Friday, June 22, 2012

Framboise: Je t'aime

Such a lovely fruit!


I cannot get over that these raspberries came from our yard.  Makes me a little bit giddy!  Especially since I just knew we’d lost our bushes to a horrible fungus.  Last year we had two berries.  This year it looks like, while we won’t have enough to make jam (for that I’ll have to go to a berry farm), we’ll have lots to enjoy for desserts, on cereal and just popping-into-your-mouth goodness.  Come over and have some with us!



Here are some recipes I’d like to try:






Raspberry Bars
@The Way The Cookie Crumbles



Two Ingredient Cobbler
@Tasty Kitchen
(almond meal??)






Raspberry Brownie Anglaise
@Tasty Kitchen
(fancy name – easy dessert!)


Raspberry Lemon Muffins
@Cooking on Clover Lane


Raspberry Lemonade Bars
@Annie’s Eats


Is your mouth watering?  Mine is.  Probably a good idea for me to stick to eating them straight off the bush!
.

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Mexican UFOs, U-Pick Berries and ½’s


So what are you up to this Father’s Day weekend?
Can you guess what I am doing?


What?  Don’t you cool your angel food cakes upside down on taco sauce bottles?


These are from our very own garden!  I can’t take any credit for them but they sure make me happy.  They are SO sweet and they’ll taste SO good on that angel food cake!


A friend of Jeff’s has a landscaping business and he had a couple ½ flats of ½ dead impatiens that he was going to throw away.  Guess who planted them under one of our trees last night?  Not only is he a great dad but he is trustworthy, loving and serves others (including and maybe especially me) all the time.


With a little Miracle Gro, these will transform into a blanket of pink!  If the slugs don’t win.


It’s unexpectedly warm here in Oregon today – the forecast was 79°.  While most of you thrive in these temps, I tend to wilt.  But I’m not complaining (out loud).


Happy Father’s Day!

Monday, June 4, 2012

On giving up


Sometimes I can't sing certain words in a worship song.  Last Sunday morning we sang:

I’ll stand with arms high and heart abandoned…
my soul Lord to You surrendered. 
All I am is Yours.  

I want that to be true of me. 

But does anyone but me have trouble singing those kinds of words?  (At least I do when I’m thinking about what I’m singing.  Last Sunday I realized I had been singing verse after verse of a song while thinking a bit disparagingly about the person sitting in front of me who was rubbing her husband’s neck in a not-very-churchy way.)

I choke on singing “I surrender all” knowing myself the way I do.  I know that I will most happily surrender wild and crazy living, which is not too much of a temptation for me, but will keep a firm grasp of my rights when it comes to giving my time to someone who may take up too much of it.  Surrender ALL

Sunday after we finished singing that worship song, our pastor took a minute to comment that those words ‘All I am is Yours’ are pretty serious – they’d better mean something when we sing them. 

So I’ve been asking myself, how can I sing them at all?  The only way is to admit how self-centered and self-protective I am and then to ask Him to help me surrender all.

Do you remember that little booklet “My Heart Christ’s Home”?   (Here it is for you to read if you’d like to – and you really should!)

It’s a parable about how our hearts are like a house and we invite Christ into each room, letting Him deal with whatever stuff He finds there.  And there’s something in each one that is hard to let Him see. 

But He’s such a kind Savior that He doesn’t bash down any walls I’ve put up.  Instead He’s gentle and loving as I invite Him to come in and have a look in my heart, my appetites, my thought life, my gifts and abilities.

He points out the things He knows I’m still hanging onto, still not really surrendering, still in captivity to.  And He helps me let go so that my life – all of it – becomes His.

So now I mutter a few extra words under my breath when I sing…

I want all I am to be Yours.
With Your help, I surrender all.
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