Behind Every Good Man Stands a Good Woman

Some ideas of how we can best support our husband taken from this book:

1. Praise & encourage him

"An anxious heart weighs a man down, but a kind word cheers him up." Proverbs 12:25

2. Take care of your marriage
As a wife, we are called to respect and pray for our husbands.
"Let the wife see that she respects and reverences her husband that she notices him, regards him, honors him, prefers him, venerates, and esteems him; and that she defers to him, praises him, and loves and admires him exceedingly." 1 Peter 3:2

3. Take care of your family
We are to take seriously the meals, the schedule, the clothing, the counsel and training we give the children. Nothing credits a man as much as a beautiful-in-God's-eyes wife and a beautifully behaved family.

4. Take care of your home
Ask the Lord to help us delight in watching over the ways of your household
"She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness." Proverbs 31:27

5. Take care of your finances
Your wise money management is a gift to your husband

6. Let him go
The author wrote: When my husband Jim began serving on pastoral staff, I struggle to get used to his late hours, absences, and seven-day-a-week calling. The following words from a wife's prayer of relinquishment showed me a better way to support and serve him:
"God... I declare afresh that my husband belongs to You, not to me. I have yielded all right to him-all right to his time, his understanding, his attention, his love. I will take what You give back as privileges to be used for my enjoyment and for Your glory as long as You see fit to give these privileges to us..."
Those words express significantly more beautiful attitude than clinging, whining, complaining, nagging, and begrudging our husband the time he needs to do what he needs to do.

7. Support his dreams.
Dream with your husband; share in the expectation and excitement together.
Whatever your husband's job, his place of employment, his sphere of influence, pour your strength into him by supporting rather than ignoring, belittling, or even laughing at his dreams.

8. Realize that your behavior is a reflection on him
The husband of the Proverbs 31 woman "is known in the gates" (verse 23) for among other things, having a worthy wife! Is that one of the reasons your husband is known and respected?

I hope these things encourage you as they have encouraged me!

Did you know.........

1. Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store. If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster.. I didn't know that!
2. Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil. It will stay fresh much longer and not mold!
3. Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating. Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking.
4. Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef. It will help pull the grease away from the meat while cooking. 
5. To make scrambled eggs or omelets rich add a couple of spoonfuls of sour cream, cream cheese, or heavy cream in and then beat them up. 
6. Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste of garlic,  and at the end of the recipe if you want a stronger taste of garlic.
7. Reheat Pizza Heat up leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove, set heat to med-low and heat till warm. This keeps the crust crispy. No soggy micro pizza. I saw this on the cooking channel and it really works.
8. Easy Deviled Eggs: Put cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag. Seal, mash till they are all broken up.  Add remainder of ingredients, reseal, keep mashing it up mixing thoroughly, cut the tip of the baggy, squeeze mixture into egg.  Just throw bag away when done easy clean up.
9. Expanding Frosting: When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size.  You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You also eat less sugar and calories per serving.  
10. Reheating refrigerated bread: To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in a microwave with a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food moist and help it reheat faster.
11. Newspaper weeds away: Plant your plants in the ground, work the nutrients in your soil. Then wet newspapers, put layers around the plants overlapping as you go, cover with mulch, and forget about weeds. Weeds will get through some gardening plastic they will not get through wet newspapers.
12. To keep squirrels from eating your plants, sprinkle your plants with cayenne pepper. The cayenne pepper doesn't hurt the plant and the squirrels won't come near it.
13. Flexible vacuum: To get something out of a heat register or under the fridge add an empty paper towel roll or empty gift wrap roll to your vacuum. It can be bent or flattened to get in narrow openings.
14. Pin a small safety pin to the seam of your slip to eliminate static cling. It works; you will not have a clingy skirt or dress. Same thing works with slacks that cling when wearing panty hose. Place pin in seam of slacks and ... Ta DA! ... Static is gone.
15. Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill with hot water. Dump out the hot water, but don't dry cup. Next, add your ingredient, such as peanut butter, and watch how easily it comes right out.
16. De-fog your windshield: Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your car When the windows fog, rub with the eraser! Works better than a cloth!
17. Re-opening envelopes: If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include something inside, just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour or two. Voila! It unseals easily.
18. Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It's cheaper than shaving cream and leaves your legs really smooth. It's also a great way to use up the conditioner you bought but didn't like when you tried it in your hair.
19. Goodbye Fruit Flies: To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass, fill it 1/2' with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dish washing liquid; mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup an d gone forever!
20. Get Rid of Ants: Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it 'home,' can't digest it so it kills them. It may take a week or so, especially if it rains, but it works and you don't have the worry about pets or small children being harmed! 
21. Wash your dryer filter: Did you know that cleaning your lint trap with a dryer sheet can ruin it? Dryer sheets cause a film over that mesh that's what burns out the heating unit. You can't SEE the film, but it's there. It's what is in the dryer sheets to make your clothes soft and static free, and smell good. You know how they can feel waxy when you take them out of the box? Apparently that stuff builds up on your clothes and on your lint screen. This is what causes dryer units to potentially burn your house down with it! You can test it by running the lint trap under water. If the water goes through you are good. If not then you need to clean it. The best way to keep your dryer working for a long time (and to keep your electric bill lower) is to take that filter out and wash it with hot soapy water and an old toothbrush (or other brush) at least every six months. 
22. Drop a small object on the carpet and can't find it.  Place panty hose over the end of the vacuum hose and start vacuuming. The panty hose will trap anything to large to fit through the tiny hose and keep it from getting sucked into the vacuum. 
23. Wearing a skirt or dress on a windy day. Cut open a few sections on the bottom seam. slip in some heavy washers or flat weights (anything small heavy and flat will work) then sew the seam back up. 
24. Need to cut some corn off the cob. Use your bundt pan. Place the ear on the opening in the center of the pan, and as you slide the knife down the ear, all the kernels will collect in the main part of the pan. 

