Archive for Sara Horn

Sunday Dinner: Chicken Parmesan

By Sara · Comments (0)
Saturday, September 29th, 2012

Do you cook regularly on Sundays for lunch? Or does your family typically go out to eat? For years, I’ve told myself – and my family – that it’s too hard to cook on Sundays. That we have to eat out if we don’t want to starve. But now I’m starting to wonder what all the fuss was about.

 

I’ve come to an important realization. It’s amazing. It’s life-changing.

We have not starved, in that hour (ok, hour to hour 1/2) window between leaving church and getting food on the table.

We haven’t wasted away to nothing. We come home, I start cooking (changing first into something more comfy if I need to) and the guys put their Bibles away, get changed and pick up a little. Ok, who am I kidding, they get changed, and hang out on their electronics (pick one).

I tried a new recipe (this past summer) with chicken. Chicken Parmesan. And it was yummy! I pounded chicken breasts to a 1/2 inch or so, rolled them in panko (I was out of regular breadcrumbs) and italian seasoning, added some amazing leftover homemade spaghetti sauce I made at the beginning of the week and a side of corn and bam! Chicken Parmesan and a yummy Sunday dinner at your service.

Here’s the recipe I followed with my changes in ( ). Enjoy!

WORLD’S GREATEST PASTA SAUCE

First, I have to share with you this “amazing” sauce I mentioned. After I made this the first time, and saw how much my family loved it, I promised myself I would never go back to the jar stuff. And so far I haven’t! Make a big batch and freeze some of it to have for later! Super easy!

World’s Best Pasta Sauce
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Recipe type: Sauce
Cuisine: Italian
Author:
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 16
Love this sauce that incorporates italian sweet sauce as well as ground meat. Great for spaghetti, lasagna, chicken park or any favorite italian dish that needs a great sauce to go with it!
Ingredients
  • 1 pound sweet Italian sausage, sliced
  • ¾ pound lean ground beef
  • ½ cup minced onion
  • 2 cloves garlic, crushed
  • 1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
  • 2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
  • 2 (6.5 ounce) cans tomato sauce
  • ½ cup water
  • 2 tablespoons white sugar
  • 1½ teaspoons dried basil
  • ½ teaspoon fennel seed
  • 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
Instructions
  1. In a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat, cook the sausage, beef, onion, and garlic until well browned; drain fat. Stir in crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato sauce, and water. Mix in sugar and season with basil, fennel seed, Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 1½ hours, stirring occasionally.
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Now for the Chicken…

 

Sunday Dinner: Chicken Parmesan
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Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients
  • 4 boneless chicken breasts, pounded to ½ inch thickness
  • 1 egg
  • ½ cup milk
  • seasoned bread crumbs
  • 2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 8 slices mozzarella cheese (shredded works too)
  • World’s Best Pasta Sauce
  • Parmesan cheese
Instructions
  1. Whisk together the egg and milk. Dip the chicken breasts in milk and egg mixture and then in bread crumbs. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Brown the chicken in the hot oil on both sides until golden, about 3 to 4 minutes on each side. Set chicken in a baking dish.
  2. Slice 8 pieces of mozzarella cheese and put two on each chicken breast. Use a jar of spaghetti sauce or your favorite homemade recipe. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and a little more mozzarella and bake at 350° for about 25 to 30 minutes, or until bubbly. Serve with spaghetti, garlic bread and a nice green salad.
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Sunday Lunch Idea: Crock Pot Santa Fe Chicken

By Sara · Comments (0)
Tuesday, June 26th, 2012

I don’t know what it’s like in your house, but Sundays always feel tougher for me to cook. Though we only live 3 minutes or so from our church, we don’t get home until after 12:10 or 12:15, and everyone’s usually hungry and ready to eat and not so willing to wait for lunch to be fixed.

Usually we just eat out, but I’ve tried making a stronger effort the last few weeks to stick to our budget, and utilize what’s in our pantry.

So Sunday morning I headed to the kitchen to grab the chicken from the fridge I  let thaw out the night before…. and figure out what I would do with it.

I was thinking I’d use the crockpot… I just wasn’t sure exactly how.

And then I found this recipe.

Crock Pot Santa Fe Chicken

First, can I just tell you how excited I was to actually have the fresh ingredients called for AND the seasonings too? There was actually fresh cilantro and fresh green onions sitting in my refrigerator. Wow. I felt so smart.

Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients:

  • 24 oz (1 1/2) lbs chicken breast (I only used a couple of chicken breasts and shredded, this was a lot!)
  • 14.4 oz can diced tomatoes with mild green chilies (we call this Rotel in the south)
  • 15 oz can black beans (NOTE: I did NOT have black beans – so I decided to go with light red kidney beans – and they worked just as well I think)
  • 8 oz frozen corn (I used just a regular can of corn, drained)
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
  • 14.4 oz can fat free chicken broth
  • 3 scallions, chopped
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp onion powder
  • 1 tsp cumin
  • 1 tsp cayenne pepper (to taste)
  • salt to taste

Directions:

Combine chicken broth, beans, corn, tomatoes, cilantro, scallions, garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, cayenne pepper and salt in the crock pot. Season chicken breast with salt and lay on top. Cook on low for 10 hours or on high for 6 hours. Half hour before serving, remove chicken and shred. Return chicken to slow cooker and stir in. Adjust salt and seasoning. Serve over rice or in a tortilla (extra pts).

