Blessings of Habit, Coffee-ism, Health, Husbands, Photos, Wives

The Keys in the Car Caper

Posted on September 24, 2011November 18, 2013 by Katharine

keys to your kingdom — Take your keys with you!

“You can tell it any way you want to, but you did it.”

Those were my husband’s parting words to me, administered with an ornery grin.

Oh yeah. I did it.

I went to town (partly to run errands for him) and when I accidentally left my keys in the car, I also accidentally locked it.

It’s one of those newer models and the guys in the auto parts store apologized that they were scared to try to help with it.

It would have made a good Lucy Ball episode.

Except — these days we have cell phones. I could call my husband and plead insanity and he would come help me.

Except — he wasn’t in the house. So I unknowingly woke our night-shift working daughter. Ooh, I was so sorry about that. She had no idea where her dad was, she mumbled to me, but would find him for me and he would come and help me.

Except — when he got back to the house from tending chickens, he learned he also had accidentally left his keys in the car I had taken to town. He remembered and found the valet key he had stashed wherever guys keep valet keys, borrowed our daughter’s car, and came to my rescue.

Meanwhile, I had gone across the street to get a cup of coffee and had shared my end of the story with the kind waitress. She was so sympathetic, she gave me her pen to cheer me up.

By now, as I feared, the whole town knows about our keys, the only excitement we’ve had for at least a week, but I have learned a new level of cherishing thankfulness for this tiny town where the parts guys contemplated helping and the coffee waitress gave me her pen.

And that’s how I want to tell it.

And I did not do quite all of it.

Believe it or not!, Photos, Rain

THE DROUGHT BUSTER

Posted on September 19, 2011 by Katharine

It began Friday, just a few drops now and then, sometimes a quarter-inch shower or two.

But last night, the bottom dropped out. We’ve had real rain.

So, I learned a little about how to take photos in the dark and stayed out awhile just to enjoy the difference in everything.

The birds sing differently this morning. The clattering of the tree leaves sounds different. Every sound seems muffled by humidity.

The skies overhead are still gray and heavy with more to come.

Thanks be to God.

Believe it or not!, Coffee-ism, Homemaking, Photos, Recipes

One Good Pie!

Posted on September 17, 2011November 21, 2014 by Katharine

As Promised:

Pie, Recipe, and Photo!

I said I’d post this. Now here it is!

My mother found this recipe somewhere and shared it with me about 30 years ago. It’s a sort of cross between sour cream raisin pie and pecan pie. With coconut. Since I started making it as a family favorite, I have seen it in many collections.

Still, when I bring it to a public function, someone is always amazed.

I feel certain someone out there has perhaps glossed over the recipe and never, ever tasted its wonderfulness.

Have fun.

Good Pie

1 stick butter, melted
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 Tbsp. flour
2 Tbsp. top milk
2 Tbsp. vinegar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup pecan pieces
1/2 cup coconut
1, 9″ unbaked pie shell

Mix butter and sugar thoroughly. Add eggs and blend in completely. Beat in flour, thoroughly. Stir in milk, vinegar, and vanilla. Add remaining ingredients and stir well. Pour into pie shell and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

This will rise up but will not overflow. As it cools, it sinks.

For the top milk, I’ve also used either canned evaporated milk or else cream, with equal success.

A pie this rich can easily serve ten or twelve, but we serve it cooled, cut into eighths, and topped with whipped cream. Oh, and with coffee, of course.

My mother used to line muffin tins with pie dough and bake it that way for special events. In that case, the temperature is the same, but probably it would be done in about 20 minutes, or when browned.

ENJOY!

Blessings of Habit, Brothers, Inspiring, Photos, Scripture, Wisdom, Womanhood

Been Unfriended?

Posted on September 16, 2011October 25, 2018 by Katharine

People can be complicated.

Friendships can be messy.

Knowing more can be scary.

With the knowing, the deeper truths, and the closer expressions of concern, can come the fears, the denials, and the silence.

The dark days of friendship.

A couple of friends once asked me if my young teen daughter could arbitrate between their two teens. I could hardly believe my ears. The three of us were close, so I shared my many concerns and said no.

The ramifications were astounding: a seeming total breakdown in all communication.

They literally continued being friends to each other without me and my daughter.

Wow.

