Instead we should say, "If God wills"

    A friend posted today on social media, “Don’t lose friends over this election.” 

    That gave me pause. 

    Some people are very invested in the state of civic affairs. I used to be one of them. 

    I still have strong views, and when I choose to “take the bait” I’m still very passionate about those views. 

    I can’t ask others to feel less about politics than they do; I cannot ask people to change their principles, values, and beliefs. I can talk, I can argue, and sometimes I might persuade someone to my views. Sometimes I might be convinced of someone else's views. But I realized several elections cycles ago that social media was not my preferred place to have such discussions. 

    As expressed in my friend's post, I don’t want to lose friends or strain relationships with loved ones because of differences in politics and worldview. Or because of the outcome of an election. I think often, at times of great societal divide, of Psalm 2, in which the Psalmist describes the kings and rulers of the world making their plans and having their counsels together against the Lord and His Anointed. He continues with, “He who sits in the heavens shall laugh.” 

    Why does He laugh? In the Psalm, the context is specific to God's eternal kingdom. There's  nothing the rulers of this age can do to undo what Christ has done for us. Apparently, to God, that notions is laughable.

    But we know from other places in Scripture that God does also take an active roll in the regular, everyday lives of the people on earth. (Proverbs 16:9, Proverbs 19:21, Jeremiah 10:23). 

    Pondering the idea of God's providence, of His control over earthly things, and His blessing of the same, I'm reminded of James 4. James starts the chapter talking about disagreements among the readers, and asking where these come from. He then answers with a list of selfish desires. James explains that they don't have these desires because they don't ask. But also that when they do ask, they ask amiss, wanting these things for selfish or evil purposes. 

    This brings me full circle now to my initial reaction to my friend’s post about losing friends. Each time we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we say, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” But consider this, do we trust that will? Do we really, truly trust that God is in control of our days, our stories, even our communities and nations? With regard to tomorrow's election, God knows where He wants our nation to go. For His eternal plan, according to His eternal wisdom, for the good of His eternal Kingdom, He will work His will. 

    We are merely players. Or getting back to James 4, we are merely vapors, here for a time only to vanish.

“Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” ~ James 4:13-15

So, let's not lose friends over this election. God's will be done.

Super Easy Comfort Food

Now that I work part time away from home, the younger girls routinely are "in charge" of making supper. I try to leave detailed instructions, typed out, and put one girl in charge of preparing the meal. I expect the young lady to have the supper ready and the table set when I get home at about 5:45. As a reward, the child who does the cooking is not usually required to help wash dishes after the meal is done.

Sometimes this works well. Other times there is a complication of one sort or another. Sometimes my instructions are unclear. Other times the starting time I suggest turns out to be less than ample to get the work completed on time. Occasionally a daughter will forget she is on supper duty, or lose track of time and so get a late start. But over all, the girls are learning; they continue to progress in both ability and responsibility.

Stella made a wonderful comfort food supper tonight. It was so easy and tasted so good that I'm sharing it for others who may want an easy meal to use for teaching, or even just for a lazy mom day.



Creamy Rice and Ham
Prepare seasoning vegies and ham
 • 1 onion diced into small bits
 • 3 garlic cloves, minced
 • ½ c fresh parsley, minced
 • ¾ lb ham, diced

Into rice cooker* put
 • 2 c rice
 • 1 - 1½ tsp salt**
 • ½ tsp black pepper
 • Diced/minced vegies and ham
 • 1 lb bag frozen peas, shaken or banged so peas are loose
Stir together.

Add water to approx 2 c line.

Cover and cook until button pops up or according to manufacturers instructions.

When cooking is done, pour 1 qt cream over cooked rice, and let it sit for 20 minutes or so. Do not use the cook function at this time, but leave the rice cooker on the warm setting most rice cookers have.

Stir together before serving.

*If you don't have a rice cooker, this can be made easily on the stove top with a Dutch oven. Instead of adding water to the designated 2 c line, add 3½ c water and boil gently, covered, for 20 minutes. Then add cream and let sit, covered, on the warm setting of your stove.
**Salt to taste. This will vary depending upon the amount of ham you use and the saltiness of the ham.

Marriage wisdom from Louis L'Amour?

Paris Street: Rainy Day  Gustave Caillebotte

       You want to remember, Peg, just romance is not enough. You may often imagine yourself in love, but always remember you have to live with that person from day to day, in sickness and in health, as they say.
       You will want to be proud of him when you introduce him to your friends, and you want him to be comfortable with them, as you must be with his firends. One must never marry a man thinking he will change or that you will change him. If he does or you do, then he will not be the same man you married, and the less for it.

Louis L'Amour in The Cherokee Trail 

Gluten Free Glazed Lemon Bundt Cake

Sophie made this cake to take to Joe's parents' house this afternoon.  She tweaked a couple of recipes from the web, one for the cake and another for the glaze.

GF Glazed Lemon Bundt Cake

We use the Artisan blend at Peter and Kelli Bronski’s No Gluten, No Problem blog or in their Artisinal Gluten Free Cooking cookbook.

• 3 cups Gluten Free Flour Mix
• ½  cup butter
• 2 ¼ cups sugar
• 3 eggs + 1 yolk
• 3 Tbs lemon juice
• 1 c milk

Beat with electric mixer until light and fluffy.

