Monday: A Blanket!

You may remember that I wrote about our little Judah back in November.  Judah is the fifth child of my nephew and his wife.  He gave us quite the scare when he got here.  God worked some very large miracles and Young Master Judah was HOME for Thanksgiving.

Judah's baby blanket needed to be different from others I have made.  I decided that Judah needed a Blessing Blanket.  What, you might ask, is a Blessing Blanket?  It's a blanket with verses of blessing and promises for Judah from different friends and family who have been praying for him.

Judah's Nana and Grandaddy started helping me contact folks in the extended family and before too long I had 26 folks who had sent in a verse (or two) (or six) to be included.  We had even had verses from Africa and South America.  His great-grandmother included a verse that was the favorite of his great-grandfather who had died in May.  Yeah, I got teary every time I worked on that one! 

I started working on this the week after Thanksgiving.  I hoped to be done by the end of the year.  Last year.  Oh well.  I finished the cross stitch part early last week.  To be perfectly honest I could have continued with embellishments until he graduated from college, but at some point you have to just say, "I'm done".

To those of you who contributed a verse for this, thank you, thank you, thank you!  I can not tell you how much it means to me to have been able to include so many folks in this.  It is my prayer that every time Judah and his parents see and touch this blanket, they feel surrounded by God's mercy and love, and that they understand that this is just a small representation of all the folks who have prayed over him and them.

Now for those of you who have been waiting to see the final pictures:

 

The middle has his full name, date and place of birth, and a picture of a lion.  Because this blog is public, I am not including a close-up of that information.  If you would like to see it, please feel free to contact me.

The View From My Kitchen Window: February 4, 2014

After the thaw and before the next storm.

Winter drags on...

 

 ...but there's hope!

 

Childhood Traumas

My friend Rixie did a great post recently about why she does not wear lipstick.

She asked the question what traumas we mothers had unknowingly inflicted upon our children.

Boy, do I ever have a doozie!

When Mr. Marvelous Jr. was a very little guy the movie Lion King came out.  We took his best friend to the theater and watched it up on the big screen.  I hustled them out for popcorn at the crucial moment (they were only 4 at the time).

Lion King became the overwhelming passion at our house.  We had a stuffed Simba (and still do), a Lion King plastic glass from Burger King (and still do).  We had Simba this and Mufasa that and every Happy Meal at every fast-food joint had LION KING toys.  That birthday and Christmas were all about the Lion King toys.  One of his favorites was a little Pride Rock that opened up and had the characters stowed away inside that could be placed in appropriate places around the Pride Rock.  The house was filled with Lion King toys and music.

One day, little Junior came out of his room, walked over to me, looked me in the eye and asked, "Mommy, what's pride?".  Oh joy, a teachable moment!!  I don't think I pulled the Westminster Confession and Larger (or even Shorter) Catechisms off the shelf, but I dove into the theological nuances and Biblical references of that sin.  Throughout the discourse (which seemed brief to me and overly long to certain other folks in the house), his little eyes got bigger and bigger.  The understanding of the seriousness of the sin seemed to be settling in to his little heart.  I could see that my vast wisdom and insightful instruction were paying off.  I was overjoyed!  I was doing my job!  And doing it really, really well, I might add.

As I wrapped up (can you see where this is going?  because I couldn't at the time), I utilized that strategy that we professional teachers and mothers know to use because We Have A College Degree In Education.  I asked him if he understood and if he had any questions. 

"Oh.  So Pride Rock is bad?" he asked, with tears in his eyes. 

And he never played with that little set again. 

Walkabout Wednesday: 2013 Totals

November and December brought a series of unexpected challenges.  I had much more important things to think about than tracking walking data.  Family First! 

While I always, always wear my pedometer, it only holds a week's worth of totals at a time.  If I don't write those totals down, they are lost.  It is tempting at times to just average out totals and figure, "Oh, I must have walked x.xx miles that day" (and I may even have done that once or twice).  However I try to keep from doing that.  It's not accurate and ~ for me anyway ~ it's not honest.  I have an annoying tendency to over-state.  So while I probably put in well over 100 miles for the month of December, I only wrote down 24.14 miles.  Since I haven't shared the November totals yet, that was a more respectable 101.45 miles.  My grand total for 2013 was 974.18 miles (remember that I did not track until April) and my grand total is therefore 1939.04 miles.  Yippee!! 

Keeping track of this gets me into a cycle which makes me want to keep track of this.  It's an "auto-reward" kind of loop.  I did fair with keeping up with January and so far have not missed a day of February. 

