Author: Denise

Rock Bottom– The foundation to bounce up

 

Rock Bottom.  We’ve all heard that statement, but what does it really mean?  I’ve heard numerous people tell me about their struggles and say, “things will not change until they hit rock bottom.”  Why is that so?  Thanks to Leslie Householder and her FTMF Course I learned a few things about Rock Bottom that have made a huge difference in my life.

1.  Rock Bottom is the point of change.   Most people are muddling through their lives in a comfort zone.  Even with their disfunctions, habits, and messes, they are comfortable.  How do I know that, you ask?  Well, I know that because change is UNCOMFORTABLE.  You have to do something different, CHANGE what you are doing.   And until you reach the point where the situation is MORE uncomfortable than change itself, you will stay in your situation or circumstance.  The above picture is true because a ball cannot bounce back up until it hits a surface with which to change its course.  In our lives, we spiral downward until we are  ready to bounce back up.

2.  You cannot force rock bottom onto some people.  They have to hit it themselves.  Sometimes “getting caught” brings about a rock bottom, but for others, they may not even care.  Drug addicts, pornography addicts, alcoholics, depression, abuse– you name it– some of them can get caught and be grateful that finally someone will help them get out of their hell, but for others, they may not even care and you know that their lives will continue to get worse because they have not hit their own rock bottom .

3.  Rock bottom truly is a foundation.  I have found that if I use the foundation of Christ, my bounce up is so much better.   Most of us have to hit a low point before we turn to Christ or God for help.  We truck along thinking we can handle it.  For addicts, they may think that they can stop anytime they want.   But once you realize that you cannot do it alone, then you find yourself laying there on the road to Jerusalem waiting for a good Samaritan.  When we hit this point and look UP– out of the pit– toward our Savior, then we have hope to bounce back and toward Him.  He sends us family, friends, programs, scriptures to lift us up and help us out of our hole.  Using the Savior as your foundation will ensure you do not ever go this far down again.

4.  Rock bottom is about purification.   Recognizing those things within us that need change is part of the purification process.  I believe that is when we need Christ the most.  We are on our knees pleading for help and hope.  He uses this to purify our souls and come to him.  It’s called repentance.  It is the greatest gift.  He truly wants us to be with Him, and the Savior understands our problems in a way no other could understand.

5.  We can hit  Rock bottom because of our own choices and mistakes, but we can also hit them because of others.  Either way, there is a purification process going on.  If another’s choices have caused you to hit rock bottom, then you have an opportunity to learn about forgiveness and unconditional love.  Difficult?  YES!  Life changing if you do?  YES YES YES!  The most powerful feeling in the world is when you feel overcome with pure love through forgiveness.  I recommend it.  It’s not easy, but it will change your life in no other way.

6.  Rock bottom is not just for addicts.  Rock bottom is for any of us trying to live a better life and get rid of habits and mind sets that are not for our best self.  Gossip, judging, hypocrite, dishonest, sarcastic, critical, naggy, bitter, envious, jealous?  Don’t think the addicts have the corner on the market.  They just have the bigger, easier to see and point-a-finger-at problems.  Try for one week to not say an unkind or critical thing to anyone.  Try not to THINK an unkind or critical thing of anyone– or pass judgment.  It is not an easy thing to do because most of us have spent a lifetime developing that trait.  Then when you see how difficult it is, have some pity and empathy for the addicts who are trying to quit.  It’s HARD!    You’ll see that casting stones and looking at motes in others eyes takes on a whole new meaning.  It’s hard to stop cold turkey.  First you have to WANT to change and second, you have to WORK at it.

7.  True Rock Bottom creates the most permanent change.  Those who hit true rock bottom and know that they never want to go there again, usually will not.  They somehow can quit “cold turkey.”   I admire these people because  they will make their decision and never look back.  There are also some who truly desire, but struggle a little more and have some set backs.   Either way, if the desire is there.  They will make the change.  And they always become a powerful force for good.

