It feels like everyone and their Aunt Gertrude are starting blogs these days. Since I love cooking and most things domestic (and my friends have been hounding me to start a blog) I am excited to have a place where I can share my ideas, creations, success and failures in the area of food, family, faith. 

A place where I can share how I strive to be ‘Rockin the Mom Role’. 

For example, when you are sick, what comes to mind (other than lots of sleep and Nyquil?)

I bet the vast majority of you thought: ‘Chicken Soup’. 

Sure, one can pop open a can, but there is something uniquely soul satisfying and restorative in soup made from scratch by loving hands. Despite what a commercial culture tries to sell (Campbells isnt all that mmm mmm good), nothing beats the memories created and love shown by a homemade bowl of broth, and really it isn’t hard to do. 

Food provides a unique and wholesome way to connect and create family unity, unavailable in other ways. I say ‘family’ with a qualifier. When a dear friend brings you a meal after surgery, the bonds of family extend beyond blood. With the gift of food, communities are created, relationships, families and connections strengthened. 

Our society’s fast pace is not conducive to food and fellowship, so we must struggle against that tide. When we sit down and fellowship over a meal, it not only refreshes and nourishes us physically, but also spiritually. In a day and age of texting and social media, there is truly nothing that replaces that very special time at the table, whether formal or informal. I have found it truly worth the effort this takes to make a critical priority in my own family.  

We all have our struggles with ways to show love, admiration, gratitude, humility, comfort and apology. Food breaks all those barriers, including the struggles we may have with communication, on more than one level. (I come from hispanic/norwegian stock, so it makes for a feisty, stoic, extroverted-introvert. Yes, I do a lot of expressing and therapy through food!)

Through food we can express all those things including, self-confidence, satisfaction, and yes, Joy. Making the home a warm and inviting place to be creates a respite from the storms of life outside its doors, nourishes and strengthens us to boldly walk out the door to face the battles work, culture and society have in store for us. 

I love my job, and I hope I can inspire, encourage and help to give you ideas, tricks, tips, tools and permission to truly embrace the joy of what it means to be a mom in a culture that hasn’t been all that supportive nor appreciative of a traditional role in the domestics.

So, welcome to my ‘home’.