Learning From Older Women pt 1
Yesterday I went to visit one of my older women 
I hadn’t seen her for two and a half years and we were so excited to see each other again! While the children played and our husbands caught up on guy things, Stella and I chatted non-stop about all the things we’d done in the past few years. I told her that I had been using her recipes and what she had taught me when we were neighbours. She was so pleased. Her comment was that not many young women these days were interested in homemaking or cooking. I said that there were a few still… including me!
As soon as I became engaged, I prayed for God to send older women into my life. He answered this prayer, even long after I stopped praying for it. As a young married wife, He sent me Robyn, a lady with whose family dh had boarded with while he was finishing University. Now she is three women in one to me - mother, older sister and best friend! She came alongside me as a young wife and “fed” me information. She dropped in interesting articles, magazine, recipes, bits and pieces for sewing, etc, etc. She dropped by for cups of tea to see how I was doing and to encourage me in our (my husband’s and mine) goal of me being a stay-at-home-wife and later a stay-at-home-mother. When the world around me told me that I should have been seeking a career, she confirmed to me that some of us are called to carry out the high calling of keeping the home.
Over time I realized that I was also an older woman! I began to pass on knowledge to other women younger than me, and I believe this is how God wants it to be. All of us teaching and encouraging each other. This is not to say that we can’t learn from women younger than ourselves, of course we can. But generally as we grow older we (hopefully!) grow wiser!
I want to write some more posts about the older women in my life over the next few weeks, so keep dropping in! I’ll finish this post with a few new things I learned from Stella yesterday:
~*~ to make cakes or cornbread rise higher and be less heavy, use buttermilk
~*~ if you don’t have any buttermilk, you can make it yourself using 3 parts yoghurt to 1 part milk
~*~ to tenderize a very tough cut of meat, blend the flesh of a kiwi fruit with a cup of water. Strain the seeds and then cover the piece of meat with the mixture. If you have small pieces of meat, marinade them in this mixture. The meat will be soooo tender!
~*~ if you are growing cauliflower or broccoli and find that they are being eaten by caterpillars, prevent this by dusting with plain flour. The butterflies or moths will not be able to lay their eggs on the leaves.
~*~ a yummy twist on Chicken Parmigiana: cut a slit in the chicken breast and fill it with some sun-dried tomato and garlic. Cover in breadcrumbs and cook as usual, topped with ham, pasta sauce and mozzarella. Doesn’t that sound great! I must try it!
Stella and her husband make all their own sundried tomatoes and pasta sauce. It is so natural and healthy and the taste can’t be compared to the store bought ones. She gave me some of her homegrown and dried oregano. She put it in a plastic bag and it smelled just beautiful! She also gave me some homemade jam and peach conserve. I can’t wait till summer to make my own again, but in the meantime I can enjoy hers!
Do you have older women in your life? Thank the Lord for them If you don’t, ask God to provide one and He will!