I put everything in the crockpot with the chicken on top around  8 in the morning on high and we were home by 12:30 or so, so it was really only about 4 hours or so (as opposed to the 6 called for in the recipe), but that was plenty of time for my chicken breast to cook completely- it shredded beautifully.

 

My son is not a huge fan of rice AT ALL and he could live on Mexican food every day – so… I decided to add a bed of rice on top of a lightly cooked tortilla and then top with the chicken and other yummy ingredients from the crockpot, along with a little shredded cheese and salsa and sour cream on the side.

Here’s how it turned out:

This was a great way to change up Sunday lunch – it was light and fresh  in taste but very filling – and even my rice-resistant 11-year-old really liked it!

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Creamy Jalapeño Dip, Peanut Butter Chocolate Pie and Aioli

By Sara · Comments (0)
Wednesday, June 20th, 2012

I’m not sure what has happened to me the past couple of weeks but I’ve found myself spending more and more time in my kitchen. (First guess would be that I have a new book I’m working on and yes, ask any writer who is also a procrastinator and they’ll tell you their homes and kitchens are never cleaner then when they have a deadline.)

It could also be that I’m just liking cooking more. Wow. Never thought that sentence would come out of my mouth. But it’s true. Now that we’re in our own home again (and back on a strict budget) – cooking has become a lot of fun. (I know. Again, not sure who I am or what has happened to me. But I like it.)

Part of it is that it’s summer time and I’m trying to find things for my son to do… and Caleb at 11 years old has taken a big interest in cooking. Like his daddy, he is pretty laid back and doesn’t show a real “passion” for things as much as I tend to – so when I find something he likes doing, I jump on it and try to encourage him as much as possible.

We started with the Creamy Jalapeño Dip his dad makes, which is very similar to the recipe Chuy’s uses.

Really easy and really good. He was one proud kid when the second time he made it, I stayed completely out of the kitchen. Blender use and all. (He had strict instructions not to put his finger anywhere near the inside of it.)

He just made it again the other day.

 

Then we needed to do something special for his dad for Father’s Day. Cliff has been traveling for work during the week this summer and unfortunately, what has become a Father’s Day tradition, he had his Navy drill weekend training too. So we didn’t get to see him until the evening of Father’s Day. But it gave us time to make this.

Caleb knew Cliff likes peanut butter, so he went online and found this recipe all by himself. The crust has graham crackers and Oreos… then a layer of peanut butter, then cheesecake, a layer of cheesecake mixed with hot fudge and then hot fudge on top, garnished with cut up peanut butter cups. Oh. My. Word. This will be a once-a-year thing – because my waistline can’t take more than that. The hot fudge topping makes it ridiculously rich – next time (heh if there is a next time) I’ll probably leave the hot fudge off. The 11-year-old disagrees.

Earlier this week I decided to try something different with chicken. It was one of those times where I’d pulled some chicken out but let it sit in the fridge for a day, so it was thawed, but I still had no idea what I wanted to do with it. I needed to do something with it so I decided I was going to do some rotel chicken pasta and boil the chicken. But my mom, who helps watch over Mamaw (Cliff’s 93-year-old grandmother) when Cliff’s parents are traveling, called and we decided to go to dinner with them, since Cliff was out of town.

While I was waiting to hear back when they were going to leave, so we could meet them at the restaurant, I finished boiling the chicken and thought I’d just leave it to cool and shred it when we came home. But there was a problem. I checked and the chicken breasts were still pretty pink in the middle. So I cranked the pot back up to high to finish cooking it, and suddenly got the text from mom they were headed out the door.

As I was driving down the street, leaving our neighborhood, the thought hit me – did I turn off that pot? Now  - I ALWAYS have this thought when I leave the house. I might not even be in the kitchen and I’ll still have this thought. And usually, when I go back and waste 5 more minutes to check – there’s nothing on and I chide myself again for not having a better memory or being more confident or not being such a worry wart about everything. So this time, I just decided I was going to ignore that little pesky voice and head on over to dinner.

And when we got back to the house an hour later, I walked into a kitchen full of smoke. This time, my little voice was right and I HAD left the stove on and there was a nice thick layer of black ash around my chicken (though for the record the chicken seemed like it cooked nicely (of course, the one time I almost burn down the house and THAT’s the time my chicken comes out tender, when it’s surrounded by a 2-inch layer of carbon).  A puffy plume of white filmy smoke was everywhere. I grabbed the pot, turned the stove off, yelled for Caleb to grab the dog so he wouldn’t get out, and opened all the doors and windows. I was really surprised the fire alarms hadn’t gone off.

