Sunday, April 18, 2010

Mom's Brunch

Yesterday, the area homeschool group had a mom's brunch. Several moms were assigned a different topic and asked to speak for about 5 minutes.

Tong Hui reminded us that love must be our motivation in seeking the Lord. She also reminded us that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him, and our reward is being filled with the Holy Spirit. As we spend time with the Lord and seek the Lord, He fills us. When our hearts are not full, they can't overflow... if our hearts are not overflowing, we are not able to minister to others the way we would wish.

Ginger talked about hospitality. Her definition of hospitality was entertaining guests in a friendly and generous manner, and she stressed making people feel welcome and comfortable. Using 1 Peter 4:8-11, she gave an encouraging talk about hospitality- using your given abilities, allowing people to see Christ in you, and enjoying the "good part" as Mary did.

Roan talked about making children's birthdays special. She had some great ideas about setting the table using things from home, sources for getting great wrapping paper and ribbon, and my kids' favorite... no chores on birthdays! She also spoke about social opportunities for our children, and I need to do a better job of having some times set up for kids to come play.

Yonnea's talk about menu planning was very helpful. I am one of the people she described as, "Would rather eat a bowl of cereal or go hungry than cook dinner." It is very unfortunate, I know... It's not that I despise cooking, it's just that I can think of about ten million things around the house that I would RATHER do than stop everything and cook dinner.

I have done a good job of menu planning and grocery shopping in the past, but I need to do a better job coordinating meals with days that I know are going to be crazy. The trouble is, it seems like every day is crazy... and I have practice every afternoon! I need to follow her advice and gather a good solid list of easy, quick fix meals and a list of my favorite crock pot meals.

Kitchen tip of the day: Did you know that you can brown ground beef overnight in the crock pot? You can also do this with chicken, but you need to add broth to prevent drying out. In the morning, you can allow it to cool and then package it in freezable portions!

I would love some comments or emails about super fast dinner ideas (other than taco salad, spaghetti, and regular salad... we are in a rut!)

2 comments:

Anita said...

I just use water when cooking my bone in chicken in the crockpot. Add a little onion, garlic and carrot and you can strain it all for your own homemade broth. I cook pork loin in the freezer all day or over night for bbq sandwiches. Just drain the liquid off, shred, add seasoning and bbq sauce and put in bags and in the freezer. I also like to do one large roast or two small ones with potatoes, etc in the crock pot. We eat one meal of it with all the veggies and then freeze the rest of the meat with the juice. We serve it later with rice and vegetables.

Hope your sick one(s) are well soon. I am quite ready for some relief here!

Miekie said...

I so identify with not feeling like cooking and definitely not spending a long time in the kitchen! Our meals are always as short and quick as possible. Salads are often a handful of Romano Tomatoes on the plate (each gets a steak knife). I usually peel a paw-paw or mango or avo and cube the flesh - that makes a tasty and quick salad. 1 or 2 Tins of tuna, mixed with a tin of tomato and onion, 1 or 2 eggs and 1 or 2 slices of bread (crumbed), with a handful of grated cheese on top of mixture and baked till set, is my idea of quick.