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:

Summer Berry Sauce
@Noble Pig

Raspberry Bars
@The Way The Cookie Crumbles

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

Raspberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake
@Tasty Kitchen

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!

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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!

When words fail

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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.

Some links on Memorial Day

Make Your Own Potting Bench

@Better Homes & Gardens
I'm seeing so many things you can do with pallets.  I've been wanting a potting bench but not wanting to spend much of anything for it.  This might be my solution.  Does it look kind of rickety?


One Thing That Will Make Your Soul Explode
@Chatting At The Sky
Loved this post about fame and fortune.

Shucking Corn Like A Pro
I loved this man!  Do you think his wife is a blogger and asked her husband to star in this video for her blog?  I wonder if this also works if you grill the corn on the BBQ.  We often microwave corn on the cob in the summer so I can't wait to try it!



Operation Proper Exit
Did you see this on 60 Minutes last night?  I couldn't get through it without many tears and prayers for these men.  A very fitting Memorial Day post - for the living veterans.

Thank you to all those who have served our country,
including living veterans and their families.
We are so grateful.
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Seen, Heard and Thought

• When taking my 90 year old dad to get a haircut: 
  Him:  I remember only paying 25¢ for a haircut. 
  Me: How much do you pay now? 
  Him: Ten dollars – and that’s with the senior discount! Regular people have to pay twelve.
  
  

• I do not want to clean out my inbox.  It is overflowing and it must be done but I don’t want to do it.
  
  

• Why do some people love to exercise and I have to use brute force to get myself out the door?  Why can’t I have just a teensy bit of that whatever-it-is?  

• I’m reading a good book – ‘Peace Like A River’ by Leif Enger.   Wonderful characters.  Excellent writing.  Great story.  How often do you find all three of those??
  
  
• I am detecting a theme here and it’s not pretty.
  
  
• My kids keep getting older.  Do yours?  My youngest just turned 21, my middle turns 23 next week and my oldest is 25.  This is ridiculous.
  

• Today would have been my mom’s 84th birthday.  I was getting dressed this morning, thanking God for her love for me and for her family.  Happy Birthday Mom!  I love you.
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• I already have more than enough flowers in the yard – in pots and in the ground.  But I couldn’t pass up these beauties today. 
  
  
  
  
  
  I am a prodigal when it comes to bedding plants.  I’ve never had New Guinea impatiens.  Now I need to find a spot where they’ll get only morning sun.
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• And now I must leave you.  I have work to do.

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Anticipation

So many things in the yard are getting ready to pop…

I love peonies.  I’m always stunned at how beautiful they are.

I thought we had lost our raspberry plants last year and was thankful for the TWO raspberries we harvested.  But they returned – and they’re blooming like mad!

I can’t wait for these to bloom again this year.  These flowers are spectacular!

So for now, there is lots of green in the garden.  But it’s so fun to look forward to lots of color in the next few weeks and through the summer.

I told you here about these hanging pots I got last year.  They start off looking pretty awful before the plants begin to fill out.  But with our warm weather they’re beginning to get fuller – I think they’ll be so pretty!  Soon you won’t be able to see the green plastic pots at all.

Be sure to read this post where I give a guided tour of the crop of weeds we were cultivating last year. 
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