The Welcome Home
Good Things and Recipes
August 10, 2004
Hello dear Sisters!
After a short “summer break” I’ll now begin sending out The Welcome
Home messages and “Good Things” each week. These have been a priority
to me over the years even though I must guard family time and sometimes
letters are delayed. We all have to do that, though, don’t we?! We
have to leave off even seemingly “important” things in order to tend to
the truly important. Family time is precious and as we see through the
years, it sure can’t be neglected or other things creep in and damage
the vines, so to speak. As wives and mothers, we must carefully tend to
the needs of our husband, family, home, etc., or the neglected things
overwhelm us. It’s when we’ve become overwhelmed that we see the
crop---the weeds choking out the good plants and hindering the fruit. I
pray as I send this that you all are taking time to tend to your
gardens… literally and figuratively. I pray your days are fruitful and
refreshing and that you’re enjoying the fruit of your labours.
A PIE RECIPE
For Andrew’s birthday celebration I am making:
Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie
CRUST
1 1/3 c. graham cracker crumbs
1/3 c. sugar
4 tbsp. butter, melted
Pat into a 9” Pie pan
FILLING
12 oz. cream cheese, at room temp.
1 1/2 c. peanut butter
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 c. whipping cream
TOPPING
12 oz. chocolate chips
1/2 c. whipping cream
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Prepare the crust by combing graham cracker crumbs, sugar and melted
butter in a mixing bowl. Pat into bottom and sides of 9 inch pie plate.
Bake for 8 minutes. Remove from oven and cool on a rack.
Prepare the pie filling: Mix the softened cream cheese, peanut butter
and sugar together in a large bowl until well blended. Whip cream until
stiff and fold it into the cream cheese mixture.
Spoon this filling into the cooled crust.
Prepare the topping: Combine chocolate chips and cream in a saucepan.
Cook over low heat, stirring until melted. Carefully pour topping over
pie and refrigerate uncovered for 4 hours.
For dinner we’ll have barbecued hamburgers and hotdogs---and the
trimmings, salad, BBQ beans and watermelon---and sweet tea.
SWEET TEA
If you haven’t had sweet tea in a while, it’s very very easy to make. I
use about ten tea bags per one gallon and I bring the water (with the
tea bags in it) to a boil and then I remove it from heat (Regular black
tea or herb tea). After a short while I remove the tea bags and stir in
about a cup of sugar or a little less of honey. I fill our container
with ice and pour the cooled tea over the ice. This dilutes the tea
quite a bit. Then for weaker tea, pour over ice in tall glasses. Serve
with a few mint leaves and/or a slice of lemon.
TRIP IDEAS
As we plan for different picnics, outings and trips each summer, we’re
always planning on or looking for great “easy-travel” recipes and ways
to do things that will be simple and “space efficient.” The Igloo
“IceCube” ice chest (purchased at Costco for $20. = 2 ice chests: one
small and one large) is my favourite purchase this year. In it we keep
sandwich fixings, cream cheese for bagels, fruits and veggies, fruit &
vegetable juices. One thing we’ve really found to be a neat snack for
traveling is to have an iced watermelon in an ice chest (and a sharp
knife wrapped in a tea towel in the chest, too). On hot summer days,
we’ve sure enjoyed stopping at a park and cutting up the melon for each
person to enjoy. It sure does refresh! I bring along wet washcloths in
ziplock bags or a box of babywipes for cleanup. Another thing that’s
nice to do is to partially freeze water bottles for the trip. We’ve
discovered that zip-lock snack bags of trail-mix, fruit leather, granola
or chex-mix are nice for any age and the mess is minimal. In our van,
we have small trash baskets (lined with shopping sacks) that fit under
the first seat in each row—we empty them at rest-stops or gas stations.
These small steps help keep the floor clean---which helps to keep other
things clean, too. I have found that two plastic “shoe-box” size bins
hold the different things very well and keep the van relatively
clutter-free! I have a plastic basin that holds things, too, and it
doubles as a wash-basin when we make stops.
