Christmas 2023 is behind us and as we look forward to a new year ahead, it is always exciting to think of what may happen in the new year! As Randy and I sit each night (well not each night as we do get out of the house every few weeks to go grab a hamburger or pizza). But, as most evenings find us waddling to our comfy chairs after dinner and seeing if we can solve the puzzles on The Wheel (we feel that it makes us sound not quite so old to say The Wheel instead of Wheel of Fortune), we have now joined the really old folks and see if we can at least answer one question on Jeopardy, each night! We have finally figured out that we actually do know sometimes more than one answer, but we also realize that we are slower than the young whippersnappers that are vying for the money in actually understanding the question! As I listen to their answers, I’m still sitting there trying to figure out what the question is in order to see if I know the answer! So it is true what they ( whoever they are) say, your brain does slow down as we age! We sit and stare at each other and Randy says (I’m still trying to figure out what that last question is asking!

So we sit night after night and see if our brains actually might begin to turn from mush to Mensa brains ! We are still waiting!

But Christmas has come and gone and we have a stack of returns just like everyone else! A brand new toaster that worked for 4 days before shooting the bread slices out! A pair of jeans that I ordered for Frosty that are 10” too small in the waist! And one bottle of perfume that I received! We have both realized that no matter how expensive the perfume, no one can smell it on me as the Ben Gay that covers now 25% of my body covers up any attempt at trying to smell good. In fact, the drawer that is right beside my easy chair use to be filled with seasonal coasters I could change out as seasons changed. It had a fingernail file I kept so as I sat at night watching TV I could file my nails as needed! We kept the EarPods in it, a candle lighter for the nights we wanted the scented candles burning……but that was 2022! Just a year later, all these items have been replaced with: Triple antibiotic for when Randy falls and skins his knees (due to Parkinsons balance problems), lidocaine for our sciatica that pops up quite regularly, and the most pungent of them all…a giant tube of Ben Gay! In fact, as soon as I open the drawer, the aroma fills the living room and any scented candle is quickly overpowered! Our home has become the perfect advertisement of what it is like to walk into a nursing home! So I am giving up perfume! We figure with the money we save buying it, allows us to buy more Ben Gay and jars of lidocaine for our aches and pains! Besides, who needs perfume to watch The Wheel?

Shannon our new DIL requested some apple cookies she had seen ! ! I promised her I’d have them the next time they came for dinner which was tonight. Since it is December and I was wanting to bump them up a notch, I used minI gingerbread boys and Christmas tree 🌲 cookie cutters for the pie crusts for the top decor!

Using a can of apple pie filling, I emptied the can of fruit into a saucepan! Adding 3 tablespoons of butter, 2 teaspoons of cinnamon, I chopped up the apple slices into small pieces! Cook over low heat heat until butter is melted and cinnamon is mixed with the chopped apples. Using a glass or biscuit cutter, cut circles of pie crust and press into cupcake (muffin) pans. Fill pie crust with about 1 heaping tablespoon of the apple mixture. Top with pie crusts and sprinkle with colored sugar! Bake in preheated 400 degree oven for about 25 min or until crusts are done ! Before serving, drizzle a little caramel over the top. Serve warm!

With Shannon and Jamin’s wedding rehearsal dinner, I had wanted to bake some good desserts for them. These gingerbread cupcakes were a hit! I had found the recipe which used a Duncan Hines spice cake mix as the starter! They were very moist and had so much flavor! Made a cream cheese frosting and topped each cupcake with a small gingerbread cookie we bought at Trader Joe’s!

September 27th was the day I went in for knee replacement! Because I’m pretty healthy (despite the amount of butter that flows in my veins), and pretty positive and energetic, I expected to come home the next day, preparing chocolate chip cookies within the week! It is such a natural thing to think that because we have planned, prepared and read everything given to us to read so we thought we what to expect, this would just be one of the bumps in the road for a week or so!

