In Light of the Current Political Scene

In Credenda Agenda 20:1, Douglas Wilson references historian Christopher Dawson as saying,

" . . . the Christian church lives in the light of eternity and can afford to be patient."

Lewis is 4!

This Sunday we had the family birthday party with all four grandparents, Aunt Brittany, Princess (Aunt Brittany's dog) and a truck cake in attendance. Everyone had lots of fun. Happy Birthday, Lewis!

I Knew I Liked that Kid

Yesterday, Lewis (whose favorite color for at least the last year has been yellow) announced that he was changing his favorite color to blue. He went on to explain, "It's going to be blue for a while, and then I'll change it to red." He's efficient (at least when crossing letters) and a planner (at least as far as color preferences are concerned). I see great potential here.

Boswell on Friendship

In need of some treadmill reading recently, I grabbed our copy of Bennett's Book of Virtues off the shelf and opened it in the middle. I landed in the chapter on friendship and have been enjoying much of the content there. Here's a good quote from James Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson:

" . . . friendship becomes insensibly old in much less time than is commonly imagined, and not many years are required to make it very mellow and pleasant. Warmth will, no doubt, make a considerable difference. Men of affectionate temper and bright fancy will coalesce a great deal sooner than those who are cold and dull."

She made me do it.

Anyone who knows the kind of emphasis I place on training my children to be helpful AND who also knows my inherent dislike of ironing will have trouble believing this . . . but I really didn't intend for Anna to start ironing at age five. It was all her idea. She has watched and "helped" a few times over the last several months, and last week she asked to do something on her own. I told her I didn't think there was anything she could handle, so she went and checked my ironing spot. "Can I do that blue shirt?" That was last week. This week she did that same shirt again along with another similar one on her own initiative. This could be really good! (And she will be turning six in a couple months.)

Homeschool World

Well, now I've fully experienced my first homeschool conference. I volunteered at registration for nearly three hours, checked out the exhibition hall, attended a couple workshops and general sessions, and did the used book sale thing (dibs on which provided my selfless motive for volunteering). The thing I enjoyed most was hearing Andrew Pudewa. He makes a lot of sense.

http://www.excellenceinwriting.com/

I'm not jumping on his writing curriculum bandwagon at this point, but I am thinking of trying to dig up some of his talks somewhere for Titus to hear. He does well with the differences between male and female learning styles, the importance of music to cognitive development, and prioritizing the twin pillars of the classics and mentoring in education. What's more, he is a homeschooling father of seven who does not have access to television in his home.

Our Up-and-Coming Efficiency Expert

Lewis, our resident nearly-four-year-old, was practicing lower-case "f's" in his Pentime workbook today. (I would put up a link to this resource, but it is purveyed by those who have convictions against such modern tomfoolery.) Upon finishing, Lewis showed me his work. I praised his efforts but was about to helpfully suggest that he make the necessary cross strokes when I realized that he had done one solid line from left margin to right, crossing eight or ten letters with a single stroke. A man after my own heart!

Continuing the Motherhood Celebration

Being a bit new to the whole blogging world, I just found out from several friends about another very like-minded mother (as far as parenting goes anyway--don't know her beyond that topic). Anyhow, I wanted to put a link up here because her very articulate, common-sense approach to Christian parenting might be helpful for lots of us to be encouraged in.

http://www.raisinggodlytomatoes.com/

A Mother's Day Link

This is the lady I think of when I feel like God is asking a bit much of me. If He can give Mrs. Duggar the wisdom, patience, grace, strength, etc. to manage her home (especially ten or fifteen years ago when she had a set or two of twins and didn't have an army of trained helpers around), I suppose I can trust Him to supply all my needs in order to serve my household. Truly, their home and the joyful spirit I see in their kids are a great encouragement.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/24502785#24538564

As an added bonus, here's the Duggars' webpage on Discovery Health:

http://health.discovery.com/convergence/duggars/duggarfamily.html

Pathetic Tennis Players Association

Well, here's the report on the Association's second meeting:

Attendance doubled, and there was fun and exercise aplenty. There's still lots of room for more pathetic tennis players, though--especially since the new recruits are likely to quickly outgrow the pathetic label.

If you can (and the weather cooperates), grab the family and the rackets and join us next week for plenty of laughing, huffing, and puffing. This nice weather will only hold out for so long!

