A Day Redeemed

Sometimes, when I’m walking . . . with my arms dangling down . . . I remember my dad. He had very long arms that looked even more pronounced when he walked.

I wonder if I walk like him.

He used to take pride in the fact that he could take all three grandkids in his arms at once. He had a big lap too.

Today, 4 years ago, Dad went home to heaven.  February 28th was the night that we stood at Dad’s bedside for the last time. It was getting closer to midnight and I thought how, if it had been leap year, Dad would have chosen that day to go, because numbers were always a cool game for him.

One year later, on Leap Year day, Makenna was born.

Makenna, Great- Opa would have told you what a special Birthday you have! He would have called you Queen Kenna . . . or Mykenna, or something like that. He would have loved to tease you . . . and I can just imagine the smiles you would have had for him.

Today . . . and tomorrow . . . since we do not really know which day to celebrate this year . . . we wish you a very special day! We love you all the way across the ocean and back . . . many times over!
Love, Papa and Grammy.

Favorite Toy

There it is!

Never enough of London Bridge . . .

or Row, Row, Row your Boat . . .

... sounds different from every angle.

Three kids later . . . now one of seven grandchildren ... no one has enjoyed this musical TV as much as this one! At her pleasure, this TV  turns into a drum or she sits and waves her arms . . . which makes for a blurry photo . . . like she's directing the band. Priceless.

An Extra-Ordinary Life!

You may already know that the oldest person in Canada passed away. Well, that does not totally sound right, because obviously now there is another oldest in line. However, Elizabeth Buhler, the oldest woman living up until last month just barely missed her 112th Birthday.

There is an interesting little connection here in that the girlfriend I walk with is employed by a grandson of the late Elizabeth Buhler, and she directed me to an article, written by J. O'Connor, in the National Post. A truly inspiring life story!

Elizabeth Buhler was born in 1899 in a Mennonite Colony in the Southern Ukraine, she lived through the Russian Revolution and, after immigrating to Canada, the great depression and both World Wars.

People are amazed about my mother-in-law, who is 93 and has more than 50 great-grandchildren . . . but, to put that into perspective, Mrs. Buhler has the same number of great-grandchildren plus 39 great-great grandchildren!

At 105 she was rejected at the nursing home because she was too fit.
And get this . . . when asked what her secret was, she credited it to exercise, homemade chicken noodle soup and cookies!

For some reason this makes me smile!
Go ahead . . . browse through the Mennonite Girls Can Cook blog with no guilt.

What is Hospitality?

As you may have figured out by now . . . I like to read Max Lucado. I've begun reading an inspiring little book called, Outlive Your Life. In one chapter he has some thoughts about hospitality, a topic I somehow would not have thought would fit with the title of the book. But it surely does.

Something that was brought to my attention is that the words hospitality and hospital both come from the same Latin word. I’d never thought of the relationship. When we show hospitality we are opening our home to care for someone. It may be a physical need for food, but for most of us, our emotional needs outweigh physical needs, as we look for encouragement and acceptance. When we give out an invitation, our guests get a message that they are worth the effort.

I see that the publisher has given permission for brief quotations . . . so I will take advantage of that, since I cannot put things as well as he does. I was struck by these words,

“Something holy happens around a dinner table that will never happen in a sanctuary. In a church auditorium you see the back of heads. Around the table you see the expressions on faces. In the auditorium one person speaks; around the table everyone has a voice.”

Now, I know that if this topic were to be addressed in a Martha Stewart magazine . . . the things that would be emphasized could be daunting, to say the least . . . the perfect table . . . china . . . embellishments . . . and numerous entrées. They have their place and I enjoy the inspiration, because of who I am, but I also want to emphasize a distinction between entertaining and hospitality.

Hospitality does not wait for everything to be perfect. Lucado writes, “You think your house is small, but to the lonely heart, it is a castle. You think the living room is a mess, but to the person whose life is a mess, your house is a sanctuary. You think the meal is simple, but to those who eat alone every night, pork and beans on paper plates tastes like filet mignon.”

We are living in an age where communication can be almost as quick as we think. But, are we really communicating? Are we using new conveniences so we don’t have to “waste” time in conversation? Maybe a call that includes an invitation for soup and a sandwich is just what the doctor ordered. There is no greater gift than saying, I have time for you . . . You matter to me . . . What can I do for you?

I have not finished reading the book, but I anticipate learning more about living moments that will be remembered long after the fact . . . and they don't have to be big.

