My 2022 Mom’s Morning Basket

 

A few years ago, I shared all about, “My Mom’s Morning Basket”. Today, I thought it would be fun to share an updated blog post all about what is currently in my Mom’s morning basket, because somethings are the same and some are new!!

I bought my Mom’s morning basket on sale at Hobby Lobby!! It has sat in the corner of my for almost 2 years!! Depending on the season of my life, my basket will be more full than other times. Every month or so, I try to go through my basket to purge it of unnecessary things, which can easily accumulate in my basket if I’m not careful. Thankfully, I just went through my basket as we kicked off the New Year, so it’s the perfect time to share all about my 2022 Mom’s Morning Basket!!

Below, is a list of what’s in my morning basket. I will go through each item and tell you how I use it. If I can find it, I will include a link for each item, so if you’re interested you can learn more about that specific item or buy one for yourself.

 What’s in My 2022 Mom’s Morning Basket?

1. My ESV Thinline Bible 

I love this Bible!! I bought it on sale at Lifeway in Texas back in April 2013. Thankfully, it fits in my purse perfectly and not too bulky to bring when I’m traveling. Even though, many of my girls have drawn in my Bible, I can’t bring myself to use anything else!! My good friend taught me to label those precious scribbles, which I have done and they’re too important to use something else. 

2. 2022 Cultivate What Matters: Powersheets 

Every year, I purchase the Cultivate What Matters: Powersheets. They’re a goal planner which help me focus on the things that truly matter to me. Each month, I fill out a tending list of things I want to work on that month. My Powersheets live in my Mom’s basket, which make it easier for me to check off tasks as I complete them!!

Click here for more details about My 2022 Cultivate What Matters: Powersheets.

3. Give Me Jesus Journal

For more in depth Bible study, I use the beautiful Give Me Jesus Journal from Well-Watered Women Co. In the Bible study section, there is space to write out your gratitude, scripture, what you’re learning about God, how this changes the way you live, and prayers. There are two additional sections: Jot it Down and Prayers and Praises. If you don’t need the extra sections, they also have a simplified Give Me Jesus Journal that’s just has the Bible study pages. 

4. Spiral Lined Journal

I’m currently using a pretty journal I got last year for my birthday!! I use this lined journal to write my sermon notes in each week at church. If I have a chance, I also use it to write out prayers to Jesus about what we did on a specific day. Just more of a generic journal.

5. Cultivate What Matters: Write the Word Cultivate Forgiveness

Being a Mom of 5 kids, means I don’t always have a lot of time for in depth Bible study. For this reason, I love the Write the Word journals from Cultivate What Matters. I’ve used these for years, because they let me spend as much time with Jesus as I have to give on a specific day. It’s just two pages which includes space to write what I’m grateful for, the Bible verse for that day, what’s on my heart, and my word for the day. I’m currently working through the Cultivate Forgiveness, which has been good!

6. Val Marie Paper 2022 Rhythms Prayer Journal 

For years, I always wanted something to use to keep track of all the things I want to pray about each day. I was so excited to discover the Val Marie Paper Rhythms Prayer Journal!! God has used this tool to help grow my prayer life so much!! Each month I can write out my prayer requests and easily remember for whom I need to pray.

7. Cultivate What Matters: Intentional Action Card Deck Wellness

This is a new product from Cultivate What Matters!! It’s full of beautiful cards, which prompt me to work on my wellness one small step at a time. So far, I’ve really enjoyed them!!

8. Lots of fun pens, pencils, and goal setting sticker book!!

I have a pink Yoobi Pencil Organizer filled with highlights, pens, pencils, and the Cultivate What Matters: Goal Sticker Book. Personally, it’s more fun to use pretty pens and stickers while I work through my Bible study and other journals. 

Now it’s your turn, do you have a Mom’s morning basket? If so, what’s in it?

