I ♥ Facts

Especially when they are different than I expect. I was recently sorting through a stack of papers and found a copy of Newsweek that I’d saved from last year. I thought this was fascinating.

(I’m still afraid of sharks…just not afraid enough to stay out of the ocean…)

Undulation

Humans are amphibians—half spirit and half animal. As spirits they belong to the eternal world, but as animals they inhabit time. This means that while their spirit can be directed to an eternal object, their bodies, passions, and imaginations are in continual change, for to be in time means to change. Their nearest approach to constancy, therefore, is undulation—the repeated return to a level from which they repeatedly fall back, a series of troughs and peaks…this undulation in every department of his life—his interest in his work, his affection for his friends, his physical appetites, all go up and down. As long as he lives on earth periods of emotional and bodily richness and liveliness will alternate with periods of numbness and poverty. The dryness and dullness through which your patient is now going are …merely a natural phenomenon… (CL Lewis in the Screwtape Letters)

I’ve been thinking about this for the better part of year now.  Wondering why it is that I can be in such a great scripture study place, and then wham!  Life happens (any part of it—illness, holidays, visitors, traveling) and I am off the scripture study wagon.  It’s not that I don’t know better, because I do.  I have a firm testimony that every part of my life goes better and that I have much more peace when I am appropriately spending time with my scriptures.  (“Appropriately” meaning that the time I have available now is much different than the time I had available when I had three babies, and I am certain that the Lord understands those distinctions.)  And yet time after time I loose track of that understanding and have a difficult time beginning to read my scriptures again.

 

I was sitting in Sunday School in Cindy Lynn’s ward last spring, and the teacher made an offhand comment about the pattern of behavior repeatedly described in the Book of Mormon that we call the “pride cycle.”  It’s always bothered me when people talk about the pride cycle in the Book of Mormon, because invariably they express a certain amount of disgust that the poor slobs being described couldn’t maintain their righteousness for a longer period of time.  After all, they became prideful and wicked after just 20 years, or 10 years, or even as fast as 2 years.

It’s so easy to sit in this kind of judgment, until I take a good look at my own life.  In twenty years the person I will be may bear NO resemblance whatsoever to the person I am now.  In two years I will probably be significantly different.  I can hardly keep myself righteous for two months at a time !

But that Sunday I had another thought as well.  It occurred to me that perhaps the pride cycle wasn’t the total fail we always assume it was/is.  If the people become righteous and successful and are able to maintain that state, that’s great.  But if they aren’t—if after they become righteous and successful they succumb to pride and worldliness, what does this mean?  I realized that day that all it means is that they have another chance to learn.  Another chance to see their dependence on God.  Another chance to make a decision to change their lives and to pray for Him to change their hearts. 

 

It used to make me crazy when I read about King Benjamin and his people.  How on earth did what he said change them so much that they no longer wanted to do any evil?  How on earth did they manage not only to feel the mighty change of heart, but to keep it for the rest of their lives??  After many years of wondering this I finally decided that, however it happened for those people, the mighty change of heart in my life is more a series of events (and feelings) rather than a one time occurrence. 

 

And that is where the troughs come in. You must have often wondered why the Enemy [Screwtape is speaking of God here] does not make more use of His power to be sensibly present to human souls in any degree He chooses and at any moment.   Merely to over-ride a human will would be for Him useless. He is prepared to do a little overriding at the beginning. He will set them off with communications of His presence which, though faint, seem great to them, with emotional sweetness, and easy conquest over temptation. But He never allows this state of affairs to last long. Sooner or later He withdraws, if not in fact, at least from their conscious experience, all those supports and incentives. He leaves the creature to stand up on its own legs—to carry out from the will alone duties which have lost all relish. It is during such trough periods, much more than during the peak periods, that it is growing into the sort of creature He wants it to be. Hence the prayers offered in the state of dryness are those which please Him best.  He wants them to learn to walk and must therefore take away His hand; and if only the will to walk is really there He is pleased even with their stumbles.  Our cause is never more in danger, than when a human, no longer desiring, but intending, to do our Enemy's will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.

After all these years of wondering why it is so hard to keep doing these things that I know are so right, I believe I have figured out an answer.  Because that is the way it was meant to be.

