Three Thoughts for Thursday

Posted on March 6, 2014 by jphilo

Can you imagine how long the mnemonic device will be to replace My Very Energetic Mother Just Served Noodles now that NASA names the 715 new planets it just discovered?
The Man of Steel and his brother were the first Caucasian twins born in Alaska’s Matanuska Valley way back in 1956. Thanks to the Winter of 2014, we can pretend we’re back in the Valley this Saturday when we celebrate the anniversary of that momentous event
Speaking of hard winters, my Minnesota sib sent the above chart about the top ten worst winters, temperature-wise. A day or two later, the winter of 2013-14 moved up a notch thanks to the Polar Vortex’s latest visit. My mom still talks about the Winter of 1935-36 . I still talk about the Winter of 1981-82, the very cold winter when I was pregnant with our first child. Now my kids can join the conversation thanks to the Winter of 2013-14. A new family tradition is born!

What winter stories does your family tell? Leave a comment.

Baked Chicken with Mustard and Maple Syrup

Posted on March 5, 2014 by jphilo

Every month, a newsletter from The Baker’s Pantry* arrives in my inbox. Their January newsletter featured the recipe for “The World’s Best Chicken.” Quite a claim, and I was a bit skeptical. But, the dish was dairy-free and combined some interesting ingredients, so I gave it a try.

The man of steel and I didn’t think it quite lived up to it’s name, though it was very good. Good enough to try again this summer. Maybe fresh rosemary from my herb garden instead of dried tarragon (I was out of rosemary) will elevate the dish to “World’s Best Chicken” status. Stay tuned for that announcement come June or July!

Baked Chicken with Mustard and Maple Syrup

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 1/2 teaspoon red wine vinegar
Salt & pepper
Fresh rosemary

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a small bowl, whisk together mustard, syrup, and vinegar.

Place chicken breasts into a baking dish. Season with salt & lots of pepper. Pour mustard mixture over chicken. Make sure each breast is coated. Add more pepper if you like.

Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until meat thermometer reads 165 degrees. Season with fresh rosemary and serve.

I halved amounts make the dish for two. The recipe above is the halved recipe.

*The Baker’s Pantry is an old-fashioned family-owned country store in Dallas Center, Iowa. It sells Amish, organic, and other premium quality foods purchased in bulk and repackaged. I stop by every few months to stock up on coarse ground wheat flour, bulk aluminum-free baking powder, and bulk and whole spices I can’t find anywhere else.

Top Ten Things About My Dad

Posted on March 4, 2014 by jphilo

10. He gave rabbit kisses. No way to describe them. You had to be there.

9. When I was home sick from school, laying on the couch, he would park his wheelchair beside me, and we would watch Captain Kangaroo together. He laughed as hard as I did.

8. Having Dad close by in his wheelchair made me feel safe.

7. He picked Mom’s birthday and Christmas gifts carefully. He looked through the newspaper ads and phoned the store to quiz the clerk for a long time about whatever gift he wanted to buy. Once he made his decision, he arranged to have the gift delivered when Mom was at work.

6. Dad loved to play cards with friends, but he didn’t play to win. He played to talk.

5. He was never, ever a picky eater. He ate with gusto whatever was served and always complimented the cook.

4. Dad never allowed discussions about politics to become cut throat. His most barbed political statement referred to his right arm, severely weakened by multiple sclerosis: It’s my Republican arm. Not good for much of anything.

3. His thousand-watt smile and sense of humor.

2. He was always happy to see people. Always.

1. Dad rarely showed bitterness during his 38 year battle with multiple sclerosis. He was 29 when it was diagnosed, 31 when he required a wheelchair and retired, 54 when he entered a nursing home, and 67 when he died. I am so grateful for his example, his influence, and the years his life intersected mine.

Oh, Dad, I miss you!

In memory of Harlan John Stratton: May 11, 1928–March 4, 1997.

Thank You, C. J. Gauger

Posted on March 3, 2014 by jphilo

Thank you.

Two words I wanted to say to C. J. Gauger face-to-face at his 100th birthday Saturday. But a snowstorm and frigid temperatures thwarted my plans. So today’s post is devoted to thanking a man who touched my parents and their young family in profound and positive ways.

Thank you…

for taking an interest in Harlan Stratton, my dad, in the mid-1950s when he was hired as Youth Extension Director in Plymouth County and later as Mills County Extension Director. Thank you for mentoring him and taking an interest in his wife and kids.

Thank you…

for observing a stumble in Dad’s gait as he walked away from you after at a 4-H function and telling a co-worker, “Something’s wrong with Harlan. We need to be ready to stand beside him and support his family.”

Thank you…

for acting upon those words after Dad was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1959–for calculating exactly how many days, minus vacation and sick days, he needed to work to reach the five year mark and qualify for a Civil Service pension.

Thank you…

for arranging for Dad’s Extension Office co-workers to pick him up for work once he couldn’t drive, to complete his paperwork once he couldn’t write, to read to him when his vision blurred, until Dad reached the five year mark.