Without making you read the details, this is not what happened. Infection set in the new knee and I was told to sit and only get up as necessary! Going in every day for IV infusions, (I’ve had 10 with 5-6 more to go) and finding myself afraid of what might happen if the infection wasn’t stopped, each day found me a little more fearful than the day before! Yes, I am a Christian and I trust God who is my strength and hope! But as easy as it is to say that sitting in church in the east and good days with beautiful music playing and friends and family sitting around you, it’s a little harder to say “I Choose God”, when you are lying alone in bed at 2:00 am wondering what is happening and when is God going to answer my prayer of healing and will He answer my prayer of healing? It always amaze when people call or text and say “you have been on my mind and I felt led to call or text you!” It is just like the Lord to put us on others hearts when. We need to hear from someone and that happened several times during the last 3 weeks! Yes God is always near and He is always using us to minister to others if we allow Him to do so! On one of the hardest nights after coming home from ER the night before, I found myself feeling so alone. I cried out to the Lord to meet me at my point of need

And as He always does, He showed up! A dear friend had just lost her daughter and had this on her post, the following words!

Lisa Terkeurst wrote::

I trust God. Until I don’t. That doesn’t feel like a very Christian thing to say. But if I don’t acknowledge this struggle, I can’t address it.

I don’t think I’m the only one.

So many of us raise our hands high as we proclaim that our God is a “good, good Father,” but then we find ourselves lying in our beds at night with tear-stained pillows, facing realities that don’t feel very good at all.

It’s hard not to feel suspicious of God when our circumstances don’t seem to line up with His promises. And it’s difficult not to doubt the light of His truth when everything around us looks dark.

But we must know there’s purpose in every season — even seasons of darkness. And we must choose… Will we see dark times as a womb or a tomb? Is it a birth of something new or the death of what we thought should be? Will we fix our eyes on God’s goodness or give in to hopelessness and despair?

Oh, friends. I know the dark places are scary. But let’s ask God to bring good out of these difficult places we so desperately want to be done with. And instead of being suspicious of Him, let’s lift up our praises to Him.

Praise may not shift our circumstances, but it will definitely begin to change our hearts. We don’t always get to choose our situations, but we can choose how we live through them.”

As so many are going thru so many much more severe challenges, when things are going on with us personally, it is still hard to accept.

The purpose of this post is to sing the praises of the Church! People stay away from church saying they don’t want to go worship with hypocrites or they just don’t have time or they worship in their own way! Jesus knew exactly what He was Doing when He ordained the Church. This past 3 weeks have shown both Randy and I more love and kindness we have ever seen! Even friends from our last church in CA have reached out to us! The cards of encouragement, text, phone calls, gift cards for restaurants, dinners delivered to our door, visits and flowers and more food from family and friends have brought us to tears! Ladies have come to take me to get infusions every day for two weeks! That is the church!!!

David Jeremiah once said in one of his Sermons, that he prayed that he would not come out on the other side of his cancer unchanged. And that is my prayer. That the Lord will give me the opportunity, the strength and the desire to serve others as well as they have served us! Lord help us to look around us and see where we are needed! You created us for Your glory and purpose! Help me to live and serve in such a way that others may see You, and glorify You!

I choose God!!!

This morning as I read Joshua 5, I read a passage that stirred my heart . Joshua 5:12 “No manna appeared that day, and it was never seen again. So from that time on, the Israelites ate from the crops of Canaan”.

