Fantabulous Round-Up of Hacks and Helps for Mums

And Cultivate Love Update #3

Summer’s begun. We move home and country in four weeks time. I have boxes and bags everywhere. I don’t feel particularly inspired to write!

So, I thought I’d just share some favourite, and some newly discovered, hacks and helps for mums!

(Plus, a short Cultivate Love Update #3….keep reading!)

This post contains affiliate links, meaning that if you click through and make a purchase, I may earn a commission. I only recommend products I personally use and enjoy. Thanks for your support 🙂

 

Here we go….

 

$5 Meal Plan

I discovered the $5 Meal Plan this month. It’s a great idea! You pay $5 (about £3.40) a month, and each week you receive a meal plan which includes a menu, recipes, and shopping list for 5 dinners, 1 lunch, 1 breakfast, and 1 dessert or snack.

Imagine that! No meal planning, ready-made shopping lists, and new recipes to try out.

Each meal is created to cost less than $2 (£1.40) a person. Erin, the creator of the $5 Meal Plan, and Christian mum to four boys, actually makes these meals for her family of six for $5 (£3.40) a meal, total.

I’ve signed up for the $5 Meal Plan two-week free trial. I haven’t used the plans yet as we’re about to move house, but several things I already love:

• The recipes use simple everyday ingredients. I thought they might be too American for a Brit, and use different ingredients. But no! These are recipes I can make!

• There is a library of bonus printables which include make-your-own-recipes for some of the spice mixes that may not be so familiar in the UK, like Cajun seasoning, taco mix and ranch dressing.

• There is the option to sign up for a gluten-free version.

• They sent me two email reminders to cancel my free trial before I was charged. Wow! Big respect. Don’t you hate it when you sign up for a free trial, forget to cancel, and then get charged?

Well, I’m staying signed up for now. I’m really excited about using the $5 Meal Plan. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Find out more about the $5 Meal Plan, and try it for free here.

 

From Around the Web

These are posts/talks I’ve enjoyed recently from other mum/mom bloggers. Go give them some love. (Mum bloggers need lots of encouragement!):

My Favorite Way to Encourage My Children by Lee at Like Minded Musings. I love the idea of bedtime notes in this post!

Does Jesus Love Tuna? (And Why It’s Theologically Important) by Jennie at Laundry in The Temple. This post gives such insight into Jesus’ love for our kids, and moves me to tears. Great title too!

The Best is Yet to Come by Emma at Faith Food Family (scroll down the page to find this talk). This is the best talk I’ve ever heard on Jesus changing the water into wine. A little of what Emma shares (paraphrased): ‘You are so precious to Jesus. He’s preparing the best wine for you right now. It will bring surprise and joy. He can make something beautiful and extraordinary out of the ordinary (and out of disaster). He can make something out of nothing…’

 

I Love Books!

I didn’t read much when I had young kids, but have recently got back into devouring books! Two sites I’ve discovered just this week for free/discounted ebooks (maybe I’m a little behind the times) are

• BookBub – sign up for genres you enjoy, and get sent a daily email with free/discounted books available from Amazon, Apple, Google and Kobo (I’ve already downloaded too many!)

• Noise Trade Books – totally free ebooks from well-known and new authors in exchange for your email address (gives authors the chance to connect with you and share future books/promotions). Lots of Christian books on here. You can tip the author if you want, or read for free.

If you love to read but don’t have time, then check out the Make Over Your Mornings Course or Make Over Your Evenings Course by Christian mum, Crystal Paine. She shares great actionable advice to help you prioritise your time, and make room for you, and the things you love. (Important for every mum!)

 

Any Blogger/Business Mums Out There?

Or thinking-about-it-blogger-business-mums?

(If not,  just skip this!)

A couple of resources I recently bought and recommend, both by Christian mums:

Can you guess…I love supporting other Christian mums 🙂

Blog By Number: Every Busy Mom’s Ultimate Guide to Starting a Blog This book is exactly what it says: simple ‘paint-by-number’ blogging advice, including templates for blog posts, titles and images; checklists and resources like an editorial calendar, vision/goals sheets, and 50+ recommended mum FB/Pinterest groups to join. This book would have saved me hours when I was starting out, and is still super-helpful to me today.

Strategies Worth Sharing: How I Grew My Facebook Page From 2,000 to 100,000 in Five Months Wow! This book is packed with actionable advice, and great real-life stories. I’ve read it, just need to start implementing! Let’s see what happens to my 200+ Facebook page likes!

 

And, if you’re still with me…

Well done!

Here’s a very brief…

Cultivate Love Update #3

The Cultivate Love Challenge continues. Over 400 of you have signed up to be involved. Wow! Thank you!

How’s it going?

We’ve had a ‘quieter’ month. I mean quieter in the sense of not being so intentional in using The Cultivate Love Challenge! Busy in every other sense, preparing to move country.

We took our last two kids out for their parent date (scroll down this post to find out what a parent date is), and I’ve continued praying for my husband (though more sporadically) using the free ecourse Enjoy 7 Days of Praying for Your Husband.

My teens have been in exam season, and I decided the best way to love them this month was to ignore the state of their bedrooms, and cook lots of nice food for them, like chocolate fudge pudding and homemade pizza. So that’s what I did! I even cleaned their rooms for them.

Looking ahead: I imagine we will be spending lots of family time together as we continue packing up, moving, and sorting out a new home. I’m looking forward to some family-bonding as we make our new house a home – decorating, DIY and gardening!

(Side note: We don’t actually have a new home yet. We move from Turkey to UK in four weeks time, and are still looking. God won’t leave us on the street! You can add your prayers to ours!)

 

Thank you for reading this far!

I’d love to hear from you. Which resources in this post are useful to you? What other mum resources do you recommend? How have you been loving your family this month? Leave a comment below.

And do share this post with your friends, using the sharing buttons below. It encourages me! Thanks. 🙂

Have a great day!

Joanna xx

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This post is linked up with Literacy Musing Mondays, Booknificent, Monday of Many Blessings,  and Cozy Reading Spot.