Converting to Real Food

Whoever coined the phrase "lazy days of summer" must have had me in mind because I have not been putting much effort into getting fit this summer. At least not in the ways we typically think of when we hear the word fitness. I have been exercising better stewardship of my health and paying more attention to things I can do to improve our family's health overall. I just haven't spent an enormous amount of mental or physical energy on trying to lose weight.


Fitness Friday is open to our discretion this week, so I thought I would elaborate a bit more on one of the subjects I touched on in my last post about keeping costs down in the kitchen. While one of my primary motivations was certainly to eat well for less money, it quickly became apparent to me that there are many health benefits associated with taking the time to eat fresh foods, cooked from scratch. We are making a concerted effort in this house to forgo buying foods packaged in boxes, bottles and jars when it is possible and fairly easy to make it ourselves, free of the dyes and preservatives found in just about every food in your typical supermarket. My Fitness Friday contribution for this week is to link to and post a few recipes that our family really enjoys that are healthier, and cost less than their convenience food counterpart.



Dressings and Sauces:

Basic Pasta sauce (from the Joy of Cooking, and very very easy):

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat. Add 1/3 cup fresh parsley, 1 medium chopped onion, 1 small carrot, peeled and finely chopped, and one celery stalk, finely chopped. Cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Then add:

2 cloves minced garlic, 1/2 cup basil leaves, chopped. Cook stirring for about 30 seconds. Add in:

2 and 1/2 pounds chopped, seeded ripe tomatoes, or: one 28 ounce can and one 14 ounce can whole tomatoes, with juice (I've done both. Either works well.) Salt and Pepper to taste.

Simmer uncovered until sauce is thickened, about 10 minutes. Toss into pasta of your choice. Oh yes, don't rinse pasta after cooking. The starch helps the sauce cling better to the noodles which is important because this sauce isn't as thick as your typical jarred pasta sauce.

Here is a link to a very good ranch dressing recipe. Tastes good, and is much fresher than what you'd buy in the store. You can also use homemade mayo to make it if you prefer that to store-bought mayonnaise.

As an aside, I highly recommend the newest edition Joy of Cooking to anyone who is a novice in the kitchen or interested in cooking from scratch. It is an exhaustive and detailed manual covering every subject and cooking technique you can think of and full of great recipes. Worth the investment. Of course, like most things learning to cook is mainly about hands on trial and error, but this is definitely one of the better cookbooks I've run across. A few more recipes we've enjoyed in recent months:


Breads and Crackers:


I have linked a couple of times already to Diane's burger bun recipe, which is easy and delicious. You really should try them. Krystal, organic food guru, posted back in the spring about the yucky stuff found even in the so-called healthy stuff on the grocery store shelves, such as the cookies and crackers. Which sent me on the lookout for an easy recipe for crackers, since we do love crackers in this house! My eldest and I ran across this one and decided to give it a try. They were quite good!


If you happen to have a bread machine, this is the best white bread recipe I have ever had for a bread machine. By the way, if you don't have dry milk powder, just use a cup of milk instead of the cup of water and the results are just as good. The same thing goes for Diane's recipe. I ran out of milk powder and an even substitution of milk for the water in both recipes works great. I haven't found a good bread machine wheat, but I have had a good hand recipe, from Julie that is quite tasty. Wonder how hard it would be to convert it to a bread machine recipe?

Breakfast Sausage:

To a pound of ground turkey add:

1 tsp. sage, 1 tsp. salt, 1/4 tsp. ginger, and 1/2 tsp. black pepper (or 1/4 tsp. red pepper if you like your sausage spicy). Mix and make patties, links, or whatever your prefer. Cook through.

Here is a recipe for beef sausage that is fairly close to the one my daughter and I came up with in the kitchen recently.

Those are just a few easy and tasty recipes that I have found as I work on converting our family from processed food to foods made from scratch. A few things I've discovered during this sometimes overwhelming conversion:

• While food from scratch tastes better than the fake stuff, it does take a little time for your taste buds to "cross over."After years of eating Tuna Helper from a box, for instance, I had to adjust to the lower sodium content in my own homemade version of the same dish. One of my daughters is convinced that among those ingredients we can't pronounce are chemicals hidden to keep us craving these products.


• While it may seem hard at first to cook from scratch, it really is just a matter of carving out more time to do it as well as shopping a bit more wisely. When I was growing up, almost every day I can remember my mom (who worked, by the way) calling home and saying to chop up an onion, some celery, and a bell pepper. I hated that and always thought there was no way that we needed to cut that stuff up for every dish she cooked. I am finding that the reason I was able to cook my first decade as a homemaker without cutting up many vegetables was because I was paying the food manufacturers to season the food for me with dried versions of the same veggies stuffed into boxes!


