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HAVE A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!
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WELCOME TO HOMEBODIES
December 19, 2006
Volume 7, Issue 51
Weekly encouragement and empowerment e-zine
for stay-at-home parents and working parents
considering the at-home lifestyle
Your Hostess - Cheryl Gochnauer, author of
"Stay-at-Home Handbook", "So You Want to Be a
Stay-at-Home Mom", "Mom to Mom" and founder of
http://www.homebodies.org
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THIS WEEK'S ARTICLES:
"In Touch with Reality" by Homebodies founder Cheryl Gochnauer
"Make Meals in 30 Minutes or Less” by Homebodies “Penny Savings” columnist
Jill Cooper, co-founder of Living on a Dime (http://www.livingonadime.com)
"Singing the Gospel" by Homebodies columnist Sharon Jaynes, former vice
president of Proverbs 31 Ministries (http://www.prov31.org)
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IN TOUCH WITH REALITY
Homebodies
By Cheryl Gochnauer
homebodies@comcast.net
Copyright 2006
One of the perks of writing Homebodies is receiving
emails and letters from readers who share our love of
the at-home lifestyle. Some messages are enthusiastic,
some are moody, some are defiant, most are upbeat and
full of joy - all reflect common emotions we go through
as stay-at-home parents.
Here's a note I received from Beverly, who described her hometown as "about
20,000 people in the panhandle of west Texas - where the 'skies are not
cloudy all day'". She wrote to comment on a column we ran where another
reader, Shelly, shared disheartening things her sister-in-law has said about
at-home parents “losing touch with reality."
"Cheryl,
I used to think the same way. That was before I got
married, and was enjoying life as a single career
woman. I loved my life. Then my Prince Charming entered
my life.
We got married 8 months after we met. I was 37. Now 9
years later, we have a 6-year-old and a 5-year-old. I
am a SAHM and I homeschool my boys. I now know what reality really is. It is
not willing to sacrifice the lives of my children on the altar of what
society says we should do, be, say or have.
The truth is I have never been more in touch with
reality. Yes, we make a lot of sacrifices for me to be
able to stay home with the children and living on one
income can be a challenge. But there is nothing more
wonderful than being paid with kisses and 'I love
you'. I can't think of a life I would rather have. And
I have never been more fulfilled or more satisfied.
God Bless,
Beverly"
*****
Have you read Cheryl’s books, “So You Want to Be a Stay-at-Home Mom”
(InterVarsity Press, 1999) and “Stay-at-Home Handbook” (InterVarsity Press,
2002)? Request a copy of each at your local library, favorite bookstore, or
online at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0830823360. They make great
Christmas gifts!
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Visit PositivelyFeminine.org to discover encouragement
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*Literature
*Beauty
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MAKE MEALS IN 30 MINUTES OR LESS
Living on a Dime
By Jill Cooper
jill@livingonadime.com
Copyright 2006
I was having dinner at my son's house the other night and my daughter-in-law
had fixed "old fashioned" baked potatoes. You know, the kind you make in the
oven and not the microwave. Boy, they were good. It seems that so many
things taste better slow cooked in the oven.
We started talking about how much longer it took to cook them in the oven
compared to the microwave. That started me thinking. Yes, it does take
longer in actual cooking time but in some ways it is easier. When I bake
potatoes in the oven, I get them ready and in the oven an hour before dinner
and then just forget about them until dinner is ready. Then, all I have to
do is set them on the table and dinner is served.
When I microwave them, I tend to start cleaning them and preparing them at
the same time that I'm trying to make a salad and heat up the veggies. While
I'm doing all of that, I have to remember to keep turning the potatoes and
if I am cooking several, I have to put a few in the microwave and when they
are done, pull them out and add more, all of this at the same time that I am
trying to prepare the rest of the meal.
Why is it that, even though we have faster methods of cooking our meals,
they seem to have become more frenzied and hurried than years ago? Then it
dawned on me -- With the introduction of the microwave and the idea that
meals can be prepares in 30 minutes, most people do nothing to prepare or
plan their meals until 30 minutes before they are going to eat. So 30
minutes before dinner you find yourself trying to thaw something, cook it,
and slap it on the table and at the same time talk and deal with tired,
hungry, cranky kids. Let's not forget how exhausted you are at this time of
day, too.
We need to warm up our ovens and start using them again the way our
grandmothers use to do. Here are some tips and ideas that prove that cooking
meals in a conventional oven instead of a microwave can be just as quick and
easy, not to mention how much more delicious they taste and smell.
