#631 Holiday Headstart: 5 More Tips for a Relaxed Season

#631 Holiday Headstart: 5 More Tips for a Relaxed Season

by | Aug 20, 2024 | Christmas, Clutter Free, Clutter Free For Life, Clutter Free Heart, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, Fear, Freedom, Home, Mental Load, Podcast | 0 comments

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631 Holiday Headstart: 5 More Tips for a Relaxed Season

Do you ever say you’ll start holiday prep early, but then suddenly it’s December and you’re in a tinsel-covered panic? Well, no more!

In this episode, Kathi and co-host Tonya Kubo dive into part two of their discussion on preparing for the holidays in August. They offer practical advice for early holiday planning. Kathi and Tonya emphasize the importance of considering family needs, budgeting, and self-care in the planning process.

Listeners will discover:

  • How to plan for those perfect holiday photos
  • How to plan for budget-friendly holiday travel
  • How to create a realistic holiday decor plan (even if your husband Roger thinks there’s no such thing as too many Christmas lights.)

Throughout the episode, Kathi and Tonya offer relatable anecdotes and practical strategies to help listeners reduce holiday stress by planning ahead.

Kathi shares her love for early holiday meal planning and cookbook perusing in this episode. She mentions one of her favorite recipes called Raclette. Check out Raclette photos in the banner as well as the recipe below!

 Raclette

3 to 7 oz. raclette cheese per person, sliced to fit the small trays under the raclette grill. (We find this at Trader Joe’s and at some of the fancier stores from around November through February, and we’ve even found it on Amazon.)

4 to 6 potatoes new potatoes per person, boiled with the skins on. (You have better things to do with your life than peel tiny potatoes.)

Optional Ingredients: Everything else is what you like or have on hand. That’s the beauty of this meal—you get to make it what you love. Here are some ideas: bacon, beef fillet, thickly sliced, pork sausage, zucchini, thickly sliced, mushrooms, grape tomatoes, white pearl onions, bell peppers, thickly sliced, cornichons or pickled gherkins (traditional dinners call for sweet pickles, but we only use dill), pickled baby corn, asparagus, crusty hearty bread, barbecue sauce or ketchup (I have found this to be a game changer)

Directions

1. Turn the raclette grill on to medium-high heat.

2. If you are using bacon, place the slices on the grill plate and cook to your liking.

3. Use the bacon fat to cook the other ingredients. (If you are not using bacon, simply brush the grill plate with some olive oil.)

4. Place some meat and vegetables on the hot grill plate. (When we have vegetarians or vegans visiting, we use two grills. You could even just use a tabletop skillet for the veggies and the raclette skillet for the cheese and meat.)

5. While the meat and vegetables are cooking on the grill plate, place slices of raclette cheese on the small trays and put them under the heating element.

6. Slice or smash the potatoes on your plate. Scrape the melted raclette cheese out of the tray and serve it over the warm potatoes. It is also common to place the melted cheese over the cooked vegetables. Some people even put slices of potatoes into the handled trays so that the cheese melts directly on top.

About eight people can use one raclette set at a time. This is a warm, hearty dinner that is a universal hit at our house and with our guests.

If you want to keep the whole meal on the tabletop, you can even use it to prepare dessert. Just clean off the grill and roast marshmallows over it to create tabletop s’mores. (Is there a better way to end a meal than with chocolate and marshmallows?)

Did you miss part one of this conversation? Click #630 Plan Now, Relax Later: 5 August Tips for a Peaceful Christmas 

Would you like to receive an early Christmas gift? Join the Clutter Free Facebook Group where they will provide you with a download of all 10 Planning Tips! Remember,. Remember, you can’t join the CFA Facebook Group without answering the membership questions. It’s how we keep it the kindest corner of the internet.

Click here to be notified when the next episode is released.

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Sabbath Soup: Weekly Menus and Rhythms to Make Space for a Day of Rest

Kathi Lipp gives readers an easy-to-follow process for meal planning and prep, so that they can enjoy a full day each week of real rest and refreshment.

Could you use a break from cooking (and everything else) once a week? Not only is rest vital for your mind and body, it’s good for your soul too. God designed us to enter into Sabbath rest one day per week, but as you know, meals still need to be made. Your family still needs to be fed.

Sabbath Soup includes convenient, seasonal meal plans that take the guesswork out of shopping and cooking. More than just a collection of delicious recipes—including main dishes, breads, breakfasts, desserts, salads, sides, and yes, soups—this is your guide to establishing a weekly rhythm and routine of meal planning and prep that allows you to have a true day off.

Do something good for your soul and experience the peace that comes with a full day dedicated to spending time with God, family, and friends. Savor your Sabbath as you proudly proclaim, “Soup’s on!”

Preorder your copy of Sabbath Soup: Weekly Menus and Rhythms to Make Space for a Day of Rest here. Preorder offer ends October 8, 2024.

Links Mentioned:

www.Tonyakubo.com

Raclette cheese

 

 

 

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What do you do in August that helps you make the holidays stress free?

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Meet Our Guest 

 

Tonya Kubo

Tonya Kubo is the illustrious and fearless leader of Kathi Lipp’s Clutter Free Academy Facebook group and the Clutter Free for Life membership program. A speaker and writer, Tonya makes her home in the heart of California with her husband, Brian, their two spirited daughters, and one very tolerant cat. Visit her at www.tonyakubo.com.

 

Tonya Kubo Picture
Transcript

Kathi Well, hey friends, welcome to Clutter Free Academy, where our goal is to help you take small, doable steps to live every day with less clutter and more

And I am back with co -host of Clutterfree Academy. It is Tonya Kubo. Hey, Tonya!

Tonya Kubo (00:33.21)

Hey, Kathi!

Kathi (00:35.134)

I’m excited. Okay. You know, I was super excited last week about Our 10 tips for a stress -free holiday. We we got through five last week I’m finally getting smarter in my old age not trying to do 10 tips in one episode Like let’s break because then we have super size episodes and you have to go back. No, no, no We just we started we knew this was gonna be a two episode series, but we’re talking in August about

what to do to prepare for Christmas and Thanksgiving and all the holidays in the winter. And why are we doing that, Tonya? Why are we just that organized and type A and so on top of it?

Tonya Kubo (01:18.478)

No, but we wish we were. Actually, the reason we’re doing it is because we cluttery people need time to plan to plan, right? So when it comes in October, it is two months too late. We need time in August to make some decisions, sit with those decisions, recover from the effort of making the decisions so that then when push comes to shove, October, November, we’ve already know what we’re doing and then we just forge ahead.

Kathi (01:20.188)

We do.

Kathi (01:27.09)

Yes.

Kathi (01:47.354)

And that’s what we need. need some time, space, and we need to take care of our future selves because otherwise it all comes down to us. I know how these things

Tonya Kubo (01:57.82)

Right, and so because it all comes down to us, I am gonna jump us right in. If you didn’t catch the last episode, I just encourage you to go back and look at it. It should be pretty easy to find in the player that you’re listening to. Or head over into Clutterfree Academy, our free Facebook group, because we have a download with all 10 tips. It’s called 10 Decisions to Make in August for a Less Stressed Holiday. That’s waiting for you there right now. Kathi, just take it away

Tip number six.

Kathi (02:28.83)

Yeah, so we talked about are you gonna do Christmas cards or not? And both decisions are 100 % fine, friends. But if you are gonna do Christmas cards and you want a picture of your family, or if you just want a cute Christmas picture to put up on social media or to hang up in your house without sending Christmas cards, that’s allowed too. It actually is. And

Also, our vet, if we didn’t give them a picture of moose each year, there would be a revolt. So maybe they do that just to make us feel good, but I don’t care. It does make me feel good. So now is the time to make plans for that Christmas picture. Now, maybe plans are, hey, we took this great picture on our vacation. Let’s use that. That is a perfectly acceptable picture. Our Christmas card last year, somebody came to our house and took a great picture of moose.

holding one of her toys and she looks a little mischievous. And so we just, we knew that that was the perfect card. So, or maybe you want to get a professional set of pictures taken of you and your family. All of these are options in August. But as we get closer to November, our options get

And then we’re sending out for Christmas cards on December 1st. We get them back on the 15th. We don’t have time to send them out. And then we have 200 Christmas cards that we’re like, well, maybe next year. So now is the time to take the picture, okay? And we do have, what is your favorite tip for taking a great picture? Do you have one? I’ll tell you mine and then you can tell me yours. Okay.

Tonya Kubo (04:01.254)

Right.

Yes.

Tonya Kubo (04:16.954)

Sure.

Kathi (04:18.578)

So I think the best pictures are where people feel comfortable. And so not so staged, not so posed. We just did a whole photo shoot here at the Red House. And Tenille, our photographer, kept telling us how great we looked. And if your photographer is not doing that, you need to find a new photographer. So also if you’re a parent, especially of a tween or teen,

and you just want to, you know, to be able to say, hey, you look great or have somebody else tell them they look great. That would be my go -to move. Okay, how about you, Tonya?

Tonya Kubo (04:54.108)

I was gonna say my tip is take 400 pictures because one of them is bound to look good. right? Because the more people you have, the harder it is to make sure everybody is looking at the camera at the same time with their eyes

Kathi (04:57.946)

Yes. Yes, yes, yes.

Kathi (05:10.096)

It’s so true. And I think the other thing to say on that is, boy, just wear something comfortable. The best pictures are where you’re wearing jeans and you feel great.

Tonya Kubo (05:16.144)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (05:19.824)

Yep, that is so true. All right, Kathi, go ahead and give us tip number seven.

Kathi (05:26.278)

Okay, it’s time to plan for Christmas travel. So if you’re gonna be flying cross country, if you need an Airbnb, you need hotel rooms, you need flights, now is the time to get that information nailed down. Can I tell you just the mistake we made recently? Roger and I were gonna do this big, big, big trip and we’re like, okay, we think we can save enough money for this. It’s gonna be tight.

Tonya Kubo (05:48.934)

Sure.

Kathi (05:56.038)

You know with the flights and the everything we’re doing, but I think we can do that so we we went ahead and booked we got the travel insurance and Then we looked at the flights Holy cow, Tonya. I had no idea how it’s an international flight. I had no idea I had no idea so We’ve made the hard decision to not go until we think we’re gonna do like in five years because we want more time

to gather our pennies together. So instead of our 20th anniversary, this will be a great 25th anniversary. We’re gonna do something fun and fabulous for 20 years. But start to get those numbers into your head now. Start to look for flights now. Maybe sign up for a flight tracker to see if the cost goes down. Get an idea of what hotels or Airbnbs are gonna cost in that area of the country or the world, whatever that is.

Tonya Kubo (06:27.578)

Right.

Kathi (06:55.568)

Start to nail some of that information down now so you’re not in a panic in November. Now, you don’t travel for holidays usually, do you? Okay, so for you, it’s just, should we clean out the car or not, right?

Tonya Kubo (07:04.567)

Not usually, no.

Tonya Kubo (07:11.072)

Yeah, well for me, so I have a couple of relatives that live in other states, right? So our big thing is, yes, should we clean out the car or not? The other thing that we have, if we’re road tripping, because that does happen sometimes, when the girls were younger, especially, it’s nap time. When are you going to leave, right? When do you leave the house? When do you plan to come back? You know, because ideally, if you’re doing the holiday thing, somebody else’s house, you don’t want your kids to lose their charm before you have a chance to get them into the

Kathi (07:21.872)

Yeah. Yeah.

Kathi (07:40.73)

Right, Yeah, that charm covers a multitude of sins. Yes, absolutely. Yeah, and this is a great point. You know, for us, we may be RVing this Thanksgiving. And so, like, it’s time to look at those RV spots. It’s time to look at packing, you know, road tripping. What kind of food are we going to bring? Because if you are planning to eat out every meal while you’re road tripping,

Tonya Kubo (07:45.914)

Yeah, yeah.

Kathi (08:09.32)

that’s gonna cost you as much as Christmas. maybe, you know, maybe make those plans now. And also, if it is now the time to discuss, do you want to stay with relatives or is that a terrible idea? We had to, you know, there were some relatives we would have loved to have stayed with them. There were other relatives for other reasons that it was very hard to stay with. So to start preparing people early for those decisions,

is really, really good and

Tonya Kubo (08:41.946)

Yes, yes. Okay. So what is tip number

Kathi (08:48.734)

Now is the time to ask for do you need time off from work? Do you need to make other arrangements? Do you need to offer yourself a sacrifice for Christmas so you can get Thanksgiving off? You know what so start to ask now because you’re starting to plan so early and you’re starting to connect with the people that you’re planning

you might be able to ask earlier than you’ve ever been able to ask before. And if you’re, especially if you’re working someplace like retail or you’re in a hotel or a restaurant situation, getting that time off request in as early as possible or to find out, no, I can’t take time off then. Those are all good things to know. And the earlier you can get that request in,

more likely you are able to do it. This is why I also really suggest if you have any possibility of celebrating on a day other than Christmas or other than Thanksgiving, boy, it alleviates a lot of stress for a lot of people. I know that it’s nice to have that Friday off between Thanksgiving and the weekend, but also the cost of traveling.

Tonya Kubo (09:53.19)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (10:06.085)

That week is extraordinary. The cost, could you take a different set of days off and make it easier on

Tonya Kubo (10:15.644)

Mm -hmm. Excellent tips, excellent tips. And especially, you what’s nice is if you’ve got people who work retail, there’s blackout dates already set, right? So that helps you plan accordingly. I love that. So we need to take a quick break, because as you like to remind me, Kathi, we like to keep the lights on around here, right? So we will be back with tips nine and 10 after our commercial

Kathi (10:24.379)

Yes. Yes.

