I promise - there are no demands to see the manager here - just a cozy place where you can pull up a chair, grab your favorite warm drink, take a nap if you need it, and know that I've got your back as long as you likewise accept my Oxford commas and my use of two spaces after periods.
Did you know that making your own butter is so easy you can do it by accident? True story! Years ago now, I was trying to get whipped cream "just right" and left the mixer running for too long. Instead of getting perfect peaks, it started to separate. I had no idea what I did wrong, but a friend said not to toss it but to mix it even longer and add a bit of salt to it. Voila.
What you'll need, if you want to do this intentionally...
Mixer
Strainer or cheesecloth
Bowl
Spatula
Heavy cream (ideally 36% fat or higher but 33% will work)
What to do:
Let the cream come to about 50 degrees F (lower than room temperature but warmer than your fridge)
Attach your mixer's whisk attachment. Pour the cream into the mixer bowl. Put on the shield if your mixer has one, or cover the mixer with a towel or plastic wrap. (This will keep you from getting cream all over everything nearby.
Mix on medium-high for 5-7 minutes. It will look like whipping cream at first, then start to get chunky and separate, then it may start turning yellowish (this depends on the cream you are using), before fully separating into curds of butter and liquid whey. When the butter and liquid have fully separated, turn off the mixer.
Strain the butter into a bowl, making sure all the liquid runs out. Set the liquid aside - you're going to want it later!
Rinse the butter with cold water to remove any remaining buttermilk and make the butter last longer.
Knead/press the butter with a spatula for a minute or two, just to bring together the curds. If you want to salt your butter, sprinkle it with a bit of salt before kneading.
Press the butter into an airtight container and keep it in the fridge for up to 2-3 weeks. (not that it will last that long!)
The buttermilk has a shorter lifespan, so use it up within a week to make a batch of pancakes or biscuits!
You can also make butter by putting heavy cream into a jar and shaking it until it separates. This takes a while, but kids do get a kick out of it.
Heat milk to about 110 degrees. Add the butter, then add the sugar and yeast and stir to dissolve.
In a large bowl (or the bowl of your stand mixer), mix the salt, garlic powder, onion powder, and Italian seasoning with 2 cups of flour. Add the milk mixture and mix well. Add the remaining flour 1/2 cup at a time and knead until you have a soft dough.
Cover and let rise until double.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
Punch down the dough, divide evenly, and shape into bread sticks.
Place on a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet and put in preheated 375 oven. Bake for 12-14 minutes until lightly browned.
Variations:
Omit the savoury seasonings. After baking, brush with butter and sprinkle with a mix of cinnamon and sugar.
Before baking, brush with melted butter and sprinkle with shredded cheddar cheese or a cheese blend.
Before baking, brush with melted butter and sprinkle with Everything Bagel seasoning.
Before baking, spread just a bit of tomato sauce on each breadstick and sprinkle with shredded mozzarella cheese.
Some thoughts for a young mom looking for 'me time' and wondering how to survive the days with a baby and a toddler in the house.
When mine were that little, 'me time' was a matter of focus, not of time. My husband left for training with the military when our second daughter was 11 months old and returned just before her second birthday. For several months before that he was gone from 6:30 am til 9:00 pm most days. So I learned pretty fast to get creative and to adjust my thinking. These are just my thoughts but hopefully there is something in here somewhere that will help or encourage you
3:00 am feedings. You can look at it as a frustrating interruption to your sleep or a chance to have a quiet sit and snuggle with your baby, to pray if you want to, or to read a little bit if you're nursing and have a book there next to your chair. I stopped getting frustrated by those awakenings and started instead to focus on being thankful that my baby needed me, that I was able to meet her needs in a way that no one else could, and embracing those quiet moments.
A daily shower. For me that had to be non-negotiable, from the day our first daughter was born. When he was home, I would have my husband take care of the kids in the evening while I had time to take a shower or a bath. But most days he was gone before we were up. My strategy then was to just put her in her car seat or bouncer in the bathroom while I took my shower. When she got a little older, I would let her play on the bathroom floor. When I had a five-year-old and a two-year-old, I would let them play in the next room while I had bathroom time, with the door open to hear them.
Exercise. You can either focus on the elusive and nearly impossible goal of getting time out by yourself, or you can change your strategy and take your kids with you. Get a two seater wagon or jogging stroller or bike trailer or whatever suits you, and just get out there. You're getting exercise, they're getting fresh air, and you're being a great role model. (Look for a mommy-and-me fitness class if you'd rather something with added structure and motivation.)
Bedtime. Make sure they have a fixed bedtime and a routine to get them there. Choose their bedtime to suit YOUR needs. If you really crave alone time in the morning, then keep your kids up later and let them sleep in. If you want quiet in the evening, put them to bed early. Just realize you can't have it both ways... if you put them to bed early, don't you go and stay up til 1:00 reading, because they ARE going to be up early.
These are just some thoughts for you... above all else, keep in mind that this stage passes by SO fast. If you don't get a lot of time alone, make the most of the moments you do have, and enjoy the time you have with your kids. Before you know it they'll be headed off to this or that, then asking for the keys, then moving on... and you'll miss those midnight baby snuggles.
Have you heard of FOMO? It's the "Fear Of Missing Out" - and social media really magnifies it.
Shiny Object Syndrome. Always chasing something new, distracted from what we ought to be doing, even from what we want to be doing.
