2008 October

October 1, 2008 By kimc

I feel the need to apologize to our readers. Ours has not traditionally been a political blog, but political issues are not limited to the political sphere. As Christians, we believe that God’s Word speaks to every area of life. Just as we look to His Word for guidance in choosing a spouse or church, so also we look (or ought to look) to the Bible to answer the question of who we choose to rule over us in the civil sphere. This is not a neutral realm outside of His power, influence, or attention span. This is part of Christian living.

This is called being consistent.

Ok, that was snarky of me, but it really needs to be said.

The liberal media recognizes the apparent inconsistency of evangelical Christians who believe that the home and church ought to be ruled by men but are unwilling to apply the same standard in a third area.

I’ve heard the arguments and the comparisons to Esther, Deborah and others, and I just don’t buy it. I don’t think the media does either.

The L.A. Times has published a good article on the subject.

To some evangelicals, Palin’s career violates biblical teachings

Click on our News tab at the top of the page for more articles on the Palin issue, and please send us a link if you want to recommend an addition to the list.

Can I get some accountability here?

October 1, 2008 By Perry C.

This is an amazing piece of documentation. Quite shocking in light of the fact the Democrats are spinning this as a lack of regulation.

Mr. Pot, Mr Kettle is on line 2.

Take a look at the gentlemen from New York at the minute forty five mark….glad we didn’t have that heart surgery.

Sheesh.

and good ole Barney Frank at about the 5 minute mark stating he doesn’t see any “safety and soundness problems” with Freddy and Fanny. Someone should get him on the record now about this hearing.

I could go on and on but you really need to watch this for yourself.

When you are done, call your Senator and tell him in no uncertain terms to vote NO on the bailout plan.

WFMW: Organizing my pantry

October 1, 2008 By kimc

I’m not always an organized person, but when organization works the beauty of it makes my heart sing!

Here’s my most successful kitchen tip: label your shelves. This makes life easier on several levels:

The kids know exactly where the food belongs when you tell them to get off their tails and help put away groceries. They might not do it right, but they can’t say they didn’t know.
The kids know exactly where to look when you tell them to please bring you a can of cream-of-something soup. They still have to open their eyes and engage their brains, but once again the ball is in their court.
The kids can help you compose a grocery list. It works like this: You recline on the sofa with a glass of [insert your favorite drink here] and a pen and paper. “Honey, go look on the overstock shelf and see how many bottles of salad dressing we have.” “Sweetie, look in the canned goods and see which rows are empty.” “Hey! You with the pigtails! Can I get a refill here?”
And when the kids make a mess of your beautiful system, they can put it all back together. It can even count as homeschooling time. Sorting, counting, categorization, reading, logic. Spin it however you like. They are getting smarter while they clean up the mess they made, in more ways than one.

In the floor cabinet where I store canned goods, I have rows neatly labeled. Each row goes straight back, just one can wide. One shelf hold these categories:

spag (spaghetti sauce, which we also use on pizza)
cream soup (my old faithful cream of mushroom and cream of chicken soups)
corn (includes hominy)
tomato (anything else tomato based: plain tomato sauce, paste, diced, soup, etc.)
gr. beans (these used to be our veggie whenever we had nothing else. very often.)
beans (black beans, garbanzo beans, baked beans, pork ‘n beans, etc.)

The next shelf has:

milk (evaporated and condensed)
fruit (cranberry sauce, pumpkin, applesauce, etc.)
meat (mackerel, tuna, corned beef, sardines…spam? spam Lite???)
refried (in south Texas these deserve their own space, separate from all lesser forms of beans)
veggies (nearly anything but corn, tomatoes or green beans)
gallon (for truly family-sized cans of green beans, peaches, pickles, corn, and more)

The wall cabinet just above has 3 shelves, 2 of which are labeled for daily use. Areas include:

sugar (not for white sugar, but brown sugar, powdered sugar, and splenda)
teas/coffees (for specialty coffees and various teas; the big can of coffee is below)
spices (all manner of seasonings, in containers large and small)
coffee (big can of coffee plus grinder and bags of whole coffee beans)
misc (for well, other stuff…)

My standing pantry has just one label for each shelf:

party supplies – OK, this shelf isn’t labelled yet, but that’s what it should say. It holds fancy cake pans, cake decorating supplies, streamers, birthday candles, etc.
sweets – anything related to desserts. Might include cake mix, jello or pudding mix, raisins, candy, and more.
just add water – yes, that’s really what the label says. This shelf holds pasta, oats, grits, and possibly extra bags of rice and beans though those are currently stored under the sink. There’s even an old jar of instant iced tea and a mysterious bag of instant country-style gravy. Where did that come from?
overstock/PB – for new inventory of staples. And…um…peanut butter. This is where everything goes before the old one runs out. This way we don’t find 4 opened bottles of Caesar salad dressing in the fridge.
non-food – for paper plates and plastic holders, trash bags, etc.
oversize – for items too big to be stored on normal shelves. My gallon bottles of honey, oil, and vinegar. Enormous bags of tortilla chips from Costco. Half gallons of Pace Picante salsa. You get the idea.

We also have ice cream buckets under the kitchen sink to hold white flour, wheat flour, sugar, corn meal and anything else purchased in bulk. That reminds me: our buckets are falling apart. I think it’s time to get some more.