Thing #7

Thing #7: Learn to use your slow cooker. It saves time and money.

This seemed like an appropriate tip for this week because Hubby’s office had a soup day, for which he used our slow cooker, and my place of employment had a “Crock Pot®-luck.” We had 30 slow cookers lined up with everything from soup to nuts. There was pulled pork, baked potatoes, mac ‘n cheese, chicken wings, something called Chicken Tagine (which was super delicious, thank you, Sydne), pineapple upside down cake, and my contribution: corn pudding. Very fattening, and delicious. Corn, corn bread mix, sour cream, butter. You get the idea.

The slow cooker makes my life easy. Throw everything in, turn on the cooker, and you’re done. Quite often I throw in frozen meat, and it always turns out great. My favorite thing to slow cook is soup, and if my recipes weren’t in a book I’d share them with you. (I don’t want to violate anybody’s copyrights.) But I do have some good websites to share:

• stephanieodea.com A creative young blogger named Stephanie O’Dea tried a new slow cooker recipe every day for a year and has a cookbook to show for it. Her site has lots of recipes and tips. She’s really funny and uses lots of photos. My kind of gal.  http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/

• www.sixsistersstuff.com Maybe it’s because I’m from a family of five sisters that I love the website “Six Sisters’ Stuff.” Or maybe it’s because they have so much fun stuff on their site that I can spend hours getting lost there. Here’s a recipe for Black Bean and Corn Salsa that is very similar to something I make on a regular basis.  http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/2011/09/slow-cooker-black-bean-and-corn-salsa.html

• And here’s Sydne’s super delicious Chicken Tagine:  http://www.delish.com/recipefinder/slow-cooker-chicken-tagine-ghk0907?src=email

One more note: A lot of these recipes call for chicken breast, and I always substitute chicken thighs. I prefer the juicier meat of the thigh and am happier to spend less money. Yes, there is a bone in a chicken thigh, but it’s a [as in singular] bone, people. Not that hard.

I know some of you are thinking, “I’m just one person. Slow cookers aren’t practical for me.” Super Slow Cooker Stephanie O’Dae offers this suggestion: Cook a smaller portion in a dish placed inside your slow cooker. She says, “Insert an oven-safe dish into your cooker and then put your food into the dish. This will create a smaller cooking vessel which will insulate your food and keep it from getting over-cooked or lost in a huge machine.”

Besides, leftovers are a good thing, yes? Or invite my family over. Problem solved.

So pull out that slow cooker in the morning, dinner’s done by five. Let’s eat!

Thing #6

        Thing #6.  Do it while you can.

There are likely a few things you’ve been meaning to do. Not those “I-can-do-it-anytime” things, but those “someday-I- will” things.  Take a road trip. Look up an old friend.  Record your grandmother’s stories. Let me encourage you—do it now, while you can.

I lost an opportunity by waiting too long.

I work for a Christian organization and hear stories of people who pour their lives out for the good of others. One woman from our organization lived just an hour from me and every time I’d read about her it made me want to meet her.  She was able to talk about Jesus easily, naturally, everywhere she went. She befriended women of all ages. She wrote books, she spoke at conferences.

She sounds so cool, I’d often say to myself. I should invite her to come speak to a group of women from my church. Yeah, I should do that. I will. Someday.

But after a couple years of somedays, I heard of her sudden death and realized my opportunity was gone.

I wasn't going to make that mistake again.

Around that time, I interviewed another person who had been with our organization a long time, a popular writer and speaker.  One of my pastors greatly admired this writer, and I realized I might be able to get the two together.  I thought the writer would likely come over for dinner if his schedule allowed.  So I asked.  He and his wife came over for dinner, along with my pastor and his wife, and we all had a night to remember.

I was so glad I didn’t wait for someday.

What is it you’ve been meaning to do? Go ahead--do it. Don’t put it off.

One thing I think we all should do is capture our family stories. Here’s a website with some good questions to ask your parents, grandparents, your aunt and uncle.

http://genealogy.about.com/cs/oralhistory/a/interview.htm

Make a call, pay a visit. Do it.  While you can.

Thing #5

Thing #5. Start your car, then scrape your windows.

This is a little something I learned one snowy morning back in Illinois. I cleared all my car windows in anticipation of heading to work only to discover my car wouldn’t start. So don’t spend all that energy to clear your windows for nothin’.

Not only that, but your car can have a few minutes to warm up while you take care of your windows.

And you’ll avoid this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcNrh8FL3vE

P.S. My car wouldn’t start this morning. Ironic, eh?

52 Things Intro

52 Things

I don’t know about you, but I love “helpful hints,” those practical, useful ideas that make life’s tasks easier. I decided I’m going to share some of my favorite tips this year in a series I’ve cleverly titled, “52 Things.” As you might guess, I’ll share one a week.

Some are household tips, others are life hints. Maybe nothing new to you, maybe so. I’m quite certain the vast majority of these ideas aren’t original with me, though I may have given them a personal twist. Hope you enjoy the series.