Yes.

Kathi (10:34.792)

Pay the bills.

Kathi (10:45.456)

Okay, we are back and we are diving right back into our tips. Tonya, I’m just gonna go into nine. This is especially important for the lip household.

Tonya Kubo (10:57.39)

Right, it is not important for the Kubo household. So you go for it, Kathi. Yeah.

Kathi (11:00.424)

You know what, see this is good to know, right? This is good information to know. A holiday decor plan. you know, like Tonya’s like, well that’s easy, no.

And that’s okay. And I think, you know what, if I wasn’t married to Mr. Christmas, that might be my plan too. I might have just a cute little tree off in the corner or something like that. Our first Christmas together, we decided to not celebrate on Christmas because we knew that, we had had a wedding that year and we thought, well, the kids will wanna be with their other parents and that’s fine. So what we did is we bought a two foot,

Christmas tree and we did a road trip to a bunch of different B &Bs and we took that Christmas tree to each B &B and it was perfect. But Roger likes some lighting. He likes to dec… Yes, he likes to decorate the yard. Now since we get free Christmas trees because they’re all in our backyard, we set up three Christmas trees often in our household. And so

Tonya Kubo (11:45.456)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (11:52.024)

how fun.

Tonya Kubo (11:58.779)

He does.

Tonya Kubo (12:07.099)

Yeah.

Kathi (12:13.938)

For me, it’s very important that we go in having a budget because every year, Tanya, every single year, I think, well, surely we have enough lights. We must have enough lights. His last name is Griswold. I don’t understand it. But yes, every year we go by the lights. So one thing I’m going to insist on this year, insist on is

Tonya Kubo (12:25.04)

You’d never have enough lights for Mr. Lip.

Tonya Kubo (12:39.515)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (12:43.376)

Mr. Lip, we need an inventory of what we have because what often happens is, that might be in the attic or it might be in the storage shed, but I’m not sure. So while we’re here at Home Depot, Lowe’s, Ace Hardware, we might as well get XYZ. No, no. Well, okay, if he really wants to, we will, but.

Tonya Kubo (12:48.42)

yeah.

Tonya Kubo (13:05.04)

Mm -hmm.

No. Yes. I was gonna say yes.

Kathi (13:13.266)

But could we find that information out in August? Or let’s be kind to ourselves even September when it’s not blazing hot in the attic. Could we put a plan together so that we actually know what we have? Do you wanna change up the theme? So in our bedroom, we put up a Christmas tree that’s very Woodland themed. In Roger’s office, we put up a tree that’s very Disney themed.

and then downstairs it’s bright and shiny things. So we know, do we want to change any of that? And then what do we need to do with DIY project? Is there something that we’d like to do? Let’s budget for it now, let’s go in with a plan so we’re not doing last minute things. And I think this is a good, I’m gonna put cooking under this as well. Now it’s harder to plan for cooking four months in advance, but.

Tonya Kubo (13:48.474)

Yeah.

Kathi (14:10.8)

If you’re gonna be trying a bunch of new recipes, does that require a new KitchenAid? Does that require a new thingamajig? What are we doing? Or maybe, for us, we often wanna smoke a turkey. We need to make sure that the barbecue that we’re using, or the Traeger, or whatever we’re doing, is in proper working order if we haven’t been using it.

Tonya Kubo (14:25.285)

Kathi (14:35.698)

Because I cannot tell you the number of times we’ve gone to use the thing and we haven’t used it for nine months and the thing maybe had some friends living in it. Let’s check that out. Let’s not be surprised. How about that? Let’s not be surprised.

Tonya Kubo (14:53.341)

That’s a surprise you never want, but it’s so much better to have it in August than it is to have it like the week before you plan to use

Kathi (14:57.956)

Right? Right, especially if you’re snowed in. Now you have to dig your way. Yeah, there’s just a million reasons to check early

Tonya Kubo (15:07.14)

I was like, hear the emotional scarring from your past experiences, Kathi.

Kathi (15:09.679)

my goodness. Yeah, ask me how I know, friends. Ask me how I know. No, actually don’t ask me, trauma. Okay.

Tonya Kubo (15:13.722)

Ahahaha!

Tonya Kubo (15:17.36)

No. All right, Kathi, give us tip number

Kathi (15:21.15)

Okay, this may be the most important one, the most important one. really, one through nine is leading up to 10. And this is just, it’s gonna sound very new agey, self -care and boundaries, self -care and boundaries. Think back with your spouse, your kids, your parents. Was last year’s Christmas just a little too long?

Tonya Kubo (15:36.678)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (15:50.492)

Were there a few too many people? Were there a few too many dishes that were required to be made? I really believe in saying, know, one thing I’ve learned, I used to think, it’s less stress for me to make all the food because I have control over when things are happening in my kitchen. No, that was just me being a little bit of a control

It’s so much better to say, you know what, you’re really good. Like my sister -in -law, this is an underrated talent. She makes the best salads in the world. I don’t know anybody who makes a better salad than Lucinda Richardson. I don’t know anybody. So let Lucinda bring the salad. Beg her to bring the salad. Let people contribute. If people are saying,

Hey, Kathi, I would love for you to do your Raclette. I’d say, yes, that would be great. Would you bring the Raclette cheese? Yes, I’d be happy to do that. But you know what? I have a lot of people who live closer to Whole Foods than I do. And that’s a Whole Foods item. To be able to say, you know what? This year, we’re not going to be able to go to three different family events in a short amount of time. You were talking about this with your kids.

You know, do we need to be aware of nap time and travel time? And thinking, you know, as adults, sometimes we can, but we shouldn’t suck it up. But kids, they’re not known for their suck it up abilities, right? So to be able to say, you know what, our first day, and we’ve done this when we travel now, our first day, hey, our whole job is just to get there and then go to the hotel and order some food.

Tonya Kubo (17:22.854)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (17:26.897)

right?

Kathi (17:41.914)

and not be on for anybody. And that’s a beautiful thing. And that’s what I think we need to say, you know what, I’m gonna be better on Thursday, Friday and Saturday if it went on Wednesday. It’s just me and the people I love because we can figure it out. We can sleep in, we can do what we need to do. But to just say

Do we say no to overwhelming commitments? And one way for me to do that, and I would love to hear any tips you have, Tonya, because you guys are really good at boundaries, is we just got an invitation today to one of our favorite humans’ 30th birthdays. The 30 -year -old is inviting us to their birthday and we’re not related to them. I feel highly honored. But instead of saying, of course we’ll be there, I said, let me check with Roger. Because I just need to know.

What’s gonna make him most comfortable? What’s gonna be the best thing? It sounds precious of us, but also sometimes I forget, oh wait, we’ve got a big deadline the day before. So it just says, hey, let me check the calendar and let me check with my significant other and we’ll get back to you. And if I get back within 24 hours, no harm, no foul. So what’s a good way for you that you have set boundaries around the holidays?

Tonya Kubo (18:40.678)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (18:53.046)

Right.

Tonya Kubo (18:58.702)

Yeah, so it’s interesting having kids who are growing up, right? Because what I discovered the hard way is, you know, they have school events, if they have extracurricular activities, oftentimes there’s holiday events associated with that. Like, Brian and I do not have the luxury of complete control over our calendars, even outside of work. And so for us,

A lot of it has to do with if it involves school. ask like as soon as back to school night is, which is late August, I will be asking, do you have a calendar of all events for the fall? Do you have a calendar for the whole academic year? You know, we’re recording this and it’s not quite August yet because that’s how you get August episodes, folks, if you record them before August. And I just found out

Kathi (19:37.98)

Yeah

Kathi (19:46.727)

Right?

Tonya Kubo (19:51.064)

there’s a mandatory commitment for Lily that runs for the next eight days. And by the way, we’re out of town, right? Yeah, exactly. And so I am learning now, okay, so I need to set some boundaries and say, we’re a family that has to plan ahead and we are more than happy to show up to mandatory events. However, you’re gonna need to get us those dates right now. And so again, just to kind of like tie that up in a bow, what I would say is for the school stuff, I ask for the calendars.

Kathi (19:56.263)

What?

Tonya Kubo (20:19.642)

Like early, I ask often. And then when it comes to the personal commitments, I pretty much just tell folks, know, let me check my calendar. And if I can make it, say, I’m gonna make every attempt to be there. However, you know that schools are really good about spring and last minute stuff on you. So if I have to shift it, I’ll let you know. And then I leave it at

Kathi (20:40.988)

Yeah, yeah, it’s really smart because yeah, there are so many competing priorities and whoever made that mandatory last minute commitment, unless they’re paying you, no, that’s crazy, that’s just crazy. I love these and I think that our community is gonna have some really great ideas about what to do in August to make things easier.

Tonya, know one of the things I like, and here’s one of my little gifts to myself in August, is that I’m a cookbook peruser. I like to dive into a good cookbook and I’m gonna start planning my meals for the holidays early in August because that’s something I enjoy. That’s not something everybody enjoys, but I do. So I’m gonna have my little stack and I’m going to spend some time perusing.

Tonya Kubo (21:19.11)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (21:31.097)

Right.

Kathi (21:37.392)

and just bring some delight and it’s gonna make me look forward to the holidays more because I, yeah, I’m excited about that. This is, yeah, and like I said, our Facebook group is gonna have so many great ideas because they’ve all done this. They bought the t -shirts for sure.

Tonya Kubo (21:46.181)

I love that.

Tonya Kubo (21:56.348)

That is true. And as a reminder about the Facebook group, if you’re not in there, you want to be in there because we’re going to put a download with all tips this episode and last episode. It’s going to be called 10 Decisions to Make in August for a Less Stressed Holiday. And Kathi is so good about reminding you this. If you are requesting to join the group, please answer the questions. If you don’t answer the questions, we don’t let you in. We want that community to be as kind as possible. All right, Kathi, anything else you want to add?

Kathi (22:16.627)

Yes.

Kathi (22:26.392)

No, I just want to say thank you for listening. Tonya, thank you for leading us so well. And friends, thank you for being here. You’ve been listening to Clutter -Free Academy. I’m Kathi Lipp. Now, go create the Clutter -Free life you were always designed to live.

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#630 Plan Now, Relax Later: 5 August Tips for a Peaceful Christmas

#630 Plan Now, Relax Later: 5 August Tips for a Peaceful Christmas

by | Aug 13, 2024 | Christmas, Clutter Free, Clutter Free For Life, Clutter Free Heart, Clutter Free Home, Clutter Free Podcast, Fear, Freedom, Home, Mental Load, Podcast | 0 comments

Listen Now

630 Plan Now, Relax Later: 5 August Tips for a Peaceful Christmas

Do you feel stressed out during the holidays? Trust us, your future self will thank you for listening to this episode.

In this episode of Clutter Free Academy, Kathi Lipp and co-host Tonya Kubo discuss the importance of making key decisions in August to ensure a less stressful holiday season. Kathi and Tonya emphasize the benefits of early planning, such as reduced stress, better financial management, and more time to enjoy the holiday season. They share personal anecdotes and practical advice, making the episode both relatable and actionable for listeners.

Listeners will discover:

  • How to decide on holiday gathering dates, locations, and participants early to avoid last-minute conflicts.
  • How to plan gift exchanges, considering family dynamics and financial situations.
  • How to set a realistic holiday budget, including categories like gifts, food, and decorations.

So grab a cool drink, find a comfy spot, and listen in on how to get started on making this Christmas your most organized and enjoyable one yet!

Would you like to receive an early Christmas gift? Join the Clutter Free Facebook Group where they will provide you with a download of all 10 Planning Tips! Remember, you can’t join the CFA Facebook Group without answering the membership questions. It’s how we keep it the kindest corner of the internet.

Click here to be notified when part 2 of this episode is released.

Also, stay up to date and sign up here to receive our newsletter.

 

Sabbath Soup: Weekly Menus and Rhythms to Make Space for a Day of Rest

Kathi Lipp gives readers an easy-to-follow process for meal planning and prep, so that they can enjoy a full day each week of real rest and refreshment.

Could you use a break from cooking (and everything else) once a week? Not only is rest vital for your mind and body, it’s good for your soul too. God designed us to enter into Sabbath rest one day per week, but as you know, meals still need to be made. Your family still needs to be fed.

Sabbath Soup includes convenient, seasonal meal plans that take the guesswork out of shopping and cooking. More than just a collection of delicious recipes—including main dishes, breads, breakfasts, desserts, salads, sides, and yes, soups—this is your guide to establishing a weekly rhythm and routine of meal planning and prep that allows you to have a true day off.

Do something good for your soul and experience the peace that comes with a full day dedicated to spending time with God, family, and friends. Savor your Sabbath as you proudly proclaim, “Soup’s on!”

Preorder your copy of Sabbath Soup: Weekly Menus and Rhythms to Make Space for a Day of Rest here. Preorder offer ends October 8, 2024.

Links Mentioned:

www.Tonyakubo.com

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Meet Our Guest 

 

Tonya Kubo

Tonya Kubo is the illustrious and fearless leader of Kathi Lipp’s Clutter Free Academy Facebook group and the Clutter Free for Life membership program. A speaker and writer, Tonya makes her home in the heart of California with her husband, Brian, their two spirited daughters, and one very tolerant cat. Visit her at www.tonyakubo.com.

 

Tonya Kubo Picture
Transcript

Kathi (00:01.084)

Well, hey friends, welcome to Clutter Free Academy where our goal is to help you take small doable steps to live every day with less clutter and more life. And I am here with the co -hostess with the mostest, it is Tonya Kubo. Hey Tonya.

