I have never participated in “Not Me Monday” before, but this morning has just been one of those mornings that makes you have to tell someone, so why not do it here, this way, and get a laugh out of it in hindsight?

I did not cut my thumb on our french fry maker this morning while dicing potatoes. I’m always far too careful to let my thumb slip off the potato while trying to get it into the sharp grid. No, that’s unthinkable!

I did not find out that we are going to have to, without question, replace the cooktop in our new house. We are not going to have to take out the cabinet under them and do a minor remodel to put a new cookstove in. The stove is in the island in the middle of the kitchen, meaning we do not have to buy a more expensive stove that doesn’t go up in the back. I did not spend probably 20 minutes on hold with GE waiting for the customer service rep to find out the interior dimensions of the stove to make sure it would fit my larger cookie (or two smaller ones side by side). I do not need to call the contractor that I had told last week we were going to hire to do the repairs on the deck to tell him that we decided to use the other contractor because he’s cheaper (and other reasons). I will not probably end up just sending him an email. That would be ridiculous. Not me!

During the time that I was not doing the above, I did not ignore the kids, letting them run wild, still in pajamas, waiting for me to run their bathwater. They did not make a complete mess of the house, scattering a blanket, an apron, pillows, books, shoes, hair accessories, and clean silverware from the dishwasher all over the place. I did not hear a big crash from one of the back rooms, and did not discover that my kids (probably my son) had knocked over my little plastic chest of drawers that holds all my sewing thread (nearly to capacity), scattering it all over the floor. It had not been arranged by color, so of course I did not mind picking it up and putting it all back in the right drawers. Not at all. I also did not discover that the Mutual Mania game, which has more pieces than Monopoly does, had been opened and dumped in a very disorganized pile. I did not sit down in the middle of this mess and throw a 5-second tantrum out of frustration. Not me. I never lose my cool, especially where children are concerned! I did actually find the work of sorting rather therapeutic, and have been much calmer ever since. Really.

I did not get that all cleaned up, the kids bathed and dressed, and my son down for his nap, only to discover that I was still in my pajamas, and that the breakfast dishes still have not been done! And I did not sit down to write this before fixing said issues.

And I most certainly did not inhale a pea skin while eating split pea soup for lunch. No sir! I never breathe through my mouth while eating because my nose is plugged from allergies or whatever. Not me!

Later in the afternoon, I did not get so caught up in posting my blog contest on other sites that I didn’t notice that the kids had wandered off. When I got off the computer to look for them, I did not discover that Manny had gotten ahold of my unused spool of brown paper tape, and had pulled out several yards of it from the middle! I did not then proceed to wind it all back in again. And then I did not let the kids go play together outside, even though it could rain at any moment. And I have not failed to get any packing done today! Of course not!

Sigh. I can’t wait until we have moved! I am sure life will be so much easier once we are in our new house. Or not!

Don’t forget to check out my regular Monday post. This week it’s Mom’s Cornbread.

I got this from my mom, and she got it from her mom. I don’t know where Grandma got it from, and she’s not here to ask anymore. All I know is, this recipe is THE BEST out there, as far as I am concerned–so moist and juicy!

1 2/3 cup cornmeal (I like a coarse grind that has the germ in it)
1 1/3 cup whole wheat (sometimes I use ground kamut)
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp baking powder
2 eggs (I use flax seeds: see recipe)
1/4 cup oil
2 cups milk (any kind–soy, rice, cashew…)

Preheat oven to 400°. Mix dry ingredients, then add wet ingredients and blend. Spray a muffin pan with Pam and fill with batter. Bake for 20 minutes. makes 12 muffins.

Check back every Monday for more of my delicious Vegan Recipes, or just subscribe to the blog so you will never miss a post! Next week, Our Favorite Black-Eyed Pea Dish.

I am participating in the Meatless Monday carnival on Hey Mom What’s for Dinner?

There are lots of reasons to avoid eggs. Some people do it because they are vegan and don’t eat animal products. Some people are trying to avoid outside sources of cholesterol, and eggs are a major source. We consider ourselves vegan, though we make exceptions once in a while; but when we did eat eggs, we never ate the cheap ones, and the organic ones are expensive–whether they came from the health food store or from the farm down the road, we had to pay at least $3 a dozen.

So whatever your motive is to find a substitute for eggs, I think this little tip will be helpful. Use flax seeds instead of eggs. There are a few ways you can do this.

