Hmmm...

I can’t stand your religious meetings. I’m fed up with your conferences and conventions. I want nothing to do with your religion projects, your pretentious slogans and goals. I’m sick of your fund-raising schemes, your public relations and image making. I’ve had all I can take of your noisy ego-music. When was the last time you sang to me? Do you know what I want? I want justice—oceans of it. I want fairness—rivers of it. That’s what I want. That’s all I want.”
[Amos 5:21-24 - The Message]

Pumpkin Bread Recipe

This is the basic Pumpkin Bread recipe I used for the Pumpkin Muffins today. Note that I glazed the muffins with a delicious spur of the moment topping that made me fall to my knees and ask for forgiveness. Seriously.

1 cup sugar
1.2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 cup pumpkin
1.2 cup corn oil
2 eggs
2 cups sifted all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1.2 tsp salt
1/2 nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
1/2 cup pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine sugars, pumpkin, oil, and eggs in bowl; mix well. Add sifted ingredients; mix well. Stir in pecans. Pour into well-oiled 5x9 inch loaf pan. Bake until loaf tests done, Remove to wire rack and cool. 

"Fall to Your Knees and Ask for Forgiveness" Glaze topping:
Stir  ingredients together on low heat til butter melts. Pour mixture on top of muffins and then sprinkle with chopped pecans. YUM!

8 oz. evaporated milk
1 cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp. butter... the real stuff

Home....a dearer spot than all the rest

Last weekend daughter and oldest son came home.  A weekend spent at home. Ahhh...Family, food, laughter, friends, and dirty clothes filled the house. Really miss those kiddos! Yep, I know, I need to get a grip. They are grown now. And, good news...they know how to wash clothes.

But occasionally, you know, they need to think of home. Be reminded of their Mom, who birthed them without pain medication, lovingly nursed them, changed their diapers, stayed up all night when they were sick, drove them 10,000 miles weekly to and from school, dance, soccer, fed them at least one home-cooked meal a week,washed at least 5 loads of clothes daily, and, of course raised them to be the fine young adults they are today. With a little help from the Mister. Just Kidding. He helped a lot. He always did the dishes. Really.

Anyway, I decided to skip church today. I baked pumpkin muffins and glazed them with melted butter, milk and brown sugar. (Lord, forgive me)

Well after a little coaxing, the Mister and Max (the last four-legged child at home) volunteered to taste them and give their unbiased opinion. After sharing two muffins and chasing them with cold milk, they reached their decision.

On a scale of 1 to 10 they were ranked an 11. 

Because these muffins have been officially tasted-tested and approved by a panel of unbiased consumers, and the fact that I am the best mother my children will ever have, I decided to send a little bit of lovin from the oven to those who now do their own laundry.

Because home is where their heart is. And where they can get their favorite meals, ignore dishes in the sink, and be served in (clean) underwear.

“Home, the spot of earth supremely blest, A dearer, sweeter spot than all the rest.”

-Robert Montgomery

Time

Welcome October

  

O hushed October morning mild,

Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;

Tomorrow's wind, if it be wild,

Should waste them all.

The crows above the forest call;

Tomorrow they may form and go.

O hushed October morning mild,

Begin the hours of this day slow.

Make the day seem to us less brief.

Hearts not averse to being beguiled,

Beguile us in the way you know.

Release one leaf at break of day;

At noon release another leaf;

One from our trees, one far away.

Retard the sun with gentle mist;

Enchant the land with amethyst.

Slow, slow!

For the grapes' sake, if they were all,

Whose leaves already are burnt with frost,

Whose clustered fruit must else be lost--

For the grapes' sake along the wall.

 

-Robert Frost

The same leaves ...

The same leaves over and over again!

They fall from giving shade above

To make one texture of faded brown

And fit the earth like a leather glove.

Before the leaves can mount again

 To fill the trees with another shade,

They must go down past things coming up.

They must go down into the dark decayed.

They must be pierced by flowers and put

 Beneath the feet of dancing flowers.

However it is in some other world

 I know that this is way in ours.

-Robert Frost

Love never fails.

Their smooth, fresh faces, mask the hidden, dark scars, and the broken places. They come each day. Into my life. From different homes. With different stories.

How to begin? How to become the teacher they need?

Study every standard, memorize every objective, each essential question?

Differentiation?

Utilize flex-grouping?

Create lessons plan?

Accomodate for their needs?

Become proficient in technology?

Yes, all these are important components, but I must not forget the most basic and neccessary need of these I spend my days with now.

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not 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 have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, 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....And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (NIV)