Five minutes later, after I took the smoky pot outside and went back in to look – I realized we don’t HAVE fire alarms in this house. (We’ve only lived here since the end of March). Not one fire alarm in the entire house. So… if there’s a good thing coming out of almost burning your favorite pot up (and your house along with it) – it’s that we now realize we need to install fire alarms. And next time my little voice says check the stove – I’ll go back and check it.

I was happy to discover my pot wasn’t ruined – after soaking it in hot soapy water for 15 minutes and about 40 minutes of hard scrubbing with a combination of hydrogen peroxide and baking soda (a cleaning tip I learned from Pinterest just the other day actually), it came out looking almost new.

And then I decided I needed to try making chicken again.

I’d fixed sausage poboys for dinner when Cliff came home Sunday night, and I’d tried making aioli (garlic mayo). It turned out pretty well (followed the instructions from The Hungry Mouse here) and wasn’t as complicated as I thought it would be.

But we had a lot left over and I knew it was good for about 3 days so I thought I could find another recipe, with chicken, that I could also do something with the aioli.

That’s when I found this: Lemon-Basil Chicken with Basil Aioli.

All I had to do was add the fresh chopped up basil to my already prepared aioli and prepare the chicken according to the rest of the recipe. I really liked the flavor. The only thing that didn’t go so well was when I tried heating up my aioli. Not sure if I should have kept it cold – didn’t really think that would be good, but maybe I should have just left it to warm to room-temperature. Putting it in the microwave made it “split” (I think is the correct terminology) where the oil and the other ingredients started to separate and it wasn’t as smooth as before.

But still, it was a really good meal. I served it with pasta tossed with garlic and olive oil and green beans.

My husband even complimented me TWICE!

So, there’s my cooking adventures up to this point. Learned some new things. Avoided burning my house down.

I’ve also invited my in-laws, who are back in town, over for dinner  (along with Mamaw) tomorrow night.

There must be something seriously wrong with me.

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Taking the Me out of We

By Sara · Comments (7)
Tuesday, June 19th, 2012

(This article was originally posted at sarahorn.com Oct. 9, 2008. It has been updated for today.)

When we were going through our first deployment in 2007, I was determined to be the best, supportive wife that I could be. I was going to shower my husband with care packages, be sweet and loving every time he called, not mind at all dropping everything I was doing to talk (and of course I would never miss a call because I would have that cell phone with me at all times, even in bed), and he would never feel out of the loop with anything because I would always update him on every single thing that happened every single day.

Yeah.

Um, wish it actually had gone like that.

The truth, though, is that by the end of the deployment, I was sick of carrying my cell phone around and it felt more like a leash than a tool to talk to my husband. The care package idea went ok, except that Cliff really didn’t need or want half the stuff I was sending him since the group he was with provided pretty much everything. He would call in the middle of trying to get Caleb ready for bed, or when I was trying to figure out what to make for dinner (one of my least favorite parts of the day) or just when I was finally getting somewhere on whatever writing project I was working on at the time.

As we got closer to the end of the deployment, it was hard for me not to look back over the previous months and point to all of the things I had done, and all of the things I felt like my husband had notdone in supporting me (forgetting the little fact of him serving in a war zone).

I was reminded of this by an email I got from one of the ladies who responded to my sets of questions for a book I was working on in the year that followed. She told me that it had been really tough filling out those answers because it forced her to look back and look hard at how the deployment was and some of what she saw she didn’t like.

She struggled with feeling like her husband wasn’t putting as much into their marriage as she was. She wrote, “The whole deployment felt like I was constantly giving and showing my husband I loved him, with nothing coming back in return. My husband would tell me he loved me, but I started to feel like words wasn’t enough towards the end of the deployment.”

“Words weren’t enough…” I bet a lot of women out there feel like this wife. I know I did at times when we were going through our first deployment. There’s a classic book out there called The Five Love Languages by Dr. Gary Chapman. He describes five distinct ways that we like to give and receive love: Words of Affirmation, Quality Time, Receiving Gifts, Acts of Service, and Physical Touch. Now if you look at this list through the eyes of a military couple, some of these may be difficult to achieve if you’re going through a deployment, especially the last one!

But as Dr. Chapman says, communication is key and it can mean the foundation or the breakdown of our marraiges. Part of that is thinking about the other person.

You know, we already have a great example to follow. When Jesus was on the earth, I don’t believe there was one time mentioned in the Bible that He refused to help someone or show love to someone because He didn’t feel like He was getting love in return.

This isn’t to say that your spouse is off the hook in terms of loving you back. He has his own responsibilities as a husband he needs to meet. But the only one you have control of is yourself. Start with your own actions, your own behaviors and you may be very surprised at the influence you can have on your husband returning or giving back in response to what you give.

