She riseth also while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household,and a portion to her maidens. Proverbs 31:15

Once again I am reminded of my mother in this verse. I believe that every morning of the 18 years I lived in her home, she got up early and made a hot breakfast. There were homemade biscuits at least 2 meals a day. We always had biscuits or cornbread for every meal. She had to cook for 9 of us so that meant a lot of biscuit making. She also, feed any friends we happen to bring home, and with 7 kids that was sometimes 7 additional people. We would often have family members who were less fortunate than we were over for dinner. We lived on a busy road and I can't count the number of times people would "break down" in front of our house and she would feed them. One family in particular broke down in our driveway at least 3 times that I remember and they were fed every time they broke down.

We were not a rich family by any means, I would not have even considered us middle class. Mama and Daddy grew most of what we ate. They worked really hard to keep us fed. Mama spent most of the summer canning and freezing. We would usually butcher a hog and chickens every year. So even in hard times we had food to eat. I never remember being hungry or not knowing where my next meal was coming from.

We didn't have a lot of snacks and very few desserts. She would by one bunch of bananas a week and that usually meant one banana each. There would be a cake or cupcakes occasionally, but not very often.

This verse could be a description of my mother. Now days lots of women are too hurried to cook a meal, kids eat more fast food than I could have ever imagined. A hot breakfast is a thing of the past unless they get it at school. I work outside the home now, but I didn't when my children were little, and I must confess they only got a hot breakfast on Saturdays. But I have changed that. I usually make a hot breakfast for my husband. I cook dinner most nights and make our lunches every day. But, the portion to my maidens, I must work on. I really don't have any maidens but there are people I could be more generous with, Food banks I could donate to. I will be working on this for sure.

Mae