Author: The Urban Homemaker

I have heard it said, “Attitude is everything.” I have not understood that phrase very well over the years, although God has faithfully taken me through some difficult wilderness experiences where my attitude was anything but edifying.

In fact, several months ago, Lorrie Flem, Publisher of TEACH magazine was my phone seminar guest and was talking about 13 Easy Things to Make Your Day More Productive and the subject of Child Training Sessions and Attitude adjustments came up but we simply did not have time to develop this important area.

Lorrie teased us a bit by explaining about how at her house , the training session isn’t considered successful or completed until “sparkly eyes” reflecting, a repentant and transformed heart, are evident.

She says, “Training our children’s attitude is how we teach our children to learn to obey God, cheerfully and then we will be happy.” So this Thursday night we are returning to this important topic of “attitude” and pleasing God.

We will be talking about how she first became interested in this topic of attitudes and why attitudes matter so much. If you know Lorrie, she is an expert in practical topics and will be giving us examples from the Bible where attitudes worked for good and for evil.

Most importantly, we will brainstorm practical ways to get out of bad attitudes and of course take time for audience questions. If you would like to ask Lorrie a question, please email your questions to marilyn@urbanhomemaker.com.

Phone Seminar Contact Information:

Date: Thursday, October 18, 2007

Scheduled Start Time: 9:00 PM EDT, 8:00 CDT, 7:00 PM MDT, 6:00 PDT (Adjust for your time zone, please.

Dial-in Number: 1-712-432-2455

Participant Access Code: 754074

If you have never participated in a phone seminar before, here is how it works:

1. You dial in the phone number below to the seminar. (You pay only for the phone call.)
2. Key in the seminar access code.
3. Introduce yourself, it you wish.
4. Bring a notebook to take notes, a cup of tea, and have your questions ready.
5. Don’t worry about background noise, we will mute that out!

Think of the phone seminars as “continuing education” for moms!

NOTE:
If you visit my Blog between now and Thursday and leave a comment, you will have a chance to win a free copy of more than 12 hours of listening with our downloadable Continuing Education for Moms Collection. This is a $60.00 value!

If you post a comment stating what you have enjoyed about the phone seminars or suggestions for future phone seminars you will get two entries into the contest.

I will be giving away 10 copies of Continuing Education for Moms – Volume 1!

If your garden is producing more tomatoes than you can handle, here is a flavor packed way to use them up that my whole family loved. PESTO LASAGNA
Although this is a vegetarian dish, you could easily add some ground meat or sausage to the ricotta cheese mixture. Here is the recipe link.
http://articles.urbanhomemaker.com/index.php?article=413

A few weeks ago my oldest daughter was scanning the help-wanted classified ads and found a listing for a Personal Chef. She responded to the listed phone number and was among several finalists interviewed for the job. To her credit, she did not claim to be a professional chef, just a girl who can enjoys cooking and has mastered some basics.

Yes, she got the job. It turns out Grandma did the screening/hiring process for busy daughter, mother of twins. After meeting the family and a tour of the kitchen, mom had trouble locating her cookware and other kitchen items. You see, this family has been eating out seven days a week for years.

So far, they love Laura’s menus and cooking. The first week she relied on my Week One menu from Fast and Healthy Menus for Busy Moms Book. I was afraid she wouldn’t be cooking gourmet enough for them.

Would you believe it, today’s Business section of our local paper featured an article on the growing profession of Personal Chef’s who can earn a good living! I am so glad I taught her to cook, but never dreamed she could make money doing it!

Do you know anyone using a Personal Chef?

Marilyn Moll
The Heart of Homemaking

This video done to the tune of the William Tell Overture is a must listen to if you need a laugh!
Click Here to listen to the William Tell Mom Sayings

Love it!

Marilyn Moll
urbanhomemaker.com

October 4, 2007

I want to invite you to a Child Training and Character Building Seminar with Pam Forster of Doorposts, tonight! It’s free.

Pam and her family started Doorposts 1990, with the If-Then and Blessing Charts. They were originally designed for their own family’s use, but friends kept telling them that they needed to share them with others!

Pam and I will be talking about the importance of establishing a scriptural foundation for developing the character in your children, and explaining how to use many of the tools she has created.

We also will be taking time to answer your questions about character development and child training. You can email your questions to me ahead of time at marilyn@urbanhomemaker.com.

I hope you will join us for an evening of encouragement, information, and insight this Thursday Night.

The contact information is below.

===============================================================
For Instructions in Righteousness By Pam Forster Combo Offer
===============================================================

Purchase For Instructions and Righteousness, The If-Then Chart and Blessing Chart and receive a Complimentary copy of Fast and Healthy Menus for Busy Moms Spiral Bound Cookbook, a $12.95 value!

Hurry, this is a limited time offer and will expire Tuesday, October 9, 2007. Both books and charts make great gifts!

Phone Seminar Contact Information:

Date: Thursday, October 4, 2007

Scheduled Start Time: 9:00 PM EDT, 8:00 CDT, 7:00 PM MDT, 6:00 PDT (Adjust for your time zone, please.

Dial-in Number: 1-605-475-4150

Participant Access Code: 754074

If you have never participated in a phone seminar before, here is how it works:

1. You dial in the phone number below to the seminar. (You pay only for the phone call.)
2. Key in the seminar access code.
3. Introduce yourself, it you wish.
4. Bring a notebook to take notes, a cup of tea, and have your questions ready.
5. Don’t worry about background noise, we will mute that out!

