homelifemay2001

Heartchange 30 April - 13 May 2001

Dear Sisters,

We have been preparing for a mother's day dinner at our
church. Each of us were assigned little tasks, so that we
could pool together and create an enjoyable evening for all.
One of our tasks was to make table runners. We made these
from green gingham material backed with white felt.   We cut
them in long strips, with pointed ends. They were to be
placed centrally on the dinner tables. A sister from church
had to make potpourri pies for the centrepieces, to be
flanked by coordinating candles. She came over to our house
and we had a day of creating. The potpourri pies turned out
so well and looked so pretty. Here is the 'recipe':

Supplies:

Aluminium 9" pie dishes
1 yard tan felt material
Nylon netting (one square yard will make nine pies)
4 1/2 cups of apple, peach or cinnamon potpourri
Pre-gathered lace ~ approximately 3/4" wide ~ (30" length
for each pie)
Ribbon for small bows
Hot glue gun

Procedures for Each Pie:

Cut 10 strips of felt, 3/4" x 9" long for each pie, using
pinking shears.
Cut a circle of nylon net the size of the pan, using the
upside down pan as a pattern

Assembly:

Fill the pie pan with potpourri. Centre the circle of nylon
net over the potpourri. Glue the net to the entire edge of
the pan.
Centre one tan strip horizontally on top of the potpourri
and netting. Evenly space two felt strips horizontally
above the centred strip. Space two felt strips below the
centred strip. Glue one side of each strip at the edge of
the pan.

Repeat the above process with five felt strips, but place
them vertically. Glue only one side down to allow freedom
to weave the strips. Weave the strips in and out to form a
lattice. Pull strips reasonable tight and glue the loose
end. Trim close along the edge of the pan with sharp
scissors. Glue the pre-gathered lace around the edge,
covering the netting and the felt edges. Make a ribbon bow
and glue it to one side.

As our contribution to the mothers day dinner, we were
assigned 2 chickens and a dish of green beans to cook. We
almost always cook from scratch, however, I'm no fool ~ ha ~
when it comes to saving time and money, it paid for us to
buy ready-cooked chickens for our contribution to the
dinner. We bought the barbecued chickens ready cut up into
eighths. The green beans were sliced using our food
processor. (Because green beans are much nicer fresh, I
took the whole pot of them with us to the church. I just
added 4 cloves of chopped garlic, lemon juice and melted
butter with a little water. I cooked this over high heat,
tossing the green beans in the liquid. I'm happy to report
that the beans retained their 'el-dente' crispness and good
colour. Had I cooked the beans at home, I know they would
have gone a limp greeny-grey).

On the subject of cooking, we were delighted to find a
genuine Australian cookbook at our local library (since our
arrival here in Australia, we have never known what 'true
Australian' fare is, as this is a multi-cultural land, with
so many enticing food recipes). The title of the book is
"Classic Australian Cakes" by Alice May. Here is the
introduction ~ I just love books like this:

"Classic Cakes is a tribute to the great home cooking of our
mothers and grandmothers. Once, the kitchen was the only
place to be. There was always the smell of freshly baked
cakes in the air. Hot, sweet cakes would emerge from the
oven and be left to cool on wire racks awaiting a generous
coating of icing. Everyday was cake day. There was always
a little something in the cupboard in case friends dropped
by or just to have with a nice cup of tea. The cooking was
honest, sincere and simple. This book reminds us of home,
heart and hearth and of gentler times when life was less
chaotic."

And, for your enjoyment of trying something perhaps new to
you:

LAMINGTONS

125g (4 1/2 oz) plain (all purpose) flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
125g (4 1/2 oz) butter
185g (6 1/2 oz) sugar
4 eggs
Icing:
500g (1 lb 1 oz) icing sugar
50g (2 oz) plain chocolate
2 1/2 tablespoons water
vanilla

