Free Audiobooks Available On Spotify

Did you know that there are lots of audiobooks on Spotify?  Not just the classics either, but a large variety of popular thrillers, historical fiction, and young adult novels.   The catch is, they will not play well on the spotify app if you only have a free account - because the free accounts play on shuffle mode.  Try the desktop version if you have a free spotify account, you may have better luck with that.  For premium (paid) members, you can play the tracks in order.

I've started by highlighting 5 audiobooks available right now, and then below I have listed additional links for books by genre.


Psychological Thriller

To five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It is where he was born and grew up; it's where he lives with his Ma as they learn and read and eat and sleep and play. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits.
Room is home to Jack, but to Ma, it is the prison where Old Nick has held her captive for seven years. Through determination, ingenuity, and fierce motherly love, Ma has created a life for Jack. But she knows it's not enough...not for her or for him. She devises a bold escape plan, one that relies on her young son's bravery and a lot of luck. What she does not realize is just how unprepared she is for the plan to actually work.
Told entirely in the language of the energetic, pragmatic five-year-old Jack, Room is a celebration of resilience and the limitless bond between parent and child, a brilliantly executed novel about what it means to journey from one world to another.


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Psychological Thriller 

Megan Melvick has returned home after a three-year absence to visit her dying sister, Melissa, for the last time. As she approaches the grand Scottish country estate where she grew up, the memories come flooding back. Just what did happen on the night of Melissa's wedding five years before? Where has Megan and Melissa's mother disappeared to? And why does Melissa whisper that solitary word before she finally slips away: Sorry.
In order to overcome her demons, Megan must confront her painful recollections of that terrible night, the night of Melissa's wedding. The night somebody died. But can she really trust her memories? And who is it who's determined that she should forget?


In his first and only official autobiography, music icon Elton John reveals the truth about his extraordinary life, which is also the subject of the film Rocketman. The result is Me - the joyously funny, honest, and moving story of the most enduringly successful singer/songwriter of all time.
Christened Reginald Dwight, he was a shy boy with Buddy Holly glasses who grew up in the London suburb of Pinner and dreamed of becoming a pop star. By the age of 23, he was performing his first gig in America, facing an astonished audience in his bright yellow dungarees, a star-spangled T-shirt, and boots with wings. Elton John had arrived and the music world would never be the same again. 
His life has been full of drama, from the early rejection of his work with song-writing partner Bernie Taupin to spinning out of control as a chart-topping superstar; from half-heartedly trying to drown himself in his LA swimming pool to disco-dancing with the Queen; from friendships with John Lennon, Freddie Mercury, and George Michael, to setting up his AIDS Foundation. All the while, Elton was hiding a drug addiction that would grip him for over a decade. 
In Me, Elton also writes powerfully about getting clean and changing his life, about finding love with David Furnish and becoming a father. In a voice that is warm, humble, and open, this is Elton on his music and his relationships, his passions and his mistakes. This is a story that will stay with you, from a living legend.


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YA Historical Fiction
Victoria woke one morning at the age of 18 to discover that her uncle had died and that she was now queen. She went on to rule for 63 years, with an influence so far-reaching that the decades of her reign now bear her name - the Victorian period. Victoria is filled with the exciting comings and goings of royal life: intrigue and innuendo, scheming advisors, and assassination attempts - not to mention plenty of passion and discord.
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YA WWII Historical Fiction
From best-selling and award-winning author Kathryn Lasky comes an explosive adventure following the teen girl fighter pilots who took on Hitler's army...and won.
Fifteen-year-old Valya knows what it feels like to fly. She's a pilot who's always felt more at home soaring through the sky than down on earth. But since the Germans surrounded Stalingrad, Valyas been forced to stay on the ground and watch her city crumble.
When her mother is killed during the siege, Valya is left with one burning desire: to join up with her older sister, a member of the famous and feared Night Witches - a brigade of young female pilots. Using all her wits, Valya manages to get past the German blockage and find the Night Witches base...and that's when the real danger starts. The women have been assigned a critical mission. If they succeed, they'll inflict serious damage on the Nazis. If they fail, they'll face death...or even worse horrors.
Historical fiction master Lasky sheds light on the wars unsung heroes - daredevil girls who took to the skies to fight for their country - in an action-packed thrill ride that'll leave you electrified and breathless.