As many times as I have read Joshua, that has not ever spoke to me before. As I have learned through the years, the Bible teaches us continually, something that we need to learn, at different seasons in our lives! As I sat and thought about this passage, You can just picture the people who have just crossed over into Canaan! For 40 years, they have had manna provided for them each and every day (except the Sabbath when they had been instructed to gather twice the amount the day before so they didn’t have to work on the Sabbath)

All they had to do was gather! They didn’t have to worry about where their next meal came from. It didn’t require faith (after the first day manna was given to them) to depend on God providing sustenance for them. They had learned through the last 40 years that God would provide! Their faith was grown thru different circumstances, of dealing with enemy armies, changing in leadership from Moses to Joshua, having faith to know God would lead them through the Jordan River on dry land even though the river was at flood stage! Our faith is tried and grows by way of enduring different circumstances at different times! But as I read this passage and realized that God was taking them into the promised land after 40,years and taking away the manna He had provided for them! Did the people begin to complain? Did they become fearful and wonder if they would go hungry? Did they get mad that they now had to work for their food? It was now beginning a new season of becoming responsible for their own food and depending upon the produce of the land! And that’s when it dawned on me! God still does the same thing with us. He sometimes takes things that he has provided for us, to take us to new levels of faith!

Isaiah 43:19 “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. 19 See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.

When I think of former days and the different ways I was blessed to be a part of a ministry, which allowed me to serve, I have sometimes complained and grumbled that that ministry is no longer! Instead of seeking how to best serve The Lord now, I was still trying to make things happen to suit my perspective, not the Lords! He has us in places that He puts us! It is up to us to seek His will in how we are to serve and glorify Him best in the new stages of life! To not keep looking back and complaining that He isn’t still providing the “manna” To look ahead, to plant and harvest what is needed in this new season.

Lord, forgive me for wanting to have things like they always were! Forgive me for not trusting You to give me new ways of serving and new opportunities which would allow my faith in You to grow me more into Your likeness! Please help me to always depend on you for your faithfulness even when it looks different. You are still walking with me, no matter where I am or what I’m doing! You are the same God and You are my God!” Amen and Amen!

During my quiet time with the Lord this morning this phrase came to my mind. First time I heard that song was years ago at a funeral so it was always something that came to my mind during the loss of a loved one! “He gives and takes away.” As I sat here thinking about those few words, I began to think of my life and the things we once had, but have now been lost! There are many! Some things have been replaced with better things, some things were just gone. It is during those times of loss that allow us to grow in our faith. Do I grow or do I sit here and contemplate all the things that are no longer in my life? Does contentment reign in my heart during seasons of loss? Or do the things that are gone leave me with a sense of doom and gloom, or do they cause me to look to the One who has always been faithful to me and continues to give to me things that are for my good? Do I cherish Him or things? This week alone has brought news of death to family members of some dear friends! News of friends who are struggling with health issues and are in the hospital, relational issues of others, divorce, friends waiting on test results from their doctor, and so much more. These are the times that cause us to either loose our joy (and sometimes our faith) and struggle to keep our minds “staid on Him” or to stand and say….the joy of the Lord is my strength! Do we still suffer senses of loss? You bet we do. Do we still wonder why we have hard times? Absolutely! But the One who creates us and loves us more than we can ever imagine has a purpose for our lives…even during times of loss! Today I began to think of loss as more than just loosing someone. There are losses in our lives that are hard to bear, and cause us to walk in constant need of His strength. Some diseases which change people from who they always were! The loss of freedom of going and doing the things we always loved to do. The loss of certain friendships or not have the relationships with family that we desire can also cause us to feel discouraged. But as we continue to walk in faith, we begin to realize that even during these times, our lives can still radiate His peace and His joy! We can still be a light in this dark world! If our eyes and our hearts are anchored in Jesus, we can point others going through tough times by sharing Jesus with them. This song has been so precious to me during tough times!

Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His Glory and Grace!