Tonya Kubo (00:47.113)

Yay!

Tonya Kubo (01:08.736)

Hey, Kathy.

Kathi (01:10.444)

I’m excited about today’s episode. feel like as we’re planning ahead, nothing makes me feel like so smart as planning ahead, as pre -deciding, as getting decisions out of the way so that August Kathi is a hero in November Kathi’s eyes. And that’s what we’re gonna do for each of our listeners today. So I’m gonna turn it over to you because my excitement is gonna spill out so much. not even.

Let’s just admit it, I had trouble doing the intro today. I was so excited about this.

Tonya Kubo (01:43.165)

I was just saying, you’re so excited that you have 400 words trying to come out of your mouth at the same

Kathi (01:48.873)

All at the same time, but let’s let’s dive in. Let’s do

Tonya Kubo (01:52.954)

Okay, so what we’re actually talking about is Christmas. And if you are like me, I was gonna say, if you’re grinchy like I am, you’re like, seriously, what is this? But here is something that I know from several years of leading Clutterfree Academy and our Clutterfree for Life membership program, Kathy, and that is that we cluttery people have a true biological need

Kathi (01:58.737)

Yes! Yay! In August!

Tonya Kubo (02:22.22)

to plan to plan. See, Christmas planning in October is about two months too late for most of us.

Kathi (02:29.754)

It really is for us cluttering friends, yes.

Tonya Kubo (02:33.346)

So what we are going to do is this is a two part episode, I believe, and we are going to be it has to be because because I wrote out 10 tips and you wrote out 10 tips and that’s 20 and we’re only going to give you 10 folks. We’re only going to give you 10. So can we just get started, Kathi? I want you to jump right in with what is your first tip when it comes to making a decision in August to have a stress free

Kathi (02:37.892)

Yes, it has to

Kathi (02:42.49)

Yeah

Kathi (02:46.606)

Right.

Kathi (02:57.112)

Okay, so this may sound so basic and for some of you, this is just gonna be a check mark because you’re gonna say, I host Christmas every year on the 24th and 25th and how awesome to have a life that is that perfectly ordered. But for many of us, that is not our reality because we have in -laws, out -laws, blended families, divorced families, all of that kind of thing. So I would implore

to nail down what you’re celebrating, when you’re celebrating, and where you’re celebrating. So for us, we often don’t celebrate Thanksgiving just because we have four kids, some of them work retail, some of them, you know, they all have these schedules where it’s really hard for them to get away from work. And so we just say, you know what, stay with your families in the Bay Area and we’ll do something fun later

So we don’t really worry about Thanksgiving so much, but sometimes we’ll have friends or other family over and that’s great. But Christmas, Christmas needs to be decided. It’s great if it’s decided a year in advance. We often have everybody show up with their little phones and figure out dates. But if we can’t decide a year in advance, August is when you should be doing that. Because if you

If you have other adults coming to your house or you’re going to theirs, I think four months is a really good timeframe to start nailing all that down. makes a lot of sense. And we have one of our kids who’s like, I can’t plan that far in advance. I’m like, well, if you get a better offer, you go for it. But the rest of us, we need to know. So, you know, he’s never planned an adult family function in his life. So it’s okay.

Tonya Kubo (04:32.928)

Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (04:51.667)

Right, right well then

Kathi (04:52.452)

So what do you guys

Tonya Kubo (04:55.328)

Well, so we actually are the, how do I put this? Like we can’t, we have a core member of the family that will not be able to tell us when they can celebrate Christmas until sometime around December 15th and they are typically the host. So yeah, so we spent several years not spending Christmas or any holiday with family. We did friend.

Kathi (05:08.367)

Yes.

Kathi (05:13.596)

wow!

Tonya Kubo (05:22.486)

We had some friends and we would just spend holidays with them because they had a similar lifestyle to us. They needed to plan several months in advance. And so we would just book it out. But then as the kids get older, right, it’s harder to like explain why we’re not spending Christmas and Thanksgiving with aunts and uncles and grandparents and all of that stuff. So we try to be fluid, but to some degree there’s like, I can only be so fluid, right?

Kathi (05:49.742)

Right, right. Yeah, and I think that that’s okay to say this is what I’m able to do. So what I do in August, if I haven’t done it already, is say, here is the date range of when you can come hang out with us, and here’s the one day that if you can make it work great. If you can’t, let us know now. But if I don’t hear from you in the next few days, I’m going forward, no turning back.

to get that planted so other people can make their plans, so they can do their shop, so they can do all of that kind of stuff. They can figure out their New Year’s plans. Like we’re celebrating as a family the day after Christmas through the next couple of days. you’ve heard me give this advice a thousand times. You can have everybody celebrate together. You can celebrate on the actual date.

you can have people be happy about it. Pick two out of three. And my preference is to have us all together and people to be happy about it. I don’t care if it’s happening on the actual date, but if you can get that nailed down as soon as possible, I think that that is a really smart thing to

Tonya Kubo (06:58.892)

Mm -hmm. Right.

Tonya Kubo (07:09.082)

Awesome. Okay. So that is really good advice. You covered both the importance of ahead, but also how to handle it when it’s sticky, which is something I appreciate because of course, just because you have a need to plan ahead doesn’t mean everybody else has a need. What would be your second

Kathi (07:24.066)

Right. Okay, so while you’re getting together the date and the time and where, know, whose house it’s going to be at, I think it’s all really great to have that conversation about gift exchange. You know, maybe you guys already have a family or friends tradition that is, but also we had kids who were growing into adults and wanted to set the expectation

Tonya Kubo (07:50.348)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (07:53.852)

Early that hey, we don’t need 75 gifts from anybody, but also maybe as you guys get older We don’t need to give you 75 gifts So we’re pretty much at the place where we do three gifts for everybody except we have one teenager in our family And I’m like no we’re gonna buy her the things that she wants and so to just set that expectation also to set expectation with young adults about You know you do get your grandmother a gift

Come on, be a good human being. Like they, you know, they don’t know sometimes because they’ve always had mom and dad take care of it. And so is there, do you need to pull back on some of that? Maybe because somebody in the family is having some financial constraints. You know, what taking the temperature in August is better than announcing in December what you’re going to do. So do you have like

Tonya Kubo (08:23.82)

Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Tonya Kubo (08:48.609)

right.

Kathi (08:50.256)

family code when it comes to gift exchange or is it a free for

Tonya Kubo (08:54.723)

Well, so it’s been a free for all for years and this last year the extended family one of the cousins reached out and was just like it’s ridiculous. I do not want to carry all that stuff home ever again. And so they do a trellis. do a bowling day. In lieu of a gift. So everybody goes and bowls for half a day and then they go to somebody’s house and has dinner.

Kathi (09:07.567)

Yeah.

Kathi (09:11.92)

Mmm. Okay.

Tonya Kubo (09:19.49)

And that’s what they do. And the kids love it. It’s so much better than going home with 32 different bags that they can’t remember who gave them what. It’s just so much more

Kathi (09:30.106)

Yeah, you know, Tonya, you and I both have given birth to children who like to open gifts like that. That’s a big part of what they like. And I don’t want to take that away from them. But to be able to do an experience like that, I think that that is tremendous. And especially if that’s like a cool cousin or aunt or uncle, like, you know, then the kid that’s you’re forming core memories there. That is so, so, so

Tonya Kubo (09:36.096)

Yes.

Tonya Kubo (09:54.995)

Right. And of course, I mean, they still get Christmas gifts here. They still get presents at our house, right? It’s just not having that overwhelming

Kathi (09:59.364)

Yes. Yes.

Yes. I love it. I also think this is a good idea to start kind of putting in your mind when people ask you what you would like for Christmas to start coming up with that list, start making decisions and keeping track. If you’re the parent, maybe keeping track of some of the things that your kids have mentioned and to keep that as a curated list. So grandparents, know, aunts, uncles. And then also, I also like to just keep track of where

Tonya Kubo (10:12.098)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (10:32.74)

be a good gift card for that person. If I’m not coming up with anything specific, what can we do to make them feel just loved and appreciated? Tonya, I think we need to take a quick little break. We need to go pay some bills. We’re going to come back and we’re going to go with number three of our five decisions to make in August to have a less stressed holiday.

Tonya Kubo (10:45.73)

Okay.

Tonya Kubo (10:58.954)

All right, so we are back and Cathy, let’s just jump right into number

Kathi (11:04.718)

Yes. Okay. I think this is a great time for you to have a discussion with your spouse, your partner, your kids, your parents, whomever it is about the holiday budget. this money, money. People would rather talk about money than let’s just say for little ears who are listening, more intimate subjects that I consider more intimate subjects, but, they would rather talk about those more intimate subjects than money.

because money has so much dynamic that’s attached to it. But I think the further out you are from the holiday and gift buying, the easier it is to have those conversations. So have those conversations in August instead of October. And you will take a lot of stress off of people. I, you know, Roger and I will have a budget that includes

Tonya Kubo (11:47.33)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (12:03.66)

a couple of different categories like gifts, entertaining. Entertaining makes it sound fancy. Let’s just say food, okay? One of the core budget items you need to have if you’re married to Roger Lipp is lighting. We have to have a lighting budget each year. So creating those realistic budgets. And one of the things that I wanna talk to Roger about

Tonya Kubo (12:11.511)

Yeah.

Kathi (12:32.728)

August is to start doing kind of like a Christmas club thing Do you remember clip Christmas clubs from like the seven sixty seventies and they well you weren’t around for some of those decades, but Yeah, okay, so I grew up in a time where you could at your bank open a Christmas club account and Okay, okay you do okay, so tell me about that,

Tonya Kubo (12:43.754)

I was gonna say, no.

Tonya Kubo (12:52.885)

yeah, we have

Yeah, we do that. Yeah. So it’s just, it’s a direct deposit every month and it goes into an account and I have mine set up. the regular Christmas club, it dumps the money automatically into your account like Thanksgiving week. And then it’s everything that you’ve saved up for the last year gets dumped into your account Thanksgiving week. And then that’s your money to go Christmas shopping or do whatever. And ours has, you can do Christmas club and you can

vacation club, which your money gets dumped in the summertime. I don’t like the automatic dumping because sometimes I lose track of it, right? Or, you know, Brian goes, woo, windfall. And there went my Christmas budget. So I haven’t set up to where I manually move the money

Kathi (13:30.214)

Cool.

Kathi (13:36.56)

Mm -hmm.

Right

Kathi (13:47.106)

I like the manually moving because you can start to determine, you know, where are we going to put this? What categories are we going to put this into? I love that. Yeah. So I want to, that’s what I want to do next year is to this August say, okay, let’s start setting up, you know, let’s, let’s start in January of next year, start putting some money aside. I, know, Roger gets a bonus most years and that’s usually

Tonya Kubo (13:49.44)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (14:16.252)

Christmas comes out of. We don’t know that that’s happening this year. So we’re going to need to, you know, do some creative financing, but that’s okay. And I think it’s good to have a realistic budget. Not like I know that we spent $2 ,000 last year, but we need to keep it to 1000 this year. Like, is that really going to work for you? Or what major thing are you going to take out? Roger and I have decided this year not to do Christmas gifts for each other because

Tonya Kubo (14:29.036)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (14:43.962)

We want to take a trip next year, things like that. think that that is, you know, having those conversations now so you’re not disappointed when the time comes.

Tonya Kubo (14:53.876)

Right, and I’ll just add another one for families. I have several friends that they actually theme their Christmases, and so they alternate. So there’s an electronics Christmas, and then the next year is a reading Christmas. And they only do so many gifts per child, but so that they know they need a little bit more set aside for electronics Christmas, but they spend a lot less on reading Christmas. And so that helps them balance it

Kathi (14:56.302)

Yeah.

Kathi (15:04.467)

Kathi (15:08.562)

okay.

Kathi (15:12.582)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (15:23.55)

on a two year cycle. I love that idea. So I just feel the need to share that with everybody.

Kathi (15:25.24)

Mm, I love that. Yeah. I think that’s so great. Yes. We did, we, when my kids were growing up, we did more of like, okay, there was a reading gift, there were clothes gifts, and then there was that fun gift, which often had a plug. So yes, I think that that, I think having a theme helps you narrow your decisions and helps you pre -decide, which is what this, this whole episode is about. It’s pre

Tonya Kubo (15:37.782)

Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (15:52.566)

Right. Well, like you said earlier on, right? It’s about making sure that November you likes August version of you and isn’t like cursing the name of August version of you. So Kathi, we are at tip number four. Do you need me to recap? Cause you may have lost track. Okay.

Kathi (16:01.329)

Yes.

Right, absolutely.

Kathi (16:11.036)

No, I’m good. Number four is your Christmas card list. So here’s what I mean by that. Figure out how many Christmas cards you’re gonna send. So the first decision is, are you sending Christmas cards? And go for

Tonya Kubo (16:28.692)

And Kathy Lipp, can I say something right now? That is the best thing ever. That I read your Christmas project planner after my mom had died. And the year that my mom died, when I read that, that gave me permission not to send Christmas cards that year. And I needed that relief so much.

Kathi (16:46.62)

I’m so glad.

