EP 121: My Best-Kept Secret (Free Printables Galore)

I’ve had several different people “discover” my online library of free printables for the first time this week, so I decided to raise awareness while answering a few messages on that topic that have been piling up in my inbox lately. Tune into EP 121 for all the details (or read the full transcript below today’s show notes).

Free Printables & Other Resources

Complete transcript from Episode 121

Hello, Friend. Welcome to Episode 121 of Loving Life at Home.

I am still working on cleaning out my mailbox and responding to the letters that have accumulated there. So I’m back today with more Q&A. But this time, my topic is free printables.

Last week, I did an interview with Krystal from the Good True Beautiful Mail Club, and she told me that, although she has been following me for years, she had no idea how many printables I offer on my family website, nor how extensive my library of free resources has grown.

What was the line in that old movie? “If you build it, they will come?”

I never actually saw that film, but I guess I tend to operate on that principle when it comes to my blog. Build it and people will come.

But I’m not sure that’s how it really works.

Spreading the Word

People are much more likely to come if they’re aware it’s an option than if they don’t even know something exists. The Bible makes this same argument regarding the gospel:

How, indeed?

So, during that interview last week, it finally dawned on me: If somebody knows me only through my Loving Life at Home blog and podcast, they may not even realize I have a whole other website called Flanders Family Home Life, which is home to a wealth of free printables for nearly everything you can imagine:

• calendars
• chore charts
• coloring pages
• conversation starters
• Christmas crafts
• party games
• pennant banners
• bucket lists
• practice sheets
• greeting cards
• growth charts
• gospel tracts
• flashcards
• math drills
• and much, much more

In fact, this is the gist of a message I received from a reader named Tara just a couple of weeks ago. She writes:

Well, I’ll include a link to my free printables page in today’s show notes in case you want to check it out for yourself.

There is no gate or password or email subscription required to access these resources — although I’d be thrilled for you to sign up for my weekly email list if you are interested. Otherwise, feel free to browse to your heart’s content and download as many of these resources as you like.

On Thank You Notes for Veterans

In the meantime, the following letters will give you a better idea of what kinds of things we offer there. And, since Veterans Day is tomorrow, I’ll start with a letter about that from a reader who shares my same name. Jennifer writes:

Well, as you might imagine, that message just made my day! I’ll include a direct link in today’s show notes to the thank you notes she was talking about, in case you’re interested in thanking a veteran yourself. I recommend printing them on white cardstock for durability, although plain printer paper will work too.

By the way, I had never heard of the Honor Flight Network before receiving this letter, but I’ll include a link in the show notes so you can read more about it.  The program flies Veterans to Washington DC as a way to honor and thank them for their service. Participating vets spend three days touring our nation’s capitol as a group. Doesn’t that sound wonderful? I just love the heart behind that!

Now, while we’re on the topic of military vets, I got a message last week from another reader who wrote to let me know about what she assumed was a typo on another of my printables.

She writes very succinctly:

The words to the Marine Corps Hymn are not correct.
Sherry

She’s referring to a series of coloring pages I designed that feature all our US military anthems years ago when our kids had to sing all those hymns for a patriotic program our homeschool co-op was sponsoring. (I’ll include links in today’s show notes, in case you want to learn the lyrics, too.)

While Sherry is right that the words I cited are not the words the marines sing today )just like today’s army no longer sings of “Caissons rolling along”), the words I used in my printable versions are still accurate.

I was simply citing the anthem’s lyrics as originally written.  (I’ll include a link in the show notes to the1929 version so you can read them for yourself.)

I did that for historical accuracy, but as it turns out, there’s an additional benefit to using the original form of the hymn. The older lyrics are now in public domain which, it turns out, is pretty important when you’re putting things on the Internet, as I explain in my next exchange.

A Poem for Book Lovers

Lori writes:

Well, this reader wasn’t misremembering (at least, not entirely). There is a lovely poem by Julia Donaldson called “I Opened a Book.” I’m pretty sure that’s the one she means.

