SUNDAY MEANDERINGS

FOOD FOR THOUGHT - A DEVOTIONAL

The Grace of Gratitude

Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!
~~Psalm 107:1~~

The Pilgrim Fathers who landed at Plymouth in America in 1620 knew nothing of the bountiful prosperity that so many people enjoy today. During that first long winter, seven times as many graves were made for the dead as homes were built for the living. Seed, imported from England, failed to grow and a ship that was to bring food and relief brought thirty-five more mouths to feed but not an ounce of provisions. They caught fish and hunted wild fowl and venison. They had a little English meal and some Indian corn.

Yet their lives were marked by a spirit of constant thankfulness. On one occasion William Brewster, rising from a scanty Plymouth dinner of clams and water, gave thanks to God "for the abundance of the sea and the treasures hid in the sand."

According to today's standards they had little; but they possessed a sense of great gratitude. Gratitude is one of the greatest Christian graces; ingratitude, one of the most vicious sins. Ask God to open your eyes to all the blessings He has bestowed on you and to give you a fresh spirit of gratitude -- not just at this season of the year, but always.

The Reverand Billy Graham in Hope for Each Day



THIS WEEK'S NEWS

It's been another seemingly boring but actually eventful week. Monday and Tuesday Cameron was here which is pretty routine these days but he's cutting molars and it was a little more interesting than usual. It's funny how interesting it can get around my house with a sixteen month old grandson and a fifteen month old shih tzu factored in. Cameron has always been such a mellow baby I think I wasn't prepared for him to be irritable and fussy. It took me a little while to figure out what was going on with him and then I just felt awful. I read somewhere years ago that an adult couldn't handle the pain babies go through when they're teething. So you can be assured that I spent two days cuddling, rocking and loving that little boy.

I feel so bad for him and his mommy and daddy. He's having some rough nights. As soon as he lays down, the pressure on his cheeks makes it start hurting again and he cries all night long. Krissy and Andy averaged four hours sleep each every night this past week. Krissy's on vacation next week. My poor daughter needs it.

Update on the Santa star ornaments: You probably know I've finished mine. And you may even know I've mailed the pattern all over the world now, to over sixty people. I mailed them to this friend in Pennsylvania and she thanked me by showing me how to download them into my computer, retaining accurate pattern sizes, and guess what? I can email them to anyone who wants them now, knowing the patterns will print out true to size! I had a trip to the post office planned today to mail them to England and South Africa. Thank you Dianne for making it so much easier! So if you want the pattern, just drop me a line. No worries about having to give me your name and mailing address although I promise I'm fully rehabilitated. My axe murdering tendencies really are behind me now. LOL Seriously, if you'd like to have the pattern, I can have it to you two minutes after I receive your request. If you don't have time to start them now, maybe next year?

I enjoyed spending the day with my Mom on Thursday. We could have spent the day running all over, shopping for things for the Christmas gift baskets she's making and the gifts in a jar I'm making. But we decided to just stay in and visit and play Scrabble all day. What a nice, relaxing day.

When lunchtime came around, we had leftovers from this wonderful dish I made Monday evening. Robin mentioned this recipe in a post ages ago and although she didn't post the recipe, I, um, contacted her. She emailed me the recipe and let me tell you, my Schwan's pot pie days are officially behind me. There is no better pot pie than this and it's surprisingly easy to make. One 9 X 13-inch pan of this would serve, seriously, eight very hungry people.


I'm not going to beat this one to death since it happened and I posted about it yesterday. Rob fell at work. It wasn't his fault, but he's got a seriously deep-bruised upper arm and will be home for at least a week. For some of you who emailed me and are a little confused about his job, no, it's not a permanent job. It's a three-month "temporary" job which we're praying may become an offer for permanent employment. Because it's a temp job through an agency the pay isn't good (I'm sure the agency is getting as much as he is) and there are no benefits but we are so thankful for the income. If he were to get an offer for a permanent job, the pay would go up and there would be benefits because this is a good company he's working for.

So he gets a little mini vacation next week and I get to laugh at the people at the grocery store and everywhere else we go who wonder why on earth that man is letting his wife do all the heavy carrying, pushing and lifting. He's kind of enjoying it, I think. :-) That's OK. It's his turn to kick back and be pampered.

I mentioned several weeks ago that we took our cable TV service down to the minimum. We want good reception but our monthly bill was ridiculous with all the bells and whistles we were paying for that we never really used. But we did keep our subscription to Netflix. It's less than $20 a month and we get as many movies as we can watch. You know, it costs about $35 to $40 to go to a movie at the theater. (You may get by cheaper but I'm not sitting through ANY movie without the biggest sized popcorn AND Sprite they have.) So to us, it's a good deal.