8.  The BEST news about Rock Bottom–There are different levels.  One of the best things I learned from Leslie’s course is that I can CHOOSE my rock bottom.  In the past, I would wallow, sulk, whine and complain my way to the depths of despair.  As soon as I understood this principle of CHOOSING my rock bottom, I started making a conscious choice to stop myself.  As I was going through the FTMF course, I found myself on a higher vibration than I had ever been before.  I was learning how to think better.  I was happy.  I was feeling the spirit all the time.  I felt a deep joy I had never felt before.  All of a sudden, I NEVER wanted to go back to those other feelings.  I LIKED the higher place.  So I would try and catch myself and say, “Nope this is rock bottom for me.”  When I started thinking unkind thoughts about someone, or becoming upset at what someone had said, I stopped myself.  I didn’t want to be a judgmental, envious person anymore!  I was done with that!  Have I conquered that entirely?  No.  But I am doing SO much better.  It is a powerful concept to raise your rock bottom.  I HIGHLY recommend trying it!

Be grateful for rock bottom.  Bounce up!  Use Christ as your foundation.  Raise your rock bottom.   Rebuild your life!

Easter Egg Bust

I can’t write a post about coloring Easter Eggs without writing about the Easter Egg Bust.  This is where it’s at people!!  I mean, what else are you supposed to do with a dozen eggs (each)?!

Since most people outside of my little Santa Clara radius have never heard of an Egg Bust, here’s how it works.

On Easter Morning, we (meaning several families here in Santa Clara, most of which are related) meet on the corner by the church.  You bring your eggs with you. (And your cameras). ;o)

You grab one of your eggs and go find anyone with an egg (which is usually everyone, so you just go walk up to someone to start busting with).  One person holds their egg in their hand and tells the other person if the pointy end or the round end is up.  The other person takes their egg, matching the same end, and taps on that person’s egg.  One of the eggs will crack.  Then you switch.  The one who did the tapping, now holds their opposite end of the egg in their hand.  The other person taps that end with their matching end.  If you break both ends of the egg, you get to keep it.  If each of you bust one end, then you tap unbroken ends until one has both ends broken and the winner gets to keep the egg.

Here’s the short video of how this works.

In some cases, you will have what is intelligently termed as a “one ender.”  Some of the most fierce competitions come from people who have “one ender’s” dueling it out to see who wins.  There have been some years when a “one ender” has won over 20 eggs.

Those people are accused of cheating in some way– feeding the chickens rocks (my cousins have chickens and use their eggs instead of store bought ones), putting shellac on them,  boiling them extra long, etc.  It’s all in good fun.

In the end, you still come home with a LOT of broken eggs.  You will eat egg salad sandwiches, potato salad, and deviled eggs for a week or more.

Here’s a picture of my little cousin’s haul last year.  Those shells on the lid are proof that he ate one of those cracked eggs for breakfast while at the bust. ;o)

And just a tip here, while the red root eggs are a pretty color, the onion shell eggs have good flavor.  Read here if you missed the whole story about coloring Easter Eggs.

One of the best parts of the Easter Egg Bust is that kids of all ages can do this.  As you could see in the video, my teenager was having as much fun as his younger cousin.  The two year olds can bust with their grandmas and grandpas– and in some cases, the GREAT grandma’s and grandpa’s.  (We are long life-d bunch here in Santa Clara.  My Grandma will be 96 in May.)   The video below is of my granddaughter, age 2 and her cousin, age 3.  They’re brand new at this– my granddaughter’s first year of being able to do it– so it’s fun to see them learn and how cute they are with each other.  The video is in two parts because we got stopped part way through the bust to put a shoe on. ;o)

I love watching all ages just having fun with each other.  I also love that some distant cousins that you don’t see as often will show up.  My kids get to meet distant relatives.  But best of all, we keep a dying tradition alive.

Even some of these kids that serve missions for our church and are gone for two years, will boil eggs and teach their companions how to have an Egg Bust.  It’s so much fun!

So if you’ve been wondering what to do with all those eggs you’ve colored, now you know how to have some fun with them!

