by jphilo | Jul 10, 2015 | Uncategorized
This post brings back memories of a most eventful trip to Idaho in July of 2011. So it was the perfect Fantastic Friday post for a week filled with air travel to Idaho once again. Wary travelers will be relieved to hear I saw no children on the baggage carousels in airports.
After an entertaining and/or character building (depending on your perspective), virtually un-re-create-able travel adventure, we are finally home.
Hallelujah!
Perhaps the deer that darted onto the busy highway between Sand Point and Coeur d’Alene in front of our driver’s car was an omen. But since the car missed the deer or the deer missed the car (depending on your perspective), we blithely continued onto the Spokane airport and arrived there with time to check in and eat lunch. We even snagged a free pizza since whoever ordered before us never picked up theirs.
Buoyed with the anticipation of snarfing down free pizza once we landed in Denver and ran to catch our connecting flight, we blithely walked to the gate and waited to board our Southwest Airline flight to Denver. Maybe strange overhead announcements were an omen of what lay ahead, but we and the other passengers only laughed harder as the warnings progressed:
ANNOUNCEMENT #1: It is against safety regulations to allow children to sit on the edge of a baggage carousel. Please do not allow children to sit on the edge of Baggage Carousel #2.
ANNOUNCEMENT #2: It is against federal safety regulations for children to sit on the edge of a baggage carousel. When it starts moving, they could be injured. Parents, be sure your children are not sitting on the edge of Baggage Carousel #2.
ANNOUNCEMENT #3: This is the third warning about allowing children to sit on the edge of the baggage carousel. It will start moving in 2 minutes, and they could tip onto the carousel or lose fingers when it starts moving. Please remove your children from the edge of the baggage carousel immediately.
ANNOUNCEMENT #4: Parents, this is your third warning. (Apparently, the announcement maker had lost count.) Get your children off the edge of the baggage carousel immediately. The luggage will be arriving soon. Remove your children immediately.
We were still chuckling about the announcement 2 hours later on our approach to Denver, but the laughter dried up when the pilot mumbled, “The Denver airport is closed due to a severe thunderstorm, and we’re being rerouted to Amarillo, Texas.”
Amarillo, Texas?
No one was laughing fifty-five minutes later when we landed in Amarillo. No one laughed when the pilot continued his mumbling. “The storm has moved out of Denver, so we’ll get gas and go back. All your connecting flights have been delayed, so there’s a good chance you’ll be able to make them.”
Hallelujah!
Except that half of the 200+ passengers were in line to use the 2 tiny airport potties, and the good news went right over our heads. The other half were staring out the windows at the oddest looking aircraft we’d ever seen.
“Looks like a dolphin,” said the young woman next to me. “And it has NASA printed on it.”
“Or it could be Shamu,” I suggested. “Who knew there was a Sea World on the Amarillo, Texas airport? Or we’ve been rerouted to a hush, hush NASA site for flight training.”
Pretty soon, we were on our way and arrived in Denver just in time to board our connecting flight to Omaha, snarfing free pizza as we ran.
Hallelujah!
That flight was uneventful, as was our late night drive home and our arrival at 3:30 AM. We were asleep in our beds by 4:00 AM. Our luggage, which did not make the connecting flight is supposed to arrive tomorrow. And I cleared up the NASA Shamu mystery with a little online research. It revealed that our NASA Shamu is really a NASA Super Guppy. Which leaves only two loose ends to wrap up right here, right now.
To the person who ordered and forgot to pick up the Hawaiian pizza at the Dave’s House of Pizza Kiosk: It was delicious. Thank you so much for sharing your supper with us.
To anyone who was in the vicinity of Spokane Airport’s baggage claim area between 2 and 4 on Tuesday afternoon: If you know what happened to the kids on Baggage Carousel #2, please leave a comment. We could use some closure and a final hallelujah!
by jphilo | Jul 8, 2015 | Recipes
I’m at Family Camp in Idaho this week. The food here is always fantabulous, so today’s recipe features a camp favorite previously posted here on Gravel Road.
These cookies were the brainchild of Mary Anne Walker, known as Grandma Annie to her grandchildren, my husband included. Their lovely memories of their grandma making cookies are easy to see. When they first see their favorite grandma treats lined up on the cooling rack, their eyes light and their smiles spread. “Grandma Annie cookies,” they say one-by-one, “a meal in themselves.”
For me, they were an acquired taste. Now I love them, too. My eyes light up when they’re served at Family Camp. But best of all is listening to Grandma Annie’s descendants talk about the remarkable woman whose faith and love made a deep impression on all of them. And whose cookies have an impressive impact on waistlines, too. But let’s not talk about that!
Grandma Annie Cookies
3/4 cup butter melted in 1/4 cup water
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon soda
3 cups oats
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup raisins
1 cup peanuts
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add butter, water, vanilla and eggs. Mix thoroughly. Shape into large balls and drop onto cookie sheet. Bake 12-15 minutes.
by jphilo | Jul 7, 2015 | Top Ten Tuesday
July is a hot and sticky month in Iowa. Even so, it’s one of my favorite months. Here are 10 reasons why.
10. I save so much time in July not having to dress in layers, pull on boots or coats, or hunt for gloves before going outside.
