Thanksgiving in Memphis

We loaded up Wednesday morning and took a detour to pick up Aaron's ninety-one year old grandmother before arriving outside of Memphis to enjoy the bounty of family at Thanksgiving.

Sarah made two pies before we left our hometown:  apple and peanut butter.  And I pretty much got kicked out of the kitchen once we arrived.  It was Oma and the girls.  All four of her granddaughters were there, soaking up her "kitchen magic".

We are so grateful for the opportunity to live close enough that we can make a quick trip to celebrate with our families.  

Not many couples our age have the privilege of spending time with their grandmothers.  And we have three.  Abundant blessings, indeed.

I think these two have missed each other!

From year to year, our Thanksgiving celebrations have looked quite different, but no matter where we are, we recognize God's hand of provision and direction in our lives.

Every time we come back to the land of the libraries, we add new favorite books to our baskets.  Libraries are such a huge blessing!  Yesterday, the girls and I sat down together to read aloud through some of our Thanksgiving books.  Some new favorites that we've added to our faithful book friends...

Grandma's Thanksgiving Dinner by Maria Hoskins

The Thanksgiving Door by Debby Atwell

Sophie's Squash by Pat Zietlow Miller (Not really a Thanksgiving book - but our girls made squash into babies in the village, so we found this book hilarious!)

Cranberry Thanksgiving by Wende and Harry Devlin

Thanksgiving With Me by Margaret Willey

One is a Feast for Mouse:  A Thanksgiving Tale by Judy Cox

An Outlaw Thanksgiving by Emily Arnold McCully

Round the Turkey:  A Grateful Thanksgving by Leslie Kimmelman

Turkey Pox by Laurie Halse Anderson

Savory Breakfast Muffins

One of our new favorite recipes to warm up our mornings.  These freeze beautifully for busy mornings!

Savory Breakfast Muffins

from "Taste of Home:  Diabetes Family Friendly Cookbook"

Prep: 25 minutes

Bake: 20 minutes

Makes: 16 muffins

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

2 eggs

1 1/4 cups buttermilk

2 tablespoons butter, melted

1 tablespoon canola oil

3/4 cup cubed cheese

3/4 cup finely chopped fully cooked ham

1 medium sweet red pepper, finely chopped

4 green onions, finely chopped

1.  In a large bowl, combine the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pepper.  In another bowl, combine the eggs, buttermilk, butter and oil.  Stir into the dry ingredients just until moistened.  Fold in the remaining ingredients.

2.  Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups three-fourths full.  Bake at 400 degrees for 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in muffin comes out clean.  Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks.  Serve warm.

Per Serving: 

124 calories    6 g fat (2 g sat fat)    40 mg cholesterol     319 mg sodium    

13 g carb      2 g fiber     6 g protein

Handstands and Read-Alouds

This is what my girls do while I sit on the porch swing and boo-hoo, I mean read, "Carry On, Mr. Bowditch" aloud to them.

A New Sister!

One of the best parts about living in America again is getting to participate in events with our extended family. 

When my youngest brother called me last Friday night to let me know he was going to propose the next morning and invited us to attend, we were thrilled to go!

My creative brother began by giving each of Bekah's nieces and nephews a Ring Pop and asking them one by one if it would be acceptable for him to marry Bekah and become their uncle. 

The kids were more concerned about what color they got than the life changing event encircling them.

Eventually, my brother got around to popping the question to Bekah herself, and she said YES.  She is a sweetheart. 

I used to baby-sit her and her older siblings. Twenty-five years ago.  Who could have imagined what unfolded this weekend?!?  I can't think of a more lovely family for my brother to join. And I get another sweet sister as part of the deal.

On top of Mt. Nebo

"Now Autumn's fire burns slowly along the woods,

And day by day the dead leaves fall and melt,

And night by night the monitory blast

Wails in the key-hole, telling how it pass'd

O'er empty fields, or upland solitudes,

Or grim, wide wave, and now the power is felt

Of melancholy, tenderer in it's moods,

Than any joy indulgent summer dealt."

~William Allingham

Last Friday, our school district had a day off, so our family took advantage of the time to hide away at Mt. Nebo State Park for a teeny tiny overnight family fall break.

We never fail to be refilled when we step away and hide in the midst of God's incredible bounty of creation.  This semester has left us gasping, but we felt restoration begin as we laughed and traipsed along the trails for hours.

I heard phrases like, "Mama, how do Americans start fires?" when Aaron built a fire in the cabin's fireplace.  I also heard, "I feel like I'm seeing God face to face!" as we watched the sun set.

We discovered that this must be the season for "stick bugs" and that they are REALLY good at camouflage.

According to the park's website:  "The stone enclosure of Nebo Springs, located directly below the bench, dates back to the 1800’s. Children were often sent to the spring with buckets to fetch water for meals."  Our kids just thought it was a great place to get iron rich orange slime to mark on your face.