Things #1- #4

Things #1-4: Menu Planning

Because the idea for “52 Things” came to me just as January was coming to a close, I’ll start off with a group of four things to cover the month of January.

1)      Make weekly menu plans. Base your grocery list off your menu plan.

2)      Create a list of favorite family meals to make menu planning easier.

3)      Keep a note pad in a specified place so anyone can jot down something for the grocery list. Ours is on the fridge. Years ago I found a magnet that holds a pencil. It lives by the note pad.

4)      Have a quick and easy meal in the freezer.

My menu planner is based on an idea I found on Pinterest. (See photo.) I covered a piece of cardboard—from the back of a paper tablet—with some fabric and added a little bow to the top. Used hot glue.

Then I took my list of entree ideas and printed them out on brown paper—something I had on hand from a previous project. Then I cut them into small pieces with a single entree on each slip. I folded little envelopes to fit the slips and labeled them “Chicken,” “Beef,” “Pork,” “Misc,” and “Blank.” Yes, we are meat eaters. I do plan veggie-only meals now and then. I created a few slips that read “On Your Own” or “Leftovers.” The blank slips make it easy to add new entrees. I keep the smaller envelopes in a pretty green envelope.

I glued a heavy magnet to the back of the menu plan holder, and keep the green envelope in a large clip with a magnet on it. I use clothes pins, labeled with the days of the week, to hold the tabs on the planner.

This method makes menu planning easy and fun.

I hold my menu plan with an open hand. Life gets busy, plans change. Sometimes I have enough food for two days when I only planned that item for one. Some days I don’t have the energy to cook and so I scrap the plan in favor of a frozen pizza. But I begin each week knowing I have ingredients on hand for several meals.

I don’t think of myself as a highly organized or structured person, but meal planning is something I do regularly. It reduces that “what-in-the-world-am-I-fixing-for-dinner-tonight” stress that can creep in about 4:00 in the afternoon.

Fear and Faith

There are a few events from my life that can make me cry just to think about them. One was when I watched Abby say good bye to her life-long friend and next-door-neighbor, Mary, when Mary headed off to college. The two of them stood in our living room, arms around each other’s shoulders, and bawled. I'm tearing up just writing about it.

Another event was when Kate left for college. She loaded all her necessary belongings in her red Ford Taurus, sat down next to her pet fish, who was swimming laps in the cup holder, and drove away. I cried so hard I couldn't speak, even to tell her good bye.

Then there was something that happened just a few weeks ago. Eric (17) needed surgery to correct a problem with his skull. Yes, his skull. He needed the opening at the base of his skull enlarged to allow more room for his brain and relieve the pressure on his spinal column. The neurosurgeon would actually see Eric's brain during the procedure. The surgeon told us it wasn't brain surgery, knowing that a parent's mind could easily go there. Yes, I told myself, but it is next-to-the-brain surgery.

Hearing the words "neurosurgeon" and "spinal column" in the same sentence as Eric's name scared me. Scared me a lot.

I thought I was masking my anxiety pretty well, but then I heard Eric tell someone I was a basket case. I guess he saw through me. I don't think I've ever been so scared. I managed not to cry until Eric was being wheeled down the hall in the hospital bed toward surgery. Then I couldn't hold back the tears. And once they started, I didn't know if they'd ever stop.

I told myself all the things I knew to be true about the situation. Eric was strong, able to handle the procedure. The surgeon was skilled and experienced, having done this procedure many times. And beyond all those things, there was God. The God who loved Eric, loved our family, and was in perfect control of all things. Whatever the outcome, it was all in God's hands.

So why was I crying?

We'd learned about Eric's condition just a week before, but in that week I’d managed to build up a pretty high level of anxiety. I feared that the surgeon's knife would slip and Eric would suffer a debilitating injury.

That's all in God's hands, I repeated. Even if that happened, God would give us the grace to handle it. My mind couldn't convince my heart, though. I didn't understand why I could have faith in God and still be so scared. Can faith and fear coexist?

I emailed some friends during the week of Eric’s surgery, admitting to them that I was struggling with the idea of fear and faith. They offered some helpful perspective.

“I think letting go and having a good cry is appropriate. You are a loving mother expressing great concern for your son. So in my limited wisdom, which I think I am slowly acquiring with each gray hair, and each trial, you can have faith in God and still be scared, because you were also scared and yet still have faith in God.”  

"Remember, you don't need perfect faith. You just need faith in a perfect God."

“Fear is a normal reaction of the body to danger. Faith is the normal reaction of the body of Christ to God's ability to use everything in our lives for His glory and our good. The two go together.  We take our fear to the One who can do something with the source of our fear.”

Eric's surgery went perfectly. It took him a couple weeks to get his stomach and head back to normal. But he's fine. My fears were for naught.

I continued to struggle with the whole faith and fear thing. Why had I been so fearful? Doesn’t the Bible say, “Perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18)?

