On Tuesday morning I usually wake up feeling a little overwhelmed. We take Monday as a family day and since we've just got through a very busy weekend I am facing laundry, getting the school week going, making food for myself for the week and the list goes on and on.
Years ago I discovered that those little 5 minute time periods when you aren't sure what to do next can get a lot done. I've timed myself--I can empty a very full dishwasher in about 3 1/2 minutes. It's amazing how many dishes you can get washed in 5 minutes. You can fold a load of laundry in less than 5 minutes. I can stir up biscuits or a batch of cookies in 5 minutes. I can have an apple crisp baking within 5 minutes (I've canned the pie filling!) and have Marble Toll House squares baking for unexpected company in 5 minutes. (And they only bake for 10-12 minutes!)
I can completely pick up a room in 5 minutes and I can bleach the toilet, clean the mirrors and vanity top and spray the shower in 5 minutes. I could go on and on with the things that I have times myself on that can be done in 5 minutes.
Since using my 5 minutes plan for years and years I discovered Flylady. I found her shortly after I was beginning to come out of my depression years and asking the Lord to help me remove any "weights" in my life that were holding me down.
I consider myself very organized (maybe structured is a better word) and so I really didn't think it would change things that much but I love her 15 minutes plan which is similar to mine but aimed at the bigger projects in life.
If you've never been to Flylady's website and you stay frustrated with your organization skills then you need to go there and do some serious reading. She's amazing at helping you see your way out of being overwhelmed with all your duties. http://www.flylady.net/
This week I have several 15 minutes projects going. I have spent 15 minutes in my bathroom (the bathroom and the laundry room are this weeks zones to work in) and cleaned out old medicines and beauty products from the bathroom closet. I also am taking one mini-blind per day and cleaning them in the bathtub. It's a good feeling to see spring cleaning get done by just a small chunk of time per day!
I have my notebook (she calls it a control journal) on the end of the breakfast bar from Monday through Saturday. You slide it into a sheet protector and I write my daily duties on there (over and above what I've printed already) and check off my work as I go. Now I live by lists so this is right down my alley. It gives me a good feeling to see the list being marked off.
Today's list was: make yogurt, make Brasco Broth, feed the sourdough starter, make school schedules and do two loads of laundry. That was over and above the pre-printed : *Read Bible *Pray *Empty dishwasher, *Load Dishwasher *What's for Supper? *Laundry for today *Drink 8 glasses of water *Walk 15 minutes *Cook supper *Write or sew for one hour and*Zone work and it's all done!
I decide what's for supper right after breakfast and write it on my daily chore list where I've left a blank after *What's For Supper? _____________ This has really helped me with thinking that I didn't thaw the meat at about 3:00 pm. :)
In closing, I'm going to give you my recipe for Toll House Marble Squares. This was one of my Grandma Mettler's favorite recipes. Now I know why--it's quick and it's wonderful!
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Blend:
1 cup oleo
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
Beat in:
2 eggs
Add:
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
Spread in greased cookie sheet and sprinkle with 1/2 bag of semisweet chocolate chips.
Place in oven for 1 minute. Remove from oven and run knife through batter to marbelize the batter. Return to oven and bake for 12-14 minutes at 350 degrees. Cool and cut in squares.
This batter will fill a large cookie sheet. In my oven they bake between 10-12 minutes.
Give it a try, you'll love them!
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Childhood...
This morning my mind was on mothering. I guess it was because I've been hearing commercials and getting e-mails about Mother's Day. Of course, I thought of my own sweet mother and the memories of my childhood that are precious.
One distinct memory I have in my first five years is the smell of her face. She used Cover Girl makeup and I can remember thinking how soft she was and how sweet she smelled.
Kindergarten was very frightening to me. I remember coming home from school and curling up in my mother's arms in a rocker and making sure I was close to that sweet smell of "my" mother. A little phonograph sat on a stool next to the rocker and she would play a record as she rocked me.
