Mercy! I haven’t been on the email much, as I had the Baby here. So it was hit and miss. But last night in the night, I got up and prayed for some of you that are in such heartache. I said, “Dear Lord, I could tell these girls not to give up as they will see the glory of God.” But I said, “Lord, ya know? I have seen a lot of women honestly NOT give up and I haven’t seen them see Your glory.”

And the Lord said, “Connie, from personal experience, have you seen MY glory in your life?”

I said, “Yes, Lord, I have seen Your glory.” To ME, the scriptures are true. “Anything we ask in Jesus Name we will receive.” Also Mark 11:23 and 24 is true. We have to believe that we have received. This is a way that I live my life is by faith.

I learned faith in the worst of holes. Had I not learned it, I would still be there. There have been times where Jim and I were so without answers or money or hope that we would just lay down in the floor and sleep, or just “Be.” We had no moves left to make and all of our resources were exhausted … we would become mentally and physically exhausted. All there was left to do was to shout “UNCLE.” And God knows we were both too danged ornery to do that. It was on the tip of our tongues — we just wouldn’t say it.

My kids will never forget all the times we have been in the worst of problems and I would say, “Well, we will just go on and not confess it.” Dan loves to tease me, especially, when things are hard and he will say, “Don’t confess it.” Even Brandon, Mary’s husband, goes around saying it to Mary, “Don’t confess it.”

I mean the other day, when I was writing on the email … no kiddin’, the dining room was leaking in about six different places. Jim was running after pans like a wild Indian. I looked up to the ceiling like, “This is kinda the devil goin’ out of his way, just a pinch. Hello?” I mean it has NEVER leaked in the dining room except once, about 30 years ago. But, see, that lightening hit our roof and we didn’t know it, as it hadn’t rained in so long. Then the coon made the hole bigger. And, ya know, when things get that crazy, I will just ignore it. I said to Jim, “Oh, Honey, don’t worry about it — a lot of folks have leaks in their roof.” I mean, it was leakin’ like a sieve in the kitchen, too. I thought, man alive, I prayed for rain but didn’t want it in the house. I am then prayin’, “Lord, make the rain quit before we float away, house and all.”

And in my day, I have laughed a lot off. And the Lord has taken me through all that you girls have gone through, and then some? And I laughed in the middle of a lot of it. I used to do this comedy act with Jill saying that, if my life was a soap opera, no one would watch it. They would say, “Now, that is not real and couldn’t happen to anyone.”

Like one time, Jim was sitting with me watchin’ TV and said, “Tomorrow is garbage day. I have to take the trash out.” This was before he was saved, obviously. Anyway, he went out to do the trash and I didn’t see him again for a month, at least. It was probably longer than that — I can’t remember. I mean, no one I knew saw him after he took the trash out. This was 30 years ago and he has now been saved, and a good husband and father to our family, for 25 years.

But, ya know, laughter is a high form of faith. And, ya know, the devil hates to be laughed at. Jim used to do things and then run away before he was saved. So I would show up at court for him because, God knows, he wasn’t gonna make it. No one could ever find the man. So I went to court and told funny stories and the judge laughed so hard, and wanted me to tell more funny stories. And the lawyer was crooked, anyway. So I would just bullsh– and keep those guys laughin’ in order to get wild man the lightest sentence he could get. Mind you, he didn’t even show up for court. Later, the lawyer called me and asked me what sentence Jim should have. I told him, “Oh, just forget it.” And, to my amazement, he said, “Oh, ok, goodbye.” Well, I was believin’ God.

YOU GOTTA BELIEVE

And, ya know, Jill had gotten me a coffee mug and herself one, too, that was orange and white. It said on it in big orange letters “Ya Gotta Believe.” And, see, Bible faith is believing before you receive. Every day you need to get up and tell the Lord, “Lord, I expect a miracle today.” Then go about to prepare the house for a miracle. Get it down pat in your mind that God is going to give you a miracle — it is just a matter of time. But faith is now … it isn’t in the by and by.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things unseen. Hebrews 11:1

So faith is like a feeling that says, “Connie saw the glory of God and I will, too. I feel it now.” So if you don’t feel a faith, you need to pray until you feel this faith in your heart. Pray until you see in your spirit the glory of God. Begin walking in faith and not in defeat. Each day, prepare a family meal for your husband and put a place at the table for him. Encourage yourself in God and in His holy word. Make up your mind that you will not be a statistic but an example of God’s power. Just tell the devil that he ain’t havin’ you. That you refuse to act out fear to your children and to those around you. God is bigger than all of these problems, believe me.

I have seen a lot of women not make it. But I made it, because of Christ Jesus. I think I know my worth? “Not much???” I know I can’t make it without Him? I still tell the Lord about the same as I always did, “Lord, ya got me on this rabbit hunt and I can’t make it unless you give me strength.”

I never do anything in the comfort zone. Where is the comfort zone, anyway? If I could find it, I probably would lay down. But like Jim says, he will know I am dead as I won’t wiggle anymore. I wiggle the whole time I sleep. Mary’s baby, Chloe Faye, does that and Jim says “She is like her Grandma.” But one of these days, I won’t wiggle anymore, under the ground in my comfort zone. But I think once you walk in faith and the Lord saves ya, then ya think the devil will leave ya alone, and you will walk in peace for the rest of your life. OH GOSH. I hate to tell ya this, but once you see a miracle and walk it out, you become the biggest target for the devil. But you are sort of shell shocked. And what drives others up the tree, you don’t even notice it? It makes ya look like you are easy goin’ but you ain’t?