The comparison trap. The feeling that everyone else's life is better, prettier, shinier, more successful (because really, who posts their less-than-perfect moments on Facebook?).
Dopamine hits from getting "likes" on our posts/photos. Insecurity when we don't. Especially for teen girls, this is huge.
Random positive reward - a behavior-modification technique to get people to do what you want, which is also behind the addictive power of checking email and social media.
So this week, let's clean up our social media lives and take a hard look at our digital dependencies. What small changes can we make to take control and stop letting what we think of ourselves be so heavily influenced by a shiny blue screen?
Some ideas - choose what you think will work best for you:
Unfollow pages that you "liked" at one point but that don't really reflect who you are.
Leave or unfollow Facebook groups that no longer serve you. You can also "turn off notifications" on posts that you no longer need to receive updates on, especially if they are getting a lot of comments.
Unfollow or unfriend people who you don't actually know.
Unsubscribe from mailing lists that clutter your inbox but don't actually serve you.
Turn off "push notifications" on your phone for all social media, games, messaging, or other apps that distract you.
Plug in your phone away from your bed so you don't feel compelled to pick it up as soon as you wake up.
Resist the urge to check social media and email first thing in the morning out of habit - instead, be intentional and give yourself an "in the office" time where you can check your messages and notifications.
Give yourself one day a week where you go on a social media fast and unplug. If you want particular people to be able to reach you, make sure they have your actual phone/text number.
The Early American Cookbook: Authentic Favorites for the Modern Kitchen (by Kristie Lynn, 2000)
This cookbook is available online for free at the Internet Archive, or it can sometimes be found in print on Amazon, ThriftBooks, etc.
I enjoy cookbooks like this and have collected several now - not just because the recipes are good (and usually frugal), but because of the interesting bits of history and perspectives on individuals' lives. If you're the same, you might like Grandma's Wartime Kitchen, Clara's Kitchen, and Out of Old Nova Scotia Kitchens!
Did you know that Crosby's Molasses has published 23 little cookbooks, and made them available for free online? You can find them all here: https://www.crosbys.com/ebooks/
Did you know there are different kinds of molasses?
Fancy Molasses is the highest grade of molasses and has the smoothest, sweetest flavour. This is the one you want for putting on bread & butter or for baking sweets.
Blackstrap Molasses is a "bold, nutrient-rich molasses" which is darker in colour and has a much stronger flavour. This is the one you want if you're making a savory recipe, and is also used as a gentle iron supplement (One tablespoon contains roughly 20% of the recommended daily value!) Try mixing a teaspoon at a time into your coffee or tea, or in hot water with a bit of lemon.
Cooking Molasses is a blend of Fancy and Blackstrap, meant for, well, cooking. Use this one in your baked beans if you want to make them just a bit less sweet.
Most surveys that measure financial literacy focus on teenagers, and the results are always grim.
In research by the nonprofit Jump$tart Coalition, which promotes personal finance education, the average high school student correctly answered just 48.3% of the questions covering money basics in 2008. That was down from 57.3% a decade earlier, but even that score was hardly distinguishing -- anything less than 60% counts as an F.
A 2005 poll by Harris Interactive for the National Council on Economic Education showed that adults aren't that much savvier.
While teens on average scored a 53 (another F) on a quiz testing knowledge of basic economic and personal-finance concepts, the grownups' average score was just 70 (a C).
In addition:
More than one-quarter of adults failed the quiz.
Women were far more likely to fail than men; 42% scored an F, compared with 15% of men.
Men were much more likely than women to get an A or B on the test (51% compared with 17%).
If it makes you female readers feel any better, there are also lots of studies out there showing that we're better investors than men -- once we get around to investing.
But the fact remains that there's a heck of a lot of financial ignorance going around, and financial ignorance is costly. Women may have even more to lose than men, since we tend to earn less, are more likely to have interrupted careers and live longer, which means we have more time to suffer from our mistakes.
My email box and Facebook page bear testimony to the daily cost of financial illiteracy: men and women who are overwhelmed by debt or have no savings, or don't invest for retirement, or fall for investment scams, or think we can drive gas prices down by not buying fuel for a day.
Understanding economics and personal finance doesn't mean you won't make mistakes or face financial disasters. But you can lessen the odds and repair the damage faster if you know the rules of the game.
Here are the economic and financial concepts I wish everybody knew:
The difference between needs and wants
Our actual needs are pretty limited: food, shelter, clothing, companionship. Just about everything else is a "want," and our wants are essentially endless. Because our resources are limited (see "scarcity," below), we have to make choices about which wants to fulfill.
Also, the way we fulfill our needs involves a lot of choice. Shelter, for example, can be a bed at a mission for the homeless or a $125 million mansion. Our food choices offer a similar range, from beans and tap water consumed at home to steak and Dom Perignon at an exclusive restaurant.
I've discovered many people believe they have to spend money in certain ways or in certain amounts, when in reality their spending is a choice -- or is at least based on choices they made earlier. If you're facing a monster mortgage payment, for example, it's because you chose to buy that home and selected that particular mortgage.
Taking responsibility for our choices can be scary, but it should also be empowering. After all, if you have choices, you're not just a victim of circumstance.
Scarcity makes your choices for you
It's lovely to believe in a world of endless abundance, but the reality is that at any given point in time, our resources have limits. Whether it's oil in the ground, our time here on Earth or the cash in our pockets, there's only so much available to be spent.
