January Walk

Our yellow lab, Moose, loves to go on walks with us.  For the first quarter mile he runs circles around us at top speed.  

When we returned from a chilly walk the other evening, I threw the sheet pan meal pictured above together and it was so good.   Here, to the best of my recollection, is how I did it: 

Savory Sheet Pan Meal

One 1.5 lb bag little potatoes, such as Little Charmers

2 medium yellow onions, peeled and chopped

5-6 carrots, peeled and sliced into 3" pieces

3 garlic cloves, minced 

6-8 whole peeled garlic cloves

A package of lower fat fully cooked Polish or kielbasa sausage, sliced.  

Enough olive oil to coat vegetables,  2 to 4 Tbsp. 

Salt and Pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients except sausage, tossing together to cover with olive oil.  Bake on a half sheet pan (18" x 13") in a 400 degree oven until potatoes are nearly done, about 15 minutes; stir halfway through cooking time. Add the sausage and cook 5 minutes or so more, until the sausage is sizzling and hot through.  

Snowy Day

Large photo upper left: I was so grateful to feel good today--you should've seen me on my hands and knees rolling up the base for our snowman!  Clockwise from upper right:  Logan, 5, wanted to build a snow fort--and so we did!  The sunset photo of the snowman is bittersweet--he knows his days are numbered.  That fat quail at lower right brought a dozen friends to our bird feeder today along with the cardinal at left.  Lower center, Daniel, age 9.  

Church services in our little community were canceled this morning.  Both churches in our town have a high population of older people, so it was prudent to avoid having them (us) negotiate slippery streets and sidewalks. 

Our two oldest grandsons appeared at my door after a sledding excursion with their dad, and I quickly negotiated an afternoon at Grammy's for them.  They peeled off layers of sodden clothing and pulled rockers up next to the little propane wall heater in our guest bedroom.  Once they had warmed up, we had homemade chicken soup with rice, made a batch of gingerbread (and ate most of it), then headed back outdoors to make a snowman. 

When we are young, we believe such perfect days as today are ours for the taking, and that there will be many such days.  This grammy has lived long enough to know that part of the reason days like today are so special is that they are rare.  I've stored away a special, heart-warming memory of this day spent with my boys. 

Sipping Once, Sipping Twice...

I made a pot of chicken soup with rice this morning, and since it is January, and there is indeed ice on the sidewalks and streets, I remembered the poem above.  I taught this verse to my first grade classes each January, and would heat Campbell's chicken soup with rice in a crockpot and dole it out with crackers for an afternoon snack.  Funny how even canned soup can become a much-anticipated and much-enjoyed treat when it is cold outside (and when you are seven years old and experience the novelty of being given crackers and soup as a mid-afternoon treat at school).

These days I have the luxury of time to make my chicken soup from scratch.  This morning I had generous handfuls of fresh sage and rosemary to add to the stock, and the scent of that simmering soup was heavenly on this cold day.  I usually don't care much for chicken soup but with the wind howling and sleet falling outside my window, I ate my bowl of soup with good appetite just like my first grade students of yore!

******

Chicken Soup With Rice

In a large stockpot:

1 chicken
Handful of fresh sage
Some fresh rosemary
2 bay leaves
About 6 cloves of garlic
3-4 stalks of celery, chopped
2 medium yellow onions, one chopped, one quartered and stuffed into the cavity of the chicken
4-6 medium carrots, chopped, if desired (when I use wild rice I don't put in carrots--not sure why it's just how I do it!)
Salt & pepper to taste

2.5 cups dry rice

Put all ingredients but rice into a large stockpot, cover with about 3 quarts of water, and bring to a boil. Reduce to simmer and cover, cook for an hour or so until the chicken is very tender.  Remove the chicken (there's a trick to this; I use a meat lifter beneath the bird and a heavy duty spoon in the cavity for leverage), let it cool just a bit, and remove meat from bones.  Pour the stock through a colander and skim away most of the fat--I use a gravy separator.  Return the stock to the cooking pot, add 2.5 cups of dry rice to yield about 7 cups or so of cooked rice (follow package directions--I used a wild rice blend that only had to cook for 15 minutes). When rice is nearly done, cut about half the meat (or as much as desired) into bite sized pieces  and add it to the soup.  Adjust salt and pepper to taste, add more boxed (or your own homemade, frozen) broth if needed for the desired consistency.

