Sunset Over Tennessee

...Once we give ourselves up to God, shall we attempt to get hold

of what can never belong to us -- tomorrow? Our lives are His,

our times in His hand, He is Lord over what will happen,

never mind what may happen...

Today is mine. Tomorrow is none of my business.

-- Elisabeth Elliot, Keep A Quiet Heart

Not My Mother's Casserole

When we were first married, Mike and I had a deal.  He cooked, I cleaned up after him.  That system worked for a few years, but when I started working only part-time and eventually not at all, I took over the cooking.  I will freely admit how much I really enjoyed that first phase of our marriage, because I have never liked to cook.  I knew HOW, (Mom made sure of that!), but I didn't have to like it.

I came into our marriage with a boatload of family recipes and familiar cookbooks, and collected more along the way.  I discovered Cooking Light magazine in 2003, and suddenly, cooking was fun!  I was trying new, sometimes exotic recipes that were actually good for us!  I tried something new almost every night, and I spent a lot of my spare time reading through other people's published recipes.

That phase didn't last long, though.  Maybe remodeling a townhouse with three little girls ages three and under had something to do with it...or maybe it was the cross-country move to Tennessee that killed it, but whatever it was, by the time Mike deployed to Iraq, I was back to basic, boring meals.  Whatever was quick, relatively balanced, and easy to make, that's what was for dinner.  Eat-it-anyway food.

When Mike came home, I started cooking again.  Nothing fancy, but things that actually took prep time.  Things I had to plan ahead for.  There-are-no-leftovers food.

That didn't last long either.  I got pregnant with Isaak, and I.  Was.  Exhausted.  All the time.  I was doing good to get something -- anything -- on the table.  And then I had 3 kids and an infant.  And I started homeschooling.  And for 11 weeks I had to cook in a kitchen the size of a postage stamp, that had a teeny tiny fridge and no oven.  With three pots and a skillet.  At-least-we're-eating food.

The one thing that was consistent through all of those phases was my attitude.  I was selfish.  I still am, but I'm admitting it now.  :)  I didn't want to spend time cooking, because that took away even more time from the little "me" time I had left in my day.  

I've spent quite a bit of time in the past year or so with three women, Elisabeth, Charlotte, and Tammy, who have greatly influenced my thinking, and my attitude.  Elisabeth Elliot started the changing process for me when a friend re-introduced me to her books.  Her words, some gentle reminders, some not-so-gentle statements, addressed my root issue of selfishness and challenged me to aim higher.  I am a wife and mother -- THIS is my calling, my portion.  (Including the cooking part, which has slowly BECOME my "me" time, even when I share it.)  Charlotte Mason, while addressing the issue of the Will in teaching children, showed me that when I change my thoughts, my attitude will change along with them.  And then Lindafay, who led me to Charlotte, "introduced" me to Tammy's Recipes through a link in her side-bar.

Oh my.  A recipe blog.  Filled with common sense, a good attitude, good recipes, and links every Tuesday to OTHER blogs full of recipes, ideas, and thoughts.  As I read through Tammy's blog, and others I found through hers, I started thinking about not just WHAT to cook for dinner, but about things like WHAT is IN what I'm cooking for dinner, and how high our grocery bill really WAS every week.

It didn't take long for me to get excited about cooking again.  I was already enjoying the challenge of cooking more from scratch, trying new recipes (although recipe blogs can be addicting!), tweaking old ones to suit our tastes, and seeing just how low I could get the grocery bill ... and then I started reading the labels on everything I buy.

I've always tried to pay attention to the labels on the foods I give my family, doing the "good mommy" thing by avoiding the "bad fats" and making sure sugar wasn't TOO high on the ingredients list.  BUT.  I started reading the labels on my favorite "staple" items too.  High Fructose Corn Syrup, Corn Syrup, and Sugar as the first or second ingredients in "healthy" foods.  MSG, and Polymonuglutasucramites, and glurocamodirides, (yes, I made those two words up), and more unpronounceable chemical additives.  I quit buying them.

Yeah, I've made some big changes lately.  Mostly it's my attitude that has changed, but the way I shop and the way I cook have changed, too.  And I'm making some little changes as well.  

Take tonight, for instance.  I made one of my mom's recipes, Hamburger Green Bean Casserole, but I made a few changes.  I made my own Cream of Mushroom soup instead of using a can, and I used plain yogurt instead of sour cream.  Mom's recipe is very good the way it is, and those were the only two things I changed, but it was Not My Mother's Casserole anymore.

It was mine.  :)

More From Elisabeth

"A husband asks his wife to share his destiny.  What is his becomes hers; where he goes she'll go; what he suffers she'll suffer; his privileges will be her privileges.  She doesn't often see in advance the price she will have to pay.  She sees the delights.  But both are her portion..."

- Elisabeth Elliot, from The Mark of a Man

Elizabeth on Worry

From Discipline, The Glad Surrender by Elisabeth Elliot:

"1.  Worry is totally fruitless.  Have you ever succeeded in adding an inch where you wanted it, or subtracting one where you didn't want it, merely by being anxious?  If you can't accomplish that by worrying, what can you accomplish?

2. Worry is worse than fruitless; it is disobedience.  Note these commands:

Fret not.

Fear not.

Let not your hearts be troubled.

Be not dismayed.

Be of good cheer.

3.  Worry is taking the not-given -- for example, tomorrow.  Tomorrow is not ours to worry about.  We are allowed to plan for tomorrow, but we are not allowed to worry about it.  Today's troubles are enough of a burden.  Jesus knew exactly what He was talking about when He said that.

4.  Worry is refusing the given.  Today's care, not tomorrow's, is the responsibility given to us, apportioned in the wisdom of God...