Kathi (16:51.45)

Yeah, you know what and here’s the Brilliant thing. It’s not a binary decision It’s not we are a christmas card family or we’re not a christmas card family We’re like an every other year christmas card family now We did send them last year and my plan is to send them this year because if you listen, you know a big thing that’s going on our life on in our lives

Moose has cancer and this is probably her last Christmas with us and I’m not crying and so I want to have a great picture with me and Roger and Moose for our Christmas card and so I’m probably gonna send them this year and even on the years I don’t send them I love receiving them so I’m honored if I’m on your Christmas card list but I also understand the years where I don’t hear from you for a couple of years because life got in the

Tonya Kubo (17:18.028)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (17:45.518)

So I think it’s really a great idea in August because can we just say in December trying to send Christmas cards out, like Christmas is a part -time job.

Tonya Kubo (17:57.983)

It is.

Kathi (17:59.469)

And do we really need administrative tasks in December? No, no. So if you can, just get the list together. We’re talk about the cards and everything like that. But just decide if you’re gonna send them and be okay with not sending them. The other thing you can do, okay, Tonya, I will also say this. If you have some people in your family or like aunts or uncles or grandparents,

Tonya Kubo (18:04.266)

No, no, we do

Kathi (18:29.244)

like they live for the Christmas card, you can also buy a pack of like 10 Christmas cards and just send five of them and it’ll be okay. So you sent Christmas cards to these five people who it really means something to and that’s okay. Yes. I do believe that you will not be arrested. Yes, I do believe.

Tonya Kubo (18:41.372)

What?

Tonya Kubo (18:48.047)

I don’t know. Are you sure? Are you

Tonya Kubo (18:54.3)

okay. That reminds me of Abby. Abby will say, is that legal? Yes, yes, there is no law against not sending Christmas cards or only sending part

Kathi (18:58.926)

Right? Right. Yes, it

Tonya Kubo (00:20.329)

All right, Kathy. So I think we are ready for tip number

Kathi (00:25.942)

Okay, so this is like we’re thinking ahead about the Christmas card list. I also want you to think about the Christmas gift list. Like who are you actually giving gifts to this year? And are there people that maybe it’s time to have a discussion, hey, you know, we keep exchanging Amazon gift cards every year. What if we just went to dinner?

Or what if, you know, like I would rather spend time with you than to feel that obligation. And because I love you, don’t need a gift from you to be, now there are people in our lives we wanna do gifts for, our kids, maybe our parents, brothers, whatever. But get realistic about your Christmas card list. Do you have teachers from your kid’s school that you need to give to? Are there, you know,

Tonya Kubo (01:03.873)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (01:24.)

I also, I’ll put in this and in the Christmas budget some big tips that I give. Like we have a house cleaner that comes, you know, a couple of times a month. That I want to give a big tip to them. We have somebody who comes and helps with chopping down trees and things like that here on the property. We’re going to give them a big tip. Maybe it’s your hairdresser, maybe it’s your nail person. Like I give a big tip to the people who are loyal to me all year and who fit me in.

Tonya Kubo (01:38.135)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (01:53.614)

when it’s inconvenient. Because I want to stay on the nice list, not the naughty list. So do you need to have some hard conversations or maybe not hard conversations? Maybe you’re giving some freedom to people, but there’s advantages to early gift planning. Could you stock up on some things early on? Like I think about this, we’re big believers in stockings. We

Tonya Kubo (01:55.52)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (01:59.515)

Right. Exactly.

Tonya Kubo (02:12.884)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (02:22.135)

Mm -hmm.

Kathi (02:22.724)

We like to do stockings for everybody in the family and we do stockings for every animal in the family. And so if I can buy those things, and we’ve got bunnies, we didn’t do them for all the chickens, but we do them for the dogs. Yeah, the quad pets, those are the ones that we’re doing it for. So I wanna get those things not in December. Let’s get those things early and so it’s not impacting us quite so much.

Tonya Kubo (02:35.703)

can understand that.

Kathi (02:50.36)

and I can start wrapping early and things like that. this is also a good time to keep track, to keep a list because it’s easy to forget what you’ve bought when you have a lot of kids and maybe they have their partners and they have their kids and all that kind of stuff. So starting a list either in your phone or an Excel spreadsheet or however you do it. Do you have any ideas for a Christmas gift?

creating the list.

Tonya Kubo (03:18.761)

Yes. Yeah, we all have a Google Doc and we just use the Google Doc all year long. And then when holidays come up, we know what to lean into. And, you know, we’ll have the girls prioritize like a little bit before the holiday. So we have a sense. But it’s really, really nice, especially when they’re younger, to just let them have a place where they can dream and then bring them back down to reality when it comes closer to the day.

Kathi (03:23.114)

okay.

Kathi (03:43.694)

Yeah. She’s speaking from experience because as we’ve recorded this, Sunday was a grand birthday in the Kubo home and there was a lot of dreaming and a lot of bringing back down to earth. But you know what? That’s what we do as parents. We give them wings and then we help them land safely.

Tonya Kubo (03:54.077)

Yes, it was a grand birthday.

Tonya Kubo (03:59.755)

Yes.

Tonya Kubo (04:05.549)

Yes. Okay. So Kathy, we have our five tips. I just want to recap them really quick for everybody. So these are our five August decisions for stress -free holiday. And this is part one. We’ve got five more coming up, don’t we? So the first decision is when and where will you have your holiday gatherings? The second is planning those gift exchanges.

Kathi (04:13.583)

Yeah.

Kathi (04:20.248)

Yes. That’s right, baby.

Tonya Kubo (04:34.391)

Who are we buying gifts for? Who’s buying gifts for us? What do we want to do? A little bit of spoiler alert if you’re just catching us. You know what? Do an experience. It’s just easier on everybody. Number three is set your holiday budget early. The further away that you are from the holiday, the less emotional it is. And I loved your tip, Cathy, about the Christmas club, right? Having a savings account that just manages the Christmas budget for you so you don’t have to stress about it.

Kathi (04:44.803)

It is easier.

Tonya Kubo (05:03.853)

Tip number four was your Christmas card list. Start that now, get the addresses now. Don’t do admin tasks a couple of weeks before Christmas. And then finally, along with don’t do admin tasks two weeks before Christmas is let’s get your Christmas gift list going. Now, if you are like me, Kathy, if our listeners are like me, it is hard to keep track of these things. Right now in August, this sounds brilliant, but I’m probably listening to this show on the way to somewhere else. So I cannot write these tips down.

So here’s what I think we should do. I think we should gather together all tips after our next episode and we should have a download for folks that they can find inside Clutterfree Academy, which is our free Facebook group open to all of our listeners and a few of their friends so long as they’re nice. And we will just so that everybody knows what to look for. It’s gonna be called 10 decisions to make in August for a less stressed holiday.

and you’ll find that inside our Clutterfree Academy Facebook group. And the link of that is gonna be in the show notes. Anything you wanna add, Cathy?

Kathi (06:08.336)

Yeah, if you’re saying, I’m gonna go be a part of that group, just know you have to answer a couple of questions before we let you in there. Lots of people apply and they skip over the questions, but we wanna keep that the kindest corner of the internet, and so we’re gonna make you answer the questions. So you have to read the rules, but come in there, you’re gonna find 15 ,000 of your new best friends, and you’re gonna all get clutter free together. Tonya, thank you so much for hosting us today.

Tonya Kubo (06:24.375)

Mm -hmm.

Tonya Kubo (06:37.675)

I am so happy to have been doing this. Thank you for having me, Kathy.

Kathi (06:41.84)

Friends join us next week for those other five tips because they really are going to make a difference You know we are going to take care of our future selves and the first way we’re going to do that is to get over the holiday hump with a lot of love a lot of fun and some cocoa, so I’m Kathy lip with Tonya Kubo.

Thank you for joining us. You’ve been listening to Clutterfree Academy. Now, go create the clutter free life you’ve always wanted to live.

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#596 Your Holiday Gameplan When You’re Low on Money

by | Dec 19, 2023 | Christmas, Clutter Free Podcast, Decorating, Gifting, Overwhelmed, Podcast | 0 comments

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596 – Your Holiday Gameplan When You’re Low on Money

 

Do you feel like Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year…until you look at your bank account?

Kathi Lipp and her co-host Deanna Day Young have clever, creative, and clutter-free answers to the question, “How can I celebrate the holidays and not overspend?” In this episode, Kathi and Deanna gift us with ten tips to keep the cost of Christmas down and the enjoyment up.

They have ideas to help enjoy the holidays such as:

  • How to use experiences as gift ideas.
  • How to involve those you love in your decisions.
  • And Kathi and Deanna share a brilliant surprise when giving gift cards!

 Sign up here to be notified when the next episode is released.

Did you miss the first three episodes of this series? You can find them here:

Your Holiday Gameplan When You’re Low on Space

Your Holiday Gameplan When You’re Low on Time

Your Holiday Gameplan When You’re Low on Energy

The Accidental Homesteader: What I’ve Learned About Chickens, Compost, and Creating Home

Homesteading [hohm-sted-ing]
noun
1. an act or instance of establishing a homestead.
2. the act of loving where you live so much that you actively ignore the fact that your house is trying to kill you on a regular basis.

For Kathi Lipp and her husband, Roger, buying a house in one of the most remote parts of Northern California was never part of the plan; many of life’s biggest, most rewarding adventures rarely are.

Kathi shares the hard-won wisdom she’s gained on her homestead journey to help you accomplish more at home, gain fresh perspective, and give yourself grace in the process. Here’s a handful of the lessons Kathi shares:

  • Prepare before the need arises
  • Everything is always in process, including us
  • Your best household solution is time and patience
  • You don’t have to do everything the hard way
  • Be open to new and better ways of doing things
  • A lot of small changes make a huge difference.
    Highly practical, humorous, and inspirational, The Accidental Homesteader will encourage you to live with more peace, joy, and contentment.

Order your copy of The Accidental Homesteader: What I’ve Learned About Chickens, Compost, and Creating Home here.

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Deanna Day Young 

 

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Meet Our Guest 

 

Deanna Day Young

Deanna lives in southeast Indiana on the Young family farm with her husband of 35 years. She and Roger have two grown daughters.

Deanna is the Director of Operations for Iron Timbers, a family-owned custom furniture business featured currently, and for several years, on HGTV’s Good Bones show. Prior to this position, she was a paralegal and managed the international trademark portfolio for 34 years for the Hill-Rom division of Baxter International. Deanna has a degree in Journalism and Speech Communications from Ball State University and a Paralegal Certification from Saint Mary of the Woods College.

Fun Fact – Deanna and her daughter are also Chi Omega sorority sisters!! Hoot Hoot.

You can connect with Deanna at deannadayyoung.com

Transcript

Kathi (00:05.579)
Well, hey friends, welcome to Clutterfree Academy where our goal is to help you take small doable steps to live every day with less clutter and more life. And I am back with Deanna Day Young and we are talking all things Christmas, the holidays, and.

This is our series, your holiday game plan when you’re running low on blank. So we’ve already done space, time, energy. Here’s the one that I think a lot of people are going to identify with, money. When you’re running low on money, what can you do to still enjoy the holidays without breaking the bank? So Deanna, I’m gonna start us off.

Deanna Day Young (00:47.324)
Great.

Kathi (00:57.839)
And you and I each have five ideas. We’re gonna go back and forth. So number one, I feel like this is the most important one for me as I’ve done this, is to contact friends and family that you’re exchanging gifts with or that you typically exchange gifts with and set spending limits or maybe just say, can we have a pass this year? Deanna, have you ever done that? You have?

Deanna Day Young (01:23.518)
Yes, yes we did. So I have a group of friends that there are four of us that we’ve done this probably the last four or five years. We said no Christmas gifts and we go and we do an experience which actually leads to my number one or my number

you know, our next one, it’ll be my number one, our number two on our list of 10, is yes, we have done like where we will say we’re gonna go to Cracker Barrel altogether, or we’ll pick a restaurant. And have you heard of like, a lot of people have done this in the past where you go and you give an extra large tip, you prepare.

Kathi (02:01.388)
Oh, I have, yes.

Deanna Day Young (02:02.022)
And so like, yeah, so we have done this the last couple of years and it’s been so much fun. But we’ve also done before where we say we’re gonna take a spa day. So nobody’s gonna buy anybody gifts and then we just go somewhere and we do a spa day. And so it’s just really fun to do that.

Kathi (02:19.671)
Yeah, and I understand if you’re running low on money, you may be like, oh, a spa day. But here’s the thing, oftentimes you could do some of that stuff at home or you need to get your nails done anyway. Like that’s something you were planning on doing anyway. You know, Deanna, one of those things like, and we’re onto number two, brainstorm a list of fun and free things to do with those you love.

Deanna Day Young (02:33.462)
Right.

Mm-hmm.

Kathi (02:48.855)
We’ve done a cookie day where everybody comes to one person’s house and what we do is we either prepare in our own homes and then we bring enough cookie dough of our recipe so everybody can take some home and then we have we bake one um one batch of it so we all get to taste it or yeah

Deanna Day Young (03:09.134)
That’s good.

Deanna Day Young (03:15.359)
That’s good.

Kathi (03:16.843)
And so everybody has cookie dough to bring home that they can do for their family or they can give as gifts. Isn’t that a fun idea? But think about something that you would naturally be doing other ways. But Deanna, let me go back to the spending limits. You have to talk about those in advance. So maybe you can’t do it for this year, but you say, hey, for next year, could we do…

Deanna Day Young (03:23.894)
That’s a great idea!

Deanna Day Young (03:42.561)
Yes.

Kathi (03:45.119)
$50 limit per family or you know what could we just exchange for the kids? you know or Guys, you know instead of buying me gifts, you know what I could really use this year there are a couple of big packs at Costco of like flour or Macaroni and cheese, you know like get specific people would love I remember one year my friend I said, what do you want for Christmas and

Deanna Day Young (03:50.475)
Mm-hmm.