So, a few ideas for taking the “me” out of we:

1. Pray for your spouse. Daily. Let him know you’re praying.
2. Use positive language with your spouse. Make extra efforts to lift him up and encourage him. “I’m proud of you.” “You are doing great.” “I’m so blessed to have you in my life.”
3. Find ways to discuss issues in a positive, focused way instead of unleashing everything you’re feeling at the moment. When I was a “peer mediation” counselor in high school, we always encouraged those in a conflict to start with “I feel.” “I felt like what I did for you this week didn’t matter when you didn’t mention anything about it.” “I felt concerned when…” “Maybe I misread this but I felt like…”

Dr. Chapman writes on his website, “The greatest detriment to such positive partnership is selfishness. Perhaps both of you feel that you have gone through a difficult period of life and you deserve a little pampering. However, when you focus on yourselves and start demanding things of each other, you become enemies. When you freely and genuinely reach out with the attitude of helping your spouse, you both become winners. Successful re-entry occurs when both partners seek the well being of the other.”

Question: What do you struggle with when it comes to the me and we? What have you been able to overcome?

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33 ideas for quick, easy dinners

By Sara · Comments (5)
Friday, June 15th, 2012

Have you ever just hit the proverbial cooking wall?

That was me last night – my husband has been traveling extensively for work the last couple of weeks. Last week I did great. This week, probably because we’ve had no extra activities happening, the excitement of dinner has slowed to the crawl. It gets hard sometimes when it’s just the two of us.

I was stumped.

And probably just really lazy.

I wanted soup – my son gave me the “really?” face.

I suggested omelets or scrambled eggs. Breakfast for dinner has always been a favorite at our house. My son recently decided he doesn’t like eggs. He’ll eat them at my cajoling but the whole scene closely resembles making someone take their medicine. They know it’s good for them but they seriously do not like it.

So I did what any good mother does these days when she’s stumped – I went to my Facebook page and asked for the ideas of other moms. And, as usual, they didn’t disappoint.

I thought I’d share all of their great ideas here, in case you ever find yourself in a lazy, er stumped, dinner time moment.

Out of 35 or so comments, Breakfast for Dinner was by far the most popular suggestion, along with crockpot meals, and a little odd to me, popcorn even got a couple of votes. Grilled peanut butter and jelly was the suggestion earning “Most Creative” (but I’m still not sure I’d eat it).  For more suggestions, and for what we ended up having for dinner, keep reading.

Quick and Easy Ideas for Dinner

1. Ham/cheese “sliders” (on the Hawaiian sweet rolls)

2. Chicken spaghetti (easy recipe)

3. “Make your own pizza” with the little personal pizza store bought crusts and toppings.

4. Tacos

5. French bread pizza

6. Popcorn and shakes for a movie night

7. Green salad with other fresh veggies and grilled chicken slices. You can buy some premade chicken slices at the store. They are usually by the lunch meat

8. Omelet & toast.

9. Chicken and rice: two cans family sized cream of chicken soup, 1. can of milk, 2 cans veg-all, 2-3 cans chicken, and make minute rice. heat everything and bam instant success!

10. Grilled cheese and tomato soup

11. Breakfast for dinner (i.e. french toast and fruit salad),

12. Burgers and salad

13. Take-out Chinese

14. Spaghetti – simple and i really don’t have to do anything

15. Mac and cheese with some meat and peppers thrown in.

16. I love crockpot meals – set and forget. My favorite is to take 4-5 frozen chicken breasts wrapped in raw bacon. Place in crockpot. Mix up a cup of BBQ sauce, 3 tbls lemon juice (concentrate), and 1 apple (peeled and grated). Pour over chicken and set on low for 7-8 hours. It can be shredded and put on buns, too… Sure family pleaser.

17. Scrambled egg sandwiches…

18. Anything in the crock pot…

19. Scrambled eggs and cinnamon toast, pancakes/waffles/muffins that I’ve stored in the freezer with a side of fruit and yogurt. Breakfast meals are so easy!

20. Hamburger helper boxed meals….allthough my husband does not like them, so I don’t make them often, but when I do he knows I’m tired! (Note from Sara: I started avoiding Hamburger Helper meals a few years ago… probably because we ate them so often when we were first married. I know they’re cheap… but just can’t bring myself to have those in my house. Plus since I actually started cooking – they don’t taste all that great to me.)

21. Grilled Chicken and tortalini with alfredo sauce! Or Pizza!

22. French dips – pound of roast beef from the deli, provolone cheese, hoagie rolls, au jus mix. about 1 -2 hours before you want dinner, place the au jus mix in crock pot with the water and the roast beef. set the temp to warm. when ready to eat, toast and melt cheese hoagie rolls in oven, top with the roast beef, place some au jus in a bowl and dip away. I serve this with steak fries. It is one of my family favorites. You can also do this on the stove in a sauce pan right at dinner time. Had this for dinner tonight. (Note from Sara: Great suggestion! I think my husband would love this, especially!)

