Mandi Ehman's Blog, page 63

Manchego Olive Freeform Bread

The following post is from Shaina of Food for My Family and Olmanson Photography:

source: Shaina Olmanson | FoodforMyFamily.com

Tangy Manchego cheese and Spanish olives are dotted through this soft freeform bread loaf.

My grey counters are antiqued in a thin layer of white powder. I turn the corner, sweeping as I go, and am greeted by a floured outline of a small footprint on the floor. I pull the garbage alongside me, pushing bits of soft white dust into the bin before shaking the cloth out again to give the counter another pass. Contentment fills my face.

source: Shaina Olmason | FoodforMyFamily.com

My kids make our bread. Each weekend I set out our kitchen scale, the flour, yeast, water, and a big plastic bucket for them to mix it in. They eagerly tare the scale after each ingredient, sometimes making small mistakes, but approaching the task with enthusiasm each and every time. Fingers are covered in flour and then dough before we reach the end. The cleaning is a small price to pay for the smell of fresh bread baking, puffing in the oven and growing right alongside my kids’ self-esteem and sense of accomplishment.

We practice shaping the dough with their small hands, learning to form balls and pinch it here and there for different shapes, and sometimes we fold in ingredients, brush on layers of butter and cinnamon, or try frying it up in a cast iron pan rather than the oven. This past weekend’s loaf made with the very last of the week’s supply was dotted with the ends of a chunk of Manchego cheese, and then accompanied by a handful of Spanish olives, roughly chopped. A healthy sprinkle of oregano and red pepper flakes found the dough, too, before it was plopped soundly on a piece of parchment to rise.

The end result is that of a focaccia-like loaf, soft on the outside with just a thin layer of oiled crust. Slice it in half to use it as a sandwich bread, or cut off long fingers of a warm loaf and add them alongside a bowl of soup or a hearty salad.

Manchego Olive Freeform Bread
 

Print
This loaf uses Zoe Francois and Jeff Hertzberg’s Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day Master Recipe as a base, expanding on it with additional ingredients and a varied cooking time.

Author: Shaina Olmanson | FoodforMyFamily
Recipe type: bread
Serves: 8-10

Ingredients

1½ cups lukewarm water no warmer than 100ºF (340 grams)
1½ teaspoons granulated yeast (5 grams)
1½ teaspoons kosher salt (9 grams)
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
3¼ cups all-purpose flour (455 grams)
6 ounces Manchego cheeese, cut into ½” cubes
½ cup Spanish stuffed olives, roughly chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
½ teaspoon coarse sea salt



Directions

In a large bowl or bucket with a loose fitting lid, mix together the water, yeast, salt, oregano, and red pepper flakes until combined. Add in the flour, stirring until all the flour is incorporated.
Loosely cover the container and let it rise at room temperature until doubled in size, 2-3 hours. Once the dough has risen, it can be stored in the refrigerator with the lid still cracked on the container until ready to bake.
When it’s time to bake, preheat the oven to 425ºF with a baking stone in the middle rack.
Lightly flour the dough and remove it from the bucket. Using your fingers, flatten it slightly and sprinkle half the cheese cubes and half the olives over the surface. Fold the dough in half and then in half again. Pinch to secure the olives and cheese inside. Shape the dough into a freeform round and place on a piece of parchment.
Using the tips of our fingers, dimple the dough slightly. Sprinkle on the remaining cheese and olives and press them into the dough to secure. Brush the entire surface with olive oil. Sprinkle with sea salt.
Let the dough rise for 20 minutes. Once risen, slide the parchment with the dough onto the baking stone in the oven. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until the loaf is golden brown.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly before slicing.


#version#

 

Shaina Olmanson is the freelance writer, photographer, and home cook behind Food for My Family. Cooking daily with and for her four kids and husband, Ole, drives her desire to inspire other families to do the same. Shaina is also the author of Desserts in Jars and contributes regularly to a variety of online sites and traditional print magazines.

Manchego Olive Freeform Bread

© 2010-2014 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved

    Related StoriesMore Than 200 Recipes for Just $7.40! {BundleoftheWeek.com}

Giveaway: Level 1 Homeschool Language Program from Rosetta Stone

Did you know that Rosetta Stone offers homeschool curriculum?!

Rosetta Stone Homeschool takes the popular language-learning program that the company is known for and offers it as a curriculum specially designed to provide homeschool students with a rich, fully interactive and engaging language-learning experience including the grammar and basic sentence structure of their chosen language.