I remember sitting in a big walk-in pantry off of the kitchen and playing by the hour with a cardboard family my mother made me out of poster board. The dad wore a business suit and went to work each day. I had a house (upstairs and downstairs!) where the mom and dad slid into their bed (neat slots) the baby had a nursery and my cardboard oven and refrigerator actually opened! My mom drew the mother in different positions. She might be at the stove, sitting on the couch, dressed in her lovely nightgown and robe ready for bed or pushing her shopping cart. I had a little grocery too, with a chubby butcher who actually had little meats to take in and out of his meat case!
It took time for my mother to make that for me, but she created more in my heart than just a cardboard family. She created a love for her, her values, family with a mother at home and a dad at work. Her afternoon of drawing something for me had big dividends in her life.
Another memory is that of always knowing that my mother was there. If I was playing outside she was just a call away. Sometimes I would run in just to be comforted by seeing her in the kitchen. As a newly married bride I remember walking down to chat with her one day and she wasn't there! I remember wondering what was wrong, or who had got sick! I also remember the little prick of irritation--mom was supposed to be there where she belonged.
When my husband was pastoring in another part of Tennessee we would get newsletters from a Christian legal group educating you on problems that could affect the church. One newsletter was on teenage suicide. This was back in the 80's or early 90's. I remember that it said that over 60% of teens suicide notes faulted the mother for "not being there when I needed you".
Scripture makes it clear that a child left to himself will bring shame to his mother. (Proverbs 29:15) That word "left" means to send away, to dismiss, to let loose, to give over. Who have we given our children over to so that we can do what we want with our time. The government, a daycare facility, the television, a computer, even our church and its activities or grandma?
Scripture also clearly defines where our lives are to be spent as wives and mothers. (Titus 2 and Proverbs 31 for starters!) It would do us all good to ask how much time we are spending outside of our God-given domain. This time includes the computer and the tv and the telephone--not just the mother that walks out the door to punch a time clock each day. It also includes being a busy beaver in ministry work outside of the doors of your home. Make your home the core of your ministry. There is plenty to do from within its walls that will minister to others. Even one trip a day out of the home can destroy proper priorities in a woman's life.
Remember Superwoman is a figment of someone's very active imagination. Something is going to use up your time and how anyone can find time to do more than her domestic duties that God has given her in His word is beyond me. Something is going to go undone, and it's usually the ones that should be at the top of our list!
Beside the fact that it damages our children (when we find other things more important to us than they are) women are missing so much that cannot be reclaimed and is so wonderfully valuable.
Go buy a little piece of clothesline and string it up at your daughter's height. Buy some little clothespins at the craft store. Pick a warm, sunny day and get her two dishpans and fill one with sudsy water and one with warm rinse water. Help her wash her dolly's clothes and hang them up. You can be the neighbor lady or the grandma of the baby. After they're dry let her help iron them and put them away.
I can promise you that this will be one of those "Mom, do you remember when?" moments in your life.
Take your little boy and go outside and help him make a town in the dirt. Little streets for his trucks and a little field for his tractors. Name his little town with him. Get down on the ground and play with him! He won't forget the day you did that when he is grown.
Women are so busy today chasing valueless things and it breaks my heart. Each generation is showing the loss of their spiritual moorings and I firmly believe that the mama that wore an apron, cooked hot homemade meals for her family, found pride in the white shirt she had neatly pressed for her husband and loved sitting in the evenings reading to her family is why the word of God is being "blasphemed" now instead of revered. (Titus 2:5b)
Let's each one have a "heart to heart" with the Lord and decide that we're going to keep our chicks under our wings. It doesn't take money it takes being there. If this message was taken to heart by the saved women that each one of us know it would revolutionize and revive America. You can't do it for anyone else, but you and I can decide that we individually are going to do it.
It is my prayer that each of my "daughters" and "sisters" that read this will "stand perfect and complete in all his will" (Colossians 4:12) in this area of your life. Let's hold each other up and "pray and obey" together. The dividends are eternal!
