Tea Time with Annie Kate Rotating Header Image

Banana Peach ‘Mushrooms’

Jan 27th, 2018
by Annie Kate.
4 comments

Banana Peach ‘Mushrooms’

For a celebration this month, one of my children requested a special treat from the past, these simple Banana Peach ‘Mushrooms’.  I used to make them occasionally when the children were small, so long ago that Miss 15 cannot even recall them, and they always brought joy then.  They did the same now.

I hope that your loved ones will be delighted by them as well.

What you need:

  • One banana for every 3 or 4 ‘mushrooms’ (depending on the size)
  • Canned peach halves
  • Whipped cream, fairly stiff
  • Toothpicks

How to assemble:

  1. Spoon a few tablespoons of whipped cream onto each plate.
  2. Peel the banana, cut into 2-3 inch (~5-7 cm) sections, and remove the pointed ends.
  3. Stand banana sections up in the whipping cream.
  4. Partially insert a toothpick into the top of the banana.
  5. Carefully place a peach half onto the toothpick.

Serve this to your family or friends, young or old, and see the sparkle in their eyes!

(Unfortunately, I cannot recall where I first learned about these.)

—

If you enjoyed this article, you might want to follow me on Google+ where I often mention helpful or interesting ideas, or connect with me on GoodReads where I share what I read. 

This article may be linked to Raising Homemakers.

Posted in: Kitchen, Life, Simple Joys.
Tagged:

Review: Free of Me by Sharon Hodde Miller

Jan 24th, 2018
by Annie Kate.
No comments yet

Everywhere you look, you see them:  people who are obsessed with themselves.  To be honest, we see such a person when we look in the mirror as well. We all are self-centered, at least to some degree, and our individualistic, on-display culture aggravates this natural tendency.

But, as Rick Warren famously said, “It’s not about you.”

In Free of Me: Why Life is Better When It’s Not About You, Sharon Hodde Miller builds on this concept, showing how liberating it is to realize that our lives are not about ourselves, but about God.  “If we could only focus a little less on ourselves and a little more on God, our shoulders would feel so much lighter….But the challenge is, how?”

This is a very personal book. Sharon shares how she hurt herself and others by her self-focus and how God changed that, and then she draws conclusions and generalizations that apply to others as well.

Distinguishing between two often-linked root causes of insecurity—low self-esteem and self-preoccupation—Sharon also noticed differing cures.  If a person has low self-esteem, having been hurt, abused, or lied to, they need to take time to learn God’s truth about themselves and to heal.  On the other hand, the cure for self-preoccupation is to learn what Tim Keller calls ‘self-forgetfulness’, the very opposite of self-focus, and a concept that Sharon spends the rest of the book explaining.   Since our human nature defaults to self-centeredness, this is no small project.

With prayer, Bible study, much reflection, and the input of godly mentors, Sharon learned that her life was not about her.  Even though we may think that we are different, just a bit better, and not overwhelmed by the idol of self, it is convicting to read the details about how we make God, family, appearance, possessions, friendships, calling, and church about us.  Yet none of them are.

As Sharon writes, “Whenever we put anything before God,  it’s only a matter of time before it turns on us,” and,  “I couldn’t enjoy the freedom of living for Christ, because I wasn’t living for Christ.  I was living for me.”

The solution Sharon discovered to her insecurity and self-focus, one that has been discovered and rediscovered through the millennia, is four-fold:

  • Love God and praise him,
  • Love people,
  • Live purposefully,
  • Die to self.

These are all such commonplace Christian ideas, yet understanding and living them is the focus of our lives.  Though they are simple, they are also profound, and I suspect it will take our whole lifetime to understand what they really mean.

Sharon Hodde Miller shares much wisdom in this book and I learned a lot from her, not the least being that it really bothers me to think of myself as self-focused.  That, of course, is a red flag.

Free of Me can simply be read—that is by far the ‘safer’ route—or it can be studied carefully and applied.  Sharon includes a key verse, a prayer, and some penetrating discussion questions at the end of each chapter.  An in-depth group study guide is also available.

Either way, it is important to recognize, regularly, the reality of our self-centeredness, this pervasive tendency that we drift into over and over.  This book can help.   Ann Voskamp said , “Free of Me may be one of the most important truths for our times.”  And, you know, she is right.

“It’s not about you,” is a life-giving truth that we Christians need to learn to live, and it is a truth that this broken world desperately needs to hear.   

May God bless us all as we learn to live for him and for others rather than for ourselves!

—

A review of Embracing Obscurity discusses this whole concept from a different point of view.

—

If you enjoyed this review, you might want to follow me on Google+ where I often mention helpful or interesting ideas, or connect with me on GoodReads where I share what I read. 

—

Disclosure: This book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc. and is available at your favorite bookseller.

This article may be linked to Raising Homemakers, Saturday Reviews, Booknificent Thursdays, 52 Books in 52 Weeks Challenge, Literacy Musings Monday, and The Book Nook. 