And I needed so much discerning of spirits with Jim. And I needed the gifts of prophesy and tongues and interpretations? Without these gifts, I would have died. Dealin’ with him was like dealin’ with a magic man. He could disappear at any moment. I had to have the tools of the Holy Spirit to deal with him. I mean he would have made mincemeat outta a nice Baptist girl. Man, I had to find out the mind of God. I got tongues and interpretations in my bedroom reading Power in Praise. I can’t remember who wrote that book. But, I mean, we have to know the mind of God. Well, some of us do. I did!!! I didn’t want to divorce and so I had to go with God to get to the other side of the mountain. I mean, I think a person can have the Holy Spirit without he evidence of speaking in tongues. Some of ya don’t need tongues, so don’t worry about it. But I needed these gifts in order to just make it. I would pray in tongues and the Lord would tell me what I said … it was like prophesy. But I learned all that cause I had to … just to make it.

And now, when I watch TV and some of the trash on there … oh man. You would think that our world hung in the balances and in the President’s and Pat Robertson’s hands. But it don’t. God is watching some folks out there who are depending on Him for their lives. All we need is the truth from one man of God to change our world. Oh, he is comin’, too. The Lord will not leave us helpless and forsaken in the body of Christ. There is a sleeping giant in the land. Many kids being raised right now for Jesus will some day change our world.

Oh mercy, where do I start? We had this terrible leak in the dining room ceiling the last time it rained. I mean, it has never leaked in the dining room before. Jim went up and checked the roof and he found a giant hole? Looked like lightening had struck the house. So the boys came over, and Jim and them patched the roof.

Come to find out, it was a raccoon that had done part of the hole. So now the coon is trapped in the house. So I hear this noise in the kitchen? I look up to the ceiling and see this raccoon staring at me from this hole in the ceiling. His face was as big as mine. I called for Jim and Jim sees him.

We called animal control and they came out but couldn’t find the coon. He was hiding! So Jim and I go to bed. Just as we are about to go to sleep, this coon falls out of the kitchen ceiling and skids down the wall. It was no thump, either, it was a big BOOM that shook the house. That thing probably weighed 50 pounds or more. So I figured the dang thing ran into the laundry room off the kitchen. We called animal control again and they came out. Then they noticed my kitchen window had been torn out, and they said, “Was this screen torn out before?” Well, it hadn’t been torn and that coon had jumped right through it. It’s all gone at the bottom.

We had called the kids, off and on, this evening, and then called them back to tell them the coon had jumped out the window. They laughed so hard! I told Jim it was all worth it, just to hear Mary laugh so hard. She is often so serious and I haven’t heard her laugh like that in so long. Danny Elvis said, “Mom, just to be on the safe side, you should buy a bear trap and have it on hand.” We all laughed so hard this evening.

Oh, what a day its been. And my nerves are shot, let me tell ya. I thought bats were hard to deal with. I always said I would rather have anything than a bat. Well, I take that back. Give me a bat any day.

I am making a long story short, really. The coon was upstairs in the bedroom at first and had run into the attic, as Dan had left the attic door open. So the coon runs by Jim and Jim thought it was our cat. So he is trying to get the cat out of the attic. Then I told him the cat was outside. Also, had I been cooking at the stove this evening, that coon would have fallen on my head. I would have had a live coon skin hat.

Well, it’s been a day — I should get to bed. It wasn’t bad enough that lightening hits our house and left a hole big enough for a person to drop through. A coon comes along and jumps through the hole, just to make life interesting.

Tomorrow wild man has to repair the screen and the kitchen ceiling. My kitchen has plaster all over from that coon falling out of the ceiling. And scrape marks down the wall from where he was tryin’ to hang on.

Well, yesterday I got my ketchup made. It smelled so spicy in our home all day. Some ladies came to my door yesterday to invite me to their church. We chatted a while at the door and the one young lady says, “What are you cooking? It smells delicious.”

I had my apron on. I said, “Oh, it’s just homemade ketchup,” and in a few minutes Papa came to the door and told about my ketchup. When I make ketchup, he tells everyone.

Last night, when he got home from work, I had made a baked egg omelet for him for supper. He says, “Well, is the ketchup done yet?” I said it was. And he asked me to put this on his omelet. I don’t have it canned up yet — it’s still in the pan. But I just dipped it out with a spoon over Papa’s eggs. He loves it and had several helpings. I know he went to work and bragged about it last night.

I bake the ketchup in the oven all day to let it thicken at about 200 degrees. Then I just let it sit in the pan overnight. Now, later this morning, I will put it in jars and water bath can it for about 5 or 10 minutes.

We are just now getting enough red tomatoes out of the garden to make something with. Most of ours are still green. So I made about a half batch of ketchup yesterday, but will make some more in the fall when I have more tomatoes.

Another thing I used to make when the children were all home is the homemade tomato soup. You just take a big pan and put some grease in the pan, about a couple tablespoons. Then let this melt, add about a fourth cup of flour, and stir this up. Then put some tomatoes through the blender and grind these up. You could add onions and green peppers, too. So then you will have about 4 cups or so of ground up tomatoes. So put this in the soup pot and cook it until the tomatoes are done. I mean, boil it and stir it until it bubbles and thickens a bit. Then, at the end, I would add a can of store bought tomato soup and some milk to thin the soup a bit. Then, of course, I added the ground black pepper and salt. You could add about a tablespoon of sugar, too. Don’t add the milk at the beginning or it could curdle up on ya. I added the can of store soup, as our family liked it like this. I use a lot of tomato soup in my cooking, and I could always use the leftovers of this soup for the next day’s meals.

