Memorial Day May 30th (Observed May 28th)

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I was about to just post the above photo, when I got to looking at the calendar and noticed (having forgotten?) that Memorial Day is officially May 30th, but observed on May 28th this year (for convenience).  That caused me to think about what I had posted on last year’s Memorial Day.  So here it is: I had to take the dog and cat to the vets today (Saturday).  I was thinking about this being the Memorial Day weekend.  Either I didn’t realize this holiday began with the Civil War, or I had forgotten.  I did a little research on Wikipedia and WallBuilders.    There was apparently some ‘rancor’ in the first Decoration Day.  I can imagine, depending on which side of the Civil War one was on.

I read a book when I was young, it was about a woman who hid and transported slaves to the free world in the underground railroad.  I hoped and cheered for the underground causes and people.  I wondered, though I would want to, would I have been brave and done what she did?  Or would I be brave enough to go underground myself?  I do not remember the name of the book nor the woman.  I looked up the underground railroad via  Encyclopedia.com.  I wonder, was the woman I read about Harriet Tubman? I’m not sure, but it was probably her story, or a story modeled after her, that I read.

I re-read Corrie Ten Boom‘s book “The Hiding Place” not long ago.   Of course, she was in Amsterdam and this took place in Europe.  But the USA had their share of internment problems then too.  Anyway, there was this point in reading Corrie’s story again, that I froze, because we’re seeing some of the same forerunners to the persecution she saw back before WWII.    Corrie and her family hid Jews in their house.  Corrie, her father and sister were interned in prison camps.  She was released.  Her father and sister died during their internment.  The first time I read her book,  in the 70′s, I hadn’t noticed the things I noticed recently.  I was younger and things were different for real and by perspective then.  Both times,  I’ve wondered, having the desire, could I and would I be as brave as she and her family?  Would I be brave enough to be hidden?

There has been a lot of bloodshed in all kinds of causes.  First, I’m thankful for the shed blood of Jesus Christ, who bought my pardon and made my heart right before Jehovah God.  Without which, all are lost.  And, thankful that His brave death includes resurrection.

Second, I’m ever so thankful for the country in which I was born.  The United States of America.  I know we don’t seem so United some times and given the times and what is coming, one day it may be united in the ultimate wrong cause or united against that cause.  Quite literally, Biblical prophecy does not get specific on the role of the USA, just Israel and the powers that will be in play at the time.  All of which seem to be arriving and melding today.

I’m thankful to Jehovah God, who gave us this Country and the time we have.  I pray for His mercy and grace upon our Country.  I am thankful for all of those who have fallen in service to our Country.  Sure, the first Decoration Day had rancor due to the Civil War split of ideas, but, we have had a Country where we may pursue our dreams, or not;  may worship whom we choose to worship and in the way we choose to worship, or not;  may say what we think, or not; and yes, bear arms, or not.   I thank Jehovah God for this freedom and I am thankful there were and are those willing to die for our freedom.    Yes, we live in a Country, where I may take my pets to a veterinarian and experience the depth of freedoms in something as simple as that.   In the education and employment of  a young woman, wife and mother who went from tech to a Doctor of Veterinarian Medicine, who owns her own business, and employs others as techs in a clinic …  for pets.   A freedom that works from the smallest of things all the way up … for both men and women.

I pray we not take that for granted, nor the blood shed by Christ, who sets us free in ways we don’t always realize nor recognize.  I pray we are willing and able to stand up for the freedoms over which we have lost many brave men, women, husbands,wives, sons, daughters, uncles, aunts, cousins, employers, employees, friends, neighbors …

I hope we do remember the fallen in battle …  fortunately there are those who will and do bravely put their life on the line, intended or unintended.  Unfortunately, the battles are not over, more will fall, bravely, for a friend, a force of friends, a city, town, country, a mom, a dad, a brother, a sister …  for our freedoms in every-day-living …  living and disputing those freedoms … bravely and freely … our fallen did not die in vain.

Thank you, those who have bravely fallen.  Thank you to the history of the fallen and brave families of those who go on, in times past and present.

Thank You, Heavenly Father, for this great country and our fallen heroes and forefathers.  Thank You for the death and resurrection of Your only begotten Son …  in the greatest love of all …  to offer salvation to a world You love.

Happy 4th Birthday, Pink Saturday!