23. Pasta & salad (& a glass of wine) …

24. Have you done the crescent rolls with mozzarella and pepperoni? I serve little bowls of heated pizza sauce with it and the kids love it. (Note from Sara: We’ve done the hotdogs with crescent rolls wrapped around them – I’l have to try the mozzarella and pepperoni – Caleb I’m sure would love it!)

25. Bagel pizzas.

26. Salad with baked potatoes.

27. Eggs and potatoes with flour tortillas.

28. Southwest clazones: brown ground meet with taco seasoning and Rotel. Flatten one roll of crescent rolls, layer with cheese, add ground beef mixture, add and another layer of cheese, and top with another roll of crescent rolls. Bake.

29. Tuna Mac & Cheese, spaghetti or lasagna, homemade pizza, pancakes & meat, roast in the crockpot, soup & bread, fish ‘n chips (fries), salmon patties, chili, tacos, taco salad, salad with tuna or ham on top. (Note from Sara: Wow, that’s a big dinner. Just kidding.)

30. Crock pot cooking has saved me many days, but have to plan in advance. although once I threw frozen beef tips in there & cream mushroom soup & some beef stock & cream celery soup & by the evening VOILA! Beef Stroganoff ♥ Now its my kids FAVORITE. (remember to salt the meat) lol

31. I know it sounds weird, but have you ever grilled your peanut butter and jelly? (Note from Sara: Yes, that does sound a little weird…)

32. Tuna rice casserole…

33. On the nights my husband has meetings, I make a frozen pizza for the kids and I have a big bowl of popcorn and a glass of wine….I look forward to that night every other week. (Note from Sara: I am seriously going to have to discover what the magic is in eating popcorn for dinner, lol)

What did we end up eating? 

Pancakes! I had a Bisquick Shaker bottle, threw in a little vanilla and a little bit of sugar, and voila, nice fluffy pancakes that took five minutes to make. Really good with butter and syrup. And easy to clean up.

Now, what am I going to cook tonight…

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From the Mail Bag: Did you ever learn to sew?

By Sara · Comments (4)
Thursday, June 7th, 2012

Laura, a reader from Germany, asked a great question the other day through my Facebook page. She writes:

I am done… Lasted me three days great book! 
So I am going to start the experiment for me as it is written in the back… See how that goes!
But there’s one little thing I am curious about what happend to the sewing mashine, did you ever touch it? I sew myself and I never tought I’ll be able to do it. It’s fun, I promise! Hope you have a great day!

Really good question Laura! The sewing machine is still with me… and still bright and shiny. I have yet to pull the thing out and attempt to make something. But I have a couple of factors that make it much more likely that I will more than I won’t. 1) We just moved into this house and I still need curtains and cute decorative pillows which is good motivation to break out the ole’ sewing machine and 2) My mom has moved back to the same town we’re living in and knows how to sew (though I have to overlook the fact that she failed to pass on that sewing wisdom when I was younger). Hoping she’ll give me some lessons at some point! If you (or any of my other wonderful readers) have any pointers, please share!

Until then, it sits in my hall closet and waits.

 

But – I did achieve one sewing accomplishment – remember the “holey” scarf I attempted, where my husband said it looked more like a face mask than something you’d wear around your neck?

I redeemed myself by making an actual scarf, and presented it to my hubby when he came home from his deployment. Of course, by then, it was summer time in Louisiana, and now that we live in Louisiana, he may never actually need a wool knitted scarf, but he still has it. And he can say his wife made it.

And the holes are even and everything!

Thanks for writing, Laura! If you have a question, feel free to send it to my email address at sara@sarahorn.com or at my Facebook page. Or if you still haven’t read the book for yourself, feel free to visit my online store and buy yourself a copy (or anywhere books are sold).

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Mama Drama Politics

By Sara · Comments (4)
Thursday, April 12th, 2012


This morning I shook my head as I read the articles popping up on my FB news feed about the battle  between Republican candidate and presumptive presidential GOP nominee Mitt Romney’s wife, Ann Romney and tv pundit and Democratic strategist, Hillary Rosen. Women were quickly  taking sides. (Though, honestly, all I saw was one side. I know, I don’t have a very diverse group of friends. But I like it that way. That’s why they’re my friends. But I digress…)

A lot of moms who work at home got greatly offended at Hillary’s comment she made last night on CNN that stated because Ann Romney chose to be a stay-at-home mom, she’d “never worked a day in her life.” I could understand. Some of the hardest working women I know don’t necessarily have a name plate in an office somewhere. But they have the word “Mom” drawn all over pictures hanging on their fridge. And they’ll tell you, they work hard.

It was a poor choice of words for Hillary. And she has since apologized for them. But she’s not the first to compare women to each other.

We compare ourselves to others and others to ourselves just as much.