I love to make tomato bread. I just put in, like, a couple cups of ground up tomatoes to 2 loaves of bread. Just make the regular white bread and cut down on the water you add to the regular recipe. Then I add herbs from my garden, like basil, garlic, chives, and sage. Then onions and green peppers. You could just blend all the herbs, etc. in the blender when you blend up the tomatoes. After this bread is about done, I just butter the top and then sprinkle it with parmesan cheese. Then I bake it the rest of the way in the oven. Also, I just make round loaves and bake this bread in my cast iron skillets … the bread turns out really pretty. It’s a reddish color with the green herbs and the white cheese on the top. It’s delicious to eat with a fresh garden salad or a pasta salad. I may make some of this bread today. The kids are supposed to stop by this afternoon.

And, ya know, wild man ain’t all that crazy about this bread. He don’t especially like green weeds in his bread. The other day we were outside visiting, and he looks at this weed in the front yard flower garden. “What is this?” he says. And as if a fear moved slowly over his face, he says, “This ain’t marijuana ya got growin’ out here, is it?”

I gasped and held my hand to my chest. I said, “No, Honey, why do you think that?” I thought, “Good grief, this man puts nothing past me.” I mean, I joke a lot, but growing marijuana in the front yard? It was sad, as I could tell Jim was just waiting for the perfect time to ask me about this. I have talked about growing tobacco and making him some cigarettes. But I wouldn’t grow tobacco in my front yard flower garden, for cryin’ out loud!

I am up early this morning, seeing what needs to be done before Baby Rose comes at about 7:30. It has been so hot here in Iowa, but is to cool down today. I am anxious to get back into some serious homemaking.

Ya know, Sandra from the letters group sent me the cutest catalog that I have ever laid my eyes on. And the stuff in there is sooooo expensive … it reminds me of the Mary Engelbreit designs. But this catalog is called Gooseberry Patch. You could get a free catalog, I think.

The catalog is a wonderful blessing in itself. It’s just darling. As I said, stuff in there is way over my head, cost wise. But, once I understand the look, then I will pick things up from garage sales that have this design.

I got a neat box of jelly jars last week at a sale. Two of the jars are antiques, I think. They are just plain half pint glasses. I am going to put salt and pepper in them for the table, put canning lids on them, and pound holes in the top with a nail and hammer. I love the salt and pepper shakers in the catalog, as they are about this size. And I adore the homemade look for my table.

This catalog gives me a lot of ideas.

I know that you all love to have me write about Dixie, and so I will this morning.

So many times, she and I would have a conversation that went like this. I would tell her a dream or whatever that I had about wisdom. And Dixie would say, “Now, Connie, you already knew that. You didn’t need a dream to tell you that.”

And I would say, “No, I didn’t.” Then she would tell me that I did, and that I had faith and understood wisdom. I didn’t, and I kept telling her I didn’t. I think one of the reasons that she thought I was such a pest is because I longed so for wisdom and I probably drained her dry.

And ya know what? That writing I did yesterday said a whole lot more than even what I knew it said. I think the Lord was trying to tell us that if we are chasing wisdom, we can’t be easily offended. Ya know, Jesus, in the Bible, seemed to let folks chase Him and seemed to often ignore them. Had they become offended, they never would have been healed. Was He testing them? Certainly. He knew they were calling Him.

But if you want the wisdom of God as shown in Proverbs, then you must want this wisdom as Solomon did. He wanted it more than he wanted a good reputation. And more than he wanted the life of his enemies. Do you want wisdom more than a revenge on your husband or the neighbors? Will you keep your heart pure and forgiving, no matter what, so that you can receive the wisdom of God?

Solomon wanted wisdom more than riches. And the Lord gave Solomon Wisdom because he wanted it above riches and reputation or the life of his enemies. Solomon just wanted wisdom to lead his people. He later fell because of his foreign wives that drew him away from the Lord and wisdom. Another lesson here is to stay away from the world and its deceptions. And away from the strange women who are into feminism.

If you want wisdom from God, then chase it with all of your life.

Each morning, I think of how I used to make my butter go further and keep forgetting to write it down. I have written it down before but thought I would again because of all of the corn on the cob that many of you are probably getting from your gardens. I haven’t made this butter yet this year but I will when I get to it. I used to make it a lot when the kids were all home. Well, usually, we used margarine unless I found butter on sale.

Back in the Depression era, the evaporated milk became popular and a lot of recipes for using this milk became popular. Folks used it in place of cream. I use it in my coffee. Anyway, to make a pound of butter become twice as much, this is what you do. You bring the pound of butter to room temperature and put it in a mixing bowl. Then you add the can of evaporated milk and mix this up with your mixer. It makes like 2 pounds of butter. I had a pretty yellow antique crock with little flowers and a cute lid on it that I always used for this butter. Then I just kept it in the fridge as usual.

This butter is nice to put on corn on the cob and for fresh beans and other good fresh things from the garden. We have taken a head of fresh cabbage and cored it out half way. Then just put butter down in the cavity and bake it like that in a baking dish with salt and pepper. But that butter recipe comes in mighty handy in the summer with a houseful of children.

Jim eats corn on the cob at least four times a week when it is in season. And our children love it, too. I have frozen some and have more to freeze. Yesterday, my brother gave us a bunch more out of his garden, and green beans. Praise the Lord. I am thankful for this work to do.

Good Morning! Man alive, I guess it didn’t rain again last night. Everything is so dry outside. I have the baby’s little kiddy pool set up behind the tree in the front yard. Lately, if she isn’t here, I set my plants in the pool. I have some pots of basil, etc. Well, herbs hate this hot dry weather.

It’s cooler this morning but we need the rain to come. Jim teases me about my letting an acorn squash plant take over the garden. But it does shade the tomatoes and I don’t have to water them as I normally would. Well, there may be a pumpkin plant out there, too. It all came up voluntarily. I throw all my old pumpkins and squash on my fall garden after the holidays. Well, I throw stuff out there all winter, too. So no tellin’ what will come up in the spring. But the squash vines, etc. are hiding the tomatoes and keeping them safe and sound.