9. Fourth of July celebrations are great fun, but they are more than fun. They are a time to be grateful for the freedom we enjoy in this country thanks to the courage and wisdom of our country’s founding fathers.
8. What is more lovely than gazing at fireflies twinkling during as long summer days fade from dusk to darkness?
7. Sweet corn.
6. My birthday is in July. I will celebrate the arrival of my 59th year, grateful to be in good health, relatively sound mind, and able to walk miles each day.
5. My sweet daughter turns 27 in July. She is a blessing worth celebrating all year long, but especially in July.
4. That same daughter and her husband were married in July five years ago. They are an amazing, faith-filled couple who are living an amazing life together.
3. In a few weeks, I get to spend a week helping out with our youngest grandson. A whole week of toothless grins, coos, and snuggles. What’s not to like about a July that holds that kind of joy?
2. Shadow Valley Family Camp begins tomorrow in Idaho. Look out mountains, here I come!
1. The Man of Steel and I were married in July 38 years ago. I can’t imagine enjoying July without him.
What do you like about July? Leave a message.
by jphilo | Aug 2, 2013 | Church Newsletter Columns
Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit,
if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.
Romans 8:8–9
I’m back from a memorable gathering at Family Camp in the Idaho mountains. For a week, close to 40 rellies gathered to work, worship, and play together. From daytime sandbox fun near Hammock Haven, to nightly board games in the Nerd’s Nest, to cooks preparing meals in the camp kitchen, three generations of family members rubbed elbows day after day.
One morning, a spunky four-year-old wanted to “help” knead dough in the kitchen. After washing her hands, she climbed on a wooden stool. Her grandma stood behind her, placed strong hands over her granddaughter’s small ones, and guided her through the process. “Push in with the heels of your palms, pull them out, then turn the dough and push again.” While the little girl didn’t quite master the art, her motions grew smoother with practice, and her grandma was pleased.
While they worked the dough, I thought about Romans 8:1–13, which I’d been studying all week. Could my imperfect efforts to live according to the Spirit can possibly please God as much as this spunky child pleased her grandma? Later, I reread the passage, and a phrase in verse 8 supplied the answer: Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Therefore, I reasoned, believers can please God because they live in the Spirit rather than in the flesh.
Woohoo! Our Father is pleased when I, and other believers, try to live in the Spirit. He is pleased by our inadequate efforts and fledgling desires to choose rightly, to become more like him, and to do the work he has prepared for us.
Like a grandparent teaching a child to knead bread, the Father washes us clean when we mess things up. When our hands falter, his Spirit places strong hands over our weak ones and guides us. Day by day, he takes us through the motions of righteous living. Over and over, he reminds us to watch his Son and practice his ways until they become part of us. Until we are able to do his work in his way without hesitation, without the slightest thought of turning away. Until we learn to put to death daily the deeds of the old body and live more fully in the Spirit.
Of course, we can’t complete God’s work perfectly in this life. But we can become more proficient and compassionate as the Father teaches us how to do his business on earth. Proficient enough to pass on priceless lessons to believers new in the faith. Compassionate enough to speak encouragement and hope when we fail.
Isn’t that what being part of God’s family is about? Rubbing elbows with believers of all ages and stages as we work, worship and play together in the service of our Savior.
Photo Credit: Stock.xchng
by jphilo | Jul 26, 2013 | Out and About
photo source
Lincoln logs have been a source of frustration for me ever since the sibs and I received a small canister for Christmas in the early 1960s. It was the size of the one above–big enough to make a pint-sized ranch style house–much smaller than what was pictured on the container. Between that frustration and my constant lusting for hair as curly and blond as the child model’s, I never master Lincoln Log construction.
Fast forward to Family Camp 2013, where one of the projects was the renovation of the old log cabin playhouse. The dismantling and rebuilding of the structure was an educational experience with life-sized Lincoln Logs, one that demanded to be recorded in photographs.
First, try to take down the structure with karate kicks.
When that doesn’t work, use a crowbar,
or climb onto the roof with hammers in hand,
and pull off the roof.
Kinda weird, huh?
Meanwhile, some far-seeing women color code and number the logs for future reference.
Once the logs are all numbered and the demolition is complete, the playhouse looks like this. The pile of wood in the top right corner is material that needs to be replaced: the roof, the floor, 7 wall logs, and other items.
They really do look like life-sized Lincoln Logs!
Replacing the bad logs is easy. Just go to the nearby woods, cut down trees of the correct size, and add them to the pile. Then peel the logs.
Next, use heavy machinery to level the dirt in the new, shady location not far from the old spot,
lay the foundation blocks,
and haul one log,
and another…you get the idea.
Of course, the new logs need to be notched. But that’s easy when there’s a chain saw handy.
Add the floor joists and another layer of logs, including the door threshold log, to hold the joists in place.
Things slow down a bit when it’s time to lay the floor, which is made of deck planks left from another camp project.
Unfortunately, the day of my departure arrived before the floor was completed and more logs went up. So there are no more pictures this year. But just wait until next year when the playhouse will be up and running for Family Camp 2014!
PS: A Shadow Valley relly sent a picture of the playhouse on the final day of camp. It’s not completely done, but with the roof on, it should survive winter.
Kinda makes you want to be a kid again, huh?