Think of the phone seminars as “continuing education” for moms! Here is what one listener wrote:

It is always so nice to sit down at the end of a busy day with a cup of hot tea and indulge myself with a free seminar. It’s like a mini-vacation and conference all in one! Thanks so much for ministering to us moms that are trying to, in turn, minister to our families.

Fondly,

Marilyn Moll
The Urban Homemaker

October 4, 2007

On a discussion list I follow, many posters have been saying they have replaced
their microwaves with small toaster ovens that also have a convection feature.
The people sound quite delighted.

I had a gas/convection combo oven at one house and didn’t really find it advantageous for baking bread.

However, I received this email today from someone inquiring about convection ovens:

“I am looking at ways to be able to have good home cooked
meals. During the spring (our busiest season) we will be working 12-14 hour days and we live 15-20 minutes from our business.

My family enjoys ‘some’ crockpot meals. I have been looking at the roaster ovens for making casseroles and then cooking them at the greenhouse while we are there to have them ready. I was wondering about the convection ovens (I found one on sale).”

What has been your experience with convection ovens and what would you suggest?

Marilyn

Last week, I noticed the bread I occasionally buy when I run out of my yummy homemade, had gone up 50 cents a loaf, a whopping 25% increase on bread since August! In my most recent newsletter, I wrote about how my wheat supplier had had to raise prices about 25% recently.

Yesterday, another grain supplier wrote to us saying:

“Wheat prices are very unstable and are climbing daily. We have no choice but to raise our prices. This also affects the price of flour-which in a few weeks will affect the price of our baking mixes. It’s is a merry-go-round. “

If ever there was a good time to start baking your own bread, now is the time. The cost of the grain is only a small portion of the cost of bread and baked goods purchased in the store.

Commercial bread and baked items include the cost of the plastic disposable packaging, the bakery’s overhead for producing the bread, the transportation costs to ship the bread from the bakery to the store, the bakery manager’s salary, and other costs of purchasing ready-made breads.

If you are able to save just $10.00 a week on commercial breads and baked goods by making them yourself, you will have a $520.00 nest egg, more than enough to justify an investment in a grain mill.

How are you handling these large price increases on bread and cereal products?

I won second place in a pie baking contest this week-end during our Mountain Harvest Festival.
This recipe is so easy and delicious you really should try it if you need a quick dessert.

3 egg yolks (no white)
1 – 14 oz can Sweetened Condensed Milk
1/2 Cup Key Lime Juice
1 – 9″ Graham Cracker Crumb Pie Shell (commercial or homemade)
Whipped Cream or 1 Cup heavy whipping cream

Stir the egg yolks and lime juice into the sweetened condenses milk in a medium sized mixing
bowl. Pour the mixture into a prepared graham cracker crust. Bake at 350°F oven for 15 minutes.
Cool for 10 minutes. Refrigerate to chill.

When ready to serve make whipped cream with 1 cup heavy whipping cream, sweeten slightly with
powdered sugar if desired and top the Pie. Garnish with lime slices if desired.

Serve. Makes eight servings.

This is really easy and I have received MANY compliments for this easy recipe. Try it!

Last Friday morning I went grocery shopping as I was expecting my two out-of-town sisters for the week end. Have you noticed that in the last couple weeks that the costs of milk and dairy items, grain products such as bread and cereal, and related baked goods are shooting through the roof?

For example, my favorite whole milk yogurt just went up about 50 cents for one quart! I calculate that as about a 20% increase.

My wheat supplier said that grain prices are going up about 25% any day, fortunately, my grain sale customers bought grain just in time! Can you imagine what a 25% increase in grain prices will do to the cost of bread and bakery items?

I don’t know about you, but my grocery budget just can’t withstand an overnight increase of 20% or so. Now, I know tthat not everything has gone up that much in just a few weeks, but huge price spikes in basic foods reminds me that the best protection from rapidly increasing grocery prices is learning to buy in bulk and making your own.

If you have ever wished you could significantly cut your grocery bill but had no idea where to start I have a simple, economical solution.

My friend, Crystal Paine, is the queen of frugality and has taught dozens of moms how to save hundreds of dollars on groceries each month.

She has managed with about $35.00 a week for her small family for quite some time.

About 15 years ago, one of the most popular books I sold was The $30 a Week Grocery Budget written by a mom of four feeding a family of six. I learned a lot from her, but that book is now out-of-print.

However, after many requests, Crystal just released a very helpful step-by-step online course detailing how to reduce your grocery spending without sacrificing quality to do so. Her exhaustive course, Supermarket Savings 101

, includes a large course handbook, six audio lessons, access to a private members-only message forum, and six money-saving ebooks.

For the next 48 hours only, she is offering a very special deal to all of us that I am sure you would want to know about if you are serious about saving money in the grocery store. You can get her entire course at the incredible deal of only $8.97!

It’s a no-brainer. Buy the course while you can at this steal-of-a-deal price and your wallet will thank you for the rest of your life!

This course has a money back guarantee!

Click Here to order it today:

Remember, the special price of $8.97 is only good for 48 hours. Don’t miss out!

We nearly had a frost two nights ago, there was snow at the higher elevations. We took precautions this year, covered the tomatoes and they were fine. Last year we had an early, unexpected frost and that was it! I was out of town Monday night and my husband picked all the tomatoes and even started drying them for me!!! The tomatoes are in the middle, dying corn in behind, cucumbers etc in front. We use raised beds made of cinderblocks. We have had our best luck with this type of garden.

The back row in the picture below is our grape arbor that we inherited with this property. They will be ready to harvest soon. I usually make about 40 quarts using a steam extraction method, saves so much time!