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More Audiobooks On Spotify: 

Click on the title to to to amazon and read the book description.  To the right, click on "Spotify Album" to open the audiobook in Spotify.

Biography & NonFiction

Cozy Mysteries:
                        More Greenhouse Mysteries On Spotify here


Classics:
Anne Of Green Gables  (And other LM Montgomery Books)  Spotify Albums
David Copperfield Spotify Album
The Last Of The Mohicans Spotify Album
Little Women By Louisa Alcott Spotify Album
Uncle Tom's Cabin Spotify Album


Crime, Mysteries, & Thrillers:
The Shape Of Water by Andrea Camilleri  Spotify Album  Book Two



Dystopian & Science  Fiction


Historical Fiction:
The Mountains Sing by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai Spotify Album
Poldark Book 10 - Spotify Album


Popular Fiction:









Where To Find Free Ebooks & Audiobooks Through the Quarantine


Where To Find Current Best Seller & New Release Books & Audiobooks, During the Quarantine.

During the pandemic, many reading services which normally have a monthly fee are free for everyone to use.  These are services with not just the classics, but also with current best sellers and popular new releases.  You can read Harlan Coben, Frederik Backman, Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham, and many more, for FREE in April of 2020.


Scribd
Scribd is your absolute best bet for Best Sellers and New Releases.
  Their service is normally $10 a month, but they are currently offering 30 days free, no credit card required.

"With millions of people around the globe staying close to home to reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19, access to books and information is more important than ever before. So, for the next month, we will be making Scribd’s library — which includes millions of ebooks, audiobooks, magazine articles, and more — available to anyone, free, for 30 days. There is no credit card or commitment required. Our goal is simply to ensure everyone has access to their favorite books, authors, and quality content as we settle into our new normal for the next few weeks."
Start reading today: https://scr.bi/ReadFree

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Audible 


Sign up below to start listening to audiobooks and get your first 2 books free, PLUS 1 bonus book from our VIP selection! At the end of your free trial, your subscription will automatically renew for $14.95 per month allowing you to download 1 premium audiobook per month PLUS a bonus book from our VIP selection. Cancel anytime, no strings attached.

This is a limited selection, but a LARGE limited selection.  Books for children, teens, literary classics..  including the Harry Potter Series.
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Kindle Unlimited

Normally $10 a month, Kindle Unlmited is offering a two month  FREE trial.  You will need to sign up for an account, with a credit card, for this one.  

Kindle Unlimited is, well, limited.  Most of the biggest new releases and best sellers will not be eligible.  But there are a lot of great reads  (including best sellers) on here for free.  When you are in the Kindle Section, at the top on the left is a box you can check for "kindle unlimited eligible".  Check that, then search for your favorite authors.  When I search for Harlan Coben, there are no Coben results, but the site will list a variety of similar authors with books that are eligible, and it will almost always include a variety of best sellers. 

Get A Free Two Month Trial To Kindle Unlimited Here

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Amazon First Reads

Completely different and separate from Kindle Unlimited, Amazon First Reads are kindle books that have not yet been released.  Each month editors choose selections in each genre, and Amazon Prime Members can choose one of these brand new books for FREE.  (If you are not an Amazon Prime Member, you can join First Reads and purchase the selections for $1.99 )
Find Amazon First Reads Here


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The Library (Even While They Are Closed)
If you didn't sign up for a library card before now, you may still be able to sign up for one online, and use it to access ebooks and audiobooks through one of the many apps, including Libby, Overdrive, Hoopla, and more.  Search the libraries in your county to see if any of them are offering Instant Digital Library Cards.  (Which app or service you use will vary by library - The Philadelphia Free Library uses Hoopla)


The Catch  - Only so many can borrow a book at a time, so there is often a waiting list for the most popular new releases and best sellers.  This is why it's great to have cards from as many libraries as possible, because if your book is not available at one library, it may be at another.  You can add multiple cards to the libby and overdrive apps!


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Spotify

Did you know that there are lots of audiobooks on Spotify?  Not just the classics either, but a large variety of popular thrillers, historical fiction, and young adult novels.   The catch is, they will not play well on the spotify app if you only have a free account - because the free accounts play on shuffle mode.  Try the desktop version if you have a free spotify account, you may have better luck with that.  For premium (paid) members, you can play the tracks in order.  Find a list of books, sorted by genre, here:



Free Sesame Street Ebooks

All Sesame Street Books Are Currently Free!


