Claiming Simplicity | Natural Living, Simplify Life, Cooking from Scratch, Homestead, Gardening By cover art

Claiming Simplicity | Natural Living, Simplify Life, Cooking from Scratch, Homestead, Gardening

By: Monica H Baker - Simple Living Expert Beginner Homesteading Strategist Coach for Busy Moms
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  • Summary

  • ***TOP 1.5 % Podcast*** Are you a busy wife and mom who wants more time for what matters most, but you have no idea where to start simplifying your life? Do you wish you could nourish your family with healthy homemade food but are too overwhelmed and end up going through the drive thru......again? Are you concerned about the toxins in your home and food but don’t know how to find simple, natural options to support your family’s health? I am so excited you are here! This podcast will teach you how to live a simpler life, make your own natural products, simple ways to garden, cook from scratch, and preserve your food to save money and reduce the items you have to buy at the store to become more self-reliant. Hey, I’m Monica, I’m a wife, mom of 5 kids, grandma, nurse and daughter of the King! I was overwhelmed with my full schedule and knew I wanted to create more time for my family by simplifying my life. I started small by swapping toxic products for more natural ones, cooking simple healthy meals from scratch, and creating modern homesteading systems without the stress and overwhelm! And I can’t wait to share what I’ve learned with you! So grab that cup of tea, get cozy on the porch swing…..and let’s chat! Website: Claimingsimplicity.com Join our Community of Christian Moms https://www.facebook.com/groups/claimingsimplicity/ Email -＞ monica@claimingsimplicity.com Instagram -＞ https://www.instagram.com/claimingsimplicity/
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Episodes
  • EP 175 // Getting Creative with Your Simple Meals to Save Money on Groceries as the Grocery Prices Rise

    EP 175 // Getting Creative with Your Simple Meals to Save Money on Groceries as the Grocery Prices Rise
    Apr 29 2024

    Hey Friend!

    I still can’t believe how much prices have increased at the grocery store and I am extremely thankful we grow and raise as much food as possible, so we don’t have to spend much at the store, but there are always items you can’t grow in your location, so we do rely on the store a little and azure standard for our bulk items. I might notice it more as I don’t have to buy items very often and am still not used to it! If you are tight on money, start cleaning out your cupboards. No matter what, it is just a good practice to do so you don’t let any food go to waste. If you are like me, we do end up having a few random items expire and I don’t like to waste anything, so make sure to look at dates. This would be your freezer foods and canned foods.

    As we were looking at the amount of hamburger and venison burger we had in the freezer, we realized that we wanted to save that because we are running low and we have 2 freezers full of pork now, so we have been trying different recipes that we typically use hamburger or venison for and replacing that with pork. Since we are now raising our own pork along with our chicken, we have an abundance. I just put a roast with potatoes, carrots and bone broth I took out from the freezer into the crockpot. This is such a simple meal as it sits on low all day and falls apart and tender

    when it is ready to eat in the evening.

    We are really trying to use as much as we can from our canned goods and freezers to use them up before the new gardening season starts to produce, so when you plan your meals every week, you want to look at what you have on hand and what you can make with those items and then your grocery list is usually quite short.

    I took ground pork and added some ketchup, mustard and brown sugar for sloppy joes and my husband enjoyed that as much as beef, so that was good. I made up about 8 pounds and then froze several portions, so he always has a variety each week for his work lunches with different meals.

    We also made taco meat with the ground pork along with tacos bowls. This is such a great way to have something in the fridge at all times for a quick meal. I just keep bowls of rice, corn, black beans that I soaked, and then add cheese, salsa, sour cream or any other items you like on your taco bowls. If you don’t want to have bowls, this can easily be made into burritos as well. This is one of my favorite meals actually-chipotle at home!

    When you are using items you already have at home, you will save alot of money. Don’t let your food go to waste and just buy what you need. As always, remember to keep it simple! You can make several nourishing and nutrient dense meals in a short amount of time.

