I have enjoyed all of the recent blog posts and facebook posts people have written that are full of the things they are thankful for. They are heart warming and encouraging.
I know from experience that thankfulness is not always easy to come by.
There are times in life when tears flow more freely that gratitude.
There are times when sorrow, sickness, suffering and grief seem to block the well worn path to thanksgiving.
Several years ago I struggled with anxiety. At the time it took a toll on my health. Anxiety clouded my view of the blessings in my life. It led me to think that I was not living out my faith well. How could I be if anxiety could have such a hold on me?
My perspective changed when I read Psalm 6:6 in which David wrote, "I am weary with my groaning; all night I make my bed swim; I drench my couch with my tears." At the time that was exactly how I felt! It occurred to me when I read that Psalm that if David, who was called a man after God's own heart in the scriptures, could be so troubled that he like me was brought to tears by those troubles and yet was still considered to be a man after God's own heart, that I too could struggle with anxiety and continue to be a woman after God's own heart.
A friend recently shared with me the saying, "It is not happy people who are thankful. It is thankful people who are happy!"
I don't think anyone ever shared this saying with David and yet I believe he knew it. I believe he knew it because in the same Psalms where David cried out to God with his groaning, he also consistently declares his trust in the Lord. Psalm 7:1a "O Lord my God, in Thee do I put my trust!" And David faithfully thanked the Lord throughout the Psalms. Psalm 9:1-2 "I will praise You, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will tell of Your marvelous works. I will be glad and rejoice in You; I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High." It was David's being a man after God's own heart that caused him to continue to be thankful even when he was suffering and full of sorrow.
During the volleyball season I would tell the girls to focus on where they wanted their serve to land because the ball would follow their focus. It is important to remember that our hearts too will follow our focus!
David knew God could handle his outcries of sorrow and frustration and David kept his focus on God's goodness and blessings because David knew that is where joy and peace are found.
When our hearts are heavy as David's was, thankfulness may not come easy. A thankful heart may take effort. It may take great effort!
One may have to start with the little things.
A smile given from a passing stranger. Thank you!
The perfect bloom of a summer flower. Thank you!
Snow covered pumpkins. Thank you!
When we begin to focus on our blessings it can be surprising how quickly the list of blessings will grow!
When we begin to be purposeful in giving God thanks it can be surprising how quickly our joy will grow!
My heart spills over with joy if a thankful heart comes easy for you!
If a thankful heart is not so easy for you to come by, I encourage you to give thankfulness all of your effort. It may not be easy, but it will be so worth it!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Thank you for being here and reading Unexpected Daisies!
God Bless you!
Christine
Saturday was my birthday.
It's tradition for the Family to hang a happy birthday banner for birthdays.
Our banner may be a little too springlike for a November birthday! Especially for a November birthday that gets the first real snow of the season!
We were forecasted to get a light dusting of snow on Saturday.
We actually piled up 4 inches of the fluffy, white stuff!
Snow! Wonderful snow!
I asked the Husband if he would please cancel our plans to go out for dinner!
All I really wanted for my birthday was to have dinner at home, the Husband made french bread pizzas. Delicious!
And I wanted to be cozy around a warm fire and play games with the Family!
It was a perfect birthday!
Sometimes the simple things are more than enough! Especially when you add cake!
And it didn't hurt that my parents brought a Starbucks mocha to me first thing Saturday morning! Oh yeah! Perfect birthday!
Christine
The Husband was disappointed when he arrived home the other day and found there was no apple pie.
The Husband was upset that the photo in Wednesday's blog was not of a pie I made that day while he was at work, but a photo of the pie I made last Thanksgiving.
In order to appease the Husband, who has been waiting since last Thanksgiving for some of his favorite pie, that's right I have not made apple pie since last Thanksgiving, (FOR SHAME) I made apple pie yesterday!
It also helped that I was given a small truck load of apples from my friend whose family owns a small orchard!
And ba da bing...apple pie!