You only have to look at FB or Twitter to see what I mean. Sometimes it’s subtle – sometimes it’s not. But we’re comparing. We’re pointing out our differences. Constantly. In the articles we post, the word-photos we tag, the statuses and the tweets we write. Except it’s not just about working moms and stay-at-home moms (isn’t that really so 1980s?). Now it’s breast feeding or not breast feeding, all natural foods or um, not-natural foods, home-schooling or not home-schooling. I once mentioned online some frustrations I was having with my son’s school and instantly I had 3 home school moms comment how they didn’t have those problems because they home school. Good for them, but not exactly helpful to me. I would never tell a home school mom who’s stressing over which curriculum to choose for their kids – “oh, wow, see I don’t have to worry about that because my kid’s teacher does that for me.”

I’ve had the opportunity to meet a lot of women over the last six or so years, in person and online. And let me tell you – we are all different! Some of us are VERY different. But I am amazed by our differences as well as our similarities. And that’s what I really want to talk about in this post. Because as different as most of us moms are from one another, there are a few things we all share.

1. We love our kids.

Sure, some of us may have the patience of gnats when it comes to our kids (or they might say they have kids who have the attention spans of gnats, thereby the lack of patience on their part), but most of us love our kids. We’d do anything for our kids. And that is one thing we share as moms. Whether we work outside the home or we work at home – we love our kids. We do what we need to do for our kids. And that’s all that really should matter.

2. We want to be good moms.

I don’t think any of us start out as moms saying “I’d like to be the worst mom I can be.” We want to be good moms. Maybe we want to be just like our moms. Or, maybe for some of us, we want to be better than our moms. But we want to make a difference with our kids. We want to help them and support them and see that they have a great life, a great start to life, and a great chance to be whatever it is they’re supposed to be.  So let’s support each other instead of tearing one another down. Let’s recognize we all have different callings. We have different approaches. But we all share the one thing in common. We’re moms… and we’d really like to be good moms. So let’s encourage each other. And give each other high-fives when we do something great (not slights or the occasional one-up comment like “oh, your child is walking at 12 months? My child started walking at 8 months and a month later she’s now reading Harry Potter books!”) , and hugs when we’ve messed up (not more salt for our wounds). ‘Cause chances are, we’re going to do both. Many, many times.

3. We’re looking for help.

As moms, we recognize that we need help! Why else do you think all of these mom blogs are popular? Why else do you think “pinning” is now the new “posting”? Why else are recipe and meal planning websites are all the rage, as well as money-saving blogs that teach us how to spend 25 cents and feed a family of four for a week? (I exaggerate… but barely.) We want help. We want to show love to our kids and we want to be good moms. And for those of us who have a relationship with God, He’s the one we turn to for our daily help – or at least we should be. I pray for myself as a mom often – but how often do I pray for the other moms I know? Probably not as often as I need to.

When you look at the big picture of how this world is moving and what’s at stake – arguing over who is working harder really is pointless. Because we’re all working hard.

So let the politicians point their fingers and try to make their points – political and otherwise. But don’t let them drag you into the fray. Instead, support each other. Love on each other. Be kind to each other.

As moms, we can all use  some of that.

 

“Strength  and honor are her clothing,

and she can laugh at the time to come.

She opens her mouth with wisdom

and loving instruction  is on her tongue.

She watches over the activities of her household

and is never idle.

28 Her sons rise up and call her blessed.

Her husband also praises her… (Proverbs 31:25-28)

Share with us: What do you LOVE about being a mom? 

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If the P31 Wife did Pinterest…

By Sara · Comments (24)
Wednesday, January 18th, 2012

UPDATE (1/23/11) – I picked our winners of our first Pinterest giveaway – thanks to everyone who participated! I decided to give away 2 copies of the book My So-Called Life as a Proverbs 31 Wife and then of course we had the fabulous giveaway of the Organizing Utility Tote in Paparazzi Dot from Amie Whitfield, Independent Director for Thirty-One Gifts! (CHECK OUT HER WEBSITE! mythirtyone.com/amiew)

So the winners are, using Random.org….

Tricia Marble - you receive a copy of the book!

Jodie Leschuk - you ask receive a copy of the book!

and Michelle Hieb, you get the beautiful 31 tote!

Congratulations! Please email me at sara@sarahorn.com with your addresses and we’ll get your prizes out to you!

————————————————————–

OK all you Pinteresters out there… this post is for you.

I’ve been playing with Pinterest as I’ve had time, though over the last couple of weeks I haven’t had as much time as I would have liked. And a few weeks back, I got the fun idea to ask myself what it would look like if the P31 wife had Pinterest? I mean, all of us who use it now sure find it resourceful! We can share house ideas, clothing ideas, recipes, the possibilities are limitless. So, I decided to set up a board called “If the P31 Wife did Pinterest…” and started adding links to places and things and items that the Proverbs 31 Wife might have been interested in, all backed up with scripture.