It begins:

“I opened a book and in I strode
Now nobody can find me.
I’ve left my chair, my house, my road,
My town and my world behind me.”

The poet then goes on to talk about wearing a cloak, slipping on a ring, and all the adventures she had with friends she made in the pages of the books she’s read.

I especially love the way the poem ends:

“I finished my book and out I came.
The cloak can no longer hide me.
My chair and my house are just the same,
But I have a book inside me.”

Isn’t that delightful? And it’s so true!

I loved that poem from the moment I first found it, particularly since so many of the scenes to which the poem alludes come from books my husband and I have read aloud to our children.  

So, as I’ve done with lots of other old poems I particularly enjoy, I created a pretty illuminated version for me and my kids to memorize, then I shared it as a free printable on our family website.

That’s because I was under the mistaken belief that this poem was already in the public domain. But it isn’t, as I found out when Donaldson’s publisher kindly asked me to delete that printable off my site. 

And I don’t mean that sarcastically. They were very gracious and understanding. And, of course, I immediately did as they asked.

However, that particular post had already gotten a lot of backlinks from Pinterest and was driving a fair bit of traffic to my website.

So, rather than have all those links start returning a 404 error when people clicked on them, I simply wrote another, similar poem myself and switched out my verses for hers in the resource. That way, I could comply with copyright laws but still give fellow bookworms a nice printable poem that I, as its author, have full rights to share! 😊

My poem reads like this:

Just Open a Book

When you’re feeling kind of lonely,
Or the rain has spoiled your plans,
Or a long and boring day leaves
Extra time upon your hands,
And you spot a nice collection
In a quiet reading nook,
Peruse the shelf, then lose yourself
In the pages of a book.

If you’re itching for adventure
In some strange and distant place,
Or you long to sail the seven seas,
Or rocket into space,
Or cast your lot with pirates,
Buried treasure for to look,
You’ll score the loot, plus more, to boot,
In the pages of a book.

– Jennifer Flanders

Admittedly, that doesn’t have quite the charm of Donaldson’s poem, but I was happy with how it turned out, nevertheless. Especially since I had to come up with it on such a time crunch. I’ll link the printable in today’s show notes, in case you love reading and poetry as much as I do!

Q: Do you have any tips for writing Christmas letters?

Then, speaking of writing with a deadline, my next question is about writing Christmas letters – which is a job (as I keep reminding myself) to which we’ll all need to attend to pretty soon if it’s going to get done at all this year.

On that topic, Kathryn writes:

A: I have lots of great tips (and everything else you’ll need)!

Well, I answered Kathryn and told her I thought she should definitely write such an update! Then I pointed her to a post on our family website that is chock full samples and options for writing Christmas letters in different styles and lengths, and I even included free printable templates and stationery for those just starting out, which I’ll link in the show notes.  

In a nutshell, I’d encourage you to at least hit the year’s highlights, whether you just print a brief list of bullet points on the back of your Christmas card or you expand it to a full page so you can include a little more detail, or you do as I do and write a blow-by-blow accounting of all that’s transpired in the past 12 months: good, bad, or ugly. I share it all—happy memories, funny stories, hard-learned lessons; things that made us smile or laugh or cry; stuff our family never wants to forget—and it normally takes me 4 full pages to do it!

I normally finish the bulk of my annual update by October. But here we are in November, and I’ve barely even gotten this year’s letter outlined. Finishing it is on my to-do list THIS WEEK, actually, since most of our kids will be expecting to help stuff it into envelopes while everyone’s here for Thanksgiving during our traditional Christmas card assembly line.

At my husband’s urging, I published our first 25 years’ worth of Christmas letters in a book about 15 yeas ago, and I finally converted that title to an audiobook this summer.

Doug wants me to record the rest of our letters, too, which I hope to have done in time to give a copy of those audio files to all our kids by the end of November. So we’ll see….

I’m praying I can finish both those projects in another week or two. Which brings me to the topic of my next couple of letters: prayer…

Lots of Pretty Prayer Printables

I’ve created lots of pretty prayer printables over the years. Each guide offers pertinent Bible verses you can pray over your spouse, children, grandchildren, friends, neighbors, teachers—you name it.

