Comfort in a bowl

I've been sick. It always seems to happen this time of year. I thought this year would be different, since I remembered to get my flu shot and I've tried to stay away from crowds. My hand sanitizer is frequently used, especially at Walmart. But it happened anyway.

It probably has a lot to do with the great PUSH required to finish our school semester while getting things ready for Christmas!

At any rate, when I am sick, there is one thing which brings me great comfort: this very special Mexican Chicken Soup (Pozole De Pollo). I first made this soup for our Mayan Feast when we were studying that ancient culture, but it quickly became a favorite. Now, when I am sick, I can barely survive without it!

It's so easy, too. This is all you'll need:

Whole chicken or several chicken breasts (I prefer boneless breasts for simplicity)
Chicken broth (2 large cans) or chicken flavor instant bullion (10 cups)
Several fresh garlic cloves
1 to 2 tsp. Oregano
1 to 2 lemons, freshly squeezed (or equivalent in lemon juice)
1 can hominy, drained (this corn product was found in the Mexican foods aisle at Walmart)

Condiments for topping the soup:
Cilantro
lime or lemon wedges
tortilla chips
diced green onion

Other people like adding fried flour tortillas, sliced radishes, diced avocado, or iceberg lettuce wedges to this soup, but for me, nothing compares to the cilantro-lime wedge-tortilla chip-green onion combo. It is pure comfort.

To prepare the soup:
1) Put the chicken, broth, garlic, oregano and lemon juice in the crockpot and simmer all day. When the chicken is done, remove it and shred the meat.
2) Put in the can of drained hominy and allow the soup to cook for another 30 minutes or so.  Serve with your favorite condiments.

Decorating the Mantle

I thought it would be fun to do a whimsical mantle decoration this year. We love watching the Nutcracker every year during the Christmas season, and this mantle reminds me of The Land of Sweets.

Candy cane striped candles anchor the greenery, which has been lightly sprayed with "canned snow".  Candy ornaments are stuck among the branches, with many dangling down.  The four gingerbread cookies are each painted with the names of our four sons.

I've collected these ornaments over time, but I believe you can find some ribbon candy ornaments and gingerbread-inspired ornaments at Cracker Barrel.

The children love this festive, fun mantle decoration and so do I!

Home-Spun Holiday blog carnival

This post is part of the Home-Spun Holiday blog carnival being held at Mentoring Moments for Christian Women. I've written two posts for this carnival.The things we do just for fun are on Counter-Cultural School, and this post is about two of the things we do to focus on Christ's birth during the Christmas season.

Our family tries to have family worship daily, and during the Christmas season this time is very special.  Each night the boys take turns being the Advent helper, lighting (and blowing out) the candles, reading The Advent Book aloud to the family (which tells the Christmas story from the Gospel of Luke), and choosing what Christmas hymns will be sung that evening.

 

We still do our Jesse Tree, mainly for the benefit of our youngest son, Cal.  Then my husband shares some thoughts about our Scripture passage for the evening.  These times are, for us, the highlight of the entire season.  In fact, it was our celebration of Advent that eventually led us to begin daily family devotions all year long.  You can read more about that here.

Every year on Christmas Eve, each person prepares something for our family Christmas program.  Last year our boys read the Christmas story from Luke 2.   My husband and mother-in-law taught us a Norwegian Christmas carol from their family tradition.  My step-father sang, my mother recited some Scriptures she had memorized as a young girl, and my brother-in-law led us with his guitar in singing Christmas carols.  My sister read a poem, and I shared a devotion I had written for the occasion.

One year, our oldest son sang O Come All Ye Faithful in Latin.  That was the year when everyone was supposed to prepare a musical number to share.  Afterward, we gathered around the piano and sang Christmas carols together, and then I played Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring.  Every year is a little different, but it is always memorable.

What are the simple things you do to make the season special for those you love?  If you write a post about it, please join the carnival at Mentoring Moments!  It will run from December 6-12th.

Twelve Days of Christmas

I've been very busy writing this season, though you wouldn't know it to look at my blog! Instead, I've been working hard writing and editing the Mentoring Moments 12 Days of Christmas series. This year, to celebrate our site makeover and our new format, we'll be extending the 12 days series and publishing fun and meaningful holiday articles all month long.

If you haven't subscribed yet, I hope you'll go to Mentoring Moments for Christian Women and sign up, so you don't miss a thing! It all starts today! This year, our devotional series will be focused on the names of Christ as reflected in some popular Christmas carols. There are also lots of wonderful party ideas, recipes, decorating tips and activities for kids coming your way.

We'll be hosting a blog carnival on December 6th, so if you have a blog, please consider writing a post and submitting it to the carnival. The topic will be on simple, inexpensive things you do at home to make the holidays special.

To subscribe, go to Mentoring Moments and look in the right sidebar for a place to enter your email address.

Grateful for Nothing

I have nothing to be grateful for this year. 
Nothing that I know of, anyway.  We had no major illnesses requiring miraculous healings.  No job loss, no house fire, no broken bones.  Nothing whatsoever interfered with the normal, peaceful rhythm of our lives.


What I mean to say is that life has gone along as usual this year, and that is the “nothing” that I’m thankul for.

The Lord is always actively intervening on our behalf, even though we often aren’t aware of His protection.  I caught a glimpse of His hidden work recently, as our family was narrowly spared from disaster twice in one month.

You can read the rest of my article at Mentoring Moments for Christian Women.


While you are there, check out our new site a bit.  We've just undergone an "extreme makeover", changing our format, our look and increasing our writing staff.  Our annual 12 Days of Christmas series is coming up quickly and it is going to be fantastic.  I've had the blessing of working to put the series together, and each writer has contributed wonderful devotions, party ideas, recipes and more to make the series very special.  If you sign up on the site for a subscription you can get all these wonderful posts right in your email inbox!

The Voice of Experience

This summer we were blessed to be able to take our sons to the ocean. They had the opportunity to swim as well as snorkel, and to learn how to ride the surf.

I love the ocean. My husband does not. He doesn't like its unpredictable nature, with its strong waves and abundance of living creatures. But we both agree that our children should have the chance to decide for themselves how they feel about the ocean. They may end up loving it as much as I do, or they may join my husband's camp...but we feel strongly that they should make their own decision, based on their own experiences.

We want to expose them to a wide variety of foods, hobbies, cultures, reading material, arts and people so that they can begin to form opinions about who they are and what they like as individuals. They don't all like the theater, but we still take them. They don't all enjoy strange foods, but we still try them.

And they don't always appreciate learning about other cultures or sitting through concerts or trying new hobbies, but we do it anyway. Sometimes they are pleasantly surprised by something they did not think they would like. Other times, it is just as bad as they thought it would be.

But either way, we are trying not to let our own prejudices and predispositions get in the way as we guide our children through their own discoveries about life.