memories – Page 11 – Home's Cool!

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The Lost Thanksgiving and . . .

Posted on November 28, 2011November 16, 2015 by Katharine

I have a surprise for you.

I recently mentioned resenting interrupted Thanksgiving Days, but today’s post begins the tale of two interrupted Thanksgivings and their attending blessings. Hope you enjoy them.

The first one was when my youngest two sons were about 8 and 6. We were about to leave for our annual “over the river and through the woods”.

Our children had laid out all their clothing according to the master list I provided years ago and stored in each suitcase. (Remember, I was a home-school mom.) Last minute details on cleaning the house before we left were panning out nicely. (I was a bit OCD about coming home to a dirty house.) (Okay, I was a bit OCD about “what if we had a wreck and someone had to come into our house . . . “)

Anyway, we were near completion on everything. The only thing remaining was supper, baths, and sleep, during which I would pack all that nicely laid-out clothing and then sleep during the trip.

I was on schedule and smiling at myself on the inside. In a carefree voice, I told my kids to go out and play, that all the biggest chores were done.

In a few moments they came back inside, the 8-year-old with his arm broken.

My husband had a late meeting that night, so it fell on me to drop all packing chores and take the poor babe to the doctor. It was so late, I called first, and our wonderful family practitioner said if I came straight there, they would stay open for me. That was blessing #1.

One x-ray told all: My son’s injury was the type of break that would require an orthopedist to finish breaking, which was a surgical procedure requiring an overnight stay in the hospital. So after a couple of calls to my husband and to our house, we traveled on to the next town and succumbed to the ministrations of ER. Once there, the inevitable questions came, about who and how this child could be so severely injured. It was a downer, but along came my husband’s close friend, who happened to be the ER physician on call that night, to vouch for me, and to give me his own phone number for “who to call in case of an emergency” when I could not remember my own mother’s phone number. Blessing #2.

(That poor ER nurse was certain I was a childbeater, but what could she say?) Blessing #3.

Anyway, our family doctor had called ahead to our preferred orthopedist, who dropped everything and came to our rescue. Literally, he arrived in the ER in a tux. When I apologized for calling him from such a special occasion, he said, “Are you kidding? I would have taken any excuse to get out of there!” I count that as blessing #4.

Sure, enough, our son had to remain in the hospital overnight, and our entire plans for Thanksgiving were canceled. Our families, 500 miles to the north, were totally disappointed, as we were, too, of course, but we all were more concerned about this little boy and his well-being. Hard to recognize blessing #5. Hey, not everyone has this kind of understanding in their families.

If you’ve read many of my posts, you know we take Thanksgiving Day quite seriously in our family. I immediately began thinking about the get-together our small Bible-study group had planned, for celebrating Thanksgiving, that we had thought we would miss because of going to be with family. I made a couple of calls and we soon had a very special celebration lined up with these other people we loved almost like family. Blessing #6.

The boys sign the cast (Photo credit: samwebster)

Our son was mending, but still woozy from pain killers, and even then, still in some pain, but we all went to celebrate with these friends in one of their homes. They took us in like the orphans we felt we were. All their children treated our injured son to amazing understanding and rare privileges children reserve only for those times when life pleads that we be kind. (Blessing #7)

We were glad to be there, to be thankful for blessings we knew of, never realizing that God was busy, preparing other blessings not so obvious, indeed, of which we could never have even dreamed . . .

Tomorrow: Thanksgiving Found!

Believe it or not!, Blessings of Habit, Health, Homemaking, Inspiring, Photos, Recipes, Who's the mom here?

Smoked Turkey

Posted on November 22, 2011November 10, 2012 by Katharine

Now. May I talk you into smoking a turkey sometime soon? We have found it a most welcome way to introduce turkey into a meal. Many people prefer the taste of it.

Some say smoked meats keep better because of substances in the smoke that penetrate the surface of the flesh. It makes sense if we consider that charcoal is a good purifier and preservative. This does not mean you need not refrigerate a turkey that has been smoked, but everything we can do to make meat safer to eat is probably wise.

It’s definitely the easiest way to prepare turkey.

Besides, don’t you think the Pilgrims smoked theirs?

Smoking food is not hard but you will need a smoker.

I saw one that a friend had built of brick and it made wonderful smoked chicken. If you have natural stone you could probably build a small smoker with almost no cost. I’ve heard of hanging meat down a chimney, but I know nothing factual about that and I am a terrible climber. A stainless steel smoker with electric start costs in the hundreds, too fancy for me. The most reasonably priced smoker at our local discount store is less expensive than a stand mixer, and comes with good instructions and recipes. When I consider how often we smoke something, it is worth it to me.