2022 Word of the Year

“Hope is called the anchor of the soul (Hebrews 6:19) because it gives stability to the Christian life. But hope is not simply a ‘wish’ (I wish that such-and-such would take place); rather, it is that which latches on to the certainty of the promises of the future that God has made.” - RC Sproul

Last month, I wrote a blog post all about, “My 2022 Cultivate What Matters: Powersheets” and I told you my word of the year: HOPE!! Honestly, I’m so excited to share more about this with you all today.

Every year, I pray about my word of the year and ask God to show me which word I should focus on in the coming year. God uses lots of different ways to speak to me such as; sermons, His Word, worship songs, and other books I’m reading. This year was no different!!! At the beginning of the process, I had lots of different options for my word of the year. However, over several weeks the Lord kept speaking one main word to me HOPE!!

Webster’s definition of hope says, “to desire with expectation of obtainment or fulfillment”.

One of the first verses God used to reveal the idea of hope to me are 1 Timothy 1:12-17, a few of the verses say…

“Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life.” 

- 1 Timothy‬ ‭1:15-16‬

The reason Jesus came to the world was to give hope!! Paul was the “chief sinner” and so am I!! However, God wants to work through my brokenness and redeem the trials in my life. Life is challenging, but Jesus is my HOPE.

Simply put…

Our struggles + Jesus = HOPE

Additionally, I’ve learned, the biblical Hebrew word for hope, yachal, means “to wait”, wait, hope, patient waiting, longing, so far disappointing but still hoping and waiting. Some of the verses, use this word are Psalm 69:3 and Lamentations 3:24. 

“I am weary with my crying out; my throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God.” 

- Psalm 69:3

“The LORD is my portion," says my soul, "therefore I will hope in him." 

- Lamentations 3:24

During each of my pregnancies, I spent time praying over my precious baby asking God to give me a verse for the new life inside me!! The Lord was faithful to answer my prayers and give me a “life verse” for each of my children. As it turns out, Evelyn’s life verse is Lamentations 3:22-24!!

Seriously!! The same verse God showed me regarding hope, is the exact verse God had given to me almost 4 years ago when I was pregnant with the twins!! It’s incredible to watch the Lord continue to confirm my word of the year, with another powerful word He has given me in the past. 

This gives me goosebumps!! I’m so thankful to the Lord for answering my prayers. 

Now it’s your turn, what’s your word of the year?

Book Recommendations:

“Unshakable Hope” by, Max Lucado

“Hope in the Dark” by, Greg Groeschel

“Notice the word ‘hope” (in Psalm 62:5). The Hebrew term literally means “a cord, as an attachment.’ Every one of us is hanging on to something or someone for security. ... if it’s someone or something other than God alone, you’re hanging on by a thread – the wrong thread.” - Beth Moore

My Top 10 Favorite Books of 2021

 

Back in 2020, I shared a blog post called “Cultivating a Love for Reading” where I talked about my struggles with reading. You see, I’ve always loved books, but I have never been a good reader. To this day, I’m still a pretty, slow reader. In my previous post, I went on to share about how I’ve never been a good reader, but I decided to try to grow my love of reading through baby steps. It’s taken a lot of practice, but in an answer to my prayers, God is growing my love of reading each day!! I’m so thankful!!

All that to say, I was so surprised when I checked my GoodReads app, to discover how many books I read last year. A grand total of 377 books!! Just to clarify, my total is so high, because it includes adult fiction and non-fiction books, picture books, school books, and young adult fiction I pre-read for my girls. Most of the adult books, I listened to on audiobook which was helpful, because I could listen to my book while making dinner, walking, or working on a puzzle. As you can see, I used my wireless headphones so much, now they’re broken. Every year, I’ve grown into a more avid reader and I couldn’t be more proud of this accomplishment last year!! 

Honestly, I had the privilege of reading a lot of incredible books last year!! I’ve done my best to narrow this list down to my top 10 favorite books I read in 2021. 