One method is to cook the flax seeds in water until they gel up. This takes a few minutes, and then you would want it to cool before using in a recipe. Another option is to just bring water to a boil and then put in the flax seeds and let it sit for a few minutes. This won’t be quite as strong a gel, but it works just about as well. My preferred method, at least for making cornbread, is to simply put the flax seeds in my dry ingredients, and then add the extra water when I add the liquid. This seems to work quite well, because the binding power of the seeds is released during the baking process. Also, I use ground flax seeds, but you don’t have to. Whole seeds will work, and I believe it is possible to strain out the seeds after the gel has been made, but I like the extra fiber it adds, so I just grind them and leave them in.

So here’s the recipe for 1 egg:

1 Tbsp. flax seeds, ground or whole
1/4 – 1/3 cup water (depends on whether you want a regular or large egg)

Sometimes I use soy whey (see my note on making tofu) instead of water to add a little extra protein to my recipe.

Keep in mind, this is not a perfect substitute for eggs. It works well for binding in baking, but the product won’t rise quite as much as it would with eggs. You also cannot use it in soufflés or other things where the egg is the main ingredient (but you can make a delicious soufflé with soy).

If you are trying to save money, though, consider this: Two organic eggs at $3 a dozen would cost $.25 each. A tablespoon of flax seeds costs a few pennies. That’s sure something to think about!

I don’t usually care for posts that have a lot of links in them to different places, but then again, maybe it’s because I’m always in such a hurry to scan through all the blogs I try to keep up with! I have noticed, however, that a lot of successful blogs have, at least once in a while, a list of links, rather than a whole article, so I’m going to post a “link round-up” once in a while. Here are some random favorites, grouped by topic:

Frugal Tips:

Here’s a way to save money with the vacuum bags.

This blog has a bunch of Rite-Aid coupons.

Home Schooling:

Preschooler Activity book. I bought this and love it!

Home School Legal Defense Association

A very interesting perspective on teaching young children to read.

Miscellaneous:

Create a Decorator’s Notebook–what a neat idea!

Breastfeeding in Public–from the perspective of modesty.

How to Slice an Onion.

Selling on Ebay.

I think that’s enough for now. Be sure to check back in Monday morning for my recipe of the week!

Note: I debated a little about whether to share this or not, since I realize that a good portion of my readership is not a member of the same denomination as I am. However, I decided that since my goal is not to convert anyone, but rather to share an illustration of the principle of 1 Peter 3:15, which crosses denominational barriers, I would share it anyway. Keep this in mind as you read.

This morning I went grocery shopping early, a little after 7:00 in the morning. I like to go early and beat the rush. As I went into the store, I said a little prayer. Lord, please lead me to someone that I can witness to, or leave a tract with. I have been carrying a number of tracts in my purse in English and in Spanish, but if I don’t ask the Lord to help me find someone to give one too, I usually forget they are there.

Well, this morning I had a short list, and no real chance to interact with anyone before I got to the checkout lane. I half expected to leave the store without sharing with anyone. But there was no one behind me, so the cashier started talking.

“Are you going to church this morning?” Take note that I was wearing a skirt and a rather nice jacket, not inappropriate for a church setting.

“No, actually I go to church on Saturdays.”

“You mean you don’t go on Sundays like everyone else?” He seemed genuinely surprised.

“No. You see, the Bible says to keep the 7th day. Here, I’ve got a little booklet on the topic–maybe you can read it during your break.” And I handed him this booklet:

He looked it over. “Sure, I could look through this.”

By that time I had finished bagging my groceries, so I smiled and left the Holy Spirit to do His work, rejoicing that the Lord had once again given me a chance to share with someone.

What about you? Do you keep a tract or two on hand to share with those who have questions about your faith? You may not always have time to give a Bible study or share what Jesus means to you, but a tract can do that for you. Then pray that the Lord will lead you to the people who are open or have questions. He will never fail you!

Here’s something to consider:

Many are inquiring, “How am I to make the surrender of myself to God?” You desire to give yourself to Him, but you are weak in moral power, in slavery to doubt, and controlled by the habits of your life of sin. Your promises and resolutions are like ropes of sand. You cannot control your thoughts, your impulses, your affections. The knowledge of your broken promises and forfeited pledges weakens your confidence in your own sincerity, and causes you to feel that God cannot accept you; but you need not despair. What you need to understand is the true force of the will. This is the governing power in the nature of man, the power of decision, or of choice. Everything depends on the right action of the will. The power of choice God has given to men; it is theirs to exercise. You cannot change your heart, you cannot of yourself give to God its affections; but you can choose to serve Him. You can give Him your will; He will then work in you to will and to do according to His good pleasure. Thus your whole nature will be brought under the control of the Spirit of Christ; your affections will be centered upon Him, your thoughts will be in harmony with Him.