As wonderful as some of the new praise songs we hear today are, it is the old hymns that come to my mind during hard days! Whether you are in a season of Him giving or taking away, Blessed be the name of the Lord

Will end this with the words from the song that inspired this post:

Blessed Be Your Name
In the land that is plentiful
Where Your streams of abundance flow
Blessed be Your name

Blessed Be Your name
When I’m found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness
Blessed Be Your name

Every blessing You pour out, I’ll
Turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name

Blessed be Your name
When the sun’s shining down on me
When the world’s ‘all as it should be’
Blessed be Your name

Blessed be Your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there’s pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name

You give and take away
You give and take away
My heart will choose to say
Lord blessed be Your name

Lemon Cream Filling
1 cup sugar
3 ½ tablespoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
3 egg yolks slightly beaten
1 cup whole milk
¼ cup frozen butter
1 cup sour cream

Combine sugar, cornstarch, lemon zest, lemon juice, egg yolks and milk in sauce pan, and cook over med heat until thick. Stir in the frozen butter and cool to room temp. Stir in the 1 cup of sour cream and Pour into pie cooked shell.

Whipped Cream and White Chocolate Topping:
1 cup whipping cream
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
Shaved White Chocolate Curls

Right before you are ready to serve your pie, place the whipping cream and powdered sugar in a large bowl (or stand mixer) and beat with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form and you have whipped cream. Dollop the cream on top of the pie. Shave the white chocolate to garnish top…I used a cheese slicer. Serve and enjoy!

Found this on my memory page today from 10 years ago! The recipe is from Welcome Home Blog and it is delicious. Since it is still very hot and cold desserts still sound so good, this one will be on our table tonight. Seems weird making pumpkin decor for the porch and coming in to enjoy a cold slice of lemon pie but….we do live in Texas and stranger things do happen. Randy is on his second piece and he says this,”it taste pretty much like lemon meringue but creamier and I like the whipped cream topping! Makes it so refreshing”. So there you have heard it straight from a not so famous food critic!

Went to a Southern Living Luncheon this past week. It is requested that All recipes that the ladies bring be from SL. This salad was a hit as well as all the other dishes that were served. The theme this month was “Picnic” and our hostess even found a small quilt that had watermelon material as well. We had mason jars of iced tea or strawberry lemonade! We feasted on fried chicken, ham sandwiches (also know as funeral sandwiches), baked beans, pickles, pasta salad and then topped it off with caramel corn and Angel Food Toasted Croutons with homemade Vanilla ice cream with fresh strawberries! Need I say that each dish was simply wonderful and the talk around the table was just delightful! If all this sounds great, think of starting your very own SL Lunch group. You will love the fellowship and great food that graces the table. We keep our group to 6 as it makes it easy to manage no matter the size of the home. We take turns hosting and we also pick themes that then determine what dishes to prepare. We began the first meeting with salads, then this month the hostess choose Picnic! In Oct the Host has already choose Brunch as the theme. We meet every other month so is always great to catch up with each other and look forward to a great time together! This recipe I’m posting goes so well as a side dish for just about anything!

Ingredients

1 cup chopped pecans (toasted)

1 pound fresh broccoli

1 cup mayonnaise

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup diced red onion

1/3 cup red wine vinegar

1 teaspoon salt

8 ounces bow-tie pasta, cooked (½ of a 16-oz.

package)

2 cups seedless red grapes, halved

8 cooked bacon slices, crumbled

1 cup chopped toasted pecans

Toast pecans in a preheated 350 degree oven for 3-5 min. Watching closely so pecans don’t not burn. Cool and set aside

Cook bow tie pasta according to directions and drain! Set aside to cool!

Chop broccoli Into small pieces.

Stir Mayo, vinegar, sugar (I deleted the salt but add if you wish) together until smooth!

Add the broccoli, pasta, onion, grapes and stir gently. Stir in most of the dressing if not serving rt away. Then right before serving add the bacon and pecans and rest of dressing. Or you can leave a little of the pecans and bacon to sprinkle over the top before serving. I made this about four hrs before serving!