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I’m joining Beverly of How Sweet the Sound for Pink Saturday’s 4th Birthday. Happy Pink Saturday!  Thank you and congratulations to Beverly on a very good show of Pink Saturdays for four years!

Please join Beverly and the many pink links celebrating with her this weekend.

Above photos of a profusion of pink from mom’s yard 2010, Crepe Myrtle Blossoms.

 ↓For my email address, see the butterfly photo in the footer.↓

←Or, if you’re on my main blog page, it’s in the sidebar as well. ←

Thanks. 

♥

Tall, Weird Cloud

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Saturday, May 12, 2012

How about that tall, weird cloud.  I couldn’t get any closer of a photo but it sure looked like it was funneling out of another cloud, way up high.  Doesn’t it?  And, bonus?  The birds I didn’t see when I was focusing on the cloud.

And, there she is again

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Circa 1990

Doesn’t that photo speak volumes?  It does to me.  There she is, after we’ve walked up that huge rock.  She was always pretty good about being off leash, even if it meant dragging it along.  She looks pensive there, on top of the world.  Obviously, we’re not far behind her, but, I have to wonder what was going on in her mind at the time. It was a peaceful moment that’s for sure.

Her life wasn’t always peaceful.  We adopted her through a friend who had agreed to take her away from an abusive family.  She came from a world of drugs and physical violence, within the household and upon her, from the male member of a family.   We took her in when she was around eight years old.  She was a charmer and a nut.  She taught each of us something as my husband, his son and I had just come together not long before she joined us.  It was tough when old age got to her and we had to put her down.

This was her version of not being on the furniture. Our “sofa dog”. Circa 1990

Goodness, the lessons we learned from her, the love and laughter she provided was amazing.  I can still hear her howling to the sirens in a movie and us howling with laughter as she entertained us several times as we rewound the video.  She was precious.

Sometimes, we move from abusive situations into the hands of God and know peace and joy that nothing else, no one else can provide.  The journey isn’t always blissful on the surface, but the real healing, the kind that lends the incomprehensible peace? It comes only from the LORD.   For every abusive moment, whether self-inflicted or inflicted by others, He is there to heal, bind up the brokenhearted, and set the captives free.   As I work through life, I learn that more and more.  I suppose that’s why this photo, which I recently passed by and picked up for this post, spoke so much to me . . . safe and secure . . . standing on the mountain top knowing peace that only God provides  . . .

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
     and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of joy
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the Lord
for the display of his splendor.

They will rebuild the ancient ruins
and restore the places long devastated;
they will renew the ruined cities
that have been devastated for generations.
Strangers will shepherd your flocks;
foreigners will work your fields and vineyards.
And you will be called priests of the Lord,
you will be named ministers of our God.
You will feed on the wealth of nations,
and in their riches you will boast. Instead of your shame
you will receive a double portion,
and instead of disgrace
you will rejoice in your inheritance.
And so you will inherit a double portion in your land,
and everlasting joy will be yours.

 “For I, the Lord, love justice;
I hate robbery and wrongdoing.
In my faithfulness I will reward my people
and make an everlasting covenant with them.
 Their descendants will be known among the nations
and their offspring among the peoples.
All who see them will acknowledge
that they are a people the Lord has blessed.”

I delight greatly in the Lord;
my soul rejoices in my God.
For he has clothed me with garments of salvation
and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness,
as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
 For as the soil makes the sprout come up
and a garden causes seeds to grow,
so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness
and praise spring up before all nations. Isaiah 61 NIV Emphasis added.

 

Happy Dance – the previous post

Happy Dance

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Circa 1990

I looked up at my laptop and that photo was on display at the time.  A split second glance at it and I saw joy in her feet and general posture.  I know she loved water, she had her own tube tied to mine when we went river tubing years ago.  We both had tubes with boards in the bottom.  She loved water.  She enjoyed the sprinkler and squirt gun almost as much!

I saw that joy in her steps and knew that joy she exhibited in life; it reminded me of how I feel sometimes.  Like a child that gets something for the first time…full of amazement and joy at the understanding of something.  I know that feeling now and then when God’s Word opens up to me or He opens up something in my life or heart and understanding.  What joy!

And David danced before the Lord with all his might…

2 Samuel 6:14a KJV

and he had doubly good reasons that time . . . for the ark and that the time before had been disastrous.

