Thoughts on Mowing

Our back yard has a definite slope to it, and our lot is not square.  I know these things about our yard, and I appreciate them for different reasons, but when it comes to mowing the back yard, the odd shape of the lot drives me crazy!  I like the nice neat lines the lawn mower creates, but it takes some creativity to get them to line up neatly from any angle...not that I have too much energy to waste working on that!  

I like those nice neat lines for two reasons.  They look neat when I'm done, and when I'm in the process of mowing, they give me guidelines to follow; I can see where I've already been.  This morning, as the lawn mower was bouncing crazily over the roughest spots, and I tried to keep my lines straight, it struck me how much mowing my back yard has in common with my walk with God.  

We have trees in the back of our lot.  They are not evenly spaced by any stretch of the imagination, but they make excellent focal points nonetheless.  When I mowed uphill toward the back of the lot, I could fix my eyes on a tree, and no matter how crazily the mower was bouncing around, I could easily keep my lines straight.  Going downhill towards the house was easy going.  The mower still bounced over the rough spots, but it was downhill, and I felt like I could relax a little, at least enough to check on the kids playing on the back deck.  The problem came when I reached the bottom and turned around to go back up again.  The lines going up were as perfectly straight as I could make them, but the lines coming down were completely uneven and crooked, because I didn't have a focal point.

So I tried a new strategy.  Going uphill, I picked a tree to keep my eyes on, and going downhill I found something on the house or deck to focus on.  That worked pretty well, but looking back up from the bottom of the hill, again I could see crooked lines.  This time, the crooked lines were caused not by not having a focal point, but by taking my eyes off of the focal point to check on the kids or to throw a stick or rock out of my way.

I was reminded of Philippians 3:12-14.  "Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.  Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it.  But one thing I do:  Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."

Now don't get me wrong!  When mowing the lawn, it is important to throw sticks and rocks out of the way, and to check on the kids every now and then.  It's even okay to enjoy the fresh air and sunshine, and to relax a little on those downhill slopes.  Those actions, on the other hand, made me realize how often I focus too much on the things of this world and neglect "pressing on toward the goal."  

I spend a lot of time thinking about things like how to raise my children properly, how to teach them, what we are eating, and what needs done around the house, which are all good and necessary things to consider.  However, I should not be focusing on those issues to the point where I no longer have time or energy to read my Bible, pray, and "strain toward what is ahead".

It is hard work mowing uphill, and it is hard work following God's ways, but they are both made easier by keeping my focus in the proper place and on the right thing.  Often my walk with God is comfortable and easy, as is mowing downhill, but when I look back, I find that I have neglected something, or become complacent about something I shouldn't have. 

I need to apply these lessons I've learned today about mowing my back yard to my daily life, and do as Hebrews 12:2 says:  "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."  

When my eyes are fixed on Him, it doesn't matter how rough the ground is beneath my feet.  When my eyes are fixed on Him, the lines of my life will be as perfectly straight as I can make them.

Just like my back yard.

Not My Mother's Yogurt

I have never really liked yogurt.  Especially the homemade plain yogurt my mom used to make in the hotbox when we lived in Peru, South America (Sorry, Mom!).  So I simply avoided eating it.

When my two oldest girls were little, I used to buy them those special baby yogurts.  I figured that I should at least taste what I was feeding my kids, and what do you know?!?  They were pretty good!  I started buying yogurt for me, too, in all the fancy flavors I could find.  After a while, the girls were both eating yogurt at least once a day, too, and it was cheaper to buy them the same kinds I was buying for my husband and I.  When my youngest daughter graduated to eating "big people yogurt" too, it got to be a little bit expensive.  We were going through at least 25 yogurts a week, usually more, and the commissary doesn't carry any (cheaper) generic brands.

When I was pregnant with my son, I had gestational diabetes, and I had to pay attention to how many carbohydrates were in each thing I ate.  Just one of my favorite yogurts filled my entire quota of carbs for a snack, (and it was too many carbs for my breakfast), and I began to examine the label a little closer.  Sugar. Lots of sugar.

So I borrowed a little trick from a friend who is a registered dietitian and mother of four, and began mixing the sugared, flavored yogurts with plain yogurt for the kids' snacks.  Three scoops of plain yogurt for each kid, and one scoop of flavored came out perfectly.  We used only one yogurt a day (for the kids, anyway) and they no longer complained that their yogurt was too sweet.

When my husband deployed again, and I quit buying yogurt for his lunches, the kids and I started mixing other things into our plain yogurt for snacks.  We've had it with raisins, frozen fruit, honey, jam, brown sugar, and granola.  Most recently, our favorite way to eat yogurt is plain...and warm.  (I can hear you now..."Eww!  Warm yogurt?!?  That's disgusting!"  Bear with me...)

