Fall is Coming...Someday

If I could bring fall in just by "wishing"...it would arrive in Texas bigger than life. In reality, the air conditioner is still blasting to help curb the 90 degree temps and the 150% humidity. (well, at least it feels that way!!) Not to be defeated, I like to help create the "feeling of fall" by decorating our home with all of my favorite "fallish" items. And of course...by burning my FAVORITE fall scented candle by Yankee Candles-Spiced Pumpkin...yummmmm! Somehow I believe that it might help hasten the arrival of the season. So far, it is hotter than the dickens out...but I am ever hopeful! Besides, soon we will get a taste of the real thing when we travel to visit family in Ohio and enjoy time together camping, attending the BEST period craft show, visiting and hanging out. Ashley and Casey are driving down to meet us...so that is an extra special treat! I thought I'd share a pictorial tour with you in case you are also suffering from the "I need my fall fix" dilemma. Enjoy!

First off, this little guy greets you as you step onto our porch-WELCOME!

Our Front Door...

My Scarecrow friend beside a wooden pumpkin I made years ago...

The girls got me this adorable pumpkin votive candle holder last year to add to my fall decor collection. I burn Yankee Spiced Pumpkin votives in this on our kitchen counter...more of my favorite scent!!I LOVE candles burning...especially in the fall...A basket of plenty on the fireplace hearth in our new family room...Many of my decorations are purchased from Hobby Lobby during a 50% off sale! This one I found a basic wreath and added a few "extra" things to get the look I wanted...another Hobby Lobby find...More Spiced Pumpkin votives on the mantle...I enjoy having a mantle to decorate this year!!And yet more candles...

Family Recipe Book

One of my favorite "gifts from the heart" I have ever given was the joy of passing on family recipes to the second generation. This labor of love began years ago with anticipation of presenting each of our girl's their own copy of a recipe book containing all of the favorite recipes they'd grown up with. This would be a good foundation to begin their own collection. My plan was to present this gift to them at their Bridal Shower.

Erin was our first daughter to marry and although I was unable to make the "deadline" for her shower, I was able to present it to her within a few months of the wedding. (Busy times and a flurry of wedding planing took higher priority since they were going to college out of town and wanted to get married before summer break ended).

Ashley & Casey were married a year ago April and this time I was able to meet my goal. I presented her with her own copy of our Family Recipe Book at her Bridal Shower.

What a joy to pass on this keepsake to each of our girls as they venture into their new position as wife and homemaker! This book has been in process literally for years, and I still continue to update our files with great new recipes almost on a monthly basis! I look forward to presenting Megan with her very own copy as well upon the event of such a happy occasion.

Photo source: Personal Portfolio, Ashley & Mom (me) at her Bridal Shower

A Mother At Home...

One week ago today was national "Take Your Daughters to Work Day". In line with my current "theme" of posting on topics concerning Mothers, Mothering and Homemaking... I would like to post a reprint of the following article. It originally appeared in the Wall Street Journal on April 28, 1994. It was on that day, 13 years ago, that my husband cut the article out of the paper and gave it to me. I taped it onto a page in a journal that I keep for preserving notes, articles and comments of interest. It can now be found on-line at: http://www.familylife.com/daughters/mattox.asp

A Lesson for Allison

By William R. Mattox, Jr.

I am not the kind of guy who normally takes part in feminist “consciousness-raising” efforts. But I am participating in Take Your Daughters to Work Day today because I have an eight-year-old daughter whose self-esteem matters a great deal to me.
For the uninitiated, Take Your Daughter to Work Day is an annual event dreamed up by the Ms. Foundation in response to research showing that girls’ self-esteem often plummets during the fragile pre-teen and early adolescent years. By exposing young girls to successful women in the workplace, organizers hope that girls will learn to think more highly of females in general and of themselves in particular.
I have a great day planned for my daughter, Allison. This morning, I plan to take her by the offices of two women whose job it is to meet regularly with members of Congress and other public officials. Then, I plan to have her talk with a young woman who just finished graduate school at Johns Hopkins University and is now serving as a health policy analyst. At lunch, she’ll chat with a woman who does some public speaking, and another who crunches numbers in our accounting department. Finally, in the late afternoon, Allison is scheduled to meet with a woman who used to practice law and now manages a bevy of staff writers.
I am sure all of this will be interesting to Allison. But the time I am most looking forward to is the ride home. For it is then that I plan to point out to my daughter that some of the exciting tasks carried out by my female colleagues in the workplace are tasks my wife performed in jobs she held prior to motherhood. She used to meet regularly with congressmen and senators. She used to do some writing and public speaking. And she has a Phi Beta Kappa key from her college days.
After I remind my daughter of these things, I plan to turn to her and look her in the eye and say, “Allison, you must be a very special young girl. Your mother could be using her talents and skills in all sorts of jobs in the workplace, but she has chosen instead to use them at home teaching you. She must love you very, very much and think you are very, very important.”
Somehow, I think that at that moment my daughter’s self-esteem will rise to a level heretofore unimagined by the organizers of Take Your Daughter to Work Day. And for that I owe a debt of gratitude to my wife, whose esteem-building job as a mother at home rarely receives the public esteem it deserves.

Mr. Mattox is vice president for policy of the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C.
Article originally printed in the Wall Street Journal April 28, 1994.

Homemaking Hints

I have recently run across a few tips for the homemaker that I thought were of value to post here. Hope you find something that you can use in your own home!


We use Ronzoni Healthy Harvest Whole Wheat Blend spaghetti pasta almost on a weekly basis. It was rated tops by Consumer Reports Magazine.