Do make or buy the type that can have a water pan and a temperature gauge. Our gauge says “ideal”, instead of 170 to 210 degrees, which is the ideal temperature range for hot smoking meat. (Cool smoking can take weeks.)

In a smoker like ours, which is a cylinder about three feet tall and eighteen inches in diameter, use about five pounds of charcoal. Light it (do not use petroleum type lighters) and wait for it to turn white, just as you would if grilling food.

At this point you may add a couple handfuls of green hardwood chips, such as hickory or apple, for extra flavor, or you can buy dry chips and soak them in water for this use. DO NOT ADD PINE OR OTHER SOFTWOODS. They give a chemical taste.

Place a wide enamel pan holding about a gallon or two of hot water over (not on) the charcoal. Set a wire shelf or grill on the pan and the turkey on this shelf. Close the smoker and wait 10 to 12 hours. The turkey is done. It is that easy.

If you bought a fresh turkey (or if you raised it yourself) you can serve this luscious food guilt-free and hassle-free. It even should have fewer calories than conventional recipes because it doesn’t stew in its own drippings; they drip off.

Apart from these quality improvements, the one great benefit of smoking a turkey is that it can make the celebration of God’s bountiful blessings much more fun. Giving thanks is supposed to be joyful and all are supposed to participate. Smoking the meat gives you more free oven space and more free time for other wonderful things like letting your children help.

I suggest you practice smoking meat a few times before trying any big important meal. You’ll need practice to learn to trust the temperature gauge and leave the smoker closed. Any loss of precious smoke and heat just slows you down. Do not open it, especially for bigger cuts of meat, unless the temperature shows that all is not well. Then you must open it and fix the fire. This rarely happens.

A smoked turkey will look raw, if you judge by color, for the meat will be pink, like ham. So the test should be for tenderness and meat temperature. Juices should run clear. Joints should be loose or separating.

It is better to plan to have your turkey done somewhat earlier than “on time”, about an hour or two. The extra time is for deboning. People want to get at the meat, not inspect a dead bird. Once deboned, it can be warmed in a pan with a few dribbles of water and a lid or foil over it, set into the oven at 350 degrees. A thorough heating should remove all doubts of safety for the cautious.

It smells and tastes good enough to eat!

Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared, for this day is holy unto the Lord . . . Nehemiah 8:10.

______________________________

Image by BBQ Junkie via Flickr

Believe it or not!, Inspiring, Photos, Scripture, Wisdom

Do-by-Self Is Done For

Posted on November 17, 2011November 17, 2011 by Katharine

Thirty-seven times.

Paul mentions himself 37 times in Romans 7:14-25.

I try, I can’t, I fail, I wish . . . We could join him couldn’t we! And when Paul calls himself wretched, isn’t there a part of us that says, “Oh, yeh!” We know. We’ve been there. We even have shirts with jokes about our failures:

My get up and go got up and went. My wife and I had words last night . . . but I didn’t get to use mine.

It’s not funny, though, not really, to be depressed or to squabble with a spouse. We laugh because it helps us not cry. It helps us feel less wretched.

But the misery will not go away by itself. We look around for a friend to help, and although a friend might listen and sympathize, really, what can another hurting person actually do to change me? We’re all alike, each carrying some type of misery, each wretched in his own way.

We each do things we knew better and never dreamed we would do, and we each carry around fear and painful memories from it. Like Paul.

And like Paul, we each can find the blessed victory he mentions just a line or two after bemoaning his wretchedness:

“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.” Romans 8:1

Why does he say that? Because the “flesh” is just another way of saying the soul, the personality. It’s the part of us we know could be good, except it can’t, the part that weighs all the input and decides–decides wrong. It’s me, myself, and I; Mr. Do-by-self. The wretched one.

That guy.

And the solution Paul found?

Christ Jesus. There is something about Him, something in Him, that is our great escape.

And any who actually want to unload their wretchedness need only let go of it, turn their backs on it.

Turn to Him.

Believe it or not!, Blessings of Habit, Health, Inspiring, Wisdom

Body, Soul, and Spirit in Balance

Posted on November 10, 2011March 17, 2015 by Katharine

: personality (Photo credit: hang_in_there)

We’ve defined the soul and found that it is the personality. According to God, the personality lives forever. Amazing.

We’re not finished investigating all this, though, because, as the soul is made of three parts—mind, will, and emotions—so, also, the soul is one of three parts: spirit, soul, and body. And just as the will decides between facts and emotions, so also, the soul (personality) resides between the spirit and the body.

Deep. I know. But true.

Time for more definitions.

