A Thanksgiving Meme

Posted on November 18, 2008 by Barbara Harper

1. Which do you like better: cooking at your house, or going elsewhere?

I like both. We’ve cooked here for the better part of our married lives, but earlier on we got together with friends whose folks (whom we also knew) came down for Thanksgiving, and it was a fun time catching up with all of them. I imagine some time in the next few years there will be daughters-in-law who will take over the main event, and I am fine with that.

2. Do you buy a fresh or frozen bird?

Frozen, whatever’s on sale.

3. What kind of stuffing?

Cornbread.

4. Sweet potato or pumpkin pie?

I like both but my family would boycott if I had sweet potato pie instead of pumpkin.

5. Do you believe that turkey leftovers are a curse, or the point of the whole thing?

I LOVE turkey leftovers!! They’re not “the point,” necessarily, but I love turkey sandwiches, casseroles, and turkey-bone soup after Thanksgiving! But then again, that IS why we only have turkey once a year.

6. Which side dish would provoke a riot if you left it off the menu?

I don’t know. We always have stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy (Thanksgiving is one of the few times we have mashed potatoes), and some kind of vegetable casserole.

7. Do you save the carcass to make soup or stock?

YES!! One of my favorite things.

8. What do you wish you had that would make preparing Thanksgiving dinner easier?

Can’t think of anything, really, except a bigger kitchen so more than one person could work in there without it being crowded.

9. Do you get up at the crack of dawn to have dinner ready in the early afternoon, or do you eat at your normal dinner hour?

I do get up early to get the turkey in. (Preparing the turkey and baking it is the easiest part, I think, but the part I was most scared of the first time. It’s later when all the side dishes are going and I’m trying to get everything ready at the same time that is busy and hard.) I’d rather eat in early afternoon, clean the kitchen up, and then be “off” for the rest of the day while everyone makes a sandwich or heats up a plate of leftovers when they get hungry than do a big meal like that for dinner.

10. If you go to somebody else’s house, what’s your favorite dish to bring?

Whatever they ask of me.

11. What do you wish one of your guests would not bring to your house? What would you like them to bring?

I don’t really expect anyone to bring anything. Perhaps whatever soft drinks they like — there are so many varieties it’s hard to please everyone.

12. Does your usual mix of guests result in drama, or is it a group you’re happy to see?

It’s usually just immediate family and we’re glad for the chance to stop all the other crazy schedules and just relax for the day. That’s one reason we don’t usually have other guests (other than girlfriends now), though I wouldn’t be opposed to it.

13. Is your cranberry sauce fresh or canned? Whole or jellied?

NO cranberry sauce! Bleah!

14. What’s your absolute favorite thing on the menu?

That’s hard to say — I like it all!

15. Share one family tradition.

Nothing really out of the ordinary. Sometimes we do go around the table and share what we’re thankful for. We’re not football fans, so the afternoon or evening might be spent watching a video or playing a game. We also usually get in some long distance phone calls to far away family some time during the day.

Let me know if you do this as well and I’ll come by!

I am linking this to Kelli’s Week of Giving Thanks at There’s No Place Like Home — a festival of Thanksgiving posts — poems, quotes, decorations, crafts, recipes, etc. You can have fun there perusing lots of Thanksgiving inspiration.

Veteran’s Day Parade

Posted on November 11, 2008 by Barbara Harper

I’m afraid I wasn’t really thinking about veterans as I made my way to the parade that year.

My husband’s friend was our city councilman, and he asked my husband if he could drive him in our oldest son’s convertible for the Veteran’s Day parade. As I drove the kids downtown to “see Daddy” and “see Jeremy’s car,” I was thinking of finding a parking place where there wasn’t too much traffic and where there was a restroom nearby in case any of us needed one, wondering whether I should get out the folding chairs from the back of the van and whether we’d need sweaters. I found a suitable place near the end of the parade route, and we scrambled out of the van to line up on the sidewalk.

