Another creative way that I have found to eat cranberry sauce – oatmeal mix-in.

Though I am enjoying the challenge of finding ways to eat 4 cups of leftover cranberry sauce, next year I will only serve one can of sauce instead of three!

The show was cute, cheesy, funny, and had a surprisingly good message. The main character, Opal, believes the best in everyone, always. And in the end, she wins out.

At first I thought, well, that was a cute ending to the show. But then I realized, that is what God has asked of me: to always believe the best in those he has in my life to love. And that is what He has promised me: I will win out in the end if I follow that way.

I’ve got a long way to go, but it sure was a fun way to be reminded of where I should be heading.

Thanks, Opal!

Just this morning I was feeling like life is finally more fun than frustration, more peace than chaos. Some of it is due to my better listening to God, but a lot of it is due to the little people in the house starting to grow up.

Oh, there is still a long way to go for them, and me, but I sure am lovin where we are!

So this year, I am cheating. No mashed potatoes at our “week-before-Thanksgiving” traditonal Thanksgiving meal. I’m baking up some small red potatoes smothered in olive oil, salt, pepper, and a bit of garlic. Everything tastes better with garlic!

But while reading through the first part of Abraham’s story again, I started to get a hint of understanding. To save his own skin, Abraham lets rulers take her to be their wife not once, but twice! That must have made it very difficult for her to trust Abraham and, in turn, the God that he followed.

This is an excellent reminder for all of us that we must look to God for who He is, and not get hung up on the sinfulness of the Christians around us (me being one of those sinful Christians!). It is also an excellent reminder for us, as Christians, that people are going to look to us to get an understanding of who God is, so our behaviors will impact people’s ability to trust God both positively and negatively.

We visited Tettegouche State Park, getting there just before lunch. After hiking about 15 minutes we found a beautiful overlook at the start of Shovel Point. Another couple was just finishing up eating as we arrived. As they moved on, we settled into our usual picnic lunch of summer sausage, chips, baby carrots, apple wedges and juice boxes.

We had been munching about 3 minutes when my husband noticed we had a visitor. It never ceases to amaze me that the squirrels in protected wildlife areas are so much more tame than the squirrels in my own back yard. I guess it makes sense, as there are not numerous people sitting in my yard eating food everyday, leaving behind crumbs and purposely throwing out snacks. But I still find it to be an oxymoron to find tame wildlife in the wild, and wild wildlife in my suburban neighborhood.

I know that Funyuns and potato chips are not healthy food for red squirrels. They really aren’t very healthy for people, either. But he was so cute, we just couldn’t help but leave him some. When he came across a tiny piece of chip, he quickly ate it. But the apple wedge was grabbed up and whisked off down the boardwalk.

A minute or so later, he was back looking for more. This time, he found the Funyun. He took a nibble, then decided that should be whisked off, too. We were done with our lunch so took off after him, trying to see where his cache was. We saw him zip up into an evergreen, then jump back down and disappear deeper into the woods.

Upon close inspection of the evergreen,
this is what we found about five feet up!

Hopefully he remembers where he put it before someone else comes along to enjoy it! The next day, while driving home in a soft rain, I wondered about the Funyun, hoping it had been enjoyed before the rain melted it away.

This made me think of Matthew 6:19-20:  “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.”

Wow, after 3 minutes, it had to go off – it was that good! The show, “Parenthood,” has captured perfectly what it is like to parent a boy with Asperger’s syndrome. Anyone interested in experiencing my life, tune in.

However, as my husband and I generally watch TV to relax and escape from reality for awhile, that show is not for us.

But I am so glad that show is out there. Kudos to the creator’s of, “Parenthood.” You have done well!

Our family tries to eat gluten-free, and as any of you who eat GF know, everything GF is a lot crumblier than its glutinous counterpart. Well, the first day that I was picking the kids up from school in the new car, I baked some GF cookies. I brought them as an after-school snack. But I forgot to bring some napkins.

As all of you will elementary students can remember, you put a lot of time and effort in nagging, cajoling, bribing, shaming, threatening, whatever it takes to get your kids to learn to use napkins or facial tissue instead of some other nearby fibers, such as clothes.

So needless to say, my kids think it is absolutely hilarious (they are still laughing about it two weeks later) that when I picked them up from school that day, these are the directions they received:

“I forgot to pack napkins, so if you get crumbs all over your fingers, please wipe them on your pants, do not wipe them on the car.”

Wow! That is faith – to just change direction with no warning. I was always a bit disheartened by this story, because I know myself too well. I require a lot of warning before I am ready to make significant changes. I am getting better at trusting God, but I still don’t think I would have been able to turn and rip up my life so quickly.

However, while doing my assigned Bible reading this morning (ok, so the reading was assigned for Wednesday, Aug 24. But better late than never!) of Genesis, Chapter 11, I read the following:

“Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there. Terah lived 205 years, and died in Haran.”

Wow! That really gave me hope. God had already been preparing Abram’s heart. God gave Abram a taste of what it is like to move from your home, by prompting his father, Terah, to move the family from Ur to Haran.

God gave Abram a sense of what it is like to be obedient to authority, even when it means plans you made are interrupted. The Bible says that Terah had planned to go to Canaan, but stopped in Haran. Abram had expected to go to Canaan, but was stopped by someone in authority over him.

Most importantly, God put a glimmer of the dream of living in Canaan into Abram’s heart, so that when God called Abram, Abram would be ready to respond. Abram had expected to be living somewhere other than Haran. So when God called him, it probably felt more like, “Cool, I was hoping to get moving again some day.” And less like, “What, you want me to just uproot everything and go to where?”

I am sure there was a bit of the, “you want me to do what?” feeling. But I am so happy to see that God made sure there was some of the, “Cool, I was wondering when this dream would come to fruition!” feeling, too.

Usually where there is one, there are at least five. But, thankfully, it seems that this dude (or dudette) was enjoying the run of the house to him/herself. A second trap set Friday evening has remained unsprung and very full of peanut butter. Hopefully we are good for now!