• Refocusing my food efforts on my family's overall health and not just on losing weight necessarily led me on the road to cooking from scratch. It is much more important to me that I keep Hydrogenated/Partially Hydrogenated Oils and MSG out of my kids than cutting a few calories by giving them a "low fat" cookie. Also, the idea that we're eating something "better" in terms of lower calories or even sugar just gives us license to eat more.

I don't have any weight loss to report, but I can report that we are losing trans fats, preservatives, and fillers from our family's diet. Eating foods as closely as possible to the way God created them will go along way towards our overall, long-term health and fitness.

Have a great weekend!

Living Well on One Income: In the Kitchen

This post is actually a hybrid: a re-post of an older post from 18 months ago, coupled with a few new ideas that I have embraced since then. Learning to eat well without breaking the bank is an art, one that I'm constantly working at, but also one that most of us can master if we're willing to spend just a little extra time in the kitchen. Convenience will balloon a grocery budget fast!

I am always on the lookout for ways to trim the fat from our household budget. With six kids expenses can sneak up on you in ways and places you least expect: An inopportune trip to the emergency room, new piano lesson books, replacing outgrown sneakers…the list goes on and on.

I am constantly aware that it’s my responsibility as a homemaker to do whatever I can to stretch my hubby’s hard earned dollars as far as possible.While many of our expenses are fixed, there is one area that I constantly struggled to keep a handle on, and that’s our grocery budget. It seemed that no matter how many sales I shopped and coupons I cut, and even prayed, the bottom line wouldn’t budge. I told myself that there was nothing I could do about it except make peace with the fact that our grocery really did cost a small fortune.

One day I noticed how many paper towels were in our trash can. We were literally going through a big roll every two days! My husband asked how much I was paying for them, and when he heard the price, he was the first to question if we really needed paper towels to begin with. Wouldn’t it be more cost effective to use cotton, washable towels in the kitchen? We already use the washer and dryer everyday: no extra cost associated with that.

Who needs paper towels? I do, I thought! They are an indispensable part of my day. Toddlers make a lot of spills, I am constantly washing my hands, and the big girls always grab a paper towel when they make a sandwich or eat a snack of some kind. Why can’t they put their apple slices on plates, he asked? We already use the dishwasher every day; no extra cost associated with that. Now this may seem insignificant, but I was spending $30 per month on paper towels alone.When I finally stopped to challenge myself on the way I’ve been doing things, I discovered that there were many things I was spending extra money on at the grocery store that were wholly unnecessary.

For example, when I was a kid, we used vinegar and water as glass cleaner. The mirrors always shined and rarely had streaks. A gallon of vinegar costs about a buck. A bottle of quality glass cleaner costs $3. Instant oatmeal, turkey breakfast sausage, bagged salad…oh my goodness! I was wasting more money than I ever even realized. Yes, it takes a little more time and energy to make these things from scratch, but it’s not like I have to cook breakfast before I rush out to work in the morning or cook dinner on the fly after a long day at work. I can make the time to do things in a way that doesn’t break the bank.

I have also finally began to make much of our bread from scratch. A big family eats a lot of bread. A quality loaf of bread in our area costs $3. I can make 3 loaves for that much. Don't get me wrong. I still buy a loaf of bread when I shop. I haven't totally discarded convenience. Yet. I just don't buy the 2 per week that was the norm. I don't however, buy hamburger buns anymore. They taste better made from scratch, and are not hard to make. I don't buy dinner breads or baking mixes anymore either.

Cooking from scratch in general, not just breads, will quikly deflate your grocery bill. We pay dearly for the convenience of those convenience foods. Do I even need to mention how expensive it is to eat out on regular basis? And I have found that in general, it really doesn't take much time to make some things from scratch. For example, a jar of mayonnaise costs $3. My daughter and I decided to make some from scratch, just to see how it turned out. It took us a total of 5 minutes to make the most delicious, fresh tasting mayonnaise- right there in our blender. We made it with ingredients we already had in our kitchen. I've also begun buying and cooking dry beans, which go much further than cans for the money. Every week I am incorporating new ways to feed my family fresher, made from scratch foods, rather than the more expensive stuff from boxes, full of dyes and preservatives masquerading as real food.

I am happy to say that in recent months I have shaved $125 a month off our grocery budget! I still buy paper towels, but I no longer purchase them in bulk (yes, I was buying them in bulk!), and we use them much more sparingly. A small roll can easily last us half the week. My kids much prefer my homemade breakfast sausage over the prepackaged stuff. I can’t believe it never occurred to me before to question what I viewed as a necessity. Old habits die hard, I guess.