Plus, it offers parents the tools and resources needed to manage student progress without extensive planning or supervision.

This self-paced program is designed to make it easy for parents to offer language learning even if they don’t understand the language their students are studying. And as promised, our girls were instantly captivated by Rosetta Stone so that they happily stay engaged with the lessons. The program progresses quickly and invites them to interact by actually pronouncing the words they’re learning, which builds their confidence and makes them want to learn more.

Rosetta Stone provides up to five levels of instruction in select languages, with a foundation of listening comprehension, speaking, reading and writing so that students actually learn to use the language they’re studying.

Choosing a Language

I had no idea when I asked for input on our decision to pursue Spanish versus French language learning that I would receive so many strong opinions, but the conversation on my personal Facebook was lively and passionate!

As the second most spoken language in the world, Spanish is vibrant, expressive – and extremely useful. It is spoken by nearly 500 million people worldwide, including in the U.S., so it’s no wonder it is one of Rosetta Stone’s most popular languages. Spanish opens a door to myriad opportunities for children to communicate both at home and abroad.

On the other hand, French is also widely spoken around the world, especially in Europe and Africa, and because so many English words are taken from French vocabulary, it’s also great for English vocabulary development.

But the consensus also seemed to be that children can learn multiple languages at once and that they should study the language they’re most interested in, so we settled on Latin and Spanish for the whole family, and our oldest is studying French on her own as well!

Enter to Win

This week, Rosetta Stone is giving one lucky Life Your Way reader a Complete Level 1 Homeschool Language Program (in the language of your choice)!

To enter, fill out the form below:

Please note that the email addresses of all entrants will be shared with Rosetta Stone so that they can keep you updated on their latest products and offers!

The giveaway ends at 11:59 p.m. ET on Friday, March 7. The winner will be selected randomly and notified by email, and this post will be updated with their name as well. Unfortunately, due to the international laws governing sweepstakes and lotteries, we’re only able to offer these giveaways to U.S. residents 18 years and older.

Giveaway: Level 1 Homeschool Language Program from Rosetta Stone

© 2010-2014 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved

    Related StoriesGiveaway: Strawesome Reusable Glass Straws (2 Winners!)Giveaway: Plan to Eat 1-Year Membership (3 Winners!)

Weekend Reading: March 1, 2014

It has been an action-packed couple of weeks!

Dylan and I did The Color Run in Jacksonville with my sister and mom {Jackson slept in a covered stroller!}.

We ended up in the ER again when our oldest fell {while figure skating in socks…} and  needed three stitches in her chin.

I launched the new Life Your Way and then decided to update Jungle Deals & Steals and BundleoftheWeek.com while I was at it. {Because I’m nothing if not a glutton for punishment.}

And this weekend the big girls and I {and Jackson, of course} are attending a local mother-daughter workshop called Maidens by His Design about the way God designed their bodies and the stages of life that are coming.

Life is good!

Here are some of my favorite posts from this week. As always, check out what I’m reading and what I’m pinning to see the other posts that make me stop and think (or, you know, drool…). You’ll find new posts all week long!

{On Passing Our Faith On}

{Our Children}… Will we tell them? | Good Morning Girls


The Number One Sign Your Kids Are Just Borrowing Your Faith | Christian Mom Thoughts

{On Arguments & Conversations}

Anxiety, Opinions and Getting Off Our Social Media Soapboxes | The Happiest Home


The Absence of “Conversations” | Wisdom And Righteousness

{On Entitlement}

I Think We May Be Missing Something Very Important | We are THAT Family


Five Signs of Entitlement in Our Kids | Tim Elmore



On gift-giving and expectations | The Frugal Girl

Have a great weekend!

Mandi Ehman is the blogger behind Life Your Way. She and her husband have four beautiful girls plus one baby boy, and together they live, work and homeschool on a little slice of heaven in wild, wonderful West Virginia. Mandi loves coffee, chocolate, easy meals, beautiful things and minimalist spaces.

Weekend Reading: March 1, 2014

© 2010-2014 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved

     
CommentsThanks so much for the link, Mandi! And oh, your little guy ... by The Frugal GirlRelated StoriesWeekend Reading: February 8, 2014Weekend Reading: February 15, 2014

Free Printable Labels for Kids’ Clothing Bins!