I like praying Scripture over a matter, because I feel like I’m praying in accordance to God’s revealed will when I’m praying the verses and promises recorded in His Word.

Jesus tells us in in John 15:7,

And in John 16:23, “Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you.”

Anyway, you can download all these prayer guides and more on my Loving Life at Home Blog. Just click on “prayer” in the menu bar and print out whichever ones you want.

I frequently hear from readers who routinely use my prayer guides or who are requesting a prayer guide on a particular topic I haven’t yet covered, which I’m always happy to accommodate as my schedule allows.

I’ve received several such messages from followers in the past couple of weeks.

• One from a new dad thanking me for my prayer guide for fathers and asking if I’d please say a prayer for him, that God would help him be a good Dad.
• I got another message from a reader named Sue who was wondering if it would be all right for her church to print copies of [my praying for your pastor page] and pass them out to church members in October for pastor appreciation month.

NOTE: My answer to that kind of request is almost always yes. As long as you are just printing physical copies to give away (rather than trying to sell them or trying to upload my PDF files to your own website), then I am more than happy for you to share.

• I also got a message from Charlotte, who writes:

Well, I promised to pray for Charlotte’s friend and was sorry to learn about her recent diagnosis, but I was glad to hear that Charlotte found my prayer guide helpful.

I also thanked her for her prayers for me and for her desire to come alongside others she knows who are dealing with cancer and all the difficulties that accompany it. I know her friend must appreciate her prayers and thoughtfulness, as well!

Quick Cancer Update

Incidentally, Charlotte is not the only person who is praying for me, either. In addition to the prayers that so many of my friends and family members send up on my behalf, hardly a week goes by that I don’t hear from some new listener or subscriber who writes to tell me they’re praying for me, too. That means so much!

It was two years ago this month that I first discovered those swollen lymph nodes under my arm and began my cancer journey, but God has been so faithful to carry me through each step of the way and to graciously answer all the prayers of my family and friends and followers!

I had another regular check up with my oncologist just a three weeks ago, and—once again—my tests all came back clear. There is no sign of remaining or recurrent disease, Praise the LORD!

As Psalm 30:2 reads,

I can sing those exact same words with the psalmist, for which I’m so very grateful.

Q: Any more resources for Spanish speakers?

Okay… so my next message on the topic of printable resources came from a reader named Catherine. She writes:

A. Yes! There’s plenty more where that came from!

To be honest, I had no such official list at the time. But I’ve added a brand new section to my free printables page where you can now find all my Spanish-language resources grouped together, including Spanish gospel tracts, prayer guides, coloring pages, and more. I’ll include a link in today’s show notes, in case you’re interested.

And, in case you’ve never heard the Roman Road before — or, as we say in Spanish, “La Calzada Romana a salvación” — it contains 5 verses from Paul’s letter to the church at Rome. I won’t try to say them in Spanish for you, so you won’t have to suffer through my Texas accent, but the verses include…

• Romans 3:23 – “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
• Romans 5:8 – “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” 
• Romans 6:23 – “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” 
• Romans 10:9 – “That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”
• Romans 10:13 – “… for ‘whoever will call on the name of the LORD will be

While we’re on the topic of Spanish, I also got a message from a reader wanting to know what curriculum I used to teach my children Spanish.

Well, our family has tried several methods over the years for teaching our kids Spanish, including The Learnables, Rosetta Stone, Spanish classes at co-op, Duo-Lingo, Babble, and more. My son Samuel is the only one among us who is genuinely fluent in Spanish. But he actually learned it by moving to Guatemala for 3-4 months between college and medical school to live and work with native speakers.

Hands-down, total immersion is the most effective way to learn any foreign language, but of course  not everybody has the time or flexibility or desire to do such a thing.

So I’ve had to find alternate ways of helping my other 11 children earn the foreign language credits they needed in high school.