    Have a blessed week friend

    ~Monica

    Website and Waitlist:

    Claimingsimplicity.com

    Simple Homesteading for Christians->

    https://www.facebook.com/groups/claimingsimplicity/

    Email -> monica@claimingsimplicity.com

    Instagram -> https://www.instagram.com/claimingsimplicity/

    Pinterest -> https://www.pinterest.com/claimingsimplicity/

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    8 mins
  • EP 174 // Simplify Your Gardening Plans This Year with These 3 Strategies for Less Stress When Growing Your Own Food

    EP 174 // Simplify Your Gardening Plans This Year with These 3 Strategies for Less Stress When Growing Your Own Food
    Mar 28 2024
    Happy Holy Week! I didn’t grow up gardening and so I don’t even know how to do a normal garden! I started my gardening journey by tilling up an area of our yard-well, my husband tilled it for us and then we just planted seeds and plants. This kinda worked and we got some produce from it, but I could never keep the weeds under control as we have full lives and a cabin we would go to every week and family camp for 10 days over the 4th of July. I had to make some changes or I wouldn’t garden at all. I had to keep it simple or I would be overwhelmed and would quit gardening. Everything I do, I tweak into simple systems and this goes for gardening too~it has to be simple for me because our lives are very full! I don’t like to spend alot of time in the kitchen cooking and I don’t like to spend alot of time in the garden weeding either~I have grandkids to enjoy!!!!!! If you live in the city, apartment, or are a suburban homesteader, you can plant your garden in pots or raised beds in a small area and just start out with a few items that you eat often just to learn how to garden. You can always add more and this will keep you from getting stressed out and overwhelmed with gardening. If you are having trouble with growing food, one of the first suggestions I would say is to get your soil tested. We had very sandy soil, so we had to add alot to ours for it to grow better. I actually started vermicomposting several years ago as well and that has been so much help for our garden. Vermicomposting is something you can do in a suburban area, city or apartment as it doesn’t take up much space. Let me know if you want more information on it, but listen to episode 32 to start with!!!! It is so simple and important for your garden! I’m going to order more worms and expand as I have a much larger garden space at our new home. My 2nd tip is if you want to keep critters away, we sprinkle blood meal around our garden and a small amount around our plants and nothing goes near them. I do this also for my flowers that the chickens might attempt to eat. I actually now have my flower beds away from the chickens, but this also keeps the deer and rabbits away which is nice because they used to eat all my hostas and other plants just as they were coming up from the ground! I used to make a natural deer and rabbit spray with eggs and spices, but every time it rained I had to reapply and the animals seems to beat me to the plants, so the blood meal has been nice as I only usually have to spread it a couple times all year and you use such a little amount. And lastly, this year I am going to try the no dig garden as it is supposed to be much better for the plants so I don’t know if I am going to need to do this or not, but in the past, we got smart with the weeds and layed out fabric and burnt holes in it to plant seeds or plants and we rarely had to weed. This worked amazingly for us and our garden was very plentiful. I posted a video of our garden in our facebook group if you want to see what it looked like. We would have a few weeds here and there, but most of it was covered so the weeds couldn’t get through. If you want to see these videos and be a part of our community, the link will be below! And here is a bonus tip if you are able to do this. Set up an automatic watering system. Our last home was on the river, so we drilled in water lines to the garden and then had hose to each plant and had it on a timer, so I never had to worry about the garden getting watered if we were away for an extended period of time and this was a life changer~especially during the summers when we got very little rain. I’m not sure how exactly my husband is planning on setting this up at our new home, but he probably has a plan as we have a hydrant close to one of the large gardens and he will most likely drill another line into the other one to keep everything running smoothly and without alot of hands on work. It does take time to set up simple systems, but once they are set up, it all runs systematically and is much less work! I would love to know any simple tips to help keep your garden abundant and stress free!!!!!! Send me an email or join our community at the link below and let me know! Website and Waitlist: Claimingsimplicity.com Simple Homesteading for Christians-> https://www.facebook.com/groups/claimingsimplicity/ Email -> monica@claimingsimplicity.com Instagram -> https://www.instagram.com/claimingsimplicity/ Pinterest -> https://www.pinterest.com/claimingsimplicity/ Pinterest -> https://pin.it/4ulAVwr You Tube -> https://www.youtube.com/@claimingsimplicity/ Happy Easter!!!!! Monica
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    7 mins
  • EP 173 // 3 Steps to Stop Feeling Overwhelmed With All the Homesteading Things You Want to Do so You Can Have Less Stress, Enjoy the Journey, & Simplify Your Life