Old Fashioned Swiss Easter Eggs

Coloring Easter Eggs is one of our family’s favorite traditions and activities.   According to my grandma, they have been coloring eggs this way in Santa Clara for as long as she remembers, so we assume the tradition came over from Switzerland with the pioneers.

It’s a pretty easy and fun way to color.  You want to give yourself plenty of time to do it, though, so you can relax and have fun with it.  Maybe it just takes a while for our family because we all want our own dozen eggs for the Egg Bust (Read about that here.)

So here we go……

The first thing you have to do is gather up all your brown onion shells.  You can get these from the grocery stores if you don’t remember to save yours during the winter months.   You also have to dig up some red root.  Red root looks like an obnoxious weed that you’d dig up.  They grow wild along the ditch banks here in Santa Clara, but since they got rid of our ditches and went to a city water source, we have to track them down in the fields.  Here is what they look like:

And here are the roots

You can see how they are reddish in color.  You have to take the roots and wash them really good with the hose to get all the dirt off.  Then grandma usually takes a rock and smashes them a bit.  I kind of twisted mine to break them apart.  Then you put them in an old pan and put water in them.  These pans we use are grandmas old pans that we have used for years.  They are only used for eggs, so if you have an old pan you want to throw out, save it for Easter eggs. =)  Here is the pan of red roots covered in water.  You need to start them simmering for a while to bring the color out of the roots.

Here is the pan of onion shells.  You’ll need to put quite a few in.  Cover them with water, as well, and start them simmering to get the color out.

You can get your pots ready a day or more ahead of time if you’d like.  Just keep them refrigerated after cooling.  Or you can just simmer them while you are wrapping your eggs.  We pass these pots around to the whole (extended) family.   We all take turns using them and coloring our eggs on different days.

Because we color so many eggs, we have two pots of each going at the same time.

Now to color the eggs:

Before you start coloring eggs, you have to gather up your weeds, flowers, and leaves.  We give all the kids a grocery bag and send them off in search of these items.  Things that color nicely are peach tree leaves, dandelions, the dried shriveled up iris blooms, holly hock leaves, lilacs, carrot fern, etc.  We just wander through up and down our street and pull a few leaves off any trees, bushes or plants we walk by.  We try not to take too many if we are pulling them off neighbors property and we never take flowers from our neighbors.  Weeds make some of the best designs, so if you find an open lot or such, getting weed leaves and tall grasses are good to color with as well.

Here’s our layout of weeds, leaves and flowers:

You can see that we decided to try some strawberry tops this year.  They actually colored nicely.  The foxtails leave a neat imprint and so do those snowball flowers off my uncle’s snowball bush. =)  I like using the really big holly hock and ivy leaves.  Then I can wrap a whole egg in them.  They really color pretty.

With the leaves spread out, we put our eggs in a bowl of water.  The reason we do this is because we found the leaves stick on them a little better if the eggs are wet.

The eggs will dry quickly, so you can just dip your leaves in the water to keep them sticking.  As soon as you get all your leaves, weeds and/or flowers on your egg, you take your spool of thread and start wrapping.  Here are a few tips.  It helps if you have all different colors of thread to help keep track of your eggs somewhat.  When you start to wrap, first tuck the thread under your thumb where you can hold it as  you wrap your egg.   You need to wrap the egg tight, but not so tight that you break the egg.  You’ll get used to the tension amount as you keep doing it.  The last trick is to just let your thread go and fall if you need to.  You can gather it up off the ground when you finish your egg.

When wrapping your egg, you want to wrap your thread around the ends and edges of your leaves and petals so that it will leave the full imprint.  If you don’t, the water seeps underneath them and you can’t see the outline.  Here is a video where my family is wrapping their eggs.  You will notice that once we get them wrapped, we just bite off the end of the string.  Demonstrated beautifully by my hubby. =)  The political discussion is a bonus. ;o)

Here are some pictures to show you more wrapping.  Remember to use the black sharpie to put your initials on them, cuz if you don’t EVERYONE will claim the prettiest eggs as theirs. ;o)  (Not that that has ever happened before at our house.)

Putting initials on.