Number of servings:  About 8.  Or so.  Okay, I have no idea.  I took out two servings for my husband and myself and sent the rest to my daughter's family of five.

Christmas Collage

We had an uncommonly low-key and peaceful Christmas, even with two 2-year-olds on site!

Most of the recipes I made this year were traditional ones for our family: biscuits and gravy, two kinds of cinnamon rolls, and corn pancakes for our Christmas day brunch (yes, corn pancakes). But the star of the show this year was the hot spiced fruit.  I always have made a version of this but found one that is much superior to my old recipe.  You can find it here: Home for Christmas Fruit Bake Recipe!

I don't know how corn pancakes became traditional holiday fare at our house.  My kids loved them growing up and now they are a part of our annual brunch--and there is no recorded recipe.  We usually combine a box of Jiffy corn muffin mix, a can of creamed corn, and about 1 tablespoon vegetable oil for the corncake batter. If there are no egg allergies at your house you can add an egg and omit the oil.

Here are some Christmas photos from our various celebrations (note the photo of that yummy and easy to make fruit bake).  Praying that you and yours have a safe and happy 2018! 

From November ...

I'm surprised to see I didn't post during November. It was a busy month as we hosted Thanksgiving at our house.  I spent it cooking, cleaning, and cooking some more.  And, I would like to tell anyone who cares to try it for themselves, baking and carving the turkey ahead of time and then freezing it in well-seasoned broth works great!  It was moist and delicious, and I don't think anyone would have suspected if I hadn't told them.  I brought it from the freezer on Thanksgiving morning and then heated it gently until it was hot through.

Here are three of favorite photos from my leisurely, healing, November walks around the driveway:

Another October Post...

The bottom photo is a detail of the red maple in our west yard, top, left.  

Some folks are posting 7 days of black and white photos on Facebook this week.  It's a neat idea, and I've seen some lovely photos...but in my estimation, black and white just doesn't portray autumn in Kansas in the way it deserves.

I'm so glad to be recovering from surgery in October--the heat of summer or the cold of winter would've kept me inside, and I'm about to go stir crazy as it is!  What a blessing to venture outside my door into the sunshine and green-scented crispness of this rain-washed October.

Like Spring Only Better

Fall color has officially arrived--but regular rains and moderate temperatures have kept the grass green and growing.  Our five year old grandson chased a frisbee in our front yard yesterday, and when he stretched out full length in the grass he disappeared!  We are going to have to mow the lawn here at the end of October.  

I had an emergency surgery not quite two weeks ago, and today was the first time I had ventured outdoors since I arrived home from the hospital.  On a lovely, soul-nurturing stroll around the driveway I snapped these photos--homegrown pumpkins, green grass flanked by red maple leaves, and roses in October.  Grateful to be here to see it.  God is good.

Early October

There isn't much color in the fall trees in our part of Kansas, not yet. Even our red maple that is usually a blaze of crimson by now seems to be waiting, withholding judgment; is it really Autumn?  We usually have blazing heat and little if any rain in July and August, but this year the temperatures were moderate, and we received needed rain right on schedule; maybe more moisture than usual has discouraged the usual scarlets and golds of October?  But, as the photos above show, there's beauty nonetheless.

Favorite Time of Year

Clockwise from upper left:  the little yellow house in the gold wash of late September light;  Heath Aster or perhaps a variety of fleabane; from darkness to light as I walked down the hill above our house; and my bucket of admittedly fake fall flowers, hanging from the old pump that has served as our mailbox mount for 43 years. 

I love late September and early October here on the farm.  John is combining corn and we have a good crop this year, so there is a positive excitement in the air as he bustles to and fro between the elevator and the field with brief stops at home to eat and sleep.  This afternoon our son has taken a half day from his regular job to drive the combine for his dad, and a good friend will be driving one of the semis. Farmer John will be overseeing the festivities, and probably will drive a second truck.

I took a walk this morning and I don't think words can adequately describe the almost spicy scent in the air.  It makes me think of a sweetly crisp apple combined with newly mown hay; the air was brisk and cool but the sun was hot on my skin.  If I could send you the scent in the air around me as I snapped the photo of the hay bales at right,  you'd see what I mean!

