Cheri Strange, Christian Speaker and Author

        It’s November. YIKES! As a wife and mother to four daughters ages 12- 5, November – December are stressful and exhausting. There is too much to do in too little time. The pressure takes its toll on my attitude and my actions.

        One tiny part of the season I have learned to control before it controls me is forward dinner thinking. The last week of October through the first week of November or so, I prepare meals for later while I’m getting dinner on the table now. I love Taste of Home magazine because they also produce those little recipe books with pictures on every page on the check-out isle for about $5.

        Recently I picked one up filled with Freezer Meals. You buy the ingredients once; make one for dinner tonight and another to put away in the freezer for another time. So far, I have made three of the recipes: a chicken potpie, southwestern chili, and a shepherd’s pie. For the next week or so I’ll shoot for making three more different ones. That will give me six prepared meals in the freezer -- made in the same amount of time it takes me to make dinner any night. Nights are coming when I don’t have time to even think of what we might eat, get to the store to buy the ingredients, and then prepare it and cook it.

        The normal alternatives for making mealtime less stressful are to eat out, pick up fast food, or purchase a pre-prepared meal from the grocery store. These alternatives compromise our diets and our wallets. This season, I know I’m going to need to get meals ready in a hurry. I’m not going to have time to think about what I could fix and whether or not I have everything at home. I need to help myself find ways to remain joy-filled and courteous. Frustrations with fall meal providing steals my joy and kind words. Making meals NOW takes a little stress and bad behavior out of my life later. It’s just another way to change what could be an ordinary response during the hustle and bustle of the holidays into an extraordinary one.