As we listened to the marching bands and saw the waving city officials, I noticed a man in a wheelchair next to us with a woman I assume was his daughter. He was a veteran, as evidenced by his uniform jacket and VFW hat. I noticed other old men scattered here and there throughout the few attendees with at least a VFW or uniform hat, some with full uniform on, some in wheelchairs or with canes.

I knew, of course, that Veteran’s Day is observed to honor those who have fought to defend our country. But seeing those uniforms up and down the street really brought it home. They weren’t just out to spend a few minutes of time on a day off. They were out to honor and support each other and their country as they always had.

I felt like I should turn to the man in the wheelchair next to me and say, “Thank you.” I didn’t, but I wish I had.

I do now. I appreciate and thank the veterans and those currently serving as well as the families they leave behind in order to protect and defend the rest of us. They continue serving even after they come home: seven veterans who did not know my father or the rest of our family honored him as a brother with a 21-gun salute at his funeral. One of the most poignant images at my father-in-law’s funeral was the salute from his fellow veterans.

Thank you. It doesn’t seem enough just to say it, but it is heartfelt. Thank you.

Poetry Friday: Dirge for Two Veterans

Posted on November 7, 2008 by Barbara Harper

I don’t remember now how I discovered “Dirge for Two Veterans” by Walt Whitman, from Leaves of Grass, but when I did a few weeks ago I knew I wanted to save it for the Poetry Friday before Veteran’s Day. Poetry Friday is hosted this week by Check It Out.

The last sunbeam
Lightly falls from the finish’d Sabbath,
On the pavement here, and there beyond it is looking,
Down a new-made double grave.

Lo, the moon ascending,
Up from the east the silvery round moon,
Beautiful over the house-tops, ghastly, phantom moon,
Immense and silent moon.

I see a sad procession,
And I hear the sound of coming full-key’d bugles,
All the channels of the city streets they’re flooding,
As with voices and with tears.

I hear the great drums pounding,
And the small drums steady whirring,
And every blow of the great convulsive drums,
Strikes me through and through.

For the son is brought with the father,
(In the foremost ranks of the fierce assault they fell,
Two veterans son and father dropt together,
And the double grave awaits them.)

Now nearer blow the bugles,
And the drums strike more convulsive,
And the daylight o’er the pavement quite has faded,
And the strong dead-march enwraps me.

In the eastern sky up-buoying,
The sorrowful vast phantom moves illumin’d,
(‘Tis some mother’s large transparent face,
In heaven brighter growing.)

O strong dead-march you please me!
O moon immense with your silvery face you soothe me!
O my soldiers twain! O my veterans passing to burial!
What I have I also give you.

The moon gives you light,
And the bugles and the drums give you music,
And my heart, O my soldiers, my veterans,
My heart gives you love.

Catching up

Posted on November 1, 2008 by Barbara Harper

My word, you all are prolific! I had to discipline myself not to even open Google Reader yesterday til I finished my task. After dinner I finally got to “play” a while — and there were over 120 posts! I read some last night and some this morning. Saturdays are typically slow in Blogland, so it is a good day to catch up.

I also missed out on Friday’s Fave Five, Show and Tell Friday, Saturday Photo Hunt, but it is my own fault.

The last week of the month finds me working on a newsletter/booklet for our ladies’ group at church. I never know quite what to call it. It started out as about eight pages with news of our group, our missionaries, and other little bits of interest to women, based on a similar booklet my mother-in-law’s church published. I took some of those to my pastor and asked if we could do the same, and he said, “Go for it!” This month marks my eighth year of doing it, and it has grown to 16 pages and includes a section on devotions, a book summary of a missionary book or biography or an anecdote from a missionary’s life, an “around the house” section of tips or encouragement for homemakers, a “Christian womanhood” section where I rotate topics related to different to women in different situations — single, married, mom, older, widowed, etc. Some of it I write myself, some of it I compile from other sources. It is a blessing to me — sometimes I would love to lay aside other ministry tasks and just do this.

