Forgive my not posting yesterday. I am in North Carolina for a few days enjoying some Southern hospitality and was unable to get to the Internet until this morning. But, oh my! I think we cyber girlfriends could write ourselves a best-selling soup cookbook! I can’t wait to try many of your yummy-sounding recipes!

This week, I am pulling back and taking a little breather. And, I am also doing a hard thing. One of those rip-your-mama-heart-nearly-out-of-your-chest hard things. It is also, thankfully, a good thing. I’ll write about it someday soon.

For now, I want to give you a few great posts I’ve come across for you to check out. I’ll be back later this week when I return to Michigan with an exciting announcement and a fun giveaway. Be sure to check back.

Oh…and the winner of last weekend’s giveaway of two copies of A Life That Says Welcome and a Starbucks card is Daphne R. Congrats! Send your home address to kim@proverbs31.org so we can mail your prize to you!

Now, for some great links:

For your marriage

For your mothering

For your kitchen

For your heart and home

Have a great week!

Does the phrase “Company’s coming!” send you running for cover?

I can sooooo relate!

I married into a family full of interior decorators, caterers and Bed and Breakfast owners, while I myself could hardly boil water!

So, I set out to become skilled at “entertaining” to impress my new relatives. However, God quickly taught me the difference between entertaining and offering hospitality, a lesson I learned the hard way.

Entertaining places the emphasis on you and impressing others.

Hospitality places the emphasis on others and refreshing, not impressing, them.

In the month of March, I will be leading an online study of the book I wrote on this topic A Life That Says Welcome: Simple Ways to Open Your Heart & Home to Others

This book and study will help you to:

• Recognize the reason for offering hospitality
• Identify the top five excuses for not opening your home and apply simple solutions to combat them
• Arm yourself with cooking-for-a-crowd menu ideas, make-ahead freezer meals and kid-friendly favorites
• Acquire weekly speed cleaning strategies, a proven system for de-junking your house and simple, doable decorating tips
• Obtain creative concepts for living a life of welcome wherever you are

Watch for more details to come. And, if you want to join us and don’t have the book yet, go get a copy. (The last online study I did, all of the major retailers were back-ordered for weeks when it got close to the start date so you might want to be ahead of the game.)

The sign-up is simple. Just subscribe to my blog before March 19th when the study kicks off by clicking on the envelope icon in the top of the sidebar. Any new posts I write will be delivered automatically to your email’s inbox!

Now, for a little preview (and a little giveaway) here is a sneak peek at one of the recipes in the book perfect for a winter welcome for guests:

Chicken Wild Rice Soup

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1 cup chopped, peeled carrots

1/2 cup chopped celery

3/4  cup flour

6 cups chicken stock (or 6 cups water with bouillon cubes to taste)

6-ounce package long grain and wild rice

2 cups chopped, cooked chicken breast

3 tablespoons cooking sherry (optional)

In a large soup kettle, melt butter and sauté onions, carrots, and celery until tender. Stir in flour. Gradually add stock until mixture comes to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to medium low. Prepare rice as directed on box, omitting oil and salt. Add rice and chicken to stock and simmer 10 minutes. Add sherry. Serves 10.

NOW FOR THE GIVEAWAY:

I’ll give two copies of A Life That Says Welcome (one for you & one for a friend) so you can join us for the on-line study in March. I’ll also throw in a $5 Starbucks gift card so you and your friend can discuss the book over coffee.

Just leave us a comment telling us your very favorite soup to eat. And, if you leave the recipe, your name will be entered twice. Winner announced Monday (when I’ll also have another very fun announcement too!)

This morning, when I had to drop by the middle school FOR THE THIRD TIME THIS WEEK (time #1–he forgot his lunch; time # 2–I forgot to send hot lunch money with him; this time—I needed to drop payment by the office for wrestling) I was met with a smile by the school’s office secretary.

(Are they even still called secretaries? Maybe it is “administrative assistants” instead).

Anyway, I have noticed she is always so chipper and helpful and patient with both scatter-brained parents and squirrelly junior highers.

