Raising Them for the Lord

This week we tried four of the recipes in my new favorite cookbook What's to Eat - The Milk-free, Egg-free, Nut-free Cookbook - Herb-Roasted Potatoes, Honey Dijon Salmon, Tomato Basil Halibut, White Birthday Cake.  Since the cookbook is under copyright, I cannot share the recipes online; so I will have to tease you with recipe titles and my reviews. HERB ROASTED POTATOES The recipe calls for thinly sliced potatoes, so I pulled out my food processor to make the task go quickly.  Then cook for about an hour at 400*.  Well, I didn't take into account that a food processor slices much more thinly than most people slice by hand.  Just shy of an hour I checked in on the potatoes, and we ended up with some yummy, healthy (although a little browned) chips.  Ooops!  But now I know next time to either hand-slice my potatoes, or cook them shorter since they are so thinly sliced by the food processor. HONEY DIJON SALMON YUM!!   This recipe was quick prep at 5 minutes.  My four-year-o

Our two boys have been diagnosed with food-induced eczema.  This would be a breeze if they would just both be allergic to the same foods.  But, alas, we have a varied array of non-overlapping allergies.  The main culprits are eggs, nuts, and dairy.   What a blessing to this mother to find the book What's to Eat? - The Milk-Free, Egg-Free, Nut-Free Food Allergy Cookbook.  The day I received the book in the mail I sat down and read the cookbook, cover to cover.  Desperate to find a solution to dinner (and other meals), I was pleasantly amazed to read over 100 recipes for salads, soups, main dishes, breads, side dishes, and desserts.  In addition, there are some suggested menus for special occasions. Finally, I can plan a menu we can all enjoy without planning two or three meals per meal time.  The ingredients are not obscure, and they are either in my kitchen already or I have seen them in my supermarket on a regular basis.  For the next four days, I have set up a menu from the r

Raising children for the Lord is not for the wimp!  It takes time.  Time...well, I do believe we all have the same 24 hours in the day.  It is just a matter of taking the time to "train up a child in the way he should go."  In this day of fast-paced living and endless technology, I often find myself caught up in the things that are "important" to me and fail to spend the quality time necessary to train my chidren for the Lord.  What a convicting admission, but one I am working on correcting.  When my children come to me and I tell them I am too busy right now to read them a story, play outside, or just cuddle, I am telling them that they are not the most important physical gift God gave our family.  Not only are we sinning against our children, but also against God who commanded us to "train up our child in the way he should go..." Satan wants to use whatever obstacles he can find to keep a Christian parent from training their precious Gift from God.

Well, week two of 31 Days to Clean is done.  And I actually feel ahead of myself.  Boy does my kitchen feel inviting, along with my living room.  Having guests over really helps motivate me to do a thorough cleaning of the common areas of the house; but I had a whole lot less cleaning to "worry" about since I had been taking baby steps to cleaning my home.  Since we had guests over this Friday, the house is currently in a state of complete peace.  Only because, for the past two weeks, I've been systematically cleaning whole sections of the kitchen.  The idea of cleaning and reorganizing all my cupboards, drawers, and pantry was overwhelming; but by following the Martha challenges to clean them out and reorganize them one at a time each day of the week, I found the task did not take very long at all.  I enjoyed seeing progress, especially in places I avoided cleaning because I figured no one else was going to see in them anyway.  With the successes of accomplished tasks

I’ve said that to my children many, many times; as a matter of fact, just this morning I said it to my oldest two. Only this time, I was convicted myself. How many times have I looked at the kitchen counter and thought, “I really need to do the dishes,” and yet they remain there, dirty, for a few more hours (or days). UGH! What a hypocrite I’ve been in front of my children. No, they didn’t hear anyone telling me to clean the house, or know that I refused to obey the prompting and try to rationalize my disobedience with things like the following: • I don’t feel good today; I’ll do it tomorrow when I’m feeling better. • I let it go too long already. I feel overwhelmed by it, and I just can’t handle that feeling right now. • Maybe if I leave it until after my husband gets home I can make him feel sorry enough to do it for me. • I don’t want to do it now, just because! Whatever the reasons, they cause me to not obey right away, the right way. That’s just for the chores that I