These Three Remain

Heat....Poetry Friday

2009-12-11T08:11:00.007-07:00

The desert of Snow Canyon, near St. George Utah (taken in October 2009)

Heat

This is your
forty years
in the
desert
this dusty path
is the
Sinai
of your wandering
this sand
between your toes
is the sand
that wears down
callouses of slavery
this dry sun
is the
heat
that burns off
fear and indecision
this strange bread
is the
manna
that feeds your soul
that builds your strength
that sets your resolve
as you
stumble
into the
promised land

One of the most beautiful trees I've seen...also in Snow Canyon

It's been awhile since I joined in the group at High Calling Blogs for poetry on Friday....Today they're talking about snow, and here I am thinking about desert's heat! Also check out LL Barkat's blog for weekly poetry prompts...she has a beautiful photo of frosty trees there that makes me appreciate the snow and cold all over again!

Gratitude Journal, Puppy Edition

2009-12-09T14:06:00.008-07:00

2 Samuel 22:47 The LORD lives! Praise be to my Rock! Exalted be God, the Rock, my Savior!

Gratitude Journal, how I've missed you! So many blessings to be thankful for....

The Puppy Edition!

239. The wonder of birth...

240. That God made dogs so amazing!

241. Tiny little pink noses

142. All nine, so soft and silky

143. First puppy kisses

144. How fast they grow!

145. A good mother dog

146. Three-quarters of a dozen tiny, happy puppy tails

147. Playful puppy moments

148. Learning new things daily

149. Meeting and getting to know nine new puppy owners

150. Practicing loving, care-giving, and letting go.

More Making Christmas...Felt Food and Craft Links

2009-12-03T19:08:00.013-07:00

Another favorite last year was the felt food project. There is a world of wonderful crafts and sewing projects to be found at YouCanMakeThis.com. These felt cookies and cinnamon buns were make from a pattern we found there. They also have a great pattern for a three layered cake and brownies complete with frosting, decorations, and pans. Other felt projects include some fun felt doll houses, a Noah's Ark and animals, and various other play food items. If you'd rather crochet, they also have a variety of patterns for crocheted animals and other toys.

The felt food was simple to make and the supplies were very inexpensive. They don't require much sewing skill, but they do require some patience (and I don't recommend finishing this project at 2:00 a.m. Christmas morning!) The cookies are simple shapes with the frosting sewn on top. The beads took awhile to sew on, so plan ahead for that. The sweet rolls are tubes made with tan and brown felt, stuffed and rolled into buns. Their frosting is a drizzle of white fabric paint, and the pans are made with gray felt lined with stiff interfacing. The set also comes with a darling hot-pad, spatula, and container of sprinkles (not shown here). I thought about this too late, but if you wanted you could even add some cinnamon or vanilla scent to the stuffing in these faux treats and make them even more fun to play with!

Here are some links for you for felt toys:

Sweet Rolls and Cookies
Doll House with Furniture
Brownies and Cake Set
Noah's Ark Animal Set
Noah's Ark (the boat)

Kids love to make gifts! You will be amazed at how making a gift and carefully keeping it a secret until Christmas morning will give a child a true appreciation of the joy of giving. Here are a few ideas...

A fun book of soft toys to sew, knit or crochet. These projects are wacky and fun, and the sewing projects can be made by hand with felt (easy for kids to work with). This book can be found new or used on Amazon, just follow this link!

Softies Only a Mother Could Love (image from Amazon)

What about a baking project? These cute little pies are made in a tiny canning jar, and make darling gifts for teachers, friends, and family. Have a baking day and let your kids create several types of tiny pie, then pop a lid on them and put them in the freezer. Before you give them away, put baking instructions on a pretty tag and a nice scrap of festive cloth over the ring-top....the lucky recipients can put the tiny tarts in the freezer to eat later, or bake them up right away for Christmas dinner! Find the recipe and some photos at the Not Martha blog, here is the link to the pie post. Don't the little pies look tasty?

Mini pies-in-a-jar....MMMM! (Images from the Not Martha blog)

Thanksgiving (a post from the archives)

2009-11-26T14:29:00.002-07:00

A Post from the archives...Youngest will turn seven tomorrow, this year her birthday won't be on Thanksgiving but I think this post is still appropriate.

Youngest Child is a Thanksgiving baby. Her birthday, November 27th, falls every five years on Thanksgiving...her first birthday was celebrated among cornucopia centerpieces and the scent of pumpkin pie, and this year her sixth will also be.

This Youngest child, Thanksgiving gift, is a whirlwind. Spark-eyed and fairy faced, her gold curls bounce along as she embraces her world. Every sight, every sound, every piece of God's creation is something to hold, touch, smell, feel, experience. She is luminous, alive, in constant motion.

Third children, my midwife told us as we embarked on the journey that is Rachel, are special. Every child, she laughed, should be the third. We couldn't know what she meant, that day in very early Spring when she was just beginning. Third child? We were nervous. Could we really handle it? Three children meant one too few adults, being outnumbered, shifting the balance of our family. Eldest and Middle Child were happy, comfortable, and...potty trained. The crib was back in storage, the maternity clothing had been passed down. Third Child? We worried that the smooth and easy nature of our family would be broken with this change. We relied on God's grace, and He has shown us through Rachel that we were right...something was broken. Broken to make room for more blessings, more love. Re-arranged to become something more complete, more whole, and more right than we could have imagined.

I suppose it's the nature of family, the way things naturally go. We learned we were expecting Eldest in the doctor's office, sitting together gripping hands tightly and waiting, hearing the nurse call down the hall "it's positive!". Middle Child's beginnings were learned at home, quietly celebrated in a moment stolen while Eldest napped and Hubby and I had a rare quiet space. Youngest's two blue lines appeared while Hubby fixed a chattering Eldest's breakfast and Middle Child banged on the bathroom door, wanting Mommy to come out and play. From couple to family, steps along the way. Each one different, each one its own story, each one a integral part of the whole.

She was born very early the morning before Thanksgiving day. Quick from the start, this one. Our Third Child-touting midwife nearly didn't make it in time to deliver her. There was a moment, when she arrived, when everyone was still. No sound, no cry...everyone's breath was held. Her little eyes, alert already, took it all in first...as if the shock of this new place were so great, the amazement of finding herself here made her forget to inhale. For a moment, we all did. No breath...only waiting for that first gasp of this new world.

And then she did.

And all of us, collectively, finally exhaled. "Every child should be a third child," the midwife said again with a wink as she placed the swaddled baby in our waiting arms. And as this new and tiny blessing settled, her first lusty cry quickly giving way to more bewildered taking-in, I began to understand a little.

The awe of new life was there, the love, the beauty. But we didn't have the fear...the overwhelming feeling that we didn't know what to do with this new creature, the shock of all the amazing, the frightening, the beautiful, the sticky things that newborns do. We knew she was strong, she was perfectly created, she wasn't going to break. We knew a hundred thousand things that cannot be put into words, that parents learn by instinct and God-given grace. We'd done this before, we were no longer neophytes. We'd done first child, we'd done new siblings, we'd done boy and we'd done girl. We were relaxed, and able to just be there, breathing in this moment, feeling this completeness, knowing this new child for the first time. Breathing in God's grace, His blessings, the miracle that He would bless us again with a child of His to raise.

