Dreaming of a White Christmas
Author Archives: Momzoo
Opening Hearts
Sunday, we were in church and a very nice invocation was offered. During the prayer the sister who was doing the praying said something to the effect of “please let us open our hearts to the messages given today”. When the prayer was finished my almost 4 year old looked at me and said:
“We are going to open our hearts?”
“Yes,” I answered.
“How do we do that?” he replied with a look of utter confusion.
A Little Bit of Christmas
Around these parts we are getting ready for Christmas.
But I must make a confession.
I don’t love Christmas.
Now all you die-hard Christmas people can run me out of town with pitch forks.
I envy people who can get into the spirit of Christmas and who revel in all the preparations for the big day. There are a lot of aspects of Christmas that I do enjoy, however the parts that I don’t like seem to overshadow that good parts. My annoyance with Christmas starts the day after Thanksgiving, with black Friday. To me black Friday is consumerism at its very worse, people sitting in lines for hours to get the best deal on the latest junk. Anyway, I know a lot of people really like the hunt, but I just can’t stand it. This summer my irritation with Christmas was brought to a head when my own children started to tell me what Santa was going to bring to them. Not only was I irritated at their attitude, I was irritated by what I had created! Dadzoo and I started talking, we wanted to make Christmas more Christ focused in our home, but how does one do that when we are so entrenched in the worlds view of this Holy holiday.
(Dadzoo reading the “Giving Tree” before we decorated our Christmas tree)
Our thoughts and discussions kept coming back to the idea that we need to pare down and refocus on the love of Christ and the miracle of His birth and life. Christmas needs to be less about what Santa is going to do and more about what WE are doing for others, using Christ as our example of love, charity and service.
(punk #5 in his new favorite spot)
This doesn’t mean we are giving up Santa all together, we are just letting the myth take more of a back seat. My children are getting some well thought out, Christ centered gifts, from their Father and I, instead of a ton of toys from Santa. Our children used some of their own spending money and donated it to charities that use the money to help people in our own neighborhood with things like utility bills and groceries. Our children are not exchanging gifts, but service to each other.
I am excited about these changes, even though they are small I can feel the change in our home. I can also feel the change in my attitude about Christmas, this very holy holiday. Dadzoo and I are going to be praying and thinking over Christmas, and how our family celebrates it, over the next several years and make changes so that our home becomes on that is centered in Christ, not only everyday, but especially at Christmas time.
(Our “service ornaments” more in another post)
What do you and your family do to invite Christ into your homes during Christmas?
Eggs, long term storage
Right now my chickens are producing splendidly. I am getting about a dozen eggs a day. I can usually keep up with production, considering it takes 18 eggs to feed my family a breakfast of scrambled eggs, and also randomly giving eggs aways to friend and neighbors. Tonight I washed a whopping 9 dozen! I thought about offering some for free on facebook, but then I got to thinking….I might as well preserve some, because when January comes their egg production will go way, way down. (That is when I turn off the artificial lights and give my girls some much needed rest).
One of the easiest ways to preserve eggs is to freeze them. You can also pickle eggs and oil eggs. I am not too fond of pickled eggs and I have never tired the oil method (you can guarantee that I will try oiling eggs at some point though). So freezing it is.
It is simple, all you need to do is crack those little babies open, pop the yolk and freeze any old way you would like. I opened each egg into a section of an ice cube tray. One they are frozen, I will store them in a plastic bag in the freezer. I like this way, because I have a good idea how many eggs I have if using them in a a recipe. Now my ice cube trays didn’t quite hold one full egg, so if I so use them in a recipe I will probably use two of the frozen egg sections.
Otherwise, one tray is about one breakfast for us. I could also crack 18 eggs into a bowl, add milk salt and pepper and freeze that mixture, knowing that it is exactly the amount I would need for scrambled eggs in the morning, all seasoned and ready to go!
This tip isn’t just for chicken people, there are times of the year that eggs are really cheap (I am thinking Easter) when a whole bunch could be bought and stored for times when food and/or money is scarce or for a convenient meal.
Workin’ Hard Mom
