It’s Amazing What You Can Find

Each time I do a bit of straightening I am amazed anew at what’s right under my nose, what treasures are in my house. In a recent re-rereading of Alexandra Stoddard’s Living a Beautiful Life I was inspired to deal with some of those little things, those seemingly unimportant details, which get let go when life, elections, holidays and worldwide pre-planned panic attacks occur simultaneously.

Renewing a friendship with old fave authors is the very thing when taking to heart God’s admonition, “Let not your heart be troubled.” And if that trusted friend reminds me of an old truth–that the beauty of small things are worth notice and even close attention–it’s off to the races.

Yesterday I cleared my mind as I cleared drawers and closets. I gladdened my heart as I cleaned and organized my pantry. Heeding Alexandra, I made my fridge a joy to behold–everything straight, neat, and beautiful. I even took the eggs out of the big egg flats and put them into a lovely burlap-sided fridge basket. I may have to pause here and go stare into my fridge.

Homemaking is art.

And art, no matter who says otherwise, pays. It pays to discover there are peppercorns in the pantry, when I had decided I must have been mistaken about buying them. It pays to find my tape measure when I’m going through drawers in the utility room (I had decided to buy a new one). There was great joy in my heart when I found missing lingerie (I had decided I must have given this item away, and wondered why) when I cleared and organized my lingerie chest.

And the great joy to be had simply by straightening shoes in the closet and finding the missing mitten (one I personally knitted which therefore has a bit more “personality” than your ordinary mitten) I’ve been searching for and mourning for almost a year–this is good news, Reader. Why isn’t it on national TV? Bev found her mitten!

And in her Lazy Susan what did she find? As always, lids without bottoms and bottoms without lids (I store containers and a few other items in the Lazy Susan cabinet to the right of my kitchen sink). But I also created order out of chaos as I made my kitchen a bit more user-friendly, and a lot more attractive.

And what wondrous joys await me today? Today, or so I say, I am going to clean the “junk drawer.” I can see myself now: throwing this away and that away and this away and that away; putting the stick pins in thier own little slot, the rubber bands all together; and rejoicing in the “finds”, those things that got stuck in the drawer because I didn’t know what else to do with them. But now I will know.

You can say I am easily entertained, and I will agree with you. It’s quite the life skill, and as I said, it’s amazing what you can find. At home. Right under your nose.

What is it About Steak?, What are Dippies?,and Other Good Questions

Hallelujah!  That was what I wanted to burst into song with after last week’s Homefront Show.  Not because the show was over, but because we had steak for breakfast.  I’m going to talk about that during the show tomorrow (Wednesday the 27th) – about basic, timeless good things, such as breakfast, and steak, and conversation during breakfast while eating steak.  You think steak is for rich people.  Think again.  I’m going to talk about how expensive that kind of thinking really is.

We’ll consider the expense of a poverty mentality.  And we’ll look at Gary Keesee’s 10 Steps to Posture Yourself for Opportunity, and share insights from Tommy Newberry’s 40 Days to a Joy-Filled Life, and excellent thoughts from two excellent men – John Parker and John Dunlap.

So, if you know anyone who could use a bit of excellence, good ideas, joy, and other good stuff, call them now and tell them to join us on the Home Front Show (Wednesday, March 27 at 8:00 AM Mountain), on http://1360khnc.com where we’ll also talk about the organization Transform Our World, and the joy  of transforming our world.

Joy.  Did you know joy doesn’t mix with fear.  Fear is the devil’s currency, and you can’t buy a single good thing with it.  In her book Time Alive, Alexandra Stoddard has a chapter entitled  JOY ACCOMPANIES A COURAGEOUS LIFE, and the title is followed by this Winston Churchill quote:  “Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities . . . It is the quality which guarantees all others.”

Fear, as I said, is the devil’s currency.  Fear is what causes people to succumb to evil without even knowing it.  It makes people irrational so that they behave in ways at odds with their actual beliefs.  Fear makes us unsound of mind, and knocks the hero right out of us.