The next day, Thanksgiving, brought another gift. Empty of all but the most necessary staff, the hospital was quiet that day. Peaceful. Eldest and Middle Child came with Hubby, bearing gifts and curiosity. They held their new sister in eager arms and graced her with wet toddler kisses on her silky little head and soft pink cheeks. It felt right, it felt whole. The lesson of the Third Child began to work its magic. Let go. Enjoy. Don't worry. God has us in His hands, each one of us. Our children will rise, they will grow, they will learn from both struggle and peace. What control we thought we had was always His, not ours. The fear of the loss of it was an unnecessary illusion, a waste of time. There is no limit to love, no loss in the adding of it that is not worth the incalculable gain.

That evening, after everyone had gone, I lay alone with Rachel in the deepening shadows of that beautiful Winter day. In the still and warm, blessed quiet of just the two of us. There would be few moments like that, for this child...an unavoidable part of being third. We had these hours of quiet stillness, before the bustle and clatter of life...the blessings of a growing family...began in earnest. I held her on my chest, her breath warm against me. I stroked her silky hair, marveled at her little toes, inhaled the indescribable smell of a newborn's head, curled her tiny fingers around my mine. I breathed her in, and every breath was a prayer of Thanksgiving.

Gluten Free Thanksgiving Menu

2009-11-23T22:04:00.003-07:00

A gluten free Thanksgiving menu! This is a repeat of last year's Thanksgiving post, but we'll be doing something similar this year. I can't wait to be together with family again, spend time together and enjoy a wonderful meal.

The Menu:

Turkey: We usually brine the turkey overnight, which gives it a wonderful flavor and makes for some really exceptional gravy. This year, though, we may try rubbing it with salt and lots of black pepper, then criss-crossing it with a pound of bacon and roasting it very slowly all day long.

Gravy: Use the drippings from the turkey plus some gluten free chicken stock (I like Pacific brand) and thicken with corn starch. My dad taught me to always mix the corn starch with some warm water before adding it to whatever you are trying to thicken, to prevent lumps.

Mashed Potatoes: We like garlic mashed potatoes. Boil some whole cloves of garlic with the potatoes, then mash them together with butter, salt and pepper, and maybe a little cream.

Cranberry Relish: A bag of whole cranberries, a large can of mandarin oranges plus the juice from the can, two cups water, two cups sugar. Cook until the berries burst and the sauce starts to thicken a bit, it will thicken considerably as it cools. I canned some cranberry sauce this week, so I won't have to make it later! Note: Try adding a little clove and a couple of diced green apples to the sauce. Yum!

Stuffing: When we had to cut gluten out of our diet, I thought I'd never have "normal" bread stuffing again. Which was sad. However, I have two very good gluten free stuffing options that are so good nobody will notice they're not "real" bread! The first is my dad's Southern Style Cornbread Dressing. You make gluten free corn bread, and then proceed from there...it has fried oysters and onions in it. I will have to get the recipe from him, though...it's one of those that he carries in his head and I don't have it written down. The other recipe is for a wonderful sausage and green apple stuffing, my mom found it online at epicurious.com and we adapted it to be gluten free. I am not normally a fan of apples in stuffing, but this is amazing...you don't taste *apple*, but instead the apples just make the stuffing very tangy and savory. I look forward to it all year! Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 pound sweet Italian sausage, casings removed
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
5 cups chopped onion (about 3 large)
2 cups chopped celery
6 cups diced cored tart green apples (such as Granny Smith)
1 tablespoon dried rubbed sage
2 teaspoons dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
5 1/2 cups Ener-G stuffing/croutons, gluten free (Order these NOW or find them at a health food store...or you could toast a loaf of Ener-G bread until it's hard and cube it yourself).

Preparation:

Sauté sausage in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat until cooked through, crumbling sausage with back of spoon, about 10 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer sausage to large bowl. Add butter, onions and celery to skillet; sauté until onions are tender, about 15 minutes. Add apples; sauté until apples are tender but still hold shape, about 10 minutes. Add sage, thyme and allspice; sauté 1 minute. Add to sausage. Stir in stuffing cubes. Season with salt and pepper. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover; chill.)

Preheat oven to 325°F. Generously butter a baking dish. Transfer stuffing to prepared dish. Cover with foil and bake until heated through, about 40 minutes.

Turnips with peas and bacon: This is a new recipe, but looks like a fun vegetable side dish. You need 8 slices of gluten free bacon (Hormel), cooked and crumbled, 1 stick butter, 4 Tbs. fresh dill, chopped, 4 cups turnips, peeled and diced, 2 lbs. frozen peas, salt and black pepper. Melt 1/2 the butter, saute turnips until tender, add crumbled bacon, peas and remaining butter and cook until peas are heated through, add the dill, salt and pepper and cook 30 seconds until the dill is just wilted.

Sweet Potatoes: My mom does a great sweet potato dish. I'm not sure if this is the exact recipe, but it's really close...I found it on Martha's website ;o) it's sweet potato rounds with butter and pecans...MMMMMmmmmm!

Pumpkin Pie: Of course you can't go wrong with the traditional pumpkin pie...you can use the pie crust recipe found in my apple tart post and use the pie filling recipe from the back of a can of Libby's Pumpkin. Everything in it is Gluten Free except, of course, use your own crust! If you're making the Pumpkin Cheesecake below, you might use another filling for the pie. Pecan? Chocolate? Apple or Cherry? Most fillings are easy to do gluten free or are naturally gluten free, so once you've got the crust covered it's easy!

Pumpkin Cheesecake, gluten free: This is one of my very favorites! I use the basic recipe found at epicurious.com and instead of the wheat crackers, I use Mi-Del gingersnaps (about 3/4 of a bag). They work perfectly in this recipe! NOT dairy free, sadly. I have made dairy free cheesecake before...using Toffuti instead of cream cheese, and non-dairy creamer instead of cream etc. They do work, but will cost you a small fortune in supplies. Still, we're talking about cheesecake here, and it's sometimes worth it! I prepare the cheesecake as the recipe describes (substituting the GF cookies for the crackers), then top it with lots of whipped cream seasoned with nutmeg and vanilla. A drizzle of warm caramel sauce on top makes it...perfect!

Apple Tart: I may make this for Thanksgiving, or I may have it ready when my family comes in (sorry to ruin the surprise, mom....if you're reading this, pretend you didn't hear). You can find the recipe in this post.

Making Christmas...Pajamas for dolls and girls

2009-11-21T21:04:00.011-07:00

The girls with their favorite dolls and matching pajamas

Are you ready to start Making Christmas?

