book!
Fiction
Ireland Rose
by Patricia Strefling
Genre: Christian
Reviews: 
(120 reviews)
The Tycoon’s Convenient Wife
by Ros Clarke
Genre: Contemporary
Reviews: (15 reviews)
The Breakup
by Brenda Grate
Genre: Contemporary
Reviews: 
(45 reviews)
Her Sister (Search For Love series)
by Karen Rose Smith
Genre: Family Relationships
Reviews: (5 reviews)
Deliver Us From Evelyn (Kansas City Blues Crime Series)
by Chris Well
Genre: Suspense
Reviews: (18 reviews)
Nonfiction
The Truth About Managing People (3rd Edition)
by Stephen P. Robbins
Genre: Management
Reviews: (21 reviews)
Bit Literacy: Productivity in the Age of Information and E-mail Overload
by Mark Hurst
Genre: Time Management
Reviews: (182 reviews)
Homemade Change: Money may not grow on trees, but it lives in your home–A guide on how to make money from home and declutter your life.
by Jessica Wall
Genre: Cleaning & Caretaking
Reviews: (35 reviews)
The College Student’s Guide to Grocery Shopping: Healthy Eating Made Easy
by Jordan Syatt
Genre: Nutrition
Reviews: 
(8 reviews)
Children’s Books
He Called Me Son (The Blountmere Street Series)
by Barbara Arnold
Genre: Children’s Fiction
Reviews: (19 reviews)
The Zebra Said Shhh
by M.R. Nelson
Genre: Animals
Reviews: (9 reviews)
See more Kindle freebies here.
Free Kindle Books {4/18/13} is a post from Life Your Way
© 2010-2013 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved - This feed is provided for the convenience of Money Your Way subscribers. Any reproduction of the content within this feed is strictly prohibited. If you are reading this content elsewhere, please send an email to contact@yourway.net to let us know. Thanks.
April 17, 2013
Letting Go of Food Guilt & Shame {Eat Well, Spend Less}
source: mandiehman on Instagram
This month is the two-year anniversary of the Eat Well, Spend Less series, and I’m over at Easy Homemade, confessing that we’ve been living on processed foods and take out for the last 6 weeks or so:
In April of 2011, Jessica from Life as Mom brought together a group of bloggers to share our thoughts on eating well without breaking the budget.
With chefs like Shaina and Aimee participating alongside frugalistas like Carrie and Amy and real food advocates like Katie, I felt like I stuck out a bit from that very first month as the blogger who was just trying to find my way in this crazy healthy eating journey (although I think most of the other bloggers would say that they too feel like it’s a journey!).
However, over the last two years, I’ve made a ton of progress. I started making many of our pantry staples from scratch, taught myself to cook (and found that I actually enjoy it) and welcomed my kids into the kitchen on a more regular basis.
Head over to Easy Homemade to read my confessions as well as the lessons I’ve taken away from the first trimester!
Letting Go of Food Guilt & Shame {Eat Well, Spend Less} is a post from Life Your Way
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