One more thing for the day

Does anyone have a wonderful pumpkin spice cookie recipe that they could share?  I have now tried 3 of them and they’re all “okay” but I’m looking for one that someone has tried and loves.

Not any too picky, am I? 

In all my years….

Okay, is there anyone else reading that has EVER had this happen to them?

Jeff pulled dinner (a ham – thank you Michelle for suggesting those hams, btw) that had been baking, from the oven.  Just as he got it out and started to move toward the dining room, the 15 X 11 Pyrex pan it was in SHATTERED!

I don’t mean he dropped it – I don’t mean it cracked, I mean it shattered into a bazillion pieces all over my kitchen.  ????  In all these years of cooking, I have never had such a thing happen.  I’m still shaking my head.

The room wasn’t the least bit cool, the pan wasn’t that old, it hadn’t started with a frozen ham….nothing.  There was no logical reason for that, but I can assure you, it sure shook us all up.

Tonight when we gave thanks for our dinner, we were ESPECIALLY grateful.  Especially since there were several children in the room with the pan when it blew – including child #3 who SHOULD have been badly cut or burned by the hot liquid in the pan, but suffered neither of those things.

The Lord is good and greatly to be praised!

Just the FACTS, Ma’am

Working as a switch board operator at Indiana University allowed me plenty of opportunity to see rare and….well, bizarre things to occur.  Several of those events are BURNED into my brain.

It was late on a Wednesday night when the phone rang and I answered to hear a screaming woman trying to tell me about the man she had lost.  From her frantic words, I finally figured out that he was her neighbor, that she had brought  in to pose for the art class and that while they were sketching him in a partially reclining position, he had fallen asleep.  Since he was sleeping soundly, no one had woken him while they were on their break and when they returned he was gone.

I understood that he was missing, I understood that he was unfamiliar with the campus, but what I didn’t understand was her great distress.  When I pressed her for more information, she did admit that he was pretty “loaded.”  He was broke and the class paid for models, but he had been a little nervous about posing, so he’d gotten pretty well trashed before arriving.  (Hence the cause for sleeping, no doubt)

Okay, so now we have a lost drunk man wandering around an unfamiliar campus.  That is cause for some concern, but certainly not the depth of distress that she was displaying.  “Are there any other details that I need to know about this, before I contact security?”  “Um, well, I guess so.”  “Alright and what would that be?”  “He’s naked.”  (She GUESSED so?!!!  I yi yi yi)

Once I got the full picture of the situation, (uh – turn of phrase ONLY, thank you) I made an immediate call to security and alerted them to the situation. Isn’t it amazing how having all the facts can help you prioritize the needs of the moment?

This morning, when I was praying, the Lord gave me this GREAT little acrostic to help me (and help me help you) keep the holidays in properly prioritized.  F.A.C.T, as you might have guessed from the title.

Focus, Assumptions, Conversation, Time, Sanity.  They’re all pretty self explanatory, but I’m going to be lazy and spend 1 blog for each one. 

However, before I begin, may I challenge you to take 15 minutes and sit down and write out what your “fantasy” holiday would look like?  It doesn’t need to make sense to anyone but you.  Just list out all the things that would make the perfect holiday, in your estimation.  (All those secret things you’ve been beating yourself up with over the years – you know, like all the gifts need to have color coordinated gift wrap.  Every piece of greenery in house needs to be fresh and have ivy and holly and possibly even some roses intertwined amongst them. There needs to be a enough cookies made that you could try a new one every day and not need to eat any one twice…you know, those kind of things)

Once you have that list completed, read over it, pray over it and set it aside.  Over the next few days, please go back and write R or U next to each one.  R for realistic.  U for unrealistic.  Then, hold it for another day or two and go back and write N for needful or S for superfluous. Once you have each item marked with either R or U, and N or S, take that list to your prayer closet and/or to your husband, and make sure that it lines up with the heart of Father for your family.  (When I did this, there were things that I marked as superfluous, that the Lord had me drag back out to do.  It was interesting.)

And tomorrow morning, we can begin a discussion of having a right Focus for our holidays.