One of my favorite projects last year was sewing flannel pajamas for the girls and their dolls. My friend Dawn and I also made plaid flannel pajama bottoms for the boys, and I made Eldest a matching flannel pillow case with buttons for a large square bed pillow. The pattern below gives you pajama pants for child through adult sizes, so if you wanted you could make the whole family a pair! Look for discount coupons in your mailbox, I often get a coupon for 40% off one item, and if you buy a large cut of flannel to make pajamas for the family it's pretty inexpensive.

Simplicity Easy-to-sew pattern 3935

We had tons of white flannel with red dots, which went well with tiny red-rickrack for the doll's nightgowns and pajama sets. Little red or white buttons were just the right touch! The doll clothes fasten with Velcro (no buttonholes) and the girl's pajamas are a simple elastic waist. We left off the pockets and made the cuffs on the girls' pants to match the ones on the baby dolls', so we did change the pattern just a touch from the one that came in the package. We just made a folded cuff, measured the pant leg pieces, and cut them down to fit the new cuff...then we added larger red rickrack as an embellishment. If you end up making the matching pants and want to add the cuffs, it's easier than it sounds once you make the pants for the dolls.

Doll Pajama sets (bottom right). These fit both Bitty Baby and Youngest's favorite doll, a Corollel Calin baby doll.

Youngest's doll, Hanna, and the nightgown for Nellie (Middle Child's American Girl doll) with Eldest's pillow behind them.

Detail of Nelli's nightgown

The nightgown for American Girl dolls comes from the American Girl pattern below. Dawn found the pattern online for free download, the company no longer sells these. If you have a child who loves American Girl doll, this is a great resource for patterns! The link has patterns for many dolls, and each pattern has a variety of great outfits and accessories to sew.

Enjoy! Next post...some links to great resources for crafts. Ideas for kids and adults alike!

Making Christmas

2009-11-21T00:04:00.003-07:00

The air is crisp, a storm is blowing in, and in the park down the street the Christmas Tree vendor has begun to set up shop. It's time to start planning for Christmas! Last year, a friend and I decided to do a hand-made Christmas. My family did not do a 100 percent hand-made Christmas, but most of our gifts were hand made with love. My friend's family decided to go for an entirely hand made holiday, and they had great success! She has four kids, the oldest was 14 at the time...and their Christmas was amazing. Rather than looking through toy catalogs or surfing the Internet finding things they "couldn't live without," the kids spent the weeks before Christmas quietly working on their gifts. They took great joy in secretly working on their gifts for each other, and were far more excited to give away what they had made than they were to receive gifts of their own. One child, just six years old, stitched pillow cases with her mother's help. Another made hand-sewn stuffed animals for her siblings. The boys made tiny pretend food out of clay for their sisters' dolls. And my friend and I spent many happy nights working together...we made pajamas for each child, matching pajamas for the girls' American Girl dolls, sets of pretend felt food for play tea parties. We tie-dyed yards of cloth for imaginary rivers, stitched felt stones to decorate the waterways. There are so many ways to make a happy Christmas, and so much to learn from looking away from the lure of consumer glut and turning inward towards gifts from the heart. Even if you choose to make just one gift for each member of your family...or hand craft small gifts for extended family and friends...the experience of Making Christmas gives you a chance to slow down and focus on the heart. It gives you a chance to spend some time with your kids, making gifts for them to give away. What child doesn't love getting into a project and creating something from scratch? And what family couldn't use a little extra time together, Christmas music playing in the background, television and Internet turned off...talking and listening and learning together as they work on gifts to give away?

One of our favorite things to do is read aloud from the Little House on the Prairie books. We love to think of the Christmases that the Ingles family enjoyed together...the cozy log cabin filled with laughter, the hand made gifts that were so simple: Button strings, handkerchiefs, hand-stitched aprons and rag dolls. How simple their gifts were, and yet how much joy they found in making them and giving them! Compared to today's frenzy and greed, these hand-made Christmases seem so....peaceful. Simple. Real.

It's possible to experience that sort of simple joy! Give it a try. Make Christmas this year...even if it's just one gift. I promise you won't regret it!

In the following weeks, I'll be posting some gift ideas for you to make. Some are great for kids, some are for parents to make with their kids, and others are gifts you can make for your children. Stop by to get ideas, pass it on and get others involved. Post some ideas of your own!

This Week's Gluten Free Menu, Thanksgiving Edition

2008-11-19T11:47:00.009-07:00

No gluten free dinner menu this week. We're going out of town for the weekend, and meal planning for the week sort of...didn't happen.

My parents, brother and his girlfriend Siri (and their dog Sasha) are all coming in for Thanksgiving dinner! I am so excited. This is one of the few times a year that we're all able to get together, and we look forward to it! My dad, step mom and Siri are wonderful cooks, we eat like kings whenever we're all together. I can't wait!

So instead of a regular dinner menu, I thought I'd post a sample Thanksgiving menu instead. This may not be what we actually eat this Thanksgiving, but here are some recipes and ideas from family favorites...

Turkey: We usually brine the turkey overnight, which gives it a wonderful flavor and makes for some really exceptional gravy. This year, though, we may try rubbing it with salt and lots of black pepper, then criss-crossing it with a pound of bacon and roasting it very slowly all day long.

Gravy: Use the drippings from the turkey plus some gluten free chicken stock (I like Pacific brand) and thicken with corn starch. My dad taught me to always mix the corn starch with some warm water before adding it to whatever you are trying to thicken, to prevent lumps.

Mashed Potatoes: We like garlic mashed potatoes. Boil some whole cloves of garlic with the potatoes, then mash them together with butter, salt and pepper, and maybe a little cream.

Cranberry Relish: A bag of whole cranberries, a large can of mandarin oranges plus the juice from the can, two cups water, two cups sugar. Cook until the berries burst and the sauce starts to thicken a bit, it will thicken considerably as it cools. I canned some cranberry sauce this week, so I won't have to make it later!

Stuffing: When we had to cut gluten out of our diet, I thought I'd never have "normal" bread stuffing again. Which was sad. However, I have two very good gluten free stuffing options that are so good nobody will notice they're not "real" bread! The first is my dad's Southern Style Cornbread Dressing. You make gluten free corn bread, and then proceed from there...it has fried oysters and onions in it. I will have to get the recipe from him, though...it's one of those that he carries in his head and I don't have it written down. The other recipe is for a wonderful sausage and green apple stuffing, my mom found it online at epicurious.com and we adapted it to be gluten free. I am not normally a fan of apples in stuffing, but this is amazing...you don't taste *apple*, but instead the apples just make the stuffing very tangy and savory. I look forward to it all year! Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 pound sweet Italian sausage, casings removed
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
5 cups chopped onion (about 3 large)
2 cups chopped celery
6 cups diced cored tart green apples (such as Granny Smith)
1 tablespoon dried rubbed sage
2 teaspoons dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
5 1/2 cups Ener-G stuffing/croutons, gluten free (Order these NOW or find them at a health food store...or you could toast a loaf of Ener-G bread until it's hard and cube it yourself).

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 325°F. Generously butter a baking dish. Transfer stuffing to prepared dish. Cover with foil and bake until heated through, about 40 minutes.