If we could get into a good scripture study routine and ride off into the scripture study sunset, it would all be just a bit too easy.  (Or prayer routine.  Or spiritual routine of any kind.)  This way we are forced to make a choice to turn our hearts and lives towards the Lord.  And then to make that choice again a few weeks or months later.  And then again the next time.  And the next, and the next, and the next.  For most of us, the process of overcoming the natural man will be the process of a lifetime. The important thing is that we keep making that choice, every single time.

I ♥ CS Lewis

I was searching for a specific CL Lewis quote (for another blog post I’m working on) and came across this Goodreads page of his quotes.

Really, the man was a spiritual genius.

Enjoy…

Total Fail

I know I’m supposed to be talking about stuff I love in November, but I have to tell ya…I’m not loving the mums.  I drive around and see plenty of mums planted right in the ground just covered with blossoms all of the time.  But mine???

Total. Fail.

(the other one looks even worse…)

Happy 11-11-11!

 

I thought that we needed to celebrate the date

11-11-11
@ 11:11
with my kids who are 11.

 

Lucky, lucky me…

Later we are going to do this cool leaf craft and make snickerdoodles.  Happy 11-11-11!

I ♥ ♥ ♥ Thanksgiving Pie!

We rarely have pie, but for Thanksgiving we go all out. Last year I made 7 kinds of pie;

apple pie

crustless apple pie

apple cream pie

pumpkin pie

banana cream casserole

coconut cream pie

mini pumpkin pecan cheesecakes

and one storebought pie--

Razzleberry Pie

There were almost as many pies as people!

Here are my favorite pie recipes from last year--Enjoy!

~~~~~

Apple Cream Pie

Unbaked pie shell

2/3 c. sugar

1 egg, slightly beaten
1 c. sour cream

2 c. finely chopped apples

1/2 t. salt

2 T. flour

1 t. vanilla

Topping:

1/3 c. flour

1/3 c. sugar

1 t. cinnamon

1/4 c. butter

Bake pie shell for 5 minutes @ 350 degrees.

Combine first 6 ingredients, pour into pie shell. Combine topping ingredients, cut in butter and sprinkle over top. Bake at 425 for 25 minutes.

~~~~~

Marie Callender's Crust Recipe

1/4 c. butter

1/4 c. shortening

1 1/4 c. flour

1 T. sugar

1/4 t. salt

1 egg yolk

2 T. ice water

1/2 t. vinegar

Cut the cold butter and cold shortening into the dry ingredients until the mixture has a consistent texture. Mix egg yolk, ice water, and vinegar into the dough, then form into a ball and refrigerate it for 1 hr so that it will be easier to work with.

~~~~~

Marie Callender's Banana Cream Pie

2/3 c. sugar

1/4 c. cornstarch

1/2 t. salt

2 3/4 c. whole milk

4 egg yolks, beaten

1 T. butter

1 t. vanilla

2 ripe bananas, sliced

[Since home-ec in 7th grade I've made my pudding by "tempering" the eggs--beating the eggs separately, then adding the hot milk a little at a time to keep from making the eggs taste cooked. I was surprised to see that the Marie Callender directions didn't say to make it this way. I made one batch my way, and one their way, and they both worked fine. So--it's much less work to do it their way! As always, I made mine in a big glass bowl in the microwave instead of in a pot on the stove.]

Mix together the sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Blend the milk and eggs in a medium bowl, the add the mixture to the dry ingredients and whisk together. Cook, stirring (every 2-3 minutes if you're using the microwave) constantly for 6-8 minutes or until mixture boils and thickens, then cook 1 minute more.

Remove the pudding from the heat and add butter and vanilla. Put plastic wrap on the top of the pudding while it cools to room temperature. (The plastic wrap prevents the top of the pudding from becoming hard.) When pudding has cooled, slice bananas onto pie crust and spoon pudding on top.

PS...thanks a million to Megan who noticed that there was no "cream" ingredient in the apple cream pie--I'd forgotten the sour cream!

Any Guesses?

I am taking drawers out tonight to paint the fronts.  I’ve been looking at this cookie cutter for a few weeks, and I must confess—I have NO idea what it is!

Do you have any guesses?