Here’s a bunch of eggs wrapped and ready to boil.  You can see the ones done with loose thread and only wrapped in one direction.  Most likely, that thread will fall off during the cooking process and they will have a plain egg.  These would be the younger kids’ eggs or my impatient boys who could care less how they look.
Here’s some that are wrapped more correctly.  You can see how the thread goes in all directions, laying the leaves and flowers down to get the pattern.

Now we’ll cook them. You’ll notice in the video how my sister is making a little hole in the pot to put the egg in.  She will move around the pot, creating spots for the eggs.  You may have to add water after a few batches to make sure the water is covering the eggs.  If you do it in between batches and let it cook a little more, then you won’t weaken the color.  Often we notice it as we are putting eggs in and add water.  The dye will be a little lighter on those batches when we do that, but that is okay, too, because it gives you different shades of purple/pink and orange/brown.

Once all the eggs are in, you set your timer for 20-25 minutes.  They need to simmer, not boil.  If the water is boiling, it will crack the eggs, so you just want them to cook on a nice lower temperature.  Make sure you set the timer so that your eggs boil all the way.  If you don’t then you have runny eggs at the egg bust and that is not only gross, but embarrassing.  (Not that we’ve ever done that before, either!) ;o)

When the eggs are all done, gently use a slotted spoon to lift them out.

Get a bowl of cold water and put next to your pan to put them in.

Then you will place the bowl of eggs in your sink.  You will grab the loose threads in the water and gently pull on them as demonstrated in the video below.   Have the garbage or a bag close, as you will throw away all the thread and cooked weeds into the garbage before dumping the water out.

You can see that you only put a few eggs in the bowl at a time or have plenty of water in there  so they don’t hit the other eggs and crack.

At our house, we then take the empty cartons and write everybody’s name on them.  When we get them unwrapped, we look at the initials and put them in that person’s carton.  As I stated before, we like to each have a dozen eggs to use at the egg bust.

The last step is to shine the eggs.  You can get a little square of cloth or some paper towel and rub it in some shortening.  Then you rub the egg to make them shine.  Here is the video below.  And yes, I used real butter.  Not the cheapest way to do things, but it was all we had and no one could run to the store because we were wrapping/cooking/unwrapping.  It’s a process that we love!

I apologize for my lovely nail polish.  Evidently a manicure was not in my plans.  At the end of the video, I show you a few of the designs that the leaves have left.  (And you get to hear some awesome discussion in the background of each video.  I hope you enjoyed that, too.)

And there you have it!  Beautifully colored Swiss Easter Eggs!

I will say that one year I wanted to experiment with other natural dyes.  I tried purple cabbage, tumeric or saffron, and green onion stems.  I remember one year, one family used pecan shells and got a really pretty brown color.  What I found was that it the other dyes didn’t color as well as the red root and yellow onion shells.  The green ones were either too light, or colored similar to the leaves, so it was harder to see imprints.  The cabbage was not dark enough– too pale.  The yellow was also different either too pale or blended again with the leaf colors, so it didn’t imprint well.  If anyone has any other suggestions for natural dyes or what they like to use to color with, I’d love to hear about it!

I hope you all enjoy coloring some Easter Eggs in a different way this year!

I AM

 

This is a great image I posted on facebook.  I thought it ironic since I had just listened to TWO talks on this the night before.  (Sometimes I think someone is trying to get a message to me.) ;o)  Let me share these talks and what I learned from this and how powerful the words are that you are saying.

First, Dallin H. Oaks was speaking on what it means as an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ to testify of His NAME.   He talked about Moses at the burning bush.  Moses asked the Lord, “who should I tell them sent me?”  A Jewish Rabbi gave Elder Oaks some insight into this particular scripture (the Name of Christ – I AM.)  He told Elder Oaks that anciently, the name  of a person was the essence or nature of a person, not the “label” like it is today.  Moses was saying, “what are you made up of?”  What is your nature?  It was simply “The nature of God” that he was trying to find out about.  The word essence comes from the French (or Greek ?)  derivative of “essen” which means essential.  The Lord answered him by saying, “I AM.”  This Rabbi explained that anciently when they changed their “essence,” they changed their name—Abram/Abraham, Sariah/Sarah, Jacob/Israel.  If you are a witness of the name of Christ, in that sense, you are a witness of the NATURE of Christ.  When you see me, you will know me because you will become like I am.  His atonement sets us toward Him and exaltation.

