Praise Baby

When Mercy Joy was born our pastor and his wife gave us a Praise Baby DVD. We quickly decided that this DVD was one of the best in our collection! We don't have TV, but we do give Elnathan about one hour of DVD time a day while I prepare dinner and feed Mercy. We have Playschool, Spot, Postman Pat, Bananas in Pyjamas and Colin Buchanan. The Praise Baby DVD became our favourite because it imparts spiritual truth and is so relaxing for parents as well as the child! We get to listen to lovely worship music while Elnathan watches images of nature, babies, and children playing. Some songs are modern, others are old hymns. Best of all, Nate loves it! Occasionally he has been known to throw tantrums while saying "Praise Baby, no Praise Baby, no Praise Baby" because we wouldn't let him watch it when it was not DVD time. Sometimes we find him clapping and saying "God, God, God". It has helped me to reinforce the truth that God created Nate to praise Him, and that even babies are meant to praise God. I have purchased more of the DVDs for Elnathan (there are four in the series) and have also started to give them away to other parents. In Australia, you can pick up Praise Baby DVDs at Koorong.

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How to use up tomatoes

Tomato is the flavour of the week here at The Drew Patch. As the piles have mounted on the bench I have often found myself thinking and praying . . . what will I do with all these tomatoes! So starting last Saturday, I will take you through some of the ideas I have come up with.

Saturday the 19th: Tomato-Basil Salad to take to a family birthday gathering. This was yummy with things, but would be too strong on its own.

Sunday: we enjoyed fried tomatoes along with zucchini and egg for breakfast, and added a few tomatoes to our baked beans for lunch.

Monday: I decided radical action was needed to address the mounting tomato piles! Fresh Tomato Sauce was the answer. Four kilos of tomato would not fit in the pan I chose, so I ended up making about 2 1/2 kg. We ate it with spiral pasta.

Tuesday: Dave loves macaroni cheese baked with tomatoes on the top, so that is what we had on Monday. Spy the tiny person keeping me company while I cooked . . .

What a pleasure it is to have tiny people around to smile up at me.Cooking can take twice as long with two bottoms to keep clean and dry at the same time, but it is worth the work!

Wednesday: We needed a break from pasta, so I decided to preserve some diced tomatoes to use in cooking later. I planned a freezer meal so I would have time to do this. I also needed a reasonably clean kitchen with a clear sink and benches. Here are all the washed tomatoes and the jars ready to go.

I used a wide variety of tomatoes:

I then diced them all (without peeling as I did not have time), and placed them in a giant saucepan that we received as a wedding gift.

Once they were cooked I heated the jars and poured them in using a soup ladle and my milk bottle funnel. I used the hot water bath method to preserve them for future use.

There was exactly the right amount for seven jars. You can also see my milk bottle funnel pictured!

Thursday: back to pasta! I used the remaining fresh tomato sauce along with some mince for lasagna, along with cherry tomatoes in a salad with lettuce, spring onion, and other garden veggies.

Friday: Pizza with lots of tomatoes . . .

Our latest fun idea is to top our homemade bases with garlic butter (made from our own garlic!) then layer on lots and lots of cherry and plum tomatoes. This picture is of our pizzas in progress. I placed lots of basil below the tomatoes.

Saturday: Dave made a delicious tomato and basil palilf, a rice dish we had not had before.

Do you have any more ideas for using up tomatoes . . . as you can see from the picture above we still have piles of them! Spy them behind the pizzas!

I plan to share this post via the Tuesday Garden Party.

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100 Ways to Know God Loves Me!

I have been looking for resources to help us to teach Elnathan the Bible. I have wanted to have readings and songs that fit together. Ideally I would put ideas and resources together in the evenings, but Mercy is often unsettled and so that is not possible right now. I have found the book 100 Ways to Know God Loves Me! a helpful resource to use. There are 100 double page spreads with pictures, a short reading, a Bible verse (NIV version) and a reference to the song for that lesson. The topics covered include God's love as shown in answering our prayers, giving us peace, disciplining us, and healing us. I was happy to see that "harder" topics like discipline were included as well as "nice" things like peace and joy. When we read this each morning I often find that it reminds me of God's truth as well. Elnathan enjoys recounting what we have learnt on prior days. The songs vary from hymns to modern tunes with lots of beat to them! I would have liked the book to include the words for each song, as sometimes they are hard to sing along with. However, we have still enjoyed the CD and learnt some of the songs. It has been handy and fun to learn from the songs, scriptures, pictures and stories each morning. In Australia, 100 Ways to Know God Loves Me! is available at Koorong.

