About Me
Glad you found me! And I hope you have learned a lot through this site already about keeping your home cooking :) I thought you may want to know a little about me to understand why I say the things I say, or do the things I do.
So many experiences throughout life shape and define a person. My life has been no different; I can look back and see that certain events truly shaped my future and made me see life differently. In fact, I can say I wouldn't be who I am today without those events. First and foremost, I am a Christ follower. **Don't stop reading if we differ on the above.**
My only son is the 18 year old. Here are some more recent pictures I love of my family :)
Becoming a mother is one of the greatest blessings of my life. I have always been a stay at home mom, and loved every minute of it. I consider parenting my kids to be the most significant ministry in my life. My kids bring me immeasurable joy and a deep satisfaction with my life. We home-schooled for 10 years; our oldest was a 10th grader when we came to the Philippines, and had never gone to traditional school. I loved homeschooling. I've spoken of this in parenting tips. Parenting Tips #2 Homeschooling gave us time with our kids that I will always cherish. It eliminated distractions and let me focus on parenting and teaching our children what we believed to be important in life. Homeschooling changed me and has forever affected my kids. I am a calmer person (some may say that's not true :) It helped me focus on what's important and to be pretty darn organized. Of course, we had our rough patches, but God used homeschooling to refine my character and my children's character. We are American missionaries living in the Philippines. We left the states in 2000 to serve as dorm parents at Faith Academy in Manila. Faith Academy is a wonderful school which started over 50 years ago with the sole purpose of educating the children of missionaries. Back before Faith Academy existed, missionaries were forced to leave their children in their home country because of limited schooling opportunities. Finally, the missionaries put their foot down and sought to start a school here. We are and my children are the benefactors of their pilgrimage. 80 students of the 600 enrolled at Faith Academy are boarding students, which means their parents live over 2 hours away from the school and they live in a dorm on or off the campus. We were dorm parents for 5 years and loved that ministry -- it was a privilege to come alongside missionary parents and share in their parenting efforts. Our largest dorm was with 16 high school boys and our 5 children; totaling a household of 23. I certainly needed to know how to organize and keep our home cooking :) The whole time was a blessing and we still consider those boys our "sons." One of them is technically my real son now as he married my oldest daughter last July 5th.
We are now living out of the dorm in a "suburb" -- for lack of a better word -- of Manila. Our younger two kids still go to Faith -- our 3rd graduated May 2009. My oldest daughter is a Registered Nurse, and my 2nd is in her senior year of nursing. We are still involved at Faith Academy as dorm advocates for the dorm students; my husband has coached boys and girls basketball; I have worked in the library and taught swimming lessons. We now serve the urban poor teaching and creating livelihood, and mentoring pastors and their congregations. 
Living in a third world country makes us subject to all its imperfections -- corruption, pollution, filth, power interruptions, intestinal parasites, tuberculosis and other tropical diseases. But for us, we can't imagine life elsewhere -- it's where God has planted us and we feel at home here. In many ways, because of our life experience; we don't "fit" anymore stateside. Don't get me wrong; when we are there, I love it! Everything is so clean and beautifully landscaped; they have clean bathrooms everywhere -- it's amazing! I love that we have fewer distractions here -- some may look at it as lack of opportunity, but we don't. We see it as a more simple life. Even though we live out of the country, I love the United States. I think living out of the U.S. has helped me appreciate its greatness. As Americans, we are truly blessed. It really is the greatest nation and I'm proud to be an American. America provides so much opportunity for its people. A poor person can get financial aid and get an education; but in a third world, that opportunity doesn't exist. Third world countries have no welfare system; they do nothing to help their poor, and the poor have no voice. It is a tragedy to the gravest proportions. Of course there are things we miss -- I miss clean streets, and cool weather :) When I was home just a month ago, I started watching cooking shows -- I love them!! You guys are so lucky :) I think I might be addicted to them if I lived stateside. But generally, we don't miss the "things", and there are wonderful replacements here -- simplicity, family time, ministry and friendships. A few more stats about me: I have been happily married to the same man for almost 28 years.
I try to avoid pictures of myself 100% of the time. So, on the rare chance I am photographed, I like to be hidden behind others or camouflaged in some way :) I am dangerously close to the half century mark in age. I have a Bachelor's degree in Home Economics, and when we were dorm parents, I called myself a "professional mother." I love talking and fellowship with family and friends. I love cooking and grocery shopping. I love perusing over cookbooks, and making yummy food. I enjoy simplicity in cooking, and I hope you'll see that in the recipes on this site. I enjoy entertaining. I love order and organization always came easy to me; it just made sense. As a rule, I enjoy exercising, but that can get sidetracked easily I'm afraid. When I do exercise, I enjoy walking and swimming laps. I love to decorate and make anywhere we live a home. I hope this gives you a glimpse of who I am, and I look forward to getting to know you. Blessings, Julie :) Back to Home page from About Me 
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