Home Helper, Home Maker

1 to 1 ½ cup warm water

2 tablespoon dry yeast

2 teaspoon sugar

4 cups flour

2 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 teaspoon salt

Combine ¼ cup of the water with the yeast and sugar stir to dissolve the yeast, and let stand until bubbly, about five minutes

Meanwhile, mix the flour, oil and salt in the food processor and process for about five seconds.

Add the yeast mixture into the flour mixture, and process about 10 seconds, or until blended.

Turn on the food processor and drizzle just enough of the remaining water through the feed tube so the dough forms a ball that cleans the sides of the bowl.  It might take a while, but keep at it!  Let it roll around inside for about 25 rounds – this is kneading at work!

Put the dough into an oiled bowl, and cover it with a tea towel, leaving it to rise for 10 minutes.

After those ten minutes it might feel a bit light and airy so knead it out a little.  Stretch the dough onto a pre-oiled tray and put it the oven for around 15 minutes at around 180C.  This makes two pizza bases.

Once it is nearly cooked, take it out and allow it to cool for a couple of minutes.  Top it with your toppings (we like Hawaiian pizzas) and either put back in the oven until the cheese is melted or in the fridge for when you are ready for it!

I like this recipe because:

• I don’t need to put all the effort of making the dough by hand and doing a lot of waiting and kneading because the food processor does all it for me
• I already know how to use the food processor, so I don’t need to master the bread machine (which is how our friends make it)
• It is a pre-cooked base, so I don’t have to worry about cooking the toppings and the dough at the same time and the dough turning out doughy
• I can make this whenever and keep it in the fridge until I’m ready

This recipe is very popular around our town and friends– not only is it sweet and mango-y, but it’s very healthy too! (trust me - no oven, no fats, no added sugar or preservatives!)

Crust:
2 Cups of Almond

½ Cup Dates, pitted and soaked (soak the pitted dates in water for at least six hours; Mum soaks a bunch and puts them in the fridge, still soaking.  They lasts for about a month)  If you don’t want to soak them that’s OK but you might need more dates to hold the nuts together.

Then follow three simply steps:

1.       In a food processor, grind the almonds till fine

2.       Add the dates and blend until the crust looks like it will stick together.

3.       Pat the crust down firmly in the pie base.

Filling:

4 Mangoes (8 cheeks)

4 bananas

These two steps are very simple:

1.       Simply blend together the bananas and mangoes in the food processor until smooth

2.       Pour over the crust and put in the freezer.

This pie’s consistency is best when frozen opposed to kept in the fridge.  Take it out fifteen minutes before serving so it can soften.  It re-freezes well too.

Enjoy!

Book review today – Aunt Minnie McGranahan, by Mary Skillings Prigger.

 
We found this book in the library about a year ago; I love it!  If you see it around, please check it out.

Aunt Minnie McGranahan is a little old lady who is very neat and tidy, and keeps a very strict system – on certain days she did only certain things, and she always was ready for company.  Unfortunately, her nieces and nephews are suddenly left orphaned and she is their closest relative – it’s all on the mothers’ side, you see.  Her neighbors think it’s impossible.  Aunt Minnie pays them no mind and adopts them, and immediately adjusts her system so that they help her with the chores.  Her system was simply this: – the oldest looks after the youngest, the middle ones look after each other, and Aunt Minnie looks after them all.

“Many hands make light work, and fun makes work lighter” is what she believed – and she put it into action.  No idle hands were there on her farm, but lots of happy bodies – making the jobs into races, games, and competitions. 

There is heaps in this book to learn from – flexibility, discipline, joyfulness and diligence.  In our house, we have four character traits Mum and Dad want our home to reflect: Orderliness, Creativity, Peace and Wisdom.  Aunt Minnie’s home and life reflects all of those traits.  Have a think about these traits and what they all mean – honestly now, is your life in line with these traits?  I know I have room for improvement!   Just like I was saying last week, a lot of these traits below have something to do with orderliness, if you think about it.

