PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | EPISODE 187: WE LOVE OUR KITCHENS, PT 1

LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell

EPISODE 187: We Love Our Kitchens – Part 1

Erin Harrison joins me today. Erin is one of our Hilltop families, and now they are married into the family! Erin's daughter is married to Pearl's son, so we share the same new baby (Isla Rose). Erin is the grandmother, and I am the great-grandmother. Today Erin and I talk about our kitchens. Starting with breakfast, what do we eat, what do we do, and how do we do it? And what do we not eat? Come on in to be blessed and encouraged. Next week we will talk about what we do for lunch and supper.

Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to The Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.

Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies. Here we are together again. And today, I have a dear friend with me. In fact, Erin, Erin Harrison, has done a podcast with me, I think a couple you’ve done with me before. Erin and her wonderful husband and family are part of our Hilltop. In fact, when they moved into the Hilltop, they became part of our family. Now they’re married into the family!

Erin Harrison: Yeah.

Nancy: Yes, just recently, Erin’s daughter, Megan, who is married to Pearl’s son Noble, they had a precious little baby, Isla Rose. You’d better say something about that, Erin!

Erin: Oh, she is so precious! It’s really quite a neat thing to have a granddaughter that we share. I think that’s fun.

Nancy: So, it’s your granddaughter, and my great-granddaughter!

Erin: That’s pretty special, I would say.

Nancy: I know. Yes. And she is the most beautiful baby, and, of course, the most amazing mother. Erin has trained her daughters. She has sons as well. But Megan and Molly, and Molly is soon to have her baby. So, the two sisters will be enjoying babies together.

Erin trained her daughters how to run a home, how to cook. I mean, they just entered into marriage knowing how to manage a home and do everything, just ready to have their beautiful babies. It’s so wonderful!

Erin: Yeah, and it’s already hard enough to adjust to being married and having children. It was really a blessing that I was able to instill some good techniques, good steps, good practices that they have been able to carry into their marriages and into their new homes.

It’s a delight for my heart to see it, because when they were little girls, ever since they were just walking, they were up on chairs helping me. They were helping me sweep floors, and they were helping me wash dishes, and dry dishes, and put them away. We’ve been working together all these years, so it’s such a delight to see how that equipped them for their calling in life, which is for motherhood, to be a wife and a homemaker.

Nancy: Erin has always included her girls in everything, all the housework, so it’s part of their lives. Today, Erin and I are going to speak on the subject of, wait for it, WE LOVE OUR KITCHENS! It is true! I love my kitchen! And . . .  

Erin: I love my kitchen! It’s the heart of the home.

Nancy: Yes! The absolute heart of the home! And God created us, dear ladies, for the home. We were created for the home. Society doesn’t tell us that, but the Bible does. When God created Adam, He created him first before he created Eve. And what was the next thing he did, after He created Adam?

He created the Garden home. He didn’t create the woman until He had the home ready for her. And when God made this beautiful woman, she woke up to life in her home! Because that’s where God wanted her to be. So, ladies, today, we want to give to you just a little love of kitchens.

Now, Erin, maybe you could start telling us. Perhaps we’ll go through a day in our lives. Well, you know, a typical day. So, let’s start with the morning, getting up, getting breakfast. Tell me, Erin, how does your day start in your home, and in your kitchen?

Erin: I guess I wake up, and wake up to shine for the Lord, for Jesus. Just wake up with a glad and thankful heart, first of all and foremost. And then the kitchen is the first place I go after making my bed. I go out there, and I start preparing. . .

Nancy: Erin, stop there. I love something you said then. First thing you do is make your bed. I love that. You don’t even come out to the kitchen until you’ve made your bed. I believe that is so important too.

Today, so many beds are left unmade in homes. I don’t think that is right. I do believe we are, should ourselves, and we should train our children, as soon as they are able, that that’s the first thing they do when they wake up. THEY MAKE THEIR BEDS.

Erin: Oh, yeah. I think it’s critical. I think it sets you up for success for the day.

Nancy: Not only that, it sets up you up for success in life. Did you read that book, Make Your Bed? * It’s about this great general in the army. He became very successful. But he said his success started with getting into the habit of making his bed.