I have had success in replacing the oil in certain baked goods recipes with natural applesauce. It really cuts down on your fat intake and adds a nice flavor. I'm surprised it works as well as it has for me... although, I've only ventured out and tried it (with great success) in a few muffin and cake recipes. It's worth experimenting with!!


The March/April issue of Cook's Illustrated magazine reviewed the efficiency of a product called Veggie Wash . This product claims to be more effective in removing wax, soil and chemicals from fruits and vegetables than rinsing with water alone. In summary, the product did a great job, however, for value it was found that white vinegar works almost as well. (at a fraction of the cost) So, another reason to pull out your vinegar bottle! "A spray bottle filled with vinegar works nearly as well at a fraction of the cost."

Watch out when comparison shopping for boxed and canned goods!! Many companies are not only enlarging the size of the container to make you think you are getting more food, but they are actually CUTTING the amount of food per box or can! Check the weights along with the price.

STORE BRANDS- many store brands are at least as good as national brands or many times better! Don't be afraid to check them out. This is the main reason why, as a rule, I don't bother with couponing... unless of course you can get triple off coupons or a buy one-get one free deals.

If someone were to ask me what kitchen tool have I gotten the most use out of over the years, I would have to say our Kitchen Aid Stand mixer. It is still going strong after 24 years of use! We have the smaller, very basic model, but I can make up to 2 loaves of whole grain bread (for larger batches I use our Bosch mixer), cakes, cookies, great whipped cream, and a myriad of other kitchen uses. It's such a standard item in our kitchen that as each of our daughters get married and start their own homemaking... that has been first on their "wish list". (My parents and siblings graciously purchased a Kitchen Aid Mixer for their wedding gifts)

Laundry Matters

I was nosing around the blogosphere a bit yesterday and ran across another fun article over at Tammy's Recipes on line drying your laundry and the outdoor clothesline. (Also, check out another site for those wishing ideas on home organization: organize your laundry room with The Lazy Organizer.) Tammy's post brought back sweet memories of the first home we purchased in Ohio in 1979. It had a nice big yard and a large and sturdy clothes line. I used to get such enjoyment from hanging our laundry out to dry, feeling very frugal and "wifey" (my catch word meaning "excelling in all things in the art of homemaking"). When we moved to Texas a few years later, our new yard was much smaller and the Texas sun much hotter. Somehow I had the feeling that if I hung laundry out to dry in the Texas sun... the life span of our wardrobe would be shortened by about 95%!! I made a few feeble attempts on a makeshift outdoor line, but the use of it never became a habit. Oh, but Tammy's photos of her laundry hanging out to dry gave me the same nostalgic flutterings I get when we drive through Amish farm country in Northern Ohio and witness the site of line after line of neatly arranged garments fluttering in the breeze. There is something very basic and wonderful about the practice. I'm not so sure it would translate quite the same here in Texas. For example; right now spring is bursting in the air... and I mean literally BURSTING! Anything left outside for more than 5 minutes will quickly become covered in a fine yellow dusting of pollen. It's on our cars, porches, driveways, front door... you name it! So, I guess I can't think of anything worse for those allergy sufferers in our home (namely DH) to have his very garments drenched in the stuff!! But, the thought of hanging laundry out to dry was a nice idea while it lasted. Actually, this plague of pollen will subside within the next several weeks... and then we only have to worry about the Texas sun burning holes in our neatly arranged line of clothing. That is, of course, if in fact our neighborhood deed restriction committee would even allow the use of a clothes line in the first place. (Note to self... check into rules on clothes lines) So, until I settle pending issues of reinstating the use of an outdoor clothesline, I will continue on with my practice of hanging stuff up to dry in our (new) laundry room. Since we don't have basements here in Texas, washer and dryers are normally either in: #1) a closet in the house, #2) the garage, #3) or in a room somewhat dedicated and set aside for "utilitarian" type processes. We now (for the first time in our married life) fall under door #3! When we remodeled last year, we reconfigured an area between our garage and kitchen and designed an actual laundry/utility room. It has become one of my favorite rooms in the house (2nd only to our new family room). It's small...but serves our purposes just fine and it has been a blessing to have a place where we can get from the kitchen to the garage without having to move baskets of laundry in various stages of entering or exiting the cleaning process. I also appreciate the priviledge of being able to keep our laundry cleaning here at home instead of doing the whole "laundromat scene" as I have done at various times in the past. (however, I always thought the laundromat had the advantage of being able to run numerous load at the same time and get everything completed at one time... I still vote for the home laundry center :-) Anyways, we have a clothes rack on the wall that works nicely as a place to hang clothes directly out of the washer or dryer. We also purchased a new front loading washer and dryer and I have noticed how much drier the clothes are when they come out of the high speed spin cycle on the washer. So, this has naturally cut down the dry time required. One of the other features of this room that I enjoy is the ceiling fan we installed to help with air movement. We keep our home pretty cool in the winter and warm in the summer to help cut utility bills, so the ceiling fans do a lot to help with comfort levels and air movement. The wall rack that I hang clothes up to dry on is located directly under the ceiling fan... it is one more way to help these clothes dry quickly. So, thanks for visiting with me today on laundry issues. You know, upkeep of our wardrobe and (especially) ironing may seem one of those "mundane" tasks that haunt the homemaker... but I try and keep in mind using this chore as a way I can bless my husband. I heard Elizabeth Elliot say, years ago, that each item of clothing handled or every garment ironed can be used as a reminder to pray for the person that wears it. I need to keep that in mind next time I look with bewilderment at my growing pile of shirts to be ironed. Will today be the day I bless the person or curse the pile?