5.  Worry is the antithesis of trust.  You simply cannot do both.  They are mutually exclusive.

6.  Worry is a wicked squandering of time (as well as energy).

Direct your time and energy into worry, and you will be deficient in things like singing with grace in your heart, praying with thanksgiving, listening to a child's account of his school day, inviting a lonely person to supper, sitting down to talk unhurriedly with wife or husband, writing a note to someone who needs it."

So, I'm not.  Worried.  And I'm praying that YOU won't be either.  

Ah, my Father is in charge.  How simple!

Today and Tomorrow

From "Let Me Be A Woman" by Elisabeth Elliot:

"The life of faith is lived one day at a time, and it has to be lived -- not always looked forward to as though the "real" living were around the next corner.  It is today for which we are responsible.  God still owns tomorrow."

Whatever!

Once again, I have spent my entire evening doing dishes, cleaning, doing laundry, and prepping for school.  Don't get me wrong, it feels good to be on top off things for a change, but as I type with one eye on the clock, I am remembering with quite a bit of nostalgia the days B.K. (Before Kids!) of curling up in a chair to read through an entire stack of "fluff" books in one day.

On the other hand, as part of prepping for school, I have spent the last hour or so working with quotations from the best Book, from A to Z, such as:

• D - Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe.  Philippians 2:14-15
• L - Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; someone else, and not your own lips.  Proverbs 27:2
• M - Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you.  1 Thessalonians 4:11

What wonderful, timely reminders for me!  Sometimes I almost forget that it's not just the kids who need to memorize these...I need them too!  As I was just beginning to feel a little bit sorry for myself (over my lack of "free" time) as I worked on our memory verse "tests" for the year, I got to the W verse, which is actually one of my favorites, and just like that my attitude changed, and I am once again grateful for all that I've been blessed with -- my portion!

• W - Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for man.  Colossians 3:23

I think Elisabeth would be proud of me...but someone else would have to tell her!  :)

Sugar Snap Peas and their Creator

This morning I read in "Discipline" by Elisabeth Elliot:  

"If God is in control of the big things, He must also be in control of the little ones.  It is nonsense to say that He controls winds, storms, and oceans, but not the pressures that move them, or that He sees the boundaries of the sea and causes the tides to swell and sink, but has nothing to do with individual waves, with the creatures that swim in them, or with the intricacies of molecules and atoms that make up the whole."

Have you ever examined the inside of a sugar snap pea pod?  Every one of my children eats these differently.  Macey opens all of them and eats all the pods first, then the peas.  Jaela sometimes does the same, but usually she eats them whole, like a carrot.  Anya peels each one and eats the peas, then the pods.  Isaak doesn't get the priveledge of getting a whole pea pod yet, so I break the pods into eighths and disconnect the peas for him.  As I broke one open today at lunch, with Elisabeth's words still fresh in my mind, I stopped for a minute to just LOOK at the amazing attention to detail on the inside of one little pea pod.  If you break it in half along the spine, the peas alternate in clinging to opposite sides of the pod, and all the little veins run toward the center.  The peas are not all exactly the same shape and size, but are affected by their position in the pod.  The ones in the middle are bigger, and the ones on the ends are smaller.  Some are perfectly round, others are oddly shaped,  and each individual pea has its own tiny stem that connects it to the spine of the pod.  Such genius of design found in a simple vegetable!  God is indeed in control of the little things!

You Marry A Man

A favorite, made-me-laugh-aloud passage from Let Me Be A Woman by Elisabeth Elliot, from the chapter entitled You Marry a Man:

"He is likely to be bigger and louder and tougher and hungrier and dirtier than a woman expects, and she finds that bigger feet make bigger footprints on the newly washed kitchen floor; they make a bigger noise on the stairs.  She learns that what makes her cry may make him laugh.  He eats far more than seems necessary or even reasonable to a woman who never ceases her vigil against excess weight.  When he takes a shower his broader dimensions mean more water used and a greater surface for water to cling to and therefore she finds that the towels get much wetter, and he probably doesn't hang them up folded in three as she wants him to in order to display the monogram.  He may not hang them up at all.  He won't use a washcloth, which means he consumes three times as much soap as she does.  When she cleans the bathroom she finds she has to clean in places she never had to clean before.  He's a toothpaste-tube twister instead of a roller.  Anything he does which seems to her inexplicable or indefensible she dismisses with "Just like a man!" as though this were a condemnation or at best an excuse instead of a very good reason for thanking God.  It is a man she married, after all, and she is lucky if he acts like a man."

And oh, how mine does!  Thank God...or at least I'm trying to!  :)

Beginnings

In the beginning there is a blank blog, with a bare bones personal sketch in my profile.  No one has been invited to view it yet, but it does exist!  One day soon I will master the art of adding pictures to posts, but in the beginning...there is always a beginning.  Contained in the virtual pages of this blog will be verbal snapshots of our daily life, occasional musings and deep-sounding thoughts, most likely phrased in whatever style of language is used in whatever book I am immersed in at the moment, and a few glimses here and there of the happenings that occur in the D. Academy, Clarksville Branch.

You may be wondering about the title of my blog...admittedly, it may not sound very Jamie-ish, but that's something I'm working on, that it may become more Jamie-ish.  I have been reading a lot of Elisabeth Elliot lately, and have been reminded and reassured that my portion, my cup, my lot IS secure.  My heart CAN be at peace.  My Father IS in charge.  How simple!  Indeed, how incredibly simple!  I have been blessed with a wonderful husband and friend, godly parents, a home, an incredible church family, four fascinating children, and the resources and willpower to homeschool those fascinating children.  And that, for now, is my portion...along with all the housework, disciplining, laundry, dishes, lesson planning, heartaches, and headaches that come with them!  Ah, my Father is in charge.  How simple!