As I quoted that verse to myself it shed new light on my struggle. I was expecting my faith to be perfect. I figured that by this time in my life I should have “perfect” love and “perfect” faith. I expected I should have the kind of faith that left no room for doubt or fear. But guess what? Even at my “advanced” age, my faith is imperfect. I’m imperfect. Why was that such a news flash?

Faith is something that grows throughout our lives. I'd never faced anything quite like this, so my faith was untested in this area. And when it was tested, it came up short. I’m not perfect.

I thought back to the first time Doug faced unemployment. It was early in our marriage and the idea of Doug losing his job had me pretty upset. But I remembered God loved us, and if Doug lost his job it didn't mean God didn't love us. And, when Doug did lose his job, God took care of us. Then, 20 years later, he faced unemployment again and guess what? I wasn't nearly so concerned. I'd seen God prove Himself to me in times of unemployment so it made it easier to trust Him when unemployment came calling again.

I'd like to think that if I face something like this again--God forbid--I'd handle it with a little more courage. But it's okay if I don't. I'm not perfect. I get scared sometimes.

During my times of fear surrounding Eric’s surgery I found myself praying a familiar prayer from the New Testament: "I do believe; help my unbelief” (Mark 9:24). 

I smiled when I remembered that prayer had been uttered by a man asking Jesus to heal his son. And Jesus healed the man’s son, even though the man’s faith was imperfect.

Yes, Lord, heal my son, too. And help my unbelief.

Mothers: They Deserve an Increase in Their Allowance

Mothers deserve generous allowances. I'm not talking about a stipend to spend on purses and shoes, although that isn't a bad idea. I'm suggesting mothers should be "allowed" to do certain things simply because they are mothers.

Mothers are allowed to think about their children almost constantly, whether those children are 2 or 22. We can't help it. We will always wonder where you are, what you're doing, if you're safe, if you're happy, . . . It's not always worry, it's just thinking, wondering, hoping. And praying.

Mothers are allowed to hug at will. I understand this can be awkward for 17-year-old boys, so sometimes we mothers learn to control the urge in certain circumstances. One way children can help mothers control this urge is to occasionally initiate the hug themselves. Mothers will never be embarrassed by a hug. Ever. Ever.

Mothers are allowed to correct their children. Rudeness is offensive to mothers, and mothers will do what they can to stop it. Even if the person being rude isn't their own child. It's kind of a reflex. So watch it.

Mothers are allowed to make their children do chores. It's part of that whole "making you a better person" deal that mothers sign up for. Mothers also have the right to expect those chores to be done well, and without complaining. So just do it that way.

Mothers are allowed to call their children by a variety of names. They may use the name they decided to put on your birth certificate, or they may use "Sweetie," "Honey," "Peanut," "Buddy," "Snickerdoodle," or any variety thereof. They might also call you a name they decided to put on your sibling's birth certificate, or combined syllables of various names. Please respond to whatever name they use.  Don't complain if your mother wants to call you something besides the name everybody else uses. She's your mom. She's allowed.

Mothers are allowed to make you eat things you don't like. It will make you a healthier person and a better human being. Someday, when your new mother-in-law serves brussel sprouts, you'll impress the socks off her when you ask for seconds.

Mothers are allowed to think their children are beautiful. If your mother tells you you're pretty or handsome, don't respond with, "You have to say that; you're my mother." Just say "Thank you, Mom," and engage in hug initiation. Be grateful there is someone in this world that thinks you're beautiful. And smart, and talented, clever, funny, . . .

Mothers are allowed to be their child's perpetual driver's ed instructor. Not that they should always exercise this right, but on occasion it will be necessary. Sometimes we'll use subtle non-verbal cues such as gripping the dashboard or stomping on the imaginary passenger side brake pedal to communicate "slow down" or "you are following too closely." But, on occasion, we will just have to use our words and say what is necessary to make you a better driver. It's for your good, you know. And the protection of mankind.

Mothers are always allowed to cry. They probably cried when they first saw you, and it becomes somewhat uncontrollable from that point on. They will cry when you get shots at the doctor's office, when you start your first day of school, at your elementary band concert, at track meets, when you go to prom, when you graduate high school. And when you leave for college. Don't worry about it. It's just what moms do. If they somehow manage to hold back the tears it could, well, I don't know what might happen because I've never been able to do it.

Mothers are allowed to embarrass their children now and then. If they cheer like a howler monkey at the soccer game, if they shed the aforementioned tears at your junior high play, if they take video of your science fair presentation, just pretend you like it. Besides, you know you do.

The list of allowances could go on. But just remember this overarching principle: You need to give your mom generous allowances because nobody is going to love you more than she does. She'll love you even when you fail, make bad choices, disappoint her, anger or frustrate her. Yes, she might overstep her bounds now and then, and she might do something embarrassing. But just smile and engage in hug initiation. She'll never turn down a hug. Ever.

Ever.

© Rebecca K. Grosenbach; www.beckygrosenbach.com