Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Respect Your Husband Revisited Pt. 1


I wrote a post in 2007 that is still receiving comments from ladies who have been struggling in this area for various reasons. I thought I would revisit the concept of respecting our husbands and various ways we can do that.

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. This is a lesson almost everyone Christian or not has been taught. This guideline is found in Matthew 7:12 which reads "Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets." This is a wonderful guideline and most often we try and apply it in our daily lives but how often do we apply it to our own husbands?

Treating your husband with respect also means treating him as you would like to be treated. In the next few posts we are going to look at ways we can and should be doing this.

First off let's look at the things we say. Proverbs 31:26 in describing the virtuous woman says "She openeth her mouth with wisdom and in her tongue is the law of kindness" How I wish that were always true of me. Often we fail to realize that our husbands have feelings and they can be hurt. We tend to see our men as tough and thick skinned so sometimes we don't think about what we say. Sadly I have heard some women called their husbands fat and go on about it and in front of others! How would you feel if your hubby said to you - Look at that gut! What a belly! You gotta do some crunches Flabby!" Now imagine him doing that in front of a group of people! Goodness - I would just shrivel up! That would hurt alot. It hurts men too, though they may not let it show. Even if it is something they kid about don't do it. Often men kid about things as a defense mechanism to hide their insecurity or bad feelings about something. It is our job to make our men feel good about themselves, to build them up, encourage and love them.

Another area where we tend to show disrespect is when we bark orders at our hubbies or nag them to do things. Take a moment to think about it before you ask your husband to do something. Is what you are about to say the way you would like to be spoken to? Would those words make you want to do what is being asked of you?
In the book Total Woman Marabel Morgan relates her experience with nagging. She would always nag her husband to take out the garbage. Their marriage had hit bottom and she resolved to try and fix it so as a start she stopped nagging. No matter how much it killed her she wouldn't do it she asked him nicely once and then resolved to leave it at that. To her surprise he hubby took out the garbage without her nagging him. No one likes to be nagged and pestered. Just stop. Ask him nicely once and leave it at that. He will follow through if you leave him to it. IF he doesn't want is the worst that can happen? I am sure that as he realizes you aren't going to pester him and nag he will have a desire to do the things you ask of him and be happy to do it!

There may be other areas that you can see where the things you say show you do not respect your husband, where you can see that the law of kindness is not in your tongue and you are not opening your mouth with wisdom. Work on it. Speak to your husband the way you would like to be spoken to. It will make a huge difference in your marriage.

Next post we will look at the things we do.

Blessings,
Liisa

Picture from www.allposters.com

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Chocolate Cake

My aunt gave me this recipe when I was first married and I make it quite often. It is easy and inexpensive. I think some may call it a depression era cake, my aunt calls it a pan cake since you mix it in the pan.

Pan Cake - Barb Erb

1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
3 tbsp. cocoa
5 tbsp. melted margarine or butter
1 tsp. vinegar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup warm water

Mix dry ing. in a pan (8" or 9")
Make 3 holes or wells put butter in one, vinegar in one and vanilla in one.
Pour water over the top and mix well.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until it tests done.

Note - I always double the recipe and make a 9x13 cake.

Fudgy Cocoa Frosting

3 tbsp. melted butter or margarine
1/4 cup cocoa
1/4 cup milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 cups icing sugar (or more depending on what consistency you like)

Combine butter and cocoa.
Blend in milk, vanilla and icing sugar until smooth.
Will frost a 9x13 cake.

Blessings,
Liisa

Biscuits

Here is the recipe I use for biscuits...it's the best one I have found. However if anyone has a good recipe for buttermilk biscuits they would like to share I would appreciate it! We had wonderful biscuits at Bob Evans the last time we were in Michigan and I would love to be able to make biscuits like that. Anyway, here is the recipe I use now...

Biscuits

2 1/4 cups flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup milk

Stir together flour, baking powder and salt.
Using a pastry blender cut in the shortening then pour milk over all and blend well.
You can roll and cut out the biscuits but I usually just grab blobs roll them into balls and flatten on the sheet.
Place on an ungreased sheet and bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes.
Enjoy!

Blessings,
Liisa

Deer Hunting


Yesterday was the first day of deer hunting season so my hubby and son left at 6:15a.m. to meet up with the other men in their hunt club. It was a chilly day here so I decided to make them some stew in the crockpot for dinner that way it would be nice and hot whenever they arrived home. I know from last year that they usually come home frozen, often wet and utterly exhausted so a hot meal ready to go is just the thing ~smile~.

I am sure my stew recipe is on here somewhere but I just basically put some cubed beef (I like small chunks), diced carrots, celery, peppers and potatoes in the crockpot with 2 big cans of diced tomatoes, 2 cans of gingerale and 2 packets of onion soup mix and cook it all day. Sunday at church we were blessed with a rutabaga (there were several on a table with note saying "please help yourself to a rutabaga" so I did ~smile~) So this time I added that in diced fairly small as well...it was good and I think my son must have just thought it was potatoes because he ate it without any questions or complaints. He's 19 but he is still a picky eater when it comes to veggies!

Yesterday I also made some iced cookies, and chocolate pudding for dessert. I was glad because my men came home HUNGRY!

While I was in the kitchen I also decided to make some meatloaves to use as lunch meat. My guys love meatloaf sandwiches and so do I. On the weekend I bought 2 half pound packages of lunch meat from the deli at the supermarket and it cost me just about $10. I bought 2 pounds of ground beef and one pound of ground pork for about $7. It really does save a ton of money to cook meats at home for sandwiches. Just look at the price per pound for raw chicken, turkey, beef, ham etc. and then look at the cost per pound at the deli counter. Besides it is so much healthier to cook it yourself. So no more quick trips to the deli counter to save time for me!

Today my son had to go back to work but my hubby is out hunting. Tonight we are having the leftover stew since I can reheat it in the crockpot and easily keep it warm for whenever hubby arrives. I am also going to make some biscuits to go along with it and a chocolate cake for dessert (recipe post to come).

Have a wonderful day!
Blessings,
Liisa

Picture from www.allposters.com