Our Sunday School class at church (yes I’m old and still call it Sunday School) has been having members share their testimonies! It has been so wonderful to hear how God has worked personally in each of these we have heard thus far. My Testimony was going to include how I still try to tell the Lord what I’m going to do and still expect Him to bless it instead of asking Him what His plan is or for guidance. I’m a slow learner in that respect! Even after seeing how much smoother and easier things went when I followed His will, I would still fall back into…”I want to do this or that and live here or there”…without even thinking about what Gods will was for us! Well yesterday it was my turn! I had told our Director that I would give my story either Aug 20th of 27th! (See I told you I still tried to control matters). But he texted me on Thursday and ask if I could do it yesterday! I quickly began to read over the words I had written trying to memorize as much as I could! I worked all day Fri on it as I didn’t want to have to read it, I wanted to be able to just talk about it! We had been told to try to limit it to about 10-12 min still giving our teacher time to teach the lesson! Saturday morning at 5:30 am the Lord woke me up and laid on my heart a new direction that He wanted me to tell! So I got up and started all over, writing about all the ways God had led us to different houses in different cities and how He had used each of these houses for His purposes! As i began to think back over the last 27 years we had been married, there was absolutely no way I was going to be able to tell all the ways He had worked in our lives allowing us to use our homes for so many wonderful ministries! But after praying about it, I decided to use the ones that had the most impact on in Randys’ and mine lives! As I thought back on so many different stories, I couldn’t help but stop and thank Him for the many blessings we both had received when we allowed Him to guide us and surrender to His will instead of trudging ahead with what we wanted! First of all you need to know that I love to move and in 27 years we have moved 13 times! That was the old me. It’s not as much fun to the new me! Just having to now pack and unpack isn’t as much fun as sitting with a piece of pie watching Wheel of Fortune! BUT…..in each of those 13 houses God has gone before us and used each and every one in so many different ways! Instead of making you read about every one of them, I thought I would share just one that has meant so much to us both as it shows Gods Hand of guidance as well!

This testimony begins with the fact that right after Randy and I married in 1996, we realized that with our track record, it was going to take more than just love to make this work, so we walked down the aisle of First Bapt Dallas and surrendered our marriage and our hearts to the Lord! It brought a whole new meaning to our marriage. We told the Lord that we wanted to not only surrender our marriage but our home as well. That He could use it for whatever He wanted! Each house that we have lived in has so many precious memories! Each move to a new city gave us so many different ways in which we were allowed to serve! God is a God of not only forgiveness and grace! ( not to mention second and third chances) but He gives us so so much more than we ever deserve! He is the God of impossibilities that ultimately shows us that He wants to be involved in our lives! For the sake of time (if you are still reading this) , let me just tell you one story of how God blessed us in leading us to one of our many houses!

We were looking to move closer in from Frisco to Plano to Randys job! We found a house that seemed to be perfect for all the entertaining we loved to do. It was in an area of town that we had driven through many times, always dreaming of living in! Well a house became available in our price range. We put an offer in and it was accepted. We were both so excited that finally we were going to be moving to this neighborhood to a house that mentally, I had already arranged the furniture, started picking out wallpaper and began to plan the first party. When Randy went for the inspection, he called me to tell me that we would not be buying the house. It had to have structural repairs, all new wiring and so much more! I cried! We both were so disappointed! This dream house would have been a nightmare to repair! Well this inspection was on a Wednesday and on Saturday, we went back to a house we had looked at before putting in an offer on our dream home! When Randy ask me what I thought, my reaction was “I guess we need to take this one, it will be ok”. My heart was not in it and I was having a pity party. But we bought it, made it us with new wallpaper and paint and carpet! The Lord knew He wanted us there and before 6 months was behind us, different ministries began to ask us if they could use our house for different purposes. This house was right across the street from our church and it became a hub of activity! We housed summer interns, a friend used our home on Monday nights for a program for girls healing from abortions! The Women’s Ministry used our home for so many different aspects that it seemed like every week there was something The Lord used our home for! It was truly a glorious time in our lives and the last night before moving to CA for Randys new job, we sat there on the bottom step of the inside stairwell and cried. We both knew that Gods Hand of protection had been over us in not allowing us to buy a house that would have cost a fortune to repair but also was so far from our church that all these ministries would not have been able to use our house. He had led us to a home that we were so grateful to have lived! A home that had truly been used for Him and His purposes. As we locked the door behind us for the last time, we knew, God had been with us in that place as He would once again lead us to a new place that would be used for His glory for new purposes! And He did! That is the faithfulness of our God! He goes before us as He did the Israelites as He led them to a place of Hope and Promise!