Quick Tip - How To Use Contour In Design Space

The Contour Button in cricut allows you to remove some of the unwanted cut lines - like an old date that is sliced out of an image.

 To use contour, you can only have one item, or "layer" selected.

When you click on Contour at the bottom right, a screen will pop up.
For this, you can choose the box at the bottom that says "hide all contours".  That will remove all of the text.

If you only want to change the numbers, simply click on each number in the panel  on the right to make them disappear.

Now when I close the contour screen, the design looks like this.
It can be cut as is, or you can add your own text.
In most cases, you really don't need to match the exact font - just find something that works well with the design.


For this, I used Garlic Butter

Many of the free KG fonts on dafont would work well here too.

You can select your new text, weld it, then slice it from the banner.  Or you can just attach it.

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An Index Of My Quick Tip Cards
Also a slideshow of them, & A printable pdf version

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Facebook Page - For Tips, Tricks, & Free SVGS
 https://www.facebook.com/fieldsofheathercrafts/

Facebook Group- For Questions, Support, Sharing Projects, 
and LOADS More Free SVGS in themed posts with links in the comments
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1121399284857845
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Where To Find Free SVGS For Making Easter Cards

Where To Find Free SVGS
For Making Easter Cards

Menu Planning

My menu planning "board" is actually an upright freezer in our laundry room - but this could easily be made on an old painting from the thrift store, or a canvas from the craft store.  I love to use old thrift store paintings for things like this - just cover the original piece with a coat of paint, or even adhesive shelf liner.

For Cricut Users:
Our Menu "Plan"
This is the same basic menu plan I have used for many years.  Things like "Thursday pasta" came from our sons playing football - so we loaded them up on carbs the night before.  Having a theme for each night, even if we don't always follow it, helps to narrow down the "whats for dinner" question that can be a little overwhelming at times.

There are several cards under each clip.  One card has a list of ideas, the other cards have meals that are either made ahead in the freezer, or we have all the ingredients on hand to make.  Each week I flip through the cards and move meals to the front, or I make a new card for something new I want to make that week.   That's our menu "guideline" for the week.  I may move tacos to Wednesday, or get busy and decide to just have spaghetti on a night I planned to cook something more time consuming..  The menu is a guide, not a set rule.  (there's a list of our "menu ideas" by theme, at the bottom of this post.)

The inventory card is a list of things in the freezer.  When the local stores like Burkholders have their chicken sales, I buy a case, then sort it out into zip lock bags, seasoning or marinating a lot of it, and making things like chicken cordon bleu, anniversary chicken, and cubed chicken for soups and pastas, all frozen and labeled.  The inventory helps me remember what all is still in there.  

There's a clip just for recipes that I want to try, and the lower clip has some seasoning packets we bought to try.  I'm less likely to forget we have them if they are clipped here, rather than stuck in the pantry.  

I rarely make just one casserole.  If it can be frozen, any time I make one, I make 2 or 3 and pop the extras in the freezer.  


The "base" of our meal plan looks something like this:

Sunday Dinner
Roast, Chicken, Pork loin - mashed or scalloped potatoes, vegetable, stove top stuffing
Lasagna
We go to church on Sunday, so these meals are all set so that they can mostly cook themselves while we are there.  Stovetop stuffing and ore ida mashed potatoes (yes - instant potatoes on Sunday) can be made in just a few minutes when we get home.  

Whatever meat we have on Sunday influences the rest of the week.  Leftover roast may become beef stroganoff, or pot pie, or roast beef sandwiches.  Leftover pork may go into carnitas, chicken into a soup or chicken pot pie, etc.

Monday  Leftovers
When I say "leftovers" , that could mean a meal I made extra of and froze, or it could mean leftovers in the fridge that I re-purpose into another meal.  

If there are no leftovers, or if none of them appeal to us, we grill hamburgs, or have breakfast for dinner.  

On Saturdays, Fetters in Milton has any large sub for $6.49.  We frequently pick that deal up, and while there we often buy steaks as well.  If we did buy steaks, and didn't have them Saturday night, we'll have them on Monday.

