Pieces

Pieces of a pen, including the spring

Parts of a flashlight, a phone that won’t ring

Bits of a bagel you ate yesterday,

A toy’s in the cd drive and now it won’t play.

All around me are pieces of things I once knew

Including my sanity; I’m missing that too.

I guess that’s just life when you have a two-year-old

It never is boring– these times are like gold!

For other Poetry submissions, please click here.

The post <i>Poetry</i>: Pieces appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.

Dinner time can be stressful, especially when you have swim team, soccer and PTA all on the same day.  One day, our friend Merica suggested we start a frozen dinner swap. We have been eating better foods, and with much less stress ever since. Here is how you to can start a frozen dinner swap group.

Step 1: Find 4 friends or neighbors who have families in similar size to yours.
Step 2: Pick a regular day to do your swap. We do every other Friday.
Step 3: Find a book at the library on frozen meals to get you started on what freezes well and what doesn’t. Casseroles freeze really well and so do things that marinade.
Step 4: Purchase gallon size freezer bags and quart freezer bags, and a lot of aluminum foil.  Having aluminum disposable casserole dishes around is good too.
Step 5: Make 4 -5 meals at once. This can take a long time but you can choose a time that is good for you.
Step 6: Find a side dish or dessert that matches up with your meal. Frozen bread, vegetables or ice cream sandwiches are fun. (Some groups omit this step and just do main dishes.)
Step 7: Swap till you drop!

These dinners are also excellent things to premake for a friend who is having a baby, or surgery, or health struggles. Here is one recipe we’d like to share with you.

Lindsay’s and Emily’s Excellent Empanadas

Place a 2-3 lb pork roast (boneless) in a crockpot. Add one can of diced tomatoes (juice and all), and one can of diced green chilis in with the meat. Sprinkle cumin, chili powder, and salt and pepper all over the top of the meat. Cook on high 4-5 hours or low 6-8. When cooked, REMOVE meat from crockpot (so it won’t be too soggy) and place in a bowl to shred. You can add more cumin or s & p if desired. We also like to add one more can of diced tomatoes, drained, while shredding the meat.

For the dough: (this makes 8 empanadas. If you need to make more empanadas to use up the meat, do the
dough in batches–don’t double or triple the recipe.)
4 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp salt
1/2 c. cold butter, cut into small pieces
1 c. cold water
Combine dry ingredients, then cut in the cold butter until mixture is crumbly. Add just enough cold water so dough comes together. Divide the dough ball in 1/2 and knead each half 2-3 times. Cut each 1/2 into 4 equal pieces. Cover. Let stand to rise for 20 minutes. On a lightly floured surface, roll out each piece of dough into a THIN 8-inch round.  Place meat and a small amount of monterey jack cheese (optional) onto one half of the circle (don’t add too much or it won’t seal). Fold over the other half, brush edge with water and crimp with a fork. Seal well, or it will burst open in the oven. You can individually wrap these now, and freeze them.
When ready to eat, thaw for a few minutes while the oven preheats and bake as below. Brush tops with butter or an egg wash (1 egg whisked with 1 Tbsp water). Bake empanadas at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes until tops are golden brown.

FYI-If you have leftover meat (and don’t want to make more dough), you can freeze the meat and then thaw later and re-heat in a frying pan for tacos/burritos. It’s still yummy.

Dinner is an important time of the day. It is a great time to reconnect with family members and talk about what happened that day. Frozen Dinner Swap has made our dinner prep time stress free. And our families love it!

[You can find more recipes like the one featured above at www.frozendinnerswap.wordpress.com]

~Lindsay

For more First Person submissions, please click here.

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Sunday is my favorite day of the week because I get to focus on all the things I love best –my friends, my family and my Savior. I love to attend church on Sundays to spend time worshiping the Savior. I also love that my husband’s and children’s schedules stop for just one day. Not only does that rescue me from my daily taxi service, but it also allows for time for us to reconnect. Sometimes, we like to invite friends over after church for dinner and our hearts and stomachs fill to bursting.

You can see now, why a busy Mom would love, love, love the day of rest.

But, there are certain things I have to prepare to make the Sabbath even more restful. My Saturday nights are spent gathering dresses, stockings and patent leather shoes for my three daughters. I’ll go to the grocery store to make sure we have food for the following day. I like to serve a crock pot roast or a pre-made dinner from the freezer to make Sundays even easier. We also check our gas tank to see if we can push it to Monday without needing a refill. On a really good Sunday I get to take a nap, but more likely than not I’ll prepare my next Sunday school lesson or watch a nice film with my family. Sundays are delightful!

Sometimes my Sundays can be filled with service like visiting members of my ward that just had a baby or are sick. In fact there are so many good things that I do on Sundays I hardly have to worry about the don’t do’s.

I’m certainly not perfect in keeping the Sabbath Day holy. But I do find that when I prepare for and observe the Sabbath Day, I have found greater peace, not just on Sunday, but throughout the week.

The post First Person: Remember the Sabbath Day, to Keep it Holy appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.

I am in my early thirties and loving it. I have three kids and have been married for 9 years. At church, I teach an Adult Sunday School class. I love camping, nature, writing and playing games with my family.

I have been a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or Mormon church, since I was baptized at age 8 [the minimum age at which children are baptized]. A lot of my happiness stems from that one really good decision to join the church. I was cute, but nerdy, in High School and went on to college where I obtained a Business Degree in Finance. Promptly after graduation, I received a job offer from a prominent bank to work as a Bonds Broker. I was happy to have a job where I could completely support myself. I bought myself a Jeep Grand Cherokee and thought I was hot stuff.

But after months and months of cold calls, I thought, “There must be something more to life than Fund Managers hanging up and swearing at me.” That night I went home and pulled out the yellow pages. I circled every job that I thought I might like or be good at. I found a trend. Either I was supposed to be a teacher or a florist! I started calling private schools, since I didn’t have a teaching degree, and landed a job teaching Math. Can I tell you how happy I was? My smile muscles ached when I got home from work because I found what was just right for me. I have since taught math and quite a lot of science.

Initially, this change was hard. I had prepared to be and do something different in life. But when I started teaching I was happy. Thinking about this experience reminds me about the one thing I appreciate most about the Gospel of Jesus Christ: it allows for change. Through the principle of repentance we can do and become better.

I have friends who think that they are “bad apples” or are too far gone for happiness. This is simply not true! We can all change, and become better and happier. Sincere repentance has a lot to do with changing. With faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we believe that He has the power to forgive sins and make us clean again.

I am thankful that I have learned about repentance since an early age. Just like changing careers was uncomfortable at first but led to happiness, change through repentance can lead to greater happiness in the future.

I hope you smile so much today that your face muscles ache.

The post Portraits of Mormon Women: Brenda appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.

For some beautiful pieces exploring stories of women in the Old Testament, see this article.

Do you know of other existing art to which we can link? Do you have art of your own you would like to share, or know someone who does? Please email us at ‘mormonwoman’ AT ‘gmail’ DOT ‘com’

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