People who ignore this reality are the ones who run out of paycheck before they run out of month, or who extend their unsustainable spending by relying on credit cards, home equity loans and other reckless borrowing. Their refusal to make the sometimes-hard choices needed to responsibly manage money means that they will have even fewer choices in the future. The money they spend on stuff and on interest can't be invested in other goals, like retirement, so odds are pretty good they'll wind up old and broke.
The pointlessness of the hedonic treadmill
This isn't the latest workout device at your gym. The hedonic treadmill means that we quickly adjust to improved circumstances. A raise at work or a new possession may make us happy for a little while, but we soon take our situation for granted. Our expectations continue to rise: If only I could get another raise, or a better car, or a bigger house. Should those expectations be satisfied, again we'd adjust and quickly want more.
This has a lot of implications for personal finance and the economy, but here's something to consider: Maybe we need to look beyond our wallets for true happiness.
Every money decision has a cost of its own
"Opportunity cost," very simply, means what we give up to get something else. In every choice, there's an opportunity cost. If you decide to go to college, for example, you're giving up the income you could have earned by working full-time during those years plus whatever you could have purchased with the money used to attend school. You also may take on loans to pay for school, which will have to be paid back with future income that could have gone for other purposes.
The good news, of course, is that even with opportunity costs, college is a slam-dunk for most people. The average college graduate makes about 70% more over his or her lifetime than someone who stops with a high school diploma.
If, however, you train for a career that has little demand and wind up making the same amount as a high school grad or trailing huge amounts of student loan debt you can never repay, you may regret the money spent on school and the foregone income.
Understanding that our choices have opportunity costs, and examining what those costs are, should help us make better economic decisions.
Why supply and demand rule
For the most part, prices are set by the interaction between supply and demand. If demand for something suddenly shoots up and the available supply of that something doesn't change, then prices will increase. If demand drops or supply increases, prices typically fall.
Here's an example. Say rock star Brittany Amber Tiffany is photographed wearing a cap with the brand name of a Midwestern seed company. Suddenly, all her fans and half the people reading Us magazine decide they, too, need the Midwestern seed company's hat. The farm supply companies that stock these hats figure out a good thing when they see it, and double, then triple, the price. The hat actually worn by Brittany sells for a mint on eBay, earning a notice in mainstream newspapers and furthering the craze.
The Midwestern seed company wants a piece of this action and starts cranking out hats by the ton. Suddenly you can find one in every Target and Wal-Mart. The retailers can no longer command a premium for having a rare item, thanks to the increase in supply. In fact, the hats start seeming a heck of a lot less cool, lowering demand; Target and Wal-Mart slash the price still further to get rid of their unwanted supply.
The interplay of supply and demand is also why one-day gas boycotts don't work. Even if a lot of people participated, overall demand wouldn't change; the boycotters would likely gas up before or after the selected day. Only a big increase in supply or a sustained decline in demand is likely to affect prices.
Supply and demand have a lot to do with our incomes as well. If we have rare skills that are in high demand by employers, we can negotiate higher pay. If, on the other hand, a lot of people can do what we do or the employer need for what we do is limited, our incomes are likely to be stunted.
Throw no good money after bad
"Sunk costs" are expenses that have already been incurred and can't be recovered to any appreciable extent. "Sunk cost fallacy" means an irrational belief that a further investment of time, money or effort will somehow resurrect the value that's already disappeared.
A classic example is the investor whose stock has plunged because the prospects of the company have worsened. The investor wouldn't buy the same stock today, yet continues to hang on to the shares rather than sell them and take the loss. The investor may offer the excuse that he or she wants to at least "break even" before selling, but of course the stock market doesn't care about the investor getting the money back, and all the wishing in the world won't bring the stock price back up.
By hanging on to the shares, the investor is giving up the opportunity to invest elsewhere at a profit -- an opportunity cost.
The role risk plays Every human endeavor carries some risk, and investments are no exception. What differs is the amount and type of risk and how you're compensated for taking it.
The 30-day Treasury bill, for example, is one of the "safest" investments around if you're solely concerned with getting back your original investment. The T-bill is backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government. But the average return on a 30-day T-bill over the past 80 years is just 3.7%, according to Ibbotson Associates. That's just above the historical 3% inflation rate for the same period; if you factor in taxes, you probably lost money.
Large-company stocks, by contrast, returned an average 10.4% annually during the same period. That handily beats inflation, but as everyone who has invested in the past decade knows, stocks aren't a sure thing. There were plenty of years along the way that the market for large-company stocks dived, and if you invested all your money in a single stock -- say, Enron -- you could have been wiped out. That's called market risk.
Here's what you should take away: You'll almost certainly need to take some market risk if you want to grow your wealth and beat inflation over time. But you should also be wary of anyone who "guarantees" a high return on an investment. If you're earning much more than the going rate on a T-bill, you're taking some risk, and you should understand that risk before proceeding.
The time value of money
This boils down to a relatively simple proposition: that the dollar I get today is worth more than a dollar I'm promised sometime in the future.
There are several reasons for this. One is the "bird in the hand" reality: The dollar I get today is real, but the dollar I'm promised in the future likely will be worth less (because of inflation), or I might not get it at all (you might renege on your promise to give it to me, or die, or cease operations if you're an employer or business). Also, the dollar I get today can be invested to create more dollars in the future.
Turn this around, and you'll see why lenders charge interest for loaning money -- and why the interest rate depends on your creditworthiness. Lenders want to be compensated for the erosion in their dollars due to inflation, and for the risk of lending money to you.