Tuesday Taco Night
Enchiladas, taco salad, taco quiche, refried bean soup, carnitas, flautas, burritos, or tacos

We also sometimes do baked potatoes on Tuesdays, with  variety of topping options.  I may make a meat or sandwich to go with them, or we may just have potatoes.  

This week I plan to make cilantro lime chicken tacos on homemade flatbread, with a baja sauce and a three bean salad with tortillas.

Wednesday Casseroles
"casseroles" is a misnomer.  Wednesday is my errands day, so what we have is often left up in the air, based on what I find at the market or store that week that looks good.  If I know it's a particularly busy Wednesday, it will be something I can throw in the crockpot before I leave for the day.  But I keep a list of ideas as well - 
Sweet and sour chicken, soulvaki, celine dijon chicken, brasciole, sauerbraten beef, shepherds pie

Thursday Pasta
Ideas - Pork Lo Mein, Rigatoni Casserole, Goulash, Beef Stroganoff, Haluska, Chicken Spaghetti, Turkey Tetrazzini, Chicken alfredo, Carbonara, Spaghetti, Baked Spaghetti, Macaroni and cheese...

Friday Night Pizza Night
Calzones are a staple here.  Home made pizza dough, topped with Italian seasoning, garlic, deli ham, pepperoni, and thick layers of provolone and mozzarella cheese.  Fold, bake, serve with sauce on the side.

Weavers Pizza is also a frequent option.

Saturday Soup and Sandwiches
Bear Creek Soups are very good, and pretty cheap at Big Lots.  One pack costs around $3 - and all you do is add 8 cups of water.  I keep these in the pantry, and they are great for any night I am in a rush

Soups are also great for using up leftovers.  I can usually clean out the fridge and make it into a soup of some sort.  :-)

Other staples on our menu rotation: French onion, broccoli cheddar, vegetable, chicken noodle, chicken enchilada, sausage tortellini, cheeseburger soup, chili, chicken corn

Sandwiches are rarely lunch meat here.  It's not something I typically keep on hand.  The exception is deli ham from the cooler section of Sam's club.  It's a cheap ham, over in the aisles near the frozen foods, not in the deli aisle.  It comes in a two pack and freezes exceptionally well.  This is what I use in calzones, and in ham and cheese sliders,  or ham bbq.  Occasionally I will buy sliced roast beef at the deli, specifically for roast beef sandwiches.  I love horseradish and have a ton in my garden, it goes great on roast beef sandwiches.

Other staple sandwiches - Hamburg BBQ ("sloppy joes"), falafel, pulled pork, chicken salad, white castle knock offs.

Lunches For Dan's Work
The freezer in our kitchen, on the side of the fridge, is for meals for Dan to take to work, and ice cream.  When I cook supper I always try to cook enough for Dan's lunches, if it is something that will freeze.  I stack the meals in containers like tv dinners, putting the latest in the back - so what he takes to work is almost never what we had for supper the night before.

Inside Our Freezer
I know upright freezers are no longer common, but this 1980's montgomery ward freezer still works great, nearly 40 years later.  We've been through at least 12 "more energy efficient" chest freezers since 1993, but this freezer my mom gave me, from my childhood, is still going strong.  (Many of the chest freezers are used for storage here on the farm, but too many of them were simply trashed, as they were not able to be repaired) It has to be defrosted manually twice a year, but I think it's worth it!

 The freezer is sorted into sections - there's a basket of premade foods (the chicken cordon bleu for instance - and that basket it sitting on one of the "emergency lasagnas" always kept in here) one of just meats, one for vegetables, and one for things like frozen french fries and pierogies.  The baskets at the top hold cheese, and sweets. When I make doughnuts or muffins, I freeze a bunch in the sweets basket, and we use SO much cheese in this house..  I know it changes the texture to freeze it, but it still works just fine if it's going to be melted into a dish anyway.  I frequently buy logs of provolone, and large bags of shredded mozzarella and of cheddar, and then freeze them in quart sized ziplocks.

The door of the freezer holds frozen breakfast foods (waffles, scrambled eggs with peppers and sausage for breakfast burritos, sausages) and fruits that I froze in season.  I have too many chickens, so we have a good amount of eggs.  Ok, an insane amount of eggs. I give a lot away, but I also scramble and freeze a few dozen each week.  They reheat well.

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An Index Of Recipes & Resources