Cooler Corn

Photograph by Scott DeSimon This is one of those forwards I like to pass on from time to time, so here it is: Am I the only person who hasn't heard of "cooler corn"? As an obsessive food nerd, you'd expect that I would have at least heard of it, but over the weekend I was blindsided by the simple genius of this method for cooking loads of corn on the cob perfectly. I was hepped to it while visiting my family in Maine. Short story: We like corn on the cob. And with eight adults at the table, that means a couple of dozen ears. We would have used the lobster pot to cook them all, but the lobster pot was busy steaming lobster.Then my sister, a capable Maine cook with years of camping experience says "let's do cooler corn!" Before I can ask "what is cooler corn?" a Coleman cooler appears from the garage, is wiped clean, then filled with the shucked ears. Next, two kettles-full of boiling water are poured over the corn and the top closed. Then nothing. When we sat down to dinner 30 minutes later and opened it, the corn was perfectly cooked. My mind was blown. And I'm told that the corn will remain at the perfect level of doneness for a couple of hours. Turns out, Cooler Corn is pretty well known among the outdoorsy set But for those of us who avoid tents as much as possible, it's perfect for large barbecues and way less of mess than grilling. In fact, I may even buy another cooler just so I'm ready for next summer. Now that I'm in the know.

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Three Year Old Shana!

Well you can see early autumn is grandchildren birthday time in our family, and today it's Shana's time to shine. Three years old!! 

Shana, you are our sweet little cuddly girl. Always ready and willing to snuggle with the people you love. You make us happy when you look at us with those eyes and give us those hugs and kisses. You're a big girl. now!! For almost three years you've been the baby girl and the little sister, but now you're also a big sister. You really surprised some of us. Being the baby for all your life, I was thinking MAYBE you'd be just a little envious of the new baby that was coming to your house, But almost a month ago, your new little sister arrived and NOBODY loves her more than you do. I remember how you warmed our hearts the way you kept saying "Awwwww, look at her. Look at the little baby. Look at her little hands. Awww." Well you've always been one who loves baby dolls and now you have one who's living and breathing right in your house. And you're still as sweet to her as the first day, giving her lots of kisses. Someday, I think you're going to be a good mommy and your children will love you as much as you love your own mommy. 

Someday, we all hope you will be as accepting and loving to Jesus as you are to the people you care about. Someday, we all hope you'll live up to the Proverbs 31:30 verse your mommy and daddy have given you to live by, and that you will be a woman who fears the Lord, and that will make you beautiful.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Hugs and Kisses,

Nanna

Another Girlie!!

God in His kind mercies has added another girlie to our family. My husband and I are rejoicing to see yet another granddaughter added to the number. Now there are three!!! Sariah Grace arrived on Tuesday, September 13, 2011, weighing in at seven pounds, two ounces, 20 inches long, and adorable as all get out!

If you will look closely, you will see the loving hands of her big sister, Shana, who was the last arrival almost three years ago. (How time has flown.) Big sister, Selena, now five, was somewhere around too. I don't know which one adores her more! 

All you grandmoms are sure to know the excitement we're feeling right now. We are richly blessed.

Five Years Old!

I can hardly believe it was five years ago today. I heard your first cries from the other side of the curtain in the delivery room and waited so your daddy and mommy could have a few minutes with just the three of you. When I first saw you, you were only about three minutes old and I loved you right from the start. Actually even before that. There was a lot of excitement that day and there were many people who came to see you and they all fell in love with you as soon as they saw you. Of course for me, PopPop and Auntie Nee, our love for you has only grown as these five years have gone by. But that's because you're so easy to love. You have such a bright and happy spirit. You're so helpful and friendly and excited about learning new things. The Lord has given you a mind that likes learning new things which you are very good at. You are a blessing to all of us and we thank the Lord for bringing you into our lives.

Our biggest prayer for you is not so much that you be smarter than anybody else or that you can run faster or jump higher than anybody else, but that you will love Jesus with all your heart and that he helps you to be the kind of person that pleases Him. We kind of think we see  Him already working in your heart and that makes all of us very happy.

Thanks for wanting to share your big day with us. We had a wonderful time with you and Shae-Shae this weekend. 

God bless you, dear Selena, and may heaven smile on you this coming year.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Kisses and Hugs, 

Nanna

Beautiful Savior

Please forgive me my dear friends for my gross neglect of this blog and of you. Please be blessed by this reminder of the beauty of our Savior, which I posted before. He is worthy of all our praise.

To Kill an American

(Received in a forwarded email recently)

You probably missed this in the rush of news, but there was actually a report that someone in Pakistan had published in a newspaper, an offer of a reward to anyone who killed an American, any American.
So an Australian dentist wrote an editorial the following day to let everyone know what an American is . So they would know when they found one. (Good one, mate!!!!)
'An American is English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish , Polish, Russian or Greek. An American may also be Canadian, Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, or Pakistani or Afghan.
An American may also be a Comanche, Cherokee, Osage, Blackfoot, Navaho, Apache, Seminole or one of the many other tribes known as native Americans.

An American is Christian , or he could be Jewish, or Buddhist, or Muslim. In fact, there are more Muslims in America than in Afghanistan . The only difference is that in America they are free to worship as each of them chooses.