Posted in: 52 Books in 52 Weeks, Reviews, Reviews: Nonfiction.
Tagged: · ·

Spring in January

Jan 16th, 2018
by Annie Kate.
2 comments

 

Spring in January

It has been a very cold winter so far but last week, for a blissful day and half, the snow disappeared, the river ice creaked and thumped as it broke up, and the ditches flowed as though it were spring.

We took a day off school to celebrate. It was an amazing day and, because I love glimpses into other family’s celebrations, I’m sharing our January ‘spring’ with you.

Of course we spent a lot of the time outside, enjoying the fresh air.  Mr. 22, who had the day off, too, cleaned out the chicken coop, Miss 15 cleaned out her bunny’s palace and the chicken hospital cage.  I swished and scrubbed animal supplies in puddles on the lawn, a delightfully childish activity, and Miss 17 tucked compost around the raspberry canes.

The fresh air also inspired us inside, and we aired out the house, giving it a quick spring cleaning, and prepared for the possible power outages that could come with the predicted flash freeze.  Miss 15 baked peanut butter cookie muffins, peanut butter cookies, and her first cheesecake.  We had apple-cinnamon oatmeal for lunch, and I finished a mind map about the cell for our biology studies.

In the middle of all that useful exuberance, some unnamed people engaged in a BB gun fight with the BB’s ricocheting off the dining room forest of table and chair legs.  (One of the guns, among the silliest things in our house, is a pink BB pistol.)

Miss 17 and I walked the short distance to our river, watched the mist rise as the temperature dropped, and took pictures.  Meanwhile, Miss 15 painted her nails and studied biology with her bedroom window wide open.

Later on the Canada Post lady came with two lovely books and left, smiling, after Miss 15 complimented her on her manicure.

Then, early in the afternoon, rain pelted against the window.  As the temperature plummeted, the splashes became pings, and within 15 minutes the window was covered with ice.

It had been so warm that the girls put pop into the freezer to cool.  Then they forgot about it and, when they finally opened it, it sprayed all over the kitchen and into every nook and cranny, even into the closed microwave!   I heard vague scrubbing noises during my nap, but just assumed they had something to do with the new layer of ice outside….

By evening life was back to its wintery normal, with the fire roaring, the windows tightly sealed, the animals cozy in their straw, and the world covered with a fresh coat of snow.  But we have our memories of a delightful and slightly crazy day, the day when spring came in January.

Back to winter the next day

—

If you enjoyed this article, you might want to follow me on Google+ where I often mention helpful or interesting ideas, or connect with me on GoodReads where I share what I read. 

Posted in: God's Wonderful World, Holiday Highlights, Life, Simple Joys.

Review: Where We Belong by Lynn Austin

Jan 12th, 2018
by Annie Kate.
No comments yet

Rebecca and Flora Hawes, sisters in the late 1800’s, are always in search of adventure, especially Rebecca who, filled with an insatiable longing for more than school and high society, drags Flora along.  As teens they sneak away from school, their Paris hotel, and the safe parts of their own city, filled with youthful heedlessness and enthusiastic intentions.  The adventures help compassionate Flora find her calling early, but not Rebecca.  Eventually the sisters brave sandstorms, unpredictable Bedouins, and endlessly bickering servants in search of a biblical manuscript.  Will Rebecca finds what she needs to convince ‘the professor’ that Christianity is true?

Where We Belong is not only about the privileged Hawes sisters but also about Peterson, orphaned son of a Swedish gangster, and young, red-headed Kate, scrambling to live in the streets of Chicago. How these four end up in the Sinai Desert, and why, is a story worth telling, and Lynn Austin tells it well.

As always, Austin’s characters are full of life and zest as they slowly mature, and the settings are filled with story themselves. Where We Belong is not a fast-paced story, but it hints at so many intriguing possibilities that it is very difficult to put down.  As a novel, it is very good.  As history, it is fascinating, based on the story of self-educated Scottish sisters of the 1800’s who did find an ancient manuscript near Sinai.

However, there is more to Where We Belong than to the average historical novel; in this unique book Austin explores what Christianity means.  She considers compassion and how one can love God and help society’s vulnerable in many practical ways.  She shows how intellectual pursuits can accomplish the same goal, especially among those who are vulnerable to lies.  Ultimately, she reminds us that God has different tasks for different people.

A book like this can leave me with the oppressing feeling of not doing enough in life. However, we must remember the vital fact that God has different callings for each of us, just as he did for Rebecca and Flora.  We are not all hands in the body of Christ, for example, and no one should ever suppose that his own personal calling applies equally to all Christians.  This is addressed to some extent in Blind Spots by Collin Hansen, and it is a common failing of those who have been called passionately—to help a certain group of people (foster children, senior citizens, the hungry), to be involved in certain issues (politics, origins debates, pro-life work), or to serve in any other specific ways.  We cannot all be involved in all such endeavors, and we are not commanded to do so. Instead of spreading ourselves thin trying to do everything everyone else thinks we should do, we need to learn to discern how we, in our particular situation and with our particular gifts, are called to love God and people.  And that is, in part, what Where We Belong is about.