These aren’t in any particular order…

My Top 10 Favorite Books of 2021

1. “Where the Crawdads Sing” by, Delia Owens

2. “The Nightingale” by, Kristin Hannah

3. “The Well Watered Woman” by Gretchen Saffles

4. “Risen Motherhood” by Emily Jensen

5. “The Call of the Wild and Free” by, Ainsley Arment 

6. “Dear Mr. Knightley” by, Katherine Reay

7. “Creativity, Inc” by, Ed Catmull

8. “Welcome Home” by, Myquillyn Smith

9. “The Librarian of Saint-Malo” by, Mario Escobar

10. “The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11” by, Garrett M. Graff 

*Bonus Reread* 

“The Harry Potter” series by J.K. Rowling

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Finally, I couldn’t resist sharing my favorite reread of last year, which was “The Harry Potter” series by, J.K. Rowling. I listened to the audiobooks narrated by Jim Dale and they were incredible. I had forgotten just how much I love these books. 

Now it’s your turn!! What are some of your favorite books you read last year? Have you read any of my favorites? If so, what did you think about them?

My 2022 Cultivate What Matters: Powersheets

 

For the past 5 years, I’ve used the Cultivate What Matters: Powersheets Intentional Goal Planner. In honor of their 10 year anniversary of Powersheets, the Cultivate What Matters team outdid themselves with some incredible Powersheets cover choices!! I went back an forth between green, teal, natural linen, and blooms. Seriously, it was hard for me to pick just one. As a result, I chose their anniversary green color, which is in honor of my upcoming 20 year high school reunion!! They’re just so beautiful!! 

MY WORD OF THE YEAR

This year, my word of the year is HOPE!! God has been teaching me so much about this word, I’ve decided to write it all out in more detail in an upcoming blog post coming. Trust me, it will be worth the wait.

MY 2022 GOALS

At this time, these are my goals for the New Year 2022!! Thankfully, Cultivate What Matters gives you the opportunity to work through a refresh every 90 days. As a result, if I find the Lord leading me toward new goals I can adjust accordingly. I’m so thankful these aren’t set in stone!!

1. Spend time with God

2. Love Jon well 

3. Delight in my girls

4. Renew my health

5. Cultivate my love of writing

6. Recapture the joy in my life 

OTHER RESOURCES

Lara Casey and her team at Cultivate What Matters have a lot of resources to help walk with you as you work to accomplish your goals each year. Lara has even written two books (which I will list below) and she also has a podcast called, “Cultivating Your Life with Lara Casey”. Finally, I have included a list of helpful, motivating books. I included Lara’s books and a few others that have really encouraged me this year.

“A Simplified Life: Tactical Tools for Intentional Living” by, Emily Ley

“Cultivate: A Grace-Filled Guide to Growing an Intentional Life” by, Lara Casey

“Grace, Not Perfection: Embracing Simplicity, Celebrating Joy” by Emily Ley

“Make it Happen: Surrender Your Fear. Take the Leap. Live On Purpose.” by, Lara Casey

PREVIOUS POWERSHEETS BLOG POSTS

In the past, I’ve written blog posts about Powersheets. As a result, I included links to posts which have additional information about Powersheets and how I have used them over the years. Click links to see previous blog posts about my Powersheets!!

My 2021 Cultivate What Matters: Powersheets 

My 2020 Cultivate What Matters: Powersheets

Leaning into Jesus

My Mom’s Morning Basket

Cultivate What Matters: My 2019 Goals

 

2021-22 Homeschool Curriculum Choices

  

On Monday, July 19, we kicked off our 2021-22 school year. We’ve gotten in the habit of starting school in July and this year wasn’t any different. My husband is training for his new job, so while he was in training we could work on school. As he has breaks, we will be able to take time off as well and enjoy some extra family time. Honestly, this is still one of the main reasons why we homeschool. Every family is different, but this is what is working best for us right now.

As you will see below, we made several changes to our curriculum. I spend a lot of time praying about our curriculum and I consider it a great responsibility to be my children’s educator. I want to honor the Lord and my children in this calling God has placed on my life. Thankfully, we were able to attend a homeschool conference in June and see a lot of these curriculums in person, before making our final decisions. Below you can find links to the different curriculum we’re using this year.

Without further ado, here are our curriculum choices for our brand new school year.

