Stay-at-home Saturday: A Tip and a Lesson

Did you know?
You should clean your coffee maker regularly to prevent impurities from tainting the taste of your coffee. Here’s an easy way to do it: Put a ½ cup of white vinegar in your pot and fill the rest of the way with water. Add to the coffee maker and brew. Pour out water and refill with a full pot of water. Brew. Voila! A clean machine! (By the way, I got this from Woman's Day magazine a few months ago. I wish I could claim to have come up with so many nifty ideas but I can't!)

Pumpkin Lessons

With Thanksgiving on the horizon, you may need to use the following information that I'm about to share. Have you heard that there is a shortage of canned pumpkin this year? Well, there is, so you'll need this critical information more than ever: I roasted and pureed my own pumpkin this year. I'm not sure why, but I had this need to do something homemade and maybe to save a little money in the process. Let me say that I did not enjoy this process, not one bit, so my perspective is a little on the, ah, negative side. If you have done this before and had a great experience I'd love to hear from you.

First, let me say that the pumpkin my dear husband chose for me to roast was way too big for this job. Way too big.

The pumpkins at the pumpkin patch that were good for pies, etc. were all $4, no matter the size. So we walked off with a prize-winning pumpkin that I had to wrestle when I started my task. You are supposed to be able to chop off the top, then cut it in half, then quarters. Well, I just had to cut off any side I could, and here is the result: After you get the pumpkin cut into quarters (or manageable pieces, in my case) you scrape off the seeds and strings. No one prepared me for how gross this was. I was not expecting the seeds and stringy-ness to be so slimy. Shudder. Oh, and it stained my hand orange. I was told not to discard the seeds so that they can later be roasted. I set them aside to deal with later. Update: I roasted the pumpkin seeds. I burned them.

After you scrape the sections clean then you put them on a roasting pan. You don’t have to put any oil on them but I recommend spraying your pan, as I now have two pans with permanent spots on them where I can’t get the pumpkin residue off.

Into the oven they go for about an hour on 400 degrees. You’ll know they are ready when they are fork-tender. When they have cooled enough, you separate the pumpkin “meat” from the skin. There’s probably a better way to do this, but I was so over this project by this time that I just ran a knife under the meat and called it done.
Dump your pumpkin into your food processor or blender and purée away! If needed you can add a few tablespoons of water, but my pumpkin was plenty juicy so I puréed for a minute or so, scraped down the sides, and puréed some more. Here is what I got: I poured one-cup portions into bags and stuck them in the freezer. Done! Thank goodness. I got 6 cups of purée out of my pumpkin, so at $4 that’s about $0.66 a cup. Not bad I guess, but my time is worth away more than that. Next year it’s canned pumpkin for me, baby! Happy Thanksgiving!

Love,

Amy

Wednesday In The Word

As I write this there are piles of laundry on my kitchen table, the floor needs to be vacummed and the dogs are barking because they are hungry but I feel compelled to just sit down and write this Wednesday In The Word. Perhaps, your house or life feels like mine right now but God wants to speak to you as He did to me.

Lately, some interesting choices have come into my life. I have even laid awake at night trying to sort out motivations because I don't want to do any thing that God does not want me to do. I have lived enough life to know about the self inflicted chaos that comes from just choosing to do something without asking God what He would want me to do. Last week as I tossed and turned and prayed it was if God said to me, "Glenda do you love me?" Of course, my answer was,"yes." Then it was followed with this question, "Do you love me with your whole heart?" That answer was yes. Finally, I was given a peace that I had not known, it was if God was saying to me that this is all He wants.

The Bible says in Deuteronomy 6:4,5

Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God the Lord is one! And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all you might.

From the rooftop:

If you know Jesus all He ever cares about is your heart being His

If your heart is 100 percent His you are free and not bond by old stuff that used to hold you back

We have the will and mind to decide to love God with our whole heart

It is freeing to love God with our whole heart because He is in control of all things and not limited to the little boxes that we put Him in.

God's love for us is unending and has no boundaries. Can our love for Him be the same? He has places for us all to go, people for us to talk to and things for us to see that we can not even imagine. He wants to use us to bring people into a relationship with His Son, Jesus. He may take us to the most unexpected. exciting places if we just love Him with our whole heart and ask Him where He wants us to go.

I love you,
Glenda

Train Up Tuesday: Lessons from the Mayflower

Well, did you have a chance to get a copy of “The Light and the Glory” after reading last week’s mini-review? I hope so! I’m learning so much from it, being reminded of our nation’s true heritage, and am being challenged in my own life.