Deanna Day Young (04:06.925)
Yeah.

Kathi (04:13.499)
Traditionally, you know Roger and I have had more money. She’s a single mom. She goes I would like a Costco pack of toilet paper She goes I’m so tired of running to the store paying too much and I’m like, I think we can do that for you So we did toilet paper towels And a couple of food things and it was so fun and she baked us cookies It was the perfect exchange, but you have some other ideas here of things that you can do that are free

Deanna Day Young (04:37.41)
That’s awesome.

Kathi (04:43.223)
Right? Tell me about those.

Deanna Day Young (04:43.262)
Right, yes. So, yeah, my number two is do experiences together with friends and family for Christmas. And they are, these are some ideas that are free or very, very low in cost. And so number one was PJs and pancakes. I did this with one of my groups up at church, and there’s, I think there’s six of us in our group. And so what we did is they came to my house in their pajamas or their sweatpants, whatever they were comfortable in. And…

Kathi (05:09.391)
Perfect. Yeah.

Deanna Day Young (05:11.946)
We made, I made pancakes and they each brought like a topping. I can’t even remember now, cause we did this a couple of years ago. I think somebody brought chocolate chips. Somebody brought fruit. Somebody brought a couple of different kinds of syrup. And then we just sat and we had pancakes together. And then we watched a Christmas movie. So no, yeah, it was, it was great. And we were done by, I think we were done by 11 o’clock. And then everybody had the rest of that Saturday to do.

Kathi (05:29.691)
Perfect. In the morning. I love that.

Kathi (05:40.105)
Perfect.

Deanna Day Young (05:40.454)
I’ve done things like that too with, you know, like with another friend where we say, you know what, let’s just spend the day together at one another’s houses. And we do the same thing. We love brownies. So we each brought our own kinds of brownies and then swatched those off. She loves, she always makes Ghirardelli like triple chocolate brownies, you know.

Kathi (05:50.115)
Yeah.

Deanna Day Young (06:02.282)
And then I have another kind of brownies just from a box that we make. And then we just sat and watched a couple different Christmas movies. We drank hot chocolate with our little candy cane in there. And we just had a day together that didn’t cost us any money.

Kathi (06:15.475)
I love that so much. And you’ve also done cookie baking exchanges with friends and things like that. You know what? So here’s what I am going to do with three of my friends this year. I haven’t proposed it. I’m usually the instigator of these things, but one of our friends in this group is financially, it’s really tough right now. But we are all authors and we’re all book lovers. And what I’m going to suggest this year,

Deanna Day Young (06:22.795)
Yes.

Deanna Day Young (06:42.679)
Yes.

Kathi (06:45.495)
That you take the three books off your shelf that you think the other three people would love So I can you know, it’s not buying everybody the same book, but it’s saying oh, I think Friend number one would love this book and I’ve already read it. So it’s not spending any money it’s just saying here’s the one I think you’ll love

Kathi

Okay, this is number three. Do you really need new wrapping paper?

Deanna Day Young (09:41.951)
Okay.

Deanna Day Young (09:46.882)
They did, you know.

Kathi (10:02.287)
Do you really need new ribbons? Do you really need new tags? Or do you just want new? Which is totally fine, I get it. So if you really want something new, you can limit it to one. Or go to the dollar store and see if there’s wrapping paper. But I’m really gonna challenge you if you’re really being careful about money this year, can you use what you already have? Can you use the paper you already have?

And here’s another thing I would say, look through like your birthday paper too, because you might just have some red stuff that’s hanging around or some green stuff or white. There are a million different things that you can put that on with. And I have turned birthday wrap into Christmas wrap by tying a little pine branch on it to just make it look cuter. So you can absolutely do that. Okay.

Deanna Day Young (10:54.826)
Oh yeah, absolutely.

Kathi (11:00.652)
Number four, Deanna.

Deanna Day Young (11:02.802)
It leads right into my number four. It’s all in the presentation. So my friends laugh at that, but I have said that for years and years. It’s all in the presentation. And so it doesn’t have to cost a lot, but it’s how you present it in a very special way. So let’s use, for example, a pedicure in a jar.

Kathi (11:06.315)
OK. Yes.

Deanna Day Young (11:24.086)
You could give that, you take a ball jar, you can put in a dollar pair of socks that you get, well the Dollar Tree is now 125, but a dollar 25 pair of socks, along with, you can buy those whole pedicure little kits at the Dollar Tree for a dollar 25, separate those out. So in your pedicure jar, you’ve got your socks, you’ve got all your different things for a pedicure, get a

couple maybe little fingernail and toenail jars and put that down in there or the fingernail polish and put that in there as well. Put the lid on the jar and wrap a ribbon around it. You may only have four or five dollars in that gift, but when you present it, because you’ve given it as the presentation, it looks like it is more. Another idea that I love to do, which kind of goes back to do you need more gift wrap,

is I’ve given cookbooks before, or this year we could give the accidental homesteader book as a gift, and instead of buying paper to go with that, use a dishcloth perhaps to wrap that. That’s part of the gift, and then maybe put a spatula on top, which those you can also get very inexpensive, like at the Dollar Tree, and then maybe put a spatula on top that makes it look like it’s a packaged topper. And so you really are

Kathi (12:29.314)
Hahaha

Kathi (12:39.088)
Yeah.

Deanna Day Young (12:52.098)
There’s a whole lot of good that comes in that. You’re giving a gift that’s a little bit less expensive. It’s in the presentation. And everything that you’re using to give in the presentation can be used as a gift.

Kathi (13:05.467)
I love that. It’s so good. It’s so good and it’s so true You know and oftentimes I never want to give somebody else my junk But I have a lot of good stuff in my house that I do I’ve never used you know Somebody’s given it to me or I bought a packet. You know like the ball jars you were talking about You know, I’ve got

Deanna Day Young (13:17.302)
Yes.

Deanna Day Young (13:30.601)
Mm-hmm.

Kathi (13:31.759)
these giant ball jars that I’m just not using right now. Like that would be such a great thing. Not everything has to come with a receipt. But it’s all about the presentation and the thought behind it, 100%. Okay, for me, number five is meal plan. This is a great time to spend as little as you can on non-holiday meals by using up what’s in your pantry, your freezer, your fridge,

Deanna Day Young (13:40.726)
Yeah, that’s right.

Deanna Day Young (13:45.58)
Yes.

Deanna Day Young (13:52.731)
Definitely.

Kathi (14:01.211)
putting your food budget towards those fancier holiday meals. I follow somebody on TikTok. It’s called, she’s called Dollar Store Meals. And she really, she is so good about going to the Dollar Store because that is the most popular store in the United States. Like there are more of those than Walmart, than Target, than any of those. Because they’re often in rural areas like mine.

Deanna Day Young (14:11.744)
Mmm.

Deanna Day Young (14:23.651)
Oh.

Kathi (14:30.311)
And she says, you know, here’s how to buy a week’s worth of groceries for $20. And she’s done holiday meals beforehand. And so like with like a ham steak and things like that. And so just see what can you do with, you know, can you budget and use up the things you have that are in your pantries, in your freezer.

Deanna Day Young (14:30.379)
Yes.

Deanna Day Young (14:36.212)
Yes.

Kathi (14:56.575)
so that later on you can do a little bit more with your holidays. And that also makes sure that your food doesn’t go to waste. Okay, we’re gonna take a quick break. We’re gonna come right back and Deanna’s gonna talk to us all about listening. We are going to want to, if we can listen and save a few bucks, it’s a good day. Okay, we’ll be right back.

Deanna Day Young (15:01.174)
Yes, that’s great.

Kathi (15:22.711)
Okay, we are back with Deanna Day Young and we are talking about how to save money during the holidays. Okay, Deanna, number six.

Deanna Day Young (15:30.846)
Number six for me is listen to what people like, what they want, what they enjoy. Maybe it’s something memorable from the past. And so like, what could you go back and do and perhaps get something that may not cost any money? So let’s just, so listen to them throughout the year. And maybe it’s like for me, my neighbor, she’s 83, I think it is, and she said,

I never go out and look at Christmas lights anymore. She’s widowed now, her kids don’t live here. She has one granddaughter that she doesn’t get to see a lot because she lives a little bit far away, but now she has her own daughter. She’s like, I just really miss going out and seeing Christmas lights and she doesn’t drive after dark. So last year I said, you know what we’re gonna do for Christmas?

Kathi (16:23.076)
Right.

Deanna Day Young (16:27.466)
we’re gonna go drive around and we’re gonna look at Christmas lights. And that’s exactly what we did. We went and we had dinner together at a local restaurant. And then we went out and I drove her around to three different local towns. And we just looked at Christmas lights. Wherever she wanted to go, like she said, I know so and so lives here and they usually have Christmas lights. So we just drove and looked at that. Otherwise we had a little map.

Kathi (16:53.884)
Oh, perfect.

Deanna Day Young (16:56.322)
from our local bank, and they have like a little place, you know, almost like a little scavenger hunt, that you can go and look at different Christmas lights. So we followed that map, and it went into three different local towns, and that was one of her best gifts that she said that she remembers. It was just time that we were able to spend together, but I wouldn’t have thought of that, but I listened to her. I listened to her say, I don’t drive after dark. I listened to her say, I haven’t seen Christmas lights.

Kathi (16:56.558)
Yeah.

Yes.

Kathi (17:02.915)
Yeah.

Kathi (17:16.216)
Yes.

Kathi (17:23.555)
Yeah.

Deanna Day Young (17:26.218)
in a lot of years because of that reason and because she’s widowed and didn’t have anyone to take her around. So that was her Christmas gift from me this last year was just really the gift of time and getting to do something that she always wanted to do for the last several years but wasn’t able to.

Kathi (17:44.467)
I love it and you know we do that every year with my mom and it’s one of her favorite things one of our favorite things It’s amazing Okay And it’s free. You know, I know gas costs money little snackies but you can also like we used to do bring a thermos of decaf coffee or of Hot chocolate and then bake some cookies and you are ready to rock and roll. Okay number four

Deanna Day Young (17:59.242)
Yeah.

Deanna Day Young (18:04.932)
Exactly.

Yep.

Deanna Day Young (18:11.534)
That’s right.

Kathi (18:13.207)
I will say make your travel plans now. So, oh, I’m sorry, thank you. Okay, number seven, make your travel plans as early as possible. Get those hotel reservations if you need it. Get those Airbnb. You pay for a lack of planning. I pay for a lack of planning on a regular basis.

Deanna Day Young (18:15.99)
Number seven, Kathy.

Deanna Day Young (18:21.462)
Hehehe

Deanna Day Young (18:35.502)
Mm-hmm.

Kathi (18:39.291)
And I’m not doing it anymore. I’m taking a look at my calendar months in advance if I can’t. But make those reservations early. You will have more choices. You’ll have more flexibility. And also, you’ll know what you’re getting into. Roger and I are going to an Airbnb next week. And I’m like, do they have a coffee maker? These are important things to know. And they don’t.

So I’ve got a mini coffee maker I am bringing with me so I can save money instead of going out to Starbucks and doing those kind of things. No we’re bringing we’re DIYing it and especially if you’re driving you can do that. We’re flying. So you know how committed I am to this coffee plan. But yeah why do places exist without coffee? I don’t understand. But make your pro your plans as early as possible and know what the situation is so that you can accommodate for that.

Deanna Day Young (19:10.059)
Uh-huh.

Deanna Day Young (19:22.026)
That’s right.

Kathi (19:36.127)
Okay, number eight, Deanna.

Deanna Day Young (19:39.434)
Number eight is to ship directly including, to save, excuse me, ship directly with gift cards included to save on shipping to far away people. So if you wanna give a gift to someone that is not going to be in person, ship it to them directly so that it saves on your shipping cost to you and then you going and shipping it to them, if possible. Sometimes, you know,

Kathi (20:05.977)
Right.

Deanna Day Young (20:10.07)
you want to include something that you’re getting. That’s obviously reasonable. But gift cards, so last year our daughter wasn’t able to come home for Christmas. So we’re like, what can we do to get her, these different things that she really did want, well, or we thought maybe she might like. And so I even purchased gift cards online.

that were sent directly to her. So you can purchase the gift card online, but then it will say what email address do you wanna use? And then I just put her email address into it. So then the gift card went directly to her. It was for a local spa. So I just went in there and she lives in Michigan. And so I just went in there and I bought the gift card, but the email address went directly to her. So we didn’t even, you know,

Kathi (20:47.919)
Yes.

Kathi (20:55.366)
Oh nice.

Deanna Day Young (21:07.974)
I mean, we didn’t even have to get a card and send it in the mail. The other thing for us, we are a little nervous of sending gift cards in the mail during holiday times. People can feel that there are gift cards in there. So that’s something to think about. But as this podcast is on how we can save money, if there’s a way to ship directly for somebody who’s not gonna be there in person with you, it’s a great idea to do that so that you don’t pay double shipping.

Kathi (21:16.46)
Yeah.

Kathi (21:35.351)
Yeah, I love that. And I’ll tell you something that we did for a friend who lives very far away. We were all, a bunch of us were sending her gift cards and through the email. Excuse me, through email. But we wanted it to be a surprise. So we set up a Yahoo account for her that said,

Deanna Day Young (22:02.42)
Oh!