One question I am learning to ask myself whenever I shop is “Who really needs this?” I find that this is a better question for me than asking if I really need it because I can always find a reason to believe that I need a thing, whether anyone else needs or not. If you are trying to find ways to budget better, you might want to ask your self: Who really needs paper towels? Or pre-shredded cheeses? Or gourmet coffee? Or even glass cleaner? I’ll admit it takes some adjusting to switch from the world of the quick and convenient to one of resourcefulness and creativity, but isn’t that one of the blessings of being full time homemakers to begin with?

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It's Been A While Since We Talked Politics...

Mainly because I am losing my tolerance for the fight. However, given that our country was founded on the idea of a government of, by and for the people, coupled with the fact that we the people are quickly losing control of a government that is supposed to work for us, I thought it may be time to reopen the dialog here at Breathing Grace. This is not a time for cowardice. Give me a minute here to put on my protective gear. Okay, let's muse.

Innocent Until Proven Guilty: Let me start by saying here that my reason for linking to this first piece is not because I have an opinion one way or the other on whether Michael Jackson was guilty of the pedophilia he was tried for. I'm linking to it because Mr. Boortz's analysis of the notion of being "innocent until proven guilty" is spot on. Good stuff.

Another Neal Boortz link: A letter from an African-American college professor written the day after the election. In my real life, I am virtually surrounded, folks. I avoid talking national politics with my family and friends as much as possible, with the exception of a couple of people for whom the realities are beginning to take shape. I sometimes need little reminders every now and then that I am NOT crazy for voting my values and not my race. I wish this woman would have covered the pro-life angle, but what she did say was said so eloquently, I wished I would have written it myself.

I guess I'll say something about Sarah Palin: I suspect that we haven't heard the last of her, but since she insisted on skipping out on the voters that she promised four years of service, I hope she takes this opportunity before her to turn her heart towards home and pour herself into raising the four beautiful children that are still at home with her. And helping her daughter to be a good mother to the child that she is having to raise as a single mom. That's all I have to say about that.

It doesn't matter if you're left or right: Whether it's Bill Clinton or Mark Sanford, this is my take. If you can't be trusted to keep promises to the woman you married and sleep next to every night, the woman who gave birth to your children, I'd be an absolute fool to think you'll keep a promise to me, whom you have never met and could care less about. The politicians put on a great performance pretending they care about us all, don't they? I liked his politics, but I say good riddance to Sanford from the national stage. I left the Democrat party in 1995 when I realized that my children were as much my children in the womb as out. I was officially pro-life. I left the Republican party in 2004 because they have proven to be a bunch of hypocrites. And not because of Bush, whom I still believe was the best choice we had given the alternative, though I vehemently disagreed with some of his decisions. I got sick of them promoting themselves a the party of family values. Oh, and not to mention smaller government. What a joke. When will we give a guy like Ron Paul a shot?

Health Care: As is the case with anything the government gets their hands on, this, if passed, will be a debacle. Between the inevitable unintended consequences and what I believe are the very intentional consequences of bigger, more powerful government and ever more dependent sheeple, nothing good can come of this. There was actually a member of Congress who said that this would be like Medicare, but for every one. Seriously? Since when is Medicare a shining example of fiscal efficiency and medical excellence? There are much more effective common sense ways to deal with the health care issue. For the young and fairly healthy, this may sound like a great idea. But as the cost begins to explode, the elderly, and even those whose lifestyles are slightly unhealthy are going to get the shaft. Which is ironic given that their taxes are going to have to go up to pay for this mess, too.

The inconvenient truth: The House of Representatives just passed, with enthusiastic approval from the Obama administration, an economic disaster of a climate change bill. It was over a thousand pages and none of the legislators even read it, by the way. Our president has openly admitted that the results will be a "necessary increase" in the amount of money we as consumers pay for our electricity. Included in this bill are contingencies for the job losses it will create if it passes the Senate. And I am already a little irritated with the arrival of my June electric bill, reflecting the customary summertime spike. So imagine what I was thinking when I found out that our government deliberately suppressed scientific data that calls this whole global warming theory into questions. An administration that insists it wants to make these decisions based on sound science decided that it only means that when the scientific facts line up with their pre-planned political agenda. This is change we can believe in? Manipulating the facts for political reasons? Well, OK!

I drive a GM. And I like it. However, if I ever again decide to buy a car from an American auto maker, it will be a Ford. Under no circumstances will I subsidize the government takeover of GM and Chrysler. Don't forget that they also gave the stockholders the shaft, upended conventional bankruptcy law in favor of the unions, and summarily fired thousands of car dealers, many of whom were profitable. Some of these dealerships have been family owned and operated for generations. Think it didn't affect you? If any part of your 401k holds GM or Chrysler stock, you got taken.