Less than 24 hours at the park gave us a taste of the rest and renewal we needed.  Worth the investment, indeed.

Sarah's Fall Break coincided with the Bible Translation Conference in Dallas this year.  As a linguistics minor, we all thought she might benefit from attending the sessions with her daddy.  So the two of them traveled to Dallas to learn lots (and to see some really neat people).

Like these two guys.  We love and admire them so much and are grateful for the years we've been able to work and live alongside them.  Because Sarah was busy in Dallas during most of her break, we only got to spend a few precious hours with her.  She's adjusting beautifully to college life, and we're so grateful!

Horizontal vs. Vertical

"Everywhere you could look horizontally has been affected by the fall in some way.  There are simply no perfectly ideal situations, no paradise locations, no completely satisfying experiences, and surely no perfect people this side of eternity.

Add to this the fact that all these things are fleeting.  None of them lasts.  Every horizontal thing, this side of eternity, is in the process of decay.  So hope that addresses your deepest needs, that gives you reason to continue no matter how hard life is, and that promises you eternal good is only ever found vertically."  ~Paul David Tripp, "New Morning Mercies"

No paradise locations.  I can't tell you how many times somebody has said they would like to move to the Solomon Islands along with us.  It's a lovely place to live, but it's not paradise.  Living in the tropics makes me so grateful for the little "horizontal" gifts God bestows.  Things like the opportunity to plant pansies that would wilt and die quickly in the tropical heat.  The big backyard that we get to rake repeatedly in the fall as the leaves and pine needles fall.  Those small gifts that we never get to enjoy when we live overseas.

And the way the Lord inserts His vertical gifts into the horizontal "daily-ness" of life - when my husband needs to speak words that might cut and hurt but in Aaron's listening to the Holy Spirit do the surgery that my soul needs.  How like our loving God to use those fleeting, lovely horizontal gifts to augment our eternal, vertical gift.

We bought a few tickets to the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra this year.  At the season opener, the orchestra honored a bass player who had performed with the symphony for forty years.  He also happened to be the conductor of the Arkansas Youth Symphony when Aaron and I played many years ago.  The audience gave him a standing ovation, and I think I was the first one on my feet.  To come full circle back into the world of music and the people that impacted our lives is another gift.

Because we know the hope that addresses our deepest needs, we are freed to enjoy the horizontal blessings, too, without finding our worth in them.  We still lay up treasures in heaven and invest in eternal things instead of investing in earthly things that are corrupted by moth and rust, but we can revel in the chance to cheer for our favorite team, to notice the light changing as the seasons progress, to watch and celebrate our children's growth and development.

A New Friend

We've been revisiting old favorites as Olivia and Katherine work their way through American History.  Books like "George vs. George:  The American Revolution as Seen From Both Sides" and "The Boy Who Loved to Draw" have been on our bookshelves for years.

But I recently found a new friend to add to our book basket:  "Gingerbread for Liberty:  How a German Baker Helped Win the American Revolution".  I'm sure we'll soon be making gingerbread from the recipe in this fun book.  

Happy birthday, Katherine!

All of my kids are now in double digits.

With friends and family gathered around Katherine, the birthday girl, we prayed blessings over her. 

I'm thankful for crockpots and roasts that made lunch after church so easy and delicious.

And I'm thankful that this year we live close enough to so many special people

that our house was full of neighbors and friends and uncles and grandparents.

It seems like eons ago that she was turning one while we attended the Pacific Orientation Course in Papua New Guinea.

Birthdays in America are just different from birthdays overseas.

But no matter where we celebrate, we love focusing on the unique creation God made.  

All in the Nest

Sarah came home last weekend to help us celebrate a couple of special days.

The first one was the Arkansas South All-Region Orchestra.  As I sat and listened to the rehearsals, I was overwhelmed at how much I had missed being a part of this world.  And this time I got to share it with Benjamin.  He has worked on his viola super hard all summer and into the fall to make up some lost ground.  And he made 5th chair!  It was a joy to listen to the improvement in just two days of rehearsals and to watch the kids give their best as they worked with the clinicians.

The second special event was Katherine's tenth birthday.  It's hard to believe we've had that sweet girl around for ten years!  And it's also difficult for me to fathom that we've been a part of the world of Bible translation in the Solomon Islands for that long, too.  Katherine was born in the middle of linguistic school for Aaron and me.

Sarah and Katherine made birthday cake according to Katherine's specifications.

And the laughter rang as we stayed up way too late drinking coffee and catching up with our college student whom we love so much.

"We are more likely following our calling when we recognize our complete incompetence and utter dependence on God."  ~Aimee Byrd

Each morning, I face this room full of orchestra students.  Throughout the day, I visit four different schools.  I never thought I would be back in the classroom, but I love it.  My stamina is non-existent.  Yet Aaron and I feel strongly that this is exactly where I need to be.  "Utter dependence on God" indeed.