Spaghetti and Meatballs Dinner

2009-11-16T12:20:00.007-07:00

Here's another fall favorite...It makes a lot, so it's great for company and plan on leftovers! You can make everything but the noodles in advance and keep it in the fridge overnight, then plug in the crock pot the next day and all you have to do is boil the noodles before you eat!

Stuffed mushrooms make a good appetizer for this meal...here's the recipe!

Meatballs:
1 1/2 lbs sweet Italian sausage (we get ours from the meat department at our grocery store, check to see if it's gluten free)
1 lb. ground beef
1 cup gluten free bread crumbs (I use Rice Chex cereal, pulverized in the food processor)
2 eggs

Sauce:
3 large (29 oz.) cans tomato sauce or puree (check for gluten!)
5 cloves crushed garlic
1 large onion, diced
3 tsp. crushed basil
1/2 lb. sweet Italian sausage

In the crockery part of a large crock pot, brown the 1/2 lb. of sausage. Add the diced onion and cook until it starts to look transparent. Add all 3 cans of tomato sauce, the garlic and the basil. Bring to a boil. Take the crock pot off the burner and put it in the base, plug it in and let it simmer all day (if you're cooking ahead, you can put the pot in the fridge overnight and plug it in the next day).

For the meatballs, combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl and mix well. Form into 1 inch balls and brown the balls in a large skillet on all sides. The meatballs will be raw inside...I have found that you have to beat away family members who want to sample them at the risk of contracting salmonella! Put the browned meatballs aside until an hour before dinner (I put them in a zip lock bag in the fridge).

An hour before dinner, add the meatballs to the simmering sauce. The sausage in the sauce and meatballs will season the spaghetti sauce so that you won't need to add much in the way of seasoning! Serve the sauce and meatballs over gluten free noodles with a little Parmesan cheese on the side.

Side Salad:

I love to serve a side salad with balsamic vinaigrette when we have spaghetti. The salad is just your usual lettuce-and-vegetables, and the dressing is quick and easy to make and will keep well in the fridge. The flax seed in the dressing sounds weird, but it gives it a creamy texture without using something like mayonnaise (plus the omega acids in the flax are great for you!)

Balsamic Vinaigrette:
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
3 tbsp. prepared brown mustard
6-10 Greek olives
2 tbsp. ground flax seed

Put all ingredients in a blender (I love my Magic Bullet for this!) and blend on high until the dressing is creamy. Toss with the salad, and store the rest in the fridge for next time!

Dessert...Pumpkin Cheese Cake! I use this recipe, (you can also find it in the Thanksgiving Menu) but instead of the graham crackers I use about 3/4 package of Mi-del gluten free ginger snaps. You could use regular gingersnaps if you don't have to be gluten free...you'll need around 4 ounces but I usually use slightly more than that for a thicker crust because the ginger-snaps give the cheesecake an extra little kick! Plan ahead on this one, the cheesecake will need to sit in the fridge overnight.

Enjoy!

Entertaining Angels

2009-05-04T09:52:00.004-06:00

At church one cold evening in December, my husband and I noticed a man sitting in front of us who somehow stood out. He was wearing an expensive ski coat, his salt-and-pepper hair was brushed back, and he stood in a distinguished fashion. As the last worship song played his broad shoulders shook a little. He cried quietly and my heart went out to him.

I’m not an outgoing person, so I struggled. What should I say? How to approach a total stranger? Would God provide words? I fought with myself, thinking, praying. As I did, the man stood up and walked out of the sanctuary. I summoned my courage, reciting what I’d say and do. I planned to get a cup of coffee, hand it to him and strike up a conversation. If he was leaving I wanted him to go knowing that somebody had cared for him.

I nervously poured the coffee, took a deep breath and walked over. At the last moment everything I’d planned to say dissipated, leaving just two words. ”God Bless,” I said and placed the cup in his hands. I looked up at his face, and the assumptions I’d made about him vanished.....

This is a post I wrote for High Calling Blogs...you can read the rest there!

Butterfly

2009-11-09T09:56:00.007-07:00

Danaus chrysippus)" style="border: medium none ; display: block;">Image by Umang Dutt via Flickr

The caterpillars were repulsive. Spiked and striped, they writhed on every tree trunk and squirmed on the west side of every building at the reception center. Around us, the wedding was in full swing. But my children were enthralled with the worms. They held their breaths and inched bravely closer to the squirming grubs, then ran away screaming and laughing with a mixture of fascination and horror at the ugly creatures.

With our youngest on my hip, I stooped to study a worm more closely. The older two children listened with interest as I explained that these fat, wriggly little grubs that looked so fearsome and disgusting with their soft, segmented bodies covered with ugly spikes would one day become butterflies. Butterflies? These ugly worms? We took a plastic cup from the punch bowl, scraped in several worms with a stick (nobody was volunteering to pick them up with their bare hands!) and covered the cup with a scrap of white netting from a nearby decoration.

At home, we put the grubs in a large glass jar. There wasn't time to put in sticks, but I was sure that we would have plenty of time the next day to give the caterpillars something to spin their cocoons on. To my surprise, when we woke the next morning the larva had already spun cocoons! With no stick to hang from, the worms were not able to spin their whole bodies into the cocoons. Instead, white silk encased the bottom three-fourths of each worm while the worm's heads and a bit of their bodies were hanging out! These three strange little packages lay at the bottom of the jar, clearly still alive and yet unfinished. I didn't see any way that these incomplete cocoons could hatch into a butterfly without the head of the worm inside...wouldn't the butterfly have no head? Would they hatch at all? But the children wanted to see what would happen, so we carefully glued the spun-ends of each cocoon onto a stick and waited.

To my surprise, several weeks later the cocoons hatched! Inside the jar were the remains of the cocoons, and drops of a blackish substance had oozed down the glass and pooled under each cocoon. The head segments of each worm lay with the remains of the cocoons, as dead as the silk and dried to an empty shell. And yet, amazingly, three butterflies clung to the stick in the jar!

I was amazed that even without the entire worm, a butterfly could have emerged from those strange cocoons. But when I examined the butterflies carefully, my amazement grew! They were beautiful creatures, looking nothing at all like the ugly worms they had been. And yet, because the entire body of each worm had not been in the cocoons, the butterflies were incomplete. They had beautiful indigo wings edged with black. Their thin and graceful bodies had perfect heads with feathered, arching antennae, tiny black eyes and a curled proboscis. To our delight inside the black boarders of each wing ran a row of tiny white hearts.

But each butterfly was missing something. One had only four legs and its delicate black body was slightly shortened. Another had two holes in its wings, one in each canvas of vibrant blue. The third was missing one set of wings entirely, its right side a beautiful display of iridescent indigo, black and white...the left a crumbled stump that left the creature unbalanced and unable to fly.

What had happened? How had these butterflies developed at all, when part of the worm had not even been used in their development? How could a butterfly develop, complete with a perfect head, when the heads of the worms were still lying at the bottom of the jar? I knew that butterflies were an amazing example of metamorphosis, and a powerful analogy for how God can take something small, ugly and wretched and change it to something graceful and beautiful. What I didn't know about butterflies changed my heart and taught me something I hope never to forget.

