Alaina, Author at Essentially EmmaMarie

Listening Well

by Alaina | Feb 14, 2021 | Sunday Scripture

So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. Matthew 7:12 NIV

I was talking to my mom in my car on the way home a few days ago, don’t worry I was wearing my wireless headset so I could talk safely, my mother was just responding to something I said and I could tell she was on a roll when- dead zone! I completely lost service and didn’t hear a word she said.

When I got a signal back I called her again and she answered saying, “I thought to myself, ‘Wow I must really be making a good point she hasn’t interrupted yet!’ ” “I don’t interrupt that much, do I!?” I said interrupting again. “Well no, you just like to join in on what people are saying,” Mom said cutting me a little slack.

That conversation got me thinking… I had been aware that I am not always the best listener, and this was something I had determined to work on, and be more aware of this year, but man, do I really do it all the time?? I attended a workshop once where the speaker said a statement, “People will say the most important thing right before they are done speaking.” How often do I miss that?

In my eagerness to jump in and show that I am listening I often cut people off, interrupting and by default showing that what I have to say is more important than what they have to say.

Christ gave us the command to “Love one another, ” and to “Do unto others as we would have them do unto us.” One of the best ways to love others is to listen and listen well to them. Sure what I have to say may be important but so is what they have to say- and regardless isn’t it more important to show love to them than to show them how smart we think we are?

With God’s help and by His grace I will work to become a better listener, this will be a focus for me this new year- what about you? Is there an area of your life in which you know you can improve but have been trying to ignore? Why not ask God to help you transform this area of your life this year? There’s no time like the present to do so!

Want more Sunday Scripture?

A Valentine’s Day Story

by Alaina | Feb 13, 2021 | Grace Notes

Valentine’s Day is upon us, what do you do for Valentine’s Day? Do you buy chocolate? Go out to eat at a fancy restaurant? Take the opportunity to write little love notes to family members who are close to you? Do you take a moment to remember what this day is about? Do you even know?

Valentine’s Day drops in the middle of winter, a bright splash of red against a gray pallet that is winter. It’s fun to set aside a day to do something special with those we love, most of us regard Valentine’s Day as a rather fluffy holiday with very little substance, apart from expressing how much we love the people in our lives. Valentine’s Day is in fact though, a holiday with some very deep roots.

St Valentine was a priest in Rome in the third century when Rome was under the rule of Emperor Claudius II, or Claudius the Cruel as he was also known. Claudius was working hard to expand his kingdom; which of course took many battles, which then included bloodshed, which resulted in the need for more men to leave their homes and come fight at the front.

Understandably many of the men did not want to leave their families which would have little means of making an income and providing for themselves if they were to die, and it became difficult to recruit more men to fight. Claudius decided that if families were the reason he was having a hard time recruiting men then he must simply end the family unit, which he did by outlawing marriage.

St Valentine refused to follow this order knowing that if you destroyed the family, an institution ordained by God, you would also destroy the whole of society. So risking his life Valentine continued to hold marriage ceremonies in secret, and to convert people to Christianity. Eventually he was discovered and was thrown in prison where, legend has it, he befriended the jailer’s daughter, who was tasked with delivering meals to the prisoners. The fateful day finally came on which Valentine was to be beheaded, and he left a last note bidding farewell to the jailer’s daughter, signing the note, “Your Valentine,” and thenceforth immortalizing himself.

St Valentine was probably not the only priest to disobey the orders. Indeed there are records of at least two other Valentines who were also martyred for holding fast to their beliefs. These people sacrificed their lives to protect marriage and the family.

This Valentine’s Day I hope you get to spend time with your loved ones, but I hope too that you will pause amidst your activities and remember the sacrifice that our ancestors made. It is something worth remembering.

Want more from Essentially EmmaMarie? Go to Grace Notes for similar posts!

Enough

by Alaina | Feb 8, 2021 | Sunday Scripture

And my God will supply every need of yours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:19 ESV

Enough. We just came through a year in which I felt there was never enough. I operated most of my days in a panicked rush, hurrying to do, get and be enough. There was seemingly never enough time. Not enough money. Not enough sleep. Not enough time spent with friends and family. Never enough. I didn’t set out to live this way intentionally but by default it happened. There is always a default that takes over when we are not intentional. So I lived in lack, a self fulfilling mindset that there wasn’t enough of anything, so of course there wasn’t.

The funny thing is that when I got to the end of the year and looked back I realized that there had always been enough. Just enough sometimes, but enough nonetheless. Just enough time to force me to prioritize what really mattered. Enough money to cover the unexpected expense. There was still precious time spent making memories with family. There was enough.

After looking over my previous year I made a conscious decision. I would not live at that frenetic pace, in that scarcity mindset this year. I would choose to believe that there is enough. That’s what God promises too.