Let me get my guard up. Ok! Have at it.

Happy Monday, all!

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Tips to Living Well on Less, Pt. 1

I promised to post some of the secrets that I have uncovered over the years to living well on one income, so I’m going to try and tackle that. By the way, this stuff works regardless if you live on one income or not. These posts are not, in any way meant as an attack on or rebuke of wives who work. I cannot take the time to validate every exception whenever I may offend by simply writing what the Scriptures say, even when particular Scriptures are a rebuke of my own lifestyle and choices. Whatever our station in life, we would do well to be a better steward of the resources with which our Heavenly Father has blessed us. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way...

I considered starting this series by pointing out the often hidden costs of working and the fact that in most two income families, wives actually make far less in real dollars than they even realize. But that’s been done, and done better than I could ever do it, so I’ll just link to this article and this book. The book is a secular book written by 2 mothers who find out that they were in fact paying to work, when all things (expenses, childcare, taxes, etc.) were considered. The article is very condensed, but very good, version of the same conclusions. They write about how women can maximize the use of their time and resources, not to mention their time with their kids, by not working outside the home. I found the same thing in my own case.

I also used to believe being blessed with certain gifts and talents was reason enough to justify heading out the door every morning to get paid for them. It never occurred to me that I could work for myself, getting paid for them, but on my own terms and in ways that allow me to be with my family. It certainly, never ever occurred to me that the Almighty blessed me with the gifts He’s given for reasons other than a paycheck. And that paycheck, at least in my own case if not other women, often led me to be far less judicious with the way I spent “my” money. If I was tired after a very busy day, I thought nothing of spending $20 on pizza or takeout. Being at home has allowed me to see much more clearly all the thoughtless ways we spend money even when on the surface the expense seems totally legitimate.

In fact, every day I have to make a conscious and concerted effort to maximize the use of our resources, my energy, and my time in ways that are a blessing- first and foremost to my husband. I can’t have him feel like he’s working his fingers to the bone just so I can spend it all as fast as he can bring it in. Secondly, I have a household full of children who need to learn these things as well, and I also need to train them and teach them to understand that the best things in life will always cost us time and usually a bit of treasure, but not a fortune. To be wary of the way the world markets things to us, making the totally unnecessary seem vital and urgent. They are first and foremost out to make a buck. And make them they did off of me for many years, including the first 8-10 years that I spent at home. It has taken lots of prayer, homework, and trial and error but I think I have finally reached a point in my homemaking career where I have a pretty decent handle on controlling how I spend our money rather than having it control me.

As I pondered this subject I took a mental inventory of the ways that I began to cut costs and streamline our family’s budget. Different adjustments became clear to me at different times and I’ve made changes accordingly. I’ll start with one of the first things that I realized I could save money on when I came home from working: travel.

It goes without saying that being free from travelling to and from work each day has the potential to save money on gas. But it also has the potential to increase the amount you spend on gas- unless in your previous life your job was delivering pizzas. At first, my fuel expenses inched up because my car went from sitting in the parking lot of my place of employment most of the day to running back and forth to the store, to the park, to the library, to any and every where that I had never been free to go before when I was at work every day during the week. I was like a kid in a candy store. And I found myself having to fill up my tank much more regularly than I had before. There are also the other things that women don’t readily consider. The faster I racked up miles, the sooner we had to buy tires, the more often we had to change the oil, and every other regular maintenance expense that comes with owning a vehicle came due more regularly, costing more money. We have always driven older cars as well, which also means I was hastening the day when the car would have to be replaced. Thankfully, it didn’t take me that long to figure out the error of my ways. A few of the ways that I cut down on the obvious and the hidden travel expenses:

~Having a plan and a schedule for my days and weeks gives me a sense of direction, and makes it far less likely that I’ll make a sudden and impromptu trip in the car. After all, I have other things to do. There really is plenty to keep me busy around the house. There is always something that needs to be done!

~Learning to be content at home. I pick one or two days a week for running errands- and map out the most time and fuel efficient routes. This has probably been the most effective way that I’ve cut down on gas consumption. It only takes a few minutes, and when the budget is tight, it’s worth it.

~This is not directly related to travel, but I’ll include it here because it helps me to avoid “I just have to get out of this house” syndrome. Putting the baby in a stroller, lacing up my sneakers, and taking a walk around the neighborhood. I’m almost embarrassed to say that it was years before I got acquainted with the streets in the neighborhood where I live.