Erin: Well, a little backstory. I was disabled for about six years. For the first nine months after I had a terrible accident through getting a bladder lift operation. That was one of the only things I could do was to make my bed. So, it sometimes took me twenty, thirty minutes. I’d have to hobble around the bed ever so lightly and gingerly because my legs were still throbbing in pain. I could barely stand on my feet.

But if I could make my bed, I felt like I’d accomplished something. I felt like it was a huge thing to be able to do that. It gave me some sort of value for my life, just to be able to do that one thing. I wasn’t in bed all day. I could make my way to the living room and prop my legs up in the other room. Just making my bed was a part of my recovery process.

Also getting ready in the morning is really critical, too. I don’t think women should just, I mean, I know lots do, and it’s not like it’s a sin or anything, but it just doesn’t set you up for a good attitude, a good success for your day as a homemaker to just come straight out of the bed. Don’t make the bed, come out to the kitchen with your scrubby pajamas on, and your hair all in a mess, and everything.

I like to take a little time in the morning. Get up a little earlier. I like to take a shower or sponge bathe or something and do my hair pretty. Put a little make-up on. Just look nice for the day. Put a pretty dress on, or whatever, and some shoes. So, when I come to the kitchen, I don’t look like I’m half-asleep. I’m ready for the day. I’m ready to get started and get something on the table for everybody to enjoy.

My situation’s a little bit different than other people’s because I have the two special-needs children that we care for. So, I’m making blenderized foods for their health. My husband is out there helping. He’ll make a couple of eggs for us. He’ll make us smoothies. So, we kind of tag-team it.

But there’re different seasons for different things. When I wasn’t in this season I was in, every morning I was baking fresh bread. I always had a keeper bread that I would make every evening. Then in the morning I would bake it.

If you wanted to . . . my typical life before I adopted these children, I was always up at the crack of dawn, making a beautiful breakfast every morning. I always liked to put the dishes out on the table and make it really lovely for everybody because once all the children would wake up, they would see all the dishes gleaming back at them. It gives everybody such a satisfying feeling to wake up to something like that.

Your husband can sit there and be able to be served. Your children are waiting, and then you can give them jobs. Somebody can be passing out the silverware. They can be helping set the table as well. Then they started their day right, too. They all make their beds. “Did everybody make their beds this morning?” Then they answer, “Yes, Mother.”

Then you say, “OK, so now we’re going to have breakfast. The bread is baking, so who would like to set the table?” And one of the children could be putting the plates out. The other one could put some napkins, and another one could put the spoons or the cups for the smoothie or whatever. So, it makes it such a fun family activity. Right in your own home, you don’t have to go anywhere. You get to do this fun stuff together! It’s so enjoyable.

Nancy: Making everything beautiful. It’s so wonderful. I also noticed you said you come out dressed for the day! I love that. In the Living Bible, in Proverbs 31, it talks about that. It says: “She dresses for the day.” You can’t, how can you work if you’ve still got your dressing gown on? You feel as though you’re still in bedroom mode.

I mean, if you’re going to work, you’ve got to be dressed, don’t you? If someone is going out into their career, out to their job each morning, they don’t go in their pajamas or their dressing gown. They go dressed for the job!

Well, we have the most amazing, powerful job in our homes! Wow! So, let’s get dressed for the job! Amen!

Erin: Amen!

Nancy: And I’m loving all the things you say. You come out to the kitchen. That’s the first place you land after the bedroom. And there it is, so what are you going to do? Mope around in your dressing gown? “OK, children, there’s the cereal boxes. Just get them out.” Help!

No, we start the day seeking to make it glorious for our family and for our children! Oh, I’ve heard you talk about how you love to make your whole kitchen glorious.

Erin: Oh, yeah. I mean, I love to have flowers sitting on the table. I use fake flowers I have for different seasons. I have some fall arrangements. I have more Christmassy arrangements. I have springtime and summer arrangements. I like to take these beautiful arrangements and swap them out.

There’re always beautiful, beautiful flowers sitting on the table with candles around them. I’ve got two candlesticks, and then I also have two pedestal candles as well. Most of the time, even with my little special-needs children, most of my children are gone working, so a lot of times I like to put beautiful music on. When I’m preparing the day, and breakfast, I put on classical music, or really soft worship music with strumming of guitars, or this or that. It brings all the ambiance of beauty and glory into your home.