A full year later, we were all at an event at a park. One of these friends had a newly-minted, biggest-baddest car-of-the-year and asked me if I would enjoy taking it around the park with her.

The shock!

Still the idea of sitting behind all 4 million horses under that hood was too tempting and we took her for a spin at park speed: 5 mph. Ha.

It was glorious and just destroyed my mini-van, in my eyes.

However, what happened during that drive was more. Far more. This dear friend apologized. She said she was wrong. She had thought I was wrong but she saw differently later. She thanked me for my dedication to truth and to our friendship. I thanked her for the same two things.

We are still friends, the kind that can be apart for a year and then take it up like we were just days apart. Which we did.

This was deep.

This was asking advice on children and giving it.

This was disagreeing and staying cool for a year.

This was trusting an apology would fix it.

This was forgiving wrongs. Deep, deep, deep, like few, few, few friendships ever can be.

The ancients called these types of friendships leb in Hebrew and philos in Greek, implying core understanding, brotherhood. This friend would visit a friend in jail. This friend would give up a year of pleasure for a friend. This friend would help a relative of a friend, if asked; would party and rejoice at a friend’s joy. Read about it in Ruth 2:13 and John 3:29.

But it can backfire.

Big.

All people have at their fingertips the ability to do wrong. This is what we risk in every relationship, but the closer we grow, the more we risk.

The closer we are, the more accurately we can aim our weapons.

And, oh, the more it hurts.

This is a call for caution.

Some people are broken and do not know how to be a friend. Befriending them will always be a lopsided venture, more give than take, like dancing with someone who doesn’t know the steps. Befriending them will always carry risk. Befriending someone who might backfire is a noble calling, not a picnic.

As long as we remember each of us is able to fail, as long as we dedicate ourselves to befriending and not to collecting fun people, we can proceed. We can gently and lovingly share the truth in hope, not that the friendship will one day benefit ME, but that it will one day bring glory to God.

And that is where we all should be.

Comments? Read more?

BE the friend she needs, instead of collecting friends. Be the adult in your friendships!

Believe it or not!, Cats, Coffee-ism, Inspiring, Photos, Scripture, Wisdom, Womanhood

To Befriend or NOT to Befriend . . .

Posted on September 14, 2011October 25, 2018 by Katharine

Okay, you know her name and that she has three children and came from Peoria, and she attends your church when she bothers with attending.

You even know what she and her husband argue about. She lives just down the street, after all.

You just do not feel very close. Oh, sure, you’ve given her a ride when her car was in the shop, you watched her children while she painted a room, and you took her some soup when they all had flu. She lives just down the street, after all.

She is what the ancient Hebrew called anesh-shalom and the ancient Greek called hetairos. These words referred to acquaintances that we work with, live with, even depend upon, but yet are not necessarily of our choosing. Examples are Jeremiah 38:22 and Matthew 20:13.

It would not yet be wise to trust her, but how do you befriend her?

You take food to her, help with her children, and give her rides; that’s how.

While you are at it, show interest. If you are only a helping hand, she will feel like a charity case. A person usually cannot open up to another unless there is a trade, a give and take, like a dance. If, over coffee or tea, you ask to see the paint job, ask her for a ride in return, or ask if her children would feed your cat while you are gone, you will deepen the relationship.

You will earn closeness that allows you to ask better questions than, “How are you today?”.

Questions like:

“You look tired—bad night?”

“So, how do you like the neighborhood? Are you meeting folks?”

“It was good to see you Sunday—Have you decided to join us, or are you still looking?”

Her answers will open doors for new conversations that are more meaningful. Conversations are the building blocks of true friendship. Slip in a hug, when appropriate, and you add the cherry on top: You add value to her person.

Realizing that each person on this earth is needy is the key to all relationships.

We once lived next door to the wealthiest family in town, totally out of our league. The wife one day asked my permission to help plant my rose bushes. The part she really wanted to do was pick the grass roots from the soil, so it would not grow back so quickly. Her daddy, she said, used to make her do that chore and she seldom got a chance to show her expertise at it, anymore.

When we got thirsty, I brought out ice water in my old jelly glass tumblers. We sat on the edge of the terrace, on a railroad tie, and chatted as if we were just a couple of women who liked playing in the dirt, in our grubby clothes. We talked about our mothers-in-law and about the neighbor’s cute grandson. You know, normal stuff.

She needed to feel normal.

And haven’t we all been there.

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