Soup's On 

February 4th is National Homemade Soup Day, and I'm ready to celebrate. I love a good, bowl of hot soup on a cold, wintry day or in air conditioning. In a recent cold snap, my husband even asked for a meal of soup. He's not the big soup fan that I am, often saying he'd prefer a heavier meal. Soup is also usually a safe choice in an unknown restaurant when I'm traveling. I'll never forget the delicious bowl of minestrone I had for lunch in a quaint village inn in Ireland
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Soups and stews were also common in earlier times. These dishes were more manageable than most other menu choices, when cooking in a fireplace  allowed the homemaker to complete other tasks while the meal cooked. I use them often in writing my historical novels, whether they're set in the South, the Appalachian Mountains, Pennsylvania, Wyoming, England, or some other location. 

Interestingly, soups are thought to date back to at least 20,000 BC. They came about as soon as man had waterproof containers, which were likely clay pots at first. Since that beginning, however, soups have become more varied and diverse. At first, they used the locally available ingredients. Today, there are so many varieties of soup it would be difficult to list them all. Nearly every culture has favorites. So, for National Homemade Soup Day today, why don't you pull out your favorite soup recipe and celebrate? Here is one to get you started:

Black Bean Soup

3 cans black beans
1/2 c. beef broth
1/2 c. water
1 sm. can crushed tomatoes or tomato sauce
1 small onion
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped finely 
1/2 tsp. garlic
(optional - 1 sm. pkg frozen corn for variety)

Saute onion and pepper. Add corn if desired and cook until all three are tender. Combine ingredients. Salt and pepper to taste. Simmer just long enough to allow flavors to mix. Other ingredients can be added, as well or instead, so experiment. Rice also works well in black bean soup. Enjoy!

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Remarkable Faith

So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God (Romans 19:17).

Habakkuk is a good study in faith. As the prophet dealt with the tremendous problems of his day, his faith grew. Our faith always grows much more in the hard times than it does when things are going smoothly. Faith is a lifestyle of devoted, expectant living.
Studying God's Word and praying pulls us closer to Him, and all of it grows our faith. As Warren Wiersbe writes in Be Amazed, "We are not only saved by faith, but we are instructed to live by faith."

That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God (1 Corinthians 2:5).

If you read the book of Habakkuk, you'll see many parallels to today. The people were making poor choices and ignoring God. They were turning elsewhere to get answers and help. Much of the time, they arrogantly trusted themselves to furnish what they wanted and desired. Temporary pleasures began to take president over any faith they'd been taught. They were puffed up with pride and self-sufficiency and thought their nation was invincible, but they were headed for trouble and downfall.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1).

Faith is a remarkable thing and should keep growing throughout our lifetime. It continues to hope no matter how bleak things seem by focusing on God who never changes. Faith puts God as a priority so far ahead of anything else, all other things pale in significance. Faith gives us a purpose that circumstances will not change. As Wiersbe says, "To live by faith means to believe in God's Word and obey it no matter how we see, or what the consequences may be."

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Appalachian Dialect

I grew up in Appalachia, as did my parents and relatives. It is a culture I know well, and five of my inspirational novels are set there. Going to college, teaching, and giving many presentations over the years, I've been very aware of my Appalachian speech patterns and been discriminated against because of them. Perhaps, in some small way, this played into why I became a writer. I might not have a general American accent when I speak, but on paper, it's not noticeable.

There is some truth in the fact that Appalachian speech has retained more of the ancient British vocabulary than other places. For years, people who lived there were isolated, and the rugged, mountainous terrain helped with this. However, to say that it is like Chaucer's or Elizabethan English would be a great exaggeration. Language is fluid and always changing. Still, there're plenty of words in common use in the Southern Appalachians that can be traced back to Shakespeare's day or before. For example, a university English course I took on some early English plays had the word "flyflapper" in one. None of my classmates knew what it meant, but my mother had always used it. It's a fly swatter.

Some other such words are britches (pants), poke (bag), sallet (greens like kale or mustard), afeared (afraid), backward (shy or slow to learn), counterpin (bedspread, counterpane), directly (soon, in a little while), falling out (disagreement, grudge), far-fetched (unreasonable), frolic (party, celebration), hanker (yearn, desire), heyday (a period of popularity), hobble (walk with a limp), ignoramus (an ignorant, uneducated person), lambasted (attacked, often verbally), liable (apt to, likely), looking glass (mirror), nigh (close; nearly), piddle (dawdle, do something at a leisurely pace), pilfer (underhandedly steal), plunder (ramble through goods), pone (swollen knot on the body; cake of bread), sheepish (meek, timid), sot (a drunk), tickled (pleased), and many more. Of course, there are differences in pronunciation, too, but that's a whole other article.

Nursing Home Reform

One neglected area desperately needing reform in our country is senior care. I had always thought a nursing home facility would be the best option when I aged to the point I needed the extra care. That is until my mother ended up in such a facility. What an eye-opener! These are inhumane holding tanks until death comes. Our senior citizens deserve better.