One distinct memory I have in my first five years is the smell of her face. She used Cover Girl makeup and I can remember thinking how soft she was and how sweet she smelled.
Kindergarten was very frightening to me. I remember coming home from school and curling up in my mother's arms in a rocker and making sure I was close to that sweet smell of "my" mother. A little phonograph sat on a stool next to the rocker and she would play a record as she rocked me.
I remember sitting in a big walk-in pantry off of the kitchen and playing by the hour with a cardboard family my mother made me out of poster board. The dad wore a business suit and went to work each day. I had a house (upstairs and downstairs!) where the mom and dad slid into their bed (neat slots) the baby had a nursery and my cardboard oven and refrigerator actually opened! My mom drew the mother in different positions. She might be at the stove, sitting on the couch, dressed in her lovely nightgown and robe ready for bed or pushing her shopping cart. I had a little grocery too, with a chubby butcher who actually had little meats to take in and out of his meat case!
It took time for my mother to make that for me, but she created more in my heart than just a cardboard family. She created a love for her, her values, family with a mother at home and a dad at work. Her afternoon of drawing something for me had big dividends in her life.
Another memory is that of always knowing that my mother was there. If I was playing outside she was just a call away. Sometimes I would run in just to be comforted by seeing her in the kitchen. As a newly married bride I remember walking down to chat with her one day and she wasn't there! I remember wondering what was wrong, or who had got sick! I also remember the little prick of irritation--mom was supposed to be there where she belonged.
When my husband was pastoring in another part of Tennessee we would get newsletters from a Christian legal group educating you on problems that could affect the church. One newsletter was on teenage suicide. This was back in the 80's or early 90's. I remember that it said that over 60% of teens suicide notes faulted the mother for "not being there when I needed you".
Scripture makes it clear that a child left to himself will bring shame to his mother. (Proverbs 29:15) That word "left" means to send away, to dismiss, to let loose, to give over. Who have we given our children over to so that we can do what we want with our time. The government, a daycare facility, the television, a computer, even our church and its activities or grandma?
Scripture also clearly defines where our lives are to be spent as wives and mothers. (Titus 2 and Proverbs 31 for starters!) It would do us all good to ask how much time we are spending outside of our God-given domain. This time includes the computer and the tv and the telephone--not just the mother that walks out the door to punch a time clock each day. It also includes being a busy beaver in ministry work outside of the doors of your home. Make your home the core of your ministry. There is plenty to do from within its walls that will minister to others. Even one trip a day out of the home can destroy proper priorities in a woman's life.
Remember Superwoman is a figment of someone's very active imagination. Something is going to use up your time and how anyone can find time to do more than her domestic duties that God has given her in His word is beyond me. Something is going to go undone, and it's usually the ones that should be at the top of our list!
Beside the fact that it damages our children (when we find other things more important to us than they are) women are missing so much that cannot be reclaimed and is so wonderfully valuable.
Go buy a little piece of clothesline and string it up at your daughter's height. Buy some little clothespins at the craft store. Pick a warm, sunny day and get her two dishpans and fill one with sudsy water and one with warm rinse water. Help her wash her dolly's clothes and hang them up. You can be the neighbor lady or the grandma of the baby. After they're dry let her help iron them and put them away.
I can promise you that this will be one of those "Mom, do you remember when?" moments in your life.
Take your little boy and go outside and help him make a town in the dirt. Little streets for his trucks and a little field for his tractors. Name his little town with him. Get down on the ground and play with him! He won't forget the day you did that when he is grown.
Women are so busy today chasing valueless things and it breaks my heart. Each generation is showing the loss of their spiritual moorings and I firmly believe that the mama that wore an apron, cooked hot homemade meals for her family, found pride in the white shirt she had neatly pressed for her husband and loved sitting in the evenings reading to her family is why the word of God is being "blasphemed" now instead of revered. (Titus 2:5b)
Let's each one have a "heart to heart" with the Lord and decide that we're going to keep our chicks under our wings. It doesn't take money it takes being there. If this message was taken to heart by the saved women that each one of us know it would revolutionize and revive America. You can't do it for anyone else, but you and I can decide that we individually are going to do it.