Preheat oven to 180 degrees (350 deg F). Lightly grease
with butter a 20cm x 20 cm (8 in x 8 in) square cake pan and
line with baking parchment. Sift flour with the baking
powder.
Beat the butter and sugar until creamy, light and fluffy.
Add the eggs, one at a time, beating very well after each
one is added.
Gently fold into creamed mixture the sifted flour. Pour the
mixture into a prepared pan. Bake until golden brown and
the sides are shrinking away from the pan. Cool. When
cool, cut into square blocks. Slice each block into three
slices and fill with raspberry jam.
Sift the icing sugar and grate the chocolate. Put the sugar
and chocolate in a saucepan with the water. Heat, stirring
all the time, but do not allow to boil. When it is quite
liquid, add the vanilla. Remove from heat.
To coat the blocks with chocolate icing secure them with a
fork or skewer, then dip them into the icing, coating them
on all sides. Drain off excess icing and immediately roll
the blocks in a large dish of desiccated coconut. Allow to
dry before storing.

TIP: Add eggs gradually to beaten butter and sugar; if added
too quickly the mixture will curdle and the cake will be
coarse. If eggs start to curdle, immediately add a little
flour.

I shared with you recently about a health problem. Part of
that problem was being constipated. I drank lots and lots
of water, and took a tablespoon full of flaxseed (linseed)
oil and I also ate a couple of apples. By the end of the
day, the 'works' were running smoothly again. Flaxseed oil
is sold in brown bottles, as to prevent sunlight getting to
the oil. It has to be stored in a cool, dark place.

My daughter, Emma, made me a gorgeous wall hanging for
mothers day. It has a rust-coloured background, with nine
'pockets' sewn on. Both the background and the pockets are
made of Hessian material. Onto each pocket, Emma has
blanket-stitched nine pigs ~ all made from different pieces
of furniture fabric. The overall effect is texture and
rustic colour. Sarah salvaged a pre-loved photo frame. She
washed it, painted it white, then repainted the features on
the frame. Both gifts are so precious, and I will be
putting both of them on show; the wall hanging next to the
piano, so that we can store music books and sheets in the
pockets, and the photo frame will sit atop the piano, with a
photo of the three of my blessings in it.

Because I haven't been feeling well, our home became messy
this past week. My thoughts were that if I wasn't helping
the children, that I couldn't expect them to continuously do
the chores on their own. The fact of the matter is that
they could have. They can. It was my own feelings about me
'setting the example' that stifled their capabilities and
willingness to do these chores. I am so vulnerable. It is
for this reason that I am so thankful for Andre's wisdom and
clear-cut answers. The Lord knew exactly what I needed in a
husband. He knew my perfect match.

Further discussing the habits of our children, their natures
and their traits, we came to the conclusion that it doesn't
matter what age they are, they still need reminding. It has
taken us a while to come to this conclusion, to see it in
practice, but we have found that child training is a
constant responsibility. We have been unrealistic in
expecting our children to remember ALL their
responsibilities on their own. They have got the actual
tasks down-pat; it's just the discipline of doing these
tasks automatically that has been the problem. This makes
sense when you think of the number of adults who still
haven't trained themselves to be disciplined and follow good
habits. What we do now is prompt them throughout the day.
"Emma ~ washing out?" ~ Emma is supposed to peg the washing
out first thing in the morning, but often gets waylaid doing
something else. "Sam ~ car?" as it is his task to clean out
the car before the next trip into town. "Sarah ~ folding?"
as Sarah's task throughout the day is to fold and pack away
the 'smalls' out of the dryer, as they are dried. These
prompts, uttered as matter-of fact-ly as possible is all
that is needed for the (smoother) running of the home.

I have mentioned to you that I have celiac disease. Here is
a delicious cake recipe ~ all gluten free!

Best Gluten Free Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:
1/4 cup white rice flour
1/2 cup tapioca flour
1/2 potato starch flour
1/2 garfava flour ( if you don't have this flour you can use
1/4 cup soy =
flour and increase the white rice flour to 1/2 cup)
1 tsp xanthum gum
2 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cups GF cocoa
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp gf baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk sub
1/2 cup corn oil
2 tsp gf vanilla
1 cup boiling water

Heat oven to 350. Grease a baking pan and dust with white
rice flour. In
a mixing bowl combine flours, sugar, cocoa, baking soda,
baking powder
and salt. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla, beat well with
an electric
mixer on medium speed for 2 min. Stir in boiling water (use
a spatula).
Batter will be very thin like soup. Pour batter into
prepared pan.
Bake at 350 for about 40 minutes or until a tester comes out
clean.
Cool on wire rack in pan for about 3-5 min. then turn out
onto a plate.
This cake is very moist. Ice cake with any GF icing. I
use:

1/3 cup soft butter
2 1/4 cup 10x sugar
1 1/2 tsp gf vanilla
About 2 tbs. milk sub( you may have to add a few drops more
if it is too
stiff)
Beat all the above until smooth.