I think we underestimate the power of coming home and smelling something
yummy cooking. We automatically seem to relax, feeling that "all is well
with the world". I really think it can change the whole atmosphere of your
home for the evening.
I am not living in a dream world. You can fix meals the way our grandmothers
did. I hear some readers saying, "Our grandmothers weren't ever as busy as
we are and so they had time to fix large meals." I can hear our grandmothers
chuckling at that statement. My husband's grandmother had to help on the
farm from early in the morning until evening. She took care of a large home
garden, canned, cleaned house every day, did laundry without a washer or
dryer and still provided meals not only for her family, but up to 20 farm
hands as well. She had to do it all without a refrigerator, microwave, or a
grocery store and the nearest water was a mile away from her house.
My mother-in-law would go to work as early as 7 am and work until 9 pm 6
days a week, but she still managed to make three large meals each day. If
you're thinking, "That's great if you want to spend all your spare time in
the kitchen," consider that they spent less time in the kitchen than we do
with less of the conveniences and still managed to have well balanced
delicious meals each day.
What was their secret? -- They had never heard of 30 minute meals. Even if
they had they would probably have laughed and wondered who would spend so
much time on a meal? They knew that the key to a quick meal wasn't how fast
you could cook, but how organized you were. You can easily have a meal on
the table in 15 minutes if you are organized and plan ahead.
No, this doesn't mean you have to microwave or fry everything to have a
quick meal. Slow cooking something in the oven not only makes things taste
better but sometimes is quicker.
Our grandmothers' secret to quick meals:
1. Keep your meals simple.
2. Be organized.
3. Decide what you are preparing the night or the morning before.
4. Thaw anything you need the night or the morning before.
5. Prepare as much of the meal as you can during the slow time of your day
and when you are most refreshed. (This is very important.)
6. Slow cook meats in the oven or in a crock pot.
7. Keep your kitchen clean so you have an uncluttered work area.
Here are some ideas on what to prepare. These aren't elaborate gourmet
meals. If you are too busy to cook dinner, then you are to busy to make
gourmet dinners. Stick with the basics and keep it simple like our
grandmothers did.
Roast: Place a roast in a crock pot or pan. Peel five potatoes and carrots
and drop them in with it and turn on the oven. This takes five minutes.
Clean and cut broccoli, celery and cucumbers for a salad -- five minutes. At
dinner time, chop lettuce and tomato for the salad, adding the already
prepared veggies. Then put the meat and the fixings on a platter -- five
more minutes. Voila! Dinner in 15 minutes.
Stew: It takes me seven minutes to cube meat*, peel five potatoes, carrots
and onions, toss it into a pot and to season it. At dinner time, I put bread
or dinner rolls on the table -- one to two minutes and I have dinner in nine
minutes.
*Ask your butcher to cube or slice all your meat for you. They usually
charge nothing or just a few cents per pound. It saves not only time in
cutting but in clean up too.
Chicken: Toss a chicken in a pan or crock pot -- two minutes. Clean potatoes
to put in with chicken or to bake in the oven -- three minutes. At dinner
time, warm a veggie -- two minutes. Slice some fruit -- three minutes.
Dinner in 10 minutes.
Lasagna: Put noodles in a pot to boil -- one minute. Fry hamburger, get out
cheese, tomato sauce and the rest of the fixings; mix sauce while noodles
boil, 7-8 minutes. Layer everything -- two minutes. Cover and put in the
fridge for dinner the next day or that evening. Put the lasagna in the oven
to heat while getting out of your work clothes, checking the mail, etc. Set
the table and cut a salad -- five minutes. Dinner is served; 15 minutes.
Beef stroganoff: Make your beef stroganoff in your crock pot. (If you don't
want to use a crock pot, this recipe usually takes very little time just
stirring it up in a pan.) Dump everything but sour cream and noodles, into
the crock pot -- three minutes and simmer all day on low. Clean carrots,
celery sticks and broccoli for a relish dish (five minutes) and put it in
the fridge. At dinner time, boil egg noodles (5-7 minutes). While they are
boiling, add sour cream to sauce and set the table. Total time: 15 minutes.
Chili: Mix everything in a pot the night before. Depending what you put in,
it should take 5-10 minutes. Simmer throughout the next day.
Soup: Do the same as with the chili.
These are just general example of ways to fix meals easily and quickly. It
isn't really a matter of time as much as it is a matter of being organized
and getting things done before you are too exhausted to think.
If you have meats thawed and the ingredients on hand, most things can be
tossed together in about the same time as it takes to order and wait to get
your food at a fast food place.