It is my prayer that each of my "daughters" and "sisters" that read this will "stand perfect and complete in all his will" (Colossians 4:12) in this area of your life. Let's hold each other up and "pray and obey" together. The dividends are eternal!
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Springtime Sewing...
I've been bitten by the sewing bug again! Every time the season changes two things make me dig through fabric, patterns and get me to lugging my machine onto the table. The first is just wanting new outfits for my growing daughter and grandchilden and the second is when I go shopping and see the high prices for such flimsy, poorly constructed garments.
This year the sight of polyester and outfits that made you look 7 months pregnant or those that had the wildest 70's look in their patterns and color was a big push to the sewing machine!
Besides I keep thinking of the little baby girls and how fun it would be to design just one more little baby dress. I also look at Cierra's culottes and decide either she's growing or those culottes she's wearing are shrinking. Then there's those cute, cute skirt patterns I have that can be sewn up in a matter of a couple hours...and I'm off and planning the new clothes for this spring.
This spring I found a 1952 pattern that had been reprinted and I pulled out a lovely green fabric I had and cut Adalyn out a dress, bonnet, slip and bib. I had so much fun making this little dress. I love to embroider and so I hand-embroidered little flowers on each piece. Since I'm not much of a tv watcher the embroidery is a good way to be in the room with the family on the nights they decide to watch a movie but keeping my hands busy at the same time.
I've started on Cierra some new culottes out of cute seersucker patterns. I also made her the cutest skirt out of some scraps I had in my fabric stash. I bought her and I matching fabric to make skirts out of and today cut out the cutest bright knit fabric in another skirt. Each time they turn out so cute and prettier than anything in the store it motivates me to make just one more thing.
After digging through the patterns I'm in the mood to make just one more apron for my
apron collection I've been working on in my kitchen. I want to have aprons on the hooks in every size so that no matter who is with me in the kitchen there's an apron their size to wear.
(this includes my little granddaughters!)
Next week Niki will be here as Brian preaches our Redbud Bible Conference and her and I are designing beautiful little dresses for Halle out of bright prints with ric-rac roses on them. If you would like to see our inspiration look at the dress on the cover of Kari Mecca's book "Sewing with Whimsy". http://www.karimeaway.com/products/482 We're going to have a fun time sewing on this one!
Sewing is just one of the wonderful facets of being a homekeeper. There is no joy like being a designer/artist/seamstress. How thankful I am that my mother didn't listen to my moaning and foolish promises that I was going to marry a man that would buy everything we were going to wear! I also swore you'd never catch me tearing a seam out! As a teen at home I sure
wasn't a real good student or listener. So I got to spend money on long distance phone calls to my mother as I worked on sewing projects for my two little daughters. I'm sure she had to resist a little chuckle every time I called!
I have often told my daughters that being a keeper at home is the most beautiful and varied life. The Designer never makes a mistake in putting us to work in the place He designed for us.
Rather it's cooking, cleaning, sewing, laundering, decorating my home, preseving food or teaching school to my children the chosen path God has given me is a wonderful tapestry of life for me.
I hope that you find as much joy in being a "keeper at home" as He planned for you to! It's a path worth taking.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Neal's Bakery...Mmmmm, it smells good here!
When I'm baking I think I love baking more than any of my household chores, but then when I'm sewing I think that's my favorite part of homemaking. This week I've spent my evenings finishing the handwork on a beautiful baby dress, (Adalyn gets this one!) but I've spent just as much time in the kitchen making wonderful baked goods and oh my, the house has had the most wonderful aroma. I love it when people at my door comment on how they could smell the warm breads before they got to the door!
