Mothering as Ministry

For some reason today the idea of mothering as ministry came to my mind. I have heard this expression used many times and just never really "thought" about exactly what that means. It is very easy as a mother to get caught up in "the doing" of being a Mom and so easy to forget the "why." It's my observation that some people simply put a check mark next to the having kids item on their "checklist of life." Have kids...meet their needs...grow them up...move on. I don't mean to sound harsh, but I know this is true. You meet so few Moms anymore who really have a purpose to their parenting. The bible says that children are like arrows. Arrows need to be pointed in the right direction. They don't just hit the target all by themselves. You can't just shoot up in the air and hope you hit the target. It takes thought, precision, good equipment etc... Seeing the target isn't good enough...you must aim for it and hit it for it to count for anything. Children are so much more important.

As the wife of an assistant Pastor I see a lot of things in ministry. I see the good, the bad and the down right ugly. As a Mom you see...the good, the bad and the ugly. Do you see where I'm going with this? Anytime you deal with people you have to deal with quirks, emotions, sensitivities etc.. A good leader knows how to handle these things and uses them to bring out the best in people. A mother should do the same. Every child has things that drive us crazy, things that we absolutely love and things that are ugly and we just want to do whatever we can to get rid of the "ugly" trait. This is what I'm saying...do your best as a Mom to treat your children as your ministry. Just as a good Pastor would strive to lead and bring out the best in his congregation a mother should do the same for her children. It's not always easy (in case you didn't notice), it's not always pretty and it certainly won't win you any popularity contest with your children...DO IT ANYWAY! Minister to them, meet their needs, capitalize on their strengths, help them with their weaknesses and most important, help them learn to tame that "ugly" sin nature we all have. And just like a good pastor's heart would be to make sure all his people are saved...make sure that your children know the Good News of Christ and do all that's in your power to keep their hearts tender to it. I've had more than one person tell me I'm strict (I hate terms like this) but whatever... you can think what you want about that. I like to think I'm a guardian of my kids hearts and mind. If I don't do it you better believe that satan will be more than willing to do it for me. I'd also like to add here that for every bad thing I don't allow, I replace it with something good and wholesome and the kiddos are happy and healthy and by God's grace their hearts are tender. I'm not going to let the world dictate to me what my kids "need." God tells me in His Word exactly what they need and I can say for sure it doesn't come from the poor excuses of entertainment on TV or the ridiculous role models out there. So be vigilant...satan sure is!

So this is just something that I had on my heart and just thought I'd type it out. Maybe it will encourage you to really be a mother who ministers and not just a mother who goes through the task of mothering. Blessings.

Wonderful Alfredo!!!

I Love a good pasta dish...we eat a lot of it at our house. This is a recipe I found a long time ago that is "supposed to be" Olive Garden's recipe for Fettuccine Alfredo...which is still my favorite, with or without chicken (broc. too if you like). I will give you two versions. The first one is the original, but the sauce is quite heavy so I altered it a bit to suit our taste and so that we could still fit in our clothes:)

The Original

1 Pint of heavy cream
1 stick of butter
2 Tab. of cream cheese
1/2-3/4 cup of parm. cheese (use fresh...it really makes it so much better)
1 teaspoon of garlic powder (or more to your liking...I'm a garlic freak of nature)
salt and pepper to taste
8 oz. of of fettuccine, cooked and drained

In a saucepan combine butter, heavy cream and cream cheese. Simmer this until all is melted and mixed well. Add the Parm cheese and garlic powder. Simmer this for
15-20 minutes over low heat. Toss Pasta lightly with sauce, coating well.

Now here's what I did...

2 Cups of 2% milk
1 stick of butter
2 Tab. of lowfat cream cheese (neuf.)

Follow all directions exactly the same. The only other thing I did different was I used a full pound of pasta. There was still more than enough sauce to coat everything, but if you like a lot of extra sauce you may only want to use the 8 oz. Here are my pics...I always dress up my food...I love how it looks. The fresh basil and the black of the pepper just looks so pretty against that white creamy sauce. Enjoy!



Somebody hold me back!

What to do with all those papers!

I'm sure like me (at least if your a Mom) you have enough drawings and crafts from your children to wallpaper just about everyroom in your house. I'm a neat freak, but yet I just can't bring myself to throw out a lot of things that my kids make. This is the idea I came up with. I have a rubbermaid container for each kiddo (you can make a cute label to go with it). I begin by always asking (especially my six year old)which pictures he wants to keep and which ones he doesn't mind throwing away. This really is a stupid question for me to ask, but morbid curiousity always wins. We usually end up keeping everything except the one little picture he scribbled on the back side of a juicy fruit wrapper. All the things he wants to keep go in the container which in turn leaves room for other things like eating and sleeping. We do have a rotating display of some of his favorites. We leave three or four on the fridge and rotate as he gets a new favorite. This minimizes clutter (which drives me insane) to say nothing of being able to see the door of my fridge while still letting the kiddos know that I love their work and am so happy to have it displayed for all to see. There are several other ideas for displaying...two that come to mind are frames and tables with glass covers that you can put the pictures underneath for all to see. Whatever your method for displaying you will appreciate not having papers all through the house! Let me know if you have any other ideas.

The Best Chocolate Cake, Ever with The best Frosting I have ever had!

I'm at it again. I don't know why I spend so much time looking at recipes sites...it gets me in trouble every time. Since we are going on a picnic tonight I figured I would make a chocolate cake to bring along...what's a picnic without cake? So anyway, I found this recipe for chocolate cake on The Pioneer Woman's sight and the frosting that accompanies it I found at Tasty Kitchen. I was really satisfied with the results and the frosting is just awesome. It sounds very unconventional, but yields decadent results. It seriously would taste good on just about anything. I just made a basic cake and decorated it with spring sprinkles for the kiddies. They both LOVED it! I'm sure you will too!




Freshly frosted!




After we had a "few" pieces!

So give it a try...you won't be disappointed!