Oh, there is also a “funny pages” section at the back. That is probably what I get the most comments on. 🙂

It seems that most bloggers love to write to some degree — you might ask your pastor about a similar ministry, and he just might say, “Go for it!”

Some months I know what I am going to put in the booklet, and it is just a matter of getting it down. Other times I am not so sure until I get started. This month was about half and half. I usually work on it the last week of the month to have out the first Sunday of the next month. I keep telling myself I should work on it earlier then let it “sit” and incubate for a while and edit it the last week — I would probably catch more mistakes that way and find better ways to word things. But I somehow end up not doing that. This particular week I ended up not getting the bulk of it done until the last two days!

I don’t work best under pressure — but I do get more done under pressure.

But my point in saying all of this is to testify that God is faithful to guide and direct and give ideas even to such small endeavors as this. There was one section I was drawing a blank on until He reminded me of an idea I considered last month, but then went another direction. I hadn’t made note of it and had forgotten it. Sometimes putting the clip art in can be the most time-consuming part of it, but He reminded me of a file I had downloaded some type back under an obscure title. Time after time I see Him faithfully helping things to come together, giving me ideas, etc. And I have seen that in other areas of ministry as well. So I just wanted to encourage you not to refrain from certain types of ministry because you don’t think you’d know what to do. If it is something the Lord wants you to do, He will work through you and help you to do it.

“In other news”… last night was Halloween, and somehow our neighborhood gets flooded with many more people than I ever see on the streets here at any other time. I think people from other neighborhoods, or maybe a nearby apartment complex, bring their kids here. I even saw one truck that hauled a lot of people around. We always get some kids’ tracts printed up for just such a purpose (our local Christian bookstore has them but they can also be ordered at Good News Publishing) to give out with the candy. I bought 114 tracts — about all our bookstore had that I liked — and those were gone within about 45 minutes. I scrambled around between my purse and desk and a cabinet and found maybe 40 or so more. Then we just gave out handfuls of candy but got tired after a while and went ahead and closed the door and shut off the lights. We have much more candy left over than any of us needs — I may send some to the dorms with Jason’s girlfriend.

I used to be very anti-Halloween, and I still think there is a darker side to it. I feel almost oppressed sometimes at the types of things in the stores and on TV — I don’t watch horror movies, but I do see them listed and advertised a lot this time of year. And I think a lot of the really gruesome costumes and decorations go too far. But I can see how it can also be an innocent, fun time of dressing up and having fun.

When my older boys were little, a friend used to host a fall party on a week apart from Halloween. Each year it was a different theme: one year it was clowns, one it was fairy-tale characters, one it was what you want to be when you grow up. The kids just loved that, and I loved the creativity of getting a costume together to fit the theme. If I had time today I’d scan in some of their costumes, but I don’t — and this post is too long already. My friend also had games and goodies, and those parties were some of my favorite memories from my kids’ childhood.

Speaking of going on too long, I need to get going, but I wanted to share one last thing. A few days ago I mentioned I was chuckling over a mom in a store calling to her little son, “Walker, don’t run!” Well, this morning there was a related headline in the paper that made me chuckle again:

Have a good weekend!

Happy Independence Day!

Posted on July 4, 2008 by Barbara Harper

From a letter John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail on July 3, 1776, sharing his thoughts about celebrating Independence Day, with the original spelling:

The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.

You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not.

(Graphic courtesy of Snapshots of Joy)

Thursday Thirteen: Dad’s Famous Sayings

Posted on June 12, 2008 by Barbara Harper

In honor of Father’s Day this Sunday, I thought I’d salute dads and post lines that seem common to dads everywhere. Did your dad say these? Can you think of any others?

1. Do you think I am made of money? (or Do you think money grows on trees?)

2. This is going to hurt me a lot worse than it will hurt you.

3. You’re not leaving my house dressed like that!

4. Close the door. Were you born in a barn?

5. As long as you live under my roof, you will live by my rules.

6. Don’t make me stop this car!

7. “Hey” is for horses.