I hope we have a nice rainy fall. If we do, my rhubarb will come back and I will use that again.

Dixie was never ready for summer to be over. She loved the summer and her garden. She was always hopin’ for a few more days of what she called Indian summer. I think that is when we have some really nice hot days in the fall. Or when it’s supposed to turn cold in the fall, but the summer hangs on and it’s warm. Dixie used to can and, in the busy harvest time, she would fill her big canner twice a day … so she canned about 16 quart jars a day in the summer.

I loved every room in Dixie’s house and, especially, I loved her root cellar. She canned pickles and rhubarb, corn and beans, and jams and jellies of all sorts. She had a big apple tree … not a dwarf. And she used every apple on that tree and made applesauce and apple pie filling. She treated every piece of fruit with special care. One time, I went out to her house when she was getting ready to can tomatoes. Mercy, the whole kitchen looked like it was red. She had tomatoes stacked carefully on every shelf, waiting to be canned. She had a little kitchen smaller than mine and so she had to work in her dining room. A dining room sounds fancy but, no, her room off the kitchen was not fancy. She hated worldliness or any show of money.

She loved her land and her life on the farm. Then some new houses started to be built about her. She let her weeds grow so that she couldn’t see anyone else’s house. She hated the new houses.

She would show me her little wash house where she had a wood stove. She would show me a pan she had found and bought at a sale. She would say, “Connie, this old pan has the wisdom of God on it.” And she would tell me about what the old time mothers used to do with a dishpan and how they used it for many things. To wash dishes and gather beans from the garden.

I remember one of the last times Jill, Dixie, and I were out on the farm before Dixie died. It was the fall and we were all bundled up outside, looking at Dixie’s garden. We were to get a hard freeze and so Dixie had us girls pick the last of the grapes. The air was so crisp and cool, and I can still see Dixie standing there at the farm with her headscarf whipping in the wind. Oh such an anointing on her! Oh, God, such an anointing. Our children were playing with Dixie’s girl, Emily, and they were running about in the grape vines. I can still hear her voice. “Now, Emily,” she would say to her daughter, “Wasn’t there something else I had to give to Jill and Connie?” She always depended on Emily to remember things to do. And Em loved her mother — adored her mother — and was always there at her right hand.

Ruth, Jill and I adored the ground Dixie walked on. Going to her farm was like going to an old time revival. When you left, you felt like you had heard the voice of God. Her life and homemaking, her garden and her home was a revival meeting … it was like being under a heavy anointing while you were there. And I would so long to hang on to the anointing when I left her house. Oh, how I would try to hang onto the anointing after I left Dixie’s farm. But usually, after a few days, it would leave me. But, oh what a place to go to get filled up with the Holy Spirit!

Dixie was in submission to her husband Bill. And, oh, what a picture she was of the Titus 2 Mother. She was a true Titus Mother. I feel so inadequate as I try to lead you ladies along. Upside of her and that strong anointing she had, I feel very lame. She was always talking about the wisdom of God. How she had a voice and how she would help her in her homemaking.

One time, when I went out to visit Dixie, Emily wanted to show me her new dolls that her aunt had bought for her. So we all went upstairs and sat on Em’s bed. The children began playing upstairs and running up and down the stairs. This was music to Dixie’s ears, and she sat in a chair in Em’s room and the Lord was speaking to her, and she began to speak of the Lord and His move of the Spirit, and His wisdom. She never spoke loud, but just softly. But she had such an anointing that you had a feeling the walls would just fall back and she would be in a big auditorium. You could feel how much the heart of God wanted this message she had to be told. Oh, how His heart must have ached for her to speak her message to the world. And Dixie often said, “Well, Connie you are the writer.”

I always told her, “Dixie, this stuff you say is what the world needs … what they are dyin’ for.”

And she would say, “Oh, Connie, those old religious women wouldn’t want this stuff.” She thought I was dreamin’ and very naïve. But I told her that she was so truly anointed of God and she thought I was a pest when I told her that.

Half the time when I went out to see her, she wouldn’t even come to the door. If she wanted to be alone with the Lord, then God forbid that anyone would interrupt her. And when the church women would come to invite her to church, oh man, did they have a fight on their hands. She hid away unto God. She had no use for religion. She wudda taken a BB Gun and shot a feminist on sight if she thought one had enough nerve to set foot on her property. She would say that she didn’t want demons like that on her land.

Jill was closer to Dixie than I was. But I was a pest to Dixie for the most part. And yet, when she died, she wanted me there and didn’t want her own relatives there. So I guess she did love me in the end. And yet I always sensed such an anointing upon her and I would face anything to be around her and listen to her talk. I know one time when Jill and I went out there, she served Jill coffee and almost didn’t give me any. She loved to ignore me. But, ya know, I was like the woman who wouldn’t leave the judge alone. I was like a fly that keeps buggin’ ya, and you keep tellin’ it that you are gonna kill it with the fly swatter if it don’t leave ya alone, and yet it bugs ya all night long? Well, that’s how much I wanted the wisdom of God. I was dyin’ without it. And I was gonna smile and get it, one way or the other.

I don’t have a drivers licence and have no sense of direction, anyway. But I would drive out to Dixie’s farm which is about 15 miles from here and up some country roads. I would find a way to get there, believe me. And had I not risked being embarrassed and told to go back home, then you all wouldn’t have a writer to this day to tell you about he wisdom of God. But, you know, I was like you are, Kelly, with your big family. Man, I needed a whole lot more than what this world had to offer. I was in the fight of my life. And being embarrassed wasn’t the worst of my problems. I had a big family to care for and I had … HAD — HAD to have the anointing of God upon me.

We need the wisdom of God and some of us are dying without it. Again, the scripture:

Proverbs 14:1 EVERY wise woman builds her house and the foolish woman tears it down with her hands.

