Category Archives: Hospitality

>What About Some Oatmeal Cookies?

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>When you bake cookies, you are not just baking sweets, you are building memories, you are sharing the goodness in the every day ritual of our lives.

I learned this recipe when I was around sixteen yo. and was visiting with my dear friend Sandy in Dallas; She taught me how to make these delicious, old fashioned oatmeal cookies and since then they have been a favorite treat in our family.

I thought you might enjoy the smell, the taste, the goodness, so here is the recipe for you to try in a cold afternoon, with a good cup of coffee.

Old Fashioned Oatmeal Cookies
What you need to gather:

3/4 c. of butter (room temperature)
1 c. brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla (Mexican please!)

1 3/4 flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powered
1 tsp salt

3 cups oatmeal

 Call your little ones and have them follow the instructions:

 1. Mix all the blue ingredients in a large bowl, until you have a creamy, nice and smooth batter.

 2. Sift together all the pink ingredients.

3. Put together the blue batter with the pink dry ingredients. Add the oatmeal  and mix them all with a wooden spoon. It will be hard to do it!

4. If you wish you can add 1 cup of chocolate chips, walnuts, pecans, raisins, dried cranberries, or white chocolate in little pieces.

5. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet.

6. Bake for about 8-10 min. at 350ºF (200ºC)

   The Secret for Success: 

DO NOT LEAVE THE KITCHEN, LEST YOU FORGET ABOUT YOUR COOKIES!

  Yes, the secret is to take them out of the oven when they are still “bubbling” but cooked already. DO NOT OVER BAKE because if you do so, they won’t be soft and chewy, but hard.

Happy baking!

Keeping up Family Worship

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It is the husband’s responsibility to lead the family worship, however, we, wives,  are called to be his perfect helpmate.

How can I help my Beloved with this task?

I can help him by preparing our home, our children, the room, the table. Just as the Shunamite prepared her home to receive the servant of the Lord, Elisha, with a bed and a table, a stool and a candlestick. (2 Kings 4:10), so we need to prepare our home for our family worship.

While our husband is away toiling and fighting against thorns and thistles, what are we doing to receive him and have everything ready for our family worship? Is our home in peace or our husband walks through the door only to find out complaints and bitterness? As he walks through the door, what are the first words he hears from me, sweet words of life or words that taste bitter and are hard to swallow?

We ought to prepare the heart of our home, as well as the table and candlestick.

Let us have all the Bibles ready; let us make sure that all the children have whatever our husband wants them to have at hand. We want to avoid all the unnecessary running around the house to find the one missing Bible or book. We should also have our little ones ready; I like to give my little one her night shower before our family worship, just because I do not want to feel “the pressure” of having to give her a shower when it is late! (You know how we, moms, choose to worry about simple things like this one!).

Some families like to make every reunion around the family table  memorable and special by lighting up some candles (nothing superstitious here, I am just talking about creating a beautiful ambiance); I love this idea, but it might not be the best option if you have little ones who would fall asleep! Ask your husband what would he prefer. My husband likes to turn on the lights after dinner so we can follow our Bible reading better.

Take a closer look at what you can do to prepare your home to receive your husband after a long day of toiling, and how you can help him direct a peaceful and joyous family worship.

Pictures taken at my friend’s home as she prepared her home for her family and guests. Thank you, my dear friend, for your kind hospitality. I love you!

Opening Your Home and Heart

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The way the Lord plans all things is beautiful. He is sovereign and we can see how He, as if working in a magnificent play, arranges all things for His glory and the good of our souls.

My sister sent me an email few months ago saying that a friend of her from the Netherlands was coming to Mexico, she asked me to host her friend for a night or two. What a great privilege for me it was to be able to host my sister’s friend; we agreed and started to email back and forth. To make this story short in a moment I was also emailing back and forth with the tour guide of the group (15 Reformed Christian backpackers), they wanted to join us for our Church service on Sunday and were looking for a hotel near to our home…

We had to have a “meeting”, so we sat at the Family Table one night and talked about the possibility of hosting them all. “They are backpackers, so we need not to worry about beds, they have their sleeping bags, and we have enough floor space for all of them”, we reasoned, and by opening our home to them we would be able to bless them. We all voted yes.

They came in Saturday night driving one big van and one car; it was night and it was raining, but  our home was warm, and the tables were set. Pasta night was awaiting.

They stayed with us until Tuesday morning; we thought we were going to bless them with a place to sleep, yet they blessed us greatly.

Every morning and evening we read the Scripture; English was the language where we met in every conversation; at nights we sang hymns and Psalms in Dutch, Spanish and English. Our home was filled with the sound of a beautiful choir, and every room with glorious praises.
 
We thought we were opening our home to them, but really, can you open your home without opening your heart?

We felt sad as they left, but we know that every Lord’s Day we will be singing to our God who has brought people from every tribe and nation to worship Him, until the day we will see Him face to face and again feast at the Family Table with Him.

May you open your home and heart to many this season… you will find blessings you never expected, and your heart will overflow with joy.

Today I am playing with my true photographer friends Kelly and Claire. I could not choose only one picture and I know these are not the best pics at all (it is hard to be the hostess of so many and still try to take good pics.) but they surely tell a lot about how our home in Mexico looked this past weekend.