I hope these few ideas were helpful. Next week I hope to get to saving some money on our adjustable monthly bills.

Epiphany

I had the occasion to spend some time with a dear friend and sister in the faith last week. It was a tremendous blessing since we haven’t had many opportunities in recent months to just sit together and talk. She works full time and while I am always encouraged and honored to talk with her over the phone, days like the one we shared are extra special to me.

She recounted an “epiphany” she had recently that is sure to change her life and the life of her family forever. It will be an adjustment, but certainly a change for the better. I’m sharing a bit of it here because I was having a similar epiphany on the other side of town on the exact same day as she was having hers.

She had a matter to attend to at a local business. It was a very large company where security officers could be seen at various places in the building. Several of them were women, in the standard unisex uniforms. At that moment she said that The Savior began to speak to her heart and tell her that what she was seeing around her was a total reversal of order. That this was not the role He created woman to fill. That if every one of those women who had a family was at home instead of where she was, there would be no job shortage, our children wouldn’t be confused and out of control, and more families would remain intact. Oh yes, and that she needed to make preparations to go back home full time-and soon.

If you knew my friend you would know that this was no small revelation. She is a very strong woman, who joyfully submits to her husband and loves her children, but prides herself on her independence and ability to achieve. Her perspective is actually quite common among women in the church today, among women in general, and especially among African-American women. In fact, my friend is in a management position at her place of employment. She has always respected my role as a full time homemaker, and has always known my perspective on this issue, but never felt any great conviction to come home herself, feeling that each family is free on this matter to follow their own conscience before the Heavenly Father. Do you recall my saying that among black women, very few would even know what you mean when you mention the "mommy wars"?

As she recounted her revelation to me, I was floored because I was having a similar experience on the same day. I was at a local retail outlet, waiting to check out, and the patron ahead of me had a price discrepancy, which meant the manger needed to be called. When the manager approached, I noted the wedding rings on her hand as they were quite beautiful, practically begging to be noticed. I thought to myself that with all of the men looking for work right now, if every married woman was at home serving her family there would be far fewer men without a job. I really don’t know where the thought came from as I am quite used to the realities of women in the workplace, but it occurred to me nonetheless.

I know there are tens, if not hundreds of extenuating circumstances and realities of life that validate the hundreds of thousands of women who wake up every morning and must enter the rat race. I also realize that many men, including my friend’s husband, are quite comfortable with their wives holding a job and financial realities are such that most families wouldn’t even know where to begin to streamline their finances and reduce their debt load enough to live on one income. If a husband desires that his wife work, I believe that she is to submit to her husband as unto the Lord and honor his wishes. However, as my friend rightly pointed out, believers are called to come out from among the world’s systems and do things God’s way. In addition, she added that it’s our disobedience, individually, and as the church corporately, that has created this twisted mess we have now. Unsupervised children. Families not taking care of their own. Churches not defending and providing for the widow and the orphan.

I am particularly sensitive to this issue as it relates to the black community. I have written about it before, and will refrain from belaboring the point too much again, but the staggering illegitimacy and incarceration rates that have crippled these communities and our children in them are directly related to numbers of absent fathers and the resulting high numbers of mothers with their attention divided between parenting and providing. This same lack of focus is often present when married mothers are preoccupied with both parenting and providing. Problems that could be addressed and halted early on in the lives of children often go unnoticed until they’ve reached a crisis point.

I am thrilled in ways I can hardly begin to express when an African-American, believing wife and mother, along with her husband, answers the call to live the Titus 2 mandate. It takes us one step closer to a day when the words “traditional black family” don’t sound like an oxymoron. I realize that this is an issue that transcends ethnic considerations, since some would say that we are in living in an era that is "post-family", where the nuclear family is largely becoming obsolete. Given that the family is the God-given foundation for societal stability, I find this line of thinking to be very problematic.

The truth hurts, but someone needs to tell it. The reason that delinquency and illegitimacy rates are no smaller within the church than without is because our lives are no different than that of the world. We live the exact same lifestyles. Is it any wonder that in our families we would get the exact same results? We have deluded ourselves long enough. Albert Eintein said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome. Why do we think that dragging our madness to church with us obligates God to bless it?


By the way, there are ways for a wife to be a financial blessing to her family without abdicating her post to do it. But I’ll have to take that thought up another day. Stay tuned!