Taken from: http://diyhshp.blogspot.com/2011/10/did-you-know.html


Super cool blog filled with a lot more of these random facts...true or not. They are fun to read and try for yourself

MedStud, Squishy and Mama

It's been a while since Ive written. So here are the cliff-notes (as a good friend of mine would say) of what's been going on:

• It's 2012! Which means our sweet little girl has a birthday coming up, her 1st birthday
• The MedStud is in block 3 of his 1st year in medical school.
• What's he learning? Gastrointestinal, Endocrine & Reproductive Medicine. 
• What's he learning this week?Metabolism: Storage, Retrieval, and Synthesis of Fats and Carbohydrates, Proteins and Complex Molecule. Wanna know more? Feel free to Wikipedia :)
• Mama has been working out and getting back into shape.
• We are working on baby #2 and LORD willing we can add to our quiver.
• We are also learning and researching about the adoption process in hopes of adopting in the next few years. 
• The MedStud has been doing Muay Thai. Not to be competitive or anything, simply to stay in shape and doing something he enjoys.
• Mama has been in purging mode and reorganizing. I guess the New Year can do that to you.  
• Squishy has been crawling for a couple of months now. Actually, let me restate that, she has been doing the army crawl. She know how to crawl on all fours but prefers being low to the ground. She weighed 16.8 lbs and was 26 inches tall at her 9 month appointment. She still has a tiny peanut head.
• Loves her sleep. 2 naps a day 1 1/2-2 1/2 hours and 10-12 hours at night 
• The girl smiles so much these days. There was a time when the MedStud and I thought she would never smile.
• Is still an excellent little eater. She is the healthiest eater ever! She loves avocado, mangoes, asparagus, strawberries, broccoli, couscous, blueberries, sweet potatoes etc.   
• Nurses 4x a day, the weaning process has begun.
• Is becoming very social. She gets so excited to see another baby or little kid and doesn’t mind being held by the older kids. With adults, well that’s a whole different story. Let’s just say she’s all Mom.
• She now has 2 teeth and has had 3 colds. The last cold threw us for a loop. She was sick for 2 weeks!!!! And then it took another 2 weeks to get her back on track. 
• She will not and cannot stop moving. Can’t wait till we can sit and cuddle her. I think Im gonna miss nursing cause that’s the longest and only time I can hold her without her needing to be in constant motion.
• She chows down at meal time. It's actually amazing how much the girl eats. It shocks people. She still has loved everything we have given her; well no Im lying. She doesnt dig the texture of beans, tofu or peas. She LOVES to feed herself and is really good at it. She chooses to eat her fruit before her veggies and then her grains.
• She is getting really good at playing on her own. Sometimes she prefers a little time by herself to crawl around and play with her toys.
• She can clap, blow into her flute and play 1 or 2 notes lol. She responds when we say arms up, she can wave, blow kisses and makes her own sounds for what a dog and cat sound like.
• She has been such a joy and delight for our family and friends! 
• The MedStud performed his 1st autopsy over the Winter break. It was pretty wild. 
• The MedStud has begun his preceptorship where he shadows a Dr. and meets with patients. He's shadowing in the ER which he loves cause of the pace and all the cases that come in. Some scary, some funny and some that really get you thinking about life and eternity.
• Mama is going to be volunteering at a pregnancy center mentoring young Moms. So excited for this opportunity.
• Wednesdays are still grandparent day and February we will be more consistent. 
• Sundays are our church and family day. 
• Events that are coming up: We have 2 weddings this year. My sis-in-law is getting married at the Santa Barbara Zoo (talk about COOL). And the MedStud is the officiant :) The 2nd wedding is one of our good friends and Im a bridesmaid. She's marrying her 7th grade sweetheart :) 

We are enjoying life, walking through it with the LORD and though times do get tough we trust that it is for our own growth and good. We may not be happy with everything that comes our way but we do consider it "pure joy."