Balancing Motherhood

Before the holidays I saw a clip on “Good Morning America,” about a mother who spent a year figuring out what foods are cheaper to make at home. Intrigued, I received a copy of her book and began to read it through.

Author Jennifer Reese is an accomplished journalist who decided, after being laid off, to figure out what food makes the most sense (not just cents) to make at home. Like so many American’s she lost her job and didn’t know what to do. Here’s how she describes the time after she got let go:

“Then I lost my job. Instantly, I was stabbed with the predictable financial anxiety, which I attended to by taking an overdue video back to the video store and calling my husband to make sure that he still had his job. It was 2008 and a lot of people were losing their jobs. I made myself a cup of tea and walked out the back door of our house … A few end-of-the-season red apples weighted down the branches of our tree. I thought, I should really pick those … I can make applesauce. I can make apple butter. I can make chutney. Who needs a job when you have an apple tree?”

Sometimes I think that when we work, we miss opportunities to make things that are right in front of our faces. We say “time is money,” and pay extra for those frozen PB&Js. But the reality is, those extra cents we spend on convenience foods add up. They hit right into our wallet, yet we wonder where all our money went.

So it begs the questions for busy moms, what is worth it to make and what is worth the extra money to buy. Reese answers the questions on over 120 recipes. Is it worth it to drive to the store to buy hot dog buns, or should you just whip up a batch at home? Reese had the same questions that we do, but now she tells us the answers, from her year of experimentation.

She breaks down food items we are likely to purchase and walks us through how to make them at home. She breaks down each recipe into three simple summary points:

• Make it or buy it?
• Hassle (this may just say “easy,” or “a 4-year-old could do it”)
• Cost comparison

Then, if it’s better to make it, she includes a recipe. Can’t get better than that.

The experiments get more difficult at the book goes along. At first, it’s all about simple things like making a loaf of bread or making hummus in a blender. Later she mentions that her “bee-keeping experiment was an expensive catastrophe.” She writes about buying a couple of turkeys and her son Owen making a connection with the animals and not wanting to see them killed. “Buy it,” is Reeese’s summation of the turkeys.

A few of the items that I would never think of making are English muffins (“a lot more hassle than going to the store”), bacon (“try it”), vermouth (“are you nuts? If so, make it.”), beef jerky (“make it”), and lard (“acquiring the pork fat is the hardest part.”)

One that got my attention, due to my love of baking, is making your own vanilla. I blow through vanilla like some people blow through Diet Coke. It can be $7.00 a bottle and it kills me each time I go to buy it. Reese makes different versions with variations of alcohol. I’m going to have to try one.

A while back I did my own buy or make experiment with pickles. I involved my kids and we made sweet pickles: they were delicious and we were so excited to have something that we made with our own hands. The cost break down didn’t warrant me to make pickles from scratch all the time, but it taught me a valuable lesson that you should try things you think might not be worth the effort. The experience in making something together — and the flavors you can get from making things from scratch might be worth the extra effort.

I don’t think I’ll try making my own bacon, Reese has inspired me to make my pickles again and to try, every now and then, something new that I never thought of before.

Watch the GMA clip below to see a great interview with Reese.

• Here’s another review of the book. I love how this author sums it up, “So, if you didn’t already guess it, my verdict when it comes to Make the Bread, Buy the Butter is … BUY IT!”
• Jennifer Reese blogs at thetipsybaker.com

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I’m not the biggest fan of New Year’s except the fact that it’s considered a holiday and gives people time off work to be with our families. It’s a time of reflection and hope for the future.

It’s also a time when we should consider planning our future instead of just accepting what comes our way. Of course, there are things we can’t control, but there’s a lot we can control and could be taking steps to make our lives better. That’s what I think the new year is for — a reminder that we can start fresh and accomplish our most precious desires.

Today I’m taking it easy, as I have been for a few days now. I got out my 18-year-old Kitchen Aid mixer this morning her her first workout of the year; mixing a wonderful cheesecake that I will later top with blackberries. It’s going to be delicious.