The following post is from Jason & Jennifer Bruce of New Season Design :

Our daughter outgrows clothes so quickly. It seems that each season we try on last year’s size only to find that half of them don’t fit any more. While I’m thankful that she’s healthy and growing, I’m ending up with lots of plastic tubs full of her outgrown clothes. We pass them around to several friends and family members before they get donated, so I need a way to keep them organized.

We created these printable labels to help with organization. We use several sizes of plastic tubs (depending on what we have on-hand), so there are two different label sizes.

Simply print them, trim them to the size you want, and mark the size and season of clothing. Then slip them down into the ends of your clear storage tubs with the size information facing out. You can also tape them to the outside of the tub, covering them with clear plastic packing tape. This will keep them from falling off the tubs and give you a quick visual to help you find the size you’re looking for.

Click here to download or print the kids clothing storage labels.

P.S. See The Ultimate Guide for Rotating Seasonal Wardrobes for even more tips for this dreaded task!

How do you organize off-season and off-size clothing for your kids?

Jason & Jennifer Bruce are the husband-and-wife design team behind New Season Design, where they work together to help clients put their best foot forward online. Jason is a pastor-turned-graphic designer, and Jennifer is a teacher-turned-blog designer who also blogs at The Simple Pen about life, learning and the things she loves.

Free Printable Labels for Kids’ Clothing Bins!

© 2010-2014 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved

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Does Garbage Decompose? The Myth and What You Can Do About It

The following post is from Emily of Live Renewed:

source: Emily

Have you ever thought about what happens to your trash after the garbage truck hauls it off to the landfill? Not exactly a fun topic to dwell on right?!

I think we’re all pretty aware that our society produces A LOT of waste. We fill our garbage cans to the brim every week to be picked up and hauled off to the landfill. Out of sight out of mind, and most of it will decompose anyway, so it’s really not that big of deal, right?!

The answer is, unfortunately, no.

What really happens to garbage in the landfill?

A few years ago I attended a community event on getting started with composting. The speaker told us about a research project that excavated landfills, like one might excavate an archeological site, and the results were surprising.

Instead of disgusting, decomposing, rotting material, the team from the University of Arizona found trash that was 30-40 years old and still recognizable. In fact they used newspapers to date how long the trash had been in the landfill, because they were still legible!

The thing about our landfills these days is that they are built and designed not to leak toxins and chemicals into the surrounding ground and water. Of course, we wouldn’t want our garbage polluting our water supply!

Landfills are designed to isolate garbage from the environment. They are lined with a heavy duty plastic liner that keeps everything in and from leaking and covered with a daily layer of soil to keep out air and rain, as well as light from sun. But this design has the effect of keeping out the elements that are necessary for decomposition.

Because what does something need to biodegrade and break down into the environment? Light, air, and water. But none of those things are present inside a landfill. It is lined and covered and to keep all of those elements out.

So what does the garbage do? Hmmm, well, it just sits there of course.

In a landfill everything will look extremely similar to the way it looks when you throw it away. No rotting, no decomposing, no biodegrading, at least not at any noticeable rate. According to a New York Time article about the University of Arizona project, “There is biodegradation, but its pace is measured in centuries, not decades.”

So the argument of “Oh, I’ll just throw away this one paper towel, it’s no big deal, it will just biodegrade in the landfill,” is not really true.  No, it won’t biodegrade in the landfill, at least not for hundreds, maybe even thousands of years.

source: Lenteui

Reducing Our Waste

The average American produces 4.3 pounds of waste per day. PER DAY! That number mind-blowing when you start to think about how many people are in your family, live on your street, in your neighborhood and city; not to mention the whole country!

In other words, we produce an enormous amount of trash! And almost 55% percent of it ends up in the landfills where it will remain unchanged for generations. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Over 50% of the waste we throw away is made up of food scraps, yard trimmings and waste, and paper products, much of which is compostable, meaning it will easily break down when exposed to the right environmental factors. Setting up a backyard compost pile and tossing this waste into the compost, instead of the landfills, can greatly reduce the amount of garbage our families produce!

The good news is that it is very easy to set up a simple compost pile in your backyard and begin throwing your food scraps and other compostable materials into it. In fact, did you know that there are at least 21 things that you can toss into your compost instead of your trash?

You can compost things like cardboard rolls, coffee grounds and filters, hair and pet fur, and dryer and vacuum lint! And find the full list here, along with things you should never put into your compost.

