by Alaina | Dec 30, 2021 | Book Nook
Can you believe that a new year is just about here?! Ready or not, here it comes! My goal with this post is not to give you a bunch of books about how to chase big goals in the fastest, most efficient way possible, but rather to offer books that provide you with tools to help you create a life that you love while you are chasing them.
Take Back Your Time by Christy Wright
I have been a fan of Christy’s for a long time. She has a fabulous podcast (The Christy Wright Show) and this, her latest book, is a continuation of all the topics she frequently covers on her podcast. Christy’s book outlines how to manage your time, how to decide what is most important to you, and how to use that as a guide in deciding what you should or should not agree to say yes to. She also discusses that just because you may have the time to agree to something, doesn’t necessarily mean that you have the energy to agree to it.
Effortless by Greg McKeown
I was a fan of Greg’s first book, Essentialism, and his second book did not disappoint! In Effortless, Greg goes through how, even when you pare down and become an essentialist, there can still be so many energy-draining tasks that you have to do. In Effortless, he covers simple ways he has found to make these mundane but essential tasks more enjoyable. The mundane of life makes up a surprisingly large amount of our lives so let’s do what we can do make them, and in turn our lives, more enjoyable!
168 Hours by Laura Vanderkam
I have loved all of Laura’s books! 168 Hours is a compilation of lots and lots of research that Laura has done. She had many individuals track their time by keeping time logs and then used these time logs as the basis for this book. So often we tell ourselves that we simply don’t have time for the things we want to do in life, but what may actually be the case is that we don’t have time to do some of the things that we are actually doing, but not even aware that we are doing. After analyzing how many different people, in many different walks of life, spend their time, Laura then goes into creative ways of how to delegate some of the things that we are spending time on that we don’t need to. Did you know you can send your laundry out to be washed, dried, and folded for you?
The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer
Are you rushing around all the time, always in a hurry? In this book, John deeply delves into how rushing all the time is not only unhealthy, it is also unchristian. What effects are all the activities, commitments, and busyness having on our lives and on the relationships with those closest to us?
Atomic Habits by James Clear
Habits are what shape our lives; we all have them. I have a bedtime routine that helps me wind down for bed—my husband does not and has always struggled with falling asleep. Over this past year he has worked on developing an end-of-evening routine and has definitely seen improvement in his overall sleep. The point is habits play a bigger part in our lives than we often realize. For discussion on all-things-habits, with a focus on how to implement habits to change your life, give this book a try!
I hope this helps to inspire you for the new year! It’s always sad (at least for me) to see the holidays go, but we have a fresh new year stretching out before us. Let’s make the most of it—which may even mean not doing as much as we did in the past!
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Disclosure
Please remember that this post contains affiliate links; that means if you click on the link, I will make a small commission at no extra cost to you. It’s a way to support my blog! I will only ever share an affiliate link if I love the product and think that you just might love it too!
by Alaina | Dec 19, 2021 | Sunday Scripture
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.
Ecclesiastes 3:1 NIV
The leaves have all fallen here in Pennsylvania. The reds and oranges that burnt bright against the blue sky are now turning brown on the ground. The bright colors that blazed bright on the hillsides have now vanished and we have brown and gray where we once had yellows and reds.
I love fall but after fall comes winter. Don’t get me wrong, I like winter too, but it can be rather gray….especially when it is dragging on into March! The other thing about winter here, is that it is cold. I know it gets colder elsewhere but really who want to go for a walk or run outside when it is twenty degrees?!
I want to be out doing things, working various projects, and enjoying the sunshine- but winter is not a season to be outside working. Instead it is a season to rest. To dwell indoors and work on things inside. I marvel again at how the natural world is such a perfect mirror of the spiritual world.
There is a season for everything the Bible tells us, but in our 24/7 world we try to make all the seasons uniform when they were never intended to be. We want to push harder and make more happen, fill our days, our schedules, our homes, but why do we think this is normal? In nature the ground rests, the animals hibernate, and the colors fade into gray. Colorless. A blank space. We need that in our lives too. If God made the season for all of nature to rest why would we be exempt?