Desires for goodness and holiness are right as far as they go; but if you stop here, they will avail nothing. Many will be lost while hoping and desiring to be Christians. They do not come to the point of yielding the will to God. They do not now choose to be Christians.

Through the right exercise of the will, an entire change may be made in your life. By yielding up your will to Christ, you ally yourself with the power that is above all principalities and powers. You will have strength from above to hold you steadfast, and thus through constant surrender to God you will be enabled to live the new life, even the life of faith.

Steps to Christ, 47, 48

I have read this statement many times–have almost memorized it. But I heard a sermon recently on Audioverse.org which helped this make sense, even though the speaker never mentioned this quote in the sermon.

He was talking about when Jesus was in the boat, and the storm came up, and the disciples were afraid and had to wake Him up. You know the story. Well, think about this. Would it have been right for the disciples to make no attempt to bail water out of the boat? Should they have grabbed pillows and gone to sleep too? They showed their lack of faith, not by doing their utmost to save the ship and their own lives, but by doing it in their own strength, without Jesus’ help.

So it is with us. Being saved, being converted, doesn’t mean we don’t have to struggle. Sometimes we do. God doesn’t always calm the storm. Sometimes He gives us grace to see it through. We will have to struggle, to exercise our will–but it will be a will that He has sanctified and is directing.

Think about it. Some people have very strong wills. They can determine not to do something and by mere force of will not do it. Others have weak wills, and surrender to temptation at the slightest provocation. But without Jesus, neither is better off than the other. Ultimately both kinds exercise their will, and the person with the strong will could be “strong-willed” in the wrong way just as easily as the weak-willed person can be weak in the wrong way. But when Jesus takes our will and molds it, we have the power to choose the right. But we still have to choose.

Have Thine own way, Lord, have thine own way.
Thou art the Potter, I am the clay.
Mold me and make me after Thy will,
While I am waiting, yielded and still.

Today I’m starting a new theme with another mom: 2 Moms Discuss. We will be doing this feature every other week on Wednesdays. This week we are discussing Preparing for a New Baby. See what Sarah has to say at Sarah’s Heart’s Home.

When I thought about doing this topic, I thought it would be easy. Until I made an outline. I am sure I won’t be able to cover half of what I would like to, but we’ll see.

There are three general ways we can prepare for a baby: physically, mentally or emotionally, and spiritually. I want to discuss a little of all three ways.

Physical Preparation

Before the baby arrives, you will need to make sure you have all the accessories you need. Unless you plan on co-sleeping, you’ll need a crib. If you’ve had a baby before, then you probably already have one. Clothes are another thing you’ll need. It is helpful to have enough outfits for the first six months on hand, because you probably won’t have much time or energy to go out and buy any right away. If you aren’t having a baby shower before the baby comes, you will need to assemble these things beforehand. If the baby shower comes before, then you can look at what you have and fill in the gaps. Also, think about other things you will need for the first month. Here is a good list to get you started.

You might also want to discuss names beforehand. Although you don’t have to have a name ready at birth, you might not have the energy to think about it for a while afterwards. I met a lady once with a month-old baby that was still unnamed! I don’t know about you, but I don’t ever want that to happen to me!

Another way you can prepare is to stay in shape as much as possible. Of course, this does not mean you continue training for a marathon! It takes a lot of energy to “cook” a baby, so resting is important. But so is light physical exercise. Your doctor or midwife will probably give you a list of prenatal exercises. Do them. I wish I had, and I’m going to do my best to do them next time around! Also, walk a little every day. A mile or two at a gentle pace would not be amiss. I have a hard time with this, because I have back and hip problems that are exacerbated by pregnancy, and walking makes them even worse, but I found that with regular chiropractic, I was able to walk at least a little (around the yard) with my second pregnancy, and I was in much better shape as a result.

