Food, Glorious Food

Here is a post I will dedicate to that wonderful, life-sustaining, family-building, perpetual mess-making part of being a human being. Food. It's one of the many aspects of motherhood that resembles stringing beads on a string without a knot at the end.. You can never eat, or clean the kitchen for that matter, "once and for all." But, while it is a fact of life that you have to deal with food everyday, it remains in the realm of personal freedom as to HOW you deal.

Meals are beneficial for health and energy and family relations if they are done well, but food can also take over your life if it isn't in balance. This can show up by eating too much, or not enough (eating disorders), or becoming obsessed with "the best" or "health" or "gourmet" or "savings" or "organic" or whatever(!) to the point where food isn't serving your needs, making you able to serve God and your family, but is taking you away from it.

My best efforts at getting food under control in our life have resulted in a pretty stable, low maintenance way of cooking and saving money (we're able to keep our food bill down below $300 per month for 6 eaters almost every month). I didn't realize that this was all that spectacular of a feat until reading The Tightwad Gazette a few years ago and discovering that we spend slightly more per month than the average family our size spends per week. So how do we do it?

Three things:

1: Beans.

Oh yes, and rice. These are fantastic staples to use, and if you buy a big old 15lb bag of basmati rice, a 25lb bag of dry pinto beans, bulk taco and cajun seasoning, AND 10lbs of onions, it will be months before you can truly say there is nothing to eat in the house. I soak 4lbs of beans at a time overnight, then rinse and cook on high for 30 minutes then low for 4 hours in the morning, OR in a crockpot (or two) for a good portion of the day, adding garlic and onion (and salt at the end to taste). Then I freeze meal-size portions in individual baggies (gallon size) for use whenever I feel like it.. I really like black beans, too.

Here are 2 bean recipes that are so stinkin' easy and good that it's almost embarrasing to post them:

Chalupas

pinto beans cooked as described above--add some cajun or taco seasoning to taste..
a little mozzarella (or whatever)
sour cream
tortillas
salsa or pico de gallo for grownups (I used a can of diced tomatos, 1/2 an onion, and 4 small sweet peppers (red, orange, yellow), food processed up and added some salt and cajun seasoning)

Assemble as desired. Eat.

Black Bean Yummyness

black beans cooked as described above--add some cajun or taco seasoning or garlic
1 cup of some mixture of sour cream and/or plain yogurt
can of diced tomatos or some salsa
shredded cheese
salt (essential)
blue corn organic tortilla chips (or tortillas or regular tortilla chips)

Variations:
make up 1 or 2 cups of basmati rice (1c dry rice, rinsed, 1.5 c water, microwave 10m on high, 5m on medium) and mix it in to eat BBY without chips or tortillas..

Add torn up tortillas to the mix, put in 9x13 pan, cover with shredded cheese (I like cheese) and bake until bubbly.

Add leftover spaghetti sauce and rice and mozzarella for a different taste. You can add corn, etc., too!

2: Leftovers

Creative and purposeful use of leftovers can save you tons and tons of $$ and time. Sometimes you don't NEED a whole bottle of spaghetti sauce for a recipe, or you have leftover pizza sauce (easy mix of tomato paste, tomato sauce, sugar, oregano, and garlic)... Now, remember you have these things and USE them. This goes for meat as well. I often brown meat and save back 1/2 pound to add to a casserole the next day. I especially do this with bulk sausage. I try to limit the amount of meat I add to things, and make up for it with veggies or rice or something. Regardless of $$ savings, I think it is better for us to load up on healthier stuff rather than just meat (I try to food process carrots or onions or peppers in just about everything--not much taste impact, but I add it at the end so that all the nutrients aren't cooked out).

3: Measure twice, Shop once.

Weekly shopping trips are expensive. The fewer trips you make, the cheaper it is. Living in a small town, I don't have a Hy-Vee around the corner, (and 4 kids at the store is, well, not appealing) so I HAVE to make the food I have in house work. I've found that if I make a concentrated effort to lengthen the amount of time between trips, I can get a lot more meals out of the pantry, more hair washes out of the shampoo (I might have to use the yucky-smelling-whoops-buy shampoo, but that's okay!), and pull out the cloth diapers that I don't use simply because I'm lazy, than if I just automatically make a full-boar shopping trip because I am out of something. If someone has to stop, I try to get my husband to do it, because he doesn't know a deal when he sees one and isn't tempted to impulse shop. I make one $200 grocery trip per month (roughly) and then use the remaining $50-$100 to make milk/eggs/toilet paper stops, and to stock up every 2 or 3 months on frozen meat (chicken, tilapia, ground turkey, and my favorite: $1 farmland sausage rolls).