I make it like you’re at a fancy restaurant. Why not? It’s your home. You can make it whatever you want it to be. You don’t have to have it be just some drab, boring situation. You can put on the beautiful candles and the music, and have a whole beautiful, candlelit dinner, even if you’ve got two little children who don’t even hardly know how to talk. You can just enjoy the beauty of it together.

That’s what we do when we enjoy it so much. Oftentimes we sit there, and I’ll try to sing to them, and I’ll do a few twirls, and I’ll dance while I’m getting in between the different little parts of their meal. I’ll make it a whole event, a special event, right in my kitchen.

Nancy: Yes, and you think, “Oh, goodness me, Erin’s just saying all these beautiful things! How can I do that? How can I put candles out and make it beautiful? Goodness, you don’t know what’s going on in my house!” Well, you heard Erin say she has two little special-needs children! And she does it, even with them.

They maybe don’t know you, so just tell them about your little special-needs children, so they know where you’re coming from.

Erin: Well, about two years ago, we were blessed with taking on two little special-needs children through the state. We had a heart for adoption all along, but it solidified our heart when we were part of this community, and all these people having babies. Because of my surgery, where I had explained that I was having terrible pain, I also lost my uterus and things. So, I wasn’t able to have any more children.

In the back of my heart, I always wished and prayed that I could adopt. But it can be expensive. It’s a big process. It makes you really appreciate how we’re adopted into the family of God. It’s just easy. It’s just there, and it’s glorious, and it’s beautiful, and you don’t have to jump through a million hoops or spend a lot of money on that. It’s just given freely of the Lord, to be a part of His family.

So, first, we’ve got these little children, and it was quite a battle to get them to where they are now. They have various severe health issues. One of them was a complete vegetable, just lying in a bed, diapered and lying in the bed, with not really much hope for his life at all. So, we’ve been battling on that. But right now, he’s to the point where he had a g-tube, and he had a trach in his throat to breathe through. We’ve gotten him to overcome that.

Hip surgery that helped him be able to walk. So, he’s now walking, and he’s able to breathe out of his mouth, praise the Lord. And he’s learning how to eat by mouth. He eats all of his food by mouth, but I still have to help spoon-feed it with him. We’ve gotten him to the point where he sits right at the table while we’re listening to this beautiful music, to our candle-lit dinner. It’s all of his little, super-healthy . . .

I’ve got him off all his medications, which is another miracle. He takes his spoon in his hand, and I put my hand over his hand, and I help him guide his hand into the bowl for the food. Then we bring it to his mouth. He helps me. He licks the food off the spoon, and it’s all blenderized food, like avocados.

I’ve got a super-smoothie with kale, and berries, and granola, organic granola, raw honey, MCT oil, protein powders, and collagen. It’s really healthy, and even a fried egg as well. My husband makes a few fried eggs. He always gives me one for Alex. I throw that in his blenderized food.

 has a little bit of that, too. Yes, so we enjoy the beauty of life, even though there’s a lot of challenges.

Oh, and then we were able to adopt Kathryn as well. She’s three years old. Alex is the older one I was just telling you about. He’s six years old. Kathryn is three years old. She came to us through one of the private-duty nurses that we had prior to adopting Alex. We had private duty nursing that DCF required us to have. But I didn’t really need them so as soon as I adopted him, I went away with all of that and took care of him myself.

Then one of the nurses had Kathryn as a foster child. They were looking for an adoptive family. It’s nothing short of a miracle that we ended up with her because they don’t always like to give children to people that ask for them. They like to pick their own families. It’s a crazy situation.

We ended up getting her, and she was very, didn’t really, wasn’t able to do a lot of things at first. But just the constant interaction, she is doing quite well. They said she’s off the charts with her high-functioning Down’s Syndrome. So, she’s doing quite well.

This morning, when we were going to eat breakfast, she held Alex’s hand and walked him out to his chair. And she likes to be like a little Mommy to him and help him.