Also, remember when you have your oven going to try to cook more than one
thing in it. For example, if you are going to be baking a casserole, bake a
pan of brownies, muffins or baked apples at the same time.
*****
Jill Cooper raised two teenagers alone on $500 a month income after becoming
disabled with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. She is the co-author of Dining On A
Dime Cookbook. To read more of Jill's articles and for free tips and recipes
visit http://www.LivingOnADime.com/.
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SINGING THE GOSPEL
Proverbs 31 Woman
By Sharon Jaynes
Sharon@sharonjaynes.com
Copyright 2006
But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of
great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a
Savior has been born to you; he is Christ, the Lord" (Luke 9:10-11 NIV).
I love hearing children sing Christmas carols! One little girl was heard
singing that the shepherds were "washing their socks by night!" When my son
was four-years-old, I over heard him singing "O Holy Night" in his best
vibrato voice. I chuckled as I heard him boom, "Long lay the world in sin
and ever whining!" Sin and error pining wasn't in his vocabulary, but he
definitely understood the concept of ever whining.
When I became a Christian, the words to familiar Christmas carols began
jumping off the pages of the hymnal. It seems the gospel was right there in
the words to the carols and I had missed it before. I began to see what God
had done in my life in the words of Silent Night, O Little Town of
Bethlehem, and Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.
For example, let's look at the words to Hark! The Herald Angels Sing. First,
look at all those exclamation marks in the song! These angels must have been
very excited, and no wonder, they were proclaiming the birth of Jesus, the
"newborn King."
The second line says "Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners
reconciled." Some people are not too crazy about the word "sinner." But
originally it was an archery term that meant the distance between the bull's
eye and where the arrow landed on the target. Therefore, "sin" meant, "to
miss the perfect mark." And it still means that today. Sin means to miss the
mark of God's perfection. The Bible says that all have sinned and fall short
of the glory of God. And because of that sin, we have been separated from
God. The first verse of Hark the Herald Angels Sing tells us WHY Jesus came
- to reconcile or join us back together with God. It also tells us TO WHOM
Jesus came - "to all nations." No wonder the angels were so excited!
Verse one tells us why Jesus came. Verse two tells us WHO He was. He is
adored in heaven. He is the everlasting Lord. He is the offspring of a
Virgin's womb. He is God with flesh and bones. He is Deity. He is Emmanuel -
God with us.
Verse three tells us HOW the Christ child made eternal life available to all
mankind. He laid aside His glorious heavenly position, came to earth as a
man, and gave His life so that we could experience a second birth and live
eternally in heaven.
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing tells us WHY Jesus came, WHO He was, and HOW He
would accomplish His purposes to reconcile a lost world to God. That's the
gospel and it's all packed into one Christmas Carol.
This holiday season, as you sing the familiar Christmas Carols look for the
gospel among the verses and let the melody of the gospel fill your heart.
Let's Pray:
Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you so much for the men and women who have gone
before us to pen the words to the carols we sing today. I pray that as
Christians sing the familiar words, you will stir thenm to praise you a
fresh. And I also pray for those who do not know Jesus as Lord and Savior. I
pray that as they sing the words to carols or even hear them on the radio,
they will recognize the gospel and understand that Jesus came as the babe in
the manger to die on the cross…because of His great love for them. I pray
that they will hear the gospel and embrace the message.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
*****
For ten years Sharon served as Vice President of Proverbs 31 Ministries and
co-host for their daily radio feature. She is the author of nine books with
Harvest House Publishers, Focus on the Family, and Moody Publishers. She has
also written numerous magazine articles and devotions for publications such
as Focus on the Family, Decision, and Crosswalk.com, and is a frequent guest
on radio and television programs such as Revive Our Hearts with Nancy Leigh
DeMoss, Family Life Today with Dennis Rainey, and Living the Life with Terry
Meeuwsen of the 700 Club. Contact her at Sharon@sharonjaynes.com and visit
her website at www.sharonjaynes.com
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PUBLICATION INFORMATION
Copyright 2006 Cheryl Gochnauer. All rights reserved. For permission to
reprint an article, please write homebodies@comcast.net.
All articles are printed with the author's prior consent. It is assumed that
any questions, tips or replies to questions may be reprinted. All letters
become the property of Cheryl Gochnauer.
Cheryl Gochnauer does not assume responsibility for advice given. All
advice should be weighed against your own abilities and circumstances and
applied accordingly. It is up to the reader to determine if advice is safe
and suitable for their own situation.
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