Kathi (22:03.023)
her name, Christine, and then we put some random numbers after it, at yahoo.com, and we sent them all there. And then we gave her the password to that email address, and she was able to redeem all of those. Isn’t that? And it doesn’t cost you a thing. It’s super simple, super easy. I think it was actually a Gmail account, but it doesn’t matter. It worked out perfectly. OK. I’m going to continue with the gift card theme.

Deanna Day Young (22:15.074)
That’s awesome! I love that! It’s a great idea! It doesn’t! Oh!

Deanna Day Young (22:28.298)
Yeah, I love that.

Kathi (22:32.587)
And this is gonna sound a little scraggly, but stick with me, okay? 80% of Americans have gift cards that they have not redeemed for a year or longer. What if, you know, like I have GameStop gift cards. Deanna, why do I have GameStop gift cards? I have no clue. I’m guessing.

Deanna Day Young (22:33.247)
Okay.

Deanna Day Young (22:37.671)
I’m with you.

Deanna Day Young (22:57.416)
I’m not sure.

Kathi (23:00.399)
that like when we moved we were cleaning out drawers and these were ones that our boys had received. But can I now use those GameStop gift cards to buy my son the game he wants? Could I now use some of those Starbucks cards to send a pound of coffee to somebody that I love? Okay, I probably won’t do that because I use all the Starbucks gift cards. Let’s be super clear. But.

Deanna Day Young (23:13.867)
Yes.

Kathi (23:28.619)
You know, I’ve received Tarpa, excuse me, target gift cards for rebates, like $5 rebates. Those add up and I can use those to send a gift card. So if you have some scraggly gift cards, use those to send a gift to, you know, somebody that somebody was very sweet and bought you a spa gift card, but you’re not going to use it. That’s not your spa doesn’t take that, whatever it is.

Deanna Day Young (23:36.17)
Yeah. Right.

Deanna Day Young (23:42.635)
Yes.

Deanna Day Young (23:53.141)
Mm-hmm.

Deanna Day Young (23:56.586)
Mm-hmm.

Kathi (23:58.255)
for somebody in your life who would love a spa gift card. I will say check to make sure that you, that there is money on that gift card. I’ll never forget, Roger received a pound of Godiva one time with a $50 Barnes and Noble gift card on it. The gift card had no money. Which I, we think.

Deanna Day Young (24:01.743)
Oh, that’s great.

Deanna Day Young (24:21.318)
Oh shoot!

Kathi (24:23.227)
that, you know, we don’t know what happened. And he wasn’t close enough to the person to say, did you mean that? He just said, thank you effusively and moved on. But dig through your gift cards. We had a lot of movie gift cards that we bought right before the pandemic and then we couldn’t use. Now we can use those to buy movie gift certificates for people we love. It’s a great way to go. Yeah, yeah. Okay, number 10, Deanna.

Deanna Day Young (24:46.826)
Yes, that’s great. That really is. That’s very good.

Kathi (24:53.347)
Bring us home with this entire series!

Deanna Day Young (24:56.474)
Okay, how to save money during the holidays here. We’re gonna look into our closets. So don’t buy new clothes, but rather make a game out of what’s in your closet. I have done this for years. When I worked at my old job, oh my gosh, it just became a game for us. I started the day after Thanksgiving, and I tried to go the entire time of not doing the same outfit. Doesn’t mean the same thing, but the same outfit for all the days.

Kathi (25:08.14)
Yeah.

Deanna Day Young (25:25.238)
to incorporate Christmas. Now, that doesn’t mean that I have 30 Christmas sweaters. That means that maybe I have a Christmas scarf. Maybe I wear a red turtleneck one day. Maybe I wear a green sweater another day. Bring in pins. I used to collect pins. And when I minimized those and decluttered my pins I didn’t wear, I did keep my Christmas ones. So maybe I have a big angel pin.

Kathi (25:31.468)
Right.

Deanna Day Young (25:54.442)
that I wear different necklaces that are red or maybe it has a Christmas pendant on it or earrings that have Christmas on it. So don’t think that you have to buy a new Christmas outfit. I used to think that years ago, but we don’t have to have new Christmas outfits. Find a way to put what you have together to make a new outfit for you and then just make a game out of it.

Kathi (26:11.066)
Yeah.

Kathi (26:18.058)
Yeah.

Deanna Day Young (26:22.83)
as in one of the podcasts that we did here, I can’t remember which one, if it was on saving space, but you were talking about the outfits that we wear, have your holiday go-to outfit. You don’t have to wear different outfits everywhere you go. You can have that holiday go-to outfit or look in your closet like I’m saying, put things together, make yourself a new outfit from the things that you already have.

Kathi (26:38.756)
No.

Kathi (26:49.251)
Yes, because you’re not going to see the same people at different places So you can wear that same outfit over and over and over again And let me just also remind you because this is a decluttering podcast My my biggest tip is if when you’re going through those Christmas sweaters or I’ve got a lot of long-sleeve Christmas shirts That just have like a saying, you know, jolly everywhere or something like that If you’re not wearing them anymore

Deanna Day Young (26:55.394)
That’s right.

Deanna Day Young (27:13.258)
Yeah.

Kathi (27:17.295)
donate them right away. Somebody is going to love that for their Christmas outfit, especially if you have kids that have Christmas clothing. Donate it, somebody is going to be thrilled. Deanna, this has been such a great series. Thank you so much for hanging out with me.

Deanna Day Young (27:18.976)
right?

Deanna Day Young (27:33.353)
So much fun. Thank you for letting me.

Kathi (27:35.659)
And friends, if you’ve enjoyed this series, would you consider giving us a five star rating wherever you listen to podcasts? Maybe it’s Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you love your podcasts. Those ratings help more than you know. And I’ll just tell you, we super appreciate them. You’ve been listening to Clutterfree Academy, I’m Cathy Lip. And now go create the clutter free life you were always intended to live.

Woohoo!

Deanna Day Young (28:02.999)
DED

 

More Posts 

#595 Your Holiday Gameplan When You’re Low on Energy

#595 Your Holiday Gameplan When You’re Low on Energy

by | Dec 12, 2023 | Christmas, Clutter Free Podcast, Decorating, Gifting, Overwhelmed, Podcast | 0 comments

Listen Now

595 – Your Holiday Gameplan When You’re Low on Energy

Kathi and her guest Deanna Day Young are returning for part three of their discussion on how to design your holiday gameplan! This week they are helping us know what to do when we are low on energy.

Listen in as they share ten ideas that will help us all to:

  • Think through what is most important.
  • Set realistic expectations.
  • Divide responsibility among family members.
  • Take care of ourselves.
  • Use our resources wisely.

Next week Kathi and Deanna will finish the series by talking about what to do when you’re low on money. Sign up here to be notified when the next episode is released. Did you miss the first two episodes of this series? You can find them here:

Your Holiday Gameplan When You’re Low on Space

Your Holiday Gameplan When You’re Low on Time

 

 

The Accidental Homesteader: What I’ve Learned About Chickens, Compost, and Creating Home

Homesteading [hohm-sted-ing]
noun
1. an act or instance of establishing a homestead.
2. the act of loving where you live so much that you actively ignore the fact that your house is trying to kill you on a regular basis.

For Kathi Lipp and her husband, Roger, buying a house in one of the most remote parts of Northern California was never part of the plan; many of life’s biggest, most rewarding adventures rarely are.

Kathi shares the hard-won wisdom she’s gained on her homestead journey to help you accomplish more at home, gain fresh perspective, and give yourself grace in the process. Here’s a handful of the lessons Kathi shares:

  • Prepare before the need arises
  • Everything is always in process, including us
  • Your best household solution is time and patience
  • You don’t have to do everything the hard way
  • Be open to new and better ways of doing things
  • A lot of small changes make a huge difference.
    Highly practical, humorous, and inspirational, The Accidental Homesteader will encourage you to live with more peace, joy, and contentment.

Order your copy of The Accidental Homesteader: What I’ve Learned About Chickens, Compost, and Creating Home here.

Links Mentioned:

Deanna Day Young 

The Christmas Project Planner

Apple Hill in Placerville, California

Ace Hardware

Costco Holiday Paper Plates

Favorites:

Learn more about Clutter Free for Life

Which tip that Kathi and Deanna gave is most helpful to you when you feel low on energy? Share your answer in the comments.

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Meet Our Guest 

 

Deanna Day Young

Deanna lives in southeast Indiana on the Young family farm with her husband of 35 years. She and Roger have two grown daughters.

Deanna is the Director of Operations for Iron Timbers, a family-owned custom furniture business featured currently, and for several years, on HGTV’s Good Bones show. Prior to this position, she was a paralegal and managed the international trademark portfolio for 34 years for the Hill-Rom division of Baxter International. Deanna has a degree in Journalism and Speech Communications from Ball State University and a Paralegal Certification from Saint Mary of the Woods College.

Fun Fact – Deanna and her daughter are also Chi Omega sorority sisters!! Hoot Hoot.

You can connect with Deanna at deannadayyoung.com

Transcript

Kathi (00:04.387)

Well, hey friends, welcome to Clutter Free Academy where our goal is to help you take small doable steps to live every day with less clutter and more life. And I am back for part three of our series,

about your holiday gameplan when you’re low on energy. And I have been there, Deanna, how about you? Have you been there? You, you’ve got a broken foot right now. You are healing. Ankle, sorry, ankle, yes. And that, can we just say, when you break a bone, when you break anything, it’s exhausting, right?

Deanna Day Young (00:46.21)

Oh, absolutely.

Deanna Day Young (00:50.318)

I’m glad to work an ankle. I am healing. Mm-hmm.

Deanna Day Young (01:01.287)

Oh, it is abs and for me, not being able to walk is worse. I mean, everybody has a this was the worst. This was the worst. But man, not being able to walk to me is just yeah, it’s pretty tough. So it does zap your energy both physically and mentally to have to go through those things. But I think also for the purpose of our conversation today, sometimes our energy is that because we put too many things into our schedules and we’re trying to do all the things when the holidays roll around. So hopefully we’ll give everybody 10 tips to try and help with that energy.

Kathi (01:30.201)

Yeah.

Kathi (01:38.915)

Well, it’s so true because we have our regular life, which does not stop. And then we’re trying to put this part-time plus job on top of it with holidays. So I wanna talk about this. Okay, so my number one tip is assign everyone a meal to cook for your celebrations. Now, this could be my son who doesn’t cook, this could be him bringing KFC for everybody. I do not care.

Deanna Day Young (01:44.118)

Absolutely.

Deanna Day Young (01:50.74)

Right.

Deanna Day Young (01:58.976)

Love it.

Deanna Day Young (02:09.759)

I love that, I love it.

Kathi (02:09.931)

Just get some food on the table. That’s what we need from you. Yeah, so, and let me be very, very clear here. I think that this is really important with all of the things we’re talking about to have a conversation with everybody in your household to say, this is what’s important to me for the holidays. I wanna hear what’s important for you to the holidays.

Deanna Day Young (02:15.391)

Right, right.

Kathi (02:40.247)

How can we work on this together? Because I’ll just say, I think it’s really important that everybody in the family participates. Even if Christmas isn’t as important to them as it is to you, they should be, as a family, this is what we do. As a family.

Deanna Day Young (02:59.522)

Mm-hmm.

Deanna Day Young (03:04.81)

And the book that you wrote, The Christmas Project Planner, I love, love that book. And one of the things that you say in there is what is the most important thing for you from a food perspective? Because you were trying to use all your energy to make all the things. And I think you used in that book that like Roger’s cranberry cheesecake or there was some kind of a particular thing that like.

Kathi (03:09.036)

Yeah.

Kathi (03:20.45)

Yeah.

Kathi (03:29.208)

Yeah.

Deanna Day Young (03:33.022)

everybody wanted, but maybe they didn’t want this other thing that you were spending your energy on.

Kathi (03:37.875)

Right. Well, and like, I remember thinking I needed to make homemade stuffing. Can I just say, StoveTop is my favorite food in the entire world. Why would, why mess with perfection? I love StoveTop.

Deanna Day Young (03:48.566)

We do the same. Add a little, yeah.

Absolutely, absolutely. Let me tell you what I do. I do two things of stove, we have, I think there’s 13 of us, anyway. So I do two things of stove top stuffing. I put it in a baking pan. I take some chicken broth, I pour over it, and I bake it. No one knows that it’s not grandma’s recipe. I’ve never, only Roger and I know. Yep, nobody said a word and they all love it.

Kathi (04:09.591)

Yeah?

Kathi (04:15.839)

It’s so perfect!

Love it and you could do that without butter. You just put the chicken broth in there or do you put some butter in there, too?

Deanna Day Young (04:26.522)

I put a little bit of butter when I make it, like when you make it on the stove. Yes, yeah, I make it. Yeah, yeah.

Kathi (04:28.679)

Okay, oh, got it. You put the made, I understand now you put the prepared. Oh, okay. I’m gonna have to try that. Yes. Okay. So yeah, assign everybody. This is what I’m doing for our next thing. And because I will tell you, Deanna, I have a bunch of backseat chefs in my family who want to tell me how to make things. And I’m like, no, you get your butt up and you make

Deanna Day Young (04:53.794)

Oh.

Kathi (04:58.707)

Yeah, yeah, we’re not we’re not playing that game anymore. So everybody cooks and people love to cook their specialty. And okay, maybe not everybody cooks, but everybody provides. Pick up that bucket of KFC. It’s going to be great. I love it. Okay. Number two, Deanna, you’re talking about expectations here.

Deanna Day Young (04:58.722)

There you go.

