financial info on Compassion International

I didn't mean to post so many times in one day--just worked out that way.

I shared Kristen's From Hell Kenya blog post with my husband and two boys.  Tough to read it and see the images without forever being changed.  My older children needed to understand why it's unacceptable to complain about chores or about the food they're served. I also wanted them to be moved enough to cheerfully give away a portion of their financial blessings (their money from extra chores).

The boys were not traumatized by the blog post.  The featured 18-year-old student's faith inspired my Peter (age 8).  He was moved to tears, as was my husband.  Paul (age 6) was just very sad to see the conditions.

I wanted to post some information I researched about Compassion International.  My husband asked me to find out about administrative costs before making a decision about sponsoring a child.  He was pleased with the financial report.

The organization spends 82% of funds on Child Programs, 10% of funds on fundraising, and the remaining 8% on administration costs.  Find out more here.  I verified this information using a charity fact site (not affiliated with CI).

must read

You simply must read this.  Trust me.  And two posts down on my blog, read "compassion".

spoken like a man

The equivalent of three large loads of laundry were purchased for the children at a thrift store for a mere $164.00 (shhhh....don't tell my husband it was that much...he didn't ask).  The clothes should get us through seven months--except for Peter's pants, which will have holes within two months.

Much excitement follows my homecoming on these days; the clothes basically look new, and they smell good thanks to some great air freshener at Goodwill.  Twenty minutes of admiring later, Peter says:

"You know, you really shouldn't spend all your money on clothes."

Spoken like a true man.

My unspoken response?

My thanks will come later.....from your wife.  She'll appreciate your clothes-combining sense.

compassion

I'm beginning to loathe commercialized blogs.  No good reason, really.  If the content is usually good or excellent, I try to overlook the lists of sponsors and ads and the frequent giveaways.  We Are That Family is a new blog for me, and I hesitated to put it on my sidebar at first.  It's commercialized but the content is often very good, and this week especially, I am loving it.  Kristen is in Kenya with Compassion International and blogging daily about her experiences.  Compassion is a wonderful, reliable organization, worthy of Christian offerings, as Kristin's posts illustrate (whether monthly for the sponsorship of a child, or occasionally, as God allows).

One of my California pastors wrote an account once about his reluctance to contribute money to a church building fund.  He had credit card debt and three kids in college, and felt he just couldn't do it.  But out of obedience, he did it anyway.  A month later he received a large sum of money from the Veteran's Administration (something to do with his Vietnam war injuries).  It completely paid off all debt and helped with college tuition.  I read his account seven years ago, but it still brings tears to my eyes to think about how God honored his sacrifice.

Our current pastor blesses us with similar stories--such as being given $1000 for his son's braces from an anonymous donor.  Last summer his daughter got married and a sizable sum of money came in anonymously for her wedding flowers.

I can add my own story.

We recently received a $7000 tax credit stemming from the earned income tax credit, and the additional child tax credit.  Normally, people may not tithe on tax refunds, because the income is tithed on when paychecks are received.  But this money was not a refund to us.  Tax credits are provided by other, higher-income tax payers.  Thank you, if you are one of them!

Getting free money is always humbling--definitely, we felt the need to tithe on it.  Although writing a tithe check for as much as our house payment proved somewhat scary, we knew first hand that exercising faith brings blessing in some form or another.

Two rather large checks were written for car repairs since we received the money--for needed repairs we had put off and for a water pump.  And I dropped and broke the camera!  (No replacement yet, thus no pics.)  My faith wavered some at this rapid exiting of funds, but still, I remembered many stories about blessings coming from giving cheerfully.

Confirmation came today that God was honored, or at least happy about the whole tithe thing.  My husband was handed a $200 check at church, written through the church, but donated anonymously for school expenses.  We were blessed...and relieved.  School curriculum needs to be purchased for 2010-11, and all four children have grown out of clothes recently, necessitating thrift store visits.

All this to say, jump out in faith!  Read Kristin's Compassion posts and pray about sponsoring a child.  God will honor your sacrifice.  Yes, giving it might hurt, but your money is likely to come back to you in some way.  Test it out and be blessed!

culinary matters

For a few years I've been buying most of our meat from the fowl section--7% lean ground turkey, whole chickens, and lean turkey Italian sausage.  Recipe options abound for each of these meats, so we never feel like we're lacking variety.

Today I thawed ground turkey for meat and cheese enchiladas.  Half a hour before I needed to start prepping dinner, I remembered that I'd stopped buying enchilada sauce--because of that whole foods thingy we've got going on.

Dinner can't be late these days because my three year old gave up her nap and needs to be in bed, clean and brushed, by seven o'clock. So this no enchilada sauce thing threw a glitch in my evening.

I rushed to the Almighty Internet and perused enchilada sauce recipes.  Each time I do this, I reject any recipe that has too many steps or too many ingredients.  That's not my life.

Sometimes, like last weekend, picking the simplest recipe brings on culinary disaster.  The cobbler recipe I printed off flopped.  I didn't have tapioca so I had to reject many of the recipes.  I'm learning that a good cook/baker researches ahead of time, and has a well-stocked pantry so that good recipes aren't rejected due to one or two missing ingredients.  I'm too new to from-scratch cooking to ascertain, by myself, what items a "well-stocked" pantry requires.

Now for that enchilada sauce.  We love Mexican dishes around here, but I'm not an authentic Mexican cook by any means.  My version of enchiladas probably resembles more of a baked chimichanga--if there is such a thing.

The simplest recipe I found actually turned out just fine, and quite authentic.  And by authentic, I refer to the fire-department shout out with each taste of the masterpiece.  Was I wise in putting in only a third of the chili seasoning called for?  Definitely.  And even with a third, I had to employ a trick I learned from another online recipe--adding an eighth teaspoon of sugar offsets the fire from the chilis, should said fire overwhelm.  My husband and I pride ourselves on our ability to brave most Thai or Mexican or Indian spices.  But I had to think of the kids--who ended up eating tacos anyway, instead of Momma and Daddy's enchiladas.  Too many folks around here calling for the fire department extra milk didn't seem like a good idea.

When looking for more chili powder a few weeks ago, I noticed the two brands available at Walmart--which unfortunately is the only close supermarket--both contained a preservative.  So I chose Chipotle Chili Pepper, by McCormick, in place of chili powder.  Pray tell, what is the difference between chili pepper, and chili powder?  A question for all you authentic Mexican cooks.

Here is that simple enchilada sauce recipe, which by the way, had me cooking up my first roux.  I know it's pitiful to have reached one's forties without ever having made a roux.  Better late than never, right?


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Note from other post:  Thank you, Terri, for your water bottle suggestion.  I have for a few years been looking for good-quality reusable hard-plastic water bottles, to no avail.  The lids are always cheaply made and the plastic caps detach too easily and get lost.  I'll have to try a higher-end store, I think.  Walmart and Target don't have any thing worthwhile on their shelves.  If any of you have found something that lasts, let me know.  Thank you!