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2020-21 Homeschool Curriculum Choices 

EVERYONE TOGETHER
When it comes to teaching my large family, I try to have as many group subjects as possible. Currently, our family does Family Devotions, Memory Verses, Bible, History, Literature/Read-Alouds, and Science together. We’re not using Sonlight this year and instead God lead us to use Generations curriculum for a lot of our family subjects. Also, we’re using The Good and the Beautiful Geology for one science unit and switching to Generations science.

Family Devotions & Memory Verse: Generations The Book of Proverbs devotional and workbook and memorizing Proverbs 1
Bible: Generations God’s Big Story #2 with student workbook
History: Generations The Story of Jesus’s People, with student workbook
Literature/Read-Alouds: Generations Level 1 Read Alouds, additional read alouds from Sonlight, and picture books
Science: The Good and the Beautiful Geology and Generations God Made Everything with workbook

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4th GRADE: Olivia
How can she already be in 4th grade!? She’s a little bookworm and I can’t wait to see how she does this school year.   

Language Arts: The Good and the Beautiful Level 4
Handwriting: A Reason for Handwriting T
Vocabulary: Wordly Wise Book 1
Math: Math-U-See Epsilon and The Good and the Beautiful Musical Multiplication
Typing: The Good and the Beautiful Typing 2
Readers: Sonlight Grade 4 Readers
Other: Victory Drill, Metronome Practice, and Piano Lessons

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3rd GRADE: Sophie
Sophie’s looking forward to starting 3rd grade. She loves building Legos and I’m excited to see her thrive in school this year.

Language Arts: The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts Level 2 
Handwriting: A Reason for Handwriting T
Vocabulary: Wordly Wise Books B & C
Math: Math-U-See Epsilon and The Good and the Beautiful Musical Multiplication
Typing: The Good and the Beautiful Typing 2
Readers: Sonlight Grade 3 Readers
Other: Victory Drill, Metronome Practice, and Piano Lessons

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1st GRADE: Matilda
Last school year, Matilda learned to how to read!! It’s been exciting to watch her take off and become an avid reader.r

Language Arts:The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts Level 1
Handwriting: The Good and the Beautiful Handwriting Level 1
Vocabulary: Wordly Wise Book A
Math: Mat-U-See Beta
Readers: Sonlight Grade 1 Readers 
Phonics: Explode the Code Level 4, 5, and 6

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TODDLER  TWINS: Evelyn & Zoey
Homeschooling with toddler twins is still challenging. I try my best to keep them occupied with a variety of fun activities like puzzles, books, coloring, a cardboard castle, shapes, and so much more! If we don’t complete all of our schoolwork, I wait until the twins nap time to play catch up and get everything else done. Honestly, I could probably do an entire blog post just about this, so let me know if you’re interested.

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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
For more information, here are the links to the homeschool curriculum we are using this school year.
- Generations
- Sonlight
- The Good and the Beautiful 
- Rainbow Resource
- Read Aloud Revival

Please let me know if you have any other questions about homeschooling.

Our New Anniversary Journal

 

One of my 2021 goals is to “love Jon well” by investing in my marriage. Honestly, 2020 was one of the most challenging years of our marriage to date. We had to navigate lots of transitions as we moved back to the United States after being in Hong Kong. On top of that, was added stress of a global pandemic, which made for a very overwhelming year. By God’s grace and to His glory, on December 17, 2020 we celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary!! I’m so thankful, God continues to hold us together even on the hard days.

With February being the month of love, I thought it was the perfect time to make this goal a priority in my life. As a result, I’ve been reading some incredible books about marriage. I just finished, “A Love Letter Life: Pursue Creatively. Date Intentionally. Love Faithfully.” by, Jeremy and Audrey Roloff. This was such an incredible book with lots of ideas about how to cultivate a healthy marriage. 

As a result, I was really encouraged by their story and decided to follow Jeremy and Audrey Roloff on social media, for continued encouragement in my life. While catching up on Audrey’s most recent posts on Instagram I noticed she had just recently made an announcement about a new project they had been work on. 

