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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

If you have written in recent months and you didn’t receive a reply, I may not have gotten your letter.  There have been some days where batches of mail were deleted and recently, inadvertently deleted a whole file of to-reply mail.  I apologize if your letter was one of them.  I try to answer all the letters received.

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