Cleaning Up After the 5000

by Beth Beutler

Today I had my Bible open to Matthew 14, where Jesus feeds 5000 people, and a verse stuck out to me that applies to home management and organization.

Matthew 14:20 (NKJV) So they all ate and were filled, and they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments that remained.

After Jesus did this miracle, the disciples (and perhaps other people) gathered up the leftovers after everyone had enough to eat.

They cleaned up after themselves.

I don't know what they did with the fragments, but it sure looks like that mountain wasn't left looking like 5000+ people had been there eating.

How about us? Sometimes it's easy to put our energy toward the beginning of a project of a meal or event, but clean up is less exciting. Yet it is an important part of stewardship.

I used to camp frequently and the "Good Sam" motto is to leave a campsite better than you found it. What if we did that wherever we find ourselves? What if each of us picked up one piece of litter at the park? What if we consolidated our dirty dishes for the wait staff at the restaurant? What if we taught our kids (as I saw one lady to) to take a paper towel and wipe around the sink in the church restroom after they wash their hands?

How much nicer would God's world look if we cleaned up after ourselves, and took an extra step to even help clean up after others sometimes too?

Cooking in Advance

By Karina Whisnant

One of the ways I am able to provide well for my family during the week is to prepare dinner entrees for about 6 weeks at one given time.  I do this not just on my own but with a friend.  I have done it with several different, wonderful friends through the years.  I probably couldn’t stick to it if I didn’t have a friend taking the plunge with me!  We cook around 24 meals per family in an average of 8 hours.  We incorporate a lot of different meats and casseroles and really only repeat a few recipes.  Most of the 24 meals are different.  Probably a better way to think about it would be food prep instead of cooking.  A recipe could even consist of some raw meat in marinade, especially in the summer when grilling is a treat.  We are doing the hardest part, thinking about “What's for dinner?” ahead of time.

It is difficult sometimes to make the time for it, but it is absolutely worth it.  I have been doing this now for about 11 years and know that I would now have a hard time doing dinner any other way.  Here are some pictures that share some of the process.  I know it sounds hard and crazy, but you would be surprised how even on your own you could cook several meals for the week and have them ready in the freezer.  It would change how you see dinner!

There is no doubt that when you put groceries in the fridge for cook day not a lot else fits in there!  I love looking at that food, knowing that in several hours it will be turned into close to 50 meals!

The dining room table becomes the pallet for the non-perishable food to go into the recipes.  We love it when the table starts looking empty.

We buy most of our meat at Sam’s.  Here is an example of the 10 lb. “loaf” of ground beef that is a VERY reasonable price for around  90% lean beef.  I believe for this cooking night, we had two of these to put in recipes!

If you can ignore my cooking look,  you will see that we do use the Food Saver bags to store the meals.  You wouldn’t have to do it that way, but we find it preserves the food well.

You can see some examples of the food we were preparing that day.  The Japanese Teriyaki Steak is delicious!!

This is a beef stroganoff sauce.  We freeze just the sauce which means you only have to warm the sauce and cook the noodles the night you pull this out of the freezer.  Dinner is served!

Here I am just browning some of the almonds that were going into a chicken recipe.

There is my sweet friend Holly mixing us some mini-cheddar meatloaves!

Keeping Money Organized

By Beth Beutler

Is your purse full of receipts, coins, cash and cards? Simplify your life with these ideas.

Consider using separate change purses or sections of a wallet as an "envelope system."

Keep your most used cards in a handy part of the wallet and consolidate lesser used cards into another section or change purse. That way you don't have to sort through a pile of membership/debit/credit/health/library cards to get to the ones you use most.

Have a set place to put your receipts, either in the wallet or in the same section of your purse.

Empty your wallet when you get home. Well, not all of it. Just take out the day's receipts and coins and store accordingly. For example, I put receipts in my monthly receipt box and take loose change and put it in a container for myself or the household, depending on how the original cash was spent. (I keep the cash in separate pouches.)

Refill your wallet as necessary. I try to live guided by a budget so I have a certain amount of cash for spending each month. I choose not to carry the entire month's cash at once, so I replenish as necessary when cleaning out my wallet.

If you get in the habit of cleaning out your wallet/purse regularly, before long it will be second nature.