So with spring right around the corner (hopefully) begin thinking about how you can easily set up a compost pile in your yard to reduce the waste your family sends to the landfills. The bonus is, of course, that if you also have a garden, you will have rich, organic soil that will help your plants to thrive!

Did you believe the myth that garbage decomposes in the landfill? Have you considered composting? What’s holding you back?

Emily McClements is passionate about living with compassion and caring for creation in a way that will impact the world. She is a blessed wife and mama to three young children, and blogs about her family’s journey toward natural and simple living at Live Renewed.

Does Garbage Decompose? The Myth and What You Can Do About It

© 2010-2014 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved

     

Zubie: The Ultimate Road Trip Accessory

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Zubie for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

Today I’m sharing my final thoughts about the Zubie as we start to think about our summer road trips…

Dylan, Jackson and I spent a week in Florida for Dylan’s 8th birthday and the Jacksonville Color Run, and we came back to the lingering effects of the polar vortex. Although we did get a few warm days last week, we’ve dropped back down to colder-than-normal temperatures, and I’m honestly ready to pack up my family and make the 19-hour drive to South Florida just for some more sunshine and heat!

Zubie is the ultimate road trip buddy! I’ve been using my Zubie key for the last 7 weeks and I love that it gives us the peace of mind of being able to see where the car is so that we don’t have to call one another or send texts while the other person is driving.

In fact, before the Nor’easter hit, I was actually considering hopping in the car with the two kids and driving to Florida because we knew our original flight was going to end up getting canceled. I know my husband would have appreciated being able to see where we were on the road during that long trip!

If road trips are the way your family explores the world as well, Zubie is a must-have travel accessory! Order today and SAVE 20% on your Zubie Key plus one year of service with code SAVE20FEB. Offer good through March 31, 2014. Shipping charges apply.

Like Zubie on Facebook and follow @GoZubie on Twitter for product news, discounts and more!

Zubie: The Ultimate Road Trip Accessory

© 2010-2014 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved

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6 Ways to Listen to Music Online (Without Spending a Dime)

The following post is from Lauren Rothlisberger of Get Me Geeky :

source: Stephane

Music is woven in our everyday life; it feeds the soul. It can set the tone of our entire household. Whether we are cleaning, doing quiet work, or prepping for a 35 person BBQ, the music lines the room with energy.

On February 7th it was 50th anniversary of the British invasion. The Beatles were on The Ed Sullivan show. I love the Beatles. Through my parents they (and many other bands) made a great impact on my music taste. I asked my Mom recently, “How did you discover new music when you were a teenager?”. She explained that they would all watch the Ed Sullivan Show and head down to their local record shop to buy the new records.

So with 50 years past, it got me thinking how much the music industry has changed. Really how much our access has changed. This is not news obviously. I started thinking about how I listen to music, and how my kids in turn are being exposed to it. Music used to be a narrow path controlled by the record companies and radio stations. Now we have the opportunity to blaze our on path through personal exploration.

Depending on the amount of control you want to have (or not have) you can use several of the site/apps below. These apps can help you discover new music or let you settle into one of your favorite old albums and reminisce about a different time and place.

Some of these you may already be familiar with, while others are not as common, but all offer some pretty awesome features.

iTunes

Ok, this is clearly not a new discovery unless you have been living under a rock. iTunes not only is a store to purchase music, and a tool to manage it all, but now it is also a way to listen to music without spending a dime. For that you can tap into iTunes radio.


iTunes comes with a couple other fun features. You can play your music through your TV using Apple TV. You can also share with anyone else on your network using “Home Sharing”. Any music purchased through iTunes have a digital right managed lock on it. This is an attempt to limit music pirating. Some people like to buy Amazon MP3s which are not locked and then import then into iTunes.

Pro: This is music you own.


Con: The iTunes 11 upgrade was not well received and continues to confuse users.

Pandora

Next up is Pandora. This was one of the first internet radio sites on the scene. I still have a special place in my heart for Pandora. You create a station based off a particular artist or genre. For example, I can put in “Mumford and Sons” or “Workout Pop”, and Pandora will play music based off that request. This is still a “go to” for me.

Pro: Good way to discover new music. When you put in an artist Pandora uses an algorithm to pick the next artists.


Con: The field of play can be narrow.