Zwieback Personalities

A while back Lovella and I had a phone interview for our local paper
 in regard to the upcoming cookbook.
We were told that a photographer would be swinging by
to take a photo of us in one of our kitchens.
Lovella came over and and I had some props ready to go.

This is the photo that went into the paper.

What the paper did not print was our own little discovery
while I was pinching off the Zwieback.
As I was putting on the tops, I gave each just the slightest push
with my index finger . . . a small indentation that,
 for the most part, disappears during the rise.

 Lovella asked me, "Will the tops stay on like that?"
I gave her a detailed description of why the tops stay on
without leaving a visible indentation.

Meanwhile, what I did not know was that in her family,
they are not Zwieback without the little dimple on the top.
That is why she goes to great lengths
to press the top centers, right down to the bottom,
when she adds her tops.

It all came out later. . . when she suddenly realized that,
for goodness sakes,
I did not want dimples ... the little tell tale holes showing on top.

Here we were ... two Mennonite girls each thinking that our way
was the way it should be.
I prided myself with my rounded tops
and she prided herself with tops that had belly buttons.
 It's all good.

We've laughed and realized that we are just like our grandmas were.
I'm sure that back in the day,
when the buns were brought together at weddings and funerals,
the womenfolk would know by the shape
and general look of each basket of Zwieback,
 who had made them . . . and it would be included in the chatter.

And now you know that a Zwieback ... as plain as it is ... can still have personality.

If you remember your grandmother's Zwieback ... did they have dimples? Were they proud little soldiers or did their tops slouch like a cap worn sideways? Were the bottoms burned?

I'm curious now.

For those who have never seen these ... they're not very practical for sandwiches ...but, they are good just plain ... that little top comes off like a  little doughnut hole bite.. leaving an indentation in the bottom part that can then be filled with butter or jam.

Kitchen or no Kitchen

I’ve been reading and re-reading recipes for the cookbook as we’ve had one final round to go over everything. The next time we see it, it will be in print, and we will not be able to change anything anymore. Many of the recipes in the book take me back to my Mennonite roots. The Borscht, Zwieback, Ruehrei and Rollkuchen, to name a few.
When our kids were small, we went to South America to visit the places that our grandparents emigrated to from Russia in 1930. I’ve written about their pioneering years in the Chaco in earlier posts.

This photo depicts a brick oven that was built by one of our forefathers. We were visiting a relative and saw it in their yard … a reminder of the past. It was already an improvement from the first kind of oven they used, when they converted giant ant hills into ovens.

I just have to shake my head. How would we do that today? The recipes we are editing need to be so finely tuned. The time and temperature has to be just so. I asked my mom, who was born in the Chaco, about baking in a brick oven. She told me that often she, as a young girl had to run outside to check and see if the oven was ready. How would she know? When the bricks turned white, it was the right temperature.

When I think about us girls at MGCC, I think about how unique it is that all of our grandparents were born in Russia (the Ukraine). All of our grandmothers, some were possibly still children, others young women, had to grow up real fast and take on responsibilities way beyond their years, as they pioneered in a foreign country . . . cooking the foods their moms made in Russia. They did their best with what they had, even without a kitchen, and continued to serve foods that we now remember with fondness. Makes me thankful for my kitchen today.

True Love

1 Corinthians 13: 1 - 8

 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels,

but do not have love,

I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

 If I have the gift of prophecy

and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge,

and if I have a faith that can move mountains,

but do not have love, I am nothing.

If I give all I possess to the poor

and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,

but do not have love, I gain nothing.

 Love is patient, love is kind.

It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking,

 it is not easily angered,

 it keeps no record of wrongs.

 Love does not delight in evil

but rejoices with the truth.

  It always protects, always trusts,

always hopes, always perseveres.

 Love never fails.

Scrapbooking 101

January has become the month when I go through all of my pictures in Picasa from the past year and choose the highlights. Then I order all the photos at once, kind of thinking them through as to how they will fit on a page . . . so that I can fill a page or double page on a given subject.

I'm not serious about embellishments. It's basically about the photos and getting an overview of the year. I choose a photo album and get an assortment of coordinating paper that flows easily for the whole album.
This year I found a nice K&Company pad with 36 double sided, mostly black and cream patterned sheets. The pages in the album are black and I mixed them up with the pages from the pad.

My favorite tool is the cutter. Very important.

The black and cream patterned paper pad also had a splach of colored pages and I added some to match those.


It's always kind of hard to know how to begin .  . . this time I chose three photos that depict three highlights of the year. . .  Lacey's birth, a family trip to Disneyland and Koen's birth.