I thought this interesting because I always thought Moses was wondering if it really was the Lord, but with this definition, I learned that is was quite more than that.  I also learned that when one changes their nature or disposition (the essence of who they are), then their name was changed, too.  Had me thinking about new names for those whose lives become more pure and why they changed them.  Saul became Paul after a mighty change.  Is that so good things would be associated with his new name?  When a woman marries, she takes on her husband’s last name (at least in America) and that con-notates  a change.  Interesting to think about what you have done with your current name.

As I came home that night, my good husband said he had recorded a show on PBS for me.  (Video below)  It was Wayne Dyer.  And at some point in the show, he started talking about Moses being at the burning bush and asking the Lord, “who shall I say sent me?”  The Lord answered, “My name is I AM that I AM.”

“Now every single time that you use the words, ‘I AM,’ you are citing the name of God right from the holiest books.   And every time you say the words, ‘I am weak.  I am poor.  I am  unlucky.  I am unhappy.  I am sick.  I am unable to attract into my life what you want; you are desecrating the name of God.  God did not say, ‘I will be.  My name is ‘I hope things will work out well.’  My name is ‘maybe things will show up as I wanted, but possibly not. ‘  He said, ‘I AM that I AM.’  You must be conscious of how you use these words, ‘I am.’   I am strong.  I am well.   I am content.  Even if your senses tell you something different.  I AM……You’ll see that putting the words ‘I Am’ in front of something into your mind and imagination is a very powerful way to attract into your life recognizing your own divinity.   I am God  is not blaspheme.  It is your identity.”

This brought me to tears.  Here I had first heard an Apostle of the Lord testifying of the name of Jesus Christ– The Great I AM.  Then I heard this and understood for the first time, that my own thoughts and words of self-deprecation were not just tearing down me, but were tearing down My Lord, My Savior, My Brother that I love so dearly.  How could I have done this?  How could I continually tear myself down and Him, too?  I was heart broken.  I would not hurt My Lord, but I would hurt myself.  I had never made the connection that if I was hurt, He was, too.  I vowed to watch my thoughts and language from here on out.  I found some renewed hope.

And then a bright light came into my mind.  In my lifevision, I have a whole closing paragraph that is all “I am” statements.  I began to rejoice that I had spent that time to write my lifevision and try to think of all the things  I wanted to be or believed deep down that I was, by stating all kinds of “I am” phrases, such as:  I am kind.  I am tolerant.  I am Christlike.  I am a good mother. etc etc.

The next morning as I was running and listening to my lifevision, this particular paragraph (that I wrote as a closing) actually comes up as the first one I listen to.  I set it to Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus so it would be powerful.  I was nearly in tears as I ran realizing that I was not only trying to become what I had written, but that I was glorifying God.  I listened and ran with a renewed, light, uplifted heart.  It had a whole new meaning.

I hope that after reading this, you will also think and ponder about what you say and THINK about yourself.  What words do you hear in your head?  “I am fat.  I am ugly.  I am not good enough.”  Because you ARE and your are HIS, and He paid a dear dear price for you.

Here is the Wayne Dyer video in full.  It is long, but OH SO GOOD!!  Well worth the time!

Faith vs Knowledge

One day in church, a friend in the Bishopric was bearing his testimony.  He quoted this scripture:

Hebrews 11:1– Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

I remember something just jumping right out at me.  Substance of things hoped for and evidence of things not seen.  Those phrases seem like oxymorons.  If there is substance, then why hope?  If there is evidence, then how can it not be seen?  So I pondered …. If there is SUBSTANCE to something we are hoping for or EVIDENCE of things we are not seeing, then something already exists and it is up to us to focus or look for that substance or evidence.  If there is substance or evidence of that thing, then there is knowledge—not faith.  So if we understand faith in this concept, we can look around us for evidence or substance of what we are having faith in.  Then we will have knowledge.  I hope this is making sense.  Here’s an example.

