Recipe Time

16 January, 2009 Jennifer 4 Comments

I don’t post recipes very often, but this one is so good, I wanted to share it. My oldest is doing an oral report for school on Paraguay, and for a little extra credit, most students usually distribute a snack that is related to the country of the report. Calvin told me that he read about sopa, a type of cornbread when he was researching the report. So I did a web search for a recipe, and I found this great one at cookinglight.com.

The steps are a little complicated, but the end product is worth it. This bread is hearty and savory, and just plain yummy:

Paraguayan Corn Bread (Sopa Paraguaya)
Yield: 8 servings (serving size: 1 wedge)

Ingredients

* Cooking spray
* 2 tablespoons grated fresh Parmesan cheese
* 1 tablespoon butter
* 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
* 1 cup chopped onion
* 1/3 cup chopped green bell pepper
* 2 cups fresh corn kernels (about 4 ears), divided
* 1/2 cup 1% low-fat cottage cheese
* 1 1/2 cups yellow cornmeal
* 3/4 cup (3 ounces) shredded Muenster or sharp cheddar cheese
* 1/2 cup fat-free milk
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
* 4 large egg whites
* 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

Preparation: Preheat oven to 400°.

Coat a 9-inch round cake pan with cooking spray. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, and set aside.

Heat butter and oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add onion and bell pepper; cook 5 minutes or until soft. Place onion mixture in a food processor. Add 1 1/2 cups corn and cottage cheese; process until almost smooth, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Place pureed mixture in a large bowl. Stir in remaining 1/2 cup corn, cornmeal, Muenster cheese, milk, salt, and black pepper.

Place egg whites and cream of tartar in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at high speed until stiff peaks form. Gently stir one-fourth of egg white mixture into batter; gently fold in remaining egg white mixture. Spoon into prepared pan.

Bake at 400° for 30 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean (cover loosely with foil if it becomes too brown). Cool in pan 10 minutes on a wire rack. Place a plate upside down on top of bread; invert onto plate. Cut into wedges.

In the cold weather when we eat a lot of soups and stews, this bread is a great compliment to make those meals more hearty. Enjoy.

family

Holiday Debriefing

6 January, 2009 Jennifer 5 Comments

So, every January needs a blog post about how the holidays went, dontcha think?

We went to our church for Christmas Eve service, and we were blessed by the service and being among God’s people. Then, we spent Christmas Day at home in St Louis. It was a nice relaxing day at home. If you didn’t see my last post with photos of our offspring on Christmas Day, you should go take a peek.

On December 26, we were planning to drive a rental van to Dallas for the week, but thanks to Budget rent-a-car, the van we reserved 6 weeks prior to the rental date was unavailable. Plan B: we drove our two cars to Dallas, convoy style. We didn’t have CBs, but we did have cell phones. We got off to a late start because of the rental issue, and then we learned that Mark’s dad had the stomach flu, so we took the long way to Dallas and stopped at a hotel in Joplin for the night and stayed until check-out time. We arrived in Dallas at about 8:00 on 12/27.

Cousins — Dressing up

Evangeline with Granddaddy & Sasha, the cousins’ new dog

All the cousins

Mark & Nevin, aka the sick one

At church on 12/28, our almost 10-year-old niece threw-up, thus putting off the joint family Christmas celebration. We settled on Tuesday, 12/30, for our yuletide family meal and present exchange. But, the St Louis Hornes would not be outdone, and Nevin started hurling in the middle of the night before the slated celebration. After much discussion and debate, we decided to proceed with our plans. Nevin was able to keep down bland food and ginger ale, so while he didn’t have much fun, he came along with us to the cousins’ house. Once there, we enjoyed lovely Dallas weather with grilled steak on the deck of Mark’s brother’s home. The kids played outside most of the evening, and we exchanged our family gifts. Let just say it was a very Wii Christmas!

The Dallas visit was rounded out with my regular trek to IKEA, where I genuflected to my favorite furniture and kitchen cabinets. I also bought a few baubles. I also had the opportunity to use a gift card from Macy’s for some nice slacks, a winter blouse, and, as Charis calls it, a coach’s outfit. The kids ate out with the grandparents, we had one more lower-key family meal at the cousins that included Mark’s cousin, his wife, and their two sons, and Evangeline got to have a sleepover with her girl cousin. There was a lot of laying around, reading books, playing Scrabble, and, of course, we had to give the Wii its inaugural workout. Oh, and I started having a severe toothache.

