Cook's Illustrated is one fine magazine.  My dear friend Katie gave me the idea of using the illustrations from the back page for kitchen decorations.  At the same time (and unaware of my plans) my brother and his wife gave me years of these magazines, bound in books.  My beloved DIL Jessie helped me pick out frames, cut out pictures, frame them, and hang them.  Are you getting the (valid) impression that I need a lot of help? Ha!!  It's true!

The top two are Brassica (cabbage family) and Fresh Chiles; the middle frame is Potatoes; the bottom are Berries and Basil.  I just **love** looking at this wall!

The exciting thing is that I have dozens of these back covers (shellfish, apples, olives, plums, pasta, squash...many more) and can change the prints with the seasons or whenever the mood hits.  Yes!!  Sigh....life is good.

I had two trips down memory lane this weekend.  I was cleaning my desk and came across this picture in the most unexpected place.  Here is my mom holding me with my six siblings, taken around 1959 (?).  Doesn't everyone look happy?  Except me!  My brother the tenor, BTW, has his tongue out!  When I see this picture, I have so much admiration for my mom.  My dad was hired to teach at a college in Illinois but there was no money to move the family from Michigan.  So he stayed at the school during the week and came home on weekends.  He worked all day Saturday repairing broken items, preached a sermon on Sunday and then returned to Oak Park. What they had hoped would be a short-term solution turned into a couple of years.  Can you imagine raising seven kids by yourself?  Mom was resourceful, capable, and, above all, cheerful.  And in the midst of these cares she had a vibrant ministry to many other women.

The second memory trip was related.  My sister just returned from vacation in Florida with my aunt and uncle.  She called Saturday to tell me about it.  After the news and updates she mentioned that my aunt had told her a new story about....me!  I had not heard this story and I have no recollection of it.  My mom died suddenly when I was 10.  When I saw her body in the casket I am reported to have said, "That's not my mom.  My mom is in heaven."  My aunt stored that comment away and just recently shared that.

I don't remember this, but it triggered many thoughts.  When someone close to you dies, the clear memories you had become fuzzy and most of them dissipate into thin air.   That's why photos and stories from others are so precious.  They are a way to sharpen some of the fuzzy edges, one moment of clarity. Decades after she passed, I am still so thirsty to hear stories about Mom, to know her better than I do.  What remains are vague but solid impressions.  The smell of coffee on her breath.  The smiles we exchanged, looking up from reading.  The sound of her humming while she worked.  The exasperation in her words, surveying another mess. And knowledge that resides deep in my bones.  I know without a doubt that she loved me.  I know that she wholeheartedly trusted God.  I know that she is in heaven with Christ.  These are good memories.

I have a fun assignment every July: I purchase all the food for our church's Family Camp. Which means I get to work with one of THE BEST camp cooks.  Teresa has so many tricks and has gladly shared many with me.  Here's one;

Easy Potato Soup

Fix a package of scalloped potatoes according to directions.
Put cooked potatoes in a big pot and add milk until it is a soup like mixture.
Add chunks of ham. Heat and serve.
Voila!  Potato Soup!

I've never met a person who didn't like this soup.  For 150 people, we purchase several 36 oz boxes of scalloped potatoes from a restaurant supply store.  I buy this size and follow the recipe for half a box, which probably feeds 20.  I'm sure that the regular size from the grocery store would work well too.  It's not the best diet food, but it really tastes nourishing.  We're at the tail end of "soup season" and it's chilly enough outside to warrant something warm and comforting. 

If you've tasted Teresa's soup, please comment!!

This poem's length will tempt many to skip it.  But it truly is worth the time and contemplation. It captures the emotional cyles of life and the renewal that "spring" seasons of life bring. What do you think of it?

The Flower   

How fresh, O Lord, how sweet and clean
Are They returns! even as the flowers in Spring
To which, besides their own demean,
The late-past frosts tributes of pleasure bring;
   Grief melts away
   Like snow in May,
As if there were no such cold thing.

Who would have thought my shriveled heart
Could have recovered greenness? It was gone
Quite underground; as flowers depart
To see their mother-root, when they have blown,
   Where they together
   All the hard weather
Dead to the world, keep house unknown.

And now in age I bud again,
After so many deaths I live and write;
I once more smell the dew and the rain,
And relish versing: O, my only Light,
   It cannot be
   That I am he
On whom they tempests fell all night.

George Herbert

This meme comes from Donna

Do you see the flowers I've posted?  My dear DIL, a floral designer, gave those to us.  What are 10 simple pleasures in your life today?

Shout, for the blessed Jesus reigns;
Through distant lands his triumphs spread;
And sinners, freed from endless pains,
Own Him their Saviour and their Head.

He calls his chosen from afar,
They all at Zion's gates arrive;
Those who were dead in sin before
By sovereign grace are made alive.

Loud hallelujahs to the Lamb,
From all below, and all above!
In lofty songs exalt his name,
In songs as lasting as his love.

Benjamin Beddome, 1769

The tune for this, Truro, is one of my favorites.  I'm playing this during the prelude tomorrow.

You know, if they sold belated birthday greetings by the box, I would buy them.  No I wouldn't -- because most of the time I intend to get cards to people on time.  What's wrong with me?  I'm still trying to get March birthday cards and gifts mailed.  So far, I've missed three April birthdays with my SIL's will be here this Sunday. 

Spur of the moment occasions are my forte; sadly, planning ahead has always been a deficiency.  Oh bother!!  I don't want to give up and throw in the towel. I come from a big family and birthdays are a good time to affirm love and relationship.  Shopping is not my strength, unless it's finding butter for .99/lb and other grocery deals.  Maybe I always feel inadequate at choosing gifts, thus I procrastinate.

Any suggestions?

I was reading in Isaiah today and came across my life verse in 12:2

Behold, God is my salvation,
I will trust and not be afraid;
For the Lord God is my strength and song,
And He has become my salvation.

You can easily line up the options:
salvation, security, strength, song        ~         despair, fear, weakness, empty silence

Do you have a life verse?

To keep your marriage brimming,
With love in the loving cup,
Whenever you're wrong, admit it,
Whenever you're right, shut up.

~Ogden Nash