An American is also free to believe in no religion.. For that he will answer only to God, not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God.

An American lives in the most prosperous land in the history of the world. The root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence , which recognizes the God given right of each person to the pursuit of happiness.

An American is generous.. Americans have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need, never asking a thing in return.

When Afghanistan was over-run by the Soviet army 20 years ago, Americans came with arms and supplies to enable the people to win back their country!


As of the morning of September 11, Americans had given more than any other nation to the poor in Afghanistan .. The national symbol of America , The Statue of Liberty , welcomes your tired and your poor, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, tempest tossed. These in fact are the people who built America.

Some of them were working in the Twin Towers the morning of September 11 , 2001 earning a better life for their families. It's been told that the World Trade Center victims were from at least 30 different countries, cultures, and first languages, including those that aided and abetted the terrorists. So you can try to kill an American if you must. Hitler did. So did General Tojo , and Stalin , and Mao Tse-Tung, and other blood-thirsty tyrants in the world.. But, in doing so you would just be killing yourself . Because Americans are not a particular people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, is an American.

Are You Up for This?

THIS IS GREAT for wordsmiths! Read all the way to the end. This took a lot of work to put together. You think English is easy??? Read to the end ... a new twist 1) The bandage was wound around the wound. 2) The farm was used to produce produce. 3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse. 4) We must polish the Polish furniture. 5) He could lead if he would get the lead out. 6) The peasant decided to desert his dessert in the desert. 7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present. 8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum. 9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes. 10) I did not object to the object. 11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid. 12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row. 13) They were too close to the door to close it. 14) The buck does funny things when the does are present. 15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line. 16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow. 17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail. 18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear. 19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests. 20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend? Let's face it - English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France . Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig. If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it? In what other language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell? How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on. English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. PS. - Why doesn't 'Buick' rhyme with 'quick' ? You lovers of the English language might enjoy this: here is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is 'UP.' It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP ? At a meeting, why does a topic come UP ? Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report ? We call UP our frie nds. And we use it to brighten UP a room, polishUP the silver; we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car. At other times the little word has real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses. To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special. And this UP is confusing: A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP. We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night. We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP! To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions. If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more. When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP . When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP. When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP. When it doesn't rain for awhile, things dry UP. One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP for now my time is UP, so........it is time to shut UP!

So True

Such as, "What must I do to be saved?" You will probably get the wrong answer at Google, unless it takes you to Bible.com., Bible Gateway.com or the like. The right answer is only in the Bible!

Try Acts 16:31, for the answer, but it's all over the Bible, especially the New Testament.

Girlie Friendship

I remember when I was in my late teens how important friends were. Above is a picture of my younger daughter (middle) with her two good friends from church. This is such an important time in their lives and I'm so thankful she has had them to share all the "girlie" things with. They all want to please God in their lives and are at various stages of schooling, etc. and each comes from a different culture. But they have unity in Christ.

However, my biggest prayer for them is that one day God will give to each of them a godly and honorable husband. I'm sure that He is the One who must do that and I'm praying they'll all be patiently waiting on Him until that time comes. I pray they'll keep themselves unto Him and for that day when He provides for them as only He can. I'm sure many of you will be praying the same prayer with me for our daughters and granddaughters.

By the way, my newest grandchild due in September is another girl. For whatever His reasons, the Lord has wanted our family to raise daughters for the kingdom. :)

Happy Mother's Day

To all mothers and those who have a mother's heart. Be blessed. May Christ be honored in your life and the lives of your children through your example.

I am thankful to the Lord for His gift of children. I remember my own dear mother today who has been in heaven now for 16 years.

The End

It's difficult to rejoice over the death of someone who undoubtedly has just entered a Christless eternity with all the suffering that entails, but I, along with most Americans, am thankful to God for His mercies to us for the end of this decade of tracking down this one person who has been responsible for so much horror and terror. I am proud of our country, and though I've never been a fan of our current President, I felt a sense of oneness with him last night as he delivered his speech telling us of the events of yesterday. I particularly felt immense pride when hearing about that courageous group of people who carried out this mission with success and efficiency. God bless America.

Sweeties

I hope your Easter was as blessed as mine. We had a nice day at church and as a family. Here are a few of my sweeties. We're having fantastic weather right now. In the seventies to eighties. Perfect. Talk to you soon.

Alas! And Did My Savior Bleed

I received this in a e-newsletter today, and wanted to share it during this Passion week. I always reflect on these beautiful words by Isaac Watts this time of year.

Topsy-Turvy

In the midst of finishing up the income taxes and scrambling to get our third quarter school work in, we had to take hubby to the ER Monday afternoon whereupon they kept him overnight and took forever releasing him late yesterday. (He was feeling some discomfort in the chest for a week or so, and the doctor didn't want to play around with that. However, all tests revealed that it's not his heart, but probably a digestive issue, so we're thankful for that.) So, we hopefully also have some car issues straightened out as well and life is going on? A bit on the topsy-turvy side, but going on anyway.

Please forgive me for not checking in on all of you more often, but I'll try to get by later today. No matter what's going on in our lives, Jesus reigns.

Be Still

Hope this is a blessing to all. I'm posting it on all my blogs today. Beautiful images of God's creation throughout. Have a very blessed Lord's Day tomorrow.