Nourishment

Ohhhh, I wish you could smell the delicious aroma in my house tonight.  I am making the most wonderful stew and mashed potatoes, courtesy of Rachel Ray and as seen on the Dr.Oz show.  Its time-intensive to prepare and I'm making a double batch so we have lots for the freezer.  A friend made it for us over the holidays and it was amazing!!  The potatoes have parsnips and a little white cheddar cheese in it - wow, parsnips are so fragrant and what a sneaky way to feed them to my children!

The gravy is made from organic apple cider!

Cooking is one of the most important "earthly" things I can do for my family.  If they don't eat well, they don't learn well.  They don't do anything well!  And the key for me is good planning combined with lots of freezer cooking.  I make up 3 weeks of meal plans at a time and then when I cook I try to make extra to freeze.  I used to do marathon freezer cooking weekends - but I don't have enough time for that anymore :). 

Speaking of nourishment, I've been pondering the spiritual nourishment of our family. This truly IS the most important thing my hubby and I can foster, and we are all in need.  Christ nourishes, but we must bring them to Christ.  They must know Him.  And the food He provides?  Himself.  How's that for a concept for a little one to grasp? 

I love our suppertime Scripture memory work.  I change it once I feel we all have a really good grasp of the passage.  Something new we are incorporating this year is committing more of the Catechism basics to memory, using the method outlined in Memorize the Faith, which I downloaded on my handy-dandy kindle.  It looks soooo fun!  I'll keep you posted.

This week we are preparing for Epiphany; a banner is hung in our kitchen and we are anticipating a yummy crown cake!

God bless your week!
And try that stew!!