In this hellish society, where the homes are being torn down, we must chase the wisdom of God.

CHASING WISDOM

Dixie used to tell me, as I was leaving her farm to go home, “Don’t come back out here for at least six weeks.” Man, I would go home and put it on my calendar, to the day, when I could go back out to the farm. Now, I am not like that with everyone and rarely go anyplace. But I loved the wisdom of God. I wouldn’t have taken a million bucks to replace Dixie and her wisdom.

In the old days, when our family would be at the grocery store, the kids would sign me up for ocean cruises, etc. I would tell them, “You kids knock it off — what if I would win?” Man, I hated to think of being around a bunch of worldly music out on an ocean, miles away from Home and my duties as wife and mother. I longed for the wisdom of God and I chased it daily. That was all I desired on the earth. And I remember one of the relatives was talking about going on this big vacation to Hawaii. I told Jim secretly that I would rather milk a goat than go to Hawaii. He told my relative and, oh, I could have shot him with my BB gun. But it was true in the deepest sense in my heart. I longed to understand my place with God as wife and mother and keeper at home. And God did give me a measure of wisdom. Enough to write a few thousand writings.

I honestly feel sorry for you all that you never met Dixie and you only have me. Dixie died of cancer I think in 2002. And, oh, how we miss her. I especially miss her in the fall at Harvest time.

Good Morning! I wanted to write down some more meal ideas. You got the ones yesterday, right? The ones about cooking ideas for large families?

I was talkin’ to Jim yesterday about some of the big meals we used to have when all the children were home. Jim said he still loves hamburger gravy. I would fix this gravy and have peas and mashed potatoes. Mary, our youngest, tells me that my ground beef tastes better than any she has ever had. She says that’s my specialty … fried hamburger. I will have to have that put on my gravestone if I get rich enough to buy one.

Here is how ya make hamburger gravy. Just get out your cast iron skillet and fry a pound of hamburger. (By the way, that is a good way to season your new cast iron if ya need to. Just fry hamburger in it.) Anyway, just crumble the meat up with your spatula. You could add onions or whatever and fry it together. Put on some black pepper and salt. And drain the meat if you have tooo much fat … but leave a bit in there. Then, after it is fried up good, just start adding flour to the meat and goosh it up with your spoon. Add like a fourth cup of flour. Then slowly pour in about 2 or 3 cups of milk or water, and start stirrin’ like a hound dog. Stir the gravy until it bubbles and thickens.

I have always loved makin’ Papa’s gravy in the evening for supper. It’s a quiet time to stand at the stove and just take my time and stir the gravy. Our kids always loved this gravy, too, and heaped it on mashed potatoes, and then they put the peas on top of it all.

And, ya know, when Jim and I first married, I didn’t drink much coffee. But even though we didn’t have much at times, I always made sure Papa had coffee. I just always wanted to make sure that I had this for Papa. I just wanted him to feel comforted. Now, over the years, I drink more coffee than he does. But, ya know, I just had coffee on the stove and it warmed a lot of my guests in the cold weather. Old friends would stop and we would have coffee. I mean, nothin’ fancy, just the “Whatever was on Sale Special.” And if the pot got low, and I was needin’ to save what fresh coffee I had for Jim’s breakfast, I would just add water to the pot and keep on visiting.

Jill and I used to add water to everything. Her daughter, Shelly, never had soda pop without water in it until she was about 16. Jill would add water to the milk until you could see through it. She added water to anything and everything. To the shampoo, the conditioner … well, if she reads this she will give ya a list of stuff she added water to.

Hair conditioner was expensive. We didn’t have the stuff for a buck like today at the Dollar Store. I remember getting a sample bottle of fabric softener in the mail when the kids were little, and I used it for hair rinse. It worked so good. Folks asked me if I had used a new hair conditioner … my hair just glowed. Of course, I only had to use a few tablespoons. That sample bottle lasted a good long time.

MORE FRUGAL IDEAS

In the cold weather, I would make a lot of soups. I made homemade potato soup and vegetable hamburger soup and chili. Also, a lot of chicken vegetable soup with homemade noodles or dumplings in it. Usually, when I made soup on a winter evening , I had a homemade bread to eat with it. And often, just for fun, I would make a big dishpan of popcorn to put on the table to eat with the soup. It made the meal festive and fun. Then the family would snack on the popcorn for the evening. I would cut up apples for the table, too. On the nights I would make homemade pizza, I would make popcorn, too, to go with it. And we didn’t eat the microwave popcorn — we ate the kind ya make on the stove.

Jim makes good popcorn — better than mine. We don’t like air popped pop corn. The pioneers used to eat popcorn with milk on it in a bowl … probably with honey on it. In the evenings for a snack, Jim will take homemade bread, tear it up in a bowl, and eat it with sugar and milk over it. Like a cold cereal. You need crusty homemade bread for this, as store bread would gum up.

Also, I used to make an Italian dish with homemade noodles. I would make my own noodles with eggs and flour. I would cook them up, put cooked hamburger in them, and put spaghetti sauce on them. Then, of course, fresh herbs from the garden. Then I put parmesan cheese over them when I served them. I would make my own lasagna noodles, too. I made whatever I could so I wouldn’t have to go to the store. I didn’t make all of my own noodles, but I made a lot of ‘em.

My children had to help with the chores so I could cook, and they did … they were always good helpers.

All day yesterday, I was thinking of all the meals I used to make for Jim and my children. I was thinking of some of you trying to feed big families. So here is my beef roast recipe. It was a hoot!