Deanna Day Young (05:21.77)

Yes, to set realistic expectations. And in our last podcast, we talked a little bit about don’t try to make it the social media perfect Christmas. And I feel like it’s the same thing from your energy perspective. It doesn’t have to be a picture perfect holiday. Now, you may say, these are all the things I wanna try to do for Christmas, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Put it on a list, but prioritize that list.

Kathi (05:32.035)

Mm-hmm. Right.

Deanna Day Young (05:50.07)

Because when other things pop in that have to be done, you’ve got to prioritize lists to say, man, you know what, driving around and seeing Christmas lights was my priority. So that’s number one. I want to get that done, so let’s fit that into the list. But set those realistic expectations that maybe you can’t do everything every weekend that you wanted to do.

but what are those priorities? And ask your family or those that are involved what their priorities are as well so that together you set those realistic expectations as a family.

Kathi (06:27.891)

Yeah, Deanna, when we first started, you know, every year we go and look at Christmas lights and we had a seven passenger van which worked for our whole family. And it was so fun. I started off by making a big thing of hot chocolate and baking cookies, because you know, we wanted to do that. Now it’s just Roger, me and my mom who go and look at that. We drive through Starbucks. Like we

Deanna Day Young (06:36.727)

Yeah!

Deanna Day Young (06:52.647)

Yeah!

Kathi (06:54.771)

Yeah, I mean it’s more expensive but we can get a cookie we can get a coffee that we want it makes a real difference Okay number three decide in advance what you want your holidays to look like then everybody in the house takes a role So we already talked about that but I it is not up to mom. It is not up to wife Unless you’re single it is not solely up to you what your Christmas looks like. So, you know if somebody wants

Deanna Day Young (06:59.374)

That’s right.

Kathi (07:24.511)

And this is so important. Let me say this, Deanna. So the number of times that I’ve heard of women asking their husbands for help to get ready for a party, and like, you know, I need help dragging out the chairs, I need help setting up the tables, I need help cleaning off the patio, and the husband decides this is the time to repaint the house.

Deanna Day Young (07:50.321)

Yes.

Kathi (07:53.091)

or clean out the basement? No. Sometimes we have to be very, very specific about what the roles need to be. Okay, number four, Deanna.

Deanna Day Young (07:53.25)

Yes.

Deanna Day Young (08:06.57)

Number four, clean before you put up your Christmas decorations and then highlight clean. So.

Kathi (08:12.427)

Okay, I’ve never heard the term highlight clean before. What does that mean? I get an idea, but.

Deanna Day Young (08:15.634)

Oh, yeah. So I have done this for years. So you clean really good one day a month, like at the beginning of the month. I mean, really, really good. And then you kind of highlight clean is what I’m saying. So I’ll explain that to you because if, if you are hosting Thanksgiving as I do, I’m cleaning really good right before Thanksgiving. And then the day after we have our Thanksgiving celebration, I’m putting up my Christmas decorations.

So this is my tip based on that. But whatever your schedule is, I would recommend cleaning really good right before you put your Christmas decorations up, to where you feel like people are coming over and I want my house to be really clean. The highlight cleaning for me is I do, I have a schedule. I’ve done this literally for probably 10 years. I think I read it in the Fly Lady book years and years ago.

Kathi (09:10.208)

Okay.

Deanna Day Young (09:13.186)

And so anyway, Monday is mirror and glass. Tuesday is bathrooms. Wednesday is sweeping the carpet. Thursday is sweeping and mopping the tile. Friday is dusting and Saturday is cleaning out my vehicle, sweeping out the garage. You don’t have to do all those too, but it’s a highlight. So I go in and I say, oh my gosh, those mirrors from people brushing their teeth, I need to just wipe those off real quick. That’s a Monday chore.

Kathi (09:31.776)

Right.

Kathi (09:40.424)

Yeah.

Deanna Day Young (09:41.57)

Tuesday bathroom chore, just clean out your sinks and swish a little bit into the pot. It doesn’t mean you have to clean and wipe down the showers and scrub them through the whole month of December. It’s okay. Wipe them down, spray them off, keep a squeegee in the shower. Everybody can do their own as the time comes. With the carpet, maybe it’s just you’re only gonna sweep the living room where everybody is and the dining room doesn’t have to be swept that week. Thursday for the tile, maybe you don’t have to mop.

Maybe that mopping is only once every other week instead of every week. And then just dust the spots that you can see that aren’t decorated. It’s just a highlight dust. And then, you know, I don’t really like, I take everything out of my vehicle when I get out that’s garbage or doesn’t really belong or that needs to go. But that’s a good day to be able to like look and say, I’m gonna get stuff out of my vehicle just because as we go places, we don’t have all this junk in there. I gotta put gifts or I gotta highlight things in there.

Kathi (10:18.86)

Right.

Kathi (10:40.899)

Love it. I love it. Yes. It’s just a keeping up because you’ve got enough to do and if you put enough decorations on something You don’t have to clean it for a while. That’s that’s a Okay, here’s number five buy some of the food you’d normally prepare from scratch so I love I think it’s just as Lovely to buy something locally as it is to prepare it from scratch

Deanna Day Young (10:49.93)

That’s exactly right.

Kathi (11:09.759)

So we have an Apple Hill here that has like apple cider donuts and you know, apple cider, all these apple, apple things that our family loves. So why not just buy the apple cider donuts and call it a day instead of? And then it’s so interesting here. Do you have ACE Hardware’s where you’re at? Okay. I don’t know if they do this, but at our ACE Hardware’s.

Deanna Day Young (11:27.316)

Absolutely.

Deanna Day Young (11:33.343)

Yes.

Kathi (11:39.011)

they have freezers that have locally made pies. Isn’t that interesting? Yeah. Isn’t that interesting? And so we recently bought a pie there that we’re gonna be using for Thanksgiving. And exactly, I love it. And then, you know, we have wineries here. Now we don’t make our own wine, but you know, those are great to give as gifts and things like that. Anything you can get locally.

Deanna Day Young (11:43.698)

Oh, I don’t know. I don’t really go into our ACE Hardware. That is interesting.

Deanna Day Young (11:54.739)

That’s awesome.

Kathi (12:08.747)

Is real I consider that so thoughtful you’re supporting local Artesians and you are you’re making you know, and sometimes they can make stuff yummier than you. Okay We are going to take a quick break. We’re going to come back and then number six Talking about energy. Oh, you’re gonna go there. You’re gonna talk about okay. We’ll be right back

Deanna Day Young (12:08.779)

Right.

Deanna Day Young (12:20.587)

Yes.

Kathi (12:35.859)

Okay, we’re back with Deanna. She’s gonna tell us how to have more energy. Go ahead, Deanna. Be everybody’s health fit auntie.

Deanna Day Young (12:42.231)

Well, I just…

Deanna Day Young (12:46.13)

And it’s not that I am any picture perfect of health fit, but I have found these things over the year. Well, that’s true. That is true. And that is so very frustrating because I just started back up with a trainer and I only trained about two weeks. So anyway, it’s okay. We’re figuring it out as we go along. But so my suggestion for number six for us to have more energy is to really

Kathi (12:50.243)

Well, dude, you can’t walk right now, so we’re gonna give you a pass.

Kathi (13:05.059)

You’ll get there.

Deanna Day Young (13:12.194)

Stay active before you know that you’re gonna be eating more carbs and sugar during the holidays, even if it’s just for short walks. So, you know, maybe you say, oh my gosh, my day is just absolutely filled. Can you get up 15 minutes earlier and take a walk around the block or get on the treadmill a little bit? Something that really, and I think, I guess I shouldn’t say that I know that there’s scientific evidence behind this, but I think there is, that if you get something started in the morning, if you go for a walk,

it really does give you more energy.

And the other tip that I just think is so important, when we go, whether it’s at our home or whether it’s to an outing that you have at church, people go through the line and they pick up their food,

then they just go ahead and get their dessert then. Because you’re hungry and everything looks good and you get six pieces of dessert and then you feel bad and you don’t wanna throw them away so you eat them all. Just go through the line and get what you want for your meal. When you’re finished, sit for a few minutes and then go get your dessert. And things won’t look quite as tempting. It’s kinda like going to the grocery store hungry. It won’t look quite as tempting. And so then you’re eating less sugar, less carbs, which in turn gives you more energy.

Kathi (15:02.843)

Okay, okay. Can I tell you my pet peeve about buffets? And my s- okay. You know when you’re setting up the buffet and you put your plates at the front? Why do people put forks, knives and spoons and napkins at the front of the buffet? That- it- it makes me crazy! I need both-

Deanna Day Young (15:08.668)

Yes.

Deanna Day Young (15:18.316)

Mm-hmm.

Deanna Day Young (15:25.678)

Yeah, that’s true.

But you know what I do? Yeah, I set mine. So I set my table, like my dining room table. If it’s at my house, if I’m hosting, the dining room table is set with the napkins and the silverware. And so all they have to do is get the plates.

Kathi (15:32.555)

What do you mean? Okay.

Yeah, I-

Kathi (15:41.807)

Okay. So if you’re setting up a buffet and you’re putting the forks, knives, spoons, napkins on it, on the buffet table, put them at the end. We don’t need to be messing with those at the beginning. And especially if there’s a long line, we don’t want to have to cut in line to come back and get them. No, no, no. I need both hands for getting my food. I want my food. I want to be scooping, and I don’t want to be dropping my random spoon into the buffet.

Deanna Day Young (15:53.718)

That’s a good point.

I love that.

Deanna Day Young (16:02.626)

That’s good. Mm-hmm.

Deanna Day Young (16:10.125)

Mm-hmm.

Kathi (16:11.663)

Put them at the end, rant over. Okay. Yeah, and so don’t ever buy one of those things that has like, it’s a holder for plates and forks and knives and spoons and napkin. No, you don’t need that. You don’t need that, especially if you’re trying to save space. Okay, number seven, hire help the day before and the day after. Remember, we’re talking about saving energy here, not money, because you have to figure out which of your resources you have the most of. If money is your struggle,

Deanna Day Young (16:14.721)

Good job.

Kathi (16:41.411)

then listen to next week’s podcast because we’re gonna talk about what if you’re low on money. But right now we’re talking about energy. So when I was a teenager, we would always have our holidays with another family, like an extended family, not our family, if they were across the street. And we went to a very fancy Thanksgiving or Christmas, I’m not sure, I can’t remember which one it was, in San Francisco,

with very rich people. And we would go, you know, we would usually just go across the street to their daughter’s house, but this was the fancy one. And they had somebody in a maid’s uniform, remember this was 40 years ago, doing all the dishes. Like they came in, helped set up and did all the dishes. And I thought, that’s the best thing I’ve ever heard of in my entire life. That is genius.

So because we don’t celebrate on the holiday, we could actually do that. We could hire somebody to come in and do that. Or we hire somebody locally. She’s somebody who’s retired and she needs some supplemental income. We hire her when we have retreats to bake cakes for us. She needs the money, we need the help. Could you hire somebody to clean your house? There are…

places that will hang all your Christmas lights, if that’s important to you. There is a college student that could send out your Christmas cards for you. We have a local ravioli shop here, and so we’ll buy Christmas raviolis and make those, or tamales, you know, tamales is a great thing to do for Christmas. So if you have a little bit more money than time, hire somebody to do one of these projects for you. Okay.

Deanna Day Young (18:16.958)

Oh, good one.

Deanna Day Young (18:37.427)

I love that.

Kathi (18:38.619)

Yeah, yeah, and you’re helping people that you love who need some extra cash. Yeah Right Yeah, yes

Deanna Day Young (18:44.3)

And those college kids that are home that really can’t have a job at home during the holidays, perhaps. Yeah, that’s great. I love that idea. Good one.

Kathi (18:51.531)

Yeah Have them have them hang your lights do your you know frosty the snowman decorations do it all. I love it Okay number eight

Deanna Day Young (19:02.646)

Number eight is another kind of healthy one that I wanted us to think about is to drink plenty of water and don’t overdo the coffee and the caffeine drinks because we’re very tempted to do that when we are looking for more energy. But the problem is we may drink six cups of coffee when in reality we only drink one or two. That does make us feel good for the time, but then you crash. The same with energy drinks. You may only drink one a day, but you decide I’m gonna drink one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

So I can stay up till one o’clock in the morning. And that’s just, that’s not the way to do it. Fill yourself with water. I’m not saying don’t drink your coffee, don’t drink your energy drink, but I do think that if we can stay on top of like drinking more water and doing some of the things even like number six that I said about staying active, it’s gonna keep us from having that crash and it’s gonna keep our energy level where we want it.

Kathi (19:54.387)

I love it. Yes. I’ve got an alarm that is set to remind me to drink water throughout the day because I just don’t even think about it. OK. Number nine. Make ahead dishes and fancy paper plates. OK. Let me let me give my justification here. So like one of the things I will make ahead this year is my apple cake because it freezes so well. It’s so good. It’s so dense and so moist.

Deanna Day Young (20:01.829)

Oh, that’s good.

Deanna Day Young (20:19.898)

Mmm.

Kathi (20:22.775)

that it freezes well and you can unfreeze it and enjoy it. But I can make that in November to eat at Christmas time. And it’s gonna be great.

Deanna Day Young (20:32.716)

Oh, will it save that one because I would want to eat it. You might have to make two.

Kathi (20:35.791)

I know. Well, you can see you can chop it ahead and you can just eat all the corners because that’s my favorite part. Yeah, it’s really good. And then I’m not a paper plate user. I’m married to an environmentalist. He’s a deep environmentalist. But I also understand that Roger and I manage 33 acres of forest. So we are conservationists at the holidays. I’m going to use paper plates. So

Deanna Day Young (20:41.214)

Oh, there you go. Yeah, sounds awesome.

