by kathilipp | Jun 10, 2016 | Blog, Friday Favorites |
Western Cedar Grilling Planks
Roger has been using cedar planks to BBQ our salmon for the past couple of years, and it makes the best salmon I’ve ever tasted. – Recommended by Kathi Lipp
Maranda Enterprises Double Ladderball Game
To make your backyard more enjoyable, get a Ladder Ball that people can enjoy! Multiple players throw attached rubber balls onto bars to rack up points. Fun for all ages and skill levels! – Recommended by Emily Nelson
Trademark Innovations Bean Bag Toss Corn Hole Game Set
Make teams and toss the bean bags into the hole to score big. A bit challenging but exciting to try to get your bag to stay on the board or get in the hole. Even those observing will enjoy the show this creates! – Recommended by Emily Nelson
KanJam Ultimate Disc Game
This is a fun outdoor game for all ages. Gets your family active with healthy fun. Rolls up for easy storage. – Recommended by Robin O’Neal Smith
Mosquito Bits
Tired of picnics being ruined by mosquitoes? Keep the mosquitoes and gnats away without sprays or harmful chemicals. – Recommended by Robin O’Neal Smith
“If you purchase the product or service I referenced next to the link you just clicked, I will receive an “affiliate commission.” I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
by kathilipp | Jun 8, 2016 | Blog, Love Your Husband, Recipe |
If you’re looking for a way to spoil Dad this Father’s Day without spending your entire day in the kitchen, we’ve got you covered! BBQ for Dad, and the ease of the slow cooker for you, make for the perfect celebration. This delicious meal is so simple, you might even have time to make a special dessert or cocktail. Bonus points! (You can thank us later.)
This is a recipe I posted back in 2012 but it’s so good I had to share it with you again (or for all my new friends!).
When Freezers and Slow Cookers Collide
I love when I find other food nerds out there. It is a title I use – and embrace – lovingly. It’s very different than food snobs who want to tell you that you are using the wrong knife or look down their nose at you if your cheese isn’t aged properly. Food snobs can get away with cooking once a week and call themselves a gourmet, but a food nerd is always looking for new ways to make food better and easier – we are the ones who trade recipes at MOPS meetings and steal (with permission) each other’s freezer tips for getting dinner on the table.
Let me introduce you to fellow food nerd Kelly Rankin. Kelly and I met at an event I was speaking at, and we became friends through my blog. Kelly has taken the concept of freezer meals and slow cooking and done a mash up – freezer/slow cooking.
I am also a freezer/slow cooker, but Kelly’s ingenuity of stretching her meals and leaving no leftover left behind is admirable. I asked Kelley to share her plan for using her freezer and slow cooker for maximum savings of time, energy and stress: Some of her favorite slow cooker to freezer recipes are things like soups, stews, and chili. You can double or – in a 6-quart slow cooker – triple a soup-like recipe and, after it cools, bag it up into gallon bags to be re-heated another time.
Slow cooker Smoked Pulled Pork BBQ
By Kelly Rakin
Four Simple ingredients and a day of slow cooking lead to an amazingly simple, economical, and delicious pork BBQ. No smoker needed, and the leftovers freeze beautifully for a later meal. The liquid smoke and beef bouillon are the essential keys to this simple recipe, giving the pork a great flavor with minimal BBQ sauce. Perfect for a large gathering!
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 7-9 hours
Yields: 10 servings
Ingredients:
5-lb. pork sirloin tip roast
2 T. liquid smoke (typically found with condiments)
2 T. beef bouillon (not Broth)
1/3 cup water
Serve with your favorite BBQ Sauce, to taste
Directions:
Place pork roast in a large slow cooker. Pour water, liquid smoke, and bouillon on top of pork roast. Cook on high for 7-9 hours, flipping roasts once during cooking, if possible, to allow the juices to simmer all sides of the meat. Meat is finished cooking when it easily pulls apart with a fork. Remove roasts from slow cooker and pull pork apart. Return pork to slow cooker and add BBQ sauce to taste, or serve BBQ sauce on the side. Great on sandwiches or by itself.
