Author: The Urban Homemaker

Last week I wrote that my desire is to grow more in love with Jesus, daily, with his help this year.  

Reader Karen Boyd replied with a very neat word picture. Karen writes:

I awakened this morning to 2 degrees.  These extremely cold temperatures started in early December and haven’t relented.  I notice the South East is having unusually cold temps after a surprise Christmas snow storm.  Did anyone notice the extreme colds and winter storms began after the Copenhagen Global warming summit?

The question of the day is, how do I take advantage of such cold weather?  I am going to make a very large pot of Chili, let it simmer a good portion of the day so I can enjoy the aromas and pretend I’m getting warmed up.

Colorado White Chili
A healthy, mouth-watering meal sure to bring raves; a great alternative to traditional chili from Don’t Panic Dinner’s in the Freezer by my friends Suzie Martinez, Vanda Howell, and Bonnie Garcia

1 Tbsp cooking oil
1 medium onion (1/2 cup), chopped
4 large cloves garlic, minced
1-4.5 oz. can diced green chilis (mild or hot)
1 Tbsp cumin (powder or seed)
2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp ground red pepper
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1-15.5 oz. can great northern beans (don’t drain) Or cook your own.
1-15.5 oz. can sweet corn (or frozen)
2 cups cooked chicken
5 cups chicken broth
Cooking day instructions:
In a large pan or Dutch Oven, combine oil, onion, garlic, and green chilis. Saute until tender, but do not brown. Stir in spices, beans, corn, chopped chicken, and chicken broth. Cook and stir until heated through. Adjust seasonings to taste. Cool chili completely.

From Don’t Panic – Dinner’s In The Freezer
by Martinez, Howell, Garcia used by permission Fleming H. Revell, a division of Baker House Books,
Copyright 2005

Chili Chasing Chili
This is my thirty year old, reliable Chili Recipe

1 pound ground turkey or beef
1 – 16 0z can whole tomatoes, chopped
1 – pkg dry onion soup mix
1 1/2 Tbsp Chili powder
1 1/2 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp salt or to taste
2 – 15 oz cans kidney beans, drained (save reserved liquid)
or 2 cups dry kidney beans, soaked and cooked
1 cup finely sliced celery
1/2 cup diced green pepper, optional
1 TB olive oil

Saute pepper and celery in oil until limp. Set aside. Brown meat in skillet, drain grease. Combine all ingredients into stockpot and simmer for 15-30 minutes. We serve the chili over brown rice or with corn bread.

Garnishes:
grated cheddar cheese
sour cream
cilantro

My family and I just got back from a short trip to Snow Mountain Ranch, near Winter Park, Colorado. The snowy Sleigh Ride with amazing horses highlighted our get-away.  We celebrated Laura and Brandon’s first anniversary.   On New Year’s Eve, I had to say good bye to Laura and son-in-law Brandon as they had to fly back to Clarksville, TN.

What can I say, it was a great visit, but saying Good Bye is really tough on a mom.  Can you relate?

A few days ago, I had the bittersweet privilege of celebrating the life of a man I met through my late husband’s membership in  Gideons.  He also suffered from a heart condition and died similarly to my husband, suddenly, and unexpectedly.  One minute he called his wife on the way home to ask what she needed to have picked up at the store.

But he didn’t come home, didn’t come home, didn’t come home.  In the moments following that phone call, he suffered a fatal heart attack while driving his car, loosing control,  crossing several lanes of oncoming traffic, and thankfully did not hit anyone else.  This tragedy occurred right before Christmas.  Death is never really expected nor timely.

But he knew his savior, he was prepared and all was well and peaceful with his soul.  I pray for anyone reading this column to pause right now and make sure you know Jesus, have repented of your sins, and that all will be well with your soul.  Check John 3:16.

My friend Ken’s life was dedicated to Jesus, his family, his business, his church and his community; in that order, and I truly believe, his life epitomized how the priorities of the Christian life should be lived.  Ken was the real deal.

Each day started with daily devotions with his wife.  Daily he thought of others better than himself, including orphans and widows.  What a testimony!

I am blessed to have known him and his wonderful example.

This absolutely gorgeous Christmas lap quilt is a surprise gift from the gals at Mentoring Moms made by Susan Davies, mother-in-law of Karen Davies a mentored mom.  I feel so special!  This is one of the most beautiful quilts I have ever seen, and I am now the proud owner.  I just had to share with you all how honored I feel.  Need I say more?