Avoiding the shopping trips ALSO avoids the most perilous money sucking hole known to woman (and man): Iwantititis. Most everything we could possibly need most of us already have. While I can see the financial value in perusing ads for good deals and coupons, knowing what I am missing steals the peace that I find in simplicity and gets me longing for the complicated life of rebates and coupons, automatic-spraying air fresheners (man is it hard to go back!) and other consumables that bring me to the store time and again for a refill. I bought 4 gallons of vinegar 3 years ago, and for the most part I don't buy cleaning supplies--which is a billion dollar industry focused on getting you to buy refill wands, pads, cloths, sponges, et.al.! (I even use the yucky-smelling-whoops-buy shampoo to clean the toilet--credit to Flylady.net on that one).

So there is a quick window into the world of Mandie. Speaking of windows, if you do use vinegar to clean your windows, add a 1/2 tsp or so of regular hand soap to the mix of water and vinegar (3T vinegar to 2c water) to get your windows nice and shiny. ;)

May God Bless You All!!!

I had Lots of Blog ideas

until I sat down to write.. Although it's the first time in a while that I posted WITHOUT my friendly neighborhood blog reader reminding ME to update my blog.

Short little update on our life:

I have applied for a job...working at our church part-time and running the RE program. Looks like there is a good shot that I could get it (with a part-time assistant), but the official interview process still needs to be held.

This is an interesting development in many, many ways.

1: Matt has a great opportunity to work with a local builder friend and build a business (without a major outlay for tools, etc).

2: A part-time job would be a safety net each month that will give us steady income. We figure if someone has to get a part time job, we might as well serve the Lord with it.

3: It means really laying down some roots. If we were to sell our house, we will move so that we are much closer to church (currently we're 25 minutes). This year I will set a record for belonging to All Saints longer than any other single parish in my life. 6 years.

4: Matt, as a self-employed, set-his-own-hours guy, will be able to be home with the girls on Wednesdays in the afternoons and evening while I am off working, as well as Tuesday afternoons. We will still be able to homeschool, the girls get to be with their daddy more, and Matt gets to work for himself for a while without the stress of providing for our whole budget from scratch. PLUS: I was doing too much of this stuff in a volunteer capacity already, so it wouldn't be THAT much more time away! Oh, and maybe Matt will learn to cook!

We'll see what happens... It's just funny because in the middle of March I said to Matt:
"You know, we have been looking and looking for God's plan for us, and I just get the feeling it isn't ready yet. Something needs to fall into place. We don't need to rack our brains... when it happens, we'll know." In the next few weeks, the above events transpired (including the business opportunity for Matt and the announcement that our DRE is not returning next year) and we're sitting here in awe wondering: Is this IT?

So that is our life... Hope yours is going well.. Please pray for Lois Wilson, Matt's grandma, who passed away on Wednesday... and for Matt's family.

Song of Farewell

May the choirs of angels

Come to greet you.

May they speed you to Paradise.

May the Lord enfold you

In His Mercy.

May He grant you Eternal Life.

The Garden of the Freedom of God's Children

Ok, so it isn't my first craft ever, but it's my first once since getting inspired by a friend's blog (and a nice long conversation!) This one got a nice organic start, as in it grew out of my brain. (Though I got the garden idea from that same friend!)

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I had spent a lot of time thinking about how we as parents are really just fence builders. Why is that? Well, when they enter this world, children seem to struggle with the idea of freedom and license. You know, they think that they should be able to do anything they want, including scream in church, not ever go to bed, call dad a "stupid-head," eat an entire 16oz box of raisins (that they snuck out of the cupboard), and in general get whatever they want at all times with no consequences.

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Whe-he-hell... NO. That's not exactly how it works. That is called license, and sometimes there are very painful and uncomfortable consequences to living life that way (especially with the raisins). I want my children to live in freedom, most importantly freedom from self-inflicted pain due to selfishness, sin, pride, anger, hate, and gluttony. Despite KNOWING this in my head, I have struggled to figure out how to explain that to a logic-less toddler or a willful six year old who says to me, "Mom, if there is a fence to the garden, then we really aren't free."

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So, I explained to them last night, it IS like a garden. You guys are in the garden of the Freedom of God's Children. It's very large and very beautiful. It contains things like LOVE and happiness, and peace and joy. But there are dangerous traps that look alluring, traps like disobeying, hurtful words, lying, stealing, and the like. But these traps will close behind you and take right in as a prisoner. If this does happen, and it does happen, you can never escape by your own power, but if you are truly sorry and ask Jesus to forgive you, He will forgive and release you from the trap.

