Real Thanks vs Contrived Thanks

Last Year, fall deco leapt out of the Thanksgiving box in plenty of time.  This year, I couldn't find it; couldn't be bothered to take time to really look.

I loved Roberta's "Kernels of Corn" thanksgiving declaration last night. She said she was grateful for her Lord Jesus who died on the cross for all our sins. At 94 years, raised as an observant Methodist in America's heartland, she didn't know what a relationship with Christ was until age 70. Now she counts Jesus as her dearest friend, and her thanks unto Him was deeply authentic, deeply real.

Then there was my contrived thanksgiving. Butted up against an uncomfortable circumstance, I know I am to be thankful for it. Scripture commands that "In all things give thanks..." so I declared my intended thanks, tears welled up from the internal conflict, and I grasped for some grain of hope that I could actually love my LORD in the midst of tHis uncomfortable situation. Shallow, childish, not so honoring to God.

It's always a good idea to struggle in prayer over a trial before committing to a declaration that might not yet be real... Roberta's dear faith has been proved. Mine's in flux. Today, I am thankful that the LORD knows how to expose those who know Him well, and those who are simply playing at it.

Hero Dad found the missing box at zero hour, but too late
to bother opening up and looking inside until lights out.  

Once the guests had gone and cocoa was poured, out came the "100 Things We're Thankful For" list I meant to bring out at dinner. No one thought to add 1Thessalonians Chapter 5, so I will.

Now we have 101 things to be Thankful for.


"...Be joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not put out the Spirit's fire; do not treat prophesies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good. 


Avoid every kind of evil.  May God Himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it..."

Fall victorious, 

handsome, glorious, 

sweater on and braced for chill;

Sober Bringer of the seasons,

Give me heart 

To want your will.

Fix my mind to want what you want;

remove my preference

For what's ill.

Pros and Cons of Memory

In as much as this blog intends to become a chronicle of family history, observe:

 On This Day, 22 Nov, 2011,  

the odd truth that your Mah is a hapless nutcase 

shall be hereby

publicly declared:

There she was, surfing the websites of Arlington House, National Park Service, Robert E. Lee's Headquarters, and half a dozen others that cater to Civil War memorabilia,  

hunting for a brilliant Stocking Stuffer: that teacup of C's from The Big Trip in '99 that she (meaning me) broke and promised to replace OH, TEN YEARS AGO, OR SO...

FRUITLESS.

Your Mah said to your Da', "Well, I tried. It's nowhere. Nada. Nuthin's out there to replace this..."

So, she gave up.

About that same moment, C's sister and her coterie 

were in a rental car, beating it across the plains of Southern Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania, all hot faced and out of breath 

to be a part of history 

at Gettysburg's 150th Anniversary Observance, 

hoopskirts in tow, handstitched dresses barely finished, camera batteries charged, and a tiny wad of tourist cash at the ready in their period-correct little pockets.

"GLORIOUS"

Um. Hello?

(Scans plethora of texts and images on iPhone, exchanged between firstborn in Gettysburg and her mother in Long Beach, CA over the past weekend... Nope. I see nothing there about, 

"Hey! While you're IN GETTYSBURG, could you just scope out Lee's H.Q. and see about getting that Robert E. Lee Tea Cup in blue? Yeah, that one. The one I broke in, like, 2001?")

Oh, to be brilliant and sane.

Alas, I ask too much.  

(Wipes drool from chin and wonders

how many helpings of thin soup

the residents of her future convalescent home will be allowed...)

- - - - - - -

Emeril's Choice

Once Upon A Time

Emeril Lagasse sent me a signed cookbook 

for my "award winning" (runner up) RECIPE contest submission.  

We never used the cookbook, so I tossed it last year.  

Then I learned what a Big Deal Chef Lagasse is.

O the perils of refusing T.V. ownership.

We never really made the dish. I just made it up out of my graying head.

 Let's try it this Thanksgiving, just to humor an old, graying, hapless fool?