Monday I made my usual batch of sourdough bread. They're getting better all the time. Practice does make perfect! The sourdough bread is what I'm allowed on my diet and one round loaf lasts me all week. (I even share some!)
Tuesday was the homemade wheat bread. It's for the children to have for healthy snacks. I'm not sure how healthy it is after they warm it and put butter and jelly or honey on it, but it's better than candy, that's for sure!
Then I decided to try a new recipe for Cinnamon Rolls that I got from the internet. They caught my attention because they looked like the good old fashioned cinnamon rolls that I love and because they made seven pans of rolls! Perfect! I can bake some for eating and put the rest in the freezer for mornings when I just want to make up a skillet of scrambled eggs with cheese and warm some cinnamon rolls. I could tell the frosting was maple frosting and we all love that.
I love to roll dough out on my breakfast bar, I love flour on my apron (and the floor), I love the feel of the dough under my hands. I believe that the only way to get good at breads (rather it is biscuits or yeast breads) is to make them and make them. The reason I believe this is you learn to know the feel of the dough--it will tell you rather it's going to be good or not! I know exactly when the biscuits are going to be perfect by the feel of the dough. Yeast breads are the same way.
It thrilled me to see seven pans of cinnamon rolls lined down the breakfast bar. Not only were they pretty everyone agreed they were the best cinnamon rolls that I had ever made. They even thought they were better than my copycat Cinnabun recipe!
Four of the pans went into gallon freezer bags and were put away for another breakfast and three of them stayed in the kitchen for sampling and breakfast on Saturday and Sunday.
If you want to try them here's the recipe link:
Then it was time for my next Spring Sunday dinner dessert. I dug out the Strawberry Cake recipe that I found last year. It is so yummy but very simple. You use a strawberry cake for your base and add jello, strawberries, etc. and then make a wonderful cream cheese frosting and put on it. Gary says that it runs a close second to Spice Cake with Caramel Frosting, which has always been his favorite. Now that's saying something!
So, that's the news from Neal's bakery for this week. We've been told that about 400-700 dump trucks will be going by our house as they carry the ash sludge out and I told the family I'm seriously considering putting a sign out in front of the house advertising what I've baked that day with the cost per serving and offer it with a nice hot cup of coffee. Who knows I might get rich off of something I love to do! :)
When I became a wife I decided to be the best I could possibly be at every facet of my job. So I've worked hard at learning to do the highest quality job I could afford to do rather it was laundry, cooking, cleaning, homeschooling, decorating or sewing. I often tell my children how wonderful and varied my chosen calling and "career" is. I wouldn't trade it for anything in the whole wide world.
So, what's going to be baked at your house this week? Put on your apron and give your family something to enjoy. You'll be glad you did!
Friday, March 27, 2009
Trusting Him in the dark...
Today is one of those days when I have to shut myself off to human feelings and rely completely on the fact that if the Lord says something to me it is true. I often think of my dad talking how a pilot must learn to trust his instrument panel and not his feelings if he gets disoriented while flying.
Sometimes the events of life are crushing to our emotions. Emotions are just as much a part of our depraved humanity as the body of flesh and bones or the mind. They can get wounded or damaged and when that happens we must lean with all our might on the words of our Beloved Saviour. If He says He is with me always, He is- rather I can sense His presence or not.
One of my favorite verses that the Lord gave me through my years of depression was this, -"Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness and hath not light? let him trust in the name of the Lord , and stay upon his God." (Isa. 50:10)
I'm reading The Hiding Place aloud to the children and every time I read it I remind myself that I should read it more often than I do. We must learn to trust God that He is good all the time. He is good when we feel wonderful and blessed and He is good when we cannot begin to understand what He is doing in our lives.
As I read it I am reminded that if He asks me to go through a dark place He will enable me to walk through that dark place. I don't have to try to toughen myself up for it or prepare myself for it. All I need to do is lean hard on Him as we walk through it together. I must take the initiative to obey and trust Him to give me the strength to obey.
