Graceful Cooking in Hard Times

This is a great book for living in tough times. Here's what Amazon's product review says about this book: "Is your food budget out of control? The Better Days Books Frugal Food Bible can help, offering four timeless 19th and early 20th Century frugal food classics bound together in one practical, enlightening and entertaining omnibus collection: The American Frugal Housewife, by Lydia M. Child (1832), Foods That Will Win The War And How To Cook Them by C. Houston Goudiss (1918), Home Vegetable Gardening: A Complete And Practical Guide To The Planting And Care Of All Vegetables, Fruits And Berries Worth Growing For Home Use, by F. F. Rockwell (1911) and Cassell's Vegetarian Cookery: A Manual Of Cheap And Wholesome Diet, by A.G. Payne (1891). With over 400 pages of frugal food recipes, household hints, money saving tips, backyard gardening guidance and more, The Better Days Books Frugal Food Bible is a gift of practical wisdom from the past that no modern family can afford to be without during the hard economic times ahead."

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8 Steps To Stay Abundant During Hard Times

By Daisy Baad

There's more than enough money in the world to get you through hard times. That's the first thing to keep in mind during financial troubles. I went through some tough conditions several times in my life and I'm still amazed at how I got through them.

I've put together some tips you could use to get you moving forward again.

1. OPERATE FROM THE MINDSET OF ABUNDANCE. This is the best way to set the stage on staying abundant amidst financial crisis. The Abundant Mindset begins by believing that there is more than enough supply of anything and everything for anyone and everyone at anytime, every time.

2. PROCEED BY MAKING A CHECKLIST OF WHAT YOU NEED TO GET YOU THROUGH THE WEEK AND PRIORITIZE. Be specific when you identify the items and include the day you need it the most (e.g. income generating activity by next week, five hundred dollars for electricity by Friday and the like). You may put them in columns for easy reading.

3. FOLLOW IT UP WITH A LIST OF PEOPLE WHO COULD HELP YOU ACCESS THE SPECIFIC ITEMS YOU NEED. The best people who could help you are members of your family and close friends. Include them in the list for they are blessings provided for you. If you know people who may have direct contact with influential individuals whose help you need then include them in the list as well.

4. EXPRESS THE TRUTH ABOUT YOUR SITUATION. Communicate with the people on the list and tell them about your present condition. It may not be an easy task for it requires you to be vulnerable. Do it anyway, for the process in itself helps you heal whatever wounds you may have incurred in the recent past. In my case, it healed a broken relationship with a family member.

No matter how uncomfortable it may be, the fact remains that we do need the wisdom and resources of others to help us succeed in life. I'm sure you've helped others before and maybe these same people are just waiting for an opportunity to help you in return. Give them that chance.

5. BE OPEN AND WILLING TO TAKE ON NEW WAYS OF GETTING THINGS DONE. Accept whatever these family members or friends can offer. If they can give advice then accept the advice willingly and consider them in your decision making. If they offer more than you expected then by all means receive it with gladness and joy. Dr. Deepak Chopra has said "Receiving is as necessary as giving. To graciously receive is an expression of the dignity of giving".

Be willing to take the necessary actions that go along with the assistance they offer you. If it need be that you learn a new skill or do something beyond your comfort zone then take the challenge with pride. Approach the task as one that brings hope and faith.

6. VIEW EVERY ACTIVITY AS ONE FILLED WITH OPPORTUNITY AND VALUABLE LESSONS. Remember that the power to recreate the self anew comes as more knowledge and wisdom is gained through experience. Notice the abundance of knowledge and skills presented to you with every act you decide to take. The process then becomes an exciting adventure of personal growth and maybe even professional growth.

7. BE GRATEFUL EVERY STEP OF THE WAY. Stay connected to the Source of all abundance by having a grateful heart and more of that which you appreciate will come into your life. Moving with the attitude of gratitude will surely bring in more opportunities to develop, increase, grow and bear fruit.

8. KNOW THAT ALL IS WELL IN LOVE. You are an individual with the power to turn your life around for it is inherent in man to create a better life for himself and his family to express love. Love has motivated you through all the steps. Let it be the strong foundation with which you now live your life.

Be proud of what you've accomplished by following the eight steps. Through it all you have learned to stay abundant during hard times. The "hard times" now begin to transform into "growing times" and that is part of what we call living the Abundance Lifestyle.

One of the authors of Loving Abundance where you can find more ways to live a lifestyle of abundance. She also conducts Abundance Workshops and Motivational Talks. She is currently the Artistic Director of Out of the Box Training and Productions.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Daisy_Baad
http://EzineArticles.com/?8-Steps-To-Stay-Abundant-During-Hard-Times-&id=1596065

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The Graceful Art of Defrazzling - For Mothers

By Darlene Hull

"I wipe my baby's chin with my college diploma and wonder, 'How did I ever get here?'"