I was now buying plain yogurt in those two pound containers, and we were eating so much of it  that I was beginning (again) to question the cost, not to mention the fact that two times out of three the commissary was out of it when we needed it.  So I looked online and found a recipe for making yogurt in the crockpot.  And it actually works!  The first time I tried it, it was ready right at breakfast time, and all four kids practically inhaled their huge servings of warm yogurt, and then they asked for more.  Well, except for Mr. Adorable.  The only words he said the entire time were, "Mmmm.  Mmmm.  Mmmm.", and then finally he asked for more too.  "Mo, Mama!"

Yesterday I made it again in my new crockpot, but a double batch this time.  I had also found a recipe for vanilla yogurt, but it called for almost as much sugar as it did milk, so I decided to just try adding vanilla to the milk and see what happened.  I made the vanilla yogurt in my old, smaller crockpot.  I started both batches yesterday morning, and by 9:00 last night they were done.  I waited until 11:00 to put all the yogurt in jars, and I ran out of jars before I had emptied the crockpot of vanilla yogurt.  There was about 3/4 of a glass left over of the most liquid-y of the still-warm yogurt.

So I drank it.  It was so good that I mixed a little milk into another glassful of yogurt this morning for breakfast.

It is definitely not my mother's yogurt.

Tired of Broken Jars

I make vegetable stock to use in our soups, and then I freeze it until I'm ready to use it.  I don't like to use Ziploc bags to freeze it in, because I always make a mess, so I experimented with quart jars.  I made sure it had cooled completely before I filled the jars, left the lids off until it was frozen solid, and I left plenty of space for the stock to expand, and still the jars kept breaking in the freezer!  I did a little research and discovered that I was not the only one to have this problem, so I thought a little harder and came up with a new solution.

I freeze the stock in a muffin pan.  I can control how much goes in each cup before I freeze it, and my quart jars don't break any more!  It's also a lot easier to get the stock out of the jar, and I don't have to use all of it if I don't need it.  This method also works well for my chicken and turkey soup bases and for the beef stock I make out of the leftover roast juices.

I think this would also work well for freezing leftover soups!  It would be frozen in nice little portions, simple and easy to warm up for one, two, or more people, and the smaller portions melt faster, too.  A good thing when it's lunchtime and your children are starving!

I only wish I'd thought of this sooner!

There are always lots of great ideas and recipes on Kitchen Tip Tuesdays at Tammysrecipes.com!

Vah Humvug!

Thump thumpity thump thump thump!  The sound of my four-year-old's feet skipping across the floor woke me up.  I knew instantly who it was, and dragged myself out of bed to go find out why she was up...at 4:48 a.m.  And that other sound I was hearing...yes, it was definitely whispering.  When I got upstairs, she was just climbing back into her bed, my seven-year-old daughters were together in one bed, and all three of them were whispering excitedly about the valentines I'd left at the ends of their beds.

Vah Humvug.

I am a Valentine's Day Scrooge, but thanks to their grandmas, the girls have been counting down the days until Valentine's Day.  They've planned out what they were going to wear today, and they've been working all week on envelopes for each other that are overflowing with notes and drawings.  My oldest daughter gave me a Valentine's note a few days ago, and when I went to bed last night, I found an envelope from the other 7-year-old daughter on my bedside table:

So I dug out some valentines and put one at the end of each girls bed, and one by Mr Adorable's door.

And now, the girls and I have all been up since 4:48.

Hmph.  Vah Humvug.

Opportunities

Remember the chaotic lunch preparations I wrote about the other day?  I got an email yesterday morning that made me look at our time spent together in the kitchen in a whole new way.  

Someone older and wiser than I shared with me her own experiences with her young children helping in the kitchen and commented, "what fun, and what an opportunity for teaching and patience."

Before yesterday, I was looking at my kitchen-ful of kids and seeing messes, enthusiasm, inexperience, the learning process, spills, helpfulness, waste, wonder, and excitement.  I saw the potential for fun, and the opportunity for me to teach, but I missed seeing the lessons that are there for me to learn.

My dictionary defines opportunity as: "a set of circumstances that makes it possible to do something".  I just went back and counted, and in that description of our lunch-making process, there were 17 opportunities for patience.  And for the record, since I'm being honest here, I only took 7 of them.  I missed 10 opportunities to be patient...but at least now I know what they look like.