Every time I obey by the power of the Spirit I have partaken of the life of Christ. This is the well of water He promised that would be springing up in us.
Many times when I pray I find myself getting upset emotionally as I bring seemingly impossible requests to the Lord. The Lord taught me a lesson through my 9 year old son about this. John was memorizing Phil. 4:6,7 in school and he asked me to explain what it meant.
I asked him if he ever worried about rather we would feed him. He said no. I asked him why and he said because he knew daddy took care of making sure we had food. I asked him if he ever worried about having clothes or a place to sleep. His answer again was no, that daddy made sure we had that.
I asked him if he really wanted something for his upcoming birthday would he be afraid to ask his dad for it. Of course, he said he wouldn't.
Then I told him that's how our heavenly Father wanted us to be. To trust Him just like we trusted our earthly fathers to care for us when we were children. Just to come to our Father and give him our concerns and request and then trust Him that He's going to take care of it for us.
Since I've explained that to John the Lord has reminded me to practice what I taught! When I go to pray and feel myself churning emotionally, I am reminded to pray, thank the Lord that He cares more about it than I do and then walk off and leave it with Him. He's going to take care of it because He said He is. That must be enough for me.
So today as I bring a friend to the Lord that just had almost half of her face removed because of cancer, andI bring my precious daughter with MS to the Lord, (with 5 small children and a new baby on the way), loved ones that seem to be straying further and further from their spiritual moorings, personal concerns and lots of little foxes that like to nibble at my vine, I know that I can come to the Lord and pour it all out on Him and He'll bear my burdens for me.
May I urge anyone reading this to let the Lord teach you through your sufferings to believe His every word as literally as they are written to us. No matter what rages around you in your circumstances that seems to make your case the exception don't believe your senses--believe the Word.
The result is the passage I call my "post-depression" verse- Song of Solomon 8:5-"Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?"
It's a wonderful place to be!
Sometimes the events of life are crushing to our emotions. Emotions are just as much a part of our depraved humanity as the body of flesh and bones or the mind. They can get wounded or damaged and when that happens we must lean with all our might on the words of our Beloved Saviour. If He says He is with me always, He is- rather I can sense His presence or not.
One of my favorite verses that the Lord gave me through my years of depression was this, -"Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness and hath not light? let him trust in the name of the Lord , and stay upon his God." (Isa. 50:10)
I'm reading The Hiding Place aloud to the children and every time I read it I remind myself that I should read it more often than I do. We must learn to trust God that He is good all the time. He is good when we feel wonderful and blessed and He is good when we cannot begin to understand what He is doing in our lives.
As I read it I am reminded that if He asks me to go through a dark place He will enable me to walk through that dark place. I don't have to try to toughen myself up for it or prepare myself for it. All I need to do is lean hard on Him as we walk through it together. I must take the initiative to obey and trust Him to give me the strength to obey.
Every time I obey by the power of the Spirit I have partaken of the life of Christ. This is the well of water He promised that would be springing up in us.
Many times when I pray I find myself getting upset emotionally as I bring seemingly impossible requests to the Lord. The Lord taught me a lesson through my 9 year old son about this. John was memorizing Phil. 4:6,7 in school and he asked me to explain what it meant.
I asked him if he ever worried about rather we would feed him. He said no. I asked him why and he said because he knew daddy took care of making sure we had food. I asked him if he ever worried about having clothes or a place to sleep. His answer again was no, that daddy made sure we had that.
I asked him if he really wanted something for his upcoming birthday would he be afraid to ask his dad for it. Of course, he said he wouldn't.
Then I told him that's how our heavenly Father wanted us to be. To trust Him just like we trusted our earthly fathers to care for us when we were children. Just to come to our Father and give him our concerns and request and then trust Him that He's going to take care of it for us.
Since I've explained that to John the Lord has reminded me to practice what I taught! When I go to pray and feel myself churning emotionally, I am reminded to pray, thank the Lord that He cares more about it than I do and then walk off and leave it with Him. He's going to take care of it because He said He is. That must be enough for me.