I’m sure those of you who honor the Thanksgiving holiday in true form with moments of giving thanks are looking forward to sharing what God has done for you in the past year or how He has ministered to you. An attitude of gratitude is indeed a beautiful thing.

In your reflection over the last year, don’t forget about the moments when you have been squeezed tightly. What “juices” have oozed from you in those moments? I hope they have been precious ointment and a lovely fragrance (like Glenda wrote about last week). I wish I could say that’s always the case for me. Even if I thought I could get by and say it is the case...my kiddos could tell you it didn’t always go that way.

Let’s consider those Pilgrims of the Mayflower. No doubt, most of us remember that the 102 Pilgrims were in pretty cramped quarters while trekking through the Atlantic for a new home. As Marshall & Manuel describe it:

“ [they] huddled in the lantern-lit darkness of the low-ceilinged ‘tween-decks’ women and small children allowed to have the captain’s cabin; no hatches open because of continuous storms; all non-essential personnel required to stay below decks; the constant crying of small children; no chance to cook any meals.”

All this for seven weeks, people! It’s almost as if they were sailing in a huge coffin. Just reading this alone almost makes my skin crawl and feel a little claustrophobic! No doubt hidden, buried sins were coming up to the surface and had to be faced, repented of, and cleansed. Fortunately, these travelers were no foreigners to on-your-face prayer.

The most amazing thing of their trials in just getting there is the testimony that they left with the crew members...but I’m not giving that away; you’ll have to read up on that yourself. ;-)

Don’t you wonder about those families? We may elevate them to a “sainthood” status because they were Pilgrims. But, I think they were probably a lot like you and me. When squeezed really tight, their hidden ugliness came to light and had to be dealt with in all humility. Can you think back on those times when you and children faced a storm together? Perhaps you did react in a way you didn’t want your kids to learn to repeat. Did you use it as an opportunity to learn together? In the end, did you see evidence of the impact your testimony had to those surrounding you? The world is looking for examples of God in families thriving together. Don’t forget to celebrate making it through a storm in the last year as you share your victories over the Thanksgiving holiday!

This leads me to share a family tradition in our household. Although we all intend to have a heart of gratitude, the business of the day or the awkwardness of family openness (or lack thereof) often prohibits actually sharing things together. About 3 years ago, I came across the idea somewhere to write out your thankfulness on a tablecloth to be reused each year. It’s been wonderful to see our family expand (seriously...in 3 years we’ve had 2 marriages and 5 children to increase the brood) and to see the progression of thanks. It’s a nice way to preserve those memories.

Much love,

Ashlie

Lunchbox Love

I found these ADORABLE lunchbox cards at Michael's in the dollar bin. They have an encouraging note on the front and trivia on the back. Will LOVES to get a note. And, it's helping him with reading. Go to Michael's and get some, or go online at sayplease.com.

Stay-at-home Saturday: A Tip and a Recipe

Did you know?

Antibacterial dish soaps don't get your dishes any cleaner than ordinary dish soaps. Soaps with the ingredient triclosan are made to kill bacteria on your hands, not your dishes. Hot water and regular dish soap will get your dishes just as clean. Remember, using many anti-bacterial products could potentially cause resistant bacteria to emerge. You'll end up killing weaker bacteria and be left with strong bacteria that aren't killed by these products. Yikes! (Good Housekeeping, November 2009)

A really bad day

A few days ago I had a bad day. A really bad day. I was having so much trouble with my 3 year old that I wanted to pull my hair out. Since this isn't Train Up Your Child Tuesday I won't go into the details, but it was one of Those Days.

I noticed something throughout the course of this Really Bad Day. I wanted cake with icing all day. I dreamed of pumpkin cake with cream cheese icing and yellow cake with chocolate icing (Hello, Emotional Eater!). Since this isn't Slim Down Saturday either, I won't go into the strategies of fending off emotional eating, or how to battle your urges to binge. I will just tell you how to make chocolate icing. The very best chocolate icing you've ever tasted. It will leave you wondering why in the world you ever let Betty Crocker frost your cakes. Trust me.

This is a buttercream frosting, and making it will make you feel like a real cook, even if you're a terrible cook. I would venture to say that if you make this you will never go back to a store-bought tub again. At least that's what I was telling my husband as I was licking my fingers after making the frosting (and the bowl, and the beater, and the spatula).