My son thinks so too. He referred to Mrs. K last night as one of the most “awesome” people at his new school.

I didn’t think I should keep that info to myself.

So, this morning when I made my trek in, I told her what he said about her.

She smiled big and said how very much she needed to hear that this morning and how it totally made her day.

Who in your (or your child’s) life is a constant bright spot?

A co-worker, neighbor, pastor, teacher, coach, youth worker, fellow carpool mom?

Today, I dare you to pause what you are doing and tell them so.

Ot better yet, drop them a hand-written note.

It will make their day too.

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Last night at my church, a group of about 25 of us gathered to talk a little about getting organized.

In the kitchen.

In our menu planning and shopping.

In our cooking.

And cleaning.

And ever-mounting paper piles.

And in lots of other areas that are scrawled on our daily “To Do” lists.

I showed one of my favorite organizing tools ever and then gave one away for a door prize.

(I wanted to rig it so my friend Lauren would win. She was sweet enough to bring me a latte for a bribe. But I thought rigging was listed as a sin somewhere in the Bible, so I refrained. Sorry Lauren. )

It is a clipboard case. On it, I keep my daily “To Do” list so I can refer to it often.

In it, I put any items that must be dealt with today. These would include overdue book notices, bills that must be paid today, permission slips that must be returned tomorrow, Red Box dvd’s that need to go back to Walgreens, etc…

Then, I make it a habit to check my clipboard every night before I go to bed to deal with what is in it.

Okay…not everynight. We too have overdue Redbox fees sometimes.

Here is a link to where you can purchase one online. I have also found them in person at Staples, Office Max and Walmart.

Now go turn your “To Do” list into an “All Done” one on its way to the paper shredder.

Congrats to the winners from over the weekend. They are:

The Let It Snow giveaway: Lacy Joy T.

The winner’ of a pdf of Darlene Schacht’s ebook The Good Wife’s Guide:

April Bryson

Jennifer Rae

Tonya Taylor

Monica (the Monica who left a c0mment on 1:20 at 4:47 pm)

Congrats gals! Shoot an email to my assistant Kim at kim@proverbs31.org telling her what you won and giving her your contact info.

It is one of “those” days.

You know the kind.

Almost a half-dozen phone calls to make.

Two errands to run.

Laundry calling my name.

No dinner planned yet.

A few friends’ prayer requests laying heavy on my heart.

I need to tackle some mail.

I need to take my phone into the cell phone store since it is acting up AGAIN!!!!! Ugh!

I need to be in two places at one time tonight–speaking at my church’s Mugs & Muffins ladies night out and picking my son up from weight-lifting.

(Time to call the neighbor to request shuttle service for the man-cub).

I need to consult my freezer for something to thaw and cook.

You get the picture. I’ll bet it is often your snapshot too!

On one of “those days”, I remember the words I read as a young mom from the pen of one of my favorite authors.

DO THE NEXT THING.

Great advice.

However, over the years, I’ve had to tweak that saying just a bit. Too easy to get distracted and make my “next thing” some time-wasting trivial pursuit.

Or a wrong thing like wasting time worrying.

Or day dreaming.

Or doing a task that really doesn’t need to be done right now just to feel productive when in reality it is a way of procrastinating.

So instead of just doing the next thing, I will do the next “right thing.”

(I heard this friend once encourage her audience to do just that.  Then, soon after, I  spotted it on a t-shirt. I get the message God. )

So, that is where I am headed now. To my “next right thing.”

How about you?

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Be sure to check out the article I have running over at Candace Cameron Bure’s online magazine Roomag.com. It is on turning Sunday suppers into Monday soups Click here to see it.