The older girl cousins

When we left Dallas early Saturday morning (on our way to the gas station at 6:45, when our goal to leave was 6:30–not too bad), Mark’s Dad was suffering from a pretty bad cold. Our return to St Louis was uneventful–thankfully. We had remnants of Nevin’s stomach flu and the beginning of Calvin’s to deal with, so we stopped at more bathrooms than we would prefer. However, this was a remarkable trip as no one threw-up in either vehicle on our way there or home. When we arrived home on Saturday, our happy dog greeted us after being visited daily during our absence by a couple friends in town. By Sunday, Nevin had a relapse of stomach flu, and Calvin’s symptoms had developed into a full-fledged case. My toothache had also became something that could no longer be ignored, so Mark was the only one who attended church on Sunday. On Monday, I found a dentist who pulled 2 teeth from my mouth. Now I am sitting at my dining room table writing this blog post with the left side of my face swollen.

I could refer to this Christmas as the rental car fraud–stomach flu–change of plans–toothache–bad cold holiday. But despite all the drama, it was a really relaxing and pleasant break. It is a blessing to have biological family members who trust in Christ for their salvation and for every good thing they enjoy. It was a blessing to put aside some of the trials of the past several months and just enjoy some relaxation. So, I think I’ll refer to this Christmas break as: “The God is Faithful and Knows When I Need a Break Christmas.”

around the house, family

Self-Sacrifice

26 December, 2008 Jennifer 5 Comments

“I was dying on purpose for you guys!”

Can you guess the context of this quote?

family

Merry Christmas!

25 December, 2008 Jennifer 4 Comments

We didn’t send any Christmas cards or Christmas letters this year, so consider this our virtual substitute.

We have been very blessed this Christmas. Despite having a difficult year in many ways, we see God’s faithfulness every day. Our Christmas Eve service at church last night was a great reminder to us of the greatest gift we have received in Jesus. So many of God’s people have come alongside us through many years of trials, and this past year even more so. We are grateful for God’s faithfulness and His love to us, and we know that the coming year will be full of even more evidence of God’s faithfulness and grace.

We have also received generous gifts from many this year that made our Christmas very enjoyable–especially for our children. Here are a few photos of our morning and our Christmas meal.

This photo of all the kids with Mark reminds me of how truly rich I am.

This one of Charis just makes me laugh!

Calvin’s face is priceless here!

Happy boys!

Sweet girls!

Merry Christmas from the Hornes!

family

Anything’s Possible

21 December, 2008 Jennifer 8 Comments

Evangeline is at that wonderful age where anything is possible.

One thing she loves to do is draw. Will she be any good at it as an adult? Who knows? But for now, she practices at it all the time. The horse above is one of her latest creations. I like it, but I’m her mom. I love the colors and that she was really wanting to try drawing a horse as if she were facing it.

family, health

The Quest for Affordable Health Insurance

12 December, 2008 Jennifer 10 Comments

People with health insurance provided via their employer need to realize what a blessing they have.

We have paid for our own health insurance in one way or another for most of our married life. For the last 4 years, we have had basically what amounts to a “safety net” policy. For $350 a month, we get an entrance card to the doctor’s office (also known as an insurance card), a negotiated physician’s discount, and, well, that’s about it. We have a $5000 per person yearly deductible and a maximum family out of pocket expense of $10,000.00. Practically, this amounts to us paying for our own medical expenses and not going to the doctor unless we are desperate.

To be honest, $350 a month is more than we can afford. So, yes, we tried applying for Medicaid—at least for the kids. We were denied because we make too much. Also, to qualify we are supposed to let the kids go without coverage for 6 months first.

I was just putting up with the expense of insurance for what seems like nothing in return until Charis broke her arm. It wasn’t a severe injury, but we now have over $2500 in medical expenses because of it. This motivated me to investigate our insurance options again.I have a new option because of my new job. I can get group coverage through my employer. However, it is way beyond what we can afford. For just me, it would be $639 per month. To add Mark and the kids, it would be over $1300 per month. So I called Anthem BC/BS to see if we could get coverage for just the kids, and Mark and I could keep the crummy coverage we have. Well, because one of them has a pre-existing condition, they could only cover 3 of them. To cover three of the children, the best policy is $311 per month. The worst coverage is $188 per month. Then we would still have to continue covering one of the kids under our crummy policy. At this point, we must keep what we have and pray that God continues to keep us from any tragic illness or accident.

I am not in favor of government health care, but I certainly understand why many are. I think, with the economy failing, many more people will have to pay for their own health coverage. More people are getting laid off. So there will be more people losing health insurance altogether. If they do find new jobs, they will quickly see that companies who are scaling back on expenses don’t offer the same quality benefits that they used to. As this happens, more people will find themselves faced with the situation we have dealt with for years.

Something has to change in the insurance industry and with medical providers if people are going to be able to manage just living from day to day.

books

Are you really reading those books?

2 December, 2008 Jennifer 2 Comments

I was just checking out my list of books that I am supposedly reading on the ole sidebar. And, I see I need to change these out. To be honest, I have been reading the same books for months without getting very far. It seems every time I sit down long enough to read anything, I start to fall asleep. Hmmm . . . I am hoping to remedy this over the Christmas holiday.

