Summer Baking

When my children were home ..wow what a busy time..Mary was born the yr Jimmy graduated..and left for the Navy ......Jimmy was our first child and Mary was our 6th..and last child...Having a houseful of children and a loving husband was so wonderful.Oh we had our problems like anyone else..But once Jim was healed we had a happy life for the most part..In the summer ..it was so hot in this big house..We had fans of course but no air-conditioner !!! i had to do my baking at nite in order to keep the house cool..We had homemade bread most the time..well since i am here alone i dont bake as much..Boy do i miss the homemade bread..Today at the store i got a loaf of white bread..it looks pretty bad too..i will have to make some bread ..i miss it so much...i always cooked from scratch and i loved it..i made home made dinner rolls and bread sticks and cinnamon rolls..Jim used to make Monkey Bread for our monkeys{kids}..hahaha..These were the HAPPY DAYS !!!
love connie.

 

 

* Order Connie's book, "Dear Kitchen Saints," available on Amazon. It is autobiographical and tells the beautiful story of her marriage testimony!* 

A Peaceful Home in Marriage

{From the Archives of Connie's Letters, April, 2011.}

Part 1


Dear Mothers,,Good morning,,i almost got a virus this morning,,Thank God i
didnt..i have so much i want to say on marriage,,The husband has to be the
head of the house,,he has no other place,,He is to be honored as unto the
Lord.The reason the Lord tells us to do this is because we mothers want to
give all our time to our children,,,"Naturally" they are little and they
need us,,,Thats our natural bend,,but it isnt Gods,,So lets talk about some
ways we can honor our husbands,,One way is to wrap your household schedule
around husbands job,,Like if you had to work 8 hrs wudnt you want to come
home and rest ? When Jim was alive and worked i allowed the children to have
friends in to play until Jim got off work,,Then i wud tell the neighbor
children " Kids i need to have you children leave now as Jim will be home in
a little bit,,We have some things to do" The neighbor children wud say,," My
Mom said i cud stay until 5,00 " And all kinds of excuses,,Jim enjoyed the
neighbor kids but not right after work,,Jim wud want to rest a bit when he
got home and watch the News,,The kids and i got to watch our shows when Jim
was at work,,So when he came home it was his turn to watch what he
wanted,,And he had a right to rest after work,,And i guarded his quiet
time,,He needed that,,and i knew it..After he rested then he felt like
visiting with his family and having supper,,,Sometimes we invited guests
for supper..We had lively conversations,,Jim always said Grace first,,No one
touched any food until Papa sat down and said the blessing,,In this way as
wife and keeper at home you honor God as you honor your husband,,You are
your husbands glory,,Love and honor your husband and he will eventually
honor God..

Part 2

And every husband is different,,You all will honor your husbands in
different ways,,All according to his likes and dislikes,,But my Jim needed
his down time right after work,,i always had the mail laid out for him to
look at,,He wanted to read the mail right away too..You know men need time
to do man stuff,,i just think it dishonors a man to expect him to deal with
the neighbors right as he gets off work,,This causes confusion and tension
for the family if the mother cant run her home in a good way,,,Mothers have
authority in the home too,,And she needs to keep a quiet orderly home to
give her family a place of rest and peace,,Men are not wired to be Nannies
or Mommies helper,,They may have a smile on their face but they resent being
treated like a child,,And this resentment will show up over time,,Trust me
it will..love connie

 

 

 

* Order Connie's book, "Dear Kitchen Saints," available on Amazon. It is autobiographical and tells the beautiful story of her marriage testimony!* 

Encouragement for Mother as Easter is Coming

Part 1

    It's one in the morning. . . its raining. . . Oh Happy days...i am up talking to Jesus,,Maybe i will be like Olivia Walton and get healed on Easter Morning..i believe i will....As i was making coffee this morning i prayed to the Lord...i ask His help in the Easter preparations...i said "Lord please send your angels to help me," Well i know He will..i have opened my front door here in the livingroom to listen to the thunder..Peggy Sue Kitty is hiding and running ..But i love the rain..Jim and i used to run as hard as we cud in the rain...As a child i loved to run and Jim did too.."Remember Papa how we loved to run and laugh in the rain?" and oh when our children were young..we worked like dogs...i longed for a tender word from Jim as he wud walk by me...But all the time our car was the emergency and Jim wud try to fix it so that he cud go to work and give us another day to live and to work and to raise our children..How we everrrr made it ..i dont know..Had  we not had faith we wud have dropped dead along the way..But i remember longing so to just be in Jim's presence...especially when it rained at nite..In the Spring we wud open the window by our bed and listen to the rain..we wud just lay quietly..and WELCOME the refreshing rain upon our spirits...i was held tight in Jims arms ..i was loved by him..and thats all i needed..He made my world go round..and he still does..some how..he still does..