For our big family, I would take a pound of frozen hamburger and put it in the middle of my roaster. Bake it a bit and then drain it. My roaster is a speckled blue and white pan, oblong with a lid. Anyway, after putting the frozen hamburger in there, I would then peel potatoes, cut them in chunks, and set them around the meat. Then carrots and an onion … cabbage, if I had it. Then I would put a gravy mix or mushroom soup over this. Then I would pepper it good with black pepper and some salt. I would bake this with a lid in a slow oven. I would put a little water in the bottom of the pan. It would smell so good, the family thought it was a nice roast. When it was all done, I would slice the hamburger in neat slices, put them on each plate as if it was expensive meat, and then I put the veggies around the meat. Heck, the kids didn’t know the difference and thought we were having a wonderful meal. Jim liked it, too.

Then another idea was Salisbury steaks. Ya just take a large 9 by 13 pan and flatten hamburger in it. Cook it a bit in the oven and then drain it. Salt and pepper it good and lay onions in rings on the top. Then cut it in squares, because it will have shrunk from the sides. Then put a can of mushroom soup over it, maybe mixed with beef gravy mix. Add water to make it the consistency of gravy. Add, like, about a can of water to the soup and gravy mix, mix it up good, and pour it on the half cooked hamburger. Then put it back in the oven to bake. I would fix this with mashed potatoes and a veggie. Jim and I would sit at the table and say, “Wow, this steak is tender — must be a good cut.” The kids thought we were having an expensive meat dish.

Then I would make Swiss steak. I would make this in a big skillet. Just make hamburgers in patties and fry them, put on salt and pepper. Fry them half way or enough so you can drain the fat off. Then I would put on a can of tomato soup, diluted with about a half can of water … ya want it thick. Then I would cut up carrots and some onion chunks to put around the meat patties. I usually made the potatoes separate. But sometimes, I would add them with the carrots and onions. The family loved this dish and I still fix it for Jim.

And, ya know, you can do a lot with just taking the baking pan and pressing hamburger in the bottom. Just cook it a bit so you can drain it. Then you take some cream of something soup and mix it with green beans or whatever, maybe peas … add a half can of water and mix it up. Put this as the second layer on the meat. Then, on the top, lay tater tots and bake it all up like this. If you are using a 9 by 13 pan, you would want to use 2 pounds of hamburger and 2 cans of soup.

Another idea is to bake the hamburger and drain it, and then put chopped up cabbage mixed with onions, green peppers and maybe some tomatoes on the top. Salt and pepper it good. And over the top, just pour a can of diluted tomato soup … well, in a big pan, use 2 cans of tomato soup. Then just cover with tin foil and bake this in a slow oven (about 250°) for about 3 hours. I mean, you could bake it all in about 1 hour at 350 degrees. But I liked these oven meals to bake a long time, as I thought it mingled the flavors good.

In the middle of the winter, I would take my biggest turkey roaster — almost couldn’t get it in the oven — it was a big one. Anyway, I would take this pan and heap it with vegetables. Mainly potatoes and carrots, and usually cabbage. Then I would fry up hamburger in a pan, mix it with a few cans of tomato soup, and make a vegetable soup. I would add water to cover the vegetables and meat. Then I would add a lot of herbs. Baked this on low all night. Kept the house smellin’ good and warm. Ok, with the big roaster of vegetable soup, I would take it out after it was mostly done, drop homemade baking powder biscuits on the top, and then put it back in the oven and let the biscuits brown on the top. Or I would make homemade noodles to put in the soup. And sometimes I would make homemade noodles and then make biscuits, too, separately. This was such a good meal, and I long for it even now. I was just telling Jim that I would love to have this meal again for the now grown kids this winter “Just for old time sake.” I often made this meal in the saddest of times. We would be so without groceries and would eat this soup for several days “Mama cooks it all night,” the kids would tell the neighbor children. And then, of course, they wanted to try it. One little boy would say, “I wish my mama would home school me and cook like this.”

But little did the children know that many of these old time meals came out of a night in prayer. “Lord, you gave me these children and now what will I feed them?” Yes, we had little, but the Lord spoke to me of duty and dignity and not runnin’ out on my job. The store bought soups, I know, weren’t all that good for any of us, I don’t suppose. You know with all the dye in the soup? But we had so little meat, and the canned soup would give the meals the taste of meat and made the casseroles, etc. look pretty. And, of course, I diluted so much of the store soup that we barely got any of the chemicals, anyway.

I mainly ministered to the family’s soul. I made my home a place of rest and joy. A place where guests were welcome to sit at my table. Well, because the Lord always gives us more than we can think or ask. The next day, as I fed my family and maybe we had a guest for supper, I would smile, knowing that Jesus had given me exceeding and abundantly more than I could think or ask. I had enough for my family and to give away.

Some of the poor mothers about me stood with idle hands, wringing them and worrying over what they would feed their children. They would scream at their children, “Don’t eat this — we have so little groceries” or “Don’t ask for seconds.” They scared their children and made them cry. I hated seeing this. I hated seeing children trying to sneak food out of a stingy Mother’s kitchen. I vowed I would never have a home like that. I learned to make crackers and many cookies out of simple things, like flour and sugar and shortening. I can safely say I made a million sugar cookies in my day. And often, I would make bread sticks, and the children loved them and snacked often on them.

I expected to suffer and to work hard for what I believed. I expected to take on suffering as a good soldier in my home for Christ. Often, I would be up in the night, praying and asking the Lord what to do to feed our children. And yet, as the morning dawned, I would awaken to the Lord’s provisions. I needed courage and stout heartedness, wit and wisdom to make it. I usually had a little money for groceries but not near enough. But each morning after a night with Jesus, I would wake up with new ideas birthed in the night through the Holy Spirit.

We were the working poor … like so many of you today.