Mystery Solved. And a Few Good Links

The mystery of the vanishing slices of birthday cake has been solved. The cake has been found- ON MY HIPS in the form of a 1.6 pound weight gain. For two straight weeks I have been baking, decorating, and eating pieces of birthday cakes. In addition, my workouts have been much more sporadic of late. Yet inexplicably, the numbers on the scale held steady. This was wonderful news of course, but I know enough to know that there is no possible way for any one, especially one who will be 38 years old this weekend and has had 2 babies in past three years to maintain weight loss without giving due diligence to be very careful about what passes between her lips. While my indulgences are finally catching up with me on the scale, they are also proving to be motivational as evidenced by the fact that I've been working out this week. And once I enjoy a slice of the always decadent chocolate cake that my husband will undoubtedly present to me for my birthday on Saturday, I will be done with cake for a while and will hopefully see the numbers on the scale moving in the right direction. Now that we've solved that mystery, on to this week's Fitness Friday assignment.

Brenda, our hostess with the mostess(always wanted to say that!) has asked us to go online and find a few good links to inform and inspire each other as we continue on the road to health and fitness. I decided to find three links that will hopefully be balanced, informative and just plain fun!

• This first link jumped out at me because it was so full of common sense. I, and many other of the FF ladies, have often noted that women of our grandmothers' generation somehow managed to stay healthy and fit without diet plans and exercise regimens. They did this of course because unlike many women now, who spend the better part of their day sitting behind a desk or riding in a car, they lived active lives. I often lament the fact that during busy seasons it is hard for me to carve out 45 minutes of structured exercise time. This article points out that exercise broken up throughout the day is just as beneficial as a highly structured, concentrated period of exercise once a day. Exercise as a lifestyle is not a new idea. The research here said that activities such as gardening, dancing, playing with children, or walking the dog, when done consistently, were shown to produce the same weight loss and health benefits over a 2 month period as a daily trip to the gym. Now how's THAT for good news? Of course, our grandmas could have told us that too, couldn't they?


• Even donuts can fit into an overall wholesome meal plan??? Wait a minute!! That's impossible! Well, not according to this article, which is all about moderation in the foods we eat. Of course, they aren't proposing that we eat a donut every day, or even every week. What they are saying is that when we have a healthy, balanced, and moderate approach to nutrition, there is no such thing as a forbidden food. Yes, even birthday cake.


• This video is very funny- at least to me. Many of you have probably seen this before. It's called gospel aerobics and you'll want to get up and move as soon as the music starts. If you can manage to stop laughing at our flamboyant instructor. It's 9 minutes long, but you can get the gist in about 2 minutes. If you need a smile this morning watch it. Trust me.

Have a great Fourth of July Weekend. Celebrate our country's independence while we still have a measure of independence to celebrate.

And click over to Brenda at The Family Revised for more Fitness Friday encouragement.

A (Hopefully) Helpful Hint to Save Some Green

It's been a busy week, but I've had occasion in recent days to save my family money and I thought I'd share this tip with you because many people don't realize how easy it is to get the companies that manufacture items to replace them free of charge or almost free if you just take a minute and pick up the phone. In the past three weeks, I've had 2 small appliances die and also a few of those expensive, energy efficient, long lasting light bulbs that are supposed to last 7 years. In each case, it is costing me nothing or next to nothing to have them replaced.

• My iron went out, and it while it wasn't a very expensive one, it was priced mid-range. I called the 1-800 number of the company that makes it and they told me what information to mail in, along with a three-inch section of the power cord, and they're sending me a new one. It's costing me $6 for shipping to replace a $35 iron.


• My hand mixer also died. I go through hand mixers fairly quickly( you may remember I bake a lot), and I can't remember the last time I replaced one out of pocket. One phone call and the company sends another to replace it- as long as it's been within 13 months since I purchased it. I don't even have to send a receipt. Why don't I use a standing mixer, you ask? I do, but sometimes a hand mixer is just more convenient.


• Those high efficiency light bulbs that are supposed to last 7 years? I have 6 in my house that didn't last 6 months. I called Sylvania this morning and they are sending me vouchers for free light bulbs. The first time this happened, about a year ago, they shipped me a couple of boxes of light bulbs.

The lesson here of course is that when it comes to small appliances and other household items that are heavily used, call the manufacturer BEFORE you run out and buy another. Sometimes it can't be helped. As in the case of my iron. I couldn't very well be without an iron for a week. I just bought a very cheap one to use in the meantime. When I get my replacement iron, I'll put the cheap ($9) iron up to use as a backup should I run into this problem again. It also occurred to me that with two irons in the house, my girls can help out when I have lots of ironing to do, :-)

On an unrelated note:

• I got a tasty recipe from Mrs. Amy at Clothesline Alley a few weeks ago and I finally got around to trying it out. It's apple fritters -aka semi-healthy donuts. They were very good. Of course, these are only for an occasional treat, not every day. Since they're made with whole wheat flour and no white sugar (I used raw honey to sweeten mine), you can indulge without feeling too terribly guilty. Hope your family enjoys them as much a mine did!