HOLIDAY SQUASH 

- - preheat oven, 370º

- -  Halve four acorn squash, or cut bottoms of whole squash flat to sit upright. Microwave (exposed sides facing down) ten minutes at half power, probably standing above or in a little water, to keep 'em fresh. Let cool ten minutes.

- -3 cups prepared wild rice and brown rice, mixed (just cook them together)

- - mix into rice:

- 1 1/2 c. apple butter

1 3/4 c. grated havarti cheese

2/3 c.  pine nuts

scant pepper (n' salt, if you haft'a)

- if upright (not halved), cut off tops of acorn squash to create "caps." Remove seeds and scoop out a trough for filling

- butter or/and olive oil the insides 

- FILL SQUASH with rice mixture

- BAKE under foil or parchment 45 minutes, tops on

- remove tops and foil after 20 mins.

Repace tops & serve on your finest Emerilish platter, 
and garnish with oak leaves and tiny acorns, or other such gems of the season.

(Once we actually make this, no doubt we'll have to enter corrections...)

- - - - - - - -

Dec. 8, 2011 note:

Embellish with relish!

First, don't cook rice all the way. Second,

ADD to the apple butter a generous portion of 
Marion Sanders' walnut-marmalade cranberry sauce 
to sweeten it up a good bit.  And sauteed mushroom/onion. 
OH, go ahead and throw in some wonderful giblets or cooked sausage, too, 
while you're at it!

Prior to these additions, it was rather bland.

More Tears Clean Floors

It's true Machine Gun Preacher deserved my kids' boycott. Their mature discernment is a credit to their generation. But having seen it and wept over East African anti-Christian warfare,

all the others now come to mind...

Drug Scarred Mexico. Secular Europe. Liberal Canada. Brow Beaten Indonesia. Communist China. ISLAMIC IRAN. Youcef Nadarkhani and his heroic lawyer.

A Conference Speaker yesterday requested we bleach our globes with tear stains. I recalled the immediacy with which I purchased our globe 20 years ago, emblem of guaranteed success for the home school classroom. I had such bold intentions to pray for missionaries with the "students."

It has hardly been touched.

"...Since the Egyptian Revolution in January, several riots prompted by Muslim crowds broke out against churches in Cairo and other small cities in Egypt, breaking down churches, burning others, and resulting in significant numbers of casualties and deaths. None of the aggressors were seized, even though their faces were caught on video as they were committing their crimes...

. . . Violent clashes began between the two groups, and then suddenly, to the shock of all the demonstrators, armored military vehicles sped into the crowd, striking protesters and fatally driving over at least 11! This reminded demonstrators of what took place by the police on January 28 during the Revolution…but no one expected this to come from the army who promised to protect the people and the Egyptian Revolution ..."  
-- Director of Focus on the Family, Egypt

(http://www.focusonlinecommunities.com/blogs/Finding_Home/2011/10/14/on-the-murder-of-christians-in-egypt)

If I can put the unclean floor to work as sturdy kneeler, prayer launch, territory for intercession, demarkation around which Satan will not prevail, the day's purpose will be served. Every home needs a chapel and a globe, but barring either of those, an unscrubbed kitchen floor will do.

DejaView

It's an old slice of guitar found
under a bridge in a
causeway by a
bikeway

'Long Rio Saint Gabe.

But maybe, once baby
had a life with
Leonardo,
cause, wait.

There it is
by his r-i-p sign.

When we captured it first on
our last river ride,
never figured we'd see it
again.

There it was.
Hubby eyed it
as we left town on Friday
leaning proudly, reunited

Somehow?

"RIP Leonardo Florez," age 57,
Carson & Los Coyotes

The same old trashed icon,
it does catch your eye...

...from 3 posts back.

Now, today, home again and

just barely settled

comes a redux, a fight.

Not again.

It's on principle. Privacy.

His company's piracy.

Of course it's a 

huge disagree.

