Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Philippians 4:11-13

 

“Our reactions to circumstances are a part of our walk of holiness. Holiness is not a series of do’s and don’ts, but conformity to the character of God and obedience to the will of God. Accepting with contentment whatever circumstances God allows for me is very much a part of a holy walk.” 

Jerry Bridges in The Pursuit of Holiness

I’d like to share a very frugal dinner meal that our family has loved for years.

Our youngest son  and his family are here for a visit from out of state. It’s been several years since he’s been home. We’re so glad to have this time with them!

So, I’ve been choosing some of his favorite childhood recipes to make while he’s here. This one recipe I am sharing is an old familiar friend that I made a lot during the winter months while my children were young. One reason was because it was so cost effective. You can add as much or little chicken as you’d like. I normally would use only 1/4 of the chicken and save the rest for 2-3 other dinners. This recipe will also freeze well.

We call this recipe Chicken and Dumplings but it’s not the typical recipe with the drop dumplings. I have a great recipe for those but my family prefers this one. These are more of a strip noodle.

So, here goes the recipe:

1. Fill a large pot with water and season with garlic powder, salt and pepper. Add your raw chicken (as much or little as you want). Boil until the chicken is done.

2. Add 6-8 chicken bouillon cubes and let them dissolve as the broth boils. Now, this may be the tricky part for some of you if you’re not used to making homemade soup. You need to taste the chicken broth. How does it taste? Is it rich enough? Can you taste the chicken? You don’t want this broth to be weak in flavor. If it’s not flavorful then you need to add a few more chicken broth cubes (or the equal in chicken broth powder) until the broth in the pot tastes right. You may need to add more garlic powder, salt or pepper,too.  The flavor of the broth is one of the keys to this recipe turning out well.

3. Now, we’ll make the noodles. The size of the batch will depend on how large of a pot of broth you made. I normally double this recipe.

1 cup flour

1 egg

2-4 tablespoons of milk

Mix all these ingredients together JUST until they are mixed. You want the ‘dough’ to not be hard and stiff but ‘light’.

4. Next, you want to wet a cutting board (or your counter top) and place a few large pieces of seran wrap on the damp counter so it will stick. Bring over a cup of flour and take a good handful and dust the seran wrap. Next, take out a handful of dough and press it into the flour and then flip it over and coat the other side of the dough with flour. Take your rolling pin and dust it good with flour. Now start rolling out your dough until it’s very thin. Flour your dough as you are going. You can’t have too much flour because the flour will also help thicken the broth. Take a pizza cutter or a knife and cut thin strips about the size in width of a pencil and maybe 3-4 inches long.

 

5. Next drop your noodle strips into the boiling broth. This may take a while if the dough is sticking. This is where you’ll be glad you had a lot of flour on your board.   I had to gently lift the noodles up with a knife dipped in flour because they were sticking. It took quite a while. Boy, had I wished I had used more flour. Boil the noodles until they are done which is anywhere from 20-30 minutes. If the broth is not thickened from the flour in the noodles then you may want to add some more flour to thicken it. I take a tablespoon or two of flour and put it in a small jar (peanut butter size) with 1/4 filled with water. Shake. It should be the consistency of thin gravy. Pour slowly into your broth in the pot stirring constantly. Cook a while longer. It should thicken nicely. Be careful that the noodles don’t stick to the bottom of the pot.

If you have any of this dinner left the following day you may find the noodles have soaked up the broth. All you have to do is just add more cans of chicken broth.

I hope you enjoy this family favorite!

 

 

“…preaching the gospel to ourselves every day reminds us that we are indeed sinners in need of God’s grace….It helps us to consciously renounce any confidence in our own goodness as a means of meriting God’s blessing on our lives. Perhaps more importantly, though, preaching the gospel to ourselves every day gives us hope, joy, and courage. The good news that our sins are forgiven because of Christ’s death fills our hearts with joy, gives us courage to face the day, and offers us hope that God’s favor will rest upon us, not because we are good, but because we are in Christ.”

The Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges

 

 

Many of you have read about my friend, Emma Lee, over the past few years. Emma-Lee went to be with her Savior this past week after a year long fight with stomach cancer. Her services will be held at out church today.