To freeze: Place cooked BBQ in 1-quart freezer bags, removing air. Thaw, rewarm, and serve. Keeps in freezer up to 6 months.
by kathilipp | Jun 3, 2016 | Blog, Friday Favorites |
Flash: The Homeless Donkey Who Taught Me about Life, Faith, and Second Chances (Adventures of Flash the Donkey) by Rachel Anne Ridge
Roger says my favorite genre of books is “Chicken Lit.” Put a barn animal in between two book covers and I’m a sucker for it. I loved this story of a woman’s life turned upside down by a stubborn donkey and all that she learned from Flash who just wanted to run with the stallions. Delightful and deep. – Recommended by Kathi Lipp
Amazon Link
The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You by John C. Maxwell and Steven R. Covey
Leadership guru, author, speaker, and former pastor, John C. Maxwell identifies that which make great leaders great. It is a practical guide for leaders and those who want to be effective ones. – Recommended by Amberly Neese
Amazon Link
Fight Back With Joy: Celebrate More. Regret Less. Stare Down Your Greatest Fears by Margaret Feinberg
Margaret shows how to use joy as a weapon even in the midst of cancer! She demonstrates through personal story in a way that is so encouraging. – Recommended by Mary Lou Caskey
Amazon Link
Will It Fly? How to Test Your Next Business Idea so You Don’t Waste Your Time and Money by Pat Flynn
This book is a series of tests on how to figure out if your idea is sound and will fly with your followers. It has tests that I never thought of and also lots of ideas for newbies. – Recommended by Robin O’Neal Smith
Amazon Link
Armor of God by Priscilla Shirer
I enjoyed daily digging into the study. I was challenged, encouraged and changed. I am grateful. – Recommended by Mary Lou Caskey
Amazon Link
“If you purchase the product or service I referenced next to the link you just clicked, I will receive an “affiliate commission.” I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
The Husband Project
What books are you loving right now? In honor of the upcoming Proverbs 31 Online Bible Study, I am giving away a signed copy of my book The Husband Project! Just leave a comment below about what you are loving to read right now and why, OR what you are most looking forward to about the online study. Either way, you’ll be entered to win!
by kathilipp | Jun 2, 2016 | Blog, Love Your Husband, Marriage, The Husband Project |
The Day I Stopped Shoe Shopping at Safeway: A Marriage Metaphor
For many years, I did my shoe shopping at Safeway.
This was difficult, because the Safeway near my home doesn’t sell shoes, only groceries. But I’ve never been one to let a challenge stop me! I became all the more determined to do my shoe shopping at Safeway.
Every week, I scoured the aisles: no shoes.
Every week, when the cashier pleasantly asked me, “Did you find everything today?” I responded loudly, “No, I did not. I came here for shoes, like I do every week, and I still haven’t found any shoes.
Every week, I filled out a complaint form at the so-called “Customer Service” counter: Why are there no shoes in this store?
Eventually, I became so focused on shoe shopping at Safeway that I started going daily, just to see if they’d finally set up a shoe aisle.Day in and day out, I experienced nothing but disappointment after disappointment after disappointment.
I grumbled about Safeway to my friends. Soon, complaining about the lack of shoes at Safeway soon became my sole topic of conversation.
It all seemed so unfair.
The Day I Discovered Payless ShoeSource
Then, one day, I happened to drive by a Payless ShoeSource. As I walked in, I could not believe my eyes: shoes! Aisles and stacks and end caps of shoes! I bought two pair on a BOGO sale!
My next stop was Safeway. As I walked in, I could not believe my eyes: so many beautiful groceries! Fruits and vegetables … breads and cakes … cheeses and deli meats … I filled my cart and headed to check out.
The cashier nervously asked, “Did you find everything today?” and when I responded, “Why yes, I did, thank you!” She looked shocked. The manager seemed surprised when I walked by the customer service comment box with a friendly wave.
The day I stopped doing my shoe shopping at Safeway was the day I started enjoying grocery shopping at Safeway.
A Marriage Metaphor
Okay, so I made all of that up.
I would never be silly or downright foolish enough to go shoe shopping at Safeway, would I? Well, in the early years of my marriage, I stubbornly “did my shoe shopping at Safeway” by expecting Daniel to meet some of my needs he was entirely unequipped to meet.
The more I demanded he meet these specific needs, the more hyper-focused I became on his failures. The more I focused on his failures, the more I ignored his myriad strengths. Sadly, for many years I acted as if everything he did bring to our marriage and all the ways he did meet my needs were worthless because I was so fixated on a few failures.