So where am I?

I made it to the Grand Canyon and have been walking through there.  I am currently west of the Colorado River and more than half-way between the South Rim of the Grand Canyon (Grand Canyon Village) and the Hoover Dam.  My plan is to walk/raft down the river to the dam, once I get to the vicinity of South Bay where the river broadens out. 

I'm hopeful that the auto-reward-loop will kick in for 2014.  Pacific Ocean, here I come!

The View From My Kitchen Window: January 28-29 2014

Winter Comes to Alabama!

  

 

 

 

 

 

Monday Memories: Winter Surprise!

I have always lived in the southeast.  I like it here.  I wouldn't mind living someplace like Wyoming or Montana (for some reason those states have always appealed to me, both the geography and my perception of the philosophy of the people who live there) but I have always lived in the southeast.  Because I have always lived here, I tend to get excited about winter.

A couple of weeks ago we had a surprise here in Alabama.  On Sunday Mr. Marvelous took off to fly to Northern Wisconsin for a week of company training.  We anxiously watched the weather forecasts for that area and quickly ordered a balaclava for him (the beard doesn't cover the whole face).  We packed all his warmest clothing and he packed a small suitcase with things like hat, scarf, gloves, and very warm (and very bulky) coat for him to put on once he got there.  Then we looked at the forecast for our area.  Being Mr. Marvelous, he was distressed that the weather was going to be cold and I would have to take care of the outdoor animals on my own.  I reassured him that all would be well, thanked him for his concern, and sent him on his way.

I started watching the forecasts for our local weather.  I noticed that while the local forecasting guru was predicting a few cold days with maybe a dusting of snow, Accuweather was consistently predicting 1-3 inches of snow.  Hmm.

Tuesday morning Mr. Marvelous Jr. got up and drove in to work.  I was sitting here minding my own business when I glanced out the window: SNOW!!  Yippee!  We were going to get our dusting after all!

My little bunnies didn't quite know what to think of it....

....but the chickens got into the spirit of things.  They kept chasing the flakes and eating them.

 

They maybe aren't the brightest, but they know how to have fun!

It kept snowing.

And kept snowing.

And the temperatures stayed in the 20s, in spite of what the local weather guru said.

And it kept on snowing.

And our little road began to look like this.


That's a VERY steep hill by the way; my little truck can barely make it up in 2nd gear if I get a running start.






In a little while it began to look like this

And before too long our little road started to look like this

Uh-oh.  Mr. Marvelous Jr. was still in town at work!











He called me that afternoon.  They started sending people home from his office a little after 11.  He was going to try to get to the house.  It took him almost four hours to drive not quite a mile.  In the end, he had to abandon the jeep in a parking lot (along with most everyone else who didn't just leave their cars on the road...and most people did), and walk 2.9 miles to his uncle's house.  Who was delighted to have his company because his aunt was also stranded.  For two days!

He did manage to get home late Wednesday afternoon but that's another story.  Let's just say I was surprised.  And his jeep was sad.

Poor little jeep just couldn't quite make it the last few feet!  

At the end of the snow, and before things started melting Thursday (only to re-freeze Thursday night of course), I did manage to grab a few more pictures.

 

The chickens had gotten tired of running around trying to eat the snow by this time.  Plus the bunnies were making fun of them.

Our neighbors from Michigan had no trouble parking at the bottom of the hill and walking up.  Bless their hearts, they were a little confused by all the fuss!

 We discovered some visitors.

 And to me there is nothing prettier than a cedar in the snow.

Oh yes, Mr. Marvelous?  Well it did get VERY cold up there.  It snowed a little bit.  The folks there yawned and kept on going.  He had a time getting to the airport Saturday morning though.  They had near-blizzard conditions and since they had to be on the road around 3 am, the plows and trucks hadn't gotten out to do their thing quite yet.  But they made it safely to the airport and got home Saturday noon.  By which time we had absolutely no snow on the ground at all.  Because this is Alabama!

The View From My Kitchen Window in December: Catching Up!

December 4, 2013

Nana's Scone Recipe (For Rixie)

Our culture has changed so dramatically over the past twenty years.  While I often fuss about Modern Technology and the way we seem to be so wired-in to our technology, there are some terrific benefits.