I'm excited now to learn to recognize all my opportunities for patience!  I'm sure that I can find them all day long, and not just when we're working in the kitchen.  The challenge will be in reminding myself that they ARE opportunities for patience, not just another mess to clean up or problem to solve!

Group Cooking 101

I'll admit it.  I have not been very excited about the prospect of having the kids help me in the kitchen.  They're 7, 7, 4, and 21 months, and they're messy, they're slow, and they tend to enjoy the strangest things at the most inopportune moments.  It is SO much easier and faster to do it myself.

On the other hand, I want to teach them how to cook, and they're eager to learn, so I decided (and yes, it took a conscious decision) to start teaching them now, before they decide it's not fun anymore.  I just make sure we're making something that is easily salvageable in case of accidents, and that we have plenty of time to get it put together.  And I'm teaching them to start with a clean work area and to clean up after themselves as we go.  :)

So, the other day for lunch, we made Creamed Tuna on toast because our bread was going stale.  (You wanted the truth, right?)  :)  My part of the process sounded something like this (names have been changed to protect the innocent):

"Everyone washed their hands with soap?  OK, Addie, you can unwrap this butter and put it in the pan.  No, if you want to unwrap the butter you can do it now and get a drink after you're done.  Molly, please get the flour.  Julia, find a tablespoon.  That's a cup.  You need one of the spoons that says 1 TBS on it.  Molly, if you keep whining at me you won't get to do anything else.  You'll get a turn doing something.  I know, you can get the toaster out and put the bread in it.  Addie, are you about done opening the butter?  Julia, while we're waiting for the butter you can measure one tablespoon of flour, but don't dump it in yet.  Isaiah, take the ball out of the kitchen.  No, I'll pour the milk into the measuring cup because I just opened this gallon and it's too heavy for you, Molly.  Addie, is that butter unwrapped yet?  Put it in the pan and throw the paper away, then wash your hands again.  Molly, stir this butter until it melts, but be careful not to touch the pan.  It's hot.  Julia, you can put the flour in and then get one more spoonful.  Molly, keep stirring all over the pan so that the flour doesn't stick and burn.  No, thank you Julia, I'll put the milk in.  Keep stirring, Molly.  Julia, you can put the flour away.  Yes, Addie, you can get out the ketchup.  Hold on a minute, Julia.  I don't know yet what you can do next.  Addie, why are you getting the stool?  No, the ketchup is in the fridge!  Isaiah, please shut the drawer.  Here, Molly, let me stir for a minute to make sure it's mixed up good before we put more in.  Julia, it's your turn to stir.  Molly, fill this tablespoon two times with ketchup and dump it in.  Isaiah, get out of the cupboard!  Yes, Addie, you can put the ketchup away.  No, please put it in right side up, it's too full to put upside down yet.  It keeps falling over.  Would you like to help open the tuna fish?  These are neat packages Daddy bought, aren't they?  Keep stirring Julia.  What?!?  They even put corn syrup in Worcestershire sauce!  OK, dump the tuna in, Addie, but be careful of the hot pan.  Just one, Molly, and let Addie open the other two.  You can push down the thing on the toaster now, Molly.  Let me break up those chunks, Julia, I don't want you to get splashed.  Molly get plates, Julia get forks, Isaiah get in your highchair.  Everyone helped, Molly, not just you and Julia.  Quit trying to upset your sister.  Who wants milk?"

In spite of the chaos, it was kind of fun!  So, after snack, when no one wanted to help me work in the kitchen, I wondered aloud if I had enough energy to make the cookies I had planned to make.  Julia immediately changed her mind and volunteered to help me.

So, Julia and I made cookies Thursday afternoon, just the two of us.

And since Addie was the only one still at the table after lunch when I discovered that my new crock pot had been delivered, she helped me create "Stoneless Stone Soup".

Molly, not to be left out, helped make bread later in the afternoon to go with our soup.

And we all survived the experience!  :)

Soup's On!

My new Crock Pot came on Thursday!

When I tried to make a double batch of Crock Pot Granola and barely had room to stir, and when our favorite recipe of Crock Pot Ajiaco came close to overflowing the pot, I decided it was time to research and buy a bigger Crock Pot.

I had a hard time finding what I wanted.  I knew I wanted an oval one, 6 quart capacity or larger, with white stoneware, and after doing some research, I also knew that I didn't want a "smart" one with pre-set hour selections.  My initial shopping ventures made me think that the Crock Pot I was hoping to find did not exist.  But I persevered, and finally found what I had in mind, and it was exactly what I wanted!

What I want to know is, when did I become this person...this person that got so excited about the delivery of her new Crock Pot that she immediately washed it and began to make soup?