Then I lay out the next two pages and work on two at a time, so that it basically looks like one page.

You get the idea.

Some pages get very full!

I allow for little spots where I can add some details when I'm done with the whole album.

Sometimes I'll add a bit of embellishment . . .

Here I used part of a card that was given to me by a friend.

If I use a colored page for background on one side, I'll use that color for framing the photos beside it.
That's all.  The simpler I keep it the quicker it will be done . . .  and even so . . . it's not happening fast enough . . . I've only done up the the summer. But it should be done soon now.
And maybe. . . just maybe . . . next year will be the year I try the online book.

For my Cousins

Let me see that number . . .

Ring . . . ring . . .

Are you there? Where are you?

Kiss goodbye.

Who am I?

I’ve been reviewing Beth Moore’s chapter on "Believing you are who God says you are.” It’s not only a mouthful, but a topic that can go quite deep . . . Beth is good at that . . . but at the moment I feel like a took too big of a bite and need to chop it up a bit.

To get perspective, the first place I went to is one of my favorite Psalms . . . Psalm 139. I will highlight parts of it.

“O Lord, you have searched me and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
You perceive my thoughts from afar. ..
You are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue
you know it completely, O Lord.
You hem me in – behind and before:
you have laid your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain . . .
If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me,
and the light become night around me,
even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
For you created my inmost being,
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully
and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
All the days ordained for me were written
in your book before one of them came to be.
How precious to me are your thoughts,
O God, How vast is the sum of them!”

I remember, as a small child, not feeling comfortable with hearing that God sees everything. I went as far as hanging a dark towel over the window, thinking that what I was doing may be wrong and I did not want God to see. I can smile about it now, but I also realize that we can have the wrong perception about how God may judge us.

A fact that encourages me now is that because God made me, He knows me. He’s okay with me not being perfect and delights in the fact that in my imperfection, I still seek Him. If I were a perfect puppet in His hands, would His pleasure be the same?

“He knows how we are formed; He remembers that we are dust.” Psalm 103:14
Therefore He gives me strength . . .
“My strength is made perfect in your weakness.” 2 Corinthians 12 :9
and He makes me able . . .
“Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God.” 2 Corinthians 3:5

Who I believe I am may not always correspond with what everyone else believes. Noah was terribly outnumbered and scoffed as he built the ark that God had asked him to build. It took him a hundred years or so . . . time enough to doubt that what God had said, would ever happen.

In conclusion, I am content in the knowledge that I am not an accident, that my life has a purpose and that His thoughts toward me . . . .and you . . . are precious.

Missing Kenna

I took this photo of Makenna last September, just days before they headed back to Indonesia. I really don't know who enjoyed this moment more . . . me watching her or

her eating them with such care.

Such a simple pleasure!  There is something about this photo that helps me remember her sweet spirit combined with her love for pretty shoes and purses.

Since we have not had the best connections via skype we have resorted to just talking (without video) or we phone.  She is always eager to come on and say, "I love you. I miss you. Bye." A number of weeks ago I told her that we would come to visit when she is three years old . . . sometime this year.

Then, last week I got this email from Jules . . .

This is what I overheard Makenna saying to herself the other day:
"Grammy go on plane when my turn 3. Wear my pretty dress."
:-)

We had not talked about what to wear . . . I wrote back . . . tears in my eyes . . . I think I will buy a pretty dress for the occasion too.

Yes . . . maybe in just a few more months . . . for that last leg of the 2 day journey, I will change into a pretty dress. Wouldn't you?

Chowder from Leftovers

What to do with leftovers . . . the cook is happy to find them in the fridge . . . sometimes a life saver . . .  but the ones grabbing the food might think otherwise . . . so we try to hide them in another meal. I think I may have some ideas to share . . . it may take a few boring random posts to cover these.

 
 
Corn Chowder is a simple soup that can be ready in a few minutes.You can use a can of potato soup mixed with a can of milk, a can of creamed corn and a cup of grated cheese.
This week I happened to have about a cup of leftover mashed potatoes, a cup or so of cooked corn and a serving or two of leftover BBQ'd salmon . . . actually I had baked it in the oven.You can also use leftover chopped farmer sausage instead of fish.
Mash the cold mashed potatoes with a fork, blending in the potato soup ... add the corn, 1% milk, grated cheddar and salmon, separated into small chunks. Heat and serve.

I toasted some bagels and lunch was ready. Completely different from the salmon dinner we had earlier.

With leftover salmon you can also make these yummy salmon melts or just mix it up with some mayo to make cold sandwiches.