Songza

Songza is a event, mood, location based playlist. It doesn’t just create a list based of a certain artist, but instead tries to invoke a certain mood. Let’s say you sign onto Songza on a Saturday night. You will get options like “Dinner Party with Friends”, “Date Night”, or “Family Game Night”.

Pro: Great to use when you have friends over and want a more unique mixture of music.


Con: Sometimes it can go down a rabbit hole of stuff you don’t like or have never heard of.

8tracks.com

“Internet radio created by people, not algorithms.” That is their tagline. 8tracks is the mixtape of today. A pretty direct dig at Pandora, they are claiming their playlists are more genuine and real. Choose a theme or genre a discover playlists put together by real people.

Pro: It is nice to have people behind the project. It feels a little more real.


Con: Music is def a personal preference, so it depends on how much you have in common with the person behind the list.

Spotify

At first I didn’t “get” Spotify. I thought it was just another place to listen to playlists. It turns out Spotify is amazing. Unlike many other sites you can listen to an entire album. I realized awhile ago that one thing I missed about buying CDs with the full album is discovering those B side songs that were full of soul, but just not right for the radio.

Pro: It is easy to listen to newly released music, especially the whole album.


Con: You have to pay for the premium account to use it on the iPhone. It is free to use on your computer.

Grooveshark

Grooveshark is a little bit of everything above PLUS, you can broadcast your own music. If you are into discovering really new music, or you are a budding artist yourself this is the place to be. Also if you are set on becoming a part of the music industry check out Soundcloud.

Pro: What a great way to get yourself out there.


Con: With artists able to broadcast themselves, you could run into music you are not crazy about.

How about you? What is your favorite way to channel music into your life?

Lauren Rothlisberger blogs and consults over at Get Me Geeky. As a military wife and mom of three girls five years old and under, she loves focusing on technology and productivity and finding new ways to simplify her life. She recently started putting together MacMinis, which are easy to follow videos for Mac users, and also wrote an ebook, Evernote for Moms.

6 Ways to Listen to Music Online (Without Spending a Dime)

© 2010-2014 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved

     

Welcome to the Brand New Life Your Way!

Welcome to the brand new Life Your Way!

In a perfect world, everything would be perfect and shiny and, well, new here at the new site, but with 3,600 posts and more than 400 printables in the archives, it hasn’t been quite that easy.

You know how you feel right before guests arrive, as you frantically rush around cleaning and shoving random things in closets and empty bedrooms?

Well, that’s kind of what I’ve been doing this past week. There is so much I’d like to clean up in our archives, but I was really anxious to move things to the new site, so rather than waiting until every last detail is in place, we’re making the move today.

My hope is that I’ve done a good enough job that you won’t even notice any of the things I’ve shoved in closets, but if you do, please feel free to come leave me a comment here about it, just in case I don’t already know about it!

If you’re reading this in a feed reader or in email, you’ll want to click through and see the new site. It’s not only pretty (am I allowed to say that about my own site?!), but it’s easier to navigate and simpler, with plenty of breathing room and less clutter.

In addition, the site is now mobile responsive, which means it should be easy on the eyes on your mobile phone or tablet and load faster as well!

I have to admit that the printables section is my favorite new feature, although it’s also the one that’s been holding up this process. As it is, I still need to finish cleaning up the holiday printables, but you can now browse the rest of our printables with thumbnails of each one. I bet there are a few printables you never knew existed just because reading through a list of 400 printables titles is enough to give anyone a headache!

I’ve also moved all of our ebooks and courses to one place. So rather than having separate sites for Easy Homemade and the From Idea to eBook course, you’ll find them all in our Shop. And I hope to be adding new products throughout the year as well!

As I write this, the old site is still available. I want to be careful about the redirects so that most of the old links to our posts and printables will still work, so I’ll be doing that slowly throughout the week before we actually turn off the old site. But I think we can all agree that the new site is the place to be, and new posts will be going up here this week!

Thanks for bearing with me through this process, and I’m excited to move past the redesign process and start writing posts, making printables and creating ebooks and courses again. Here’s to all that 2014 holds!

Mandi Ehman is the blogger behind Life Your Way. She and her husband have four beautiful girls plus one baby boy, and together they live, work and homeschool on a little slice of heaven in wild, wonderful West Virginia. Mandi loves coffee, chocolate, easy meals, beautiful things and minimalist spaces.

Welcome to the Brand New Life Your Way!

© 2010-2014 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved

     

Giveaway: Plan to Eat 1-Year Membership (3 Winners!)