But it is not fun to fall into these traps, and God never wants us to sin, so Mommy and Daddy put up fences around the garden for you so that you know where it is safe to go and where it is not (and sometimes if you get close to a dangerous spot you might get a swat on the rear to remind you to stay away!)

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We know where to put these fences because of God's natural law, and because of his revealed law. We talked about the Ten Commandments as the fenceposts of the garden, and when we made our gardens we made these fenceposts beautiful because the law of the Lord is sweet and more precious than gold, because it keeps me walking in the LIGHT and away from the slavery of sin.

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Today, the oldest two and I made gardens. I have a catalogue from a seed company that was perfect for different pictures of flowers. So here's mine:

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I have 10 Fenceposts for the Ten Commandments, as well as a dark, murky, mysterious place around the outside that disguises the chains and slavery of sin. The Greatest Commandment in the center: "Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. (and the second) And Love your neighbor as yourself."

In this lies the Freedom of God's Children.

Bethany made a beautiful garden, with a waterfall down the middle, and it's opposite, which she imagined would be like a desert. She found a flower she didn't like and glued it on the other side of her garden.

those are "angry clouds"

Emma's garden also had a waterfall (that would be why there is a space in the middle of

Fre edom).
Emma also had the angry clouds on the other side.. Oh and a Dragon for good measure.


So that was my craft day. Nothing too crazy difficult. We used glue and scissors, though, so it is like a level 4 difficulty for me. I was just happy to share this truth with my girls and maybe give them a glimmer into how God is not "mean" when he says no, and while mommy and daddy may get frustrated when you test the limits, we really love you more than anything and just want you to be truly happy: happy with the Freedom of God's Children.

Dear Mr. President

So I found this video and really, really, really liked it.

My Bethany, 6 years old, watched this with me. After we finished watching it, we had the following conversation:

"Mom, governments are supposed to protect people, right?"
"Yes." I said.
"Then why doesn't President Obama protect people?"
I had some idea where this was going, but said, "What do you mean?"
"He doesn't protect the babies... Why doesn't he do what he is supposed to?"
"Well, it is because he doesn't believe that really tiny babies should be protected, but that they are like the "property" of the mommies or the doctors, and they can decide what to do with the babies."
Thoughtfully, she asked, "Why don't you tell him, Mommy? Tell him that they are people, but they just need a place to grow?"
"Well, I think that plenty of people have tried, sweetie. And it would be very hard for him to change his mind now because lots of people would be very angry because they think the same way he does and voted for him for that reason."
She didn't give up, "But if more people tell him, wouldn't he change his mind?"
I suggested that she could write him a letter if she wanted, but this scared her...
"What if they come and take me away?"
"I don't think that would happen, and anyway, I wouldn't let them."
"But what if they take you away?"
"Well, I think if they take me away, they'll have a lot of trouble on their hands because we have a lot of people who would stand up for us... Honey, if you think you need to write a letter, you should pray for the courage to do it.. I'm not going to make you write it."
"Okay, Mommy."

A little later, she took me by the hand into the "den" and dictated this letter to me--I did not help her.

"Dear President Obama,

This is Bethany. I am six years old. I want to tell you to change your heart. These babies are people. They just need a place for them to grow into a wonderful person. I used to be a baby so tiny that you couldn't even see me. Then I was born out of my mommy's tummy. And now, I grew up into a six year old. Can you please stop paying people to kill these babies?

Thank you,
Bethany"

Thank YOU, Bethany.

So Close

Well, we did fill one apartment, and have an application out for another one, but alas, the trip to St. Louis was not to be. Still, we had a lovely weekend. Friday was good: got to catch up with a good friend during a playdate a BK (woohoo Big Fish!), signed a lease (in a van with 5 kids), picked out vinyl and carpet (for another apartment), ate at the fish fry with Matt, and a late tp stop at Walmart (all with 4 kids in tow).

Matt was siding a house on Saturday (you know, when it snowed), so I spent most of the day going stir crazy and listening to questions like:

"Mommy, what day is it?"
"Saturday."
"Then why isn't Daddy home? You know, the song: 'Saturday, Daddy's Home'?"

Yes, I made up a song with those words in it. We are all happy when Daddy's home! But these days we are earning our Sunday rest. :)

So the evening was spent watching 10 episodes of The Office via Netflix. I say highlight because it was not the best day, but you know how they say you can have too much of a good thing, well... sometimes it takes you some time to realize that you had too much of a bad thing... we realized that we kept watching it because it WASN'T satisfying..That we were much happier at the beginning of the show (I like the song) than at the end... you just think--"This has got to come to a plot resolution sometime, doesn't it???"--Well, long before any resolved plot, I got sick of that. I can handle stupid humor, but I think that stupid sex humor is really not funny. I also think that desecrating it through stupid sexual situations is even worse. My rule of thumb is, if you can't film the show without objectively sinning, I can't watch it without subjectively sinning. 21 minutes of "ha" isn't worth collateral damage to my soul. But hey, Duma was good.