My favorite program—and the one I’ve used exclusively for the past decade while teaching high schoolers—is called Pimsleur Speak and Read Essential Spanish.

My husband bought several levels of Pimsleur in several different languages about 20 years ago—back when they were sold as a set of physical CDs.

Now it’s a subscription service, but the lessons and methodology haven’t changed. I’ll put a link in the show notes in case you want to check it out. I think they offer a 7-day free trial so you can sample the lessons and see if you like them.     

Also, I’ve made written tests for the first 60 Pimsleur Spanish lessons, as well as the first 30 German lessons, so as to be better able to assess my students’ progress and assign a grade on their transcript.  (You can download all those tests from my website for free, as well.)

Q: Can you make it easier to find specific coloring pages?

Which brings us back to the topic of printables. The last few emails I’m going to share are about my calendars and coloring pages. You’ll find a wide variety of free printable resources in both these categories on our website. First, regarding coloring pages, Sandra writes:

A: Try typing the reference into my blog’s search bar.

I told Sandra I thought that was a great idea. Unfortunately, I didn’t think to put a table of contents page in any of my coloring books. But if I ever go back to revise them, I’ll be sure to add one.

However, I assured her that most of the designs in my coloring books are also available as free individual downloads on my blog, and she can print as many coloring pages off the website  to include in her child packs as she likes.

If she’s hunting for a coloring page featuring a particular verse, she can type that reference into the search bar and likely find it that way.

I also got another message bright and early one morning recently. Short and sweet, it simply read:

God bless you. My 3yr old copy that I colored in was destroyed yesterday by water. Could you help please? Thank you.

I had to go back and read the subject line to figure out what she was talking about. Evidently, it was the hand-drawn coloring page of the Lord’s Prayer that got wet and ruined.

(Sometimes messages pile up in my inbox for weeks on end, and my replies are delayed until I unbury them all. But I saw this one as soon as it came in and sent her the link she needed right away, where she could download a fresh new copy. She wrote back to thank me almost immediately, which made me especially glad I didn’t keep her waiting!)

Free Printable Calendars

Then, last but not least, I’ve been getting a lot of messages about my calendars lately.Rosie writes:

(and she sent me a photo of her fridge in London, England, where she keeps the calendars posted)

Well, I thought that was terrific. I’m assuming she means my 2026 calendar. I’m glad she likes it and, as always, I’m happy to share!

But I’m already getting messages about next year’s calendars, too. Another reader writes:

Well, I don’t know about you, but I found this message inspiring. I hope that when I’m 79, I’m still active enough to need a calendar to keep up with all my workouts. That’s fantastic!

Then, I received a message from a different reader several weeks ago – I think it landed in my inbox the end of August or first of September:

I love the calendars you created, specifically the scrapbooking one in color.  Is there any way you can do one for 2028?

My answer to that is, I do a new scrapbooking calendar every year. I hadn’t really planned on starting on the 2028 just yet, but I went ahead and drew it extra-early so this reader wouldn’t have to wait. (I’ll put a link in the show notes, so you can download it, too, if you’re a person who likes to plan things waaaay in advance)

I still have a bunch more questions and messages in my inbox to answer, but I think I’ve cleared out everything on this topic for now. I’ll have to save the rest for a different episode on a different day. 

If you’ve never checked out all the free printables our family website has to offer, I do hope you’ll come look around. And if you don’t already subscribe to my newsletter, I send out a new themed list of free printables and fresh ideas every Wednesday morning. It’s called Flanders Family Freebies and each issue includes the themed link list plus book and movie reviews, new recipes, reader requests, and a peek at whatever personal projects I happen to be working on. I’ll put a link in the show notes in case you’re interested. I’d love to have you join me for that, as well.

Get Sunshine in Your Inbox

Would you like more marriage and motherhood tips, printable prayer guides, and other great ideas for building a strong, happy, healthy home?

Then sign up for my weekly newsletter, Flanders Family Freebies. I’ll send you a different themed link list of free resources delivered directly to your inbox every Wednesday morning!