The higher the perceived rate of future inflation and the more lenders doubt your promise to pay the money back, the more interest they'll charge to compensate for the risk.
The miracle of compound interest
This is a concept best illustrated by example. Let's say I give you a penny today, and promise to double the amount every day for a full month. How much money would I be giving you on the 31st day?
The answer: $10.7 million.
Each day, the "interest" I paid you the previous day earns more interest. At the beginning, the amounts are nominal, but by the end we're talking big bucks.
Of course, no one's going to double your money every day. But this concept explains how people who save relatively small amounts over the years can build rather substantial nest eggs. After a few decades, their actual contributions represent only a small part of their burgeoning wealth -- it's mostly their returns that are earning returns.
But this also illustrates how debts can quickly balloon out of control. If you're paying interest, rather than incurring it, and you're not diligent about paying off the finance charges in full every month, the unpaid amount will incur additional interest charges, increasing the total amount that you owe. This is why so many families who incur credit card debt eventually find themselves in trouble as the amounts they owe explode past their ability to pay.
There are plenty more nifty and helpful money concepts, but these nine are among my favorites.
Liz Weston is the Web's most-read personal-finance writer. She is the author of several books, most recently "The 10 Commandments of Money: Survive and Thrive in the New Economy" (find it on Bing). Weston's award-winning columns appear every Monday and Thursday, exclusively on MSN Money. Click here to find Weston's most recent articles.
I keep seeing posts in my newsfeed lately about the benefits of beans - besides the economic benefits, I've been seeing posts about how beans can improve your cholesterol level, reduce inflammation, lower your blood pressure, balance your blood sugar, help with weight loss, and even help with perimenopause symptoms. I'm a little wary of Instagram trends posing as health advice, so I did some reading. Turns out there's actual science behind it.
A 12-week study of 72 people with prediabetes randomly assigned each participant to eat either 1 cup of black beans, chickpeas or rice (control) for 12 weeks. Cholesterol, inflammation, and blood sugar, and glucose tolerance were tracked. Although glucose metabolism was unaffected, the group consuming chickpeas saw their cholesterol drop from an average of 200.4 milligrams per deciliter at the beginning of the study to 185.8 milligrams per deciliter. For those eating black beans, the average level of pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-6 — a marker of inflammation — significantly decreased from 2.57 picograms per milliliter to 1.88 picograms per milliliter. This study was presented at Nutrition 2025 by Morganne Smith, a doctoral candidate at Illinois Institute of Technology.
A 4-week study, reported in 2021, found that daily consumption of 1 cup of canned beans decreased total cholesterol by 5.46% and LDL cholesterol by 8.08% in adults with elevated LDL cholesterol. In this study, participants consumed a variety of bean types.
And another study, reported in 2020, found that consumption of black beans helped with insulin resistance by modifying gut microbiota and improving glucose response.
As for the perimenopause angle, some of that seems like it might be more anecdotal. Having said that, though, eating beans every day will naturally boost your intake of iron, magnesium, vitamin B, fiber, protein, and phytoestrogens - and all of those are beneficial!
If you're on Instagram, you might already have seen posts by My Healthy Dish, GenXTaste, or Kelly Ann Gorman, as #beantok has been going a bit viral. (Who'd have thought?!) Based on some of their posts, I have been trying to incorporate beans into my daily diet and have managed most days. Here are a few quick ideas for single-serving meals, if you'd like to do the same but don't want complicated recipes! They won't satisfy any gourmands out there, but they come together quickly for easy and economical meals. (You can also literally add black beans or chickpease to just about any salad mix and it will work out.)
Chickpea Tuna Salad
1 can flaked tuna 1 can chickpeas chopped cucumber chopped tomato chopped red onion chopped green apple lemon or lime juice drizzle of olive oil salt & pepper to taste
Mix everything together in the amounts that you prefer. Add some mayo if you wish, instead of the oil. Serve as is, or on lettuce, or in pita pockets.
Easy Black Bean Quesadilla
2 small tortillas 1 cup black beans taco or similar seasoning shredded cheese
Mix 1 cup of black beans with taco seasoning. Place a small tortilla in a lightly greased hot frying pan. Spread the beans on top and sprinkle generously with shredded cheese. Place another tortilla on top. Flip carefully when the bottom tortilla is starting to get browned. (Tip - use this strategy to flip it using a plate to avoid mess!) Cut into triangles and serve with salsa.
Alternatively, do the same as above but use half a cup of beans per tortilla, and fold each tortilla in half over the beans instead of making it a full circle.
Easy Chickpea Wrap
1 large tortilla 1 cup chick peas lettuce leaves shredded cheese seasoning of your choice
Mix 1 cup of chickpeas with your preferred seasoning. (I like to do finely chopped onion and tomato, harissa paste, and a little bit of cayenne.) Heat through. Lay out the tortilla, place the lettuce leaves in it, spread the chickpeas on top, then sprinkle with cheese. Fold up the bottom of the tortilla then wrap gently but tightly.
Minestrone Soup
1 can low-sodium minestrone or vegetable soup 1 can kidney beans
Boost the bean content of any canned soup by simply adding a can of beans to it. I usually do this by adding kidney beans to vegetable or minestrone, but some other ideas could be adding white beans to cream soups or chicken noodle, or adding chickpeas to canned chili.
