May 23rd, 2013 
Jessica Before Evelyn was born, I filled our freezer with a lot of meals so that I could rest as much as possible. As you can see, I prepared about 3 taco meals in advance. If you’re looking to save yourself time, freezer cooking is the way to go!
If you’re looking for some tips and practical help for freezer cooking, you should check out my friend Jessica’s website, Loving My Nest. She’s done all the work for you!
Have you ever tried freezer cooking before?
May 22nd, 2013 Jessica We’ve ended up with some fun freebies recently, so I thought you would enjoy seeing what we’d received. Although I had been interested these items, we did not ask for them. Various friends offered them to us as their children outgrew them!
A bassinet
And a climber!
How have your needs been met recently, before you had a chance to ask?
May 21st, 2013 Jessica As many of you know, my husband is an Area Director for Young Life. Through Young Life, we have many friends. So when word got out that I was pregnant with our third child, Kayla Holmes asked my husband if she could make me a car seat cover.
Kayla asked me to look at her Facebook page. She said I could choose an item, or I could describe what I like, and she could try to make something to suit my tastes.
Well, she did a fabulous job! I described my tastes to her, and she made a car seat cover that perfectly suited my style. She even adjusted the canopy ties when she realized that our handle was a zig-zag.
As you can see, Evelyn was also quite pleased with the final result. So please check out Handmade by Kayla Holmes and “like” her Facebook Page!
(PS–Kayla doesn’t know that I’m posting this and didn’t ask me to feature it. In fact, she may not even know that I have a blog. Mwah-ha-ha-ha…)
May 20th, 2013 Jessica I recently finished Quitter: Closing the Gap Between Your Day Job & Your Dream Job
If you like what you see here, go read the book. I highly recommend it!
What good books have you read recently?
May 17th, 2013 Jessica 
Dear Friends,
It was just over 2 years ago when I first posted here at “The Abundant Wife.” It had been 7 months since Brad was laid off from his job. We were living in my parents’ basement with a toddler and a newborn. My mom cooked most of our meals, and helped me with the kids. After 3 years of full-time youth ministry, our year of unemployment felt meaningless and empty. Our relationships, our marriage, and our faith were shaken. We questioned our calling, cast blame, and grieved for what we had lost. We paid off what debts we could while substitute-teaching and interviewing for new jobs.
In the midst of those dark times, I started this blog. After discussing many different names, my mom suggested “The Abundant Wife.” I am by nature a serious and pessimistic person, with a tendency to worry. “The Abundant Wife” became a kind of therapy for my soul. Here I could measure our progress, see improvement, and focus on the positive. Focusing on what we had and what we were learning, instead of what we lacked, has been very good for me. It was good to cultivate a spirit of gratitude. I also have always dreamed of being a writer and illustrator. I saw blogging as an opportunity to work toward that dream, using my writing and photography skills to supplement our income.
Two years later, life is quite different. I am now a mother of three busy children. My mother is 2700 miles away, so her assistance with cooking meals and child care is very limited! I know many other bloggers have found ways to balance blogging and life, but for me blogging has taken away from my time as a wife, mother, daughter, sister, and friend. Instead of being distracted by blogging, facebooking, pinning, photographing, and linking our lives, I just want to be present for my husband and children. Frankly, I’m happier (and so is everyone else) when I’m on the computer less.
In addition, I have struggled with the need to constantly please a distant audience, to gain “likes” and see my Google Analytics spike. I long to write about what I want to write about, not just what makes great “pins” on Pinterest. Finally, I have struggled with my inability to make any income at all from blogging. We have been on reduced salary three times this year already, so my time needs to spent on work that generates an income. I just don’t have the time and knowledge necessary to handle the complexities of web design and advertising. When I use my same skill-set of writing, photography, teaching, and administration to assist my husband in his work, it translates into a steady income for our family.
So for now I am quitting. I want to do less of what I like, and more of what I love. I want to spend more time with my family and friends. Although I have always dreamed of being a writer and illustrator, more than that I have always dreamed of being a wife and mother. I don’t want to miss out on my life, because I’m too busy blogging about it. My husband only has one wife, and my children only have one mother, so I want to be there for them when they need me.
Thank you for reading, following, and liking “The Abundant Wife.” I have learned so much in the last two years of blogging. It has been a great adventure, and I would do it all over again.
Love,
Jessie
May 4th, 2013 Jessica 
I love to read. I’ve read 15 books since Thanksgiving, which includes 4 eBooks and 11 regular books. I’m in the middle of reading 3 more books. My idea of the perfect vacation would include lots of time for reading in a peaceful and beautiful location. However, reading can become a very expensive habit if you’re paying retail prices for your books. Here are 6 ways I get my books for free, or almost free:
1. Library-Need I say more? Last week I got a phone call from our local library that they’d found Jon Acuff’s book Quitter in San Francisco, and through inter-library loan they had it waiting for me at the front desk.
2. Borrow-Called to Serve: Creating and Nurturing the Effective Volunteer Board by Max De Pree is one I borrowed from my husband. You can borrow from friends, relatives, and church libraries. Just remember to return borrowed books when you’re done!
3. Gifts-Created to be His Helpmeet by Debi Pearl was a wedding gift from a good friend 7 1/2 years ago. I often ask for books for my birthday or Christmas.