There are seasons of doing, of stepping out, of making things happen. There are also seasons for us to be introverted, to ask what God is doing on the inside of us, to ask Him to work inside of us. How many of us still follow the commandment to keep the Sabbath holy? I believe He intended for us to rest. But we don’t. He made a season devoted to it. What would our lives look like if we followed the tree’s example and focused on what’s inside, and invited God in to do some heavy duty work inside of us and took a season of rest?
Disclosure
Quick reminder that this post contains affiliate links; that means if you click on the link I will make a small commission at no extra cost to you- it’s a way to support my blog! I will only ever share an affiliate link if I love the product and think that you just might love it too!
Check out more Sunday Scriptures!
by Alaina | Dec 16, 2021 | Homemaking, Recipes
Peanut Brittle
While growing up, it never was officially Christmas until I went over to grandma and grandpa’s and found peanut brittle in grandma’s crystal trifle dish, which everyone in the family called the “Peanut Brittle Dish”. When the peanut brittle appeared in the dish and grandma hung her little decoupaged sand dollars on the china cabinets’ handles, we knew that Christmas had arrived!
Grandma wasn’t a big decorator for Christmas, but she’s always been a big baker of Christmas candy. One year she sent some peanut brittle with grandpa to his office when he was working. People loved her peanut brittle and he came home with orders. She ended up making 100 pounds of peanut brittle that year.
I learned how to make peanut brittle from her, or from the best as I like to say, and below I’m sharing our recipe. Be sure to the read the notes following the recipe instructions because the details are what make for a successful peanut-brittle making experience.
Peanut Brittle
2 cups white sugar
1 cup water
1 cup Karo
1 lb. raw peanuts (these can be the Spanish or Virginia peanut but smaller peanuts are better and they must be raw—not already roasted)
1-¼ tsp. of fresh baking soda
1 Tbsp. butter
Extra butter
A candy thermometer
Get Started
Prepare a large baking sheet by spreading it well with butter. You want the sheet to be pretty large so the peanut brittle can really spread out when you pour it and not have it get too thick. Pick a cool dry spot where you can set your peanut brittle to cool. Place a trivet there because you will be setting a very hot cookie sheet on it to cool.
In a medium or large sauce pan, bring the water, Karo, and sugar to a boil. Boil on medium high heat until the candy thermometer reached 275°*. Stir occasionally. Once it reaches 275°, add the butter and peanuts and start stirring constantly. The mixture will get very thick and hard to stir, but as it cooks it will thin out again. You really need to stir constantly and make sure that you are scraping all areas of the pan so that nothing burns.
Next comes the tricky part: as the thermometer start to reach 290°-295° quickly pull out the thermometer, remove the pan from the heat, pour in the baking soda, and quickly stir the peanut brittle—it will start to foam. As soon as it is foaming evenly throughout, pour onto the cookie sheet. You can gently push it out to the edges of the pan but you don’t want to crush too much of the foam—the foam is what makes it nice and crunchy!
Carefully pick up the cookie sheet and take to the spot you prepared to allow it to cool. It will need to cool for about 30-40 minutes depending on how cool and dry your spot is. Once it has cooled, gently twist the pan so the peanut brittle pops off in one large piece. Flip it over and, using a paper towel, wipe the butter from the back of the peanut brittle; then, with a metal spoon, whack the back of the peanut brittle and watch it crack into pieces. Continue doing this until you have gotten the pieces the size you want. Store in an airtight container and enjoy!
*This will take a while. I don’t recommend turning the heat up the whole way because you can burn the mixture. Allow it to take its time so it can thicken. This will take around 30-40 minutes depending on your stove.
When it comes to adding the baking soda, you want this to be a very quick process—as in seconds. As quickly as you can, remove the thermometer, remove the pan from the heat, add and stir the baking soda, taking no more than 30 seconds.