There is a lady in North Georgia who is my friend.  Rixie has been a great friend to me since we met in a Yahoo! group ~ yes, that's on the computer ~ about eight years ago.  We have met in person one time.  We correspond via facebook almost every day.  I have watched her children grow into some pretty impressive young folks.  She and I pray for each other through our similar health issues.  We share some common quirks and interests.  I have quoted her and linked to her blog several times.  I am always impressed with her gifts as a mother, a supportive wife, and an encouraging friend to more folks than I think she realizes.

So while I am not often a huge fan of technology, I am thankful for the technology that has allowed me to meet and get to know this lady and her family.

This is the scone recipe I promised her:

Nana's Scones

2 c. flour
1/4 c. sugar
1 t. salt
2 t. baking powder
1/2 c. Crisco
1 egg
1/4 c. milk (more or less)
as many raisins as make you happy

Sift together flour, sugar, salt and baking powder.  Cut in fat with a fork or a pastry cutter until mixture is nice and crumbly.  Add well-beaten egg and raisins.  Mix in "enough" milk to make this the consistency of a biscuit or slightly thinner (don't you just love directions like that?!).
Roll out to about 1 inch thick and cut out.  You may bake at 375 for about 15 minutes (keep an eye on them), or you may cook in a lightly greased skillet on the stove on medium heat for about 10 minutes on the first side and 5 minutes on the second side.

This is making me hungry; I'm off to the kitchen to make a batch!

I realized after posting that it has been a while since I have made these so I thought I ought to do a quick run-through.  Here are a few notes.  1.  I added more sugar.  What can I say?  I like things a little sweeter   2.  The dough really does need to be the consistency of biscuit dough.  While I don't roll biscuits out (I just pat them into the size and shape I want in my hand), if they are too thin they are sticky and take longer to cook.  3.  I bake biscuits and such on a cast-iron skillet in the oven.  If you do this, you will need to turn them about half-way through the cooking so that they don't burn on the bottom ~ remember that cast-iron gets pretty hot in the oven!  4.  Lots of butter when you pull them out of the oven.  That's a must!  

NOTE: I realize that folks in the UK tend to make their dough for scones thin to the point of almost pourable. Mom's family were all from Canada so I suppose that explains the difference.  The kind that are poured into a scone mold are completely different; more of a pancake than a biscuit.

Culture of Fear?

My sister and I were talking via email this morning about the latest stories about General Gates' new book and the fall of Fallujah.  It got me thinking...

I keep thinking about the difference between our generation and our parents' generation.  In our parents' day ~ WWII ~ the country mourned when a city that "our boys"  had fought so hard to take and keep fell.  I really thought that after 9-11 we had finally recovered from Vietnam and learned to support and love our protectors again.  But when we have such a lack of leadership in government, I guess we shouldn't be surprised.  Yeah, I'm pretty upset about it.  Angry and sad.  I wish I could say that I'm confused by all this but I'm too cynical to be confused. 

It was interesting reading the news this morning; I had a bit of an epiphany.  I make myself at least look at the headlines on Drudge Report and then read through the big stories on Fox News once a day.  I don't enjoy the process, but I do it.  I realized that not only have we become a culture who allow the media to shape our views and our emotions, we are allowing the media to generate desired emotional responses in us and thus create a culture of fear.  Think about what you hear and read on the news.  There are so many stories that we would have been ignorant of 20 years ago.  Not that they are not important, we just did not have access to this volume of news.  These news stories are being reported in a way to create fear even among educated Christians.  Interesting to think about.  If I allow myself to have fear as my primary emotion, what does that do to me?  Not that I think I need to be an ostrich and go stick my head in the sand and ignore what is going on around me, but how much do I allow the emotions that are created in response to these things to control me?  The media ~ even the conservative media ~ uses news as a stimulus to create a desired response from their readers/listeners.  I think ~ I know! ~ I need to stop allowing them to have that kind of control over me. 

Don't get me wrong; I'm still pretty furious about the Gates story that is coming out.  I think that the way our military is being used by the current administration is wrong.  I think that the things that are happening to them are tragic.  I think that we are losing many, many good people in not backing them up, and through leaving them unprotected.  I think that the way they are being treated is keeping some terrific young people from deciding that this is how they want to spend their lives.  When the military (and law enforcement) becomes a political tool instead of a group of folks committed to protecting and serving those who need help, their purpose changes and they are weakened as an institution. 

 

How do we respond, then?  How are God's people supposed to react to these things and keep our responses controlled by HIM instead of by someone else?  It goes back to focus and priorities and world view.  I have to filter all of this news through a perspective that is founded on Biblical truth.  I know that sounds like empty Christian-ese but let me explain how that has changed me over the past few months.  