MORE FOR THE ROAD
I have several things that have simplified dealing with “emergencies.”
I have a small sewing kit with four colours of thread and threaded
needles, safety pins, shoelaces, buttons, and a couple of hooks/eyes.
We also always have a first-aid kit in the van in a drawer under the
front seat---but I check and add to it when we’re going out of town. I
make sure it’s got the obvious supplies and then I check for extra
Band-Aids, aspirin/Tylenol, antihistamine, children’s Tylenol, scissors,
tapes, etc. I always have a tissue box and babywipes in the van, too.
I try to be sure there’s also a small supply of other necessities for us
girls, along with pull-ups for the little dolly and an extra pair of
unders, too. I also have a couple of garbage sacks and a couple of
zip-lock baggies in the glove compartment. I also make sure I have some
pens/crayons, paper and artbooks in a bin for the children, tablets and
notecards and stamps for myself and our daughters. Probably my two
favourites are the baby wipes and duct tape. Both have been needed for
the oddest things! I have the cell-phone charger so that we can
recharge the phones once we reach our destination---too many times we
didn’t have the adapter in the van or didn’t have the charger and so no
phone power for the return trip.
L
Now… to those of you who do not make long car trips very often or do
not have small children to take in account, some of these suggestions
are probably very humorous!
HOPE CHEST
Rebekah Wilson (The
Hope Chest: A Legacy of Love) has a new book, the
first in a series of twelve books for girls; each of these books will
contain a project and teach skills and companion kits will allow for
practical application of the skills presented in story-form. Rebekah
just wrote to me to let me know of this new book:
Grandmother's Hope Chest: The Running Rooster.
Rebekah's one of the women I pray to meet in person this side of
heaven... but I am sure I'll know her there, as I'll have a lot to share
with her---and much for which to thank her!
I'm giving some more thought to the "hope-chest" after the great letter
from Rebekah. We’re so enjoying Kathryn’s hope-chest and Hannah is
beginning to gather things for hers, although hers is a large Rubbermaid
bin until she receives a hope-chest for her eighteenth birthday. A neat
thing about hope-chests is coming to an understanding that it's not
always so much what goes into the chest as why something goes in.
Having that mindset really determines what will go in. For example...
when we came to the understanding of training our daughters *all the
days of their lives* for the *rest* of all the days of their lives, it
sort of "revolutionized" our thinking and “child training.” In fact,
for all our children: what we're doing today isn’t for the "checking off
boxes" today but for the day by day laying of the foundation of and for
the rest of their lives---in light of the past, their futures are why we
do what we do today. Sometimes this will mean saying "no" to some
things, and sometimes this means adding some entertainment or even
frivolous activities---but, having said that, we've sure come to see
that entertainment for entertainment's sake is wasted time. The joy of
shared experiences add value and depth to their lives---things they'll
need tomorrow, so we try to encourage meaningful times each day. So it
is with things that go into the hope chest. We need to have what goes
in *mean* something, have value and/or demonstrate a skill mastered.
With that in mind, the hope chest really is, as Rebekah says, a legacy
of love.
In the near future Rebekah will offer sewing “lessons” and techniques
through her books and website:
Hope
Chest Legacy. When you “visit” you’ll see patterns,
articles and other helps and encouragement.
Additionally, I want to mention there are other ways to learn to sew if
you don't have sewing skills---perhaps a visit with an experienced
seamstress would begin the development of the skill. In today's busy
world, it *seems* that fewer and fewer women are actually sewing for
pleasure or necessity. This site offers a video course
http://www.youcanmakeit.com/learn.asp with various
skill levels and materials for sewing. I haven’t actually seen these
videos, but after looking at what’s offered, it would seem reasonable to
choose one or two of the videos and practice the
demonstrations---especially if you’re a visual learner!
Next week I’ll share a couple more recipes and ideas for your home &
family. Until then, may the LORD bless you with His loving kindness and
watch over you wherever you go. To God be the Glory!
With love, pamela spurling
achristianhome.org
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