In the name of Allah, the most Gracious, the most Merciful
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2020 was a lot of things to a lot of different people. I think that it has been a year of many lessons. For some it has taught lessons of letting go. For some it has taught lessons of taking better care of one’s health. For some it has taught the importance of loving while you have the chance. Despite all the “down’s” throughout this year, for most of us, the number of “ups” has likely surpassed that. That’s not to downplay anyone’s struggles, hardships or anyone’s feelings in general. Rather, it is to remind us to focus on the silver lining as much as we are able – because there always is one.
This will be my longest ‘list post’ to date here on ‘Nourishing Our Home’! So I’m going to keep this intro short and sweet… Before we jump right in, I just want to clue you in on how this list works!
The first half are semi-abstract things. Experiences, accomplishments, and the like. These are things that money can’t necessarily buy. The last twenty things on my list are items that I’ve divided into 5 categories: Home, Miscellaneous, Business/Productivity, Books and Youtube Channels.
Without further ado, let’s get started:
The “Experiences/Accomplishments” List:
1. My husband and I moved into our own place!
2. Living in Pennsylvania!
3. Living so much closer to more of our family!
4. Having family dinner at our home!
5. We were able to get a “new-to-us” vehicle this year!
6. Having cows as neighbors!
7. Having an alpaca farm super close by that allows you to feed and hang out with the alpacas.
8. I have been able to maintain consistency with posting weekly on ‘Nourishing Our Home’ for most of the year!
9. For the past 2 months, we’ve seen over 200% growth in readership over here!
10. I’ve finally been able to actually monetize my blogging business!
11. I finished over half of my reading goal for this year!
12. We’re so much closer to al-Maqasid!
13. Shopping second-hand!
14. I found my local Buy Nothing group!
15. My toddler is 90% potty trained!
16. We had a mostly-calm transition to no more “Milkies”!
17. I’ve kept up with my goal of reading to my son every day!
18. I lost 10 pounds toward my ultimate goal!
19. Going to the chiropractor!
20. I found 3 more painted rocks this year!
Home:
21. Our Japanese style floor beds!
I’ve mentioned our beds a couple times already and it’s in my ‘shop’ as well. We ordered them right before we moved and started using them once we moved into our new apartment! I was a little nervous because the mattress is not very thick and we’d experimented with a couple different bed options before deciding on these. I was very pleasantly surprised with how comfortable this bed is!
22. A nutribullet blender!
My husbands grandmother gave this to us as a gift and I love it! It’s great for making soups, dressings, sauces but it’s absolutely perfect for grinding my coffee!
23. Our melamine dishes!
This was a compromise! My husband is not a fan of glassware and I’m not a huge fan of metal dishes/I like the look and feel of glass dishes. Needless to say, I didn’t find out melamine is actually a type of plastic until a couple months after I purchased them but still, they’re pretty and they’re durable!
24. Uline flexible wire shelves!
These are definitely a bit on the pricier side but they’re durable and well-made! We used a set of these to expand our tiny kitchen out a bit and we used a smaller set of these to organize our outdoor/coat closet where we store our bikes and things.
Miscellaneous:
25. Our Burley trailer!
Of course you already know how much I love the Burley Honey Bee! If you’re curious, check out my full review! I have a goal of riding my bike 500 miles over the course of next year so this will be super handy for that!
26. This adorable stella doll!
I love that it’s fully cloth! It’s a pretty basic doll and I think that’s what makes it so perfect! It was on my list of things to get my kiddo for a while and when we finally got it for him, he was super happy with it! My son has named his doll ‘Yahya’!
27. Lakanto brand!
If you’re doing keto or you’re just trying to cut sugar out of your life in general, Lakanto is your brand! I love their monk fruit sweetener and I like their coffee syrups! I haven’t tried much else yet but they have a lot of cool things – keto pancake mix, granola and more! It was a game changer for me with doing keto/low carb!
28. Garden of Life Vitamins!
I talked before about how I think it’s best to get your vitamins and nutrients from food rather than vitamins but as we continue working on getting closer to being able to do that, we do take vitamins to make sure we’re taking care of our bodies properly! I like this brand because they’re vegan and their vitamins and supplements are whole-food-based!
Business/Productivity:
29. Ibotta
30. Canva
31. Convertkit
32. Bluehost
Books:
33. Message to The White Man in America
This is a thick book but a great read! My dad wrote it and I’m still working my way through it! It’s a powerful book! There are a couple really important themes throughout the book including: reclaiming your faith, reclaiming your identity, establishing freedom for yourself and your family, and not falling into the traps of self-pity, blame and hanging ourselves up by the downfalls of those who came before us.
34. Confessions of a Domestic Failure
This was a super fun and funny book to read! It was exactly what I needed to read at that moment too! Her story was very relatable! Some parts made me laugh, some made me cry…some I made my husband read because she wrote out so perfectly the feelings that were in my heart.
35. Raising an Adult
This was the first book I read in 2020 and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I’ll definitely be rereading it in the coming years. I like the authors approach to this could-be-difficult topic and that the book, for the most part, takes a very actionable approach. This book is great for parents who want to support their children in becoming the independent adults they will need to be!
36. MiniFarming: Self-sufficiency on 1/4th Acre
I have not read this book cover-to-cover yet but it very quickly became a favorite reference book! I absolutely love the concept of the overall book! We sometimes get caught up in the grandiosity of the idea of self-sufficiency but in reality, we can do a lot with only a little bit! It takes hard work, consistency and perseverance but it is possible!
YouTube Channels:
37. Pepper & Pine
I found Pepper & Pine sometime last year but I didn’t really start listening/watching her videos until this year and I really love learning about the Waldorf way of education from her. She presents the most beautiful materials and lesson plans. I enjoy how she talks about the benefits of delaying academic work, tuning into your child’s needs and making lessons that work across the ages when you’re homeschooling multiple children.
38. Oglesby Ohana
I just found out about Oglesby Ohana a couple months ago. It’s funny because I’m pretty sure I found her while I was searching weight loss stuff but I love her vibe! I don’t agree with all that she shares/is about but there’s a lot that I feel like I relate to from what she shares.. And I like that she really embraces the freedom that homeschooling brings – both with scheduling but also with creating her own study units!
39. One Big Happy Life
I have a love-hate relationship with this couple’s channel! I really enjoy that they talk about wealth from an abundant mindset and approach the whole atmosphere of money with the idea of making your money work for you. From an Islamic point of view, however, I don’t like their approach to debt and credit.
40. Hijabi Hybrid
They don’t post often anymore, since their son was born and as you can tell from watching their videos, they’re both super busy outside of YouTube! I think what I enjoy mostly about Hijabi Hybrid is that they are super relatable! Our son’s are only a few month’s apart…as well as other small tid-bits of their life! That said, I found them through their marriage monday’s series but I personally like their vlogs a bit more!
Question for the comments: I’d love to hear something you LOVED from 2020! Let me know down below!
Thank you for stopping by ‘Nourishing Our Home’. Please be sure to pop in every Thursday for new posts. Also, if you found this to be relatable and beneficial, please help me out by sharing with your family and friends.