Quick Chickpea Curry
1 can chickpeas onion chopped or shredded carrot, frozen peas, and/or baby potatoes (optional) yellow curry powder salt & pepper chicken broth or cream
Mix whichever vegetables you're using in a frying pan with a bit of oil or butter. When soft, add beans and seasonings and mix well. Add a small amount of broth or cream, to your preference. Heat through. Serve with naan and/or rice.
When Frozen 2 came out in November 2019, I took my girls to it. Anna's song in that film, "The Next Right Thing," probably wasn't inspired by Elisabeth Elliot, but that's what it made me think of. It also made me cry right there in the theatre, but that's a different thing.
"Do The Next Thing” by Elisabeth Elliot
When I went back to my jungle station after the death of my first husband, Jim Elliot, I was faced with many confusions and uncertainties. I had a good many new roles, besides that of being a single parent and a widow. I was alone on a jungle station that Jim and I had manned together. I had to learn to do all kinds of things, which I was not trained or prepared in any way to do. It was a great help to me simply to do the next thing.
Have you had the experience of feeling as if you’ve got far too many burdens to bear, far too many people to take care of, far too many things on your list to do? You just can’t possibly do it, and you get in a panic and you just want to sit down and collapse in a pile and feel sorry for yourself.
Well, I’ve felt that way a good many times in my life, and I go back over and over again to an old Saxon legend, which I’m told is carved in an old English parson somewhere by the sea. I don’t know where this is. But this is a poem which was written about that legend. The legend is “Do the next thing.” And it’s spelled in what I suppose is Saxon spelling. “D-O-E” for “do,” “the,” and then next, “N-E-X-T.” “Thing”-“T-H-Y-N-G-E.”
The poem says, “Do it immediately, do it with prayer, do it reliantly, casting all care. Do it with reverence, tracing His hand who placed it before thee with earnest command. Stayed on omnipotence, safe ‘neath His wing, leave all resultings, do the next thing.” That is a wonderfully saving truth. Just do the next thing.
So I went back to my station, took my ten-month-old baby, tried to take each duty quietly as the will of God for the moment. One of the very first duties that faced me was what in the world I was going to do about the church. We had 50 newly baptized believers, Christians, who a year before had not been Christians. Jim Elliot had been teaching them daily and preaching on Sundays. Jim Elliot was not there anymore. There was no other male missionary.
Now I happen to be a very firm believer in men taking the leadership in church. I believe that God has clearly defined the positions of authority in both the home and the church as belonging to men. So whether you agree with me on that or not, let me just say that I get my ideas from the Scriptures and that’s where I had to start when I got back to my little jungle station. I was not going to run that church. But I was literally the only person around who had the Scriptures. There was nobody else that could teach those believers. So what was I to do?
One of the last things that Jim had said to me when I said to him before he left, “What will I do if you don’t come back?” was “You must teach the believers.” So I took two of the young men that Jim had picked out as potential leaders in the church. I explained to them that it was not my job to be the head of the church. It was their job to take responsibility. I said, “I’m here to help you.”
So on Saturday afternoon, each week after that time, I would call one or the other of these men to my house. We would sit down together, translate a few simple verses from Spanish and Greek and English and whatever else I could draw on into Quichua. Then these men would get up and preach the sermon, which I had helped them make an outline for. I would draw out of them their own understanding of the Scriptures and try to get them to give me some illustrations from their jungle experience.
They would get up and preach-not a very good sermon. I could have done a better job. But I felt that it was not my job to take over the church simply because I was competent to do it. It was my job to encourage these men so that they would become competent.
Then there was the question of a diesel motor. What did I know about diesel generators? We had one for electricity, which we used sometimes in the evenings for a couple of hours. So I had to figure out how to run the diesel motor. I had to figure out how to keep the airstrip clean. I had to pay about 40 Indians swinging machetes to do that, which made me their foreman. I’d never been anybody’s foreman before.
I was teaching a women’s literacy class. We had a boy’s school taught by an Ecuadorian teacher that I had to sort of supervise and encourage and pay and do various things that I was not used to doing. I had the medical work. I had the translation of the Book of Luke, which Jim and I had finished only in rough draft when he was killed. I was going to carry on with that, because, as I said, there were no Scriptures in Quichua. If the church was to grow, they had to have spiritual food. So I went ahead with the translation of Luke.
The grass in the jungle grows unbelievably fast, so I always having to hire people to cut the grass, to clean out the pineapple bed, to cut the branches away from the trail between my house and the airstrip. And I tried to decide what to do about a hydroelectric system that Jim had just begun to put in. I didn’t know whether I should try to finish that or forget it.
You can imagine how tempted I was to just plunk myself down and say, “There is no way I can do this.” I wanted to sink into despair and helplessness. Then I remembered that old Saxon legend, “Do the next thing.”
I remembered a verse that God had given to me before I went to Ecuador in Isaiah 50:7: “The Lord God will help me; therefore, shall I not be confounded. Therefore, have I set my face like a flint and I know that I shall not be ashamed.”
What is the next thing for you to do? Small duties, perhaps? Jobs that nobody will notice as long as you do them? A dirty job that you would get out of if you could have your own preferences? Are you asked to take some great responsibility, which you really don’t feel qualified to do? You don’t have to do the whole thing right this minute, do you? I can tell you one thing that you do have to do right this minute. It’s the one thing that is required of all of us every minute of every day. Trust in the living God.
Now what is the next thing? Well, perhaps it’s to get yourself organized. Maybe you need to clean off your desk, if you have a desk job that needs to be done. Maybe you need to clean out your kitchen drawers, if you’re going to do your kitchen work more efficiently. Maybe you need to organize the children’s clothes.