Orderliness – Arranging myself and my surroundings to achieve the greatest efficiency.

Flexibility – Not becoming attached to ideas or plans which could be changed by my authorities.

Enthusiasm – Expressing joy in each task as I give it my best effort.

Diligence - Investing all my energy to complete the tasks assigned to me.

Creativity – Approaching a need, a task, or an idea from a new perspective.

Wisdom – Making practical applications of truth in daily decisions.

 Patience – accepting a difficult situation without giving a deadline to remove it.

Determination – Purposing to accomplish right goals at the right time, regardless of the opposition.

Responsibility – Knowing and doing what is expected of me.

Resourcefulness – Making wise use of what others might overlook or discard.

Initiative – Recognizing and doing what needs to be done before I’m asked.

What trait do you have to work on – in all areas of your life?  I think someone once said that life is just one big ball of string, not lots of little pieces.  Character and orderliness are joined on the same string, aren’t they?

Read last week's article: Why Orderliness is Important

Is organization important?  Can’t we just get by with a messy house?

If someone was to ask me those questions, I’d probably respond, ‘Well, you could, but I don’t think that’s a good idea.”  Why not?  I’ll explain why.

Initially, we are made in God’s image, with characteristics of him.  In Job 25:2, it says: "Dominion and awe belong to God; he establishes order in the heights of heaven.”  If we are made in God’s image, I think there’s some part of us that can be orderly.

I’m currently reading The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren, and the one thing that keeps popping up is: it’s all for the glory of God.  When we are surrounded by clutter and junk, we aren’t able to be all God wants us to be because we are constantly just trying to get the basics of our lives in order instead of being on hand to do what God wants us to do.  As I wrote a couple of years back:

"When you are orderly, you show that you are being responsible to your things and being a good steward.  You are using your time wisely, and can be available to others because you know where everything is.  When in the process of being orderly, of actually doing it, you can be diligent and show the initiative.  People can depend on you to do things, all because you are orderly."

Orderliness enhances creativity.  The two are a pair, hand in hand.  Orderliness doesn’t mean your cupboard has to look like a professional office, it just means your area is functioning in a way that is the most efficient for you.  Resourcefulness works in perfectly with creativity also, because it allows you to be thrifty with a large dose of originality mixed in.

Orderliness is the Atmosphere for Hospitality.   When we have people coming over, I can feel all the difference in the house if I’ve given it a good blitz, compared to me just doing the very basics.  Although hospitality is more than just everything looking perfect, it adds to a peaceful atmosphere and spirit.

Can you think of other characteristics that fit into orderliness?  How do they fit with orderliness?

I suppose character and God really do have a lot to do with being orderly, don’t they?

(Originally posted at the Joys of Blitzing)

1. Have a place for everything.  If everything has a place, then things will be where you want it when you want it.
2. Store like items together.  Keep as much of one ‘sort’ of item together.  Try keeping all different coloured papers together, drawing or painting supplies in the same box, and school books in one place.  We have a drawer for all our coloured paper, and shelves for hot, cool and neutral coloured card.
3. Put things back where they belong.  That means 24/7, day in, day out, whenever and where ever, you deal with whatever you were doing and put it back! You’d be surprised how much space you’ll obtain!
4. Don’t get bogged down with the details.  When you organize, be thorough, but don’t become obsessed with all that little ‘stuff’.
5. If you don’t like it, don’t keep it.  Simple.
6. If you do like it, keep it!  Duh.
7. Stay focused. If you are putting away that enormous pile of stuff in your room, don’t decide to sort your clothes in colour-code now.  You can do that after your room is in order!
8. Don’t bite of more than you can chew.  If organizing your cupboard, under the bed, and all the boxes in one day is too much for you, then don’t do it!  Decide that for every day for the week, you will sort out one area.
9. Use containers to help out.  I find using a washing basket is a great help when doing a big clean, either in my room, cleaning craft supplies, or blitzing the living area and family room.  When cleaning a cupboard, I like to use boxes or plastic baskets to store it all, instead of it being loose.  I love the idea of plastic containers after plastic containers, stacked up upon one another, but reality is you can use any sort of box; be creative!

