by jphilo | Nov 12, 2014 | Recipes
Yes, today’s recipe for cranberry-apple sauce is one more encore post in a string of encore appearances that spanned most of October and are now encroaching into November.
But I have a really good reason.
Turns out, authors don’t have much time to cook in months where one book releases and a manuscript is being frantically edited in what may be a vain attempt to get it to the publisher by the November 30 deadline. Add to that a couple family emergencies, a few speaking engagements, and an upcoming visit with kids and grandkids, and it’s hard to find time to cook a thing.
Much less try a new recipe.
So, don’t look for any new recipes to debut along the gravel road this month. Instead, expect to see favorite Thanksgiving dishes like this one grace Wednesday posts until after Turkey Day and the manuscript deadline are both history.
Cranberry-Apple Sauce
1 12 oz. package fresh or frozen cranberries
2 apples, peeled and chopped
2/3–3/4 cup sugar, depending on your taste
1 cup water
Put water and sugar in a medium saucepan and bring mixture to a boil. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Add cranberries and apples and return to a full boil. Lower heat to a low boil and cook for 10 minutes. Pour into a bowl. Chill for 2–3 hours before serving.
by jphilo | Oct 14, 2014 | Reflections on the Past, Top Ten Tuesday
On last week’s road trip, I spent an evening with one of my best friends from high school. Every time we–or any of our high school crowd–get together, we remember why we were (and still are) good friends. And we remember and miss what was best about those fleeting and powerful years.
10. Throwing good luck pennies on the Pizza Hut roof.
9. Sitting in the stands and talking with friends during basketball and football games…and even watching the games now and then.
8. English and history classes.
7. Being part of a group that made sure everyone had a date for Homecoming, Twirp, and Prom.
6. The speech and drama teacher, Mr. Hallum, who demanded the best from his students and gave so much of his time to help them grow.
5. Looooong weekend band and speech trips on very uncomfortable school buses.
4. Marching and concert band during the school year and city band in the summer.
3. Church youth group and our leaders, Ron and Barb Ritchie.
2. Play rehearsals.
1. The best friends a person could ever have (in alphabetical order): Cheri, Jacki, Jane, Katie, Mary Anne, and Roxanne.
Okay, so what’s missing about what you miss about high school? Leave a comment.
by jphilo | Sep 16, 2014 | Family, Top Ten Tuesday
10. While watching a Mad Men wannabe show, we like to critique the clothing and talk about elementary teachers who dressed like that.
9. She and her husband recommend the best books, authors, and recipes.
8. She checks the routes mapped out by her country sister, who has to drive around the big city, and recommends better ones.
7. She scopes out the best shoe store in the metro area and suggests a shopping trip.
6. She provides excellent and honest feedback about the shoes and clothes tried on.
5. We talk about our work, and then she emails ideas and websites related to what we discussed.
4. She puts life in perspective by reminding me that our kids need time to figure grown up things like buying houses and finding jobs just like we did.
3. We react the same way to certain hot button issues, and we both know why.
2. Though I was a fussy baby who upset her only child world, she still loves me.
1. We share memories of early childhood that no one else has. The older we get, the more that means. I love you, Sis. Thanks for a wonderful visit!
What do you appreciate about your siblings? Leave a comment
by jphilo | Jun 17, 2014 | Family, Top Ten Tuesday
This past Saturday, many of the descendents of my mother’s parents, Vernon and Josie Hess (pictured above) gathered for the annual Hess Cousins Reunion. These are ten of the top highlights of the day.
10. The potluck dessert to salad ratio was about 5 to 1, which shows the Hess cousins have their priorities right.
9. Within the dessert portion of that ratio, rhubarb figured prominently. Grandma Josie lives!
8. The cousins who hosted this year’s reunion shared a recently unearthed treasure trove of pictures and home movies from the 1940s and 50s.
7. The grainy movie footage was hard to see, but totally worth watching for the 5 second shot of Grandpa Hess snoring in the back seat of the car…footage my mother claims she shot.
6. One of the new photos was of my father looking directly into the camera with an expression identical to one my son wears often.
5. Other photos from the treasure trove show my parents in the late 1950s, their faces full of belief in a bright future, shortly before Dad’s diagnosis of multiple sclerosis.
4. Still other pictures show how beautiful the Hess cousins were as babies…something we were never told as our parents didn’t want any of us to get the big head, don’t you know?
3. Conversations with rellies revealed the beauty of our generation as we near retirement and concentrate on what really matters…maintaining relationships.
2. The love in the eyes of members of our generation when they greeted the three remaining members of our parents’ generation: Dorothy Hess Stratton, Donna Hoey Stratton, and her husband Jim Hoey.
1. The feeling that enveloped me during family gatherings during childhood and returns whenever our family gathers: I am home. I am safe. I am loved.
by jphilo | Jun 2, 2014 | Church Newsletter Columns
And he said to the people of Israel,
“When your children ask their fathers in times to come,
‘What do these stones mean?’
then you shall let your children know,
‘Israel passed over this Jordan on dry ground.’ “
Joshua 4:21–22
Our family spent part of Memorial Day weekend decorating graves at cemetery where my dad and his side of the family are buried. In years past, Mom took Dad’s two elderly aunts and helped them complete the task. Mom would drive from headstone to headstone while the aunts told family stories stretching back to the Civil War. Now, the aunts are gone. Now someone in my generation does the driving while Mom sits quietly trying to pass along the stories.
But every year, her memories grow more fragmented. Every year, I wish I’d paid more attention and rolled my eyes less when Mom and the aunts told their stories over and over and over. Every year, my siblings and I try to piece the remaining fragments of Mom’s stories into a patchwork of remembrance. Every year, our resolve to pass along that patchwork to our children and grandchildren becomes more pressing.
Because our family history matters.
Because old stories matter.
Because that history and those stories are the substance that holds families together.
God knows the importance of shared memories. He created us for remembering. Not only that, he instructs his children to pass on their memories of family and faith and of God at work to new generations.
In Joshua, he commanded the Israelites stack stones of remembrance beside the Jordan River. The commemorative stones weren’t erected as an altar, but as a conversation starter by which stories of God’s faithfulness could be be passed on to future generations.
In the book of John, the author says he wrote the story of Jesus “so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” (John 20:31)
In 2 Peter, the apostle explains why he continually repeats what Jesus did and said while he was on the earth. The reason, Peter says, is simple: “…so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.”
God made us to remember. He made us to remember by sharing our stories with one another, especially with our children and their children. By sharing the stories of our lives.
The stories of the lives of loved ones who came before us.
The stories of God at work among our ancestors and among us.
The stories orchestrated by God to bind us together as individual families, extended families, and families of faith.
So this summer, take advantage of the long hours of evening to share stories. Unplug the computer, turn off the tablets, and ditch your phones. Pull out the photo albums. Gather your starry-eyed youngsters and your eye-rolling teens around the table or a campfire. Tell your family stories. Tell stories about God at work in your family’s history. Take time to pass down your faith, one story at a time, so those who love you will find their faith strenghtened and will remember your legacy of love long after you’re gone.
Photo Source: lkunl at www.freedigitalphotos.net