I know what an enormous job that is for Valerie, my daughter. All of a sudden, the children are coming out saying, “I can’t wear this. This is too short or this is too long or this doesn’t fit me anymore.” What do you do with those things? If you’re going to save them for the next child, you’ve got to put them somewhere where you can find them. So you just do that one thing. Somehow or other, the peace of God descends upon us when we take things calmly, peacefully and humbly as the next thing that God has assigned us to do.
About three years ago, I think it was, my daughter and her husband were going away for a weekend and taking with them the nursing baby. The baby was just a few weeks or months old. Val and Walt decided to go off for a weekend. They asked me if I could stay with the other children. I was delighted. I live on the other side of the continent from my children and grandchildren, and I was delighted for the opportunity.
So I stayed with them. In the first day, I don’t remember ever being so busy in my life. I mean, it was “Granny this” and “Granny that” and “Granny, will you read us a story?” and “Granny, can we have some more juice?” and “Granny, would you pull my pants up?” “Granny, would you pull my pants down?” “Granny, can we have some juice?” “Granny, can we go outside?” “Granny, what time is supper?” Until I really thought I would go mad.
Well, my dear sweet daughter had the good sense to call me that evening. She said, “Well, Mama, how are you doing?” I said, “Wonderfully, Val.” And then I said, “But I’m not sure I can make it through the next three days.” Then I assured her that her children were wonderful children. They’re not disobedient. They’re not unruly. Everything was going along really very well, when you think of the way some households are run. But I said, “I keep thinking, ‘Valerie’s got a baby to nurse. That takes about six hours a day. How does she do it?’ So tell me, Val, how do you do it?”
She laughed and she said, “Well, Mama, I’ll tell you how. I do what you told me years ago to do. Do the next thing. Don’t sit down and think of all the things you have to do. That will kill you. It’s overwhelming. It’s daunting if you think of all the things that are involved in a task. Just pick up the next thing.”
I find this even in the Scriptures. Tucked in the back of the Book of Mark, following the story of the Crucifixion, we read this lovely little story. Mark 15:42: “By this time, evening had come. And as it was preparation day (that is, the day before the Sabbath), Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the Council, a man who looked forward to the kingdom of God, bravely went into Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Pilate was surprised to hear that He was already dead, so he sent for the centurion and asked him whether it was long since He died. When he heard the centurion’s report, he gave Joseph leave to take the dead body. So Joseph bought a linen sheet, took Him down from the cross, wrapped Him in the sheet and laid Him in a tomb cut out of the rock and rolled a stone against the entrance.”
Can’t you imagine the disciples and Mary and Martha and the other bewildered women, sitting in absolute dejection and perplexity when their Lord and Master and King had just died? They couldn’t think of one single thing to do. Here came this godly man, who looked forward to the kingdom of God, who bravely went in and asked for the body of Jesus. He could think of one thing to do. He did the next thing. That must have been a tremendous cheer and encouragement to those discouraged people.”
This is one baking ingredient that I don't often have on hand, and being able to substitute saves me a trip to the store.
Sweetened Condensed Milk
Mix in a blender until thickened:
1 cup dry nonfat milk powder
1/2 cup boiling water
2/3 cup sugar
3 tablespoons reduced-fat margarine, melted
Pinch of salt
Store in a tightly covered container in the refrigerator.
This recipe yields the same amount as 1 can of Eagle Brand milk and can be used in any recipe calling for it.
Safety note: Putting boiling water into your blender and sealing it shut may cause the lid to pop off! Take out the centre cap, put a cloth over top to catch splatters, hold the lid down, and blend at a low speed.
If you don't have powdered milk, try this alternative recipe, which is made on the stovetop:
2 cups whole milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 to 3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Combine the milk, salt, and sugar in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring to a gentle simmer, whisking until the sugar is dissolved. Reduce the heat and stop stirring. Simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally to scrape the bottom of the pan, 30-45 minutes until reduced by half.
Tips: Continuing to whisk after reducing the heat may create crystals. If you see the milk starting to foam, lower the heat immediately to prevent burning or boiling over.
"While it may not be possible to cut back immediately on house or car payments or other expenses, you can begin to economize on good food today."
I would like to preface this post with this. Some of this is tongue-in-cheek, some of it is heartfelt, and none of it is meant to look down on anyone who chooses not to homeschool (or can't). I don't believe that there is only one right way to educate your kids, but I do believe that it is good and right to recognize and celebrate the ways your family benefits from the choice you make.
Our Top 10 Reasons for Homeschooling
Letting them be little for longer. I will never forget the day I was shopping with my seven-year-old, and she had one of her baby dolls with her. The cashier commented on how nice, and how uncommon, it was to see a girl her age still playing with dolls. She was seven.
If you enroll your children in the local school instead, you will have to have them all up, dressed, fed, and either outside for the bus or dropped off on time, every weekday morning, with all of their books and supplies. (I do wonder sometimes how some people manage that.)
No longer being able to schedule extracurriculars during the day, but having to fight for after-school and evening time slots. (It was a gift being able to schedule all of our music lessons and outings during school hours!)
School is expensive! Our friends spent more per year to send their kids to public school than we ever spent on homeschooling. Bus fees, school fees, hot lunch fees, field trip fees, band fees, club fees, drama fees, school supplies from a specific list, indoor shoes, outdoor shoes, new clothes, gym clothes...