So today as I bring a friend to the Lord that just had almost half of her face removed because of cancer, andI bring my precious daughter with MS to the Lord, (with 5 small children and a new baby on the way), loved ones that seem to be straying further and further from their spiritual moorings, personal concerns and lots of little foxes that like to nibble at my vine, I know that I can come to the Lord and pour it all out on Him and He'll bear my burdens for me.
May I urge anyone reading this to let the Lord teach you through your sufferings to believe His every word as literally as they are written to us. No matter what rages around you in your circumstances that seems to make your case the exception don't believe your senses--believe the Word.
The result is the passage I call my "post-depression" verse- Song of Solomon 8:5-"Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved?"
It's a wonderful place to be!
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Yummy Muffins...
At each season change I pull the cookbooks out and begin to dig. I'm looking for old favorites and some new ones to try. Spring always has me digging out salad recipes, lighter desserts, recipes with ham, (Easter leftovers), and recipes with lots of color. Some of the tried and true that will be marching onto our plates will be Spring Strawberry Layer Cake, Lemon Torte, Quiche Lorraine, Iced Shortbread cookies, and homemade chicken strips.
This time I'll be looking for pea salad, some new breakfast rolls and muffins, new sandwiches to try and digging out the barbeque recipes because the grill is coming out of hibernation!
This week's "new recipe" was some wonderful muffins called Simply Sinful Cinnamon Muffins. John bought me a jumbo muffin tin for Christmas and so I've been on the quest for recipes that taste as good as Perkins restaurants muffins. This recipe was a definite "we'll be doing this again..and again...and again..." success.
Here's the link so you can print it off:
The recipe sounds complicated but it isn't. It also is one that you can play with. I used white chocolate chip morsels instead of cinnamon or butterscotch morsels. If you get a chance try out these delicious muffins. You're family will thank you.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Tea Cups and Dusting
Saturday is my cleaning day. I have a lot of glassware to dust. I inherited my love of glassware from both of my grandmothers. The town they lived in had two glass factories.
In his younger days my maternal grandfather had worked at one of the factories and brought home pieces to my grandmother. She would take me through her house and tell me the story behind each piece. Where she got it and how it came to belong to her. My favorites were the ones that she said, "I began housekeeping with this." Her first set of salt shakers now belong to my oldest daughter Niki.
My paternal grandmother collected teacups, teapots and Dutch boys and girls. I have a Dutch collection in my kitchen dedicated to her. Its first pieces were a little Dutch boy and girl I painted for her when I was about 5 and living in Kansas City.
Dusting for me is a little walk down memory lane and a time to pray for people who have given me some of my beautiful pieces of glassware. Though I'm at an age where I feel like I need to trim down what I have instead of acquiring more there are some pieces that I will treasure till I die. Not because of their value, but the value of the person who gave it to me.
As I dusted this morning I was a little more nostalgic than usual. It's a rainy day, we've battled the flu, my Alicia is not well with her MS...it all makes you introspective.
I dusted the tea cart and there was my tea set for children. It will go to my oldest granddaughter Mariah some day. I hope she has as many pleasant hours having tea with children as I have had with this tea set. My husband picked it up at an auction for a little bit of nothing. But oh, have we got joy from it that has no price tag it's so valuable. We load the tiered plate rack with little sandwiches, cookies and fruits or cheese and make cambric tea for the children and let them feel like they are at the fanciest tea room in the country--Grandma Tami's!
Then came my tea cups from my Grandmother Nelle--my paternal grandmother. I thanked the Lord for her influence in my life as I dusted the delicate bone china cups.
She had a long shelf in her kitchen lined with beautiful teacups and teapots. She loved the ones in dark colors with gold on the inside or edges and she loved the footed cups. Her life was a hard one. My grandfather was a womanizer and moved to Florida with one of his women. In those days the person wronged had to sue for the divorce and my grandma never divorced him. She made the comment to me that just because he broke his vows didn't mean she had to break hers. She is a heroine in my life. Maybe the beautiful teacups and teapots gave her joy in the midst of a lonely, gray life.