He doesn’t promise that there will always be plenty. He promises that there will be enough, that He will supply our needs. Because He is enough. There is an old Hymn that we always sang in the Church I grew up in called, “My God is Enough.” The song goes on to say about how He’s never been known to fail, that His powers still prevail. I choose to believe that. I choose to believe that even if there isn’t enough of something that everything will be ok because He is still in control and what more do I possibly need than the Creator of the whole world telling me that it will all be ok, that He is enough.

How I Meal Plan and Basically Eliminate Cooking During the Week

by Alaina | Feb 5, 2021 | Homemaking, Recipes

I run a very tight schedule- I’m sure you do too. In this fast paced world it is so very hard to balance what needs doing, what should be done, and what we actually want to do! My schedule during the week leaves me with very little time in the evening,(I typically leave my house at 6 or 6:30 am and don’t get home till 7 or 8pm), and therefore makes thorough planning essential. This is my plan for how I approach meal prep for a week so I can cook basically only once a week.

Now I should mention that in my house at this time it is just my husband and me, and we have an agreement- I cook, he cleans. This means I almost never do dishes- my husband would go so far as to argue that I never do them- he may be right! But one thing I do all the time is the cooking. We don’t go out to eat very often, and because I can be quite frugal in certain areas of my life,(ahem, cheap), I have never used any meal prep services. Instead I do my own meal prepping. I want to spend as little as possible on good food that is reasonably healthy, spend as little time possible preparing it, have it taste great and not get bored. At heart I am a foodie who loves flavorful food, so I’m really not about having a baked to death pot roast every night. Or ever. I hate pot roast. But I digress.

For breakfast I typically have a protein smoothie which takes literally a minute to prepare. My husband does intermittent fasting and skips breakfast. (For more on my proteins smoothies and how I came to eat them everyday check out Kelly Levesque and her two books, Body Love, and Body Love Everyday.) For Lunch I have a salad bowl and dinner is something that I have either prepared in to crockpot or something that takes hardly any time to assemble.

Now because of my frugality I do my meal prepping one of two ways:

I select a base meal, for example: I buy a whole chicken at the store. Cook it in the crockpot on Monday, and serve it with a side. A sample week could look like this:

Monday: Chicken and a Salad.

Tuesday:Chicken Enchiladas

Wednesday: Chicken Alfredo Pasta with Steamed Veggies

Thursday: Leftover Chicken Enchiladas

Friday: Chicken Curry and Rice

Saturday: Chicken Tortilla Pizzas

Sunday:Improvision day!

By the time we get to Sunday we are usually done with our main dish so I make something that I always have on hand that can be easily whipped up, like spaghetti and meatballs.

2) The second way I like to do cost effective meal prep is similar to the first but instead of selecting a base meal, I have base ingredients that I reuse in various ways during the week. For example:

Monday:Vegtable Mexican Soup

Tuesday: Veggie Fish Bake,(lay the fish on a bed of lever over veggies and bake)

Wednesday: Vegtable Soup leftovers

Thursday:Spicy beef and rice

Friday: BBQ Beef Wraps and Salad

Saturday:Beef Stir Fry over Noodles

Sunday: Improvision Day!

For a week like this I would prep the soup ahead of time to be cooked in the crockpot. Then I would prep the beef for the crockpot or cook utilizing another method. Lastly I could chop any veggies ahead of time, leaving only fish, rice and noodles to be cooked during the week.

That is typically how our week goes, I find that for the 2 of us we typically get 2-3 meals out of any large casserole or crockpot meal, that means I only have to prep 2 or 3 large meals, and then have a few extra ingredients on hand for meals that are quick to throw together and we’re set!

Now let me back up to discuss the meal prep itself. The first step is to write out your menu for the week. But listen! It only takes a few minutes, for me it usually takes about 15 minutes. I come up with a “category,” if you will, that I want to eat that week; chicken in the first example, or beef in the second. I look in the fridge to see if I have extra of an ingredient to use up, a bag of spinach, or tomatoes, and take my findings into account and try to find a receipie that will use it up. I then come up with or search for a recipies using may main ingreient,(typically on Pinterest), and then let whatever sounds good guide my choices, (I like to meal plan right before a meal because then I’m hungry and its easy to find recipes that sound good!

I do my grocery shopping and then will spend approximately 1-2 hours prepping at some point that weekend, for me Saturday evenings or Sunday early in the afternoon are usually the best times. I start cooking everything that needs to be cooked ahead of time, while a meat cooks I will start slicing and dicing. Then I assemble ingredients for any casseroles or my crockpot. I also prep my lunch bowls at this time. I would say after doing this prep I usually spend less than an hour during the week cooking.

I hope this helps make your cooking life a little bit simpler! What are your meal prep tips and tricks?

