Sometimes knowing that other women, mothers, sisters, friends, and care takers just like us face the same battles of what to make for dinner. Be it our task/chore/burden/or hobby of what to make for our families to eat each day sometimes it just seem easier to bear when you have a good recipe recommended from a "GIRLFRIEND"; they provide us with the boost to get over the lack of motivation or stumbling blocks in our way and get dinner on the table!


The number of those who report that their “whole family usually eats dinner together” has declined 33 percent. This is most concerning because the time a family spends together “eating meals at home [is] the strongest predictor of children’s academic achievement and psychological adjustment.”

Family mealtimes have also been shown to be a strong bulwark against children’s smoking, drinking, or using drugs. There is inspired wisdom in this advice to parents: what your children really want for dinner is you.

Elder Dallin H. Oaks Good, Better, Best (Nov. 2007)

Two researchers at the University of Minnesota investigated the potential benefits of family mealtimes on children and found that families that dine together tend to have healthier, more well-adjusted children. Their studies indicate that the more often children and teens west with their parents—and the happier, more structured these mealtimes are—the more the children gain these benefits:


Better Nutrition

Better language and literacy

Fewer Eating Disorders

Fewer risky behaviors


The national center on addiction and substance abuse at Columbia University (sept 2005) found that compared with teens who dine frequently with their families (Five to seven dinners a week), teens who have fewer than three family dinners per week are:

Two and a half times likelier to smoke cigarettes

More than on e and a half times likelier to drink alcohol.

Almost three times likelier to try marijuana


“….Mealtime becomes a way for families to bond. To show children they have access to a caring adult.” (The Food Nanny Rescues Dinner p. 11)


So as Women, Sisters, Daughters, Wives, Mothers, Grandmothers we can not put a price on the work that we do. Dinner hours and menus can be daunting at times and others it feels like a breeze. As we gather together and share in our love for caring for our families and enjoying the connections we have with them as we sit around the dinner tables of our homes. I hope that each of us can step back occasionally on those hard mommy days and “Believe in what we are doing! Believing in who we are and that we can make a difference one meal at a time.

~ Jill


Thursday, October 22, 2015

Quick Fruit Salad

Growing up I loved when my mom would make her fresh fruit salad with whipping cream. It seemed like we had it mostly at large family gatherings. It was always a huge hit and everyone wanted to lick the bowl clean. I guess I wasn't the only one who loved mom's salad! Because I don't recall there being a set ingredients list to mom's salad all I do remember is the banana's, apples, pears, peaches, pineapple chunks and cream. I have just started adding all kinds of fresh fruits to ours.

Quick Fruit Salad- Jill Carpenter
2-4 Banana's
2 Golden Delicious Apples
1 Red Delicious Apple
Canned Peaches, Pears, and Pineapple (I use a homemade quart of fruit cocktail) 2 cups sliced Strawberries
1 8 oz container Cool Whip Free (or in my mom’s case real whipping cream)
Gently mix together in a large bowl, chill if necessary. If chilling is required I would recommend not slicing the banana's or strawberries into the mix until right before you serve the dish, so that they don't discolor or go soggy 
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