I will tell you straight up I do not usually make my own pie crust. I know, pie crust makers everywhere just gasped in unison. But here's the thing...I don't especially like pie crust. In fact I do not eat the edge of the crust. There's no pie filling there! Drat! Another gasp.
In my opinion, mine only, pie crust is only necessary to keep the pie filling from spilling all over. And I might be lazy. Therefore I use a store bought pie crust.
Thank you Pillsbury for an easy to use, ready made pie crust. Unroll and place in pie dish. Easy as pie!
And thank you for keeping all of my pie filling from spilling all over!
I will also tell you that when I confess to people that I use a store bought crust they are surprised. I'm just sayin'!
For the pie filling whisk together 1 cup of sugar, 1/3 cup of flour, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and a dash of salt in a large bowl.
I slice the apples with my handy dandy apple slicer.
Then using a paring knife I remove the apple peal and cut each apple slice in half or even thirds.
I slice my apples this way because it's easy.
I drop the apple slices into the bowl with the sugar and flour mixture.
Making sure each slice is coated with the sugar and flour mixture, pile the apples into the store bought crust lined pie plate.
My recipe calls for 8 cups of apples. I don't measure. I keep piling up apple slices until I decide I have enough!
Top apples with 2 tablespoons of butter cut into cubes,
and the zest of 1/2 a lemon.
I almost forgot! Pour the remaining sugar and flour mixture over the apples!
Using clean kitchen shears, make decorative cuts in the top crust.
Easy!
Place top crust over apples and crimp edges. I am not very good at crimping the pie edge, but no matter how the edge looks the pie still tastes good!
Finally brush an egg wash (1 egg mixed with 2 tablespoons milk) over the crust. You can bake the pie without an egg wash. An egg wash sure makes it look nice and golden and shiny though.
I place my pie on a baking sheet before I bake it. The baking sheet will catch any drips if your pie bubbles up and over the pie plate.
Wrap the edges of the pie crust in foil to protect the edge from overcooking and place pie in 425˚ oven for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes remove foil from pie edge and return pie to oven for 15 to 20 minutes longer. Apples will be soft and pie filling should be bubbling when done.
Hello gorgeous!
Looks good!
That's all I have to say!!
Christine
P.S. The Husband really is an easy going man. He has however been asking me to make an apple pie for a few weeks now and I haven't gotten around to it.
The Husband also has a very good sense of humor. He suggested I use the goofy photo of him.
This blog is Husband approved! I love that man!!
Truth be told, I would still be wearing flip flops today, even though it is only 28 degrees Fahrenheit, if I had not forced myself to throw them away. They were looking pretty tattered and worn, and really it was the only way to make myself stop!
Truth be told, though I like most bugs, I can't stand these long legged, fast moving millipedes!
They freak me out!!
Once when I was throwing the covers back on the bed to crawl in for the night, one of these creepy crawlers darted right at me! He had been hiding under the covers! He ran down the side of the bed. I screamed! The Husband looked all around the room for it and could not find it. We slept in another room on an air mattress. There was NO WAY I was sleeping in the bed with that thing still on the loose! I cringe now just sharing this story with you. Gaaah!
Truth be told, I like apple pie, the Husband really likes apple pie, I will be making apple pie for Thanksgiving.
However my heart belongs to pumpkin pie! It's not just any pumpkin pie that I love mind you. It's my Mom's pumpkin pie! I'm quite certain that it's Mom's love baked into the pie that makes it so good and it simply would not be the same if I made it myself. So for Thanksgiving day I will bake the apple pie but I will devour Mom's pumpkin pie! I should ask her to bring two!
Truth be told, I love the Lord and I am a Christian or better yet a Christ follower. Not because I am good, but because I am not good. Because in my life I have known envy and jealousy so great it could choke a whale. I have known bitterness and a lack of forgiveness that are consuming. I have built up a pride that when toppled could crush me. I could go on.
Truth be told, it is the saving grace of God, the sacrifice of Jesus, and the merciful work of the Holy Spirit that cause transformation in me, that changes envy and jealousy into joy and gladness, bitterness and an unforgiving heart into a tender, forgiving heart and pride into humility.