It is very important that you have a cool dry place to allow the peanut brittle to cool. If you don’t, it will get sticky and good luck trying to eat sticky peanut brittle! Also, once it has cooled, break into pieces and store immediately, again to avoid it from getting sticky.
Oreo Truffles
1 package of Oreo cookies
1 package of cream cheese (make sure you get the original kind)
1 bag of melting chocolate
Get Started
Crush Oreos in a food processor or put the Oreos in a plastic bag and crush with a rolling pin. You want the Oreos to be crushed into a medium/fine consistency.
Heat the cream cheese till dry soft.
Combine Oreos and cream cheese together. Using a spoon or cookie scoop, form into to small balls—about an inch in diameter, and place on a cookie sheet.
Chill the formed balls in the fridge for about 30-45 minutes or about 20 minutes in the freezer. You want the balls to be hard to the touch but you don’t want them to actually freeze.
While the balls are setting up, start to melt the chocolate in a melting pot or double boiler. You will want to stir constantly while the chocolate is melting. If you are using a fondue pot or melting pot, I recommend not keeping the heat on high after the point when the chocolate has just melted. If you keep it on high the entire time, your chocolate will most likely burn. What does burn chocolate look like? If the chocolate is melted but you are seeing clumps form that you cannot blend out, then your chocolate has burnt. It will still taste more or less ok if this is just beginning to happen, but not if it continues.
After the balls have set and the chocolate is melted, dip the balls into the chocolate and allow to cool on a wax-paper lined cookie sheet. If you want to add sprinkles or decorations to your truffles, do this right after placing them on the wax paper, before the chocolate has time to cool.
Allow the chocolate to set and cool entirely and once it has—enjoy!
Here are other posts from Essentially EmmaMarie:
Christmas Inspiration
Alternative Christmas Color Pallets
by Alaina | Dec 12, 2021 | Sunday Scripture
And going into the house they saw the child with Mary, his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.
Matthew 2:11
Ahh, Christmas! It is my favorite time of year! However, I notice that with this time of year we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to getting it right; the right decorations, the right Christmas outfit, the right gifts. But we really need to keep our focus right—on Jesus and not all the other distractions this season has to offer. And you know what? I find it really difficult to get things right some of the time let alone all of the time! Let me give you an example of what happened at the beginning of this season.
It is our tradition to go with our friends to pick out and cut a live Christmas tree. Every year we come home and put that tree in the front window where it looks really nice and can be seen from the road. However, we have a fireplace in our house and that is where we curl up and watch Christmas movies in front of the fire, but we cannot see our tree. So this year we decided to change that—we put up two trees. An artificial tree in the front window and the live one in the room with the fireplace. I had bought an unlit artificial tree because I wanted the flexibility to do either white or colored lights—plus it was A LOT cheaper than a pre-lit tree. The only problem with such an arrangement is that it necessitated that we also buy extra lights, ornaments, etc.
A week before I planned to decorate the artificial tree, I asked my husband to pick up white lights the next time he was at the store. Being the sweet guy that he is, he willingly did so. Unbeknownst to him, he grabbed white lights that were on a white wire which would not look good against the green tree. Off to the store we went but when we got there they only had LED white lights. I figured if that was all they had, those lights would be just fine, so we bought two boxes. When I plugged them in though, they were blindingly bright—as in we should place a sign warning of bright lights at the crest of the hill by our house. So we decided yet again to return these lights and go to a different store to get warm white lights. A few days later my husband picked up two boxes of the correct lights.
In the meantime, I pulled out the lights that we had used the year before for the real tree—a strand of those white lights had decided to stop working. So I added one more box of lights to my shopping list. Finally, armed with lights, I started to put them on the artificial tree, only to find out that it took many more lights than our real trees ever had and we were going to need yet one more box of lights.
If it felt at all painful to hear about the countless trips to the store, then you can only imagine how painful it was to make all these trips to the store to finally get our trees decorated! And that’s just the Christmas tree! I’m not even mentioning the gift giving and second guessing. Then there was the year I was happily distributing my homemade peanut brittle to friends and family only to realize that my candy thermometer had broken and there was quite possibly glass shards in all the peanut brittle I had been giving out!