    EP 173 // 3 Steps to Stop Feeling Overwhelmed With All the Homesteading Things You Want to Do so You Can Have Less Stress, Enjoy the Journey, & Simplify Your Life
    Mar 25 2024
    Hello I know you want to be doing all the homesteading things you see on instagram and social media, but the truth is, you are going to get burnt out trying to do it all. I want you to stop and think about what is important in your life. I know that when my kids were young, there is no way that I would’ve been able to do all the things that I do now that I have teenagers that are able to help out and are also independent and that makesa big difference. Littles need so much from you, so enjoy them while you can-they grow way too quick. I am so excited to be creating a program for you so you can learn how to do some of the homesteading skills you want to learn without feeling overwhelmed and stressed out. I want this to be a sustainable lifestyle for you! Join the waitlist at the link below so you get first dibs on the discounts I will offer to email subscribers only!!!! Everything I teach is simple and whether you work full time or are a busy full time Mom, you will be able to learn step by step just how simple it is! First, you need to take an inventory of where you are spending your time. It may be shocking to you where you may be wasting time. I really encourage you to track this for a week or two. If you don’t pay attention, days, weeks, months, and then years are just going to pass you by and you are going to say…..I wish I would have done this or that and you can’t get that time back. Next, if you want to stop feeling overwhelmed, you need to just focus on one thing first and then build on that. You only take on what you feel is simple and doesn’t cause you stress. If you are getting frustrated making sourdough bread, then just make some homemade bread with yeast~you friend, don’t have to do what everyone else is doing. Just by taking that one step, you will improve your family’s health by so much. Once you are in a routine of that every week or every month, then add one more simple skill. Maybe you decide to make all your own hand soap~remember, it is just as important to change the ingredients you are using on your skin as the food you are eating. It doesn’t make sense to eat healthy if you putting toxins on the largest organ of your body, you have to think about natural living as a whole. If you changing everything right away, you are most likely to fail, so little by little~there is no hurry. Lastly, build your community of like minded people. If you don’t have any people around you, then find your people online. Living in a small town of 500 people, I understand this completely! Trying to explain to people that you are a podcaster or have an online business is foreign to them and they can’t fathom making money without going to a physical job to trade hours for dollars. As nice as it is to live in the middle of nowhere, it is so beneficial to have a tribe with similar values online too! We are really grateful to be surrounded by a community of homesteaders that we hang out with often, but sometimes it is hard to find your people locally! You need to find your people and you will feel less overwhelmed when you can really find people you resonate with. Even online, I make sure that if I am watching or following someone, they are aligned with my values and my Christian faith. I just heard someone recently say that they thought they hung out with all Christians until they became one and then they realized all the ones that they thought were Christians really are not! I could relate to this so much. I remember someone telling me years ago that just be a good person and you will go to heaven. That is not correct at all!! You have to have to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior-it doesn’t matter what you have done, Jesus loves us all and He wants to have a relationship with you! If you have any questions about this, please email me! I would love to chat. Love ya! Monica Website and Waitlist: Claimingsimplicity.com Simple Homesteading for Christians-> https://www.facebook.com/groups/claimingsimplicity/ Email -> monica@claimingsimplicity.com Instagram -> https://www.instagram.com/claimingsimplicity/ Pinterest -> https://www.pinterest.com/claimingsimplicity/ y/Pinterest -> https://pin.it/4ulAVwr You Tube -> https://www.youtube.com/@claimingsimplicity/ Oils -> my.doterra.com/monicabaker/ Doterra -> https://referral.doterra.me/12623979 Tower Garden -> http://monicabaker.towergarden.com DIY Cleaners ->https://claiming-simplicity.ck.page/best-diy-cleaner
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    9 mins
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Profile Image for Fergmeister

Exactly what the title says-Simple.

It’s nice to find someone who has the same mindset as you. While listening, I recognize it right away. Running a busy life, I’m always looking to simplify in all areas. The author is real and understanding. If your like me, this isn’t the first thing you’ve come across, however it’s Worth a listen. It really narrates everything I’m thinking.

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