Truth be told, though God is at work to change me, I, like all who call God Lord and proclaim to live for Him, am prone to mess it up. I fail to live out my faith as I want to, as I hope to, as I aught to. I wish it were not so!
Truth be told, life is a journey. I am a work in progress. God is patient. He knows I will mess up. He knows I want to live out my faith in a way that glorifies Him and He will not give up on the work He is doing in me.
Truth be told, my life may not be the perfect example I would have it to be, yet there are men, women, and children who give their lives to Jesus daily because it is not about me, it's about God's perfection! God's perfect love! God's perfect grace and mercy! God's promise of perfecting us in eternity with Him.
Truth be told, I am a mess. God alone is perfect and I need Him!
Christine
Romans 3:23-24 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
Romans 4:7-8 Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man whom the Lord shall not impute sin.
In May I shared with you that we had to remove an old apple tree that had split after a heavy winter snowfall. We chopped the tree down, cut it into small chunks, some of which we gave to a friend who does some very impressive woodworking,
and hauled away all of the remaining branches.
Okay so maybe I didn't personally do any of the chopping or hauling but I did take photos and I did serve refreshing beverages after the work was all done! So technically I helped!
All that was left of the old apple tree was this stump.
At least that's what I thought was all that was left of the old apple tree!
I received a surprise this weekend when our friend, the one who does the woodworking, the one who we gave the larger chunks of apple wood to, presented me with this applewood bowl.
I'm amazed by our friend's ability to take a chunk of old apple tree and turn it into something so lovely and useful!
The light and dark shades of the applewood are absolutely beautiful!
I especially like this little knot!
It will no longer bear fruit, but thanks to our friend, the old apple tree will now be a beautiful bowl full of fruit!
Who am I kidding? I'm totally going to fill it with chocolate!
Christine
Over the last few years as I have been getting my hair highlighted it has been getting more and more blond. It became more blond than I wanted.
So I tried a darker color.
That may have been too dark!
I then considered allowing my natural color to grow out, grays and all! The Husband wasn't too keen on that idea as I shared in this He Said She Said blog post. So fine! I made an appointment at the hair salon in hopes of finding some middle ground!
I'm feeling pretty pleased with the results!
The color feels much more natural!
Look, I can see my earrings! Lovin' that!
A friend even told me she thought the new haircut makes me look younger! She quickly added that she hadn't thought I was looking old to begin with, but now I look much younger! Then she blushed! I didn't mind! At nearly 41 it was nice to hear! I'm not getting any younger so if a new haircut makes me look as if I am, I'll take it!
Miss Sofi Bug told me that I now look like a super hero in a comic book she's reading! I'll take that too! Because really all I heard was, "Mom, you look SUPER!"
Yep, I'm liking the new fall do!
Christine
The inspector arrived today to look over the new furnace and air conditioner.
We passed inspection!
I knew we would!
While the workmen were here I made cookies for them!
Not that I'm saying they only did a good job because I gave them cookies!
It's not like I thought I needed to bribe them to do a good job!
It just so happened that I had a cookie order to fill, as I've mentioned before I have a small cookie baking business, while the workmen were here installing the new furnace and air conditioner and it didn't seem right that they should have to endure the delicious smell of cookies baking but not get to taste any. Also the Husband was working from home that day and the girls were about to arrive home from school...who doesn't love cookies for an afternoon snack?
I made a second batch of cookies so everyone could have some!
All I'm saying is the workmen got to have cookies while they worked, they did a very fine job installing the new equipment and we passed inspection!
To celebrate passing the inspection the family should go to McDonalds for a sausage with egg Mcmuffin for breakfast on Saturday!
I really like a sausage with egg Mcmuffin for breakfast and we have a new McDonalds close by.
Wow! I'm really hungry! I think it's time for lunch!!
All I really wanted to tell you was, "Yay we passed inspection!"
Christine
P.S. Thank you so much for the votes on The Picket Fence blog! Keep it up! You're the best!!