I have a friend, Marnie, who lives in Georgia.  I’ve never been to Georgia.  So if I’ve never been and never seen it, how can I know that Georgia REALLY exists?  I can have faith and hope that it does.  But according to this verse, is there substance for my hope?  Is there evidence of what I am not seeing?  The answer is yes.  First, there is Marnie’s witness.  She’s been there.  She lives there.  I’ve seen pictures of Georgia.  I can read all about it.  So if I have substance and evidence, then I don’t have to have “faith” in it anymore, I can have KNOWLEDGE.  And even though I have not seen, nor been there, I can still have knowledge of it and testify to others that Georgia is real and exists.

The same scenerio can happen with Christ.  I have faith that Christ lives but I haven’t seen Him.  Using this verse, if I HOPE that He is there, then I can look for SUBSTANCE that supports this.  If I cannot see Him, I can look for EVIDENCE that tells me He is real and exists.  What substance and evidence do I have?   I have the scriptures. I also have those who have seen the Savior, including the prophet and apostles .  They have  written and testified of Him. I have the Holy Ghost who, as a WITNESS of Him (meaning He has seen Christ  and KNOWS Him), has testified to me that He is real.  If I were in the Holy Land, there would be tangible evidence of where He walked and lived.  I look around the world at the creations, at people, at the mountains, and a tree.  I have a witness every single day of a Creator. I can listen to music.  I can feel His spirit when I pray.  I can have tangible evidence and KNOW.

Now…if I can find this substance and this evidence, then is it not KNOWLEDGE that He exists?  And if I have knowledge, then it will become as sure and real and I will see Him, yet even if I don’t right now, I can still know.

Now, what if you have to have faith in something else—like, say, paying off your house.  That is also a test of faith.  It is something that we have to believe in and hope for.  I can take this same principle and look around me for tangible evidence that it is possible and I can find substance that will tell me that I can.

What if you are dealing with health issues like cancer?  Can you look around and find evidence and substance for healing?  I believe you can.

Powerful stuff.  I hope that made sense and you can feel what I am saying.  When this hit me, I thought that perhaps the Lord is telling us that the answers are right in front of us and are tangible.  I think it is all about focus again.  Time and time again, I am understanding how important it is to focus and set your sights on what is good and holy and right, then all other things will be opened unto you.  Then sure knowledge comes.  Past hope.  Past faith.  Pure knowledge.

That is what I seek.  For then who can dispute?

Shopping Carts for Home Use

Coming home from Costco the other day, Cinco said,

“Mom, how much are shopping carts?”

“You mean like the ones at the grocery store?”

“Yeah.”

“I have no idea how much they cost, why?”

“I think we need one in our garage so we can load all our groceries into our house.”

I had to laugh, but it really isn’t a bad idea.  Where do you store those buggers, though?

St Patrick’s Day Dinner– Lite Version

I like doing Holiday dinners for my family just to make things a little more fun and breaking up the meal monotony.  For St. Patrick’s Day, I always do some kind of a “green” dinner.  I have done the traditional corned beef and cabbage.  The kids don’t like it too well, but I think it’s pretty good if you cook it right.  Here are some “green” things I do to go along with it:

Green jello

Green Veggie Tray

Green kool-aid OR

Green sherbet with Sprite

Green Salad

Last year I did a “lite” dinner because we didn’t want the corned beef and cabbage thing.  So here is what I did:

This included Zucchini Bisque Soup (it’s YUMMY!), Green Salad, Green Veggie Tray,

Shamrock Corned Beef Sandwiches (recipe to follow) and

Green Koolaid.

It was a fun, lite meal that we could all enjoy!

If you are looking for cute breakfast ideas, I found these two:

This one.  Click HERE for link.