Body – The easy one, the part of us we can see, the flesh and bones, the blood, sweat, and tears. Easy.
But here is a new thought: All living things (plants, animals, and humans) have a body of some sort. And miraculous as the body may be in all its workings, it, at least, is visible. Handy for definitions.

Soul – Not too hard. We defined it last time, and although we cannot see the soul or personality, we can tell lots about it, identify it, label it, even anticipate it according to given patterns.
New thought: Plants do not have souls. Animals and humans do.

Spirit – The tough one. Can’t see it. Most people have to wait for it to manifest to know it is there. God’s Spirit is good and loving. All the others may fake goodness awhile, but will eventually show themselves to be imposters.
Plants and animals were not intended to be spiritual, although spirits can inhabit them, if briefly. Only people were intended to be spiritual, to contain God’s Holy Spirit. All the other spirits fight for a person to own and inhabit.

Not so many people want to know this. Not so many people want to give others some space to know this. Doesn’t make it untrue, though. Throughout the ages, truth never changes. Truth tellers may have to hide, but truth remains, no matter what the attacks.

So the soul is fighting on two fronts.

First, within itself is constant arbitration between thinking and feeling. Second, it becomes the rope in a tug-of-war between physical and spiritual.

Thoughts and feelings, body and spirit, all are nuances and facets that can color responses from person to person, or even within the same person from time to time.

For a small example, let’s take a box of candy. In your mind you know it is bad for your health. In your emotions you associate this type of candy with childhood Christmas favors. You must decide.

If your personality, or soul, is well-trained and healthy, you will forego eating the entire box, having maybe one piece, savoring it and remembering past fun, and stopping there.

If, however, your soul or personality is warped, you may skip it altogether and throw it away, or you may eat the entire thing, perhaps not even tasting much of it.

Still, if your body has an addiction to sweets, you might take over and eat an entire box every night, steal to get the money for it, and lie about it afterward.

If you are so entrapped, though, you might be so scared of the spirits inside yourself that you ask Jesus Christ to save you and put His Holy Spirit inside you, which would teach you to say no to all the things warring against your personality, and He would then have saved your soul.

Unpopular, but no less true for it.

___________________

Image by dnnya17 via Flickr

Believe it or not!, Blessings of Habit, Health, Inspiring, Photos, Scripture, Wisdom

Psyching Up for the Great Psyche-Out

Posted on November 8, 2011November 8, 2011 by Katharine

What is the soul? Any idea?

Do you wonder, worry, about the state of your soul, desire your soul to go to heaven, or fear your soul will go to hell?

If we have any Bible knowledge at all, we know, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” We sin. We wonder.

It’s not just Christians, though. No, not at all. Most religions at least wonder, if not make claims to know, how to get the soul to a better place after this life, and how to keep it out of a worse place. It’s like we have this built-in KNOWLEDGE that the soul continues in the great beyond.

Yet, most do not know what the soul even IS.

Here’s a clue: The Greek for soul, in the Bible, is psuche. This is also the root word for our psychology – the study of the psyche or psuche. Are lights coming on for you already? Good.

Most who study the soul or psuche divide it into three parts. Everyone likes three parts, but with the soul, it actually applies. Freud (whom we will not be quoting much) called the parts id, ego, and superego, not necessarily in that order. We will call the parts by English names: Mind, Will, and Emotions. That is what makes up the soul, the psuche-psyche, the self.

For today, we will define those terms.

The Mind – The mind is the product of the organ we call the brain, and is the part that deals in facts. It takes in, stores, and/or produces our thoughts. With the mind we can read, remember, rationalize, think ahead, etc. The mind is where we learn, and can be strengthened by learning anything that is true, weakened by learning the false. It’s a big job, yet it is only 1/3 of your soul. What we think is not all there is to us. There also is what we want.

The Will – This is the part that determines what we want. It chooses. It should be in control, well-informed by both the mind and the emotions. It is the scale where the soul weighs the mind against the emotions, facts against feelings, and decides what the outcome will be. The will grows stronger by “exercising the will” and weaker, even unstable, by continuing in indecision. A strong-willed soul may even superimpose its wants onto someone else, if that someone is weak-willed. And stay out of the way if two strong-willed persons have opposing desires: That can even cause wars.

The Emotions – This part of the soul feels sad, happy, attracted, repelled, etc. Genuine smiles come from the emotions, as do tears. Many of the noblest emotions find expression in poetry and drama. With our emotions, we consider the feelings of others, and choose words according to their connotations. The emotions are strengthened by expression, and weakened by squelching. The emotions can be stored for later, as during mourning, when most people take about two years to process all the emotions of a normal loss of a loved one, and longer with a wrongful loss.

