Anointed Motherhood Issue #3: Finding An Older Woman Advisor, The Best Chocolate Chip Muffins, and how to be in two places at once!
Rather listen? I recorded this for you!
Scroll down after listening to find samples of the audio recordings mentioned.
From My Heart |
I remember seeing her coming across the field, half of her children running around her, (the half she had there were more than all of mine together at the time). Her hair blew softly in the prairie wind and the dress she wore for their musical performance trailed just slightly behind her. Motherhood radiated beautifully from her like a halo and called deeply to my heart that there was more to this relationship with my kids than just surviving.
I thought she was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen.
I had just barely scraped up the courage to utter the words to loved ones that we were homeschooling, so talking to this lady who seemed to have motherhood dipped in gold dust felt daunting, and yet the bold but gentle heart of this mother invited me to ask her to help me get started.
Anxious fear brings depression, but a life-giving word of encouragement can do wonders to restore joy to the heart.
Proverbs 12:25 TPT
I’ve been reading the Paddington picture book to my preschooler (he’ll be 3 soon, so I don’t think he’s a toddler anymore! How did that happen?) and I always laugh out loud when I get to this page:
Have you ever felt like Paddington? We get started on our mothering journey’s and we suddenly feel like we are slipping and sliding in a bathtub that won’t stop filling up! If we’re trying to “keep calm and carry on” we might yell help very quietly so as not to disturb anyone, but the truth is we need someone to pull us out!
Lo and behold God has a plan in his word. It’s the older women. They are to come alongside and train the younger women how to do this hard thing called family life.
“Similarly, teach the older women to live in a way that honors God. They must not slander others or be heavy drinkers. Instead, they should teach others what is good. These older women must train the younger women to love their husbands and their children, to live wisely and be pure, to work in their homes, to do good, and to be submissive to their husbands. Then they will not bring shame on the word of God.”
Titus 2:3-5 NLT
But in today’s world it is often very difficult to find an older woman to come alongside you. There are many reasons for it: most older moms work outside the home full time, they might be crippled by regrets (I talked about those in my last post!), or they could be scared of rejection from a young mom (sometimes we think we know everything before we starting sinking).
Whatever the reasons are, sometimes dear mama, YOU need to reach out to an older mother who is further along on the journey than you and seek advice.
Plans go wrong for lack of advice; many advisers bring success.
Proverbs 15:22 NLT
Reaching out to my now dear friend was one of the best things I could have done. It turned out they had faced many similar struggles that we were dealing with and she had real, practical wisdom to share. She lent me her Five In A Row curriculum to get me started, which I now buy up every chance I get and have my own little mini library of FIAR resources to lend out to mamas getting started.
She has walked through fire and extreme difficulty and yet I continue to see glory all around her and her faithfulness to this lifestyle of living sacrifice, anointed motherhood pushes me on.
We have never spent a large amount of time together, in fact I can probably count on two hands the number of times I’ve seen her face to face since that day she walked across the field, and yet our little encounters, and my invitation for her to speak freely into my life, has left me with a bag full of gold nuggets from each conversation.
Even now I’m realizing that the Paddington books were her recommendation to try for audiobooks when I was working on establishing a daily quiet time.
May you be courageous to speak out with a voice loud enough to disturb someone and invite them to come into your world and share wisdom.
Dear Jesus, thank you for that mama who shared her wisdom with me all those years ago and who continues to shape my motherhood to this day. I ask that each woman reading this who desires to have an older woman speak into her life would have someone she could reach out. Would you prepare the relationship to be one that is life giving to both parties? May wisdom and life giving words of encouragement flow. In Jesus Name, Amen.
From My Kitchen |
We eat a lot of oatmeal at our house. Sunday to Thursday a large pot is on the stove and it’s our simple, healthy go to. Some days it’s all eaten up and other days we have a little leftover. I now have started saving our leftovers up to make these muffins which my husband has declared to be his new favourite! I love that I can prep these the night before and have an easy mid morning snack on homeschool days.
Deliciously Cake-Like Chocolate Chip Sourdough Oatmeal Muffins
In the evening, mix these ingredients together, cover and allow to sit on the your counter all night:
2 cups leftover cooked oatmeal
1 cup sourdough starter
2/3 cup oil (e.g. melted butter, coconut oil)
2 cups white flour
1 cup coconut sugar (or brown sugar)
2 tsp. vanilla
When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
Whisk in:
2 eggs
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup chocolate chips
Grease a muffin tin well and fill cups just below level with the top of the pan. Bake for approximately 15 minutes or until the top springs back when touched. Everyone oven is a bit different so keep an eye on them. I sometimes think my oven is a bit hot because things usually cook faster than the recipe says for me. This makes about 24 muffins.
Don’t have sourdough starter? Try this leftover oatmeal muffin recipe here.
I’ve made these a number of times as well, swapping out the raisins for chocolate chips.
I am pretty crazy about fermenting my baking overnight though because the health benefits are amazing! Even if you aren’t a bread baker, I think it’s worth keep sourdough starter around just to ferment your baked goods!
Stories & Songs |
Here is a little life hack for you to get a few moments to yourself if you have little ones, (or give you some time to work with your older ones if you’re like me!).
Take a couple minutes one evening to record yourself singing some of your children’s favourite actions songs on the voice memo app on your phone.
As much as toddlers love to listen to songs, they LOVE to hear mama sing and read for them and the excitement of hearing her voice on the bluetooth speaker is a pretty big deal for my two littles. “Mom is here, and she’s there!”
Last week I recorded a little board book that had nursery rhymes in it, along with some our favourite action song. In total it is 11 minutes long, but it has gotten me well over an hour back from that little investment.
Here’s a sample of the stories:
And these songs are for one of my readers who said her children love listening to the recording!
Of course you can listen too :)
I also do this for my older kids. I had been struggling to get all of our reading done in our homeschool and I suggested we buy the audiobook of our history and science. This was not a popular idea because I have always read these books to them. So (thanks to my husband’s problem solving skills) I began recording one of our readings each evening so that I could quickly turn it on during the day if I needed to be two places at once - like putting our muffins in the oven for snack and reading aloud.
I’ve grown to really love this because I can process the night before what we’ll be reading and have some time to think about it.
All right friend, I’m so glad that you chose to spend a few of your precious minutes with me! Feel free to hit reply or leave a comment with questions or to share what spoke to you today!
It would mean so much to me if you would pass this along to another woman in your life who could use some encouragement and inspiration!
I’m off to go record tomorrow’s “Story of the World” reading!
Love,
Monica
I love your writing! I am a new mom of a five month old and greatly appreciate these words of wisdom from someone further ahead who has fully embraced motherhood. On another note, I made these muffins today and absolutely love them! Thanks for sharing :) my oven took a bit longer to cook them and I made a few less (perhaps larger) muffins.
Monica, I baked up these muffins this morning, and they are delicious! Thanks for sharing your recipe. 💝