So, I'm looking for something to hang on my 

front porch: "Welcome 

to the Gulag"

it'll sing.

Until Christ comes again

(no, we'll still fight in heaven)

He will ever be

disappointing.

Dusty Bible of old

Let three children mold.

Dusty Constitution

Leaves a people in ruin,

Their muddy trashed icons 

leaned up 

against

death signs.

Congratulations "Dave And Kate - October 8!"

A dear couple will unite in marriage on Saturday.

Cousin Kate

What is marriage? Why marry? I remember beginning a paper on this subject as a junior in college. I became so befuddled and overwhelmed (and spiritually attacked, no doubt, since I was still concealing a hidden life of "food addiction") that I recall burying my head under a sweatshirt at my UCSD library desk, and crying, literally.

It's 29 years later, and all I can say on the matter is that I serve a God who healed, and continues to heal the unstable, rebellious, infirm parts of me; and to admit that I always intended to revisit the topic of sacred marriage, but am too chaotic, unread, and lacking in quality scholarship to do it justice.

I'm no closer to understanding all that scripture counsels on the matter, either (thanks to my insipid church... ).  This I do know: my marriage lasts because my husband is tremendously forgiving and patient and humble enough to pray with me after we fight and cry. And he prays with me on most other occasions, too.

So,

I texted him this image from a store last week. Asked him if he could hear these BOOKENDS "speaking to him?" (Wanted to ask if his already purchased wedding gift - a mosquito net from REI, was just a bit boring as wedding presents go, but I didn't - - just yet, anyway.)

The gentle giant loved these, and admitted the dbl-wide mosquito net was probably just an impulse-buy that he could take back.  Dave and Kate, avid backpackers, must already have DOZENS of mosquito nets, right?

WELL, I just finished making this note and began wondering... !What tremendous marriage how-to's could we squeeze between these miniature Mount Whitneys?

Being Out Of Budget makes that prospect Out Of the Question, but... let's just pretend we could go shopping for the perfect wedding "helps."  What would I dare suggest?

("Gram's EnglishToffee" for the wedding potluck.
Four batches the budget did stretch!)

Naturally, the book idea was not my own. It only came as I listened to Focus On The Family while putting finishing touches on the card this morning.  Today's broadcast topic inspired the thought:

First Comes Love, Then Comes Money, S & B Palmer

Wow. This couple's book sounds perfect.  But there are so many more...

Learning to Love Your Husband, Shaunti Feldhahn

How We Love, Kay and Milan Yerkovich

What Wives Wish Their Husbands Knew About Women, James Dobson

Holy Ambition, Chip Ingram

More Than Enough, Dave Ramsey

Overcoming Emotions That Destroy, B.C. Johnson

Walking Into Walls, Steve Arterburn

Every Man's Battle,  Steve Arterburn

Every Woman's Battle, Shannon Ethridge

Man, I love shopping. 

Congratulations, Kate and Dave! I'll be praying that the truth of Jesus' love and sacrifice  breaks out all over your weddedness, and that you will daily seek Him as Saviour and Lord.

Love, 

Auntie E of the LBC

Awlaki Had No Reading Plan

To daily stop and sit and Read - Oh!
Honor Him
who made us.
That once again a nation prize
Dire promises to shade us.

(100 Day Scripture Reading Plan:

feed://www.youversion.com/reading-plans/the-essential-100/rss/99e564bbeb38f9866f45b9f6235cd58c5d27efb2   )

Anwar al-Awlaki Needed Alice

While bombers hate outright our nation
Some of us see why.

Our newsmen call it freedom legal,
Strippers' nude dance plied.

That rag unwelcome, tossed upon
My driveway like a habit,

Underwritten by strip clubs
Whose ads don't need that 'rabbit.

Like those who fall by target strength
Of plans on foreign soil,

May prayer plans aimed at Beeler's shame
Unwind his angry roil.

Meanwhile dear Alice plans and prays.
Her Good News Club begins

That children grow to know and love
What Anwar/Beeler need within.