8. When I was your age , I….

9. You didn’t beat me. I let you win.

10. Who said life was supposed to be fair? Life is not fair.

11. I’ll tell you why. Because I said so. That’s why.

12. What are your intentions with my daughter?

13. You’ve got a headache? Here, let me step on your toe, and you’ll forget your head hurts.

More Thursday Thirteens are here.

(Graphic courtesy of Snapshots of Joy)

Memorial Day

Posted on May 26, 2008 by Barbara Harper

Any nation that does not honor its heroes will not long endure.
~Abraham Lincoln~

A good history of Memorial Day is here, and a great article about ways to observe it is here.

GOING TO THE GONE
A checklist for Memorial Day

by Greg Asimakoupoulos
May 23, 2008

Go look in on your children still asleep
within their bed.
Remind yourself they’re safe and warm
because of some long dead.

Go for a walk through cemeteries
lined with little flags.
Take time to ponder homebound heroes
flown in body bags.

Go stand between those granite stones
engraved with names and dates.
Imagine all who died defending
our United States.

Go on and kneel beside a marker
offering a prayer
with gratitude for those who gave their lives
defeating terror.

Go home and count your blessings
from the hands of those now gone.
Then vow to the Almighty that their
mem’ry will live on.

Also found here.

Hat tip to A Thinking Man’s Thoughts.

(Graphic courtesy of Anne’s Place)

A pleasant Mother’s Day

Posted on May 12, 2008 by Barbara Harper

My family does a lot to make Mother’s Day special for me. I don’t remember when Jim started this, but for the last several years he has made a special Mother’s Day meal, assigning each of the boys a task. Yesterday he grilled Marinated Ham Steak (recipe at the end an overly long post there) and sausage, and set one boy to making Rice-a-Roni, one to making a salad, and one making corn on the cob. Jim shops for the ingredients on Saturday and they all work together to clean up after the meal on Sunday. It’s wonderful. Years ago I heard our then youth pastor say that in his family they took turns washing dishes for his mom on Mother’s Day, and I thought…I am glad I am in the family I am in! (For more reasons than that, of course!). Getting the dishes washed once a year is ok, but I enjoy having the whole day off. And though I enjoy a nice meal out probably more than anyone else in the family, the restaurants here are overly crowded on Sundays anyway — I can just imagine what they’re like on Mother’s Day (in fact, when we got done eating, Jim said, “I bet the folks at Outback are still in line.”) For years we have generally avoided going out to eat on Sundays anyway, but that’s a different post. I enjoy coming home to curl up with a book or putter around on the computer that one Sunday a year.

I do make breakfast as usual. Our Sunday mornings are pretty well scheduled — we just have one shower and have to get ready in shifts, so it seemed prudent to just keep that as it was.

After dinner I opened my family’s gifts. I received several books, a book of vintage-looking scrapbooking paper, a punch tool that makes a lacy edge on paper, a gift card to Michael’s, a plaque with John 13:35 on it, another plaque about Moms (which matches the plaque that son’s girlfriend gave me here about being a second Mom), and a Deluxe Scrabble game (this one happens to have black and silver features and lettering). What I like best about it is that the board is on a turntable so no player has to look at the board upside down. I love word games but can hardly ever get my family to play with me. But four of us played last night, and it was fun. And hopefully they’ll play with me again some time. 🙂

Church yesterday morning didn’t really focus much on Mother’s Day, which was unusual, but at the evening service opportunity was given for every mom who wanted to to request a verse or two of a favorite song. Though that was nice, it went on for a long time! They didn’t want to cut off anyone’s opportunity. Then there were a few testimonies having something to do with mothers, and it was interesting the variety that came up — there was one from a young mom whose baby has had complications since before birth praising God for the way He has manifested Himself through her baby’s life so far, a teen-ager thanking God for his mother’s help and support through a recent diabetes diagnosis, another thankful for his mom’s support through a family trial, a husband thankful for his wife and the good job she did with their daughters while he was often gone with his job, an older man who was thankful for the single lady who led him to the Lord and the opportunity he had in later years to lead his parents to Him. It was a blessing to hear all of those.