Thank you…

for a pension that allowed my parents to buy a house built for a wheelchair, something they couldn’t afford to do on Mom’s teaching salary and in the absence of Social Security, which Dad didn’t receive until 1990 when he was 62.

Thank you…

for a pension, from which Mom gave Dad $40 as spending money every month. Not much, even in the 1960s and 70s, but enough to allow him to purchase birthday and Christmas presents for his wife, take his family out to supper now and then, and maintain his dignity.

Thank you…

for collecting money to purchase a small life insurance policy for Dad to provide something for Mom and her three small children…just in case. When Dad died in 1997, Mom and us kids were surprised to learn about the policy. Since we didn’t need it, we used it to start the Harlan Stratton 4-H Scholarship given annually at Iowa State University.

Thank you…

for the small pension Mom still receives as Dad’s beneficiary. It’s only $211 a month, and she doesn’t really need it. So she donates part of it to the scholarship fund and spends the rest on college text books for her grandchildren.

Thank you…

for calling some years ago, after reading a newspaper article that connected me to Dad. Thank you for confessing, over the phone, the extent of your kind involvement on behalf of our family when my siblings and I were very young, when Mom was vulnerable and in need of hope.

Thank you…

for showing how a small thread of kindness weaves goodness into the fabric of a family for decades and generations until its members are strong enough and grateful enough to weave kindness into the lives of others.

Thank you…

and happy birthday, C. J. Gauger, one of the great men I have ever known.

Amazing Feats of Love

Posted on February 28, 2014 by jphilo

The night is almost gone, and the day is near.
Therefore, let us lay aside the deeds of darkness
and put on the armor of light.
Romans 13:12

Like many people around the world, my husband and I spent much of February watching the Sochi Olympics. We marveled as ski jumpers flew through the air at terrifying speeds, as snow boarders slid down pipes and up inclines, twisting in the air and somehow managing to land upright. We commented on the speed skaters’ massive thigh muscles and on the courage (or foolhardiness) of the luge teams. We watched amazed as figure skaters launched into jumps from impossible positions and completed soaring turns before gracefully landing on a thin, metal skate blade and glided away. Both of our jaws dropped when Julia Lipnitskaia, the young Russian skater, executed a dizzyingly fast spin on one leg while holding her other leg straight up about 4 inches from her face. “How can she keep skating after twisting her body like that?” we asked.

The answer is discipline. Months and years and decades of discipline, combined with the natural talent, was what landed Julia and the other Olympic athletes at the games. Not only discipline to practice their sports every day, but also discipline to eat right, get enough sleep, to fall down and get back up, to encourage and to be encouraged by other athletes.

What motivated them to commit themselves to such rigorous and not always pleasant discipline? The answer is simple. They knew the winter Olympics were scheduled for February 7–23, 2014, and they wanted to be there when the big day arrived.

In Romans, Paul urges believers to apply similar discipline to accomplish the seemingly impossible feat of loving others as we love ourselves. Love others, Paul says, because the night is almost gone, and the day is near. The day of Christ’s returning when this earth will be replaced by new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells. (2 Peter 3:13)

But why did Paul choose Christ’s coming as motivation for believers to love others? Because the two are closely linked. Because the watching world wants to see if the love we proclaim plays out in our lives. Because when we practice what we preach, Christ uses our love to bring lost hearts to faith in him.

Earlier this year, our small, local church brainstormed ways to reach out and love our community. We voted for our favorites. Now we’re praying about the results to decide how to love our town. Performing the amazing acts of love we select will require discipline. We’ll need to practice. We’ll need to feed on Scripture to seek God’s will. We’ll need to encourage one another to get back up when we fall down.

Our motivation will be the same means Paul used spur on the Romans. It’s the same motivation that spurred believers throughout the centuries to perform amazing feats of love on behalf of the watching world. The night is gone and the day is near. Our motivation is a desire born of love for Christ and the people in our town. We want them to be ready to joyously and expectantly welcome Christ, when the big day arrives.

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Three Aged Thoughts for Thursday

Posted on February 27, 2014 by jphilo

Winnie the Pooh made his first appearance 90 years ago this month. You can hear his creator, A. A. Milne read the beginning of a Pooh tale at this NPR link.
Florida resident Joe Newman is running for Congress at age 101. Why now? Because, Newman said, when he watched children get off the bus after school he worries about what kind of world we’re leaving for them.
Maria, the last of the Von Trapp children, died at age 99. I wonder what her favorite Sound of Music song was. Mine’s “The Lonely Goatherd.” Yours?

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Non-Dairy Lemon Scones

Posted on February 26, 2014 by jphilo

I. Love. Scones.

Probably because they make me feel so pip-pip, Downton Abbey, tip-top, jolly good, old chap and all that. Consequently, favorite scone recipe and numerous variations have been featured before on this blog. But creating a decadently delicious dairy-free scone proved illusive. But finally, thanks to my daughter’s suggestion to replace the butter with coconut oil and a splash of vinegar in Coffee Rich creamer, the quest was successful. Here’s the recipe for lemon scones, my absolute favorite.