• 1 Tbs. baking powder
• ¼ cup powdered milk
• ¼ tsp. Salt

Mix dry ingredients together and then stir into wet ingredients.  Beat with a mixer for a couple of minutes until well mixed and fluffy.

Pour batter into greased Bundt pan and back at 350°F for about 50 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.

Allow to cool about ½ hour, and then tip onto a cake plate and cool thoroughly.

When cooled, poke holes with a skewer and coat with lemon glaze, spreading glaze slowly with a spoon so it soaks into the holes a little bit. Continue to scoop up glaze and re-apply until the cake is well-coated.

If you want, you can use a couple of spatulas to lift the cake onto a fresh plate. Cover until just before serving.

Lemon Glaze

• 1/3 c lemon juice
• 2 c powdered sugar
• 2 Tbs melted butter
• 1 Tbs water

A toothsome tale? I think not!

I'm not a tooth person. They creep me out.

I get the willies even wriggling one of my kids' loose teeth. I got the willies losing my own teeth way back when.

Clara and Sophie both had teeth pulled today. Clara, because the enamel on her back upper molars had a genetic defect that made her teeth nerves very sensitive, and the teeth susceptible to decay. The hope is that her wisdom teeth will now move forward into the empty spots.
Sophie had two baby teeth whose roots did not dissolve.

Joe took them in since I was at work. But they generously offered to describe their experiences for me when we all got home. BIG SHUDDERING UGH.

Sophie's were a little worse than Clara's, which seems strange to me, since Clara's were permanent. Both of Clara's were done before Sophie's first one was out.

First, the redhead pain-med-not-working thing kicked in. They couldn't get Sophie's mouth and face to numb. They had to keep trying more and different and stronger things.

Then one of the roots broke off and they had to dig it out. If it was permanent, they could have used the drill. But since it was a baby tooth, permanent teeth were above it.  So they had to dig it out bit by bit.

Then on the second tooth, they ripped a big piece of nerve out with it. She said they held it up and the bundle of nerve fibers was flopping off the end of the root.

Ok, so by this time in the story, I was totally grossed out. A, "plugging my ears and going lalalala," kind of grossed out. Willies all up and down my back. And a little bit of bilious feeling in my throat.

Later in the day, the girls were comparing how deep the holes in their gums felt and looked.

And then I made the mistake of reading about dry sockets.  There are some things it's just better not to know.

30-minute Gluten Free Yeast Rolls

I adapted these for Gluten Free and as with many gluten free items, it takes a bit longer baking, so probably they're, .... oh, .... 35- or 40-minute rolls, but still pretty quick for a nice fluffy GF yeast roll.


30-minute Gluten Free Yeast Rolls

Heat oven to 400°F.

Grease a muffin pan. 

In your mixer bowl combine

1 c plus 2 Tbsp warm water

⅓ c coconut oil

2 Tbsp active dry yeast

¼ c raw honey

Let rest for 15 minutes.

Mix in the

1 tsp salt

½  tbs xanthan gum

2 eggs

3 – 3½ c *GF flour mix, or until mixture is a very thick batter.

*I use Peter and Kelli Bronski's Artisan Flour mix. 

Drop dough into a greased muffin tin.

Let rest for 10 minutes.

Bake at 400°F for 10 minutes, or until internal temp is 205-210º.

Remove from oven. 

Let cool for five minutes. Remove from pan and set on a cooling rack to to cool.  Or better yet, wrap them in a cloth napkin and basket, and serve them warm and steamy.

Adapted from a recipe at the Your Homebased Mom blog.

The Blessing of Grandparents

One of the great blessings of our new home is that we live only half an hour away from Joe's folks.

Two days ago, with no set plans for it, I brought home some sample Gluten Free breading from Kay's. Yesterday John F. dropped off a gallon bag of Northern fillets and pieces.

FISH FRY!

Joe called his parents and asked if they wanted to come for supper.  When the kids got home from school I had them scurry around accomplishing some last minute household clean-up.  Sophie peeled and cut sweet potatoes into fries.

On the menu:

• Fried fish in three varieties of coatings.  Joe did the Chili Nacho breading as is.  He put some GF beer in with the Parmasan breading to create and beer batter, and he ground up some less than satisfactory GF srirache crackers for the third selection.
• sweet potato fries, par-fried in oil, then finished off in the oven.
• garden corn from the freezer (originally from Ed and Kathy S.)
• lemon chess custard for dessert

We had a fun and delicious supper, thanks to my Joe.  I am NOT a fryer.  I don't have the patience to learn how to do it well.  But I definitely have the fortitude to eat fried food in large amounts.

After supper we all sat around the living room visiting.  A few of the kids started playing Apples to Apples.  Soon Grandpa was playing, too.  Gradually the others kids trickled in and joined the fun, too.  I don't think Grandma ever officially joined in but she helped here and there, when littles needed help with the words or concepts.  

Someone didn't want me to post this picture, ... but every else looked so good.

It was ten o'clock before Grandma and Grandpa left!  What fun!  And what a great gift for my children to be able to enjoy periodic spontaneous evenings with their grandparents.