To my delight, I read about their new “Memories of Us” anniversary journal which has just been released by Jeremy and Audrey Roloff. It’s an incredible tool for couples to use, each year as they reflect on the current year of marriage and look ahead to the future. There are 50 anniversary sections, so Lord willing on your 50th wedding anniversary you can share the journal with your family and friends!!

I was so excited!! Seriously, this is the marriage tool, I didn’t know I needed in my life!!

I think this anniversary journal will be a great way to invest in our marriage and give us space to remember how God has been at work in our lives. We get to take time to write down how we met, our engagement story, our wedding story, and more!! This year, I ordered this anniversary journal as my Valentine’s Day gift to Jon. I’m excited to take time to fill this out and continue to work on this each year of our marriage!!

I’m boldly praying by God’s grace, Jon and I will be able to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary together on December 17, 2056 with our loved ones, taking time to recount all the Lord has done in our lives!! 

If you’re interested and want to check out this journal, I put the link below. This anniversary journal would be a great gift idea for yourself, young married couples, or you could give it as the perfect wedding gift for couples just beginning their marriage journey. 

Memories of Us Anniversary Journal

My Skincare Haul

 

At the beginning of January, I shared about, “My 2021 Cultivate What Matters: Powersheets”. I outlined my goals, word of the year, and more. One of my 2021 goals is to care for myself!! I’m a stay-at-home Mom with 5 young girls, who often take priority over everything else...including myself. This is why I frequently have goals focused on my own self-care, because more often than not it falls to the wayside. I’ve learned, I must be very purposeful about caring for myself each and every day.

As a result, one of my “mini” goals in 2021, is to cultivate my skincare routine. Honestly, for a while, I’ve felt like it’s time for me to cultivate a good quality skincare routine for myself. I started searching Google, Pinterest, and Instagram for great skincare routine ideas. Immediately, I was overwhelmed by all the different choices out there and as a beginner I felt very confused and unsure which routine would be the best for myself.

Feeling too overwhelmed, I put it aside until I was ready to try again. 

In November 2020, to my delight, Angela Braniff released her “Ultimate Skincare Routine” on her Angela Braniff YouTube channel. I watched Angela’s video over and over again, taking notes about her skincare routine. Then I added up the prices for her inexpensive skincare recommendations and unfortunately it was out of my budget. I was so sad, because this is a great skincare routine and once I get into a good skincare routine myself I can work up to these products. However, it would be too much right now for this skincare novice!!

Just a few days later, I remembered Jamie B Golden (a co-host of The Popcast podcast) has her own skincare routine. How exciting!!

Right away, I went to Jamie’s website and read her, “10-Step Skincare Routine” blog post. Then, signed up for Jamie’s email so I could receive her free skincare routine printables!! Quickly, I printed off Jamie’ skincare routine and laminated it, so it wouldn’t get ruined anytime soon. Jamie offers “more expensive” and “less expensive” skincare products options too. As I wrote out a list and added up the less expensive options, I was surprised to discover it was right in my budget!! What an answer to my prayers!!

Thankfully, it didn’t take long before I was able to find everything on my list. Please look below, for a list of everything I bought!!

My Skincare Haul

1. Cerave Hydrating Cleanser 

2. Cosrx bha blackhead power liquid 

3. Witch Hazel alcohol free toner

4. Cosrx advanced snail 96 mucin power essence

5. Loreal Vitamin C Serum

6. RoC Retinol Eye Cream deep wrinkle

7. CerVe PM facial moisturizer 

8. Australian Gold botanical tinted

9. Palmer’s Cleansing Oil

10. Sheet masks

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HELPFUL LINKS

Are you looking to cultivate your own skincare routine? Here are some helpful links to allow you to decide which skincare routine will work best for you!!! Below, I’ve listed links to both of the incredible skincare routines I talked about today. Both of these skincare routines are amazing and filled with so much wisdom!! 

1. Angela’s Ultimate Skincare Routine on YouTube

2. Jamie B Golden’s 10-Step Skincare Routine