What Do You Do When it's Snowing Outside?

Denver is in the middle of about a two day snow storm.  My son's college is shut down for today. Things have come to a halt in the Denver Metro area.

Here in Paonia, the Western side of Colorado, we have about 1-2 inch blanket of snow on the grass, cold temps and partly cloudy skies.

No snow day for us.  But I'm pretending to have a snow day this afternoon, after all I feel a little jealous of my front range friends and relatives.

I have a cup of hot cocoa and I'm thinking about making Honey Glazed Chicken for tomorrow night's dinner.

My neighbor, friend, and book keeper, Renee, is having it tonight.  It is one of my favorite recipes and I don't even remember the last time I had it.

All you need is a chicken, honey, curry powder, lemon juice, and an oven.

Here is the link for the recipe, it's nice and easy:

articles.urbanhomemaker.com/index.php?article=307

Navy 'n French Green Bean Soup

Ed Note: I made this soup last night to serve at Mentoring Moms. It smelled as good as turkey baking in the oven according to my daughter.Used by Permission from
Soups and Muffins by Sue Gregg
Makes 8 Servings
Soak beans in water during the day or overnight:
8 cups water
2 cups navy or small white beans
Bring undrained beans to a boil and boil for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to keep at very gentle boil for 1 hour or until beans are tender.
Drain the beans, reserving the bean liquid.
Combine in large stock pot:
2 Cups of the cooked beans
2 Cups Chicken Broth
3 Cups bean liquid plus water as needed
1-2 tsp salt or to taste
1 large onion, chopped
3 ribs celery, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 – 4 oz can green chili, finely chopped
½ tsp dry mustard
2 bay leaves (optional)
In a blender, puree the remaining cooked beans with liquid. Add the following ingredients to the soup pot, cooking about 10 minutes longer to blend flavors and heat ingredients:
Remaining cooked navy beans
1 cup water
2 cups frozen French cut green beans (10 oz) or canned
2 cups chopped cooked chicken
Serve with crusty bread or corn bread.

Roasted Tomato Sauce

Do you need a really easy way to use up a bunch of tomatoes?  My friend Jodie just told me how to make up some tomato sauce that I think is delicious and easy.

All you need to do is slice end-of-the-season-very ripe-tomatoes that need to be used up, into 1/2" thick slices.  Place them into a large roasting pan that has a light coating of olive oil.  Stack up the tomato slices, sprinkle with chopped onion, peppers, basil, salt, pepper, garlic, red pepper if desired.  Bake in a 350 degree oven for 90 minutes.  Blend, pour into freezer containers in 2 cup portions.  Freeze.  Is that simple or what?  I blended in some pine nuts to add a little extra richness, but they are optional.

How easy is that?  You won't believe how great your house will smell or how tasty this sauce is.  No more Prego, No more Ragu for me.

VOILA!  You have just made use of tomatoes and other produce you might otherwise have put into the compost.
Why didn't I know how to do this a long time ago?

Try it, you'll really like it.  I did this while the dinner soup was heating up, we ate dinner, and  dishes were being washed up.  I even get to go to bed at a reasonable hour and I'm not exhausted.

It's not About the Money, it's About the Time

In our Sunday paper, there is a weekly column in the business section written by a father and son called Yoder & Sons.  The senior writer is chief of the Wall Street Journal San Francisco Division, the junior writer is his 14 year old son.

Yesterday's column tackled the topic of whether son Levi can use his own hard earned money to buy an X-box.  Levi of course arguing the side of why he should be permitted to spend his money as he sees fit.   Dad came down firmly, fairly, and articulately on the negative.

I quote Dad, Steve:

"It's not about the money, it's about the time. So it doesn't matter whose money it is: We won't have an Xbox or PlayStation of Wii in the house."

I did a double take to re-read the above words at least twice.  I'm not the only parent who is saying a young person's life is already overloaded with distractions and temptations to waste time!!!!

The author/parent was saying his son didn't need any more time wasters in their life/home.

All I can say is AMEN. AMEN AMEN.

And I thought I was the only parent who didn't allow this junk, I mean time waster, in my home.  Enough said.

The Idol of Success

My Sunday School class has been looking at idols of the heart that can get in the way of effective parenting.  We studied Ezekial 14:1-16 and discovered that as long as there were idols in the hearts of the prophets, God let them have it their way. The results were not pretty.

One idol of the heart can be "success".  My definition of success can certainly be a block to my dear daughter learning to be accountable to God.  I take things into my hands rather than allowing God's might arms to handle the matter.  Why do I think I need to help out God?

Reaching her heart to want to please God is my job, by asking good questions.

This is a whole new mind set for me.  How are you doing with reaching the heart of your young people?

Plan for the Holidays Now!

Sometime ago, I developed a 12 Week Holiday Timetable which was designed to help me and others start planning ahead for the holiday season.  Although we at The Urban Homemaker, don't advocate complicated or expensive holiday celebrations, we wish to encourage you and your family to focus on the true meaning of the holiday season.  The timetable helped me systematically begin my holiday gift making, card writing, holiday baking, gift wrapping and memory making in an orderly way.

Sheri Graham, homeschooling mom of five, adapted my timetable into an an ebook based on my 12 Week Holiday Timetable.     The 12 Week Holiday Planner for Christian Families by Sheri Graham is filled with practical and useful charts, planner pages, recipes, crafts, the Jesse Tree Devotional and other useful information.

Sheri says, “My desire in putting together this eBook is to provide a tangible way for you to plan out your holidays so they are enjoyable, less stressful, and more filled with the things that really matter.”

The Planner includes:

Ideas of what to do weekly for the 12 weeks
"Sheri's Tips"- tips to make your holidays meaningful, shared throughout the ebook
Christmas Craft and Gift Ideas
Memory Making Ideas for the Family
Ideas for Baked Items to Share/Give Away
Ideas for Meals to Freeze for Use during the busy Weeks
Decoration Ideas
Supplies to stock up on ahead of time or when on sale
Ideas for a Holiday Baking Schedule
Kids' Gift Idea List
PLUS!!! "The Glorious Coming: A Jesse Tree Celebration of Advent" - Jesse Tree devotionals
Much Much More!

Testimonials from women who have used the Planner:

Dear Marilyn,

“I purchased Sheri's book last year as a result of her phone seminar with you and I absolutely love it.  I used it every day last year and I plan to use it every year from now on.  We did the Jesse Tree and it was a special part of our holiday season.  More than anything I appreciated how Sheri's book constantly reminded me to slow down, observe the wonderful joys of the season and of my children and to focus on what Christ would hope we would focus on.  I highly recommend this book.  Love love love it.”Shae

Dear Marilyn,

“I found it very helpful to have a plan to go by instead of scurrying around wondering what to do next.  By the time December rolled around, we had everything done and were able to just have fun.  We had time to take in all sorts of Christmas plays and made crafts and just had time to talk.  It felt like and old fashioned Christmas because we kept the TV off for most of month, thereby eliminating a lot of the commercialism.  We popped popcorn and ate apples by the fire just like Almonzo in  Farmer Boy.  It was really magical.”  Lindy Sellars

Dear Marilyn,

“I really enjoyed this tool. I used the charts the most.  I enjoyed writing down all those ideas for Christmas in one place.  I didn't have to search for slips of paper or reinvent the wheel, so to speak.  This year, I noticed that I already have some good ideas down on paper.  Also the very best thing, is that my Christmas card address list is all in one place with just a few new addresses to add.”   Jamie Payne

CLICK HERE TO CLAIM YOUR PLANNER