There’s a lot of obstacles when you have special-needs children. It takes a lot more time. You have to be so much more patient. But I tell you, it's the most beautiful, beautiful, glorious thing I’ve ever done in my life. It repays far more than anything ever could, because they really appreciate the candles. They appreciate the beautiful music, the dancing we do, and the singing we do. They’re just a touch of heaven. When the Lord said, “What you do unto the least of these, you’ve done unto Me.” I feel like, in a sense, I’m in the presence of the Lord.

Nancy: Yes, so beautiful! Hopefully you have received your new Above Rubies by now, #99. Erin’s story about little Alex and Kathryn is in this issue. You’ll see pictures, and you will love it. Oh, if you haven’t got it yet, I know there’s been a bit of delay with the sending out, but it will be getting to you. If you haven’t got it now, or soon, let us know. Email in with your mailing address, and if you’re not on the mailing list, email into me, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., to make sure you don’t miss out.

This is a very powerful issue of Above Rubies, to really encourage and affirm your great role of being a wife and a mother. Some beautiful testimonies of marriage restorations and wonderful testimonies that affirm motherhood. You’re going to be so blessed!

We’re still in our kitchens at breakfast-time. What do we do in our kitchen? Well, one thing I don’t have, and that is these boxes of breakfast cereals. Oh, goodness me! I think you might as well eat the cardboard! They’re so refined! And many of them are so filled with sugar.

They’re nothing like the original food that they’re supposed to have come from! It’s absolutely inferior food. Well, I know they add these other things but they’re all synthetic. Oh, goodness me! I just wouldn’t have them in my house! Except I have people living with us who sometimes bring them in. But I never would give that to my children when they were being raised. I always liked to start with the original.

My husband likes to eat rolled oats, so I often make that for him. I’m not crazy on rolled oats. I prefer the steel-cut oats myself. I love steel-cut oats, and even more, I love the oat groats. Have you ever bought oat groats? That’s a real original! And what I do with them, I soak them, usually soak them in whey, or kefir, or even my sourdough starter. I’ll soak them overnight, throw out the water, then soak them again. Sometimes soaking them for one day, sometimes for up to three days. Then they are so beautiful and plump. I cook them up and can keep them in the fridge, and each morning I can put some in a saucepan with water and simmer them up. Make them hot and beautiful, and just have them with whatever I decide to have them with. I love that.

I do the same with barley, too. I’ll soak barley for overnight, or even up to three days, usually using kefir, or whey, or my sourdough starter for the soaking of them. And, oh my, it just makes them so healthy. I cook up the big lot and then they are ready to heat up each morning. So those are some of my special things I love to do for breakfast.

Sometimes I have eggs, or if I don’t have them in the morning, I’ll have them at lunchtime. Then, of course, I have kefir and fruit, or sometimes if I’m very busy, I might just have our sourdough bread for breakfast, because I like to make our sourdough bread. Those are some of the things I love to have for breakfast in our home. I’m not sure what you love to do, but. . .

Oh, another thing that I think is very important for breakfast-time is that everybody in the house is up and ready for breakfast! How can you organize a home, how can you have breakfast together if everybody is not up? I have always made it that in our home, everybody is up. They get up for breakfast.

So, we have breakfast together, and then we’re ready to have our family devotions together. How can you have devotions if nobody’s up, and everybody’s eating breakfast at different times? This is how we used to do it when our children were growing up.

I still, in our home now, we still have our family devotions. At a certain time, we all have to have breakfast before that, so we’re ready. We’re ready. We’ve eaten our physical food, and now we’re going to eat our soul food, our spiritual food.

Although, I think it’s important, personally, to get your spiritual food, even before you eat the food for your body. So, I love to always get up early to spend some time in the Word, just to feed my spirit before I even feed my body. Then, of course, we’ll feed again some more spiritual food at family devotions.

I often think of that wonderful, dear Chinese saint. He always used to say, “No Bible, no breakfast.” He refused to have his breakfast before he had his Bible. He would always make sure he would do that first.

That’s breakfast! Any other ideas you have about breakfast, Erin? 

Erin: Oh, yeah. I think some easy things for some of these moms out there that feel a little overwhelmed. They’re trying to start some new habits and routines. Crockpots are a great thing, because you can put oat groats in there with some kefir, yogurt, milk, or whatever. You can just put some fruit in there, and season it with some cinnamon, and some honey or maple syrup, or something. In the morning, you’ve got this glorious food, ready to go.