Ya know, almost every day, I made bread. Either I made cornbread or biscuits or muffins. And usually, we had pancakes for breakfast. Often, I made my own syrup, as I ran out so often. And I made a lot of my own mayonnaise in the summer, as I needed so much of it. I would often mix it with store bought. But I didn’t think about the work of it all. I just wanted to make a home, ya know?

The Lord would tell me to make a home that was full of provisions. I was always collecting food containers to put food in, but had so little that I never even used them. But I walked by faith and not sight. I was in the college of womanhood, and God was directing my steps and making me mete for His use. I learned to care for my family in the furnace of affliction.

HAPPY FAMILIES

And, ya know, I used to tell folks “Heck, I could go out and work like you all do. I am able bodied. But I feel I am needed at home a lot more.” The extra money I would have brought in would have kept us poor, as I wouldn’t have had time to pray and cook as I had. So many of the stay at home mothers I have seen in the churches don’t work at home and are not honorable women. We should work, too … not just sit around and watch TV.

And, ya know, my Jim always worked after he got saved. He worked at whatever he could. And the lord told me, early on, that I was just to be thankful for whatever he gave me. To not say a word about needing more grocery money. Jim had bills to pay and was faithful to pay them. It was my job to make a home and to make what I needed. Be it soap or whatever. And still, when Jim gives me money, I stop and make it a point to say, “Oh, thanks, Honey, I appreciate this money.” Often I will be right in the middle of something like kneading bread. And wild man will give me a roll of bills out of his tips. And the Lord will tell me, “Now, Connie, stop and go wash your hands and receive with praise and thanksgiving what Jim has given you.” Well, we aren’t poor anymore and Jim has paid off the house. But, still, it is just good manners to appreciate what your husband gives ya.

I am especially thankful now, as I have proven myself as a wife and keeper at home. Papa trusts me and, even now, doesn’t expect me to work outside the home. He values my place here still. Often, a woman has to earn that trust of a man to earn her right to stay home. A lot of women are not honest about their work at home, and they waste money and their time going to hen parties they call Bible Studies.

Taking care of Baby Rose is a lot of work. And still, I try to cook and bake from scratch and keep things going. I still have a place here, and some days I run a lot faster then I did when I was young. Like yesterday when Mary, a new wife and mother at age 20, called and was talkin’ to me about Baby Chloe Faye, who is 2 weeks old. (Mary is our youngest daughter.) Lil Rose noticed Gram was busy on the phone and she got into everything she could. Grandpa tried to distract her and play with her so I could be on the phone with Mary. But little Rose cried and cried and wanted Gram and no one else. Jim tells me, “I couldn’t do anything with her.” I finally had to ask Mary to call me back. Lil Rose picks up on what I say and often will say, at 22 months old, “Oh Mercy!” She says it in baby talk and it is so cute. But yesterday was an “Oh Mercy” day.

We are potty training her … me and Tiff, her mother. Rose loves to flush the toilet and use the toilet paper and wash her hands. But often without pottying. What a riot! Oh Mercy!

Well, better go for now … duty calls.

Dear Keepers at Home,

Last night, I was prayin’ and writing on paper. Jim was watching TV and I had out my paper, sitting on the couch. I put some housewifery ideas on paper and was prayin’ and writing down my prayers, too. I thought of the homemaking spirit and how, if it isn’t written down, it would be lost. Of course, you won’t hear about it on TV or in most churches. So unless it is hand fed to some of you, ya won’t catch it, and thank God for the many writers on the internet that write about homemaking. I love Laine’s writings and some of the other writings that you sent in lately, Michelle

Before I write further, I wanted to answer Nancy’s email about needing simple meal ideas. Nancy, you were talking about making bread. Well, you said you had a bread machine and that would be a great help with the four extra children. I would sure use it and then, maybe later on this fall, learn to make it from scratch.

I would put the children to work, too, to help with the homemaking. I used to stand our children on a chair up to the sink and have them do dishes when they were about 3 or 4. They make a mess, but they do get some dishes washed, and they learn how to help. I mean, make it safe for them and put all the sharp stuff away.

I wanted to tell you, Nancy, a few simple meal ideas. Aunt Toot had seven children and I had six, and we used to exchange meal ideas. One thing we did is we made a lot of meals with the boxed mac and cheese, especially in the summer. Just take a box of the mac and cheese, make it as usual, and add a can of mixed vegetables and a can of cream of something soup. Or just the mix and a can of soup and extra cheese. Just stir it all up and cook it until it bubbles. Toot used to put a can of already-made chill in hers with extra cheese.

Back in the old days, hot dogs were all meat and a better product than today. Also, baloney was all meat and very good. My grandmother used to fry baloney in the morning for breakfast and make fried potatoes with it. One meal I fixed a few days ago, that was old fashioned and Papa loved, went like this. I got out my big cast iron skillet and put some grease in it. Then I took a pound of hot dogs and fried them in the skillet. After they were brown, I put in my beans that I had mixed with catsup and mustard and brown sugar. (I drain the pork and beans first, and then add about a half cup of brown sugar, a squirt of mustard, and about a fourth cup of catsup. I was using 2 cans of pork and beans, drained and rinsed. I don’t leave all the goo on them.) So, anyway, after I put all this together, I laid some onions on the top and a slice of green pepper. Then I baked this all in the oven until it bubbled and was browned. It was very good and Papa ate it as leftovers. And Jim isn’t one to eat a lot of leftovers, but he loved this dish.

Now, if your family likes onions and peppers, then you could fry them up with the hot dogs when you fried them. But Jim doesn’t like to eat onions. So I just put a few, in big slices, on the tops of my casseroles to get an onion and pepper flavor. My Jim loves black pepper, the coarsely ground kind. And I get that at the Dollar Store sometimes, or I buy it at the Amish store. I put a lot of the black pepper in the beans I made.