Another way to prepare is cooking ahead of time. Make meals and freeze them. Then you’ll have something to eat when the baby has been nursing all morning and you’re just too worn out to face the kitchen! Also stock up on healthy snack items, like crackers, dry cereal, dry fruit, canned foods, soups, and the like. That way you will be able to get something to eat even when you don’t have time or energy to fix a meal. It’s cheaper to fix food ahead of time than to buy frozen meals, and the ones you make are healthier too.

Also, make sure you have someone around for the first week or two to help out. This might be your husband, if he can take paternity leave, or your mother or mother-in-law. It could even be a neighbor or church member that lives nearby. In any case, you shouldn’t have to do anything in the way of cooking, cleaning, or taking care of other kids for at least a week, so make sure you have help. Don’t be ashamed to ask for it! My midwife wouldn’t even let me carry my son for the first 2 days. I could walk, but I had to get someone else to carry him, then hand him to me after I sat down. This was good advice, and I’m glad my Mom was around to help me out!

Mental/Emotional Preparation

If you have children already, you will want to help them prepare for the new arrival. You can do this in a number of ways. When I was pregnant with my son, once I was showing, a started talking about the baby that was growing in Mommy’s tummy. When he started kicking enough to feel from the outside, I would put her hand on my tummy so she could feel the baby. We also talked about how much fun it would be to have a new baby. This helped a lot, I think, to prepare her for her brother’s arrival. When he showed up, she loved him and wanted to hold him all the time. Her not being jealous was a real blessing during those first few weeks!

One thing I wish I had done—and will do next time, is to work on discipline issues before the baby arrives. Let’s put it this way: the younger the child is, the easier it will be. And even though it seems like we have no energy during pregnancy, we will have even less after the baby comes. Not to mention time! If you have taught your children to obey the first time, life will be much easier on you when the new baby comes!

It is also good to take some time before the baby comes to establish priorities for after the birth. Think about things like your devotional life, a clean house, home-cooked meals, time with friends, etc. Do this before the baby arrives, because it will be harder to think rationally during those first few days. This is one thing that it would be good to discuss with your husband, too. He can help you see things better, and also help enforce your decisions after the baby comes!

And finally, accept what you can’t change. You’ve gained weight. It may or may not come off quickly after the birth. Stressing about this will only aggravate it.

Your husband isn’t perfect either. Now is not the time to change him. Of course, you will never be able to change him, but especially now just focus on accepting him for who he is.

Maybe you have a small house, or some other thing that you aren’t satisfied with. If so, learn to accept it. Your circumstances will probably change at some point, and even if they don’t, a cheerful attitude is better than a negative one.If all else fails, you might want to consider seeing a counselor to talk through your problems with.

Spiritual Preparation

Now that you are pregnant, you probably are cutting back on what you do. This means you will have more time to deepen your relationship with God. Take it. Don’t watch movies or play games to fill the time. Read your Bible and other devotional books and spend more time in prayer. This is probably the most important thing you can do! Especially pray for the new baby.

Something else: Now is a good time to work on your bad habits. Now when you are not overwhelmed with the responsibility of a newborn, ask the Lord what areas He would have you focus on, and start creating good habits. Once something is a habit, you won’t have to think much about doing it, and that will be a blessing when the baby is born! For example, if you have created the habit of picking up your Bible or devotional book when you were too tired to do anything else, you will probably keep doing it when you sit down to nurse the baby (once you have nursing down pat, anyhow). This will make it easier to resist the temptation to turn on the TV and fill your mind with junk!

Wow! That’s a lot of things to think about. Don’t let it overwhelm you, though. Remember, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” Philippians 4:13.

Don’t forget to enter the contest to win one of the items in my store! Multiple entries allowed! Click hereto find out more.

That’s right. We got the keys today! Went to Home Depot to look at things. Tomorrow we’re going to buy a bunch of stuff–paint, flooring, some appliances. Will post pictures later. Stay tuned!

You can now find our Page on Facebook! Please follow (or like, as they call it now), to keep up with the latest.

If you’ve been following my blog for a while (okay, so it’s only a couple of weeks old…), you might remember my post on cracking nuts together as a family. Well, I finally got the video for that uploaded. It’s adorable! (Sorry, but you’ll have to click the video twice to get to the youtube page… I couldn’t figure out how to make the video fit on the page.)

More recently, Manny decided that it was fun to push the raisin container across the table. I caught it on video. Tried to get him to play peek-a-boo (which he will play spontaneously whenever I don’t have a camera handy), but he wasn’t in the mood. Still, it’s cute!

Thought you might enjoy these!