Feedback from A Day in My Kitchen

#1 · August 28, 2003, 12:52 pm

Quote from Forum Archives on August 28, 2003, 12:52 pm
Posted by: homenews <homenews@...>

Dear Hope Chest friends,

I must have hit the nail on the head with my last Tidbit, A Day in My Kitchen, because I've gotten a lot of positive feedback about it. This is amusing to me since I didn't get a single comment on the previous week's message, Inspiration from Yesteryear. Did I find you where you (and I) are really at?   Here's the challange: I long for the ideal, but live in the real. Somehow I want to mesh them together in my life. That's actually the whole idea behind my book The Real Life Home School Mom (www.hopechest.homestead.com/reallife.html).

Well, speaking of kitchens, we tried the Chicken Moambe and the Vegetable Rice Curry again yesterday! They were much faster the second time around, especially since I took a few shortcuts.   Here is the quick way: Saute diced onion, garlic and celery in butter. Boil chicken parts for about 40 minutes until tender. Mix the chicken, some of the broth, the sauteed vegetables, and some tomato sauce in a big pan and keep heating until the flavors are all blended in.  Use the extra broth to boil rice along with sliced squash, carrots, turnip, green pepper, etc. Add curry powder and other seasonings as desired to the rice and sliced vegetables.

This time, we took our moveable feast over to Thad's mom's house. Our guests were Dorothy (Ann's part-time home health aide), husband Cyprian, baby Luther and sister Sylvia, who are all from Zambia.   They brought some authentic Zambian food, including corn meal balls (I didn't quite catch the name for them), seasoned chicken and cabbage. After dinner, we all gathered in the living room so they could tell us about life in Africa beyond the media stereotypes. I missed most of the discussion because our little ones were being so noisy, but it was quite educational, to be sure!

In case you think you are only one who has "bad days" in home schooling, I've pasted the comments from other Hope Chest readers below! We had a challenging day on Monday, when six year old Andrew fell into an iron railing. Blood spurted out from a gash in his forehead. Julia, our first aid guru, helped me patch him up enough to take him to the emergency room, where he and Lydia and I waited for four hours him to be treated. We had left in such a rush that we didn't bring any books along, so we passed the time playing paper and pencil games and talking to other longsuffering patients. I was able to comfort a lady who had just survived a potentially fatal car accident with only minor injuries, as well as give out a few gospel tracts. Andrew is fine now; I hope this incident discourages further rough housing, but somehow I don't think the lesson has quite sunk in yet!    Ah well, that's real life!

~*~*~*~

FEEDBACK FROM

A DAY IN MY KITCHEN

Your newsletter was a gift! I admit that I laughed out loud!! Thank you for your incredibly honest
look into your kitchen and your life.

This is truly the most encouraging letter I've received from you! I know many moms, like me, think everyone else has it all together. I was at a point of quitting home schooling when someone who was "perfect" shared about her struggles at a home school meeting. That was a turning point for me. I CAN do this!

Thanks Virginia for sharing this with us. I especially appreciated the part about your herd of elephants and you *barking* OUT! OUT!   This sounds a lot like me and my *screaming*; although, I like bark better-somehow it sounds better..LOL   I live in a single wide trailer and there is barely enough room to walk through the kitchen much less have a bunch of people in there moving around all at once. So I am always barking OUT! OUT! it seems. But really, sometimes I think as a homeschool mom I see other hs moms as the *perfect* wife and mother. I see someone who never yells at her babies.  Someone with the perfectly clean and organized house. Although I wonder how when there is so much activity in our homes with hsing. It was very comforting to see that I am not so different afterall. Thank you!! This has been very encouraging for me to read. A load of guilt has been lifted as I see I'm not such a bad mom and my house isn't so crazy.

I just finished reading your HopeChest "kitchen letter" and I could not stop laughing. You DID give everyone you sent it to permission to laugh;-) Thank you for being so real about life as
a homeschool Mom. You are a great encouragement to me and I know to many other ladies!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you, for this little tidbit! What a refreshing piece of work. I am not the only one who has "those" days.

Thanks so much for your last e-mail concerning a day in your kitchen! (hahaha) I loved it! It's nice to know others have days just like mine.

Just wanted to let you know I enjoyed the African meal story. It sounds so much like one of "those days" at my house. I laughed through most of it, but I totally lost it when I got to "because I'm crazy and I like to make extra work for myself." There have been times I've made the same comment. You lifted my spirits today. Thanks.

Thanks, Virginia! I have had days that seem to go like that - and I only have 4 children so far (#5 is due the end of November)!

I LOVED reading this! I can so relate. I was thinking and have been thinking this for something, that you should send out a bunch of you family's favorite recipes. I am sure that with 9 children you have some great and tasty money saving recipes. We have a family of 7 and I am always looking fro things that are very tasting and very inexpensive to make. Anyway, just a thought for you.