 

In Loving Memory of Emma-Lee

Each of our lives will leave a lasting memory on those we have known. Emma-Lee’s life has touched mine in so many ways. I will forever remember Emma-Lee each time I look at the lovely freesia flowers she gave me when they bloom, for her love of baking for her family, for the cookie sheet she bought me because mine was so old, for the metal scrubber she insisted I purchase to CLEAN the cookie sheet she bought me, for her homemade caramels and cream puffs she spent the day teaching a group of us from the church how to make, for her giving nature that offered rides to those without transportation to pick up their brown bags, for the many rides she offered her friend with cancer to take her for treatment, for the day she invited a group of us to make tamales in her home, for never complaining about her finances and for her love and devotion to her grandchildren.

But, most of all, I will remember my friend Emma-Lee  for her faithfulness to her church. Emma-Lee rarely missed a Sunday service and if she did you knew it was for a very, very good reason. She faithfully attended each woman’s bible study, Titus 2 Saturday meeting, church pot blessing along with vacation bible school. I heard she also taught the young school children from the Elementary School down the street during religious release time years ago and a children’s Sunday school class. One of the young girls from our church fondly remembers her often getting up early on a Sunday morning to make cream puffs for the entire congregation.

But, above all of this, I will remember this past year while Emma -Lee was fighting cancer, and how she continued to remain faithful in her attendance. I sat by her many Sunday’s when she was not feeling well. Oftentimes, as she was sitting and listening to a sermon or singing a hymn, the pain from the cancer in her stomach would hit without warning. Instead, of getting up and leaving , she would quietly double over and wait for the pain to pass. She made it a point to sit in the back row so that she wouldn’t draw attention to herself. I often thought about how easy it would have been for her to stay home. If anyone had a good excuse to miss church it would have been her. But, she often told me that now was not a time for her to slack off attending church. Church was important to Emma-Lee and now that her life on this earth has ended I am sure as she stands before her God she is thankful that she made knowing Him the top priority in her life.

I thank God you are free from your pain, Emma Lee, and that you will never cry another tear. I’ll miss you, my dear friend, but I am so grateful to have known you and most of all to have the joyful assurance that I will see you again soon in the not so distance future.

Your friend,

Georgene

 Emma-Lee’s church

Emma-Lee sorting clothes to give to the poor.

Tamale making day at Emma-Lee’s home.

Two of the girls she taught in Sunday school learning to make caramels.

 

The finishing touches on her caramels.

 

Her famous cream puffs. (Her recipes for the caramels and cream puffs can be found on my website).

Here Emma-Lee is teaching my granddaughter how to crack an egg.

Emma-Lee was doing a chorus-line ‘kick’ and the girls in the kitchen at church were laughing at her.

Our precious Emma-Lee! We will miss you!

We can only imagine true love when we look at what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross. May God help us to love and serve our families, church and neighbors with that kind of love!

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends. John 15:13-14

 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Rom 5:8

 

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.  John 3:16

 We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.  And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother. 1 John 4:19-21

 

Happy Valentine’s Day to you all!

 

Our church is studying Pursuit of Holiness by Jerry Bridges. I have read quite a few of his books and would have a difficult time picking the one that has helped me the most in my Christian walk.

The quote below is very thought provoking! 

“When I say that I am defeated by some sin, I am unconsciously slipping out from under my responsibility. I am saying something outside of me has defeated me. But when I say I am disobedient, that places the responsibility for my sin squarely on me.” 

Jerry Bridges in The Pursuit of Holiness.

 

For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. Romans 8:13

Piecedtreasures has tagged me and wants to know 4 random things about myself. Ha! I don’t consider myself very interesting so I emailed a friend for help!  This is the best I could do….

1. My husband and I owned and ran used bookstore on our property for 10 years where we helped homeschoolers in choosing curriculum. At the same time I was the principal of a private ISP for homeschool families in our church.

2. One of my favorite joys in life is to bake and cook for others.

3. My ambition in life is/was to be like Aunt Bea of Mayberry.

4. I have a ‘soft’ spot for the unwanted whether it be a child or an unwanted animal. I used to pick up stray dogs on the street and find them homes. When I was a young child I dreamed of living on a farm where I could bring rescued and abused animals. As an adult I’ve always dreamed of working in an orphanage or bringing unwanted children into my home so they would have someone who loved them.