Have a wonderful week, and love to you all,

Helen

Heartchange 14 - 27 May 2001

Dear Sisters

It is far easier doing a job myself than teaching my
children to do it. It takes less time. I have to make a
conscious effort to correct this habit. Today, my husband
also made the conscious effort of teaching my son to make a
fire. As I've told you before, it's Sam's job to cut the
wood, sort it into kindling and thicker logs, as well as to
make sure there is always wood in the tub next to the fire.
Well, Sam tried to make the fire today. He tried and tried.
Eventually, he came to me and said "Mom, it doesn't want to
take light".   This is when my husband moved in. He called
Sam and told him "come here, son, I want to teach you to
make a fire". These words made my heart sing! How I love
to see my husband teaching our children something new.
Especially new lifeskills.

Another way I have to make a conscious effort in training my
children is that when they do a job for me or their father,
and don't do it correctly, I have the habit of correcting
what they have done. This is not teaching them to do it the
right way from the start. An example of this is when Emma
cleans the bathroom. She replenishes clean towels and
toilet rolls, as part of the whole chore. However, instead
of removing the empty toilet roll and replacing it with a
full toilet roll, she piled three new rolls on top of each
other. My instinct was to remove the old and place the new
one on the holder. I had to stop in my tracts and call Emma
to fix up what she had not done.

When my children make themselves a drink, they have to clean
up any spilt milk or Milo and sugar. No sooner has one
finished making their drink, than the next one comes to ask
me if they, too can have a drink. What I have started doing
is when the first child asks me for a drink or a biscuit or
a sandwich, I have them ask everyone if they would also like
one. This, I feel, teaches them to think of others, as well
as serve others instead of serving themselves all the time.

I have started drinking a new tea. It is called "St John's
Wort" herbal tea. I take it black with a little honey. A
friend told me that it is extremely relaxing. I take it at
night, just before bed, and, let me tell you ~ it really
works! I've had such a relaxing sleep. (For the sisters in
South Africa, it is sold by 'Vital' and is mixed with
Rooibos and Honeybush tea. For those of you in Australia,
it is sold at any Woolworths store). Here's what it says on
the box: "Helps to cope with life's ups and downs".
Sometimes we sure do need to be relaxed, don't we?

Whenever I cannot think what to put on sandwiches, or am out
of sandwich fillers, I resort to eggs. I soft boil them for
around 7 minutes with a little salt and vinegar in the
water. This helps the shells to 'peel' off much easier. I
then mash them, and add our favourite dressing: Sour Cream
and Chives. Incidentally, ~ it's gluten free. Yum!

We have noticed that when we use the dishwasher, our cutlery
doesn't get cleaned very well. Crusty bits of food are
still stuck to the utensils after a full cycle.
Furthermore, the actual cutlery basket takes up so much room
in the dishwasher. So what we do now is soak the cutlery in
a tub with hot, soapy water until it's time to wash the big
pots and pans, then we do the whole lot together. The space
that the cutlery basket would have taken up in the
dishwasher allows space for three more cereal bowls and a
couple of mugs. We now have super-clean cutlery and less
dishes to wash by hand!

I love fresh smelling laundry. Here's what I did recently
to maximise on wonderful fresh smelling clothes: I cut up
about 10, three inch by three inch squares out of an old
towel. Then I mixed one part fabric softener to two parts
water in a square plastic tub with lid. I placed the fabric
squares into the plastic tub, making sure that they were all
soaked. Each time we bring washing in off the line which is
still a little damp, we put it straight in the dryer, with
one or two of the fabric squares. Result? Lovely, soft,
fresh smelling clothes!

