A Delicious Combination

Photo Credit:  sideshowmom at morgueFile.com

I hope everyone had a wonderful week of giving thanks and feasting on favorite dishes with family and friends.  My kiddos were off all last week, so Monday morning came as quite the shocker.  It’s amazing how easy it is to slip into summer mode.

I don’t know about you, but I love how our family’s Thanksgiving meal is so deliciously predictable.  For starters, my mom always makes enough to feed an army.   We discuss scaling down on quantity and it never actually happens.  When it’s all said and done, she confesses that it’s virtually impossible to make a small pan of dressing.  Plus, I know she secretly loves to send all her little ducklings home with some leftovers for lunch (and supper) the next day.  Love that Momma…and her cookin’!

We are also blessed to have so many different choices that I feel like I’m at Golden Corral.  The line-up typically includes ham, turkey, dressing, gravy, green beans, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, squash casserole, cucumber salad, cole slaw (sour and sweet versions), broccoli rice casserole, fruit with whip cream, rolls, cookies, pecan pie and…a nap.

However, there was a new dessert that Mom tried this year that I absolutely fell in love with.  She cut the recipe out of our local newspaper a few weeks ago.  It was an easy “crustless” pecan pie.  Well…crustless in that there was no crust you could visibly see on the outside.  My Uncle Greg convinced us that the crust was really found within the pie…all mixed together.  Here is the mouth-watering recipe:

2 eggs (beaten)

1 cup sugar

½ cup flour

1 tsp. vanilla

¾ cup chopped pecans

6 Tbsp. melted butter

1 cup sweetened coconut flakes

¼ tsp. salt

Mix the above ingredients well and pour into a greased 9-inch pie pan.  Place in a 325 degree oven for 25-30 minutes.  YUM!

In between all of the eating, we did manage to find some time to play outside with our puppy, Belle.  She is four months old now and is quite the lively one.  She loves to play fetch, but of course, does NOT let us have the ball she fetches without a fight. 

We tried to trick her into giving up her ball.  We would kick the tattered soccer ball and she would run after it and bring it back…well…nearby.  So, in order to get her attention away from the soccer ball, we would throw a small blue football beside her.  She would have to drop the soccer ball from her mouth in order to fetch the blue football.  Numerous times, she attempted to have both balls in her mouth.  It never worked.  She went crazy trying to have both.  She couldn’t stand it!

This sounds extremely familiar to what I try to do at times with God’s will for my life and my own will…God’s way and my own way.  Like Belle, I want to have both...the soccer ball AND the football.  It doesn’t work very well that way.  I have to drop my will to grab on tight to His.

In addition to eating and playing with Belle, the kids were craving some homework over the break.  What?!  Well, my husband promised to write down some questions for each of our children and said he'd look over their answers after work.  For some reason, my kids just loved this idea.

So, the Thanksgiving homework included questions in subjects like math, spelling, science, social studies, faith, and common sense.  The kids thought it ranked right up there with chocolate.  Our three-year-old daughter had to name some colors and shapes and know the answers to questions like “What color is daddy’s truck?” and “What is PoPo's real name?”

Our five-year-old had some simple math and spelling as well as questions like (Dads will love this…), “How much pressure do tires have?” and “Name three fluids you check in a car.”  Yes, our daughter just might become a mechanic one day!  She aced the questions - especially, “When is Jesus’ birthday?” and recited the “Our Father” and “Hail Mary” without missing a beat.

Our nine-year-old son had a more challenging selection of questions.  He was asked questions about electricity conductors and insulators, as well as what gas must be present for fires to burn.  He had to write down three of the ten commandments as well as the four gospel writers.  He did a fantastic job, right along with the girls.

BUT, in the social studies section of his questions, time stood still for me for just a moment.  I was reminded of something very important through one of my son’s answers.  One of the questions was, “Who leads the United States of America?”  My husband was looking for “President” as the answer.  My son wrote…”God.”

Yes.  A simple reminder of Who guides the sun to rise and set each day.  A reminder of Who is over everything…even a president.  Thank you, son.  I love you to the moon and back!

God leads us and I couldn’t be more thrilled.  And, similar to the new “crustless” pie that my Mom made this year – I want my will and His will to resemble its ingredients.  I want our wills to be mixed together in such a beautifully delicious combination that I can’t separate them even if I tried.