Amy's Apple Fritters (aka semi healthy donuts)

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1/8 cup honey or 1/4 cup sugar

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon (opt: also add 1/2 teaspoon cardamon and cloves)

1/3 cup cow milk or coconut milk

1 egg

1 cup chopped apple

Combine dry ingredients and then add milk and egg, stirring until just combined. Gently fold in apple. Add whatever oil you prefer to fry in to a pan, until 1.5 inches deep and heat over high. Cook until brown and flip to brown other side. Remove from oil & drain on paper towels.

These can be eaten glazed or unglazed. It's up to you!

The Lessons Behind the Banality

I hesitated to post anything about the death of Michael Jackson, as the title of this post might imply. Given the spiritual state of the world we live in, the monumental crisis of liberty facing our country, and frankly, just the daily demands of life as a wife and mother, there are truly more important things to opine than the “shocking” death of a pop culture icon that really isn’t so shocking given that it is a statistical certainty that we will all die one day.

When the news popped up on my laptop there were two things that immediately sprang to my mind. The first was that there is no period during my childhood when the self-titled King of Pop didn’t have a hit song that I, to this day, still can call to mind the lyrics of because the songs were blaring just about everywhere I went. From my earliest years, when my sister, thirteen years my senior would be playing Jackson 5 records in her bedroom, to the phenomenon that was Thriller when I was in junior high school, to the massive theatrical productions in the form of music videos that dominated the new music television medium throughout my high school years. In fact, up until I unplugged from popular culture about a dozen years ago, I can almost date the major events in my life in tandem with one or more of the man’s many hit songs.

My next thoughts, however, are what prompted me to add yet more commentary to what I’m sure is almost nonstop commentary (I’m not watching it, but I can only speculate) on the life of the departed pop icon. His sad story, in my opinion, serves as a cautionary tale to all parents. There are few stories of childhood stardom gone awry more tragic than that of the King of Pop. And I’m not talking about the obvious craziness of stage moms and dads using their kids as meal tickets all while assuring everyone who asks they the child “loves” performing, or pageants, or baseball, or whatever the thing is that the child is being pushed to do so that he or she can be the one in a million who is the next big thing. Never mind that youthful fame has been the undoing of more lives than we can count. There are more subtle ways that we, more sane parents, can fall into some of the same traps.

Let me start with an example. I have been pretty transparent here about my life before being redeemed by the Savior. There are many parts of it that aren’t pretty. It is my earnest prayer and one of the deepest desires of my heart that my children don’t make the same mistakes I made as a young adult; that they don’t fall into some of the same sins. There are certainly things I can do to guide them and train them in the ways of righteousness. To help them make good decisions and hopefully be grounded in their faith. To teach them to test all things, as the Scripture commands us, so that they know why they believe what they believe. I have to be careful however, how far I attempt to go in my zeal to see them miss the potholes that I tripped into along the way.

As many of my girls are entering younger womanhood, I have to be careful not to become my own version of a stage parent: working overtime to help them embrace not what the Heavenly Father has created them to be, but attempting to squeeze them into the mold of what I think He created them to be. If I’m honest with myself, I have to admit that much of my striving along those lines really isn’t even about helping them be what He created them to be, but rather what I think looks right, what I think will cause other believers to approve of and say that I have good girls, modest girls, that I’ve done a great job raising them.

What if they desire to pursue a master’s degree before settling down? What if one or worse more, of them doesn’t marry and have children? What if, heaven forbid, one of them gets into some kind of trouble (pregnancy, anorexia, drinking, take your pick)? What does that say about me as a mother? Did I not raise them properly and train them up in the way they should go? Because we all know that if I follow the prescribed formulas I’ll produce a perfect child. And who gets the glory for the perfect children we churn out? Oh, we'll say that all the glory goes to God, but does it? I dare say it probably doesn’t. I have heard time and time again from women in the blogosphere that I am at best “stupid” for allowing my kids to go to school, and that’s a direct quote. At worst? That I’m disobeying the word of God. And the result will be that my children will, without question, emerge full of immoral beliefs and downright hostile to the faith. That’s just one example and I don’t want to get bogged down there, but you get the point. It puts the responsibility for their salvation squarely in my hands, instead of into the Only Name where salvation can be found.