Inside the cocoon, the changes taking place are far more profound than I had imagined. The grub, wrapped in its silk shroud and hidden from view, is not slowly growing wings. The worm is not gradually developing the characteristics of a butterfly, adding new parts on and altering the old to take on a new look. Inside the cocoon, something far more profound is taking place.

The worm as we know it has died. There is no gradual development of new limbs and new features....the worm itself is gone! In its place is a black sludge, the sort of goo we associate with complete and utter decomposition. Floating in the goo somewhere are a few vital organs that have not completely broken down, but there is nothing recognizable as a caterpillar left. The cells are alive, but liquefied. It is from this black liquid, this complete and utter destruction of the original worm, that the butterfly is pieced together. It is truly a new creature! God has taken the cells, broken them beyond recognition, caused the old creature to exist no more, and built something completely new from the pieces.

And the missing parts? Oh, Christian! The missing parts speak so strongly to my heart. For God to make the whole and beautiful new creature He had planned, He needed all of the worm. The worm had to die, it had to become dead black sludge for God's plan to work perfectly. When we fail to submit All of our heart to God's will...even when God's will is that the old must die! When we fail to give it all to him and truly die to self we find that we are incomplete. We emerge with broken wings and incomplete hearts, we limp along when we could be flying high. When we give it all to God, He works every part of it, yes every ugly detail...to His good. He takes the loathsome worm, and from dead black sludge he brings forth a jeweled and graceful butterfly! He asks for nothing less than total submission to His will...nothing less than the death of the old self. But we can trust completely that His plans for us are beautiful! We can trust that He will change us completely, make us a new creature, and give us wings to fly!

Lord, what more can I submit to you today? Thank you for the example of caterpillars and butterflies, for if you can daily work such miracles with them what amazing things will you do when we submit our human hearts to you!

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Psalm

2009-11-04T07:24:00.002-07:00

I will praise your name
in the cold light of dawn
sing your praises as the sun rises
over blue and purple mountains
For you alone are Holy
you alone formed the peaks
and carved the valleys
and set the sun to shine over them
Your hand wove the burning colors
into spreading oaks
and dressed the starling
in shimmering irridescence
at your word it was created

I will praise your name
in the golden light of evening
proclaim your glory
as the sky reflects gold and crimson
through ever changing clouds
and the wind blows softly
through painted leaves
for you alone are Holy
you alone are Lord
Your glory burns in every living thing
and all creation resonates
with a single purpose
Praise the Lord!
All glory belongs to Him.

Fall Favorites....Midwest Chicken Dinner with GF egg noodles

2009-10-13T16:38:00.004-06:00

Here's a new family favorite! I got the recipe about a month ago and have already made this twice. It's a very, um, starchy meal...but it hits the spot and goes well with cold and rainy Autumn weather. The Egg Noodle recipe is wonderful...they are so easy to make and go great in chicken noodle soup at well.

Midwest Chicken Dinner:

4 or 5 chicken thighs (bones and skin are fine)
3 ribs celery, chopped
1 yellow onion, finely chopped
Chicken bullion (McCormick and Better Than Bullion are good, they come in paste form)
1 Recipe GF Egg Noodles (recipe follows)
Salt, pepper, and garlic salt to taste
Chopped fresh tomato, chopped fresh chive or green onion

Put chicken in a large stock pot and cover completely with water. Boil until the chicken is cooked, then remove the chicken and put it in the fridge until it's cool enough to handle. While the chicken is boiling, make the noodles and potatoes as described below. Leave about 6 cups of the chicken-water in the pot, and add about a tablespoon of chicken bullion to the water. Bring back to a boil and add the chopped celery and onion, and while it's cooking remove the skin and bones from the chicken and chop it into small pieces. Add the chicken back to the pot and then add the egg noodles. Boil for 5 to 10 minutes, until most of the liquid has been absorbed or has thickened. You may need to add a touch of corn starch if there's too much liquid. Salt and pepper to taste, add a little garlic powder if you like.

Serve the chicken mixture over garlic mashed potatoes. Sprinkle chopped fresh tomato (garden tomatoes are wonderful on this!) and chives or green onions on top.

GF Egg Noodles ready for the pot!

GF Egg Noodles

2 cups GF flour mix (or 1 cup rice flour, 1 cup tapioca flour, and 1 tsp xanthan gum)
dash salt
2 large eggs
4 1/2 eggshells full of milk or water

In a large bowl, combine flour and salt and stir well. Make a well in the center of the flour and add both eggs. Beat the eggs and combine with the flour, mashing out lumps with a fork. Add 1/2 eggshell full of water or milk one at a time, and continue to combine until the mixture sticks together. You may need only 3 eggshells of water, you may need all four. The dough will be slightly crumbly. Knead the dough with your hands until it's elastic enough to be rolled. Turn dough on a workspace dusted with GF flour, and roll 1/2 of it into a thin layer. Use a pizza cutter or a pastry cutter to cut the noodles...we loved the pastry cutter because it cuts them in a uniform size. Repeat with remaining dough and set aside the egg noodles for later. You may also put these in a zip lock back and freeze or refrigerate them for another day!

Youngest loves to help! Cut the noodles with a pastry cutter...

Then peel them off and cut some more!

Garlic Mashed Potatoes:

Peel and cube 10-12 potatoes. Peel 4 to 6 cloves of fresh garlic, cut off the tough ends. Toss the potatoes and garlic in a large pot, cover with water and boil until soft. Drain potatoes and garlic, put in a large mixing bowl and throw 1/4 cup butter or non-dairy butter in while they are hot. Mix with your electric mixer or by hand until most of the lumps are gone, adding milk or milk substitute until you reach the desired consistency and salt and pepper to taste.

Some Fall Favorites....

2009-10-09T18:51:00.002-06:00

Here's a recipe for gluten free Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies! They taste like the real thing and bake up nice and puffy. This post is a re-run from last year but it feels like it must be time for some pumpkin cookies again. Enjoy!

Gluten Free Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

½ cup butter
1 cup white sugar
½ cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 cup pumpkin
1 tsp vanilla
1 ½ cups white rice flour
3/4 cup tapioca starch
1 ¼ tsp xanthan gum
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
½ tsp ginger
½ tsp salt
½ cup chocolate chips

In large mixing bowl beat together butter and sugars; add eggs, pumpkin and vanilla. Mix until well blended.

In medium mixing bowl combine dry ingredients and add to creamed mixture. Stir in chocolate chips and or nuts. Drop by spoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes. (adapted from a recipe I found on cookingcache.com).

Reaching Up (From the Archives)

2009-09-05T18:48:00.003-06:00

(A post from the archives, first published July 17, 2008)

Our mission team in Europe has been writing about their experience in a blog, and reading their posts has made me think about faith, religion, and our relationship with God. They are working right now in Turin, Italy, sharing the gospel and playing music both in organized concerts and here and there out on the streets. There is an overwhelming sense of spiritual coldness there, and they are struggling with that.