I also received an anonymous gift, a huge box of Christmas Day goodies, sour cream coffee cake, Artisan Bread, Cheese, Olives, Sausage, and more!  I am so blessed!  Thanks to all you wonderful angels who have been so hard at work.

Ed Note: This Christmas season may or may not be as lavish as others for your clan.  But this short story really helps us see, our many blessings are not material.  I hope you will be blessed.  The story was forwarded to me by a friend without any credit given.

One day, the father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the express purpose of showing him how “poor” people live.

They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family.

On their return from their trip, the father asked his son, “How was the trip?”

“It was great,  Dad. I saw that we have one dog and they had four.

We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end.

We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night.

Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon.

We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight.

We have servants who serve us, but they serve others.

We buy our food, but they grow theirs.

We have walls around our property to protect us, they have friends to protect them.”  The boy’s father was speechless.

Then his son added, “Thanks Dad for showing me how poor we are.”

Isn’t perspective a wonderful thing?

Makes you wonder what would happen if we all gave thanks for everything we have, instead of worrying about what we don’t have.

Appreciate every single thing you have, especially your friends, family and many material blessings!

Hug your children, appreciate your spouse, love your family.  Merry Christmas!

Recently I received a copy of The 12 Days of Christmas A Guide to an Old Tradition with a New Purpose.   Over the Thanksgiving week-end I had a chance to review this gem.  When I opened the book all I could think about was the familiar song and 12 more good things to do before Christmas to teach my children.   But I decided “OK, lets see what the authors have to say”, I thought.

Well I was VERY PLEASANTLY surprised and excited to find out that the twelve day adventure begins December 26, the day after Christmas and focuses on the tenants of the faith.

The fundamentals of the faith and the Twelve Days of Christmas?  Now the authors had my attention as I have become increasingly concerned about the droves of young people leaving the church purportedly because of their inability to defend the faith and their inability to articulate the foundational truths upon which the Christian faith is based. (Please read Already Gone Why your kids will quit church and what you can do to stop it by Ken Ham)

It turns out that allegedly, the 12 Days of Christmas was developed at a time when the church was being persecuted and the parents needed a “back-door/undercoverway” to teach the basics of the faith to their children.  So lets see what how the faith is tied into each of the twelve days.  Here we go:

• Day one: A Partridge in a Pear Tree represents Jesus dying on the cross to save us from our sins
• Day two: Two turle doves represents The Old and New Testaments
• Day three:  Three French Hens represents the three virtues of faith, hope, and love
• Day four: Four calling birds represents the four gospels: Matthew, Makr, Luke and John,
• Day five: Five golden rings represents:  The Torah, which are the Books of Moses, the law.
• Day six: Six geese-a-laying represents New life, and the six days of creation.
• Day seven: Seven swans -a-swimming represents the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit
• Day eight:  Eight maids-a-milking represents the eight Beattitudes
• Day nine: Nine ladies dancing represents the fruit of the Spirit
• Day ten:   Ten lords-a-leaping represents the Ten Commandments
• Day eleven:  Eleven pipers piping represents the 11 faithful disciples
• Day twelve: Twelve drummers drumming represents 12 tenants of our faith found in The Apostle’s Creed

After Christmas you may want to teach your children the tenants of the faith through wonderful stories, meaningful activities, and reinforce the fundamentals of the faith for both you and your entire family.

Each day has an associated scripture reading (or memory verses), a story, suggested discussion questions, points to ponder, a suggested prayer, coloring pages, games, recipes,  and of course a possible field trip activity.  Advance planning, to select what you will do is advised for the best success.   An example of a suggested activity is Day 5:  Visit a synagogue.  A recipe I will try out is Golden Apple Bundt Cake, sounds easy and yummy.

I wholeheartedly recommend that you consider finishing out 2009 or starting out 2010 by taking an exciting and fun journey through The Twelve Days of Christmas.  You may obtain this book at www.12daysbook.com.

Thanksgiving is my most favorite holiday of the whole year because it lacks major commercialization and gives us a family day to spend together remembering all the blessings God has poured out, many 0f which we have either long since forgotten or easily taken for granted.