If you are already homeschooling and you stop, you will have to come up with how to answer comments like, "I knew that wouldn't work out," or, "Oh good, now your kids can be normal!"
Avoiding drama. I hear a lot of stories from the kids I tutor, and the amount of bullying, conflict, stress, and anxiety that the second-graders share with me is really sad.
Fewer sick days. We still had plenty of them because we were involved with many outside activities and naturally picked things up, but we never had to suffer through the weeks of back-to-back illness that plagued all of the families around us. And being able to take more time to rest probably helped us get through those illnesses faster.
Choice. We got to choose what to read, where to study, who to spend time with, when to schedule our learning time, and whether to even do academics on a given day. Some days are just better spent walking through a museum, or going to the beach, or baking, or playing Minecraft with friends.
Field trips! It has genuinely been fun to plan regular outings, sometimes alone and sometimes with friends, visiting everything from local banks to emergency services to farms to bakeries. We also intentionally scheduled volunteering at least one day per week, whether at an animal shelter or a church program or a seniors' residence, and that has become a mindset as they have grown.
Influence. Which is really reason #1. When my kids were very small, I read a blog post that said, "If you genuinely want to be the primary influence in your kids' lives, you can't send them away for 8 hours a day, five days a week."
This is a re-post of my most popular post ever, which is now 15 years old! I thought it should see the light of day again, so here it is:
This is a traditional dish, local to Southwestern Nova Scotia and pretty much nowhere else. I suppose it comes from the days of living off the land and needing to stretch every penny til it hurts and use up every scrap of meat. It's a dish that takes some getting used to, both in the making of it and in the eating. Some people simply abhor it no matter what, some love it in any form, and then there are the rest, like me, who like it but only if the texture is just so. Some people like to make it very soft, almost soupy, and others prefer it to be thick enough to cut into wedges. Try the recipe once or twice, try the different methods and feel free to put your own spin on it.
Rapure is an excellent way to use up leftover turkey or to take full advantage of a good price on potatoes and meat.
Depending how much rapure you want to make, you must decide for yourself how much chicken & potato to use. To make a large roasting pan full, you will need about 30 lbs of potatoes and two chickens. Scale it down accordingly - for reference, 5 lbs of potatoes will make just enough to serve two adults for supper. You will also need about 1/4 to 1/2 lb of salt pork, onions, carrots, celery, summer savory, chicken bouillon, and pepper. In addition to, or instead of, chicken you can use cooked and shredded pork or beef roast, wild game, or even clams & scallops! (I do suggest using a disposable foil roasting pan for this as it makes a crust around the edge that is a real chore to remove.) Now, without further ado...
"Rapure", aka Acadian Rappie Pie
First, you need to make a good chicken broth. You can do this two ways. Here are the directions from the Food Network:
In a roasting pan, roast chicken pieces until golden brown, approximately 1 hour. Remove chicken from the pan and set aside. Deglaze pan with approximately 1 cup of water by scraping the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon to lift up the brown bits. Transfer liquid to a large stockpot. Once chicken has cooled, separate the meat from the skin and bone and set aside in a bowl. Add bone and skin to stockpot. Pour 2 gallons water into the pot along with unpeeled onions, carrots, and celery. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and let simmer for 2 hours, covered. Drain fat, bones, and vegetables with cone strainer from the broth into a bowl and return strained broth to stockpot. Add peeled onion, salt, and pepper, to taste. Simmer for another 30 minutes or until onions are tender. Keep warm.
The above method is probably more flavorful, but if you want to skip the roasting step your other option is:
Put a whole lot of chicken pieces (fresh or frozen) in a large pot. Fill with water to cover. Add two carrots, two stalks of celery and one onion, all cut into chunks. Also add some summer savory to the water, and if you like, add a cube or two of chicken bouillon powder. Bring to a boil and keep on a simmer for 2-3 hours until the chicken is falling off the bones. Scoop the chicken out onto a plate, then pour the liquid & veggies through a colander into a large bowl or pot. Discard the vegetables. Set the broth aside and keep it warm, or if you are doing this a day ahead (not a bad idea), cool and refrigerate. When the chicken has cooled enough to handle, separate the meat from the bones and skin, shred it coarsely and set aside (or refrigerate).
(If need be you could also use a packaged broth or make one from a mix, if you already have shredded meat to use, but the flavour won't really be the same.)
Now, to move on to the potatoes. If you live in Nova Scotia, you can buy frozen bags of rappie pie mix. Way easy. If you don't, then you need to start with actual potatoes.
The "real" way to do this: Grate potatoes with a hand grater. Scoop potato mush into cheesecloth and squeeze until all the liquid is removed. (Apparently it works to securely tie up the potato pulp in cheesecloth and put that inside a clean pillowcase, then run the whole thing through the spin cycle on a washing machine. I didn't dare.) Do not discard liquid until you have measured its volume. Place potato pulp into a large mixing bowl. While slowly stirring with a wooden spoon, add hot chicken broth measured to about the same volume as the discarded potato starch liquid. Potato mixture consistency is correct when the wooden spoon just slightly falls over when made to stand up in the mix. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
If you'd like to put some of your 'kitchen servants' to use, you can modify the above... the texture won't be quite the same so try it both ways and see what you prefer.