P.S.  Did I say happy dance?  I found this photo just a moment ago:

 

Just put the pan on the table.

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The other day, I was sorting through some notes of odds and ends when I ran across those words scribbled across the top of some scratch paper.  Just put the pan on the table?  I figured I must have written my husband a note one day when I was on the phone.

Then, today, when I was making green enchiladas, I suppose I was wandering around in my thoughts, when the same phrase came across my mind,Just put the pan on the table.

Ah, yes, now I remembered.  It was a note I jotted down one day when I thought about posting something.  I can remember my mom and my maternal grandmother, making that comment as they served up dinner.  It might have gone I’m just going to put the pan on the table as a pot of beans was served up with iron skillet cornbread and rice, all in their pans on hot pads or trivets.  Or when the iron skillet came out of the oven piping hot full of Texas Hash. Sometimes, it was something mom said when we visited someone who was putting dinner on the table, Just put the pan on the table, my mom would say.

More than any fancy dishes . . . just put the pan on the table . . . and it feels like home.  We do it all the time.

And that is sort of like the recipe I jotted down on the inside of my Mexican Cook Book some years back.  Probably a recipe mom dictated over the phone one day, just like she use to do and just like her mother use to do.  Just wonderful!

Oh, I suppose you would like to read the recipe?

Green Enchiladas

  • 1 can cream of mushroom or cream of chicken soup (10 oz.)
  • 1 small can (6 oz.) evaporated milk
  • 1/2 pound Velveeta®
  • 1 small (4 oz.) can chopped green chiles
  • 1 small jar pimentos
  • 1 dozen corn tortillas
  • 1/2 pound longhorn cheddar cheese grated
  • 1/2 cup chopped onion
  • 1 pound ground beef

Heat to melt:  soup, milk and Velveeta®.  Add chilies and pimentos.

Lightly brown ground beef with onion in skillet.  Combine with grated cheddar cheese.

Warm tortillas and/or fry in hot oil and/or dip in sauce, fill with 1/4 cup meat/cheese filling and roll.  Place rolled side down in baking pan covered with some of the sauce.  Cover with foil and bake in oven 350º F for 30 minutes.  Remove foil and, just put the pan on the table (on a trivet of course).

I feel like I had to translate the recipe – it’s not exactly written up that way on the inside of my recipe book.   Today, I used Mexican Velveeta® and Guerrero Tortillas (yum).  My husband forgot the chilli powder in the Spanish Rice.  I made the queso with a little too much extra spice and one of the last jars of my home-made hot sauce.  And, the avocados could have been better quality.  One saucepan, one Corning® casserole, one Pyrex® baking dish later . . . it all on the table and was all delicious!  Every last bite with leftovers to spare!

If I’m doing my job with my blog, links to various recipes mentioned are located on my page Pinches of This and That.  Except for Texas Hash – I’ll have to find that recipe or figure it out in order to post about it. 

See? And, I didn’t even notice I was taking a photo of the meatloaf in the pan the day I did that!


My Mother’s Day Bouquet

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A bouquet from my husband for Mother’s Day. I didn’t get around to photos for several days, but it still looked great.  And the card (plus) from our (his) son? Oh, I’m cherishing that in my heart.

I read an article years back when we first got married about blended families and how challenging it can be to blend.  Some things (ourselves) just get in the way, ya know?  We have had our challenges from just about every direction, boy howdy have we.   Lots of upsets and goodness, what else can be said? The rewards of sticking with it? Well, I have to say that we have stuck with it without the LORD, and with the LORD.  I much prefer the latter.

How happy is everyone who fears the Lord,
who walks in His ways!
You will surely eat
what your hands have worked for.
You will be happy,
and it will go well for you.
Your wife will be like a fruitful vine
within your house,
your sons, like young olive trees
around your table.
In this very way
the man who fears the Lord
will be blessed.

May the Lord bless you from Zion,
so that you will see the prosperity of Jerusalem
all the days of your life
and will see your children’s children!

Peace be with Israel.

Psalm 128 HCSB Emphasis added

Happiness and going well for me?  Not always tangible, and that’s an amazing thing, to have something within that knows happiness regardless of circumstances.   It’s possible.  What a difference it makes in life, really.   I’m learning this more and more.