Strengthening Family Ties
Make it a top priority to work together as a family and keep in touch with one another. Grandchildren and great-grandchildren learn a lot from sharing with each other. Plan picnics and family get-togethers, and keep family traditions alive: prepare beloved, old family recipes – everybody likes to eat! But above all, be there for family emergencies and help each other out as much as possible. Parents and grandparents, muster the patience and understanding to keep the doors open to all who want and need your help – or simply need to be listened to. (5)
Try to visit parents or grandparents at least once a month. They won’t always be there. (53)
Flowery accolades every five years at milestone birthdays are nice, but don’t neglect grandma and grandpa in between these major events. (54)
Add comment November 28, 2009
Edu-Smarts
Work hard in school and get a good education. Good students are not nerds or geeks! They are the future; you want to be part of that. (1)
I believe in telling your children from early on that advanced education is necessary to succeed in life. It isn’t necessarily college. It can be a trade school or classes that will help you advance in the field you are interested in. Those “pieces of paper” do count. (2)
Be curious and ask a lot of questions. Learn about things that may not be within your usual areas of interest. This is the definitive example of thinking outside the box. If someone says “no” to a reasonable question, ask them why. (2)
Read to your children at a very early age and encourage much reading, as most of your education stems from reading. (44)
Add comment October 30, 2009
The Wounded Healer
It is 1962. The Cuban missile crisis has thousands sitting on the edges of their seats, anti-apartheidist Nelson Mandela is jailed in South Africa, and a baby named Suzanne is born in a Midwestern U.S. capital. The nation’s children are not yet being exposed to an amoral, uncensored media blitzkrieg, but American society is on the threshold of an aggressive assault on traditional beliefs.
Meanwhile, Suzanne’s family is being led in a different direction. Her older brother becomes a believer and a member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes in high school, and Suzanne, at age nine, finds herself moved by Billy Graham television specials. Their changing hearts reflect a process that, “went beyond religion. God was pursuing our family. Looking back on the family’s history, you can clearly see it,” she explains.
Suzanne’s 1980 graduation from high school is accompanied by a growing passion to do mission work, and a sense of urgency inspires her to finish her education quickly, without amassing an ocean of debt. A three-year program in biblical studies that allows her to attend classes at night and work during the day fits the bill. And things do hasten along, with graduation followed closely by marriage, the birth of her first child, and a call to India. (more…)
Add comment October 19, 2009
Ah, The Smell of Cinnamon in the Air
Okay. So I’ve moaned about getting our first snow a month before usual. I’ve also griped about missing out on the beautiful spectrum of autumn colors that usually precedes that first snow fall. And the morning of this writing, I look out my study window to see a low, heavy blanket of gray clouds which seems to be threatening me personally, “You’d better quit whining or we’ll really let loose with something for you to complain about.”
So, I’m turning over that proverbial new leaf – as in flipping pages in a book, not as in making a bad pun about those poor, tired green bits of foliage still hanging limply from every tree limb in sight: I decide to stop whining and instead search my larder for ways to bring a little snap and color to the dinner table. With a rather ordinary main dish such as Glazed Baked Ham, I opt for a lively mix of Stir Fried Pea Pods with Yellow Peppers and Jicama, some Roasted Russets and Sweet Potatoes, a pan of warm Cheddar Spoon Bread, and a serendipitous version of Over-Stuffed Baked Apples for dessert. Fall colors may be fickle, but fall flavors have never been more reliable. (more…)
Add comment October 18, 2009



I wish I could say that this gloomy Friday the 13th forenoon had unfolded into a glorious Autumn afternoon, but it didn’t. Still, there’s one good thing about an overcast day: it can make for excellent walking weather, and a brisk outdoor walk is one of my favorite ways to work up an appetite for something warm and comforting from the kitchen. With the pupster along, this turns into a walk/jog, so a big bowl of homemade soup sounds mighty enticing by the time we’re headed back up the driveway at the end of our three-miler.
There was a coating of frost on everything in sight at seven o’clock this morning, but oh, the golden afternoon. As my little canine companion trotted along beside me, crispy windblown leaves chasing her in her exuberant zigzagging trot to the park, I started to line up the cast for tonight’s dinner. In deference to my husband’s low-carbohydrate needs, a recipe adapted from the very helpful book The Diabetes Diet, by Dr. Richard K. Bernstein, Chicken Breasts in Celery Wine Sauce, took center stage.
When a mostly cloudy week starts to dribble over into the weekend, then gets blasted aside by a burst of midday sunshine beaming down onto vibrant late-turning leaves, it’s time for a celebration. We invite our Hispanic friends over for dinner, set up a centerpiece of gathered cattails, and put some Corona Extras on ice. While I am not about to compete with the marvelous cooking skills of our El Salvadoran and Mexican acquaintances, a touch of spiciness does seem in order for this spread.