Sometimes never getting it right is enough to make me want to throw in the towel—to not even try and to just say forget it! But, then I think about the wise men . . . they headed to Jerusalem, only to find out when they got there, that they needed to go to Bethlehem, so they headed to Bethlehem—not knowing exactly where to find the child, but they had faith and went. They took gifts that they were giving sincerely. And they left the rest up to God.
I think there is a lot we can learn from these wise men, especially if you happen to be a, well, micromanager as I have been accused of being on occasion! Rather than worrying about things that are out of our control, let’s just try to remember to bring our best to God, and to others, and then just let the rest of the worries go.
For more reading, Click Here For Previous Sunday Scriptures!
Disclosure
Please remember that this post contains affiliate links; that means if you click on the link, I will make a small commission at no extra cost to you. It’s a way to support my blog! I will only ever share an affiliate link if I love the product and think that you just might love it too!
by Alaina | Dec 10, 2021 | Grace Notes
“And the soul felt its worth
oh fall on your knees,
oh hear, the angels voices” …
I think some of the most beautiful lyrics of all time are contained in some of the old carols we sing to this day. In our rote recitation of the lines we often glance right over the beauty and weight these words hold.
“A thrill of hope
a weary world rejoices
for yonder breaks
a new and glorious morn.”
How beautiful are these words? Have you ever stopped to truly listen and ponder the words of these songs? My guess is you may have given them a moment of thought at one point, before being distracted or rushing off to another task. The Christmas season is filled with to-do lists, parties, commitments, shopping and traditions to uphold. It may not only be the most wonderful time of the year—but also the busiest! This is a season from which we all feel that we need downtime afterwards in order to recover from the busyness of the season. Some people even dislike the season because of all the busyness—the decorating, the shopping… . Christmas doesn’t have to be like this though—it can be a time in which we slow down and do the things that truly bring us joy and leave us feeling recharged at the end instead of depleted but you will need to make a conscious effort to do so.
Into which group do you fall? Do you ever stop? Do you ever get still? Do you ever carve out time for the activities that mean the most to you? Do you ever let your “soul feel its worth”?
I have seen people rush from activity to activity, from party to party, and then at the end of it all say, “But I really wanted to do (fill in the blank) and I never got to this year.” This is a tragedy. I used to fill our calendar with every last Christmas activity so that all the gaps were filled, until I noticed that we weren’t getting enough of the things we really love during this season. Not enough time curled up watching Christmas movies. Not enough time enjoying wrapping gifts while listening to Christmas music. Not enough time playing games in front of the fire. We were getting all the big things in but hardly any time to enjoy the still, quiet times.
The parties are great. I love all the Christmas things, but you know what? It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter if you run out of time to do all the things your wanted to do. It doesn’t matter if you can’t find the perfect gift for someone. It doesn’t matter if your wrapping coordinates with your Christmas decor. What matters is if you slow down enough to keep Christmas in your heart. Because even if you have the best decorated house, the most thoughtful gifts, and attend every festivity that you possibly can, it won’t matter if you are so rushed that you hate every minute of it. This is especially true if you are a wife and mother. No one will remember what gift they did or didn’t get that one Christmas, but they will remember if you were crabby and irritable through every activity.
You do have the power to put on the brakes. You do have control over what kind of Christmas you have this year. You have the power to slow down just enough to let the season soak in. You have the power to do the things that nourish your soul, that make it come alive, that allows your “soul to feel its worth”.
This Christmas will come and go, another year will end, another will arrive. Time will keep its frenetic pace. But will you notice any of it? Will you get more than one day to enjoy the season? I hope that you do. I hope that this Christmas will work as a Sabbath for you; that it will be a time when you slow down enough to focus on what matters most as we head into the new year, and that you will feel rested and not depleted from the holiday season. Let’s re-examine our priorities and focus on what matters most to us in the year ahead.