Like these beautiful lamps for example:

 ”She sees that her profits are good, and her lamp never goes out at night.” ~ Proverbs 31:18

Source: potterybarn.com via Sara on Pinterest

 

 

It’s just a fun thing to do. And I’ll be honest, I need some fun. This has been a stressful week. I’ve started my first class towards a Master’s in Christian Leadership, we are house hunting and my husband’s 91-year old grandmother has moved into the Horn household. (And if you think the third item has anything to do with the second item on that list…  why yes, you’d be right. And just a side note – do you know what it’s like having 4 different generations living in the same house? Let me share just one tiny example – DINNER. Mamaw is perfectly happy with her can of Ensure. Nana and Papaw (my husband’s parents) sometimes just want a sandwich or a bowl of cereal. My husband and I want D-I-N-N-E-R – like an actual meal we cook. And our 10-year-old would be perfectly happy with McDonald’s. It’s enough to drive someone B-A-N-A-N-A-S.)

So… let’s have some fun. If you Pinterest, follow my board. Then come back here and share some links in the comments, along with scripture verses, of things you find online that you think the P31 wife would pin. (And for a fresh reminder, check out Proverbs 31:10-22).

Everyone who shares a link will be entered to win a signed copy of the book which I’ll give away on Sunday (and if we have a lot of ladies participating, I may give a few more, or maybe find some other fun things to give away too) and I hope to add a lot of your links to the Pinterest board (be sure to include your pintrest name/board so I can include that too)! And please have fun with it – don’t take it too seriously… looking forward to seeing what you find!

We’ll call it the P31 Online Scavenger Hunt – happy hunting!

UPDATE: And the fun keeps getting “funner!” as my son would say!

Amie Whitfield, Independent Director for Thirty-One Gifts has offered to give away an Organizing  Utility Tote in Paparazzi Dot to one of our ladies participating in the scavenger hunt! HOW CUTE IS THIS???
Check out her website at mythirtyone.com/amiew where you can place an order, host a party, or join her team! Thanks Amie!
REMEMBER – to qualify for the giveaways, you MUST POST the links you find HERE on this blog post. Some ladies have already started Pinterest boards for the scavenger hunt (which is a very fun idea by the way) but the only way you can qualify to enter for the drawings for the giveaways is to post your links here.

 

 

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P31 Challenge: Make Time

By Sara · Comments (0)
Tuesday, January 17th, 2012

I don’t know about you, but time always seems to be in short supply for me. (A perfect example is this post which should have been posted yesterday. Time did not cooperate.)

And yet, as a wife and mom, time is demanded. Constantly. There is always something needing my attention, whether it’s a project I’ve initiated myself or things that have been brought to me to deal with by my family.

The question – the difficulty – the problem – is managing our time. Knowing in an instant what’s important and what isn’t; what needs to be looked at right now and what can wait. I am not always good at this. Sometimes little stuff trips me up when I should be working on big stuff. Sometimes I’m so overwhelmed with big things that I neglect little things that really wouldn’t take that much time if I’d just stop and deal with it at that moment instead of adding it to the “I’ll get to it later” pile.

Now I know why Solomon prayed for wisdom.

As women, we definitely need wisdom, don’t we? We have a lot to juggle, a lot to deal with, and a lot we’re responsible for.

So for this week’s challenge, I’m challenging you to make time. This may look different for different people, but the question I want you to ask yourself is “am I using my time wisely right now?” or even better, “Am I using my time right now the way God wants me to?” (Ouch, I know, THAT is a tough question!) Do you tend to throw dishes into the sink and let them pile up before you actually put them in the dishwasher? Stop, take a minute, and put a glass in the dishwasher instead. Same with laundry. Try to do at least a load in the morning to wash and at least a load at night to dry. It will take less than 10 minutes and will keep you from feeling like you’re dealing with Mt. Laundry at the end of the week. Do you find yourself playing a whole lot on FB, looking at other people’s pictures of what they’re doing? Um… get off FB and come up with your own adventures!

Have you called a friend recently? Have you made time to have time with friends? That may be something you want to do this week. What about time with your husband? Have you made time to just sit and enjoy a tv show together or take a few minutes to plan out the answer to the age-old question, “What’s for dinner?” so everyone isn’t stressed and grumpy every night trying to figure it out. Do you find yourself just wanting to be a bum after dinner instead of helping your kids with their homework or maybe doing something more fun? Give yourself an hour after the kids go to bed to have time for yourself, and spend that time they’re still up doing what needs to be done.

We had an elderly man stop in our Sunday school class this past Sunday who shared a little story with us. For the last 45 years, he has been in charge of a nursing home church service sponsored by our church. He was around the age of our class members (thirties) when he was asked to do it. When he first started, he didn’t like doing it. He really didn’t want to do it. Weeks went by and he met each service with a frown and a grumble inside. But one week he finally stopped and talked to God about it and realized it was his attitude that was the biggest problem. So he changed it. And he started looking for the good of what he was spending his time on (which was really just an hour a week on a Sunday afternoon). And he saw it.