Despite the depth of this book is it a compelling story of adventure, youthful escapades, travel, and even romance.  It is difficult to put down and I enjoyed it immensely.  Miss 15 considers Lynn Austin’s books boring, although I think she would enjoy many parts of this one.  But it is true that her books, like this one, are thoughtful and do not appeal to everyone, even though she has sold over a million copies and won many awards.  If, however, you are a Christian and willing to be challenged as well as entertained in your reading, then this book is for you.  May God bless you as you read as well as afterwards, whether you serve in a soup kitchen, or develop technology to enable de-urbanization, or walk the halls of power.

 

Agnes and Margaret Smith, on whom Rebecca and Flora are modeled, used this as their motto.

—

If you enjoyed this revew, you might want to follow me on Google+ where I often mention helpful or interesting ideas, or connect with me on GoodReads where I share what I read. 

—

Disclosure: This book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc. and is available at your favorite bookseller from Bethany House, a division of Baker Publishing Group.

This article may be linked to Raising Homemakers, Saturday Reviews, Booknificent Thursdays, 52 Books in 52 Weeks Challenge, Literacy Musings Monday, and The Book Nook. 

Posted in: 52 Books in 52 Weeks, Quotations, Reviews, Reviews: Fiction.
Tagged: · · · · · ·

Three Foundational Goals for 2018, and One More

Jan 10th, 2018
by Annie Kate.
4 comments

You’ll just have to imagine the beautiful sparkles with which God decorated the tree, sparkles that glittered when the wind passed by.

In the wee hours of this morning, eating a banana in the dark while watching the moon, Jupiter, and Mars creep through the bare branches of our basswood tree, I thought of Psalm 8.  When David admired the night sky, probably while out with his sheep, he asked, “What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor….”  God has given us all things to care for, and we praise his majestic name in all the earth.

That psalm gives some perspective to the human practice of setting goals.  We are not autonomous but depend on God for every breath, we have each been given specific tasks, and our overriding goal must be to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and our neighbor as ourselves.  Within those very, very broad outlines, with the whole world spread before us, we can choose a few things to focus on this year and call those our goals

I’ve been thinking a lot about human fragility and purpose in the past weeks, and all my thoughts seem to group into three very foundational areas where I want to be more intentional in 2018.

Knowing God

I want to get closer to God, to know him better, and to understand more clearly how he wants me to live.  Despite having aimed, for years, to love him with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, I am often still not sure what that means in everyday terms.  So this year I want to do three things that will help.

  • I plan to read the entire Bible this year, taking notes and copying out sections to memorize.
  • For prayer guidance I’m using the devotional Seeking God’s Face.
  • For worship I want to focus more on God’s magnificent creation that we busy inside-dwellers so often ignore.

Regaining Health

As many of you know, I often deal with fatigue, extreme lack of stamina, and other health issues.  Although I have had incredible medical support over the past decade, something more needs to be done, and this year I expect to focus on

  • More medical testing,
  • More learning,
  • More intentionality with regards to eating, being active, and resting.

Loving my Family

I have a wonderful family and am grateful for each person, but I have not always expressed that adequately.  This year I hope to spend more time just hanging out with each of them, doing things together, little things and, once I am well, bigger ones, too.

Catching Up

There are a few things sitting on my shoulders that I want to get out of the way—homeschool records, writing projects, homemaking issues, photo organization, managing my working space (see photo below), and more.  This fourth goal is based on the foundational three and will feed into them, but it deserves a special mention so I will not forget about it. However, I will do my best not to let it interfere with the other three which are all much more important.

My plan is to break each of these goals into monthly and weekly subgoals to make them practical and do-able, and I expect to blog about that at least a few times over the year.

Miss 15 said I should include this photo of my desk so no one will think I have it all together—and believe me, I don’t! But isn’t it good to know that God always does?

Last Year’s Goals

I set some pretty ambitious goals last year, to memorize Romans, to get back to walking 10,000 steps a day, and to keep up with the wee notes I scribble to myself in the night.

I did not meet any of my 2017 goals, but trying to memorize Romans was a life changer in ways I never expected—I now understand more about God, others, myself, and the rest of the Bible.  I also learned about memorizing, big projects, and being over 50.

Here is a suggestion for you younger moms: take advantage of your youthful minds and attempt such a Bible memorization project.  Even if you do not succeed, I promise you won’t be sorry you tried.  No matter how old we are, the more we memorize God’s Word, the more it will fill our minds when we lie awake at night, see a starry sky, need to make a decision, or are about to lose our tempers….

Did you set goals for the year?  If you have a blog post about them, please include a link in the comments.  How are they working out so far?  Don’t be afraid to tweak and adjust, and do be sure to translate them into daily or weekly actions.  May God bless you and your family in 2018!

—

If you enjoyed this article, you might want to follow me on Google+ where I often mention helpful or interesting ideas, or connect with me on GoodReads where I share what I read. 

Posted in: Life, Planning.
Tagged: ·

← Earlier Posts Newer Posts →