Part 2

 Jim always had alot of energy..But i didnt..i tried to keep up with him but it wasnt easy..Jill cud always work circles around me..One time we were at the Warehouse Market..You put your groceries on a flat bed with wheels...well we were both pregnant..i got sorta sick and very tired ....Well Jill ended up asking me to sit on the flat bed along with our groceries...So she pushes me all over the Ware house..on the flat bed..i cant remember but i know we laughed our heads off.We always did..And ya know one time Jim and i were doing errands on a Saturday morning..We stopped by the house to check the kids ..as we  had a few more things to do..I was standing in the diningroom waiting for Jim..i had these tall high heeled shoes on..And i just fell over onto the floor..Jim came running to me...i was crying..He ask me what happened.?.i finally told him i just cudnt keep up with him..i cudnt go another step..He said "Honey wud you just tell me when you are  tired?"..After this happening i was to fall about 3 more times...But i really prayed about it ..and i got stronger again..One time our car went out and it had to be towed home..Jim went ahead to walk to work and i was to pay the towing guy..So when the tow truck came i went out to pay him..i was just standing there and the this guy looked the other way and when he looked back i had fallen down on the ground. He said "Lady are you hurt"? i said "No i will be ok"...

Part 3

  Ya know when i think back to how we lived ?i really dont know how we did it..to be honest Jim never hardly had a good job..But ya know our house payment wasnt high..As i have told you the Lord told us to move here..i bot our house with a welfare check of 151 dollars down and 135 dollars a month..Soon after Jim gave his life to the Lord he said we werent getting any more Gov cheese ..or anymore free food..And oh heck fire...i didnt care ..Ya know i just figured that if God gave us 6 children to feed then He wud supply the food for them..and of course He did..But i think we have to walk out in faith ..We cant judge our lives by how much money we have in our purse..God doesnt look at the Government chart on how much money it takes to clothe and feed one child for a year..No He gives us daily bread..and He supplies all of our needs according to His RICHES in Glory..We as Christian wives and mothers need to be the examples in this world ..As we follow Jesus  to the cross we learn to die daily..We learn how to put our flimsy needs last ..lnstead of first as the feminist does..As we Mothers take the lowly seat then Jesus Himself puts us in the front row..in the best seat in the house..Love connie

 

 

 

* Order Connie's book, "Dear Kitchen Saints," available on Amazon. It is autobiographical and tells the beautiful story of her marriage testimony!* 

Making Groceries

{From the Archives of Connie's Letters, May, 2011.}

Ya know yrs ago when the children were all home and Jimmy in the Navy we wud get so low on groceries,,i wud be up in the nite prayin about it,,So early in the morning i wud start cookin and baking..Usually i wud make Hamburger Soup...with vegetables in it..or just carrots and potatoes in it..I wud make up a big batch of bread dough and make bread and rolls.And often i made Granola..i wud buy a big box of the Old Fashioned Oatmeal not the instant,,Anyway if i only had Oatmeal to make it then thats all i used,,i wud mix up about a half cup of honey and half cup of oil and bring that to a boil and pour it on my big roasting pan of dry oatmeal..And then ya bake it until it is brown,,Then we ate this like cold cereal..After it is baked you cud add raisins or the dried cranberries,any dried fruit..,But never bake the dried fruit in the oven it will come out like rocks..If the honey cost too much i wud use brown sugar instead,,Now if ya got some nuts put them in with the oatmeal to bake..or sunflower seeds or whatever,,If we were going some place in the car i wud make lil bags of granola for the kids to eat in the car...i wud add choc chips to this,,We called that Trail mix..Then i made Gorp ? too..That is peanuts with raisins in a jar..For snacks in the evening i wud make old fashioned cooked on the stove popcorn,,If i made homemade pizza i made popcorn to go with it,,.The pioneers used to eat popcorn with milk and sugar on it..For supper sometimes i make old fashioned popcorn and eat it with apples..You can buy alot of popcorn in the bags for hardly nothin,,and it tastes so much better then microwave popcorn,,i just make it in a skillet on the stove..love connie

 

 

 

* Order Connie's book, "Dear Kitchen Saints," available on Amazon. It is autobiographical and tells the beautiful story of her marriage testimony!* 

Mothers of Inventions

{From the Archives of Connie's Letters, April, 2011.}

Dear Mothers...Just think the Lord chose us to go thru these current hard
times..Everytime i go to the grocery store i am flabbergasted at the prices
of food going up dollars and not cents as usual..I was thinkin of my
daughter Chrissy who said .."Mom money gets in the way of my
creativity"..And she also said "Never create any art for money,,Create
things that speak to your own heart"..Jill says everything in her house that
she creates has to minister to herself first..Because if it doesnt minister
to her it wont minister to anyone else either..These are days of
hardship..and lack ..So what,,lets rejoice in the fact that money wont get
in our way,,We have a job as never before..There is a whole new world out
there ..Lets roll up our sleeves and take it...Poverty is the Mother of
inventions..The Bible speaks of witty inventions,,Lets pull away from the
world and their fears and anxieties,..Gods will for us is that we will be
overcomers....The women during the Depression era made it and so will
we....I had my own Depression era in my own family to live thru in the
1980s..We lived on 200 bucks a month for food and paper products.and
soaps..Every day i prayed that i wud have enuf food to go around,,But we
lived honest..i worked hard and Jim took whatever jobs he cud get to support
us,,The kids learned alot during that time..My children as adults always
have jobs...When they were children they delivered the Penny Saver ..once a
week ..The Penny Saver was a small newspaper we all got each week..This gave
them spending money..This was the 3 youngest kids,,,But my 3 oldest had jobs
too..Oh i cud have gone out to work ..but Jim wanted me to stay home..And i
was worth more at home then out working,,i cooked mainly from scratch,,,and
spent alot of time in prayer..love connie

 

 

 

* Order Connie's book, "Dear Kitchen Saints," available on Amazon. It is autobiographical and tells the beautiful story of her marriage testimony!*