I know the coldness they are encountering because I've seen it myself....even felt it myself at times, though I've never been to Italy. It's a country full of beautiful cathedrals, centuries old and stunningly beautiful. The ceilings soar high into the air, the walls are built of stones so ancient they seem to speak of the years that have passed, the human hands that hewed them out of raw rock and fitted them together with care. The painstakingly carved frescoes, the flying buttresses, the marble pillars carved with bas-relief patterns. Rows of pews, their scrolled arms shiny and polished by years of passing hands. The statues, mute figures of saints, standing tall--their hands over their hearts, clutched around books, praying, reaching out. The infant Jesus rendered in marble, in plaster, in wood, gazes from his mother's arms; carved by the skilled hands of artists centuries dead. All this splendor and majesty, the best efforts of artists and architects many generations past. And yet, what stands out most is the silence ringing through these open, splendid, cavernous spaces.

What happened? Why, in a country with such ties to the history of Christianity, is there such a pervasive spiritual coldness?

There is a lot that could be said in explanation, but here is what's on my mind.

Religion is about trying to reach God. We catch a glimpse of the vast chasm that exists between mankind and God, and it stirs a kind of horror in our souls. A longing, a fear, a crushing realization that God is perfect and Holy and we are fallen and weak, that as humans and sinners we cannot hope to cross that chasm and reach the other side. God seems universes away, too far to touch, to distant to hear. We seem so small and insignificant, so helpless, and the cause seems so hopeless that we become desperate to find a way to cross over, to reach up. To reach up through the vast, unending universe, past the sorrow and sin and sickness of humanity to grasp the hand of God. Our arms stretch ever upward, straining for the divine touch.

Knowing the vastness of the space between us and the inadequacy of our human efforts to bridge it, we set our minds to building a scaffolding higher and higher upwards towards God. We build it with the stuff of this world, with the materials that we, as humans, are familiar with. The scaffold is a human construct meant to help us reach the heights of heaven, one stone at a time. We pour our hearts into it, we engage our minds with it, we lose our souls in it. It is a structure of rules, a hierarchy of regulations, a great spanning suspension bridge of bureaucracy that grows higher and higher off the ground with every year. We pour our greatest efforts into it, we make it breathtaking and amazing and shockingly beautiful with everything a human heart alone can contrive. We pour into it every attribute that humans hold dear...our toil, our creativity, our intelligence, our good works, our money. It is a beautiful, intricate, and dangerous structure.

And it's a futile one. No matter how hard we work, no matter how intricate the structure becomes, it will never reach far enough or be good enough to get to heaven. Somewhere in the building of it, we realize the futility of our efforts and we become disillusioned. In our dedication to building this complex structure, in our exhaustive efforts to reach farther and farther upward we begin to forget what it is we're reaching towards. We spend our time examining the structure itself, busying ourselves with the intricate mineute of the scaffold. We spend all our efforts in perfecting this earthly structure, in doing what we do as perfectly as possible, in running the gears and cogs that form the enormous bureaucracy that is necessary for such an endeavor. We concentrate on rank and file, on rules and regulations, on money and objects. We become part of the machine we are building.

Sooner or later, we realize that we no longer believe that this structure will work. We can't remember what it was we believed in when we began. We start to question what we are doing and why we are doing it, and we lose our passion for it. We realize that no matter how hard we work, no matter how high we build our scaffold, and no matter how high we reach up toward heaven we will still fall frightfully short. It all becomes mechanical, it all becomes rote, it all becomes empty. Our hearts grow cold.

Those beautiful churches, resounding with the empty echoes of a people who have grown cold...my heart breaks to think of this! To know so intimately the man-made scaffolding and yet to be a stranger to the One that structure was meant to reach out to! I think of Luke 13:34-35, where Jesus laments: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! Look, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'

We are all, in one way or another, at risk of growing cold. Whenever religion becomes the focus over Christ himself, we begin to lose ourselves in the pursuit of the structure and in the effort of reaching up....struggling against all odds to reach up farther than our human hearts were ever meant to go. Oh, Christian! Don't you know? God himself from the farthest reaches of heaven stands, his open hand extended....reaching down to us! If we but take our eyes off what we are trying so vainly to build, if we give up our relentless working and toiling and blind pursuit of height and remember to look up at what we are toiling for--then we will see! The God who loves us is reaching down to us. The bridge has already been built. God's hand extends through the gap and waits with open palm for ours. Christ died to build that scaffold for us, his life and death and Resurrection form a bridge a thousand times more beautiful than any a human mind could imagine.

Look up, look up! Will you take His hand?

Gratitude Journal

2009-09-03T10:49:00.009-06:00

He is your praise; he is your God, who performed for you those great and awesome wonders you saw with your own eyes. Deuteronomy 10:21

I have missed posting to the gratitude journal! The whole world looks so different when you go through your days consciously noticing blessings and listing praises to God....

225. Both child-hands went through the glass, but came out unharmed

226. For happy girl in mom-made clothes

227: For jeweled wings, transparent and luminous...caputred, appreciated, set free.

228: peaceful waters and gentle animals

229: Potato-faith...wondering if they were there, being surprised by more than we expected
230: Ribbons and freshly brushed hair

231: French toast for breakfast and sunny yellow eggs

232: All creatures, great and small

233: Flood of irrigation water, the unexpected gift of a muddy afternoon

234: And it all comes out in the wash!

235: Bounty from the garden
236: Salsa in jars, to be opened and reminded of garden splendor during winter's cold

237: Another year of peaches, sweet fragrant moments of summer stored up for winter.

Rock and Roll

2009-08-27T09:41:00.006-06:00

Our family loves music. We love jazz, classical, inspirational, and we love rock music! We are picky about what the kids listen to, but we do let them listen to a variety of music. We talk about it...the feelings it brings up, the artists' motivation for writing the music, and we talk about the lives of the artists themselves.

Our church is known for having amazing Christian rock music! Steele Croswhite is a pastor and music minister at our church, and having a former-rock-star-turned-pastor has given us the chance to be a part of a really amazing Christian music movement! Hubby plays bass in one of the smaller bands, and our family has been getting more involved in making music at home...which has been a real blessing.

This summer, Eldest had the opportunity to spend a couple of weeks at the School of Rock's boot camp. He and his cousin spent two weeks playing guitar and singing from nine to three with bands made up of of kids around their age, and then performed on the 40th anniversary of Woodstock. It was a great experience for him, and he learned an amazing amount in a short time. He now plays his guitar constantly and has been hoping to be a part of a youth band at church soon.

I was so proud of the way Eldest came through...he is a child who does not like to put himself forward, and he struggled a little finding the courage to take a lead roll. But he did it! That was a lesson that he needed to learn, and it was a blessing that he was able to. But for me, the biggest blessing of all was when he came home the second day of camp and said:

"Mom, I like camp and all and I'm learning a lot. But I don't want to be a rock star....I just want to use music to worship God."