I like to talk about hero moms on the Homefront Show, and one of those was my grandmother, “Grannimother”, who did her laundry in Mountain Fork River near Hochatown, Oklahoma.  I remember not only what God has done for me in days past, but what my ancestors have done for me, what all our ancestors have done for us in building this country, in things large such as coast to coast railroads and highways, and in things a bit smaller such as running water and washing machines.

It may have been recalling bathing in the river as Grannimother did the wash that prompted my dad’s response to a group of women complaining about keeping up with the laundry.  He grinned and said, “Yeah, it sure is hard pouring in that soup and pushing those buttons.”

I remember one of my favorite things ever was Grannimother peeling her garden-scorched, best-in-the-entire-world tomatoes, and slicing big thick slices to share with me.  Just tomatoes and salt.  Who could ask for more?

That’s wealth, and it’s not expensive.  Here’s what’s expensive:  Putting a sugar/processed grain death concoction in front of your family every single day, as a way to start their day.

Then maybe it’s hot dogs for lunch.  “That just blows my mind” was John’s response the other day when he asked me if I wanted steak or chili dogs I said, “Steak is better and steak is cheaper.”

We bought round steak at Ridley’s in Wellington for $2.99 a pound (hot dogs were considerably more), marinated it  for three days, then grilled it after the show last Wednesday morning.  Oh, my goodness, was it wonderful!  I gently fried eggs (dippies) and made Dave’s Killer Bread toast and  pot of tea to go along with it.

Of course you can add all sorts of things to this:  I really like to saute spinach with garlic and mushrooms for breakfast, and I’m a big believer in homemade applesauce, or just a can of peaches (always get them in juice, not syrup) with cinnamon.

Now back to dippies:  The point of dippies is the runny yolk so you can dip your bread into it and say “Yum” right after you sing Hallelujah over the steak.

So, let’s talk about that.  What is it, in fact, about steak?  We actually asked each other that question last Wednesday.  “What is it about steak?”  I suggested the B vitamin found only in red meat.  Seth suggested we should eat it in honor of our ancestors, who might not have had as much of it as they wanted.  Wealth being measured not by goats or pigs or tofu, but by the cattle on a thousand hills was mentioned.  And then there was the crux of the matter in Seth’s question:  What is better than steak?  We couldn’t think of anything.  There is a delicious sense of well-being experienced in the first bite of a juicy steak, and in every subsequent bite as well, especially if it’s been a bit since you’ve had beef.

I say the whole anti-meat thing is from Hell.  Ever since the campaign against red meat and the assertion that it causes heart disease, heart disease has been on the rise.  Hmm.  It’s just another example of the dangers of being one of the crowd, of fitting in, going along, keeping your head down and your mind docile – doing the socially acceptable thing.  But here’s the big problem Satan and all his deceived have, in particular about meat.  It’s really hard to convince people something so good is so bad.

We once worked with several young women who were vegetarians, vegans, and other variations of labels which in many cases were simply sad attempts at that “defining sense of self”.  And then one day we invited some of them over for steaks – “that’s what we’re having, you’re welcome if you want to come” was the casual group invite.  Three of them came over and they practically inhaled those steaks.  I’ve never seen anything quite like it.

Well, you may think this is much ado about nothing, or very close to nothing, but I’m after a larger picture.  I’m after our taking a look at the gifts of God and participating.

And lest you’ve been victimized by that “can’t eat it if it has a face” let me help you with that.  I was raised on a farm and I can tell you there are no retirement facilities for cows, there are no nursing homes for deer.  If man does not obey God’s directive to steward the earth, animals such as cows and game will overpopulate and die of starvation and disease.  Failing that, they will die miserably of old age.  You are being singularly unkind when you suggest no one should eat meat.  Most of all to your own self.

Meat makes people strong.  In days of old meat was only for royalty, and starving peasants were shot or publicly strung up for poaching so much as a rabbit to feed their children.  It was no secret that when people are well fed, particularly on meat, they become very difficult to control.