*Whew*

So, Sunday was nice.. We went to church in Madrid so we could drop off an application to a prospective tenant and we had really well behaved kids.. We tried to get donuts for them at Git 'N Go, but turns out you can't "git" donuts there. So we came home and Mommy made apple fritters and scrambled eggs... I had purchased 30 lbs of organic apples and some were rotting in spots, so I cut out the yuck, cored them and sliced them in my new favorite appliance: my KitchenAid food processor (Thank you birthday club!) I mixed them with a little flour and cinnamon and sugar and froze them until needed.. Of course, I needed all 4 bags that I froze last Monday.. 3 of them for these amazing apple fritters which I've made 2x.

In the afternoon we went on a pilgrimage to Gilbert, IA to Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church to fulfill the requirements for obtaining a plenary indulgence in the year of St. Paul. We did not partake in the real part of the pilgrimage, the 12 mile walk from St. Thomas in Ames carrying a 200 lb wooden cross, but it was cool watching the college students come in right at 3pm, knowing what they had been through to get there. I had a beautiful chance to receive the sacrament of Reconciliation with a wonderful and holy priest. It was so cool because before the priests went into the confessionals, they knelt at the altar and confessed to each other! I've never seen a priest give absolution to another priest before. It was a true show of humility.

So, finishing off with leftover night and kissing and blessing our girls good night, it was a good weekend. I mean, it was a great weekend. I am truly blessed to have the family I do and even more blessed to be the child of God that I am.

1/2 way there!!

So we made a little deal with God.. Well, sort of..

I am told by those great spiritual writers of history that the secret to peace is not to want anything too much that its loss will cause great sorrow. So with that in mind, here is our deal.

Matt and I have been bowled over by the common sense and truth of a certain constitutionalist named Ron Paul. We wouldn't give him the time of day until some friends we really trusted suggested we take a close look. We read The Revolution and started reading Mises.org to find out what is REALLY going on with our economy.

Well, next week, Campaign for Liberty, a grassroots group devoted to Ron's ideals of freedom, peace, and economic liberty, is having a regional conference in St. Louis and boy do we want to go. Not only is the incomparable Ron Paul speaking, there will also be a man named Thomas E. Woods who is a regular contributor at Mises.org and who also wrote a book called How the Church Built Western Civilzation.

So we this is right up our alley! But there is that pesky income problem.. So the deal is: we have to fill 2 apartments at Madrid before we can go. This would be a significant sign since we've had 3 empty for a year and we have a week until the conference. But today we filled ONE!!!! YAY! Our hearts are heavy for other reasons, though, because Matt's grandma isn't doing very well, and unless she improves we can't make any reservations in STL at this time. So our deal isn't so much a deal as a request for a sign and a way.. If we don't get to go, we don't get to go.. this could be a great event in our lives, but if it is truly meant to be, God will make it happen so we can truly say, Que Sera Sera.

Enscuela de Capitalism

So, we had a pretty capitalistic day in our little homeschool today. The math lesson (in the math book--I take back some of what I have said about textbooks) was to organize empty food boxes and cans into what aisles they would be placed in a grocery store. Luckily, their aunt Kelly got them a BUNCH of play food stuffs.. So they spent much of the morning sorting....

And shelving....

And pricing...

My favorite was the freezer section (Bethany came up with the idea of using the french doors):

That's pizza and ice cream in there..

Bethany lasted longer than Ms. Emma, so Bethany determined that the store should be called "Bethany's." Emma decided she'd rather be a customer, anyway, so she went back to her "time test" that took her most of the morning..

Probably because her answers looked like this:

Madeleine was busy with the "tiny beads" a work that the kids do everyday.. You're suppose to iron it and they stick together, but this is a gift from 2 years ago from aunt Kelly (not favorite aunt Kelly (LOL), the other one). This pic is from a work Emma is doing right now, but this morning Madeleine showed us her design which she said was a garden.. :)

Little Leah is still sick and is taking a long nap.. Poor baby. She hasn't puked since last night, thank goodness. Hopefully she'll eat something when she wakes up.

So that is our day.. Daddy just left for work. He is going to put up siding at Bob's new construction house all week from 1-8 each day. Not quite full time, but hopefully we get some good leads soon!