Finding joy in the everyday

And Boaz answered and said to her, “It has been fully reported to me, all that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband, and how you have left your father and your mother and the land of your birth, and have come to a people whom you did not know before. (Ruth 2:11) For those who have daughters, one day they will marry (God willing) and become daughter-in-laws.  How do you want them to treat their future mother-in-law? One day you will become a mother-in-law, how will you behave? On Mothers Day this year my daughter-in-law (DIL) came for lunch and we spent the afternoon together. Her husband (my son) was away on work business (for 4 weeks) but that didn't stop her from visiting. She brought me a beautiful bunch of flowers and a lovely gift which will be treasured. We had a wonderful time chatting, enjoying a meal together, chocolate cupcakes for dessert and we even fitted in a movie (on DVD) that we both wanted to watch. My DIL i...

Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.  For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body.  Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word,   that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. Ephesians 5:22-29 Painting by Jacqueline Osborn Women are to submit to their husbands as the husband is the head of his wife " as Christ is the hea...

Artist:  Richard S. Johnson

“Sugar is now the most ubiquitous foodstuff worldwide, and has been added to virtually every processed food, limiting consumer choice and the ability to avoid it. Approximately 80 % of the 600,000 consumer packaged foods in the United States have added caloric sweeteners.”  Dr Robert Lustig Since the mid 1970s it has been well known that processed foods containing high levels of sugar, fat and sodium are not good for our health. Governments have attempted to change dietary requirement guidelines and with each attempt, powerful lobbyists from the food producer and food manufacturing industries have threatened and convinced one administration after the other to put a stop to any change in the reduction of sugar, fat or sodium in manufactured foods. Thus far, they have won and we have lost. Our food has been hijacked by powerful and rich corporations who now control what appears in our supermarkets and what we eat. They bombard our children with food commercials ...

Did you know that worldwide more people died from obesity than from being underweight. Fewer people are dying from starvation—we are killing ourselves from overeating. This week I am looking at the damage fast foods and proceeded foods have had on our health—here is some sobering statistics on obesity.  Internationally ( source: World Health  Organisation ) * Worldwide obesity has more than doubled since 1980. * In 2014, more than 1.9 billion adults, 18 years and older, were overweight. Of these over 600 million were obese. * 39% of adults aged 18 years and over were overweight in 2014, and 13% were obese. * 42 million children under the age of 5 were overweight or obese in 2013. * In 2013, 42 million children under the age of 5 were overweight or obese. Once considered a high-income country problem, overweight and obesity are now on the rise in low- and middle-income countries, particularly in urban settings. In developing countries with emergin...

I cook and I love to cook from scratch My mother taught me to cook and I taught my two sons to cook.  I much prefer a home cooked meal over takeaway. I make my own pizzas rather than buying as mine as so much more tastier and I know what is on them! I rarely use pre-cooked meal from the supermarket, too salting, too sweet, too processed.  Americans now spend 27 minutes per day preparing food and another 4 minutes cleaning up. In 1965,  Americans spent 54 minutes preparing food and 8 minutes cleaning up. But lets go back even further.  During the early 1800s, cooking dominated the time and energy of the average housewife. A woman’s life was scheduled around cooking and meals. Preparing meals was not just a matter of starting a fire for cooking. Spices, such as nutmeg and cinnamon, and seasonings, like salt and pepper, had to be ground up with mortars and pestles. Milk had to be brought in from the family dairy c...

Artist: Kim Jacobs