His love endures forever!

Knowing that traveling is now a little more challenging with Randy needing a Walker, wheel chair and my knee needing a replacement in next couple of weeks, we had some concerns about how the trip would be!

This morning we left for Phoenix to go see our kids, a new family member (yes Jodi got married), meet some new extended family, watch a grandson play the role of Linus in Charlie Brown, celebrate Caleb turning 14 and test our surviving skills in 114 degree (but a dry heat, yeah like that really helps to stay cool) heat! (I hope I finish all the chocolate I brought with me before we get off the plane)

One of our kids. Jason, picked us up to take us to the airport so we didn’t have to worry about parking our car and then trying to load all our extra items onto the cute little polka dotted busses that drive you to the airport. We felt one concern was now covered. As we entered the airport, one of the SWA employees immediately came over with a wheelchair for Randy and took us over to the ticket counter.. He took care of the cane and Walker and got us checked in ever so quickly and then walked us over to another porter who pushed us thru security and all the way to gate 18. His name was Titus and we began to talk about the stack of Drivers License’s that he had a rubber band around. They were from 33 different states he had lived before coming back to Dallas. I ask him where he went to church and he told me that he went to a baptist church over in Richardson! It was then that I told him he needed to come hear our choir of about 300 one Sunday. He continued to push Randy to the seating area as we continued our visit where we discovered that some of his good friends and some of his family owned the first Mexican restaurant Randy took me to when I first moved to Dallas. Ojeda’s! He gave us a card with his family member that worked there and told us to tell them Titus sent us. He smiled the entire time that he was with us and told us how much he loved working in the airport and had been here for 4 years after retiring from a previous job! He then took Randys Walker up to the ticket agent to get it tagged and brought it back over to us. We felt like royalty! Back at security, while waiting for my bag to be screened, I was standing beside a most beautiful young lady who was so sweet and friendly and helped me gather my things since I had mine and Randys. As soon as Titus left us to go help others I couldn’t help but thank God for going before us today and taking care of each and every concern we had. Not only did He take care of some new challenges of traveling in a new season of Parkinsons, but we got to hear how the Lord healed Titus after a brain aneurysm! He was not expected to ever walk or talk again…..But God…. He is still a God of the impossible and is still in the healing business! What a joy it was to hear this sweet man’s testimony!

We are still in the plane headed to Phoenix and as I thought back over the entire morning, the blessings that we have already experienced were just a wonderful reminder of Gods presence and faithfulness to us! I thought about the conversation I had with 3 young ladies behind me when I went to buy us a coffee and pink drink to the sweet young lady at security, who told me how to do my eyelashes if I wanted to try them, after I complimented her on her eyes! Then Of course Titus! Before we left home this morning, we prayed and ask the Lord to go before us and help us! He did just that but also so much more. On FB this morning, I had read and took a picture of a list of ways to be kind to others. It is so good, I thought I’d share it with you at the end of this post! And of all the places that we sometimes experience people being rushed or sometimes rude because of altered or cancelled flights, today was just a morning of pure joy! And to top it off, we made sure we stopped by Sprouts last night for double dipped chocolate covered peanuts, chocolate covered covered gummie bears and butter toffee peanuts!

(Yes Dee, thank you for introducing us to those and we are still addicted to them). We are so excited to be able to come see family we have not seen in a few months! And my guess is that we will come home with some new great memories! But will probably need to stop back by Sprouts for more chocolate.