Enough for today. Tomorrow, Lord willing, we will use this foundation to build more understanding of the soul.

See ya!

_____________

Image via Wikipedia

Believe it or not!, Blessings of Habit, Husbands, Inspiring, Photos, Sayings, Scripture, Wisdom, Wives

Seven Reasons Your Christian Husband Can’t Do Better – Part 3

Posted on October 26, 2011October 27, 2011 by Katharine

Reason #3

He Is in Bondage

What does this mean?

Just as it sounds, he has cords, chains tied around his life and he is unable to escape from his sins. They pursue him, overtake him, enslave him. He tries to understand. He explains to himself, rehearsing what he will say if confronted, all to very little avail. It is a rut. He is stuck, tortured, crippled. There seems to be no way out. The power of God over sin seems to be for everyone else.

Solution #3: How does this happen? Sometimes (most times) this condition in someone who claims Christ, comes from unforgiveness.

In Matthew 6:15 the Lord tells us that God’s people must forgive others to receive forgiveness from the Father. The man holding others in unforgiveness places himself in grave spiritual danger. He shows that even greater sin lies dormant within himself, awaiting a moment to manifest. He proves his need for the grace of God while risking forfeiture of that grace. In fact, he refuses grace.

Failing to go for grace when he is needy, he becomes enslaved. It is such a potential for great loss.

There is little you can do if your husband’s unforgiveness is plaguing your marriage. If he is sinning, you can hardly stop sinning for him. Your patience and prayers are the best you can give.

It’s a different story, though, if the wife is holding him in bondage through her unforgiveness. In Matthew 16:19, we find that if a Christian forgives someone, he is forgiven in God’s eyes. God gives us that authority. This means that when your husband is going too fast on the highway, you can forgive him and free him to receive grace to conquer lawlessness. When he overeats, you can forgive him and free him to receive grace to conquer gluttony. When he neglects to pay bills, you can forgive him and free him to receive grace to conquer laziness.

This makes an enormous difference.

Hard to believe? Look at the Apostle Paul. When he called himself “Saul”, he was one of the Romans who helped kill Christians, hardly a small sin, hardly something you could forgive if you found it in your husband. Yet, Stephen forgave Saul, freeing him for his future. Read about it in Acts 7:58 – 9:1. It really happened: A Godly person forgave the unforgivable. He released the sinner to receive Christ’s ministry and become Christ’s minister. What Stephen forgave on this earth was forgiven in heaven. Stephen was like Jesus in his death.

We are called to be like Christ. That is what the word “Christian” means. If Jesus Christ could love and forgive you when you were His enemy, if Stephen could forgive his murderous enemy, how much more should we be willing to forgive the husband of our heart, our beloved, the one we chose to share this life with!

This two-sided commission also gives us authority to hold a man to his sin, to hold him in bondage. Before we shrug this off, remember that if a husband is bound to a sin, the wife is too, because we are bound to them in marriage. Taking this lightly is dangerous because God takes it seriously. You bind your husband to his sin, yourself to him, your children to you both, to the third and fourth generations of them that hate the Lord. Hate is a strong word, but Jesus said it: You cannot serve two masters. You love only one and hate the other. Whomever you serve, is your master. If you serve the god of unforgiveness, I fear for your family.

There is one more fearful facet to this truth: If you hold your daddy in unforgiveness, binding him to his sin, you need to realize you are bound to him, too, as his daughter. Are you seeing some of his same sins in your husband or in your children? Is it beginning to make sense? Forgiveness IS the key, just as God said. The joyful thing is: you hold the key.

Matthew 16:18-19

Believe it or not!, Blessings of Habit, Brothers, Inspiring, Photos

Weekly Photo Challenge: Opportunity – 2

Posted on October 22, 2011 by Katharine

Yep, I’ve decided to go with the second MISSED OPPORTUNITY from yesterday:

Yesterday, I also included a photo of the flag furled in a way that sort of folded itself over itself, and with the sun backlighting it, it made a sort of checkered pattern. I remember I captioned it “Stars and Checks”. Oh well. It was fun while it lasted, but evaporated, funwise and WYSI-wise, the moment I clicked “publish”. Too bad. Now it is just sheer determination that makes me bow to the necessity of posting twice in order to post two photos. Here it is, such a rare moment, for me, a newbie photographer. I was glad for the OPPORTUNITY when I had it and glad to share with those who care to look, now:

Hope you enjoy the shot.

I did.

Oh, and the link for Part 1 is here. It sort of explains this post. So sorry it has to be this way, evidently.