With the cooler weather here in Australia comes the dry hair
and skin. My daughters' hair isn't as affected as my own ~
smile ~ so what I do is after shampooing and conditioning, I
gently towel-dry, then rub pure emu oil into the ends of my
hair. I then sit in front of the fire, or, allow my hair to
'air-dry' as I'm busy with something else. Already, my hair
is softer and more manageable. As for our skin, we have
resorted back to baby products! Baby soap for bathing,
followed by baby oil as a moisturiser.

Something I wanted to tell you all is what my mom taught me
years ago. She told me how to make the most of 'trips'
around the house, save my legs, and save time, ~ always
thinking ahead. When I am tidying my bedroom, I take the
washing to the laundry. On my way back to the bedroom,
passing through the kitchen, I may see something that needs
returning to the bathroom, so I drop it off in there as I
pass by. Alternately, while cleaning the loungeroom, I take
dishes to the kitchen. When dropping them off there, I pick
up any stray items that belong back in the lounge, like a
quilt which was carried around on somebody's body and
deposited in the chair at the kitchen table! In no time,
the house is picked up. It's not clean at this stage, but
it's tidy, and that's half the job done.

We have been clearing weeds and pruning the tips of our
plants. Although the garden looks bare, it looks so much
neater. Each 'room' in our garden is large, and sometimes
overwhelming. Whenever I've been out there, I keep in mind
that it is best to do a project in little bouts than to keep
putting it off.   The children have helped me and already
the garden at the front of the house looks quite 'relieved'!
Just goes to show that the little bouts of time and effort
really do work.

I learned a tip this week about how to get many things done
when there seems to be no time to do them. Each chore or
project should be written down ~ even if they list 1 - 100.
Then, each day do one of those chores. In just over three
months, many projects could be complete, and those dreaded
chores done!

From time to time, I suffer recurrent bladder infections.
Here is something new I have taken for them:
2 x 2 garlic capsules (Kyolic) per day (to kill the bad
bacteria)
4 x 1000mg Vitamin C per day (for general well-being and as
an antibacterial)
1 x acidophilus bifidus per day (to replenish the good
bacteria)
8 - 10 glasses of water (to flush the system)
I did this for ONE day only and my bladder infection was
cleared. Praise God!

We have a new puppy. Actually, it is young Sarah's puppy.
Each time we are blessed with a new pet, I feel like a new,
inexperienced mom, because they are all different. We are
in the process of working out what 'routine' to adhere to
for (Ellibelle's) sleep time! Some nights, she has been
locked in our laundry with a comfy box. Some nights, she
has slept on Sarah's bed. One night, she slept outside with
the other dogs. Sarah, as you can imagine, is very
enthusiastic about Ellibelle sleeping with her! As a mom, I
admire my sweet daughter, who methodically feeds, waters,
cleans and tends to this little creature God has given us.
I have learned much from her non-complaints. However, I
have noticed that my daughter is raggedly tired, from
getting up through the night with puppy antics. Sarah told
me that last night, the puppy wouldn't go back to sleep, so
she got up, went outside in -2 degree weather and tried to
settle the puppy with our other dogs. Admirable, yes,
sensible and practical ~ no! And so ~ as I type, I hear
whimpering and whining as a podgy, playful puppy scratches
at our door, trying to win our sympathies! I still don't
have the answer, but we'll keep on trying. All I know is ~
the puppy for Sarah, not Sarah for the puppy!

Our car broke down this week. It had to be towed away by
the NRMA. We were on our way home ~ in the dark ~ from my
parent's home. Fortunately, I was able to phone Andre and
he came to pick us up. We have been 'stranded' at home
since then. But.... I have learned to be so very grateful
to the Lord for all that He gives me. I appreciate the fact
that we have a car, and I appreciate the faithfulness of
Christian friends. As a result of not having our car, a
sister from church made the trip ~ twice ~ to pick us up for
church, then take us home. She felt so blessed to be able
to do something for us. I never realised how much others
really want to help. I also learned that we are very proud,
not wanting to 'impose' on anybody to come and get us (we
live 60km from church). And so, sisters, if you are offered
help ~ take it graciously. It may bless both of you! Oh,
and be ever-grateful for the things we all take for granted.
I smiled and thanked the Lord, as I climbed into our family
car. "My wheels, my wheels. Thank-you, Lord".

And with that, I pray that you all have a blessed week.

With love,
Helen