How to Get Started Organizing Your Home

by Alaina | Feb 2, 2021 | Cleaning, Decorating, Homemaking

I have mixed feelings about the beginning of the year, part of me is so excited by the prospect of a new year and all the possibilities it holds and the other part is still in mourning because I’m so depressed that the holidays are over! It takes me a while to acknowledge that Christmas is over and I have almost a whole year to go before it comes again. I need a way to cope.

One of the ways in which I cope is by doing a deep purge/organization overhaul of my house, with my husband’s help of course- I am so much fun to live with! Purging your house over the holidays may not be your idea of a good time like it is mine but before you write me off as a crazy try it- you may enjoy it as much as I do!

What an Organized Home Means to Me

First off though I want to say that I am all about functional organization; meaning some of my organization isn’t terribly Pinterest worthy. I don’t buy a container of cereal at the store and then come a home and transfer that into a different container so that when I open my pantry it is a pretty array of white and glass labeled canisters- I am into working smarter, not harder and for me a color coordinated pantry isn’t worth the time it takes at this point in my life. However, having a good organization system that helps me to put groceries away more quickly, find what I’m looking for when I need it, and the ability to tell when I’m out of something, are all things a value so that is where I focus my attention when it comes to organizing.

Our Journey Towards an Organized Home

It all started last year, I had been wanting to do a total overhaul of our basement which had become overrun with boxes, stuff for goodwill, and various items that were “almost” put away, but not quite and were just creating clutter. During the week between Christmas and New Year’s we sorted and pitched, organized and donated- and it felt great! By the end of the week we had transformed a cluttered mess into a nice usable space. My husband, understandably, had been reluctant to spend so much of our time off on this activity but he too agreed that it was time well spent and he was glad we had invested the time into- plus there was now room to set up the ping pong table he had been wanting to play on!

Getting Started

When beginning a purge remember, if you haven’t used it within 6 months to a year it’s probably safe to get rid of it. If you have multiples of something, and can’t remember when you last used one of that particular item, you are safe to get rid of at least one if not all of them. Lastly remember to set up 3 different piles: keep, give away and throw away. It is so much easier to let go of something if you know it is going to someone who needs it more than you do!

This year we weren’t in need of a deep purge in our house as badly as we were in need of a light purge with new organization measures put into place. I had several spots in the house that I had started referring to as “hot spots.” Certain closets like a miscellaneous cabinet in our bathroom, the space under the kitchen sink, and the closet where we keep our games had become totally out of control. In the weeks leading up to Christmas I started keeping a list of little projects that would only take an hour or so but still ended up on my to do list each week, having gotten pushed to the end of the list in favor of something more pressing.

After doing a light purge on these areas, (we did a lot better this past year in not allowing clutter to come into the house so a deep purge was unnecessary), I realized that merely purging would not be enough. I needed storage help! Over the years I have heard a lot of professional organizers say to hold off buying bins and storage containers until after you do a deep purge. I had done this but I had never gotten back around to purchasing storage containers and putting them into use. I finally did, and boy, did it make such a difference! Not only is having nice uniform storage bins more aesthetically appealing, but we were able to squeeze out a lot more usable storage from these areas as well.

You Can Have a Junk Drawer

Another thing: You can have a junk drawer! Having a well organized home means having a home that functions well. This means you may have a junk drawer! Really, it’s ok! You do not want this drawer to contain stuff that should go somewhere else- the random crayon needs thrown out or put away- but you need a place for miscellaneous stuff to live. We should probably call this a miscellaneous drawer rather than a junk drawer come to think of it! Take my kitchen “Miscellaneous Drawer,” for example; I keep birthday candles, packs of gum, the touch up pen for my cabinets, chip clips, pencils and a small notebook in this drawer. I need all of these things in the kitchen, so I keep them there. In my bedroom I have a decorative box where I keep spare buttons, and other such paraphernalia that I want to make sure I have but that is just random. I don’t have a million of these random catch all places but I do have a few, I keep an eye on them so they don’t snowball and it helps to keep all the other clutter under control because this way odd items that I do want to keep have a place to live.

I realize that we are now way past the week in between Christmas and New Years but that doesn’t mean that you can’t start chipping away at areas of your home now! Gretchen Rubin talks in her books of how she implements a power hour every week in which she powers through any unpleasant or annoying task that she had been putting off that week and when the hour is over she stops, check out my post on books to help you build the life you want here). I plan to do this in the form of a “Declutter Hour,” and at the end of every week if there is a spot that has been annoying me to clean it out before it has the chance to become overwhelming. I will rotate through my house to help stay on top of things and tackle and clutter before it gets out of hand.

You can also use this approach to get on top of things. You may not have a week in which you can just purge, but do you have an hour a day or just an hour a week? Make a list of areas that are driving you crazy and start tackling it little by little- you’ll be so glad that you did!