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Saturday's Backyard Bounty: A glimpse of autumn

A bowl of squash and tomatoes is a glimpse of what autumn looks like for us. I had just been using the twine to tie up some of our wild tomato vines that were draped on the ground. It is hard work to keep up with those bushes, especially with a newborn, and we have not succeeded very well. Thankfully they are still producing, and whatever happens we will get more than if we had not bothered to plant at all! We have more tomato plants than ever before. This week we have used them in zucchini slice topped with thick tomato slices, roast tomato and vegetable sauce, toasted sandwiches, pasta with basil pesto and tomatoes, and just straight off the vine!

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Activities to do with an 18 month to 2 year old

Being a new Mum, I have found it a challenge to think of things to do with my little boy. 18 months to 2 years is a period when many activities are beyond their ability or require assistance. At times Elnathan does well on his own with cars, duplo and books. This is a little list I have made to jog my memory when I am trying to think of something to do with him. I have also made a box of activities so I can get one out for him.

• Instruments - every morning we sing praise songs and use our instruments. On his own Elnathan quickly loses interest.
• Balls - I want to start doing this daily to develop ball skills.
• Stories  - this is an obvious one that we do several times each day!
• Puzzles - he loves simple wooden puzzles.
• Crayons - Nate is only just starting to be able to use these on his own . . . but having said that, I caught him eating one this morning!
• Playdough - definitely a supervised activity as it goes straight in the mouth.
• Block towers and patterns - it is amazing what you can teach with blocks! For example, four small green square blocks make a big green square. 
• Memory Verses

I am aiming to enjoy this stage rather than wishing Nate would turn 3 when he will be able to do so much more on his own and with me. 

What about you? Do you have any ideas for activities to do with babies aged between 18 months and 2 years?

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Saturday's Backyard Bounty: Slow Cooker Zucchini Soup

Zucchini Soup is a great way to use up those extra zucchinis. This soup is surprisingly tasty and quick, perfect for days like today when I had lots of preserving to do! We had a relaxing dinner on the deck after a busy day. To make this soup you will need:

6 Tbs butter ( approximately 120g or 4 3/8 oz)
1 large yellow onion, chopped
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
1 1/2 pounds zucchini, ends trimmed, and cut into chunks (I always end up using closer to 2 pounds of zucchini)
2 heaped tablespoons white rice
1 Tbs chopped fresh basil
3 cups chicken or vegetable broth
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 cup half-and-half (I use cream or, if we don't have any, sour cream)

Instructions:
1. Put butter, onion, curry powder and zucchini in the slow cooker, cover, and cook on HIGH to sweat the vegetables
2. Add the rice, basil, and broth, cover, and cook on LOW for 5 to 6 hours.
3. Puree with a handheld immersion blender. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in the cream. Cook on low until heated through, about 20 minutes.

Here are the results of our day of preserving my parents' fruit - 21 jars of plums to eat this winter!

This week I've been thinking about children and gardens. Remember my bean towers? Well, now that space has been transformed into a bed for some tiny cauliflower seedlings.

I loved the bean teepees, and put a lot of effort into them, but the beans came and went and had to be replaced. This reminds me of how quickly children grow. Like a garden, we've just mastered one area when everything changes and we have to plant something new! It can be frustrating. Sometimes I'd like them to be like a craft project that could be completed . . . but God has made them like a garden that constantly changes. Also, think of the fruit we preserved today. We had a short time to pick the plums or they would be gone. So it is with the little children in our lives. They will grow so quickly and NOW is our chance to invest our time in raising them. This time will not come again.

More snippets of our week in the garden . . .

We planted cauliflowers, peas, silverbeet, and cuttings of oregano and rosemary.

We ate chicken and vegetable pot pie including our patty pans, and pasta with a fresh tomato and basil sauce created by Dave, among other things!

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Saturday's Backyard Bounty: Fresh Corn on the Cob

Fresh corn on the cob has been the highlight of our garden bounty in the past week. There is nothing like fresh corn! It is not easy to grow corn successfully. In the midst of trying to give it enough fertiliser and water to be productive we sometimes wonder if we should give it a miss next year. Then we get our first cobs and we know that we have to try again! Our most common way of preparing corn is to steam it and eat it with a little butter. Tonight, though, Dave baked it in his Weber (a coal fired BBQ). He put butter, salt and pepper onto the cobs and wrapped them in foil. Wow! This is the most delicious way we have found to prepare corn on the cob. All our other vegetables for dinner were also from the garden excepting the onions: potatoes, carrot, patty pan squash, and garlic. This week we have also loved having an abundance of fresh tomatoes to eat in toasted sandwiches, fry for breakfast, and add to salads and sauces.