When Joe and Catherine Jackson pushed and pushed their son to be a world class superstar, they got exactly what they invested in. Michael Jackson was a star that shone like no other. But they also got a son who spent the better part of his adult life trying to recapture the childhood that eluded him during the time when he should have been just being a kid. Who obviously didn't care for the person he was or the way God created him. They got a son who in his 30’s reportedly claimed to throw up at the thought of meeting with his father. I can only wonder what that report, if true, did to his parents. Well, we do know what his father thought about it. Telling, huh?

Of course, I’m not implying that lovingly guiding our children and training them in the right way is wrong. We’re supposed to do that; to do anything less would be sinful! And truthfully, parents of younger children can hardly appreciate the magnitude of my words here. They may even sound absurd. But we have been called to raise our children to be able to find the truth for themselves, to have a personal awakening and encounter with the Heavenly Father and with the redemption His Son offers them. And then to walk the path He has laid out for them, rather than the path we have laid out for them. Anything more makes us nothing more than stage parents, pulling the strings on our children like puppets and demanding that they dance to our tune, rather than to the one God has played for them. It won’t produce the desired result, whether or not the fruit of our folly is on display for the entire world to see.

Avoiding the Heat When You MUST Go in the Kitchen

JulieMom, our host for this week's Fitness Friday, has asked us to reveal the ways we beat the heat in the kitchen and still maintain a healthy menu and diet. In my kitchen, I usually do this in three ways:

1. Serving plenty of salads. One of my favorite ways to minimize time in front of the hot stove during the sweltering months of summer is to make main dish salads, which happen to have the advantage of being healthy, too. Here is one of my favorites. But a garden salad can be topped with fish or beef as well as chicken and served quickly. In addition, it's delicious and saves on dishes and clean up.


2. Grilling. Recently, my grill that I have used faithfully for many years konked out and had to be thrown out. I'm on the hunt for a good deal on a new one. But on those days when you want to eat a burger, or even grilled chicken, tossing those meats on the grill outside is a lot cooler than frying or baking them. And did I mention that they are healthier? It IS Fitness Friday after all!


3. Crock pot. Just about anything can be tossed in a slow cooker for a delicious, no fuss, no hassle. Again, you save on after dinner pot and pan cleaning. And you avoid the heat of standing over the stove.


4. My breadmaker is a great way to make a quick loaf of bread without having to deal with the heat from the oven. We eat a lot of fresh baked bread with meals around here, and while some types of bread (rolls, focaccia, etc.) have to be baked in the oven, a regular loaf can be easily made without the hassle of hanging out in the kitchen.

Those are my tips for making healthy meals while avoiding the heat of traditional cooking.

I wish I had some measurable progress to report on the weightloss front, but the fact that I didn't gain is progress the way things are going around here lately. There was the special cake my husband "ordered" for father's day. My twins had a birthday on Tuesday, so I had to make a cake. Bright Eyes has a birthday on Sunday, and I have to make a cake. My birthday is next week, and I know I'm going to get a cake even if I say I don't want one. Birthdays and cake go together in this house, like macaroni and cheese, you know?

It's been a terribly bust week and workouts have been tossed aside, but I will definitely hopefully be taking a nice long walk tonight.

Click on over to JulieMom for more Fitness Friday encouragement.

A Matter of Semantics? Correction and Clarifications

Okay, I am a firm believer in admitting when I am wrong or when my words have left the door open to misunderstanding. That exactly what I did in my last two posts. I believe in the power of words and in my haste to quickly write up a clarification of one post, I can see where I again phrased my words in a way that I really didn't mean to. So let me correct two mistakes:

• I used the words "hanging out with sinners", which probably wasn't the best choice of words. First of all, hanging out has a negative connotation, and I should have known the picture that phrasing might inspire. But I have had occasion from time to time to sit down over a cup of coffee with an unbeliever and share my faith.
• Second, I thought this should have been understood, but I am not nor have a ever advocated the idea of friendship evangelism. That is, just running around taking up with any and every body for an unlimited amount of time in a relationship without boundaries under the pretense of witnessing to them. I am simply rebuking the notion that I see increasing among Christians: the tendency to create Christians to group together in little bubbles and tsk tsk all the awful immoral sinners out there with no regard for their souls since they are, after all, "enemies of Christ." Like we were never enemies of Christ. What I am suggesting, is that we view every person through eyes of love and prayerfully consider whether or not the Lord has called us to something more than a passing word when people enter our lives.
• The definition of "friend." My definition of what a friend is is apparently different from many of you and it caused our wires to get crossed a bit. Those closest to me are my "good friends", "sisters in the Lord", or prayer partners. But I can see my mistake because Jesus (John 15:15) did indeed say that the disciples were no longer his servants, but his "friends." So I can appreciate that some of you were using the word friend differently from me. I apologize for the misunderstanding.

I hope this puts my posts in context.