But what happened to those books I have on the sidebar?

1. Keeping the World Away This is a book by Margaret Forster that I picked up from the library. I thought I would enjoy it because I had really liked Forster’s novel, Lady’s Maid, a fictional biograpy of the maid of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. I guess the possible story of painter Gwen John did not have a strong enough appeal to me since I had never heard of her until I picked up this book. So when the 2-week loan period at the library ended, this book went back to the library shelf.

2. Parenting Today’s Adolescent I am still trying to read this one, but I guess I’ve been too busy trying to parent my own adolescent to spend much time reading about it.

3. The Solace of Leaving Early This is another book I picked up at the library because I read and enjoyed another work by the same author. Haven Kimmel wrote A Girl Named Zippy, which is a quirky, funny memoir about the author’s upbringing in rural Indiana. It is one of my favorite books. Solace is well-written, and it has elements of Kimmel’s voice, but it is much darker. So once again, when thw 2 week loan period was over, I returned Solace to the library. But I like Haven Kimmel enough to give it another try . . . maybe very soon.

In the next couple days I’ll change out my reading list with what I am really reading. Until then, maybe some of my cast offs will appeal to you, and you can convince me to read them.

around the house, family, health, helpful consumer items

Of Luffas and Dandruff Shampoo

2 December, 2008 Jennifer 7 Comments

Readers of my blog have been scant for some time, but I guess the “Tears” post was a little too much for anyone to comment on. Oh well.

The big news is: Charis has her cast off. Eight weeks in a cast, and I didn’t post one picture of her. That is because the only ones I took were on my stupid phone which will not allow me to upload photos to my computer. Since we are too cheap (or broke) to pay for the upgrade in service to be able to send the photos from my phone, I really shouldn’t take pictures with it!

After the cast was removed, her skin underneath was GROSS!!!! It was so dry and flaky, I didn’t want her on me. Even after using a luffa on her arm, it was flaky. Then at her glorious bath last night (glorious because she could actually be in the tub long enough to get really clean), I had a revelation. I thought, “If dandruff shampoo works on dead dry skin on the skalp, perhaps it will help remove the dead dry skin from her arm.” So I used dandruff shampoo and the luffa on her arm, and it made a huge difference. The flakes all came off. Now her skin is rough, but we are putting lotion on it whenever we can. It will be back to normal soon. Long sleeves were in order for today so the dry skin won’t distract her to much at school.

christian growth, The Bible

Tears

27 November, 2008 Jennifer 4 Comments

Recently, a young friend asked me why we sometimes cry when we are in a worship service. I told him that people cry for a variety of reasons. Sometimes, the Holy Spirit is convicting us of sin. Sometimes we are overwhelmed by God’s grace in our life, and something that was said or done reminded us of that grace. Sometimes we are broken, at our wits end with the circumstances of life and we find ourselves at our Father’s feet where we feel safe to cry.

I am a presbyterian. We seem to be a people that like to have all of life tied up neatly without any of our emotions being shown. So, sometimes it is awkward, or embarassing to allow tears to flow in worship. Immediately, one gets the sense that everyone assumes your life is falling apart. Maybe it is. Maybe it is not. My hope is that when it is me crying, there aren’t as many eyes on me as it feels like at the time. The young friend who asked about this is also presbyterian, but he is now being exposed to people from other more charismatic traditions. So I think he may be assuming that presbyterians never have an emotional response to God’s dealing with them in a worship service. I told him that even though he may not see people crying, that doesn’t mean no one ever does. I also told him that adults will often make an effort to keep their tears to themselves, but not to assume no one is moved by the spirit in a presbyterian service. I guess I wanted him to understand that crying is not a sign of spirituality, but that tears can be an honest expression of how God is dealing with us.

Recently, our associate pastor preached a sermon on about tears that I found really helpful. He talked about reasons we shed tears: pain, joy, discouragement, hopelessness. That last one, hopelessness, is one of the hardest to bear. You know in your heart of hearts that God will do what is best for you. Yet, you have a fear of the unknown. A fear of how God will choose to work. The tears flow out of frustration that you’re not the one in control of the situation. Your tears flow because you want to trust God, and your having a hard time really doing it.

Here are some of the scripture passages Pastor Smith quoted in his sermon:

Psalm 6:6
I am weary with my moaning;every night I flood my bed with tears;I drench my couch with my weeping.

Psalm 42:3
My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long,”Where is your God?”

Psalm 56:8
You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?

Psalm 80:5
You have fed them with the bread of tears and given them tears to drink in full measure.

What I really took away from this sermon is that it is not only ok to cry from time to time, but that God expects us to shed tears. He sees our tears and responds to them. God, our father in Heaven, wants to comfort us when we cry.

around the house, family, fun outings