Okay, here we go. The only investment you need to make for this is about $3 for unsweetened baking chocolate squares, found in the baking section alongside of chocolate chips. They may even be less than that during the holiday baking season. Otherwise the other ingredients are probably some things you keep anyway.

4 oz. cream cheese, softened (I use reduced fat cream cheese and it works fine)
3 unsweetened baking chocolate squares
1/2 stick butter
1 tsp. vanilla
1 box powdered sugar
milk

1. Melt butter and chocolate in a double boiler (if you don't have one, see below).

2. Put cream cheese, vanilla and powdered sugar in a large bowl.

3. Add melted chocolate and butter.

4. Mix on low (otherwise the powdered sugar will cover you and your kitchen).

5. After ingredients are combined, add a splash of milk and mix. Keep adding splashes until frosting reaches the consistency of, well, frosting. (This is where I get in trouble with my dear friend, Carolina Clipper. She hates descriptions like a splash and a pinch. I'm sorry! That's all I can tell you! Just pour a little splash in and go from there.) If you don't use the icing right away you can refrigerate it. Just bring it back to room temperature before using. Here's what I did with mine. I am definitely not a professional, but not bad for a Thursday evening!

*If you don't have a double boiler don't worry, neither do I. Just put about an inch of water in a pot. Put a glass bowl (or another heat safe bowl) on top and bring the water to a simmer (don't let the water touch the bottom of the bowl). Add ingredients and stir occasionally until completely melted.

Love,

Amy

Thrifty Thursday ~ Coupon Burnout Club

Are you tired of clipping, sorting, and filing coupons? Do you know this week is triples but can't get your act together and don't really care anyway? Welcome to the Coupon Burnout Club. I've been there a few times. If you're there now, I encourage you to take a break! Here are a few easy tips on how YOU can save money without the Sunday paper.

1. Remember, most of your savings come for the sale price, not the coupon. The below picture is from my Harris Teeter shopping trip last week. I spent $86.98 and saved $134.77! In this example, if I didn't have one single coupon, I still would have saved $90.89!!! Simply make a shopping list from the items that are on sale. Point: Skip the coupons and you will still save over 50%!

2. Use your printer. In the above example, I can't help but point out that I saved an additional $43.88 from coupons. However, $8.50 of those coupon savings was from Internet printable coupons (IP's). When you plan your shopping list from websites such as Southern Savers it will tell you exactly what's on sale and if there is an existing coupon to match that sale. Just click on the link and print the IP's from home! Tip: After you print the coupon click the "back" button to print a second coupon.

3. Only shop at one grocery store. When I first started shopping the sales I would go to four stores per week. Wow! I'm exhausted just typing that. Remember that sales run on cycles and if you stock up when items are at their lowest price there's no need to go to other stores. Simply wait a few more weeks and those items will come on sale at the store that you frequent the most. Tip: Click here to learn how to know if something is at the lowest price.

Wednesday In The Word: Fragrance

A true story was told to me recently that definitely sticks in my mind as a wonderful illustration of what a fragrant life is all about. No names will be used to protect the innocent but listen to this:

A man lived in the mountains on the side of a hill and had the suspicion that there was a critter residing under his house. He set a trap and sure enough in a few days he caught that critter. It was a skunk! The man proudly disposed of that little critter and got ready to go to work. When he walked into work he noticed that everyone looked at him funny and avoided him if at all possible. Finally, someone came to him and said,"man you need to go take a bath, you smell."
Well the man couldn't smell and the skunk had sprayed under that house and it had definitely seeped in to the man's living quarters. What a mess and what a smell.
I have thought on this little story all week and there is an obvious picture that we can not miss.
The Bible says:

Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Ephesians 5:1,2

From the rooftop:

The Bible makes it clear that we are to be imitators of God
We are loved
We are to love as He loves us
We are to be as Christ and live a life of abandonment toward others
When we follow the example of Christ our life will have a sweet smell

How many times have you and I gone about our days thinking that we were doing the right thing, saying the right thing or just going through the motions only to discover that our motivations were not right and everything just blows up in our face. There is a difference between doing what we are supposed to do and acting out our days motivated by the foundation of Christ in our hearts. A lot of times when we just go through the motions with little thought or time spent with God we are like the man that can't smell in this story. Our lives don't have a very sweet smell.

I am praying for you and you pray for me that we would look to Christ as our example and love one another as He has loved us and allow that basic fact to affect every action we take.

I love you,
Glenda