Well, things are better in that regard, and yet we return to a peasant’s mentality when we say we don’t want meat.  It is a weakling mentality.  We are royalty and we need to act like it, and eat like it.

Royalty – we’re going to have royalty on the show tomorrow, so if you haven’t already done so, give that someone you’re thinking of a call.  Reach out, be brave.  You can do it – just act like you had steak for breakfast.

Thanks for joining me, and if you’re out of the 1360 listening area, you can go to the website – http://1360khnc.com

Thanks again.

Home Comforts

Room in a historical Bohemian village

Whether or not you homeschool, your children are watching and learning your attitude about homemaking.  If you’re like most moms, things get a bit messy at times, especially in our minds!  We need a bit of decluttering, a little refurbishing, direction, and refreshment.  I give you the beyond-anything book, Home Comforts.

Home Comforts, by Cheryl Mendelson, is one of my two favorite books on making home a haven (the other is Alexandra Stoddard’s Creating a Beautiful Home). Cheryl (she is a friend even though we’ve never met) has done her homework. A former attorney, she’s very diligent and disciplined, and has the intelligence required to make a good job of homemaking.

As this book is over 800 pages long, and covers anything and everything you can think of, I can’t begin to do it justice here. But as an example here’s a quote from the chapter on home cooking: “Good meals at home satisfy emotional hunger as real as hunger in the belly, and nothing else does so in the same way.”

Cheryl goes on to discuss how and why not to use cookbooks–I am vindicated! I believe a recipe is only someone else’s creation, certainly nothing written in stone. Of course, if Julia Child wrote it I will pay attention. But someone telling me to make pumpkin cake without salt, or that you don’t need all those walnuts in your oatmeal raisin cookies? I don’t think so.

As usual, I am loving the sound of my own horn tooting, and it’s time to get back to the marvelous book at hand. Home Comforts covers anything and everything you might ever want to know about homemaking.  You will be sorry when you’ve turned the last page, and if you’re like me, determined to read it again.

And to share it with others, especially family.

Do you want to excel at the high and highly rewarding calling of homemaking?  This book, so aptly named, will inspire and gladden your heart, and perhaps best of all, it will convince you that what you do at home truly matters.

Something in the Mail!

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We get our mail at the post office, in a little box of our own.  Some days there’s nothing, some days there’s worse than nothing – things I take home to trash. And some days, once in a while, there is a card or a letter, from someone who loves me, who prays for me before I even ask.

Alexandra Stoddard wrote a book whose title says it all:  The Gift of a Letter.  Yes, I buy books by authors with whom I see eye to eye, who don’t tell me anything I didn’t already know.  Why?  Because they remind me of things I may have misplaced.  Important things, like say, cards and letters.

Your friends will agree with me – a card or a letter is a treat, a tangible and forever treasured proof of love.  Not so a generic one-size-fits-all notice on Facebook.

You can cheat like I do.  Type all the news and print it out before tucking it into a card with just a few hand-scribbled words.  You can even cut and paste parts of e-mails and print them.  Add in a comic strip you cut out of the newspaper, a dried flower or sticker, a great quote, the name of a good book you just read, or a picture of you looking your worst so they’ll feel better.  Ask them how they are and what is new and what their kids/friends/dogs are up to.

If this all seems like a bit much, just do the prep for now.  Copy these words as a model – you’ll recall this from childhood:  Dear Buddy, How are you?  I am fine.  Love, Me.  P.S.  Write back soon.  Into a drawer or a basket or even a bowl, put your model along with your address book (when you find it), paper, envelopes and a couple of pens.  When you buy stamps (pretty ones!) put some of those in, too.

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Now, the next time someone is on your mind do them two incredible favors:  Say a prayer for them, and send them the gift of a letter.  You have plenty to say:  You were on my mind; I said a prayer for you; Love, Me. P.S.  Please write back soon, I’m enclosing my stamped and addressed envelope with paper inside.  P.P.S.  I’ll send you a pen if yours are all out of ink – I just bought some new ones!