4. Bethany House-Last year I signed up to review books for Bethany House publishers, and I’ve received a number of free books in exchange for reviewing them. Finding God in the Dark (Kluck & Martin), Pocket Your Dollars (Rocha), and Your Beautiful Purpose (Larson) are all books I received free through Bethany House.
5. Library Used Book Sale-Twice a year our library has a book sale in which they charge by the inch. You select your stack of books, take it to the cashier, and she measures its height with a ruler. I usually come home with a large stack of books for just a few dollars. Your Money or Your Life (Dominguez and Robin), The Likeability Factor (Sanders), Stupid Things Parents Do to Mess Up Their Kids (Schlessinger), Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith (Lamott), Seven (Hatmaker), and Debt-Free Living (Burkett) all came from our library’s used book sale.
6. Amazon-If you can’t find a book anywhere else, you can usually find it on Amazon for a fraction of the price you’d pay retail. Educating the Whole-Hearted Child (Clarkson) is the only book I bought new in this pile. I also make money by selling my used books on Amazon to other readers.
7. eBooks-Money Saving Mom and other websites often posts free eBooks, and I download them to read later on my laptop. This is how I read Pajama School: Stories from the Life of a Homeschool Graduate (Wickham), To Tell Your Time (Andrews), Dave Ramsey’s Guide to Budgeting, and Frumps to Pumps (Mae).
How do you find inexpensive books?
May 1st, 2013 Jessica 
Our Federal, California, and Maryland Tax Refunds arrived! With the money we received, we were able to pay off a significant amount of our student loans.
Currently we owe:
So we have paid off $10,406.53 since May 2012!
Imperfect progress is still progress, right?
Have you compiled a list of all of your debts, their interest rates, and their due dates? What strategies are you using to pay off your debts?
April 30th, 2013 Jessica 
So we’ve reached the end of the 30-Day House Cleaning Challenge! Yesterday was jam-packed, so I only found time to vacuum all four of the rugs in the house. (I also had a killer headache yesterday and this morning thanks to a spontaneous decision to give up my morning cup of coffee. Ouch!) However, today I was able to sweep AND mop the entire house. Since it was the last day of the challenge, this was one chore I did not want to miss. When you have a house with mostly wood floors, a thorough mopping is occasionally necessary.
I also tidied up around the house as usual, folding clothes, putting away clothes, washing dishes, picking up toys, etc. Above you can see our master bedroom, and below you can see our living room. The kids were busy playing “office” with a small dresser in the doorway of their bedroom.
After 30 days of cleaning, I can confidently tell you that our house has been “spring-cleaned.” There isn’t a room in the house that hasn’t improved from this month. I really enjoyed taking this big task and making it many small tasks. With three children ages three and under, I don’t think there would have been any other way to tackle such a big chore. Thanks for joining me for the 30-Day House Cleaning Challenge!
April 26th, 2013 Jessica 
Refrigerator: Before
Anyone who has known me for very long will tell you that I am a perfectionist. Perfectionism has its good and bad angles. As a perfectionist, I do many things well and give 110% of my effort. On the other hand, I also procrastinate and often zero in on unimportant details. A couple days ago I was watching a webcast interview with Lysa Terkeurst, author of “Unglued.” One thing that Lysa kept saying really stuck with me: “Imperfect progress is still progress.” As I’ve worked my way through the 30-Day House Cleaning Challenge this month, I’ve made a lot of imperfect progress, but at least I’m still making progress!
Refrigerator: After
Yesterday I had a really busy day, so I didn’t get around to cleaning at all. Today I decided to go back to Project #18, and clean out the refrigerator and freezer. As you can see, we have a crazy amount of frozen lemons and bags of breast milk. We also have two pies that were given to Brad at a men’s luncheon yesterday. Yummy! I wiped down every shelf, drawer, and wall in the refrigerator and freezer. I also managed to drop a bottle of salad dressing on Oliver’s big toe. Ouch!
Kitchen: Before
Once I was done with the refrigerator, I went back to yesterday’s Project #25 and surface cleaned the rest of the kitchen. I wiped down most surfaces with a wet rag, Windexed the windows, put away art materials and magnets and toys, and threw the towels in the wash.
Kitchen: After
What is a project that you’ve been working on (or could be working on) that has required some imperfect progress?
April 24th, 2013 Jessica 
Project #24 of the 30-Day House Cleaning Challenge is to clean your linen closet. However, our linen closet is pretty organized so there wasn’t much to do there. Instead I decided to go back to the kids’ room. I hadn’t cleaned up much in there since Project #4.
Our kids’ room is my favorite room in the house. If you’d like to see more photos of how I painted the walls, you can read about “The Birch Tree Project” here and here.
As you can see, there was plenty to do in my kids’ room. We put art materials in the art box, picked up toys, made beds, Windexed, swept, and vacuumed. While I was cleaning, Oliver decided to use his new potty. I promised him a few chocolate chips if he was successful. Naomi wanted chocolate chips too, so I promised her a few chocolate chips if she would help me clean the room. Both were successful!
I was incredulous recently when I saw photos of Crystal’s 3-year-old son vacuuming. I didn’t think Naomi (also 3 years old) could even push our vacuum. Today she begged me to let her vacuum, so I agreed to let her try. I was impressed with her efforts! I tried to upload the video here, but the file was too big. You’ll have to go to my Facebook Page to see Naomi vacuuming her room.
What chores do your toddlers do around the house?