It’s back to work in a couple of days, but until then I hope to continue relaxing and reflecting on what this new year could be for me and my family. I hope that you have time to do the same.

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When women think about getting married, one of the things at the top of the list is the wedding dress. Jeffrey Zaslow, captures the mystique of the wedding dress in his new book, “The Magic Room,” but goes well beyond the dress as he follows real brides through their journeys to the altar.

There are tales of sorrow, lost loves, broken dreams, injuries and even some deaths catalogued among the stories.  Each bride featured in the book has an interesting story about her family and her road to the bridal shop. Zaslow follows each bride and how she chooses her gown.

The subtitle, “A story about the love we wish for our daughters” doesn’t really say enough. The book is more about insights into marriage rather than stories about the dresses brides wear on their sacred day. You’ll read about several different woman, from one young woman who is not only waiting for marriage to have sex, but is waiting for marriage to have her first kiss to a 40-year-old never married woman and how she finally met Mr. Right.

The magic room comes into play at Becker’s Bridal shop, in the small town of Fowler, Michigan. “A town of 1,100 residents and 2,500 wedding dresses.“ Women try on several gowns and choose one to wear upstairs in the magic room where they will walk on emerald green carpet to the pedestal to see themselves among several mirrors and soft light. It’s where brides can see themselves in THE dress.

The shop is owned by Shelley Becker Mueller; third generation owner. Zaslow intertwines the bride’s stories with Shelley’s story of how she became a business woman and what it’s cost her to continue to run the store. Shelley’s worked at the shop since she was a young girl, leaving only for a few months to prove a point to her parents. There are great insights into American small businesses and what it takes to be successful – financial as well as work/life balance issues come into play in Shelley’s story.

The bridal stories aren’t just stories about giddy women who are head over heals in love and buying a wedding dress. There are lessons here.

The bride who is saving her kiss … her father took her on a trip for her sixteenth birthday where he asked her to think about her future husband. “What qualities do you think are nonnegotiable?” he asks. He gets his daughter to write down 10 traits, “beyond tall, dark and handsome.” This is an interesting idea that many parents could consider doing with their teenagers to help guide them toward someone who brings out the best in them

A favorite lessons from the book is from one mother who, “when her daughters bickered … wouldn’t send them to separate corners. She’d make them stand, face-to-face, their noses touching. In a minute or two, they’d be laughing, almost like teammates, and everything was better.”

The biggest lesson from “The Magic Room” is that it’s not about the dress, it’s not about the wedding. Shelley talks about how today’s bride walks “around with thick ‘wedding notebooks’ crammed with names, phone numbers, menus, gift registries. No one walks around with a thick notebook about how to prepare for a meaningful marriage.” So true.

Read all about “The Magic Room” at BlogHer Book Club.

Disclosure: This review is part of the BlogHer Book Club and I received compensation for this review.

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I feel like I have been neglecting this blog lately and it doesn’t feel very good. I have a thousand excuses as to why I haven’t written, but none of them seem good enough right now. As usual, I have tons of ideas and even several posts that I’ve photographed, but have to write up and edit before they can be “live” for you to see. I hope to get some time in the coming days to get back to blogging. It’s something I really love to do — I just let all of my “to dos” take over.

I hope that you have enjoyed your holidays this year and that you are working toward new things in 2012. Right now I’m relaxing and contemplating ways to streamline my blogging process (mainly with photo editing!) so that I can post more often. At this moment, I am printing a baklava recipe that I think I might try to make this week. I need a creative outlet that will get me in the spirit of writing and photographing. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

If you ever miss me here, you can always find me on Facebook.com/balancingmotherhood. I’ve been trying to keep up with that even if I haven’t made time to do full posts here. And, I am updating Facebook with blog posts once they are up so it’s another way to find out when something is current here.

I’ve had two people in the past few weeks write me and tell me they made one of my cakes … SO exciting for me! I love to hear that something I did inspired someone else.

Thanks for reading.

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