So that’s what I want to challenge us this week with. To make time for the right things, the important things, and look for the good in those things. And if we have to, change our attitudes. Because at the end of the day, it won’t be about money or material possessions… it will be how we spent our time. So let’s make it count.

What do you need to focus your time on (in short spurts or longer)? 

What can you spend your time better doing?

What can you cut out and save your time for other things?

 

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Taking Your Questions…

By Sara · Comments (0)
Wednesday, January 11th, 2012

Happy Wednesday friends! Hope you’re having a great week… and if you’re not – well, you only have a few days left before you can start a new one that’s hopefully better!

This has been a busy week for me… trying to finish up some projects that needed to be done like yesterday, while still making sure I’m putting my husband and family first. Yesterday I didn’t do so well, at least I didn’t think I did (have you ever noticed we are a whole lot harder on ourselves than other people?). My mother-in-law was out for most of the day so I volunteered to cook a roast. It’s only the SECOND time I’ve cooked a roast in the oven (I’ve done it in the crockpot, but I don’t know,  I think I really like doing it in the oven). My husband asked for a pot roast over the holidays so I found a recipe and it turned out pretty well. But this time my inlaws were home, which made me doubly nervous. What if I overcooked it, and it was all tough?

My plan was to put it in around 1 at 275 degrees and just let it cook until dinner time around 5. So the morning was spent working on a video project, trying to record a video for Wives of Faith (which I still haven’t completed) and the time was just slipping by and I knew I had a phone interview at 2 with a business writer who wanted to ask me some questions about my Pinterest story (he’d seen my book show up as a “pin” on Pinterest and had heard how the book had sold out on Amazon – it took them almost two weeks to catch up).

So a little after 1 (ok, it was more like 1:20), I hurried into the kitchen to get the roast started. Except I didn’t have any of the ingredients I needed! No mushroom soup, no onion soup mix, no beef broth. I was really starting to sweat getting it into the oven on time so it would be ready at our normal dinner time. Thankfully my father-in-law was around and ran out to the store for me while I was back and forth on the phone with my husband dealing with a store order .

So while I waited for the ingredients I needed, I went ahead and pan-cooked the roast on both sides (I can’t even remember at this moment what you call that) cut up some red potatoes and got the carrots ready and sure enough, it was 2 p.m. and time for my interview. Then my father-in-law walked in. So while I’m trying to sound intelligent answering questions about social media and marketing trends when it comes to book publishing, I’m desperately trying to remember what I’m supposed to do with my roast! Because my recipe is on my phone that is now on my ear!

I added a can of mushroom soup, half a can of beef broth and put the roast in the oven. It wasn’t until an hour later (after my phone interview was over) I realized I forgot to add the onion soup mix, so I did that, and then an hour before dinner time I threw in the potatoes and carrots, just praying that the roast would be done but not too done (it was in for about 4 hours total).

It was a bit of a crazy day but I got through it. And the roast turned out pretty good. Though I did have to ask my MIL to show me how to cut it.

I’ve also been hearing from a lot of readers the last few days. It’s always fun to read how God has used the book to encourage someone else to start making changes in their own ways of doing things and showing love to their husbands and families. I’ve heard from several who have loved the book as well as a couple of readers who didn’t like it or are confused by it (those usually don’t come to me in emails but in posts and blogs that I happen to see). One FB comment I saw yesterday was made on a post of a FB friend that she’d made quite a while back and the comment was from one of her friends who had just finished the book and didn’t care for it. She said “I don’t think the author knows what it means to submit to her husband.”

OK, that made me chuckle and my first thought was, well DUH!

I DIDN’T know what it meant to submit to my husband! Did I know I was supposed to, that God has called my husband to be the leader of our household and for me to be his helper – absolutely. But if I were really honest, and if you’ve read the book, you know I am, I didn’t really understand what that looked like and my stubborn, selfish self really fought against it. (I think I warn you at the beginning of the book that I am one not-so-perfect woman!) That’s one of the reasons I challenged myself to do the P31 experiment. And since going through that year, and then writing about it and then continuing to seek God and His direction for my life as a wife and mom, I can definitely say I’ve changed in that department. And my husband can too. And he is also learning what it looks like to be the spiritual leader of our household.

This book is definitely unusual in that it’s sort of a time capsule of one year of my life. But life keeps going and people (hopefully) keep changing. I am definitely not the same person I was who started out in that first chapter. So… I thought today I would take any questions you have about the book or about me or whatever you want to ask. You can comment here with your question, email me at sara@sarahorn.com or at noon CST, I’ll take questions live on my twitter feed at @myprov31life. If  I have enough questions, I’ll do another blog post for tomorrow with the questions and answers included.

Make it a great day! Looking forward to see what questions you have for me!

 

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