 

I spent the fall reading through the histories of the Old Testament; Joshua, Judges, Samuels, Kings and Chronicles.  I re-discovered that the world is not that much different now than it was several thousand years ago.  God's people had horrible, depraved men in political control.   This was God's country designed to be a theocracy and it was totally corrupt.  In many ways it was worse than what we see around us here and now.  The remnant of those who were faithful to God did not have the comfort of the Old Testament to read, let alone the New Testament.  I wonder how often they spent their days putting one foot in front of the other and with grim determination making themselves remember "Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God, The Lord is One"  

 

When I spend more time each day reading and studying "news" that is fashioned by men and women, and less time reading and studying "news" from God, then these men and women are shaping the way I think.  They now have control not only over my thoughts but also my emotions.  However if I spend more time in studying my Bible and talking to God and listening to Him, then He controls how I respond to everything else that I hear and see.  Instead of being fearful about the state of the world, I am confident that God is still in control.  More than that, I am even more aware of His power over all of it!  When that happens I can read the news and go from being someone who is bowed down by the fear and depression of the times to someone with her head up and confidence in the goodness and authority of God.

 

My friend Tammy characterizes this so well.  Tammy is very well educated about what is going on in the world but I never come away from a conversation with her thinking about what is going on in the world. Instead I come away with a renewed sense of Who God Is.  Because Tammy is diligent in her obedience to what God tells her to do, she is able to be an incredible encouragement to everyone she meets.

 

 

That's what I want to be like.  May God give me the grace to focus on HIM today.  May He use me for His glory to encourage, help and strengthen His people.

Monday Morning Memories: Snow Days!

My memories are my memories.  I'm sure that there are inaccuracies and that others remember the same event differently than I do.  But these are the stories as I remember them.

Photo Courtesy of City Data: Taylors, SC

It seems that every year was a snowy year when I was growing up in Greenville, South Carolina.  Every snow day started the same way.  There was the breathless anticipation as we sat by the radio listening to the news and the weather report.  Surely we wouldn't have to go to school; didn't the superintendent see that it was a BLIZZARD out there?!  Mom insisted that we have breakfast while we waited and there was a certain protocol to snow day breakfasts.  We grew up with Mom in the home.  Furthermore, Mom was a retired nurse of the old school.  Therefore, nutrition was a big deal in our family.  So snowy days we always had hot cereal (cold cereal was reserved for the week at the beach in the summer when the rules were relaxed), either oatmeal or Cream of Wheat.  Trust me, it tasted worse than it sounds.

Eventually the call would come over the radio: NO SCHOOL!!  Hurray!!!!

As soon as we were done with breakfast (and not a minute before!), the cage doors were opened and away we went out the door.  Coat? check.  Hat?  check.  Extra socks? check.  Boots?  check.  Gloves?  Gloves??  Mittens???  Anything?????  OK, grab a pair of Dad's socks, pull them over the hands and let's get going. 

First we had to walk through the yard, leaving our tracks.  Of course we had to lay down while we were leaving tracks, so that we could make some snow angels.  Then the five of us would grab the sled and take off.  For a while we would be content to use the sled down the driveway beside the house.  It was one of those old-fashioned kinds of driveways made of two parallel strips of concrete.  The hill wasn't that steep, but it worked.  When we got bored with that hill we would trudge a few doors down to Elm Street and then we would take off.  If we did it just right, we could ride all the way to Grove Road.  Then we would hop off and line up tallest to smallest (I was always at the end of the line) and march back up the hill with the sled on our heads.

As the day wore on, we would venture into other snowy day activities.  Snowman building, snowball fights, face washing, etc.  There would be frequent trips into the house for refreshment.  We were the envy of the neighborhood because our mother made real cocoa; not just envelopes of hot chocolate mix. 

I don't know what West Prentiss Avenue looks like these days, but when we were growing up the tree was lined with oak trees on each side.  You could stand at the top of the street up near Augusta Road and look down and it was as if you were looking through a tunnel of immense, stately trees.   When the trees were snowy and the road was snowy, it was a picture that Thomas Kincaid could not replicate. 

Sometimes these days, when I find myself wishing for snow, I start a search on the computer for pictures upstate of South Carolina in the snow.  I always seem to be looking for a snowy road that is lined with a tunnel of trees.  I've found a lot of beautiful, amazing pictures.  But none of them ever quite match the pictures I carry in my heart of West Prentiss Avenue, Greenville, South Carolina.