And THIS one.  Aren’t they darling?  I may try one of these this year.  I really like the rainbow fruit idea!  Usually it is best for me to do a dinner, though, so I have a little more time to prepare it.

Here is the recipe for the cute Shamrock Corned Beef Sandwiches:

The first thing you need to do is to remember to order green bread from your grocery store bakery the day before you make them.  Then you can pick up your fresh green bread on St. Patty’s Day.

You’ll also need some shaved corned beef from the deli, cream cheese, mayo, and an onion.

First, put your softened cream cheese and some mayo into a bowl with about 1-2 teaspoons of grated onion.  I can’t remember if I put any other seasonings in here.  I think the corned beef is quite salty, so I didn’t.  But if you taste it and it seems a little bland, then add a little bit of seasoned salt to it.

Stir it until it is blended.

Next, take your shaved corned beef

And chop it up.  Add it to the cream cheese mixture and your filling is ready.

Then take your shamrock cookie cutter and cut them out of your green bread.  I also did white, too, for some color variety.

Spread your filling on your shamrock and top  with another slice of shamrock bread.

And there you have these cute little shamrock sandwiches!

And your nice light St. Patty’s Day Meal is complete!  Soup, Salad, Sandwich and some side veggies and fruit!

Have a great St. Patty’s Day dinner!

Mykelle’s Creamy Corn

My daughter, Mykelle, made this one up one Sunday several years ago when she was a teenager.  It has been our favorite ever since.  We pretty much eat it almost every Sunday.  I’m pretty sure you’ll love it!!

Here’s the ingredients:  Butter, Sweet White Corn, Cream Cheese and Montreal Steak Seasoning.

Melt 1 -2 Tablespoons of butter in your pan over low heat

Add 2 oz of cream cheese and stir until melted somewhat

Like this….

Add your corn and start stirring the cream cheese in.

Sprinkle with Montreal Steak Seasoning.  We just kind of guess at the amount.  I’d start with 1 teaspoon then adjust.

Stir it all together and you’re all done!  Simple and YUMMY!

Here’s the recipe:

1-2 T butter

2 oz Cream Cheese

2- 12 oz bags Super Sweet White Frozen Corn

Montreal Steak Seasoning

Melt the butter in a pan on low heat.  Add the cream cheese and stir until melted.  Add frozen corn and stir the cream cheese in.  You can turn the heat up after you add the cream cheese.  Add the seasonings and cook until warmed through.

*Just a note here.  The super sweet white corn is the best with this recipe.  I haven’t like the regular corn as well.

Facing the Giant: One Woman’s Courageous Fight with Cancer

This is my friend, Cheryl, and her two youngest kids.  We went to school together.  She is the single mother of 5 (youngest 3).   She is beautiful, smart, talented and funny.  She has been running aa day-care business in her home to generate income since her last divorce.  She has no insurance.  She was also recently diagnosed with Stage 4 Esophageal Cancer.  The Dr told her it wasn’t anything she consumed or did to cause it – it just is. “He didn’t give even a 1% chance just said uncurable- he is a good dr. and has to say what he has to say and is a positive person and does hope for me to beat this.”

So here she is with this young family, facing the end of her life.  Or is she?

This last week, Cheryl’s daughter (with the help of her brother and some other family) had a fundraiser dinner/auction called, “Help Save My Mom.”  I stopped by to give a donation.  I was hoping to see Cheryl.  You see, even though we went to school together, I have not seen her for a long while.  Facebook brought us together a while back, so I’ve been “in contact” with her that way.  (Makes me grateful for Facebook!)  So I wasn’t sure how she was feeling and if she’d be to the dinner or not.  She’s had surgery and last week was prepped for her Chemo treatments which started today.

Fortunately for me, I chatted with my cousin long enough that Cheryl came walking it.  Oh, how good it felt to hug her and tell her how much I loved her and admired her.  She looked beautiful.  Thin and perhaps a little weak, but amazing considering what her last 3 weeks have been like.

As we were chatting a lady came around the corner, saw her, and burst into tears.  I wasn’t sure how to react.  Should I have cried at seeing her?  Is it better to smile and try to be “normal?”  Gosh, I didn’t know what one was supposed to do and if my love for her seemed less because I wasn’t emotional.