I live in Michigan. Usually in Michigan it snows a lot in the winter. Once, last year, after 10 inches fell and blew over night, out my front door it looked like this:

However, this winter, besides one big dumping the beginning of December, it has only lightly snowed a few times, looking more like this:

 

Snow or no snow, this weekend I am giving away a “Let it Snow” package that looks like this:

It includes:

~ A hat and scarf from Old Navy

~ A box of Dove Milk Chocolate Promises

~ Three packages of Land O’ Lakes white hot chocolate

~ A fun journal to write in on a chilly day

~ A pair of toasty and fluffy socks from Old Navy

To be entered in the giveaway, tell us your favorite memory of snow or, if you are slammed for time, just say “Let it Snow”. Winner announced Monday.

And if you have yet to enter the giveaway fro my friend Darlene ebook The Good Wife’s Guide click here or if you haven’t taken my blog survey to help me as I go forward here in cyberspace, click here.

Thanks and have a great weekend!

I have a new cyber friend for you to meet. She is one of my favorite people I met in 2011 and she’s just written an ebook on marriage.

I LOVE her passion for women to keep their priorities in place so I asked her to join us today. (Oh, and I am totally trying NOT to be jealous of her book’s cover. I have always had an obsession with retro aqua kitchen appliances )

Keep reading for a chance to win a copy of this ebook and to hear about another giveaway I will have for you tomorrow.

Darlene Schacht is an ordinary mom, living an extraordinary life, because of who she is through Jesus Christ.

As help-meet to her husband Michael, she guides and nurtures their four children, leading them toward a deeper walk of faith.

Her work has been published in anthologies by Thomas Nelson, Tyndale Publishing and Adams Media.

She is the author of the eBook, “The Good Wife’s Guide,” as well as co-author with actress Candace Cameron Bure of The New York Times Best-Seller, Reshaping it All: Motivation for Spiritual and Physical Fitness.

You can find her blogging at Time-Warp Wife (www.timewarpwife.com)

In The Good Wife’s Guide Darlene encourages women to joyfully serve their families. In doing so she offers reasons for achieving a well-managed home backed by scripture and gleaned from experience. As well she provides readers with detailed cleaning and organizing schedules for practical application.

This book encourages women to make faith and family their first priorities from a place of sacrificial love. It reminds women that they were created with a specific purpose in mind, which is that of being a help meet. In supporting our husbands and living in unity we reflect God’s blueprint for marriage.

Find “The Good Wife’s Guide” on  facebook: http://www.facebook.com/thegoodwifesguide

I was able to “sit down” with Darlene (via email messages ) and ask her a few questions. Here is our interview:

Darlene, what prompted you the write The Good Wife’s Guide?

About a year ago, I came across a copy of an article that was circulating the internet. It was called, “The Good Wife’s Guide.” It looked to be a photocopy of an article published by “Housekeeping Monthly,” in May of 1955, but upon closer inspection, I got to wondering if the article might be a hoax. After checking with a few reliable sources online I discovered that it probably was.

The thing about the guide is that it was so similar to the message I was already sharing with my readers, in particular an article I had written called, “My Desire for Curb Appeal.” I clicked through several of the links, and nearly everywhere the guide was posted, it was up for much ridicule. The thing that got to me most was that our role as a help meet was being diminished by popular opinions that would rather scoff at good family values than face the truth of God’s Word:

“Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.” Ephesians 5:22-24, (NIV)

I decided to resurrect the “Good Wife’s Guide” in my own words, and according to the role that I hope to fulfill in my life. It started out as an article, but more recently evolved into an eBook because of the interest I saw from readers.

It is no longer a satirical piece written to mock the role of a help meet, but rather a guide that leads women toward a noble character and good family values. I think it’s time that women took a stand for family values that serve to grow and protect the family unit as God divinely designed it to be.

What is your biggest hope for the woman who reads your book?

Titus chapter two exhorts women to love their children and to be keepers of the home. My hope is to enforce that message while teaching them how to do it with joy.

The book may have a special appeal to the stay-at-home mom, but SAHMs and working moms alike can both take joy in serving their families and glean from the lessons therein.

My passion is to encourage women to love and serve their families in hopes that we will all strive to keep our priorities straight. In doing so I offer them reasons for achieving a well-managed home backed by scripture and gleaned from experience.