Family Favorites

Time to start that other list. Here are some of the things I make regularly. None of them take too terribly long, but they're a little more involved than those on the previous list:

BBQ Mini-Meatloaves
Make-Ahead Mashed Potatoes
Shepherd's Pie
Lasagna
Chicken Lasagna
Chicken-n-Dumplin's
Cranberry Pork Roast
Fish, Rice, and Veggies
Roast
Smothered Steak
Spaghetti Sauce
Chili (in season)
White Chicken Chili (in season)
Beans (brown, white, or red)
Sauerkraut/Kimchi

We do brunch for lunch on weekends and brinner for dinner occasionally on weeknights when I need to restock the freezer with Sunday morning fare:

Sausage Hashbrown Bake
Baked Oatmeal
Spinach Quiche
Sausage Gravy over Hashbrowns
Pancakes
Chocolate Gravy over Baking Powder Biscuits

Method to My Madness Note:
Most of the above I make in big batches for stocking my freezer. I'm finally catching on to tricks like browning extra sausage or ground beef to stick in the freezer before making things like spaghetti sauce or sausage gravy. I've also recently learned to boil 2-3 chickens at a time, reserve some broth for other uses, debone the birds, and put part of the meat in the freezer before making chicken and dumplings or chicken soup with the remainder. Having things ready and waiting in the freezer is not hard when it's incorporated into dinner prep.

So that's what I can think of for our current "regulars." More listings will likely show up as they occur to me. Again, any suggestions for healthy, tried and true family favorites that don't take a week to prepare would be more than welcome.

Rules as Fences; Joy as Glue

"Rules and principles make good fences for a family, but not good glue. Joy is the best family glue on the market. A carnal family with joy will produce better kids than a 'spiritual' family with tight-lipped, rigid, or stern-browed legalism."

"It doesn't have to be either/or. The absolute best approach is joyful, disciplined spirituality founded on the solid principles of the Word of God and separation from the world."

--Michael Pearl

Getting It All Done

Another friend just honored me by including me in the list of counselors she consulted for tips on ordering our days as moms. This is the gist of what I shared with her, and I post it here as a reminder to myself and anyone else who's interested:

#1—Rest. God gives everyone 24 hours and does not expect you to accomplish any more in those hours than will fit—and that includes allowing for His blessing of rest.

#2—Refocus. So much of our productivity as moms is not quantifiable; we’re investing in character building (ours and our kids’!), and it takes a while for the building to start taking shape.

#3—Prioritize. Whenever possible, do the most important things first. (This is especially helpful when ordering school studies.) That way whatever doesn’t get done is least important.

#4—Train. If you start training your helpers early enough, they’ll be quite adept before they even realize it’s work--and think of the benefits to their work ethic and their sense of value as contributing members of the household!

#5—Pray. I don’t ever feel like everything’s done, but I try to constantly pray for wisdom as to how I spend my time.

Quickies

I told a friend I'd make a list of some of our favorite meals around here if she would promise to do the same for her household so we could compare notes. This is a post I'll probably add to for a while as I think of things, and I'll plan to start a separate list sometime soon for more involved favorite meals.

Everybody (including us) does leftover or sandwich lunches. (Leftovers are a wonderful time saver. I intentionally cook enough for a leftover meal or two whenever possible.) Here are some of our other lunch/quick dinner meals:

*Focaccia Crust Pizza
*Spinach Quiche from the freezer (great for any meal)
*Frozen Ravioli
*Loaded Baked Potatoes
*Stuffed Baked Sweet Potatoes
*Marinated Chicken Breast Salad
*Taco Salad
*Quesadillas
*Homemade Mac and Cheese with Tomatoes
*Fettucine Alfredo
*Omlettes
*Smoothies and Popcorn
*Healthier Nachos (chips, shredded cheese, meat, olives, etc. warmed on baking sheet and served with guacamole, salsa, sour cream)

I'd love to get additions to this list in the comments section. New ideas are always welcome.

Kitchen Tools

Here's a handy spot I've found for purchasing cookware. The stuff they sell is of the 304 surgical stainless variety and is marketed as waterless and greaseless. We happen to like "grease," so that's not a big pull for us, but I'm slowly catching on to the waterless bit and liking it. In my opinion, their two most unique pieces are these: (1) the giant
14-inch "skillet" (a misnomer, I believe, since it's about five inches deep) with an equally large steamer basket that doubles well as an over-the-sink collander, (2) a big turkey roaster whose lid can double as a griddle (it sits over two burners on my stove). I use the former piece nearly every day, and though I've just acquired the latter and have yet to put it to its primary use, the griddle/lid has already come in handy several times. And I almost forgot to mention that you're supposed to be able to save money by using these pans like an oven on the stovetop. Stove-top cake, anyone? (I need to experiment with that feature more.) Their prices are great, and they only charge a flat $5 fee for shipping and handling. http://www.realcook.com/