The last couple of Mother’s Days have had something of a pang with missing my mom. Usually in the evening after church I would call her and we’d chat – -seldom for less than an hour. There were a few moments of missing her intensely, but it wasn’t quite as hard as the last two years — maybe due to the passage of time, maybe because the time I usually talked to her was the time we were all playing my new game. We did talk to my husband’s mom later in the evening.

I have several tasks on the agenda for this week, so I had better get to them. But I want to thank my family for the lovely day and all the special and thoughtful things you did!

Mother’s Kisses

Posted on May 11, 2008 by Barbara Harper

They’re good for bumps and good for lumps
They’re even good for dumps and grumps,
They’re good for stings of bumblebees
And barks from shinnying cherry trees.
For splinters, sunburns, “skeeter-bites,”
For injured feelings after fights,
And scratches, scratched while Tabby hisses —
Mother’s kisses.

There’s naught so pure, there’s naught so sure,
Indeed, they seem a heavenly cure,
For pounded fingers, and stubbed toes,
And all the long, long list of woes.
Yet did you ever think it queer
That while they’re fine for every fear
They’re just as fine with all the blisses —
Mother’s kisses.

~ Annie Badcomb Wheeler

A few other poems for Mother’s Day are here.

My tribute to my mom, written last year, is here. This is one of those days I most miss her.

Happy Mother’s Day!

(Graphic from Anne’s Place)

Mother’s Day Funnies

Posted on May 10, 2008 by Barbara Harper

WHAT MOMS REALLY WANT FOR MOTHER’S DAY

* To be able to eat a whole candy bar (alone) and drink a soda without any “floaties” (ie, backwash).
* Five pounds of chocolate that won’t add twenty pounds to her figure.
* A shower without a child peeking through the curtain with a “Hi Ya Mom!” just as she puts a razor to her ankle.
* For her teenager to announce, “Hey, Mom! I got a full scholarship and a job all in the same day!”
* A grocery store that doesn’t have candy/gum/cheap toys displayed at the checkout line.
* To have a family meal without a discussion about bodily secretions.
*To occasionally get to sleep late on the weekend.
*To take a hot bath without her toddler suddenly screaming, “Mommy, I have to go potty!” as soon as she hits the water.

Laws of Parenting:

1. The later you stay up, the earlier your child will wake up the next morning.
2. For a child to become clean, something else must become dirty.
3. Toys multiply to fill any space available.
4. The longer it takes you to make a meal, the less your child will like it.
5. If the shoe fits… it’s expensive.
6. The surest way to get something done is to tell a child not to do it.
7. The gooier the food, the more likely it is to end up on the carpet.
8. Backing the car out of the driveway causes your child to have to go to the bathroom.

MURPHY’S LAWS FOR PARENTS

1. The tennis shoes you must replace today will go on sale next week.
2. Leakproof thermoses will.
3. The chances of a piece of bread falling with the grape jelly side down is directly proportional to the cost of the carpet.
4. The garbage truck will be two doors past your house when the argument over whose day it is to take out the trash ends.
5. The shirt your child must wear today will be the only one that needs to be washed or mended.
6. Gym clothes left at school in lockers mildew at a faster rate than other clothing.
7. The item your child lost, and must have for school within the next ten seconds, will be found in the last place you look.
8. Sick children recover miraculously when the pediatrician enters the treatment room.
9. Refrigerated items, used daily, will gravitate toward the back of the refrigerator.
10. Your chances of being seen by someone you know dramatically increase if you drive your child to school in your robe and curlers.

(Authors Unknown)