When I got my first job I bought her a very expensive pink teapot with tiny roses on it. It was from Sadler, England. When she died my aunt remembered I had given it to her and brought it back to me. I always see my grandmother and her kitchen when I dust it.
Oh, and there's the cup and saucer that my mother gave me as my last birthday gift from her before she died. "Lord, please tell mother hello and that I miss her every day of my life."
Then there's the beautiful footed teapot with matching saucer that took so much of Asher's hard earned money to buy for me. "Lord, bless that boy with such a huge servant's heart. Take his gift of loving to give more than receive and use it for Yourself. "
And my teacup I bought in East Liverpool on our annual preaching week with our friends Chester and Barb. Barb and I loved to plunder in little shops and I want to always take home a memory of my time with them. East Liverpool is known for its fine clay and Fiestaware is made there. Also I believe the Hall pottery is made there. Imagine my delight when I found a beautiful deep blue teacup with the gold inside (my grandmother Nelle would have loved it) marked East Liverpool and at the grand price of $2.00! "Lord, bless our ministry friends as they walk the valleys and mountains for You."
There's the beautiful chintz teapot my daughter Niki gave me. The Victorian feel is there and I think of her, my writing daughter, curled up on a rainy day like today with pen in hand and the words just flowing. "Lord, thank you for a daughter that has given her talent to be used by You."
I lovingly dust a teacup and saucer with words etched on it. "Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him." Ps. 37:7. This cup was given to me by my older sister when I walked the horrible dark valley of depression. Now I look at it and think of my rambunctious child, the one who loved the outdoors, riding her bike, go-carting, activity-- fighting her battle with MS. Perhaps this teacup should be passed on to my daughter... "Lord, help my beautiful daughter Alicia to trust You even when she can't see You in the thick darkness..."
My latest teapot is Dutch but too beautiful and delicate to go to the kitchen. She is the queen of the teacart! Her head is thrown up to the sun and her big basket of flowers makes me long for the spring to come so I can smell the honeysuckle again in Tennessee. She was purchased on my last trip to Idaho. It was love at first sight. When I told Gary about what a beautiful Limoge teapot I'd found in a gift shop he didn't ask the price or why I wanted another teapot. He simply said, "You get down there tomorrow and get her shipped here." Oh Lord, thank You for such a loving, thoughtful husband. Thank You that we're still sweethearts and best friends after 35 years of marriage. Thank You that Your word does pay us back when we obey it."
And then I think of my Idaho children, isolated from the rest of the family as they walk in obedience to the Lord's calling. Lord, comfort and encourage them. Give them fellowship and "family" from You out there."
I have my odd shaped teapots. The one that is a copy of transferware was given to me by John and Cierra (via daddy) so they could have a part in mommy's tea room. "Lord, bless these late blessings you've brought into your lives and use them in a mighty way."
My last teacup I'll mention is a broken one. I've mended it more than once. Years ago we went into an old barn just filled with junk. The older four were little then and the boys went off with their daddy and the girls and I went our way. When we got in the van Nate handed me the most beautiful little teacup. It was missing its saucer, but it was so beautiful because it had a large rose on the front and the handle looked like the stem. He had 50 cents when we went in the barn and he had spent it all to get me a cup with my favorite flower on it. I remember being brought to tears by his being willing to spend everything he had to bring joy to his mother.
It's that delicate handle that got broken over the years but I just keep gluing it and the teacup has center stage in the china cupboard. Sometimes the lives of those that are most precious to us become broken. "Lord, only you can mend the broken lives and hearts and I'm counting on You to do that."
How thankful I am for the people that each teacup or teapot represents. It is good to know that God has given us family and friends to share those things we treasure and find joy in. It is good to bring them before the Father and talk about them, pray for them and thank Him for them.
It all makes dusting a joy!
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