My Mother's Wisdom...

Mom in 2007, age 81

I think about my mom everyday.  She taught many simple, straight forward lessons to my brother, my sister and me.  She had four core principles regarding money.

1)Always pay your tithe.  No matter how small the account in your bank, a Christian can not afford not to tithe.  Tithing is an act of love, because all we have comes from God.  And the Bible says God will bless us if we tithe.  She told me many times, which I learned to be true, "It is amazing how much you can do on 90%, when you give 10% to God."

2) Always pay your bills on time.  This is simple common sense.  But it helps to have a systematic process for doing this.  Most of my parent's bills came in at the first of the month. In our kitchen was a two-drawer, tan filing cabinet. Using hanging files and folders, Mom organised the bills alphabetically.  At the first of the month she sat down, wrote out cheques for each bill, and then made sure each envelop was stamped.  Remember--on-line banking didn't exist until the 1990's.  She had a ledger card with each bill listed on it, with a column for each month.  When she had paid the bill, she put a tick in the corresponding month column.  She would tear off the customer copy of the billing, write the cheque number on it, as well as the date she paid the bill and place it in the correct section of the bill folder.  Because she had a systematic way of paying the bills, she never missed one and she never had to pay a penalty. 

An example of her bill-paying card

3) Always balance your cheque book to the penny each month.  Some of my younger friends will have no idea as to what a cheque book is.  For those of us who grew up with them, or saw our parents use them, each month a statement from the bank arrived.  On the statement was a list of cheques which had been cleared, which included the amounts for which they had been written.  The purpose of the statement was to inform the account owner/user about the activity of the account.  In order to know if it was accurate (sometimes mistakes are made), Mom made a point of reconcilling her ledger with the statement.  I will write an exact process for balancing a cheque book another time.  When we opened my first chequing account, she sat down with me and taught me to reconcile to the penny!  It kept me from going overdrawn and having to pay penalties.  This principle is also biblical.  
"Be diligent to know the state of your flocks, and attend to your herds; Proverbs 27:23  Now some people might not get the correlation between balancing a cheque book and knowing the state of your flocks.  The bottom line is, know exactly what you have so that you can prepare for the future.  If you don't know what resources you have, you can end up in serious financial trouble.
4)  Delayed gratification, in other words, if you don't have the money for it, don't buy it! By waiting until you have saved up the cash for something (apart from a house), it gives you time to really think about how seriously you want that item.  For example, as a child I wanted to buy a Ken doll.  The first one I received for Christmas had a pull string to make it talk.  But I wanted another Ken doll--as I had two female dolls.  I saved up my allowance for several weeks until I had enough to buy the second Ken doll.  By working for the money, saving the cash and waiting I had time to decide if I truly wanted the doll, or maybe a record album instead.  I bought the doll.  And I was protective of this toy, because I had invested time, money and desire into acquiring it.  This meant I appreciated it.

Those four principles have guided me all my life.   John and I sit down and review our pay each month, make sure all our financial commitments are covered and then decided what to do with the rest.  

I priase the Lord for giving me such a wise mother.

Serving Jesus, Author of our faith,

"Lady Helene"  

Windows too high...

           In our flat the windows are in sets of three, like a triptych.  The centre window is short, which is topped by a smaller, rectangular window that opens by being pushed out to open.  Being a short person, this creates a challenge for me.  “Maverick” is tall, and uses his long arms to push those windows out as far as he can, in the kitchen and bathroom anyway. 

          Wide open windows during the summer months it isn’t an issue, as it is great to have the air moving through.  But in the winter all I want to do is keep in as much heat as possible.  One would think that windows would remain shut from November to late March or early April.  Not so, in Great Britain it isn’t uncommon for tenants to open windows to let out gas fumes from propane sourced heaters. 

Our building is over 60 years old; the damp now permeates through cracks and the brick.  Even with exhaust fans in our bathroom and kitchen, moisture collects on the windows.  “Maverick” opens the window and leaves it open in order for the steam from the shower to escape.

 Now think about camping in January in the Northern Hemisphere—cold!  That's how it sometimes feels in this flat with the outside air breathing into the opened windows.  But when “Maverick” has gone to work, it is up to me to close the windows.  Without some sort of extension, it is impossible for me to reach the windows in the bathroom and kitchen.  Both are over sinks, which prevent reaching up on tippy-toe from being effective.  Even with my blue step-stool, I can’t reach.  And climbing is just too dangerous. 

One day I stood in the kitchen, thinking about possible solutions.  I turned and spied the humble wooden spoon with a hole in the middle of the spoon’s bowl.  The brain synapses fired.  The size of the spoon was perfect to go over the window handle, its length sufficient to extend far enough to reach the handle and pull the window closed.   I still needed the blue step-stool to get high enough, but the spoon worked.  And I left the spoon for future use.

Serving Jesus, Author of out faith,

“Lady Helene”

Favourite Oatmeal Cookies

          Since I was a child, this has been my favourite oatmeal cookie recipe.  When I asked my mom where she got the recipe, she told me she had gotten it from my aunt, (her brother’s wife.) 

          The original recipe calls for “fat”.  In the US, most people would use Crisco.  When I moved to the UK, I had to figure out what “Crisco” was—as “Crisco” was the brand name.  www.crisco.com   In 1997 I was in Scotland, with access to the internet—but that was mostly for e-mail.  Therefore looking on Google wasn’t really an option.  (Had Google been introduced in 1997?!)  Anyway, I knew that “Crisco” was called shortening in the US, and that it was an all-vegetable product.  After standing in front of the dairy case in a local grocery, I concluded that American “Shortening” was what the British call vegetable fat.  (Vegetables have fat??!!)  Okay…the British equivalent is “Trex”.  Trex

          All the above to say, I have used shortening/vegetable fat, margarine, dairy spread and butter to make these cookies.  If you want the best taste, use butter!

          The original recipe lists only raisins as “additional” ingredient.  However, Mom used to substitute chocolate chips for raisins.  As I started making them, I added chocolate chips AND raisins.  I suppose you could add chocolate covered raisins as a shortcut. 

          The recipe does call for chopped nuts, which can be left out if they are not available or someone has allergies.

          These cookies freeze really well, so you can make a double batch and allow yourself to keep them on hand more easily.