~*~*~*~

In His Sovereign Grace,

Virginia Knowles

www.hopechest.homestead.com/welcome.html

Posted by: homenews <homenews@...>

Dear Hope Chest friends,

I must have hit the nail on the head with my last Tidbit, A Day in My Kitchen, because I've gotten a lot of positive feedback about it. This is amusing to me since I didn't get a single comment on the previous week's message, Inspiration from Yesteryear. Did I find you where you (and I) are really at? Here's the challange: I long for the ideal, but live in the real. Somehow I want to mesh them together in my life. That's actually the whole idea behind my book The Real Life Home School Mom (http://www.hopechest.homestead.com/reallife.html).

Well, speaking of kitchens, we tried the Chicken Moambe and the Vegetable Rice Curry again yesterday! They were much faster the second time around, especially since I took a few shortcuts. Here is the quick way: Saute diced onion, garlic and celery in butter. Boil chicken parts for about 40 minutes until tender. Mix the chicken, some of the broth, the sauteed vegetables, and some tomato sauce in a big pan and keep heating until the flavors are all blended in. Use the extra broth to boil rice along with sliced squash, carrots, turnip, green pepper, etc. Add curry powder and other seasonings as desired to the rice and sliced vegetables.

This time, we took our moveable feast over to Thad's mom's house. Our guests were Dorothy (Ann's part-time home health aide), husband Cyprian, baby Luther and sister Sylvia, who are all from Zambia. They brought some authentic Zambian food, including corn meal balls (I didn't quite catch the name for them), seasoned chicken and cabbage. After dinner, we all gathered in the living room so they could tell us about life in Africa beyond the media stereotypes. I missed most of the discussion because our little ones were being so noisy, but it was quite educational, to be sure!

In case you think you are only one who has "bad days" in home schooling, I've pasted the comments from other Hope Chest readers below! We had a challenging day on Monday, when six year old Andrew fell into an iron railing. Blood spurted out from a gash in his forehead. Julia, our first aid guru, helped me patch him up enough to take him to the emergency room, where he and Lydia and I waited for four hours him to be treated. We had left in such a rush that we didn't bring any books along, so we passed the time playing paper and pencil games and talking to other longsuffering patients. I was able to comfort a lady who had just survived a potentially fatal car accident with only minor injuries, as well as give out a few gospel tracts. Andrew is fine now; I hope this incident discourages further rough housing, but somehow I don't think the lesson has quite sunk in yet! Ah well, that's real life!

~*~*~*~

FEEDBACK FROM

A DAY IN MY KITCHEN

Your newsletter was a gift! I admit that I laughed out loud!! Thank you for your incredibly honest
look into your kitchen and your life.

This is truly the most encouraging letter I've received from you! I know many moms, like me, think everyone else has it all together. I was at a point of quitting home schooling when someone who was "perfect" shared about her struggles at a home school meeting. That was a turning point for me. I CAN do this!

Thanks Virginia for sharing this with us. I especially appreciated the part about your herd of elephants and you *barking* OUT! OUT! This sounds a lot like me and my *screaming*; although, I like bark better-somehow it sounds better..LOL I live in a single wide trailer and there is barely enough room to walk through the kitchen much less have a bunch of people in there moving around all at once. So I am always barking OUT! OUT! it seems. But really, sometimes I think as a homeschool mom I see other hs moms as the *perfect* wife and mother. I see someone who never yells at her babies. Someone with the perfectly clean and organized house. Although I wonder how when there is so much activity in our homes with hsing. It was very comforting to see that I am not so different afterall. Thank you!! This has been very encouraging for me to read. A load of guilt has been lifted as I see I'm not such a bad mom and my house isn't so crazy.

I just finished reading your HopeChest "kitchen letter" and I could not stop laughing. You DID give everyone you sent it to permission to laugh;-) Thank you for being so real about life as
a homeschool Mom. You are a great encouragement to me and I know to many other ladies!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you, for this little tidbit! What a refreshing piece of work. I am not the only one who has "those" days.

Thanks so much for your last e-mail concerning a day in your kitchen! (hahaha) I loved it! It's nice to know others have days just like mine.

Just wanted to let you know I enjoyed the African meal story. It sounds so much like one of "those days" at my house. I laughed through most of it, but I totally lost it when I got to "because I'm crazy and I like to make extra work for myself." There have been times I've made the same comment. You lifted my spirits today. Thanks.

Thanks, Virginia! I have had days that seem to go like that - and I only have 4 children so far (#5 is due the end of November)!

I LOVED reading this! I can so relate. I was thinking and have been thinking this for something, that you should send out a bunch of you family's favorite recipes. I am sure that with 9 children you have some great and tasty money saving recipes. We have a family of 7 and I am always looking fro things that are very tasting and very inexpensive to make. Anyway, just a thought for you.

~*~*~*~

In His Sovereign Grace,

Virginia Knowles

http://www.hopechest.homestead.com/welcome.html