-- Joy Rose from the band "Housewives on Prozac"

I'm sure any mom on the planet can relate to that quote and the sense of exhaustion and bewilderment that it implies. Let's face it, ladies, after cooking, cleaning, caring, chauffeuring, and "career-ing" we're pretty frazzled - physically, emotionally, spiritually and intellectually. We dream of lives we don't believe we will ever be able to live, long to go away on a luxury vacation we will probably never be able to afford, or struggle to just put life on "pause" long enough to refuel before we have to tackle that next mountain of laundry. Unfortunately, those dreams look pretty hopeless, this side of the stack of dirty dishes in the sink.

The Graceful Art of Defrazzling means learning to live our lives in moments and seasons. Living in moments means that we must learn to take small amounts of time each day to refresh our souls, laugh, breathe deeply, express gratitude, and rejoice over our children and husbands - especially on the bad days! We need to look for natural pauses in our days: waiting at a stop light or in a grocery store line; while we wait for the pot to boil; right after the kids go down for their naps - and other little breaks in our day - to take a brief vacation from drudgery. We need to use these moments to stop and look for small, present things to cherish: the golden curls on our toddler's head; the warm sunshine outside; the sound of children's laughter; the feel of a baby's soft skin; the taste of a perfectly brewed cup of quality tea. We need to use little pauses in our day to take baby steps toward our bigger goals like tucking five dollars away for future dreams, skimming great books for deeper inspiration, or glancing at pictures of our ideal life and dreaming a little. We may not be able to get away for a month long vacation, but if we take little five-minute vacations every day, we will find ourselves more relaxed and available for our families. We may not have time or money to become a world class professional pastry chef right now, but we can get a book out of the library on gourmet desserts and throw a surprise together for tonight's supper. A week on a beach may be an impossible dream, but we can drop the kids off at friend's house and go sit on a park bench in the sunshine for an hour.

We need to look for moments, but we must also live in seasons. Living in seasons means we need to remember that what we are experiencing now is not what we will experience forever. When the kids are really young and we're not getting any sleep, knowing that this is temporary is helpful. We may not have time for anything right now except for survival - but if we're using our moments to prepare for the next season while we learn to get through this one, things will be different. Seasons enable us to cope with today, but also look to the future. They enable us to see past the spilled supper on the floor ,and the terrible two's, to a time when things will be calmer. Living in seasons also enables us to take the time we need to create and cherish special moments with our family. Instead of rushing from feeding the baby to cleaning out the basement, or brushing off our child's request to "come and see!" so that we can get dinner started, we'll realize that this season is but a brief drop in the bucket of time and that it will soon be over. Dinner and cleaning can usually wait while we connect in a special way with our family members. We need to recognize the season we're in, and learn to deal with each season in a way that creates a solid foundation for the next one.

So the next time you're wearily folding laundry, give thanks for the person each item belongs to, say a prayer for them, cherish a special memory you have of them - or plan to create a new one, and remember that "this too, shall pass".

This is the graceful art of De-frazzling - for mothers.

Darlene Hull,
www.mom-defrazzler.com

Darlene Hull is a local, ordinary, imperfect mom who sees her mission as helping moms look after themselves so that they can better look after their families. Darlene is married to Tom and has two children – Simon (12) and Christina (10.5) whom she home schools. You can find out more about her on her website at http://www.mom-defrazzler.com and even download a free “Mom-Defrazzler” while you're there.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Darlene_Hull
http://EzineArticles.com/?The-Graceful-Art-of-Defrazzling---For-Mothers&id=49698

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Graceful Living in Challenging Times

So you've hit some tough times. You may have lost your job, or even your house. Tell me now, isn't this America? Isn't this a better place than Africa? Of course it is, and so I want you to take an inventory. Make a list of all the good things in your life, an inventory of your goods and blessings.
No this isn't a philosophical or religious exercise. It is a practical way of finding exactly where you stand in the universe, or, more specifically, in the economy.
Do it now. Then I want you to think about what you can do to maximize or, as the corporate types like to say, "leverage" what you have.
You can have a wonderful life without a lot of money in your pocket, believe me, I've been practicing this for years in my "poverty". Honestly, my life is abundant in many ways. I have a dear love, I have three beautiful sons, and both of my parents are alive. I have talent and a solid faith. I've lived in luxury and I've lived in poverty. Believe me, poverty sucks. But sometimes you have to live in poverty. Really, the only downside to poverty is the lack of mobility and opportunity. But poverty is relative and relative to some places in this big old world event the poorest of us Americans are rich beyond belief.
So, what do you have? Let's take one simple example of how to maximize what you do have. Let's say you want a nutritious and delicious, even traditional, meal at lunch or dinner. You have two problems. One, you haven't the time; you are busy trying to work or find work. Two, you haven't much money.
There is nothing more pleasing than a great bowl of hearty soup accompanied by a big loaf of bread. It's a full, nutritious meal, a full serving of comfort food. That's just what you need, comfort food. Your can do it easily. Take a look at our Slowcooker Soups site for a recipe. Enjoy.
Slowcooking is an easy thing to do, so very easy! Throw the ingredients into the slow cooker before you go to bed and in the morning it's ready. And it is done with very little energy and effort.

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