Ah! I couldn't have been prouder if he had just won American Idol.

It's hard sometimes to balance popular culture with Christian values. Impossible, sometimes. But I think it's important to find ways to be in the world and not of it, to let our lights shine and use whatever talents God gave us for His glory. Kind David, after all, was a sort of a Rock Star in his time...and there is something wonderful about hearing the words he put to music so long ago woven into guitar riffs and sung with joy!

Here are some photos of the "joyful noise"....a medley of Woodstock bands and other rock....

"Green River" by Creedence Clearwater Revival

The cousins

Clay Creations

2009-08-20T12:53:00.007-06:00

Yellow Lab

Middle Child has been busy this summer with a new hobby....making tiny animals out of polymer clay. I'm still busy working on getting my house in order, but I wanted to share these because I think they are just too cute! She molds them, bakes them, and then paints them with tiny brushes. When they're dry, we paint them with clear nail polish to seal in the colors. That's a quarter they are standing next to, to give you an idea of the tiny scale!

Little Lamb

Spotted Turtle

Tabby Cat

Squirrel with removable acorn

Dachshund

Frogs

Turtle Love

passing envelopes

2009-08-16T14:33:00.005-06:00

He tucked the money in, licked the seal, and placed it on the table. We looked at the envelope glumly, sighed a little. "I wish it were more," he said. "We're not in a good place right now to be doing this, but I want to help all we can." I ran my hand over his back, thanked God for his heart, tried to dismiss the feeling of need rising within me with a prayer.

"God always provides," he said, as though he'd read my thoughts. "We've never regretted giving." And that was so true that the peace couldn't help but settle in.

The envelope went with us to church, to be given with peace and thanksgiving. That same morning....a tap on the shoulder. A different envelope pressed into my hand. Four times what we gave was folded there....a good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over. A gift of love.

Laughter and tears, honor and humility. That's how God works. We are safer with nothing but the grace of God and the blessing of our brothers and sisters in Christ than we are with a storehouse of riches of our own...the riches can be taken in the blink of an eye, but nothing can take away the eternal blessing of the Church...the body of believers, the Bride of Christ, His hands and feet here in the world while it lasts and in heaven forevermore.

Blessed.

The Dog Food Post (from the archives)

2009-08-14T10:45:00.000-06:00

I've been observing our dog lately, and I think I am finally gaining some understanding as to her eating habits. What appeared at first to be just plain old random picky-ness now, after some consideration and experimentation, seems to follow a precise set of rules:

1. If it's on your plate, I will eat it. Even if you plate is on the table. Even if what is on your plate is toxic to dogs. Especially if what is on your plate causes doggy GI distress, vomiting and profuse diarrhea.

2. If the cat is eating it, I will eat it. Even if I have to do so with the cat hanging off my muzzle, making interesting hissing noises.

3. If it's on the floor, I will eat it (as long as it's not dog food).

4. If it's plain, brown dog kibble, I will not eat it until I have verified that there is no other food available to steal, beg, or pilfer. Then I will give you a nasty look as I begrudgingly eat only the amount necessary to tide me over until you leave something better out on the counter.

5. If it's plain, brown dog kibble that comes in small pieces and therefore looks like it should belong to the cat, I will probably eat it.

6. If it's a new brand of plain, brown, large dog kibble that cost you more money than it should have, I will not eat at all for three days. After three days, I will eat the dog food only while you are not looking.

7. If you put the dog food on a plate, stir it up with a spoon, and pretend to eat it yourself while making lots of satisfied human noises and professing loudly that it's too bad this is people food, and then finally you put the food into my dish and pretend to walk away, I will eat it because I thoroughly enjoy watching you make a complete fool of yourself.

So! There you have it. The Dog Food Rules, as clearly exhibited by our Labradoodle, Maddy.

Gluten Free Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

2009-08-13T10:30:00.001-06:00

A post from the archives...

Oh, yummy....Jan found a recipe for Oatmeal Chip cookies that's Gluten free and soooo good! She found it at the Southern Living website. Here's the recipe:

1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened (substitute soy and dairy free)
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter
1 tsp. gf vanilla extract
1 tsp light corn syrup
4 1/2 cups gluten free oats (Bob's Red Mill are the most reasonably priced!)
1 cup semi sweet gf chocolate chips
1 cup GF candy coated chocolate pieces (dark chocolate M&M's...yum!)
2 teaspoons baking soda

beat sugars and butter at low speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Add eggs and next 3 ingredients, beating until combined. Stir in oats and remaining ingredients.

Drop by tablespoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets.

Bake, in batches, at 350 for 15 minutes. Remove to wire racks to cool

At Wisdom's Table

2009-08-13T06:44:00.000-06:00

We gather around the kitchen table's golden wood, tousled hair not yet brushed for the day. I with my cup of coffee, they with the taste of oatmeal still on their tongues. We pull up wooden chairs and the children fold legs under, adjusting to make themselves fit. We've come to the table, to open the day.

Our Bible has seen better days, waterlogged and dogeared and stained on both covers. I pull out the handbook, the memory verse cards, and pass Youngest her tattered Bible coloring book and a rainbow of crayons. For now, listening needs an activity for little hands. We pray, asking for guidance and blessings on our day.

I flip open to Matthew 13:44, read aloud. "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it."

What did Jesus mean? I ask them. And Middle Child offers: Heaven is more important than anything else, so we should do whatever we can here to build the Kingdom. I shouldn't be, but I am surprised at how she understands. I think of my own heart: What's clear right now becomes harder to live as the day continues, slips the mind the farther away we are from morning's quiet dedication.

Again, I flip through worn pages to find Proverbs, Eldest's favorite lately. We read of Wisdom, calling in the streets: Wisdom has built her house; she has hewn out its seven pillars. She has prepared her meat and mixed her wine; she has also set her table. She has sent out her maids, and she calls from the highest point of the city. "Let all who are simple come in here!" she says to those who lack judgment. Come, eat my food and drink the wine I have mixed. Leave your simple ways and you will live; walk in the way of understanding. I can almost see it, Wisdom's little house. The door is open, and from the street I can see Wisdom's table set with fine china and linen napkins. Ever the gracious host, she lays out good bread made with loving hands, meat and fruit and vegetables and cheese. A centerpiece of blood-red roses spills over her table's oaken glow.

And the 9th chapter of Proverbs ends with juxtaposition of Wisdom and Folly: The woman Folly is loud; she is undisciplined and without knowledge. She sits at the door of her house, on a seat at the highest point of the city, calling out to those who pass by, who go straight on their way. "Let all who are simple come in here!" she says to those who lack judgment. "Stolen water is sweet; food eaten in secret is delicious!"But little do they know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of the grave." And this I can see, too...I see how Folly calls, how the world sneaks in and chokes out wisdom with its loud distractions, its brash voice, with its lure and lust and empty promises. I see how, if I don't make a conscious effort to check in with Wisdom, I might pass by her open door and drift away, might eat what Folly has to offer....a carnival feast of spun sugar, hot dogs on paper trays, mouths stained red with candy, fingers sticky, time and money spent on things that are so quickly consumed. Standing on the litter of the remains, her guests are too full of emptiness and soul-sick, frantically looking for more. I've eaten here before, felt the ache of excess while the emptiness I sought to fill remains.