That’s my passion and my hope. In keeping our priorities straight, we put faith and family first (in that order).

You are offering a giveaway today. Tell us about it.

Oh, I LOVE giveaways, and I love to make them simple too! I’ll give away four PDF copies of the eBook to your readers, and in order to enter, all I ask is that they share this post with someone whether it is through email, Twitter, Facebook, blogging, or word of mouth.

Then, if they leave us a comment below, between now and Sunday night, we can announce the three winners on Monday.

In closing I’d love to thank both you and you readers for having me as a guest. Thanks, Karen!!

My pleasure Darlene!

Okay gals…..now go tell it on the mountain….or on Facebook…or Twitter…..or on your blog…or send an email…or phone a friend….or run over and knock on your neighbor’s kitchen window and scare the bajeebies out of her.

Just tell someone about this fantabulous new ebook and then come back here and tell us who you told. Then, you’ll be entered to win!

To make it easy for you, below are a couple of pre-made Tweets & Facebook statuses for you to grab. Your welcome.

Oh, and if you aren’t following us on Twitter or are not my Facebook friend yet, go to Twitter and follow me at Karen_Ehman and Darlene at DarleneSchacht or “friend request” me on Facebook at Karen Patterson Ehman so you will be able to tag the names in the post. You can also find Darlene on Facebook at Time Warp Wife.

Twitter:

Have you seen the new ebook The Good Wife’s Guide by Darlene Schacht? Win 1 of 4 copies on Karen_Ehman’s blog: http://goo.gl/zdmbg

An awesome resource for wives. Win 1 of 4 copies on Karen_Ehman’s blog! The Good Wife’s Guide by Darlene Schacht: http://goo.gl/zdmbg

Facebook:

Head over and hear about the great new ebook for wives by New York Times bestselling author and ordinary mom Darlene Schacht. You could win a free copy on Karen Patterson Ehman’s blog: http://goo.gl/zdmbg

Ever feel like you aren’t a good wife? Fear not! Check out The Good Wife’s Guide by New York Times bestselling author Darlene Schacht (who is also a regular mom and probably cleaning her house right now.) Karen Patterson Ehman is featuring this new ebook on her blog and four women will win a free copy. See how: http://goo.gl/zdmbg

Okay….now be sure to come back tomorrow when I will be offering a “Let it Snow” giveaway package you are gonna love!

So, yesterday after I wrote this post for my son’s 17th birthday, I made him the dinner of his choice.

He chose homemade enchiladas and Mandarin Orange-Pineapple cake. I mentioned on Facebook what I was making and my wall blew up with requests for the cake.

So, here is the recipe that my step-mom made not too long ago and both of my boys have requested for their birthdays this year. While I love to make cakes from scratch with no artificial ingredients, this one is a short cut that uses a cake mix and Cool Whip.

It really is tasty.

However, I refrained from eating any this go-round. (For my church’s 21 day fast, I gave up eating anything that is not a real food. That would include Cool Whip.)

Enjoy!

Mandarin Orange-Pineapple Cake

1 yellow cake mix

15 ounces mandarin oranges, undrained

1 t. orange extract

4 eggs

2/3 C. oil

8 ounce container Cool Whip (Extra Creamy is best)

20 ounce can crushed pineapple, undrained

1 regular size (3.5 ounce) package French Vanilla instant pudding mix

In a large bowl, beat eggs and oil. Add orange extract. Drain about 3 T. of the juice off of the oranges. Add oranges and remaining juice to bowl along with cake mix. Beat until well blended and there are no large chunks of orange.

Pour into a 9 x 13 pan which has had the bottom and sides sprayed with baking spray (the kind with oil and flour in it.). Bake for 25-30 minutes at 350 until a toothpick comes out clean. Do not over-bake.

For frosting, combine undrained pineapple, Cool Whip and dry pudding mix until blended. Spread over cooled cake. Cover and store in the fridge.

Enjoy a summery treat in the middle of winter!

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He turns 17 today.