Another really easy breakfast idea that I’ve been making for years, and years is, I call it “toasted custard.” Some people call them “Dutch babies.” They’re so easy. You just take a 9 by 13 pan, and you stick it in the oven with a stick of butter in it at 400 degrees. And then, while that butter is melting, you take your blender, or Vita-Mix, or food processor. You put eight eggs, two cups flour, and two cups of milk, and a splash of vanilla, and maybe a pinch of salt. That’s it! Easy.

Blend it up until it’s smooth, pour it in with the melted butter. You’ll hear it sizzle a little bit. You let it bake until it poufs all the way over the top and gets a little bit golden brown on the top. It is so delicious. You can put fruit on it, you can put real, pure maple syrup on it.

I’ve even done custard. For my birthday this year, I had a special birthday breakfast. I made a beautiful vanilla custard, like a pudding-type, home-made cooked. I made it the day before, and we put that on top. Then I drizzled a little dark chocolate syrup that I made from scratch, just drizzled that over the top a little bit. It tasted like a chocolate eclair! It was so divine! What a way to celebrate a birthday! What a treat!

But that’s one thing. Egg bakes are pretty easy, too. Just cracking some eggs into a bowl and mix in some cheese and some vegetables. Even like you’ve got leftover meat. You could put a little leftover meat in there. You can put some green peppers and onions, and even some kale or spinach. You could put some leftover broccoli that you cooked the night before. That’s the best, actually. Stick it all in there, throw it in the oven, and just watch it bubble and cook. It smells so savory. Once you fix a bowl, bake it for 45 minutes, and you’ve got this beautiful breakfast stuff it in there, and you’re ready to go when everybody’s up.

But I was the same way. When my children were all at home, we never missed a meal around the table, never. If we were on an adventure, we had a picnic and we were all still engaged together, looking at each other, talking, being with one another. Praying together before we eat.

I’ve even taught little Kathryn and Alex to pray. Now they really enjoy that. So, I always say, “Praise Jesus,” and they both put their hands together. Then we say prayers. Then they say, “Amen,” and they put their hands up in the air. They bring them apart, “Amen!” And they just love it!

So, it’s these little things you can do. It doesn’t have to take a lot of effort. Even those little things translate into big things, big, wonderful memories. It’s just such a beautiful atmosphere too. You’re all together and you’re eating glorious food together. You’ve got all this beautiful stuff to look at. It’s all eye candy and candy for the soul.

I can’t understand how anybody could want for anything less than that. It’s so easy to put it together. You don’t really have to think about it that much after you get in the habit of it. It’s easy!

Nancy: I think it’s getting in the habit of it. Some of you listening may think, “Oh, goodness me! How can I cook all those things in the morning?” But some of them you’re doing at night. You’re just putting them in the crockpot. That makes it so much easier. Then the smell is beautiful for the children as they get up in the morning.

Sometimes you’ve got to get up a little bit earlier to do it. But everything is worthwhile. You put yourself out a little bit and get up that little bit earlier to make these things. It’s just such a blessing. Those of you with big families, throwing a casserole in the oven with eggs or doing your Dutch babies. They are just so easy and so amazing!

Erin: And inexpensive! Actually, taste so divine. Even my sons-in-law, they were like, “Oooh, oooh, oooh!” Before they were married, they would come to family breakfast every Sunday morning. I would make this beautiful breakfast for all of my children and their significant others. We would have a Dutch baby every Sunday morning. They missed it so much that I had to re-institute it. The married couples were coming back in on Sunday mornings.

Now that she’s just had the baby, we’ve been sending up some Dutch baby to Noble. He just can’t stand not having it!

Nancy: What would he do without his Dutch babies?

Erin: On a Sunday morning, it became such a lovely tradition that he didn’t think he could do away with that tradition. Isn’t that neat?

And then after breakfast, I always thought it was really fun to. . . That’s when everybody works together to put everything back in order again. So, after we’re done, and even with these little special-needs children, little Kathryn and Alex, they help me unload the dishwasher. They help me load it back up. They help me rinse off the dishes. They’re just right in there with me.