It's a daily struggle, to keep perspective. The buried treasure is so quickly forgotten. The things I must sell to secure it, empty as they are, seem to gain value and become harder to part with as the day goes on. The push and shove of daily life, the bustle and distraction of the world start to drown out Wisdom's quiet invitation. The ease of Folly's call grows louder as the flow of the crowd seems to carry me in her direction. Lord, let me return again and again to You. Let me return as distractions take my focus away from you. Let me return to your Word and Wisdom as often as I drift, as many times as it takes.

Throughout this day, may I return to the golden quiet of our Bible time together. As the day unfolds and distractions creep in, may I return to this table and remember where my treasure lays, may I pour all I am into that treasure and not into the void that has nothing to give back. May I pass by the noise and glut and lure of Folly's call, pass by the lights and trinkets and smoke and mirrors of her carnival that distorts and distracts. May I join the progression of weary travelers, the pilgrimage to Wisdom's abundant table. May we join hands together there, bow our heads in thanksgiving, and feast on that which will truly fill and will never run empty.

behind the scenes

2009-08-12T08:22:00.003-06:00

Life has been busy in the last month...I am working a little behind the scenes to find a new format for blogging and a schedule for life that includes writing times and guidelines that I can follow without getting overwhelmed. I am working on getting home life in order and the family on a schedule we can live with, which is taking time because I want to make sure it lasts. In the meantime, here's a picture or two and I am putting some "re-runs" up until I can get back to business as usual!

Product Review: Bettry Crocker Gluten Free Baking Mixes (Brownies)

2009-07-24T08:30:00.008-06:00

That's right....Betty Crocker has come out with a new line of Gluten Free baking mixes! Those of you with Celiac disease, food allergies or sensitivities know....this is monumental. These new baking mixes can be found right in the baking isle, by all the other cake mixes. They also cost considerably less than most gluten free mixes! As soon as I heard the news, I went out and purchased some to try them myself.

This might not make sense to someone who hasn't gone years making nearly all their food from scratch and driving miles out the way to find gluten free substitutes, but seeing those yellow boxes right up there with all the "normal" baking supplies nearly brought tears to my eyes. There they were! Mixes for Yellow Cake, Devil's Food Cake, Brownies, and Chocolate Chip Cookies. It has been many years since I purchased something from that section of the grocery store, and it was an oddly emotional moment.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that many of these mixes are also egg and dairy free, and that some of them are soy free (with no soy ingredients, but they carry the warning that they may contain soy...probably because they are processed in a plant where soy is also used). If you can't have dairy or eggs, you can use egg substitute and soy or rice milk and have allergen free treats!

I decided to put the mixes through the Three Point Picky gluten-free test. Are they as easy to make as a regular cake mix? Do they taste as good? Are they worth the money? I've gotten good at making everything from scratch, so to be worthwhile a product has to either be better than I can make on my own, or as good but much easier or faster to make.

The first box we tested was the Brownie Mix. Here are the results, along with some photos!

The Three Point Picky Test (TPP):

1. Can my ten year old make it?
2. Does an unsuspecting guest notice it's gluten free?
3. Is it worth shelling out the money when you could skip it or make it yourself?

1. The ten year old test: Middle Child did make these brownies by herself! They were easy to make, had clear directions, and only required 2 eggs and 1/2 stick of melted butter besides the mix. The only difficulty was that she needed help putting the batter into the pan and spreading it around, because the batter is very thick. She would have needed help here with any other good brownie mix, however. I do recommend greasing the pan very well, as they were a little hard to get out. However, we relied on the stoneware's patina and didn't grease the pan at all. Next time we will!

2. The unsuspecting guest: We gluten free families are used to food that tastes a little bit odd, after awhile you forget what "normal" baked goods are like. So I decided to test these with someone who didn't know there was anything different about them. They passed! They are chewy, moist, and very chocolaty. They taste like any other brownie, although they are slightly more dense and perhaps a little chewier. There was no rice-y flavor. We loved them! Just like the yummy brownies from pre-gluten free days, and fast and easy too. I hate to say it, but I think they are better than the ones I make from scratch...all the chocolate chips in this mix really add to the taste and texture.

3. The budget test: Because they are more expensive than regular brownie mixes, they have to be pretty good for me to buy a mix rather than do it myself. However, it was very nice to just open a box and go. You only have to add 2 eggs and 1/2 stick of butter, which isn't a lot of extra ingredients. It also allows for you to make substitutions if you need to! They do not make as many brownies as some mixes, but the ease of having the mix and the yummy end result made this worth the money. I will keep a box of these in the pantry all the times for unexpected guests or surprise chocolate attacks...and it helps that it's easy enough for my kids to do by themselves!

Look how "normal" the box looks! Just like any brownie mix.

The list of ingredients (no egg or dairy, either!)

Contents of the box

Easy to follow instructionsIn goes the mix

adding butter substitute...

and eggs....

the batter was a bit thick to stir

and she needed some help scraping it into the pan (but she needs help with that when we make them from scratch, too).

ready for the oven!

Yummy Brownie Goodness!

Reflections in the mirror, dimly

2009-07-22T08:50:00.005-06:00

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. 1 Corinthians 13:12

Mountains, dusky purple swept with blue. Stones in all shades from black to sparkling white, hidden but for their humped backs peeking through emerald blades of grass. Trees of every kind, their leaves shimmering and quaking as the breeze breathes over.

Pines, their great blue-green fingers pointing up towards the heavens. Water, cold and fresh...water running over stones, weaving through the meadows, tumbling over logs.

Water sparkling in the lake, it's playful wave-ridges catching evening light and winking it happily upward.

The wild flowers, decked in every color and style, scattered and nodding in the warm summer sun.

And stretching over it, the deep and vast and endless vault of stunning blue sky!

The beauty of creation takes my breath away.

And yet surrounded by this beauty I pause to think further, to climb a little higher in the revelry of this breathtaking view. He who created it...to look from creation to Creator! Oh, the beauty there!

To know that we live in a fallen world. To know that He has a place waiting for us, a place where this beauty is completed and perfected into the world that He meant it to be. A perfect creation, limitless in its beauty and flawless in its completion. A world we can only imagine, but one we can taste a hint of in the moments when the beauty of this world takes our breath away!

It's in these moments I realize, all this beauty is a reflection. All this wonder is but a poor reflection, we see as in a mirror dimly. In heaven, Oh! We will see face to face. We will see what is real, more real than anything we can touch in this world. More beautiful than we can imagine, and yet familiar, too.

Oh! If the dim mirror is so beautiful, if it shines so brightly....what will the true vision be! Sometimes the longing and excitement are almost more than I can bear. I hope to see it together with you one day, my friend! What a day that will be.