Reform is going to have to begin at the top level, because the social security system locks in what most people can afford. Senior care living facilities outside the social security system often cost around $10,000 a month, a sum few can afford. If someone goes into a care facility for rehabilitation, a temporary stay, the person is given a private room and plenty of attention. Those who go into long-term care have a roommate and less space than a small hospital room. There's little space for personal items, and they must content with whatever problems the roommate has. This seems backwards to me.

Because sleep is so difficult when surrounded by others, the patients are medicated at night, and if they show any signs of restlessness or discontent, they are likely also medicated during the day. If someone did this to infants to keep them content, they would be sent to prison, and yet we do it to our elderly. Too often, the attitude seems to be these people aren't going to get any better, so they need to die as soon as possible, instead of trying to make their last days as pleasant as possible. When they need help, they are often neglected, not because the caregivers are so cruel, but because there's not enough staff to take care of everyone's needs. If they need help to get to the bathroom, they're diapered, a humiliating experience.

Therefore, I raise the call for reform and hope you will join me. The system has dictated so much of what we see today; the system needs changing. It will take people who care working together, but it's desperately needed and something we can do.

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Give God Your Best

And he shall offer his offering unto the Lord, one he lamb of the first year without blemish for a brunt offering, and one ewe lamb of the first year without blemish for a sin offering, and one ram without blemish for peace offerings (Numbers 6: 14).

Over and over again God told the Israelites to give Him their best. We should do the same. Even our best is less than He deserves. We should tithe first, before we pay any of our other bills, not give to the church out of what we have left over after we take care of our needs. 

Verily, verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it to the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me (Matthew 25:40).

Our best includes how we treat others. Jesus said, what we do to the least of these, we do unto him. Anger, bitterness, complaining, temper,or moodiness has no place in the life of a Christian. How we treat others is how we're treating our Lord. He will help you overcome any problems in character if you ask and let Him work in you.

In like manner also, that women adorn in modest apparel (1 Timothy 2:9a).

We should dress in some of our best clothes to honor Him when we go into His house. If ragged  jeans is our best, that is fine. Our hearts matter more than what we wear. However, we should dress to please God, not to please man. That does mean not dressing provocatively or being too showy. "Christians" represent Christ, and we should be conscious to do this well.

What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you,  which we have of God, and ye are not your own? (1 Corinthians 6:19).

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Pardon Audible

I am happy to announce that Pardon, the last book in The Farmers trilogy, is finally out on audible. This makes all three books (Promise, Peace, and Pardon) available in print, ebooks, and audible. It has taken longer than I expected because we started work on it in June and finished in December, but it has taken ACX a month to review and release it, which is much longer than any of my others. 

I am pleased with the job Jerry Kyle Jones has done in narrating and producing this audible. He is a voice actor and radio personality who lives in Georgia with his wife and five children. He says, "I have always had a passion for performing and using my God-given talents to entertain people." His performances have won numerous awards, including the 2017 GABBY award from the Georgia Association of Broadcasters for excellence in broadcasting. He does a fantastic job with the black dialects in Pardon and with varying his voice for the different characters. He was easy to work with and very responsive to any messages I sent. I hope he and I can work together on another book sometime in the near future.

I chose different narrators for each book in this series to represent the different main characters. In Pardon, everyone's story is wrapped up, although this book is mainly Kevin's story. Knowing that he’s about to be taken back into the foster care system, he runs away to live on the streets. He sees himself as the outcast anyway, because his brother and sister are the perfect ones while he’s always struggled. Things go well to start with, but he soon learns firsthand how dangerous the streets can be. Along the way, he has to confront his own prejudices, and he comes to realize he’s had a distorted view in the past. Life is full of surprises, and Kevin will face his share of them as he moves into his future. As with all my books, Pardon can also be read as a standalone.

As a reward to my blog readers, I will gift a code for a free copy of any one of the audible books in The Farmers series to the first several ones requesting it. Just email me at janicecolehopkins@gmail.com. Please leave an Amazon review if you enjoy it. You can check them out on the books tab here or on Amazon.

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Black History

I majored in history for my undergraduate degree in college, and minority history has always held a special place in my heart, but I found most schools didn't teach it. In a day when the social studies curriculum rarely included any black history, I taught it - not just the better known figures like Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, or Dr. Martin Luther King - but also the often lesser known ones, such as Charles Drew, Garrett Morgan, Daniel Williams, etc.

In my community, the African-American churches did a pretty good job of teaching the children some black history. However, I wanted the white children to also know and appreciate this heritage. Even when schools started teaching black history during the month of February, I didn't think that was enough. I wanted to integrate it into all the periods of history I taught, so I incorporated into the regular curriculum throughout the year.

What worries me today is that we're not only regressing in the teaching of black history, but history is rarely being taught in any meaningful way in a large number of schools, especially elementary and middle schools. It's been pushed aside to emphasize math, reading, science, and technology. This will most likely lead to more problems for our government and nation as its citizens have less and less of a background or foundation to understand the important concepts or the mistakes of the past. I think we're already beginning to see some of this.

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