I have not always been thankful for thorns in my side as St Paul writes.  My son hasn’t always been the easiest child to live with, but I am so thankful for how much God has matured him into a young man this year.  He truely desires to be a godly light in the dark places he finds himself and has a passion for listening to godly manhood audio CD’s from Doug Phillips of Vision Forum.  Without an earthly Dad to influence and encourage him, this is quite a miracle and but more importantly a great blessing to me.

I am thankful my brother-in-law has begun taking an active interest in Stephen’s military career and is giving him sound counsel as he prepares for his commissioning in May and assignment in the Signal Corp of the US Army.  Last year, I was thanking God my son-in-law came home safely  from Iraq and dreading Stephen’s potential deployments.  Now I am able to rest in Gods’ sovereignty and loving care for my son.

I am so thankful for my sister, Terry’s, faithful friendship, hospitality, encouragement and generosity to both myself and my children.

My daughter Mary has had the opportunity to further develop her musical skills this year after I had Duane’s “collectible” high school clarinet rehabbed.  She is involved in not only the school concert band but in a Girl’s Swing/Show Choir as well as weekly piano lessons and practice.  The school Christmas Concert and performance is coming December 17 and her older sister Laura and new husband Brandon will be able to attend.

When Laura got married last year on Jan 3, I really wondered how I would hold up without her father at my side to say nothing of  her  cross country move to Tennessee.  Now, nearly a year later, I can see that God has developed her into a very godly wife to Brandon and they have grown so much together, I can hardly wait to have them home in a few weeks for the Christmas holidays.  Yes, I am thankful for cell phones and skype so we can talk almost daily.

Managing The Urban Homemaker without Duane has been a major challenge to me this past year especially when I lost the entire data base of fifteen years,   right before Christmas, last year.  I struggled with not knowing how to do any of the technical computer things , fill-in-the-blank, and got down on myself.  Now, I can look back and see the faithfulness of God to provide a gifted computer guy, Marc, to carry us through the  hardships and step-by-step into a new system.

I am thankful that I was able to replace the badly rotting steps at my back door with a superior porch made of synthetic material made to look like wood so I won’t have to ever seal or stain a wood surface.  Besides it looks beautiful.  On top of that, I now have a patio beside the stairs between my house and shop under a shady walnut tree to enjoy the beautiful summer outdoors.

I am thankful that Mary and I were able to go to Florida to visit my 88 year-old folks for a week last June and enjoy their company and the Florida sunshine.

I am so thankful for all the new friendships I have been able to make through my Norwex business.  I have had so much satisfaction to be able  to move forward in this area.

This Sunday, a bunch of ladies in my town and I are going to travel to Montrose to watch the Nutcracker ballet.  I am so thankful they thought of including me in their plans.

I am humbled to have the opportunity to teach a parenting of teens Sunday School class based on the book Age of Opportunity by Ted Tripp.  We have had a hilarious time of fellowship and learning each Sunday morning, again I am having the opportunity to develop more friendships.  Our class has lovingly renamed our class,  Age of Opportunity, Growing Parents Gods Way. I hope some of you get the “play on words” and can appreciate it.

God has been so faithful to provide for me in small and large ways in the last year when I despaired of being able to be financially solvent.  He is such a great provider and faithful husband.

So many new doors have opened for me after loosing Duane, but it has not come without months of physical, emotional, and spiritual pain and grieving.  In the last two to three months I feel like I can jump out of bed each morning and embrace the day, I couldn’t do that last year.  Healing comes, memories sweeten, my recognition of God’s lovingkindness and goodness has grown exponentially through the painful loss of my husband.

I despaired of ever producing a catalog again.  I agonized over the countless calls and requests from people wanting a new copy of The Urban Homemaker catalog and now it is done, at least for a few months until it is time to revise it again.

My daughter and I are in the process of planning and building a new website to encourage a new generation of homemakers in their high callings.  We are excited that God keeps opening new doors of ministry.

I know there is so much more I could write.  God is a God of details (and I am not) so there is lots of I have overlooked and not mentioned.  Perhaps, as the day goes on, more things will come to my mind and I can revise my little essay.

Take time to think of how God turned difficulties into good this past year, how he has not forsaken you even if and when you forsake Him.  He is a Great and Mighty God.

Today, my children and I are gathering together to spend  Thanksgiving with friends to ask the Lord’s blessing, to praise his name, to rejoice that He is on our side, He will always be triumphant, His word never changes and is always there to guide and direct us, He delivers us from tribulations as He refines us into pure gold.  May His name be praised forever and ever AMEN!