But then an amazing thing happened.  Cheryl kept visiting with the few of us there.  She told us how she was trying to remain positive.  She told us about her visit to the radiologist last week (she posted a bit about this on facebook, so I understood somewhat.)  She said the radiologist was not nice and kept saying all kinds of stuff to her.  For the first time since the diagnosis, she broke down in tears and felt discouraged and lacking hope.  Then she said, “But THIS week when I went it for them to check lines and do their tests, I told the radiologist that I was trying to remain as positive as I possibly could and that I planned to beat this thing.  So if they had any information, they could just put it in my bag and I would read it later, but not to say anything to her that wasn’t positive.”

Then she added, “It’s really sad that it’s taken something like this to help me find my voice.”

WOW!  Amazing!  I have pondered and pondered that comment since I left her.  I have to agree with her.  Isn’t it sad that we wait  until we have to truly fight for our life that we  stand up to those who try and drag us down, shatter our dreams, and crush our hearts?  Why is it then, at that time when our life is in peril that we decide to fight back, stand up, and proclaim that we want light and truth in our life?

Why?  Because we are facing the giant!  We are looking him square in the eye and like the hero/heroine in any movie or story, we are determined to fight to the bitter end and we expect a victory!

Cheryl is my hero.  She knows and believes in miracles.  She truly knows that she CAN beat this.  She said, “This is what I know:  I know that my life is in the Lord’s hands now.  He has the power to heal me.  And if it is not for me to be healed now, I have peace knowing that He will take care of my family and all will be well with them.  You remember that several years ago my dad was diagnosed with lung cancer and given a 6% chance to live.  And look at him years later!” (He was actually in the  gym where the dinner was set up taking money for the auction items and was laughing and joking with everyone!)  This is why Cheryl believes.  She has seen miracles.  She has seen her own father beat the odds.  She knows the Lord’s power.

I found it ironic that one of the items up for auction was a board that read something like this (wish I had written it down exactly):

“Everyone saw Goliath as a giant that no man could beat.  David saw a bigger target that could be easily hit.”

Perspective makes all the difference in the world.  So does attitude.  I do know that as long as Cheryl listens to the “voice of truth,” she will slay every giant that she faces, and if not, she will have peace while in the battle.

I post one of my favorite songs in tribute to her.  She is my hero.  I love her.  I believe in her.  I believe in miracles!  I pray for her daily.  Ironically, we all thought we were going to the dinner to lift her spirits and support her, but in the end, it was she who lifted all of us with her smile and positive attitude.  There just aren’t many people like that!  I am privileged to know so many, especially to know Cheryl!

Always listen to the Voice of Truth!  David had faith and courage when he stood before Goliath.  My friend does, too!  Giants fall easily, Cheryl!  You just have to hit them right between the eyes! ;o)

Love you!

Denise

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcJEXRaXEXg&feature=related[/youtube]

28th Wedding Anniversary

Today is my 28th Wedding Anniversary.  Pretty darn good, I think.  But a little ways to go to reach my Grandparents who celebrated their 75th Wedding Anniversary last October 16.  Then Grandpa suddenly passed away on Oct 30th.  I am so grateful for the heritage of lasting marriages.

Here’s a little glimpse of us over the years.  I have more photos to add, but my computer has not been cooperative the last week.

This is our first dance together– Senior Ball in December of 1980.  I have a whole story about that date I’ll have to post later.

Here is our wedding day.  We look like babies.  We were. =)

And until I get the older ones loaded, here we are in 2004 in Nauvoo.  The last trip we had with my dad before his passing in Feb 2005.

This is at Sam’s wedding in 2006.

This is in Scotland in 2006.

This is in Costa Rica in 2007.

This is a family photo shoot in 2008.

I will post more later.  We are leaving right now to spend the weekend together (with the kids) ;oP  So I will update when I can.

Love you, sweetheart!  We’ve had some really great years together!  And many more to come!