Non-Dairy Lemon Scones

4–5 tablespoons Coffee Rich Creamer                   1 1/2 teaspoons vineagar
1 3/4 cups flour                                                     2 tablespoons sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder                            1/2 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons coconut oil                                     1 egg, beaten
2 teaspoons lemon zest                                         the juice of half a lemon

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.* Put vinegar into a measuring cup and add Coffee Rich Creamer to the 1/4 cup mark. Set aside to curdle.

Mix together dry ingredients. Cut in coconut oil. Add lemon zest. Add egg, lemon juice enough curdled Coffee Rich for the dough to form a ball. (Less liquid is better than more. If more liquid is needed, add a little more uncurdled Coffee Rich.) Shape dough into a circle about 1 inch thick on a greased cookie sheet. Cut circle into 12 wedges. Pull every other wedge a few inches out of the circle. Sprinkle with sugar. Bake 10 minutes. Serve hot.

*Scones baked on a hot oven stone are the best. Place the stone in the oven before setting the temperature.

Top Ten Things About the Last Week of February

Posted on February 25, 2014 by jphilo

10. Hopefully, it’s the perfect time to cut slips from the heritage geranium and root them in water.

9. The sun starts doing it’s morning thing around 6:30,

8. and the light doesn’t fade completely until after 6:00 in the evening,

7. because the 2–3 inches of sunlight gained daily since December 21 starts adding up this time of year.

6. Our taxes are done, and a refund’s coming.

5. The sun coming in the south kitchen window feels warmer, even when the outside temp is in the single digits.

4. The month is 3 days shorter than January, but retirement checks aren’t any smaller.

3. No matter what the ground hog indicated earlier this month, the first day of spring is only three weeks away!

2. The birds are singing again.

1. The man-of-steel’s birthday is in early March. Which means he will be older than the woman of aluminum until her birthday in July!

What do you like about the last week of February? Leave a comment!

Photo credit: KROMKRATHOG at www.freedigitalphotos.net

Broccoli Obama and Other Presidental Trivia

Posted on February 21, 2014 by jphilo

Last Sunday, I created a lesson for an evening activity for kids at our church. The task unleashed my latent school teacher. By the time the kids arrived, I was armed and dangerous. I had a plethora of Presidents’ Day trivia about Washington and Lincoln as well as coloring sheets, and word searches. Little did I know how much the children would add to that great body of knowledge.

The first group of kids were first through third graders who knew Monday was Presidents’ Day. They thought the holiday had something to do with birthdays, but needed some pretty broad hints before they landed on George and Abe.

“But they’re both dead,” one child announced. “When is our real president’s birthday?”

“Oh yeah,” a girl chimed in. “He has a funny name. It’s hard to remember.” The entire group agreed with her. They hemmed and hawed, trying to remember the real president’s name.

“His name reminds me of that one vegetable.” She thought for a moment, and her face lit up. “Broccoli!” she exclaimed. “His name sounds like broccoli.”

“Oh yeah!” everyone chorused. “Broccoli Obama!”

Giggle.

The next group of kids were four and five-year-olds. Amazingly, they named ~~Broccoli~~ Barack Obama without batting an eye.

When asked what the president does, one little boy answered confidently. “He rides around in a car and kills bad guys.”

“No,” another boy disagreed. “President Obama is a good leader.”

Unfortunately, good leadership didn’t have the same allure as a sound bite about riding around in a car killing bad guys. Most of the kids bought into the car theory and stuck with it, even while they colored pictures of Abe Lincoln’s log cabin and the young George Washington working as a surveyor.

“See this?” A sandy-haired boy pointed to some orange lines he’d drawn on the log cabin’s doorway. “That’s a booby trap so bad guys can’t get in.”

“See this?” A little blond guy pointed to George’s surveying equipment. “That bottom part turns into the gun for killing bad guys.”

Sigh.

The final group were fourth and fifth graders. They breezed through the President’s Day trivia, and were surprised to hear that George and Martha never lived there. They even knew the first White House burned down and had to be rebuilt.

“Yeah,” a serious boy said. “That kind of thing still happens. My mom told me that some tourists ran a train into the Octagon, too.”

I thought for a moment. “Do you mean Pentagon?”

“Yeah! That’s it. The Pentagon!”

The boy beside him added to the confusion. “And some other tourists ran a plane into a tall building in New York City.”

“The Twin Towers,” I explained. “They were terrorists, not tourists. That happened in 2001.”

“2001?” The Octagon tourist reporter did some figuring in his head. “That was two years before I was born.”

The boy beside him pointed at the coloring pictures. “Can we do those?” They colored industriously, sure as only children can be, that their parents and their country’s president, Broccoli Obama, will kill the bad guys and keep them safe from tourists attacking the Octagon.

Pray.

Photo Source: markuso at www.freedigitalphotos.net