After years of frustration (for both of us!), I was convicted that 1 Corinthians 12:4-6 applies to the gifts our husbands bring to marriage:
There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.”
When we continually downplay the gifts our husbands brings to our marriages, we discount the work of the Holy Spirit.
On the flip side, when we take responsibility for the needs we’ve been trying to pawn off on our men, we may be astonished to discover all the ways they truly bless us.
Perhaps it’s time for you to stop shoe shopping at Safeway, too?
Cheri Gregory is a teacher, speaker, author, and Certified Personality Trainer. Her passion is helping women break free from destructive expectations. She writes and speaks from the conviction that “how to” works best in partnership with “heart, too.”
Cheri is the co-author, with Kathi Lipp, of The Cure for the “Perfect” Life and the upcoming Overwhelmed.
Cheri has been “wife of my youth” to Daniel, her opposite personality, for twenty-eight years and is “Mom” to Annemarie (25) and Jonathon (23), also opposite personalities.
Cheri blogs about perfectionism, people-pleasing, highly sensitive people, and hope at www.cherigregory.com.
More about being an HSP!
by kathilipp | May 27, 2016 | Blog, Friday Favorites |
Podcasts are one of my favorite things. You can find a podcast on pretty much any topic you want- self-improvement, faith, health, comedy, current affairs, and even the Gilmore Girls. Here are 5 of my and my teams’ favorites right now. What are some of yours? I love finding new gems to listen to so give us your recommendations so we can all join in on the fun!
It’s two guys talking about Gilmore girls. It’s hilarious!
http://www.gilmoreguysshow.com
Recommended by Kathi Lipp
Mud Stories is dedicated to bringing you inspiration in your muddiest moments, hope to make it through your mud, and encouragement for you to know that you are not alone. It was an honor to be interviewed by Jacque Watkins!
http://www.jacquewatkins.com/thepodcast/
Recommended by Mary Lou Caskey
I love to listen to Jamie chat with her friends. I feel inspired, encouraged and connected with so many authentic women.
http://jamieivey.com
Recommended by Mary Lou Caskey
Michael Hyatt helps you to live with more passion, work with greater focus, and lead with extraordinary influence.
http://michaelhyatt.com/thisisyourlife
Recommended by Mary Lou Caskey
Dennis Rainey and Bob Lepine interview such interesting guests about faith and family. I appreciate their commitment to help us develop godly marriages and families who change the world one home at a time.
http://familylifetoday.com
Recommended by Mary Lou Caskey
by kathilipp | May 23, 2016 | Blog, Clutter Free |
by Amberly of Kathi’s Clutter Free Academy Team
If you are wasting “thyme” because your kitchen cabinets are “peppered” with too many spices, it is time to declutter. Spices are expensive, and having too many or not having an organized system can be costly. (I’ve been known to buy a spice twice if I can’t find it!)
Follow these eight simple steps for decluttering your cabinets:
1) Resolve to simplify and succeed.
2) Clean your countertops so that all items can be removed and cleaned.
3) Label three boxes: Put Away (items that will stay in the kitchen), Other Room (items that will go somewhere else in the house including the garage), Give Away (think of newlyweds or community organizations that might be able to benefit from your purge. You’ll also want a trash bag and a recycling bag.
4) Remove all items from cabinets. Sort them into the appropriate boxes and bags (see above). Throw away items in an opaque trash bag to avoid decluttering regrets and dumpster diving in your own garbage!
5) Throw all old spices away. They are no longer valuable and take up unnecessary space. Make a mental note of those you infrequently use so you do not rush out to replace them with something new.
6) Before putting items back into them, clean your cabinets and shelves so that your slate is clean.
7) Organize spices in “families”: those you use all the time, those used for specific purposes, those rarely used, etc. and group them in the cabinet for quick access.
8) Once your cabinets are organized, avoid buying bargain spices and/or warehouse-sized spices. Although it may seem to save a few pennies, it will cost you space and sanity.
Decluttering those cabinets can help alleviate stress and expedite your cooking time which is quite a “sage” decision!
Do you want more Clutter Free? Take the 5 Day Clutter Free Challenge!
Click here to sign up >>>