That little strawberry blond boy who once refused to nap.

Now, he’d sleep til noon each day if he could. A growth spurt perhaps?

Years ago he spent his days busy at play. Play is a child’s work.

He’d “tinker” and “figure” and invent new things. He could imagine for hours with tools and wood, building something from nothing, my bright, inquisitive son.

Anything even remotely round turned into a “ball” which he’d throw with amazing accuracy with his then-chubby left arm.

From the age of three, he’s had a love affair with baseball.

Playing it. Watching it. Talking about it.

But he never did like books.

A few years into our schooling, we discovered why.

Dyslexia.

A scary word, especially to a homeschool mom.

Many tears. And tutors. And patience. And prayers.

Yet, in the midst of the dis-ability, we discovered his ability.

And most importantly His ability.

“God is not worried.” My friend’s words to me repeatedly rang in my head.

So why should I waste my time fretting?

Because I am a mom. And I do not enjoy seeing my child struggle.

I want to shield him from pain. And heartache. And discouragement.

Yet, in the struggle we’ve seen determination. And progress. And peace.

Pain often gives birth to beautiful things.

It has proved true with other tinkering men who too had this disorder and gift. They have gone on to do great things in this world—Edison and Einstein and Alexander Graham Bell.

Patton and Churchill and Henry Ford.

And my son’s favorite: quarterback and fellow homeschooled athlete Tim Tebow.

Over a decade after discovering the gift, God is still not worried.

And my son— my still figuring and tinkering and batting and throwing son—is a delight to my heart.

Perfect he is not. But our perfect God uses his weaknesses and mistakes in life to teach me many things.

To love, but not to smother.

To guide, but not to push.

To model, but not to manipulate.

To not use his successes as a chance to pat myself on the back.

Nor his failures as a cue to beat myself up.

And to always allow for lots of grace. Grace which he must in turn also grant me for this is the first time I’ve been the mom of a teenage man-child.

A novice I am, still standing in the on-deck circle, not quite ready to send this one sailing just yet.

Yes, he turns 17 today.

And I turn another page in this heart-wrenching, hand-wringing, knee-bending, holy calling known as motherhood.

Father may we mothers place our children always in Your hands. You are God. We are not. Help us be humble about their strengths and grateful for their weaknesses. Take them where they need to go in order to live a life fully surrendered to You. Amen.

I was just thinking last night, as I tucked no one into bed, (Kenna lives in North Carolina, Mitch was at a friend’s and Spence had a football-watching overnight at his Papa’s house since there is no school for him today) how I miss reading books out loud to my kids.

Books at bedtime used to be a big production around here. We didn’t just read. Often we acted out entire plots!

With today being Martin Luther King Jr day and since Black history month is soon to roll in, let me share two favorites I used with my children when they were small to teach them about African-American heroes and history.

Check for them at your local library or order them online if you want to own them.

Here they are, along with their descriptions:

Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt by Deborah Hopkinson

As a seamstress in the Big House, Clara dreams of a reunion with her Momma, who lives on another plantation–and even of running away to freedom.

Then she overhears two slaves talking about the Underground Railroad.

In a flash of inspiration, Clara sees how she can use the cloth in her scrap bag to make a map of the land–a freedom quilt–that no master will ever suspect.

For ages 5-10.

Click here to buy on Amazon.com.

 

Follow the Drinking Gourd by Jeanette Winter

Winter’s story begins with a peg-leg sailor who aids slaves on their escape on the Underground Railroad. While working for plantation owners, Peg Leg Joe teaches the slaves a song about the drinking gourd (the Big Dipper).

A couple, their son, and two others make their escape by following the song’s directions.

Rich paintings interpret the strong story in a clean, primitive style enhanced by bold colors.

The rhythmic compositions have an energetic presence that’s compelling. A fine rendering of history in picture-book format.

For pre-school to grade two. Click here to buy on Amazon.com

Older kids might like any of the dozens of books out about the life of Harriet Tubman, a conductor on the underground railroad.

Happy reading!

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