Last night we watched two movies, back to back. We watched Flight 93 AND United 93. Oh my. Flight 93 is a documentary-type movie A & E made in 2005. It is, of course, the story of United Flight 93 which went down in a field, just a few miles from where my sister and her husband go camping in Pennsylvania, on September 11th, 2001. This movie is very accurate from the air traffic control point of view. Rob was an air traffic controller for sixteen years and he was on the edge of his seat through this movie. He saw and experienced and handled some tragic things in his a-t-c experience but nothing like the nightmare that happened that day. Both of us knew what those controllers were going through and it was way too real for us to not be beyond frantic with them.

The other movie, United 93, was made this year. It's the same story but with a much more heart-wrenching view. I couldn't watch this one without tearing up. It broke my heart to watch the passengers on that flight, especially a young woman the same age as my daughter Krissy, calling their loved ones to tell them goodbye because they knew they weren't going to survive. When I heard Todd Beemer say, "Let's roll!" I sobbed.

Both movies were very, very difficult to watch. And I don't want to watch movies on this subject again for a while. It's like The Passion of the Christ. I ended up seeing it, at the theater in huge reality, twice in two days because I couldn't let Mandy go see it alone, but I can never watch it again. It hurts too much.

The little baby turkey Rob received at work yesterday morning is now safely sleeping in my freezer. Today we went grocery shopping and bought his mother. She weighs almost twenty-one pounds. This year everyone's helping with Thanksgiving dinner. We're having it here of course. I'm now the matriarch of this little family! But everyone's bringing something to help. My Mom's bringing the "trays" - the vegetable/dip and meat/cheese trays. Krissy's bringing the pies. Mandy's bringing the wine. Rob and I got everything else today. For all the years we had dinner at Rob's Mom's house, I did the trays. That was always my assignment because I do them very well. I think I'm actually a little sad I'm not making those trays this year. Sigh...

A sad thing happened to us at the grocery store today. I'm a coupon, buy-one-get-one, get the generic if possible, shopper. I'm very very good at shaving a lot of money off the grocery bill when I have to be. One of the coupons I had with me today was a $10 off your total purchase coupon. It was sitting in the basket of my cart, in plain view, with my grocery list. We were in a very crowded aisle full of irritable people, some of whom were actually pushing other people around with their carts, very sad, and someone took our coupon. I know for sure we didn't drop it. So it upset me because $10 is a lot of money to us right now. I told Rob, maybe they needed it more than us so let's not get angry. Let's just be sorry that anyone is so stressed about Thanksgiving dinner they'd steal a coupon from a nice lady's (me) cart.

At the checkout, in casual conversation, I told the clerk what had happened and she took $10 off our order. Just like that. And she smiled at us and said, "Happy Thanksgiving." I tell you two things. I hope the person who took our coupon really needed it and I thank God for beautiful people like that overworked but cheerful clerk. Another blessing. Blessings are all around us, aren't they?


NEWS FROM BLOGGITYVILLE

This has been kind of a quiet week in Bloggityville, event and meme and activity wise. We all know by now that BooMama is going to do the eagerly anticipated Christmas tour of homes. Other than that, I'm betting you all know more about what's going on than I do. I've been a little discombulated and a lot behind this week.


SUNDAY DINNER

When Rob and I were dating, back in 1978 (yes, 1978) there was a wonderful Marie Callendar's restaurant in Denver. I don't know if MC has restaurants any more, her frozen food business is so huge, but Marie Callendar's was our favorite place to meet for lunch on work days. Her cornbread was to die for. Still is. I buy the mix. But one of her best kept secrets was her split pea soup. Oh my word, it's wonderful. And I found the recipe!

I'm making split pea soup and cornbread tomorrow. Rob's over the moon, it's that good. It's the same split pea soup anyone would make, with ham hocks, cooking it all day, etc. The secret is that when it's done, you cool it enough to put it in your blender or food processor and make it completely lumpfree and smooth. It's very, very good and even better on a cold, blustery day.


ONE LAST THOUGHT

This is so thought-provoking, I hope you're sitting down. Well, of course you are. You're in front of your computer. LOL Are you aware that Yankee Candle has a new Christmas candle this year? OK. They have several. But this one is on my list for sure. HOLIDAY SAGE! The others sound wonderful, especially Sparkling Pine. OK, I may have to put both of them on my wish list. See, to me this is thought-provoking.




I'm sorry this Sunday Meanderings is so short. LOL. I just wanted to touch on the high points of my week this time. Here's my plan. I have a husband with a broken wing home all week. Mandy's arriving Tuesday and will be here for at least three days and nights (finally - it's been weeks since I've had her and her stuff all over the house and I miss it, really). Krissy's off all week. My Mom will be here a lot during the holiday week for the first time in ages. I'm thinking this is going to be a very busy week. So I have a plan.

For the first time since I started this blog in April, I may not post again this week. I'm not taking one of those "I'll be back" breaks. What I'd rather do is spend the time I can find on the computer catching up with all of your posts.

I hope you all have a truly wonderful Thanksgiving. I hope everyone has family to spend it with and lots of good food and just a nice, nice time with family and friends.

Happy Thanksgiving and God bless you.