And ya know, back in the old days, the mothers made lots of fried potatoes, often fried with onions. Just get out a big skillet and put some grease in it and start slicing potatoes in the pan. Have your flame up high and just slice more potatoes in as the others cook. After they are all browned, put a lid on them, and a bit of water, and let them simmer and get done. Kim said to just turn them once when ya think they are really crisp. Even if they all stick together. Kim is such a good cook, and that is a good tip and has helped me to get better fried potatoes. Another thing we did with fried potatoes was when they were done, we would scramble up eggs with them and fry them until they were done. It makes the potatoes go further. Or after the potatoes are fried, just lay cheese on the top, put your lid back on, and let the cheese melt.

I have a collection of cast iron skillets and bakeware, and that is all I use to cook with. Except when I make Jim’s fried eggs, I use a nonstick skillet that I use only for eggs. Jim uses my egg skillet to make popcorn in it. Mama ain’t so happy about that. But, boy, he makes the best popcorn.

Ya know, lately, I told the Lord, “What more could I give my readers than a picture of a homemaker in today’s world?” Last night, as I wrote my prayers, I said “Oh Lord, help me to be the best homemaker of all. Help me not to just make soap once in a while, but to make it all the time. To show a pattern of good works.” Not that I don’t have the money to buy soap, as I do. But I don’t want to use my liberty to cause another woman to sin. I want to be an example.

Now that I have the attention of some of you, I want to show you a true working mother … a mother in the home. I know how to do that. “But, Lord, please keep me steady and diligent in the things of God.” Every day, I think of the mothers with children that roam the streets of NYC. My kids tell me about them. “Mom, whole families are out walking around with their children.” It breaks my heart! I think, “Man, this don’t have to be.” A woman of faith would know what to do. And I don’t say that casually. I have been there.

When I first moved here in 1973, there was these huge water bugs that lived in the root cellar. They were hard to get rid of, but I got rid of them. I never see a bug in this house now. I mean, an occasional fly or some ants, but they ain’t hard to get rid of. But I used boric acid all over my house and I rarely see a bug. I have told you many times that this house was no palace when I moved into it, pregnant with our son, and Jim was here a while before he was saved. He got saved in 1979. But, ya know, if a woman has a roof over her head, and a stove to cook on, and running water, and a place to bed down her children and keep them warm and dry … then she can make a home out of anything. Why let someone kick you out of your home? I mean, some folks would rather live on the street than in a cheap apartment. And that is just plain foolishness.

In the old days, a man would buy a piece of land he thought he could work and make a living on. He barely looked at the house. Mother was to make a home out of whatever she got. A fancy house was never a top priority. I mean, what are we doing here that we think we have to have a fancy house to care for our families?

So many are poor. We have a new class of folks in our country called the working poor. It used to be, in our country, that you were poor if you didn’t work. Now we have families who work but are poor. But, ya know, the mother is so needed in the home to make a place of refuge for her family. Folks’ souls are needing to be fed and nourished. Yet Mother can do things like the mothers did in the Depression era. She can make a garden and can all of her food, like the old time mothers did … they survived, so can we. Find a cheap house to rent and fix it up yourself. I am sure the landlord would love ya for it. Make sure you have some space for a garden.

Jim and I were riding down Main Street here in our town the other day. And, right at a side yard, a mother had made a clothesline. She just took a rope and tied it between 2 small trees. I said to myself, “Oh, Lord, bless that little Mother for her ingenuity.” She did what she had to do to make a clothesline. Well, heck, I have had to do stuff like that. Makin’ do that is what it’s all about. The problem is that many mothers don’t have the guts to live poor? They would rather be at a homeless shelter. But the wise woman builds a home. And, ya know, I think it is just all about not givin’ up. Just trusting in the Lord to help ya to make a place a home for the family.

Years ago, I used to go to an Amish store … well, we still go. But I wanted to buy all the packages of dried herbs, etc. Well, all I could afford was my bread flour and basic necessities, like corn oil and oatmeal in bulk. And I would wish to have some flavored coffees and teas but, heck fire, I had six children, and I had to be sensible and buy what I needed, not what I wanted. So I prayed and the Lord taught me to grow my own herbs in my yard. He taught me to dry flowers and to make the flavored vinegars and oils. I learned to make soap and to make all the stuff I wanted to buy. Often, when I would go to an Amish store, I wanted to cry. When I would walk in, I would see all the stuff the Amish mothers put together to sell. The works of their hands would bring a holy conviction of God upon me. I would get so ashamed of myself that my hands were idle and that I had no excuse for not growing my own food and herbs for cooking and for healing. I thought, “Lord, why don’t I make my own medicine cabinet out of healing herbs?”

Ya know, back in the old days, even the mothers who didn’t have a garden usually made pickles in the summer, and jams and jellies and catsup. They would buy a bushel of cucumbers from a farmer, and some fruit to make jams and jellies. When fall came, they would buy some bushels of apples and potatoes to keep in the root cellar for the fall and winter. Mother made bread several times a week and biscuits in between. Mother did what she could to make a home. Each day, she looked over the home and decided, “Now what do I need to buy at he store and what can I make with my hands?” or “How much money can I save on the grocery bill so that I can give my husband some money back to pay bills with?”

Oh, how I would scrimp and save in August to give Jim money back out of the groceries to be able to pay our taxes in the fall. That was my job, to make food for the table and to do it wisely … it was my burden, too, to pay the taxes. I stayed hidden away unto God and listened to His voice. My family needed me at home. And even now, Jim would be lost if I went out and got a job. He loves coming home to home cooked meals and to a wife who loves him and puts his dignity first.

Yesterday, early in the morning, Jim took me to the Amish village. He gave me a roll of bills to buy stuff with. But I wanted to honor the Lord and still buy supplies to make things with. I bought Baby Rose some darling cloth hankies for 39