And last but not least…

10. Be yourself!  Don’t organize from the outside in, find a system from the inside out!  If you a really short, don’t store your Bible on the tipity-top of your bedroom cupboard!  When I was about seven, I had a little whistle I loved.  One day I sat in the middle of my bedroom floor, closed my eyes, and, outstreaching my arm, threw it in the bin, telling myself, “I don’t really need it, I don’t really need it!” I was trying to get rid of stuff so I’d be organized (an unnecessary job, if I may say so myself), but I was trying to force THE way of organizing into myself, and as a result, lost a cool toy.  There is more than one way to organize, and getting rid of stuff doesn’t necessarily counts as one of them.

Uncooked Play Dough

2 cups of plain flour
4 tablespoons of 'cream of tartar'
2 tablespoons of cooking oil
1 cup of salt
2 cups of boiling water
food colouring

Just pop it all in a mixing bowl and mix!

It looks as though it is not going to mix well at first but hang in there and throw it onto the bench to knead, and it will come together really nicely.

PLEASE be careful when you knead it because it will be hot!

I found this recipe at k-3 Teacher Resources

Timers – what a lifesaver!  I was putting our tacos shells in for dinner the other night, while trying to get the toppings ready and it all ready for Daddy and Josh to go out to a meeting.  As soon as I put the shells in, I set the kitchen timer for seven minutes, hit ‘start’, and the rest was a breeze.  It was one less thing to worry about – no checking or continuous looking at the clock, no stress, and no burnt taco shells!

Each of us kids have a timer – either a battery-run one or an egg timer – for our school and computer time.   We also keep one in the kitchen for laundry or office tasks.   It makes life so much easier being able to completely and efficiently focus on your present task. 

Who says people can’t multi-task?  Get a timer!

Hi!  Thanks for stopping by today at A Homemaker’s Joy!  My name is Jess – I’m fourteen and homeschools in Western Australia.  For the last 14 months, I’ve been writing at another blog on Homesteadblogger called the Joys of Blitzing (JOB).   There I was writing about cleaning and organizing… but it was getting a little difficult.  You see, although I love organizing, Mum* (and soon, I) felt I was putting too much pressure on myself and boxing myself in to write on one subject.  So I’ve started afresh with a new blog, which is the site your URL box has in written in right now!

Here I hope to write about homemaking – that is, all things related to doing better in our home.   I’m learning - I don’t know everything.  So as I learn, I want to help you learn too – whether it’s with our latest meal, or a lesson on bookkeeping, or my [interesting] adventures with dressmaking – please join me!  Always feel free to leave a comment with your wonderful ideas and thoughts, or with a link to what you’ve been learning homemaking wise!

You can also find me, Little Miss Giggles, at www.homeschoolblogger.com/JessicaLetchford, where I post about my life, the books I’m reading, the things I’m learning and my thoughts about life with God!

But what is homemaking?  Simply put, homemaking is everything to do with a home – from cooking to organizing to budgeting to babysitting to cleaning spaghetti stains off white t-shirts!  And it doesn’t have to be boring either – I think there must be something to do with homemaking that you‘ll enjoy doing.  Be creative and don’t box yourself into thinking homemaking is just about wearing aprons and dusting with a feather duster all day long.

Why would you want to homemake?  Well, to my mind, homemaking prepares you for whatever awesome plan God has in store for you!   Jim Elliot proposed, “Where ever you are, be there 100%”  Paul also encouraged us, “Whatever your hands find to do, do it with all our heart, as working for the LORD not man” (Colossians 3:23)  God’s using every circumstance we come across as part of his mysterious plan for your life.  Second, as I already mentioned –it doesn’t need to be boring!  Different aspects of it can be a hobby and so much fun you won’t even know it’s ‘HOMEMAKING”!

Please join me on the adventure as I learn more about all the many different topics of life!  What’s a homemaker’s joy?  Homemaking!