Peel and chop potatoes into small chunks and run through a juicer. Collect the liquid and do not discard. (If your collection container gets full, pour it out into something bigger.) When the juicer gets full, scoop potato mush into cheesecloth and squeeze until any remaining liquid is removed, collecting the liquid in the same container as the rest. (Don't worry about small chunks or slices that have come through the juicer, but if there are large pieces feed them back through.) Continue until you have "juiced" all the potatoes. Let the liquid set for about ten minutes until the starch has settled. Measure the liquid for its volume, excluding the starch on the bottom and the foam on top. Discard liquid but keep the solid starch. Place potato pulp into the large bowl of your electric mixer. While running the mixer on slow speed, slowly add hot chicken broth measured to about 3/4 of the same volume as the collected potato starch liquid. Also add back the solid starch that settled out of the liquid you collected, and season with pepper to taste (there should already be plenty of salt if you have used salt pork & bouillon). Continue to mix until there are no lumps and, as above, a wooden spoon just slightly falls over when made to stand up in the mix.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
Peel and chop one onion.
Slice salt pork. In a saute pan, fry the salt pork just to render the fat, remove salt pork, and set aside. Add the rendered fat and a several pieces of salt pork to the bottom of the roasting pan.
(Note here re: salt pork. It is not all the same. Some of it is literally coated with salt. This kind needs to be rinsed off and should be soaked overnight and the water discarded before using. Otherwise you will have a VERY salty rapure!)
Add a 1-inch layer of potato mixture on top of the fat, then add a layer of meat and chopped onion. Repeat process until last layer of potato mixture is on top. Add a few salt pork strips to the top of your potato pie, or strips of bacon if you like. Bake for 2 hours until a brown crust has formed. Dot the surface with chunks of butter and return to the oven for about one more hour.
Serve hot with butter, salt & pepper, molasses, and a big stack of freshly made molasses brown bread. Enjoy!
Leftover Rappie Pie will refrigerate well for a few days. It will also freeze but if you freeze it you should re-heat it in a frying pan or the oven, NOT in the microwave or it will have a watery texture.
Quite possibly the easiest meatball recipe ever - when I have brought these to pot luck dinners, there have never been leftovers. These are good served with rice, or as an appetizer on their own. I like to make them in the slow cooker because I can just bring the whole thing along to the meal, but if you're making it for a meal at home you can also make them on the stovetop or in the oven.
Ingredients:
1 bag of frozen precooked meatballs, about 1 to 1.5 kg
1 bottle (or 2 cups) chili sauce
1 jar (or 2 cups) concord grape jelly
Slow Cooker Directions:
Whisk the chili sauce and jelly together til smooth. Put the meatballs in a large crockpot, pour the sauce mixture over, stir to coat. Cook on high for 1 to 2 hours, then keep warm.
Optional extra step, but a good one - cook the meatballs first in the oven for 10 minutes to brown them just a little.
Quicker Prep:
Bake or pan-fry the meatballs according to package instructions.
Whisk the chili sauce and jelly together in a saucepan until smooth, and heat through.
These turned out really good. They have a nice light flavor and are soooooo soft and puffy. I feel like they need to have something added to them... maybe a nice light icing. :)
Note: I found that in our oven, 6-1/2 minutes was good. So watch them closely!!
Soft White Cookies
1 cup shortening 1 1/2 cups sugar 2 eggs 1 tsp vanilla 1 cup buttermilk (I didn't have any so I used 1 cup of milk + 1 tbsp vinegar) 4 cups flour 4 1/2 tsp baking powder 1 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp salt
Cream shortening and sugar, add eggs, vanilla and beat well. Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and stir in alternately with the buttermilk into the creamed mixture until it forms a soft ball. It may still be a bit sticky but that's okay, cover bowl with plastic wrap and put in fridge for an hour or more. This way the dough is easier to handle and you don't need as much flour to roll out. Roll out to 1/4 - 1/2" thick. Cut with cookie cutter and place on pans. Bake at 375 for about 9 min.
Back to school season is coming, and with it, something that has always made me cringe: the celebrating of getting the kids out of the house. Remember the Staples commercial, "the most wonderful time of the year"? I know it was meant to be funny, but I hated that ad so, SO, much.
How many times I have heard some variation of, "I can't wait until you are your teacher's problem again!" hissed at fidgety kids being dragged along on school shopping trips, where everyone is frustrated trying to find obscure school supplies from lists that were likely made online and have no resemblance to what's available in the local store, and everything costs more than it should.
But while I usually just feel a little disheartened and also a little bit sympathetic to everyone involved, it was trumped by an offhand comment from an adult caregiver (not the parent): "Oh, don't worry, they are used to being yelled at."
The kids in question were delightful little humans, who I was acquainted with. I can't imagine them ever behaving in a way that would merit enough yelling for them to be "used to it". I wanted to say, "You're kidding, right? That's got to be a joke," but I was tongue-tied, while another adult just laughed awkwardly. None of us had the right words in the moment.
I kind of believe it was meant as a joke, but still... please, PLEASE, think about the power of your words. Your kids do hear you, and they internalize their own interpretation of what you say.
This week's comments from an online personality brought that scene back to mind and made me realize that it has not gotten any better - apparently, at least in some circles, it's gotten so much worse.
If we imagine other adults speaking about us the way we have normalized mothers speaking of their children, or having the same expectations of us that we have of children, maybe we would pause for just a moment and rethink it?
I wanted to say, "You're kidding, right? That's got to be a joke," but I was tongue-tied, while another adult just laughed awkwardly. None of us had the right words in the moment.