I’ve never tagged anyone before but here it goes…. I’d like to tag  pollypatchworker, vishbobu,danishdoll,jehovahraah83,cerwindoris,malamacindy, danishdoll, and growingrace (oh, my, there are so many I’d love to know more about! So, if you’d like to shared then please let me know.  

 

I tried an experiment and it worked!

My vacuum cleaner has a tube-like filter made of some sort of heavy paper. It costs somewhere between 20-30.00 to replace it. So, I looked at the material it was made from and thought I might be able to wash it. I gently washed it in warm water in the sink with a little bit of dish soap. It turned out just great! I made absolutely sure that it was completely dry before I placed it back in my vacuum cleaner. Perfect!

I also experimented washing my swifter replaceable duster pads. I use them to clean the top of my ceiling fan blades and my blinds.  I gently washed them in warm water in the bathroom sink along with a little dish soap, squeezed out the extra water and then hung them to dry. They held up just fine!

YEAH!!!!

*~*~*~*

On a more personal note…

Life is forever changing.

I’ve been babysitting my friend’s grandchildren for 2 1/2 days a week while she recovers from surgery. We’ve needed the extra money and she’s needed the help so the arrangement has worked out just fine. I’m watching the children at their home so I’ve had to change some of my time consuming thrifty ways temporarily. Mainly, I’m not drying my clothes on racks. It was just too time consuming and I’ve needed to make the best use of my minutes while I’m home.

My husband is scheduled for surgery this month. So, most likely I’ll be needing to find another part time job while he is recovering to help with expenses since we are self-employed.

Life is not always the way we’d like it to be. I’m not ecstatic (understatement) about having to leave my home. This is the first time in our married life that I have left my home to work. My husband is not happy about it, either. I’ve had my times when I’ve really struggled over it. But, necessity calls for it so I’m working hard at keeping my heart settled on serving my husband (although sometimes failing) rather than what I want to do. I’m created and called to be his helpmate and at this season in our life ( if for a short time) that calling may look different than it has in recent years when my children were still in the home.

I don’t want a career. (Double YUCK!) Nor do I desire to work to buy more STUFF for my home or go on fancy vacations. I’m being called upon to help with our necessities (food and shelter) for hopefully a short period of time.

If you think of me I would really covet your prayers that my husband’s surgery will go well  and that I depend on God’s strength in these coming days to bring Him glory in my calling as a helpmate.

Love to you all!

Georgene

I oftentimes think back on my child training days and thank God that He had mercy and grace on my children.  My heart desired above all else to train them in God’s ways and I poured myself into the task. I did the best I knew  to do with the knowledge I had at the time. Praise God that He is in control of my sanctification and that of my children. If we had to depend solely on our perfect parenting then none of us would have any hope!

I built a lot of fences around my children in those days. Not the wooden kind but the spiritual ones. I had many ’do and don’t’  lists that I hoped would protect them.  Many of these fences were good and necessary and biblical. But, I can see so clearly now, that oftentimes too much of my focus was on the fence (the externals) rather than the heart (the internal).

Jerry Bridges, in his book called Transforming Grace, talks about his parents forbidding him to go to pool halls as a young man. Their main concern was that he would develop friendships with ungodly men. But, somehow they did not get this point across to their son and he grew up believing that a pool table was sinful.  He was taken back one day when he moved to a Christian conference center and saw godly men playing on a beautiful antique pool table. He believes that the ‘fence’ his parents built was good and necessary but that their focus was unbiblical. His heart was the real issue, not the pool table.  

As mothers (and grandmothers) we desperately need to know God’s Word  in order to teach our children to rightly divide it. 

I’ve spent quite a few years since my children have become adults tearing down some of those fences I diligently erected in their youth because they were extra-biblical rules and not scriptural. Many others I’ve  reinforce with the ‘reason’ WHY they were built in the first place… to help not lead them into temptation and to not make provision for their flesh.

Jerry Bridges does a wonderful job explaining this in his book called, Transforming Grace.  

 

But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
Rom. 13:14

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature..
Gal. 5:1,13