It’s something fun that you can all do together. Somebody can clear the dishes. Somebody can scrape them. Somebody’s on duty for sweeping under the table. One wipes off the table. You’ve got ten children; you’ve got ten little jobs! Many hands make light work!

Nancy: So, you like to make sure that your whole kitchen is glistening and sparkling before you start the rest of the day.

Erin: Absolutely! There’s nothing that feels more satisfying and good to the woman’s soul than to have a kept home. Just to have it shining and glorious. I always would tell the children, “We’re not leaving this place until this place is shining and glorious!”

If we really had a messy house, then I would make even more of an incentive, like, “Oh, would you all like to do a picnic and an adventure today?” And they’d all say, “Yeah!” “Well, we can, but we have to make this home shining and glorious.” In a matter of minutes, the whole house would turn from messy to marvelous, beautiful, glorious home, because everybody was motivated. They wanted to go and do the fun, special trips.

It’s so easy to motivate your children. You don’t have to think, “Oh, how do I get them to do things?” Oh, my, if you’ve read my Living Virtuously book that she carries, in her store, thank you.

Nancy: Yes, and I have advertised it in this latest issue of Above Rubies, so you will see it there. Living Virtuously. It’s a book Erin wrote on the whole of Proverbs 31. Very, very practical book that will bless you. Also, the story of her life, Erin’s been writing that. She’s got Book One available. You’ll be able to see how you can get that book, too.

Erin: The main thing with Living Virtuously is, it’s a practical guide. Beautiful, wonderful Nancy Campbell here, she gives me so many beautiful spiritual tips. This book brings it into reality. Some helpful things that you can do in the natural to make your house a home.

I give actual activities you can do with the children to get them motivated to help around the house. I’ve got a thing called “Mom Bucks” in there. You’ll have to find out what that is. Just different little things that they can do that they earn a currency that they can pay for special privileges. It’s really neat. It teaches them responsibility and it’s fun. It’s like a game. The possibilities are endless. Just to give you a little idea.

Nancy: Oh, yes. Well, can you believe it ladies? We’re only up to breakfast time! So, we’ve got to do another session, Erin! Our next session, we’ll talk about what we do at lunch, and what we do at supper. I hope that you are being blessed.

Well, Erin and I, we love our kitchens, and we love to cook. You’re thinking, “Oh, goodness me! I don’t love to cook!” Well, cooking is part of mothering. It’s part of raising our children, so why have a bad attitude about it? We need to get a great attitude. Change your confession from groaning about it to saying, “I love cooking! I love my kitchen!”

You know, what you say affects your whole being! The power of confession is powerful. Begin to speak the right words, lovely precious moms, and start saying, “Oh, I love cooking! I love my kitchen!” Because you’re in your kitchen for so much of the day, so why not love it? If you’re not loving it, what a boring life you’re living! When you start to love it, well, you’ll just enjoy life. Amen?

Erin: Amen! One more thing. I’ve heard this said before. If you have dishes, that means you’ve been fed, because there are people in the world who don’t even get to have dishes because they don’t ever get fed. There are starving people in the world. So, remind yourself of that as well when you feel like complaining. There are people out there that would love to be able to even eat a nice meal, much less have dishes to eat them on. We live like royalty!

Nancy: We sure do! Let me just give you a little poem as we close.

We Cannot Live Without Cooks

We may live without poetry, music, and art.

We may live without conscience and live without heart.

We may live without friends and may live without books.

But civilized man cannot live without cooks!

 

He may live without books; what is knowledge but grieving?

He may live without hope; what is hope but deceiving?

He may live without love; what is passion but pining?

But where is the man that can live without dining?

 

So, we all know that a wonderful way to the heart of our husband is to get to his stomach! To feed him! And to feed our families. Let’s pray.

“Dear Father, we thank You that we can talk about the practical things of life. Eating, and cooking, and being in our kitchens is so much part of our life. Lord God, please help us to always have the right attitude, and to understand that, in our kitchens, serving our families, preparing meals for our families, that we are in the very perfect will of God.

“Lord, encourage each mother, and each young person listening today, that they will have a whole new understanding about their kitchen and cooking. In the Name of Jesus, Amen”.  

Blessings from Nancy Campbell * www.aboverubies.org

Transcribed by Darlene Norris * This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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