For a good portion of this year I've been depressed with grief from having to place my mom into nursing home care, and I've also suffered a variety of minor physical ills.  It's good to count my blessings during this harvest time and remember the ways the Lord has brought us through.

The cooler temperatures have spurred me to make a pot of chili for a family celebration this weekend; you can find the recipe by scrolling to the bottom of the post here. Happy Fall y'all!

Beautiful September 6

Today had the look of late summer but the air felt like early fall.  This morning the thermometer read an unseasonably cool 49 degrees, with highs for this afternoon in the low 80's.  I meandered out about 8:30 this morning and took the photo of the butterfly, and later in the day couldn't resist those white, fluffy clouds against a cerulean sky!

God Hears Our Prayers for Our Kids

We were at a friend's wedding back in 2010 when I snapped this photo of my son and his date (left). When the festivities were over and I had time to examine the pictures I'd taken, I was pretty certain I was looking at my future daughter-in-law--and I was!  Beautiful Nicole married our son, Jonathan, just a year-and-a-half later.  At right: Jon appears to be gazing steadfastly into the future here--but was actually watching to be sure his garage door raised properly after he'd pressed the remote opener!   

My beautiful son--ok, my handsome son (but my fellow moms of sons will understand that I think of him as beautiful)--is going to turn 30 in just over a month. He is our youngest child and he is going to be THIRTY!  This seems amazing and impossible and yet simultaneously right, just as it is right for roses to bloom in June and apples to ripen in September.

Jonathan has accomplished a lot in his thirty years. He began working for John Deere weekends and summers when he was just 16, and has worked in three different John Deere stores to date. And so, somehow, though he's only 30, he's worked for JD for 14 years, and in his spare time has earned a college degree, married, had a daughter, and helped his wife as she completed her own education and became a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine.  Yes, my mother's heart is blessed.  

The year Jonathan turned 13 though, I spent a lot of time praying for him for a variety of reasons; suffice it to say that junior high can be brutal.  Sports, academics, increasing independence: all these things and more caused me to spend a lot of sleepless nights praying for my son. I wasn't particularly helped by my gift of discernment, because at that point in his life there were dangers all around so that I had to fight constant battles against my fears for him. Only those who have seen a beloved child at risk will understand the depths of emotion with which I cried out to the Lord on Jonathan's behalf.  I confided my worries to a dear friend who joined me in prayer, and then responded with a comforting email:  

I copied my friend's words
 into the front of my Bible. 

I got this mental image as I was praying of your son being a man and being this absolutely "to die for" husband (and grown son).  It was kind of cool to picture him as one of the "rare breed" who was able to support and care for a wife in that special way that seems so hard for men, and to also keep loving his mother."  

My friend's words turned out to be prophetic. When Jonathan got to college, he joined Christian Challenge. He became active in his campus church, and serves as a deacon in his current church.  He cooks, smokes meat, does woodworking, has remodeled two houses, takes care of his daughter while his wife is working, works a full time job himself, and does a whole lot of other stuff-of-life things that I won't try to itemize.

Yes, God answers prayers. The photos above warm my heart because they clearly show that our son  has been gifted with a wife who loves her husband, and daughter who loves her daddy, and isn't it the prayer of every mother's heart that her children will have people who will take care of them and love them when she is gone?  But...as Jonathan has grown in stature, his mother has grown in her faith.  I'm more able nowadays to rest in the Lord's assurance that He isn't ever going to let go of my beloved son, because Jonathan belongs to Him. This is the sweetest, greatest blessing.

Our first duty as parents is to pray steadfastly for our children to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.  Yes, I spent a whole lot of time praying Psalm 91 (keep them safe, Lord) and Psalm 121 (PLEASE keep them safe, Lord) for my children, and my son has had Proverbs 3 quoted to him (sometimes at the top of my lungs) more times than either of us care to remember. But the prayer that yields the best fruit for our children is that they understand the meaning of John 3:16, and accept God's invitation to become children of God.  Once that transaction is complete, we can rest in the assurance that the Lord takes care of His own, though we mustn't stop praying for them so long as we have breath and wits to do so.

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God. Philippians 1:9-11

God hears our prayers for our kids.