I’ve always been a meal planner, but for the first several years of our marriage, I wasn’t very good at it. I would inevitably forget an important ingredient for one of our planned meals or, worse yet, lose my scrap paper with the list of meals for the week and have no idea what to cook.

If you’re not familiar with Plan to Eat, it’s an online meal planner that lets you create a Recipe Book from your favorite recipes and those you want to try, build a Meal Plan from those recipes and then automatically generate a Shopping List.

Unlike a lot of other meal plan subscriptions, Plan to Eat doesn’t tell you what to eat. Instead, it lets you take your own recipes (which can be added to your recipe book in less than 30 seconds!) and plan your menu around those. Then click on the shopping list and  — voila — a list of all the ingredients you need for the recipes you’ve planned.

There is so much I love about Plan to Eat:

It holds all of our recipes — old favorites and new ones we want to try — for easy drag-and-drop menu planning.


The bulk meal planning tools let you copy, move or delete planned items in bulk so that you can move or repeat your meal plan.


The Plan to Eat bookmarklet makes it easy to import recipes from any website.


It automatically creates my shopping list so I don’t forget any of the ingredients I need for the meals I’ve planned.


I can access my recipes. meal plan and shopping list from my desktop, laptop, tablets or phone.


Plan to Eat makes sharing recipes with friends and family easy.


When you join the Life Your Way group on Plan to Eat, you’ll get access to more than 60,000 recipes from other members. Add the ones you want to try to your account with just one click!


They are constantly rolling out new features and it just keeps getting better!

Want to see what it’s all about? Sign up for a 30-day trial and give it a try!

Enter to Win

This week, Plan to Eat is giving THREE lucky Life Your Way readers a 1-year membership to the site!

To enter, fill out the form below:

The giveaway ends at 11:59 p.m. ET on Friday, 2/21. The winner will be selected randomly and notified by email, and this post will be updated with their name as well. Unfortunately, due to the international laws governing sweepstakes and lotteries, we’re only able to offer these giveaways to U.S. residents 18 years and older.

Giveaway: Plan to Eat 1-Year Membership (3 Winners!)

© 2010-2013 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved

Weekend Reading: February 15, 2014

source: Mandi Ehman

We were scheduled to fly to Florida on Thursday for this weekend’s Color Run (which should be starting just as this post goes live!), but as the week started, it quickly became apparent that we wouldn’t be flying out if we waited that long.

The Nor’easter that hit the East Coast ended up burying our area under more than two feet of snow, but we fortunately picked up cheap tickets on Tuesday, which had us rushing out of our house an hour after we made the decision so that we could catch our flight. It also gave us an extra two days in beautiful southern Florida while the rest of our family shivered in West Virginia, and we had so much fun celebrating Dylan during those days!

As we were traveling I couldn’t help but think about my word for the year and how leaving margin in my day/week/life makes it so much easier to be flexible. Because most of my posts were already scheduled for the week, I didn’t stress about having to get those done. That’s the kind of life I want to live – with plans and goals, of course, because I think there’s value in working hard – but with the freedom to go with the flow and embrace changes when they happen!

Here are some of my favorite posts from this week. As always, check out what I’m reading and what I’m pinning to see the other posts that make me stop and think (or, you know, drool…). You’ll find new posts all week long!

Family {Real-Life Learning}

In pursuit of a slow education | Simple Homeschool


14 Types of Play to Stimulate a Child’s Creativity (Instead of Dumbing it Down) | Keeper of the Home


How Our Kids Do Chores | Serving From Home

Life {Be a Better You}

The Incredible Importance of Sleep for Habits & Motivation | zenhabits


An analog note-taking system for the digital age | Bullet Journal


Become a Better Writer: RISK | Jess Connell

Olympics {Something to Think About}

Sochi’s Internal Refugees | The Daily Beast


Exposing the Real Issues in Sochi | Minivans Are Hot


#SochiProblems Is More of An Embarrassment For America Than It Is For Russia | Policy Mic

Have a great weekend!

Mandi Ehman is the blogger behind Life Your Way. She and her husband have four beautiful girls plus one baby boy on the way, and together, they live, work and homeschool on a little slice of heaven in wild, wonderful West Virginia. She loves coffee, chocolate, easy meals, beautiful things and minimalist spaces.

Weekend Reading: February 15, 2014

© 2010-2013 Purple Martin Press, LLC | All rights reserved

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