Deanna Day Young (21:01.902)

There you go.

Kathi (21:03.699)

Get some nice paper plates that don’t have to be we have one dishwasher like most people in America Lots of people don’t have a dishwasher Use the paper plates when you need to Because I don’t want you crashing after all of this So Costco has a set of paper plates that we tend to buy each year And we just decorate around those and they look great But what can you make ahead of time even if you’re not making your Christmas dishes ahead of time?

Deanna Day Young (21:15.766)

I like it.

Kathi (21:32.495)

Can you make the food you eat that week ahead of time? And that’s gonna make a huge difference. Yes, exactly. Okay, number 10, Dino, bring us home.

Deanna Day Young (21:36.566)

Yeah, right, right. It goes back to meal planning, kind of back to meal planning.

Deanna Day Young (21:45.354)

Number 10, keep your routines as much as possible. Like get to bed early. And I’m not saying earlier, but if your bedtime is typically 10, try to keep those routines as much as possible, especially if you have children, because it’s so very hard for children to get out of the routine, to lose their energy, become grouchy. So keep routines as much as possible, like getting to bed early, your quiet times in the morning for Bible study. Sometimes I think we get so, you know, involved in this time of year that we just don’t even take our quiet time as seriously if we have one of those, if we have quiet time. We don’t take it as seriously. So don’t lose what your routines are. So keep your routines as much as possible. And I think from that, your energy level will stay high.

Kathi (22:33.915)

I love it. Okay, you guys, this is all of our best ideas to if you’re just running low on energy, this holiday season, these are some things you can do to get through, but also keep yourself safe and healthy. That’s what we want most from you. Okay, friends, you’ve been listening to Clutter-Free Academy, I am Kathi Lipp. Now, go create the clutter-free life you were always intended to live.

 

More Posts 

#592 Your Holiday Gameplan When You’re Low on Time

#592 Your Holiday Gameplan When You’re Low on Time

by | Nov 21, 2023 | Christmas, Christmas Project Planner, Clutter Free, Clutter Free Podcast, Decorating, Home, How to, Podcast | 1 comment

Listen Now

592: Your Holiday Gameplan When You’re Low on Time

Do you feel like there is too much to do and not enough time to do it during the holidays?

You are not alone, friend!

Kathi Lipp and her favorite elf Deanna Day Young talk about strategies to keep your holidays less stressful so you can take care of the future you. In Part 2 of a three-part series, they lay out ten time-saving and preplanning tips to keep you moving and merry during this season when time is a valuable commodity.

Listen in as Kathi and Deanna each share five of their favorite holiday hacks such as:

  • How do they plan their holiday outfits? Hint: It keeps things clutter-free!
  • How to keep holiday gift-giving manageable.
  • And they share their favorite holiday recipes with us! Check those out below.

Have you listened to 591 Your Holiday Gameplan When You’re Low on Space? Click here.

Next week Kathi and Deanna will continue the holiday theme as they discuss what to do when you’re low on money. (And who isn’t?)  Sign up here to be notified when the next episode is released.

Do you find the Clutter Free Academy podcast helpful? Would you consider reviewing the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify? Each review helps us share the word about this podcast and reach more listeners with the Clutter Free message. We would be so grateful for your recommendation.

Baked Mac & Cheese
Ingredients:
1 Box of Kraft Deluxe Macaroni & Cheese
1 cup milk
½ cup sour cream
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

  • Prepare Mac & Cheese as directed on package. Add milk and sour cream. Mix well. Spoon into 8″x8″ baking dish. Top with cheese.
  • Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes or until cheese is completely melted and lightly browned.

**This recipe can easily be doubled and baked in a 9″x13″ baking dish. Increase bake time to 45 minutes.

S’mores Bars
Ingredients:
½ c. butter, softened
½ c. sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¾ c. graham crackers, crushed or graham cracker crumbs
¾ c. all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 regular size Hershey bars
7 oz jar of marshmallow creme

  • In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract. Add crushed graham crackers or graham cracker crumbs, flour, salt and baking powder; beat until well mixed, scraping the sides of the bowl. Put a layer of aluminum foil down in the 8″x8″ pan and grease the foil. This will allow you to lift the dessert out of the baking pan to cool after baking and allow for easier cutting into bars.
  • Spoon half of the dough into a greased 8″x8″ baking pan and spread evenly. Break chocolate bars into pieces and arrange over the dough. Spread a layer of marshmallow creme over the chocolate. Flatten the remaining dough and lay over marshmallow creme. The remaining dough may not cover the entire layer of marshmallow creme but place sporadically over the marshmallow creme layer.
  • Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until golden brown. Lift foil out of baking pan and place on cooling rack. Allow dessert to cool and cut into squares.

Honey Bun Cake
Mix together:
1 box yellow cake mix
8 oz. sour cream
2/3 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs

  • Pour half of batter in greased 9×13 pan.
  • In separate bowl, mix together:
    • 2 Tablespoons cinnamon
    • 1 cup of brown sugar
  • Sprinkle cinnamon/brown sugar mixture over batter.
  • Pour remaining batter on top.
  • Bake 350 degrees for 35-45 minutes
  • Poke holes in cake with a fork while hot and pour the following mixture over cake:
    2 ½ cups powdered sugar
    ½ cup milk
    1 tsp vanilla

Artichoke Dip
Servings 8 people
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes

Ingredients:
8 oz cream cheese
1 c. Parmesan cheese – shredded
1 c. mayonnaise low-fat or fat-free is acceptable (pantry)
½ t. dill weed
1 clove garlic crushed
1 can artichoke hearts drained and chopped (pantry)

Instructions:

  • Preheat oven to 350
  • Cream the cream cheese, add the Parmesan cheese, mayonnaise, dill weed  and garlic. Mix well. Fold in the chopped artichoke hearts and then spoon mixture into a 9×9 pan.
  • Bake for 30 minutes.

Recipe Notes:
Serve with crackers, toasted baguettes, or toasted pita points. Serves 8 as an appetizer

Overnight Sausage, Egg, and Hashbrown Breakfast Casserole
Ingredients:
1 pound breakfast sausage, crumbled
6 cups frozen shredded hashbrowns, thawed
12 large eggs
2 cups whole milk or half-and-half
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1/2 cup diced onion
1/2 cup diced red bell pepper
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon paprika

Instructions:

  • In a large skillet over medium heat, cook the crumbled breakfast sausage until browned and cooked through, about 8-10 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside to cool slightly.
  • In a 9×13-inch baking dish, evenly spread the thawed shredded hashbrowns. Set aside.
  • In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, milk or half-and-half, salt, black pepper, garlic powder, and paprika until well combined.
  • Stir in the cooked sausage, diced onion, diced red bell pepper, chopped fresh parsley, and both shredded cheeses until well mixed.
  • Pour the egg mixture evenly over the hashbrowns in the baking dish. Use a spatula or the back of a spoon to gently press the mixture down, ensuring that the hashbrowns are well-covered.
  • Cover the baking dish with plastic wrap or aluminum foil and refrigerate overnight, or for at least 8 hours.
  • The next morning, preheat your oven to 350°F (180°C).
  • Remove the casserole from the refrigerator and let it sit at room temperature for about 20-30 minutes before baking.
  • Remove the cover and bake the casserole in the preheated oven for 45-55 minutes, or until the eggs are set and the top is golden brown. To check for doneness, insert a knife in the center of the casserole; it should come out clean.
  • Allow the casserole to cool for 10 minutes before serving. Cut into squares and serve with your favorite hot sauce, salsa, or ketchup, if desired.

 

The Accidental Homesteader: What I’ve Learned About Chickens, Compost, and Creating Home

Homesteading [hohm-sted-ing]
noun
1. an act or instance of establishing a homestead.
2. the act of loving where you live so much that you actively ignore the fact that your house is trying to kill you on a regular basis.

For Kathi Lipp and her husband, Roger, buying a house in one of the most remote parts of Northern California was never part of the plan; many of life’s biggest, most rewarding adventures rarely are.

Kathi shares the hard-won wisdom she’s gained on her homestead journey to help you accomplish more at home, gain fresh perspective, and give yourself grace in the process. Here’s a handful of the lessons Kathi shares:

  • Prepare before the need arises
  • Everything is always in process, including us
  • Your best household solution is time and patience
  • You don’t have to do everything the hard way
  • Be open to new and better ways of doing things
  • A lot of small changes make a huge difference.
    Highly practical, humorous, and inspirational, The Accidental Homesteader will encourage you to live with more peace, joy, and contentment.

Order your copy of The Accidental Homesteader: What I’ve Learned About Chickens, Compost, and Creating Home here.

Links Mentioned:

Deanna Day Young

Awesome Coffee Club

FIVERR

Clutter Free Resources:

Kathi Lipp’s Clutter Free Academy Facebook Group

Learn more about Clutter Free for Life

 

 

Kathi and Deanna share ideas for making the holidays less stressful in this episode.

What ideas do you have for reducing stress during the holiday season? Could you share your answer in the comments?

 

Let’s stay connected

To share your thoughts:

  • Leave a note in the comment section below.
  • Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews really help and I read each one.

Subscribe on iTunes or subscribe to our newsletter now.

Meet Our Guest 

 

Deanna Day Young

Deanna lives in southeast Indiana on the Young family farm with her husband of 35 years. She and Roger have two grown daughters.

Deanna is the Director of Operations for Iron Timbers, a family-owned custom furniture business featured currently, and for several years, on HGTV’s Good Bones show. Prior to this position, she was a paralegal and managed the international trademark portfolio for 34 years for the Hill-Rom division of Baxter International. Deanna has a degree in Journalism and Speech Communications from Ball State University and a Paralegal Certification from Saint Mary of the Woods College.

Fun Fact – Deanna and her daughter are also Chi Omega sorority sisters!! Hoot Hoot.

You can connect with Deanna at deannadayyoung.com

Transcript

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#591 Your Holiday Gameplan When You’re Low on Space

#591 Your Holiday Gameplan When You’re Low on Space

by | Nov 14, 2023 | Christmas, Christmas Project Planner, Clutter Free, Clutter Free Podcast, Decorating, Home, How to, Podcast | 0 comments

Listen Now

591: Your Holiday Gameplan When You’re Low on Space

Kathi and her guest Deanna Day Young love decorating for Christmas, but what do you do when you are low on space? Kathi and Deanna both have experienced living in small spaces, and in today’s podcast they share ten ideas for decorating for the holidays, no matter how much room you have to work with.

Listen in and hear some helpful tips, including:

  • What to consider when decorating for each season.
  • Deanna’s trick for making cleanup extra easy!
  • The best color choice for decorating a holiday table.
  • How to keep your gifts clutter-free.

Next week Kathi and Deanna will continue the holiday theme as they discuss what to do when you’re low on time. (And who isn’t?)  Sign up here to be notified when the next episode is released.

Do you find the Clutter Free Academy podcast helpful? Would you consider reviewing the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify? Each review helps us share the word about this podcast and reach more listeners with the Clutter Free message. We would be so grateful for your recommendation.

 

 

The Accidental Homesteader: What I’ve Learned About Chickens, Compost, and Creating Home

Homesteading [hohm-sted-ing]
noun
1. an act or instance of establishing a homestead.
2. the act of loving where you live so much that you actively ignore the fact that your house is trying to kill you on a regular basis.

For Kathi Lipp and her husband, Roger, buying a house in one of the most remote parts of Northern California was never part of the plan; many of life’s biggest, most rewarding adventures rarely are.

Kathi shares the hard-won wisdom she’s gained on her homestead journey to help you accomplish more at home, gain fresh perspective, and give yourself grace in the process. Here’s a handful of the lessons Kathi shares:

  • Prepare before the need arises
  • Everything is always in process, including us
  • Your best household solution is time and patience
  • You don’t have to do everything the hard way
  • Be open to new and better ways of doing things
  • A lot of small changes make a huge difference.
    Highly practical, humorous, and inspirational, The Accidental Homesteader will encourage you to live with more peace, joy, and contentment.

Order your copy of The Accidental Homesteader: What I’ve Learned About Chickens, Compost, and Creating Home here.

Links Mentioned:

Deanna Day Young

Custom Stamp (Kathi is using for Christmas tags)

Samaritan’s Purse Gift Catalog

Barnes and Noble

Clutter Free Resources:

Kathi Lipp’s Clutter Free Academy Facebook Group

Learn more about Clutter Free for Life

 

 

In this episode Kathi and Deanna share ideas for giving clutter free gifts.

What fun ideas do you have for clutter free gift giving? Share your answer in the comments.

 

Let’s stay connected

To share your thoughts:

  • Leave a note in the comment section below.
  • Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews really help and I read each one.

Subscribe on iTunes or subscribe to our newsletter now.

Meet Our Guest 

 

Deanna Day Young

Deanna lives in southeast Indiana on the Young family farm with her husband of 35 years. She and Roger have two grown daughters.

Deanna is the Director of Operations for Iron Timbers, a family-owned custom furniture business featured currently, and for several years, on HGTV’s Good Bones show. Prior to this position, she was a paralegal and managed the international trademark portfolio for 34 years for the Hill-Rom division of Baxter International. Deanna has a degree in Journalism and Speech Communications from Ball State University and a Paralegal Certification from Saint Mary of the Woods College.

Fun Fact – Deanna and her daughter are also Chi Omega sorority sisters!! Hoot Hoot.

You can connect with Deanna at deannadayyoung.com

Transcript

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