This week we planted cauliflower seedlings.

As I've walked through the garden this week I have been thinking about a couple of Scriptures. Firstly, God says that when the gospel (the good news of Jesus' death and resurrection to take the punishment for our sins and give us eternal life) is planted, He must make it grow. So it is with our plants - God makes them grow, we can only plant and water but God is in control. My failed cauliflower seeds make me think of this truth that applies both spiritually and physically. Secondly, there is a time for everything . . .a time to plant, and a time to reap. Now is our season of "planting" our family, a busy season where we have to concentrate on the essentials and cannot do all that we would like.

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Knitting projects put to good use

When I was a teen I did a lot of knitting, especially toys. I put away the toys for future use. Many children have played with them while visiting our home. Now it is a pleasure to see my own children enjoying things I made over ten years ago. Maybe I did do something useful with my teen years!

I made this jumper in my early twenties, and loved putting on our daughter for the first time this year. I originally gave it to one of my nieces but it made its way back to me and now I get to put it on our very own baby! I could not have imagined this when I was making it. I have not knitted for years, partly because it increases back pain, but I'm feeling tempted to get those needles out again.

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Story time

The children listening to one of our favourite books, "Stories Jesus Told".

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Move to the big bed

This week we moved Mercy from her bassinet to the cot. Elnathan transitioned really easily to his big bed in February, praise God. I love
putting Mercy to bed under her garden quilt, a reminder of God's love and providence.

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Visiting Friends

Last weekend we enjoyed visiting friends. It was our first visit to their home and market garden about 45 minutes from Hobart.

We thoroughly enjoyed out walk around their property and eating blackberries from the wild bushes.

I caught Elnathan just as he threw his arms up to the sky saying "moon and stars"!

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Brother and sister

Elnathan has been showing more interest in his sister lately. He talks to her and shows affection several times a day, whereas before he only paid attention to her occasionally.

His affection can be very enthusiastic or misplaced, such as when he tried to put one of his cars in Mercy's mouth!

Still, it is sweet to see them noticing one another more and we hope they will become good friends and playmates.

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Being a Living Sacrifice as a Mother

This guest post is from my mother Lorraine Ward. Mum wrote it recently to share with a mother's group, and I thought it would also be a blessing to those who read this blog. It certainly comes as a timely reminder to me as I have been struggling with a complaining spirit at times. 

Lorraine at Christmas with her granddaughter Mercy Joy Lorraine.

Lately I have been rereading Helen Roseveare’s book Living Sacrifice. I have read this book several times! Since my children were little I have made it a life habit to read not only the Word of God, but also biographies and autobiographies of great Christians who sacrificed everything in their lives to share the gospel all over the world. We can learn so much about how to live the victorious Christian life from the struggles, suffering and triumphs of humble men and women of God.

Helen Roseveare worked as a medical missionary in the Congo for 20 years, a time when there was much bloodshed and suffering in that country. Her story is inspiring because she talks so openly about how God dealt with her proud heart through times of great stress and hardship. She shares about how the Lord revealed to her that it is a privilege to give up all to know Him and be used by Him. When she suffered brutality at the hands of rebel soldiers she struggled to stop herself blaming God and feeling abandoned by Him. The Lord showed her that He was offering her the privilege of sharing in the fellowship of His sufferings. God wanted to transform her life to be a usable tool in His hands for His purposes. Was she willing to do without, to let go of ambition and pride to learn death of self, to give up self-pity, self-defence and self-sufficiency?

Helen’s struggles with her heart have deeply touched me, because as a mother it is easy to give in to self-pity at times when you have no time to yourself and tasks and chores mount up because you are exhausted. As a mother I have wrestled with a complaining spirit and a desire to have my load lifted. I had to take stock of my sinful thinking patterns when things were difficult. Why me, Lord? Why do I have to bear this burden? The sweetest moments come after confession of sin, as the Lord gently shows you His Way. When I confessed this grumbling spirit to the Lord, He showed me that He has a greater purpose for me as a mother. He has given me the most important job in the world, to train my children for His purposes and to reveal His character through the death of my selfish complaining heart.

Let’s remember God’s promise in Ezek 36:26 “A new heart I will give you, and new spirit I will put within you…” When our children see our sweet spirit before the Lord, His Spirit speaks to their hearts and His transforming power is at work in them. Child training can seem to take forever and you may not be getting the results you desire straight away, but God Almighty is at work in your ministry and He will bring to fruition what He has begun in you and your family. Praise His Name!

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